Quote Of The Day

SWEATER.  swedər/ noun.  What you put on when your mother feels cold. ~ Anonymous

It's Getting Old

I conducted orientation on two new employees today.  I want to state for the record that I am not scary.

Annis Mirabilis

I remembered the spousal unit's birthday.

Cryptic

Image from the Smithsonian's collection of seed company catalogs.

I went looking for a cream of lettuce soup recipe for last week and came across this one from 1900 on Click Americana.  Miss Crowley seems to be confident that her readers are experienced cooks and don't need any further instructions:

CREAM OF LETTUCE SOUP

2 heads lettuce
2 onions
Milk
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 tablespoonful white pepper
Grating nutmeg
Pinch of soda
A little parsley
1 beaten egg

Put on and boil twenty minutes; also put on boiler half full of milk and boil.
Strain lettuce, etc. and put in a half tablespoonful of white pepper and a grating of nutmeg. Cream a one inch slice of butter (off the square) with two tablespoonfuls flour. Put half in the milk and half in soup. Mix all together, and just before serving add a pinch of soda. Salt to taste, and add a beaten egg.

Caturday!

Quote of the Day

photograph courtesy of the National Park Service

And Lee is in the mountains now, beyond Appomattox,
Listening long for voices that will never speak
Again; hearing the hoofbeats that come and go and fade
Without a stop, without a brown hand lifting
The tent-flap, or a bugle call at dawn,
Or ever on the long white road the flag
Of Jackson's quick brigades.  ~  Donald Davidson

Grrrsday

Oh, The Joys Of Working Downtown

I am walking across the plaza on my way to work when I am accosted by a dazed but happy-looking young man who has just come out of the courthouse.

He:  (flashing a big smile)  I'm not going to jail today!

"Slick Fashion Notes" from the Australian Home Journal

May 1st, 1950.

Easter Dinner, 1913

Vintage Easter card from Dover.

          

 CREAM OF LETTUCE 

                BAKED HAM—HOT HORSERADISH SAUCE 

                SWEET POTATO CROQUETTES—SPINACH WITH EGGS 

                GRAPE FRUIT SALAD 

                CHEESE BALLS 

                RHUBARB TART—CHEESE 

                AFTER DINNER COFFEE 

             * * * * * 

BAKED HAM.  Select a lean ham, weighing from twelve to fourteen pounds, cover with cold water or equal parts of water and sweet cider and let soak (skin side up) over night. Drain, scrape and trim off all objectionable parts about the knuckle. Cover flesh side with a dough made of flour and water. Place in a dripping pan, skin side down. Bake in a hot oven until dough is a dark brown; reduce heat and bake very slowly five hours. Ham enclosed in dough needs no basting. Remove dough, turn ham over and peel off the skin. Sprinkle ham with sugar, cover with grated bread crumbs and bake twenty to thirty minutes. Remove from oven and decorate with cloves; place a paper frill on knuckle, garnish with sprays of parsley and lemon cut in fancy shapes. Serve hot or cold. 

HOT HORSERADISH SAUCE 
          1/4 cup freshly grated horseradish. 
          1/4 cup fine cracker crumbs. 
          1-1/2 cups milk. 
          3 tablespoons butter. 
          1/2 teaspoon salt. 
          1/8 teaspoon pepper. 
          1 tablespoon vinegar. 
          2 tablespoons lemon juice. 
          1/2 tablespoon grated onion. 
 PROCESS: Cook crumbs, horseradish and milk twenty minutes in double boiler. Add seasonings, vinegar and lemon juice slowly, stirring constantly. Add grated onion, reheat and serve. 

SWEET POTATO CROQUETTES 
          2 cups hot riced sweet potatoes. 
          3 tablespoons butter. 
          1/2 teaspoon salt. 
          Few grains pepper. 
          1/2 cup chopped walnut meats. 
          1 egg well beaten. 
PROCESS: Mix ingredients in the order given. If mixture is too dry add hot milk. Mold in cork-shape croquettes, roll in crumbs, then in egg, again in crumbs, and fry in deep hot Cottolene. Drain on brown paper and arrange around Baked Ham. 

GRAPE FRUIT SALAD:   Cut three large grape fruit in halves crosswise, remove the pulp and keep in its original shape. Arrange in nests of white crisp lettuce heart leaves, dividing pulp in six portions. Strew one cup of English walnut meats, broken in fourths, over grape fruit. Marinate with French Dressing, but with less salt and using paprika in place of cayenne, and lemon and grape fruit juice in place of vinegar. 

CHEESE BALLS 
          1-1/2 cups grated cheese. 
          1 tablespoon flour. 
          1/3 teaspoon salt. 
          1/8 teaspoon mustard. 
          Few grains cayenne. 
          Whites 3 eggs beaten stiff. 
PROCESS: Add flour and seasonings to cheese, fold in whites of eggs, shape in small balls. Roll in fine cracker crumbs and fry a golden brown in deep hot Cottolene. Drain on brown paper. 

RHUBARB TARTS.  If rhubarb is pink, young and tender, simply wash and cut in one-half inch pieces; there should be two and one-half cups. Cover with boiling water and heat to boiling point; boil five minutes. Do not allow it to lose its shape. Drain off all the juice, sprinkle rhubarb with three-fourths cup sugar. Sift over two tablespoons flour and one-fourth teaspoon salt, dot over with one tablespoon butter and a grating of orange rind. Mix well and turn into a pie pan lined with Rich Paste. Arrange strips of pastry, lattice-work fashion, across the top of pie and bake thirty minutes in a moderate oven.

From 52 Sunday Dinners, the 1913 version; which was an advertising cookbook for "Cottolene," a vegetable shortening similar to Crisco.  The soup and the spinach recipes were not given -- perhaps it was assumed that they were common enough that no instructions were needed.  The free ebook can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

Caturday!