Knitting - A Drop-Stitch Blouse from 1953

From the March, 1953 Workbasket, a blouse knitted in one piece with rows of  drop-stitch for an open-work effect.  The cover and two pages of instructions are on my Flickr page.

Vintage Images - Fruit Crate Labels

Copyright-free, from Dover.

No Wonder The French Hate Us

vintage ad via Pinterest

Caturday!

Quote of the Day

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers.  But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown. ~ Carl Sagan

Knitting - Another Booklet From The Australian Women's Weekly

Offered the following week, a booklet of knitting patterns for children's wear, 1941, from Trove -- scroll down to page 27.

Vintage Advertising - Pyrex

This is not an advertising angle that would appeal to me, but...autres temps etcetera. From the Australian Women's Weekly, March 1941.

And In The Unbelievably Bad Food Category

image from Pinterest

In other news, we have a new PC, so I am still figuring out where everything is (Windows 10 - faugh). 

Knitting - A Booklet from Australian Women's Weekly, 1941

A knitting booklet from the March 8, 1941 Australian Women's Weekly, available from the Trove online archive. Scroll down to page 21.

Southern Fried

image from Pinterest

I inaugurated my new 12" electric skillet today.  This year I asked Brian to sow some okra (a vegetable he and many other Yankees cannot abide. My mother's family is resolutely Southern which may account for my taste in food) and made smashed fried okra. This recipe even works with those okra pods that have gotten a little big for their britches.

Recipe is a variation of the one on the Southern Living website.  I did not have any cornmeal handy.

1 lb okra, topped and tailed 
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 cups seasoned flour - I used self-rising flour and threw in salt, pepper, thyme and a little red pepper
oil for frying

Use a heavy object to smash the okra from stem to tip.  I thought the mallet called for in the original recipe would be a tad on the messy side so I opted for my late MIL's marble rolling pin. Worked a treat.

Place buttermilk in one shallow bowl and seasoned flour or cornmeal in another.  Dip the okra in the buttermilk and dredge in the flour, shaking off the excess. 

Heat 2" oil to 350⁰-- this is where I deviated from SL again and heated it to 390⁰ -- and fry the okra in batches, turning once, until brown and crisp. Delicious.

Unfortunately this is hot, messy, and a great deal of work (not to mention you can't re-heat the leftovers and expect them to taste good), so I will probably wait until I have an okraphile guest before I do it again.  

Caturday!

 

Not entirely OT: I responded to a suspiciously metallic crash from the kitchen and found Reserve Cat glaring down at his upended food dish, kitty kibble all over the floor, and two startled-looking German shepherds. They of course were reprimanded... but you know? It would not surprise me to find out he staged the whole thing.

Grrrsday - Sgt Reckless Rides Again

Image from We Are The Mighty. According to the Military Times, 

there are still seven mounted units in use in the world's militaries. 

These do not include military police or ceremonial units.

In other news, Sgt Reckless was recently awarded (posthumously) the Dickin medal.

Vintage Magazines - Argosy, August 7th, 1937



From The Pulp Fiction Calendar site.

The Schoolgirl's Lunch, 1896

image from Pinterest

"A girl's luncheon? You mean the school luncheon? Let it be as nice as possible, and take pains to pack it very neatly for her, so that when the recess hour comes she may take an interest in what she eats.

 Of course the ideal luncheon for Gertrude and Caroline is something hot, a nice hash or scrambled eggs, or else a chop and a baked potato, with some gingerbread, stewed fruit, oranges, or a cup-custard after it. A cup of chocolate or cocoa is good for growing girls at luncheon, and a glass of milk is a very nice addition to their bill of fare.

 But these beautiful hot luncheons cannot always be managed at school. Often the girls must carry their noonday meal from home, and as a general thing they take very little care about the matter themselves. Mamma or sister Mary must think for them.

 A dainty box or little basket, a fine soft napkin, and some paraffin paper are indispensable to the preparation of lunches. Sandwiches must be made of thin bread and butter, with potted meat, cream cheese, or jam spread between the slices. Rough edges and crusts must be cut off, and the bread and butter be of the very best. There are many delicious crackers, some salted, some sprinkled with cheese-flakes, some sweet and crisp like cookies, which are appetizing with one's luncheon. And fruit is always in order.

 If it is possible, and it usually is, to get a little boiling water, let the school-girl make for herself a cup of bouillon at luncheon. There are several excellent kinds of bouillon which come in small jars and bottles, and of which a spoonful added to a glass or cup of either hot or cold water makes a very refreshing drink. I prefer hot bouillon myself, but cold bouillon is very refreshing too, and much better with bread and butter than cold water, if the luncheon is a simple affair of that.

 A girl who eats her luncheon regularly, and avoids sweets, pastry, and candy between meals, will have bright eyes and a good complexion. She will not look sallow and pasty, nor have pimples and other signs of indigestion on her face."

 Harper’sRound Table, January 21^st, 1896.

Caturday!

Vintage Advertising - Alice Roosevelt?!

from "Love Story" Magazine, May 1937

TR is supposed to have once said “I can run the country, or I can control Alice.  I cannot possibly do both."

Five O'Clock Tea

image from art.com

“…The ideal hostess makes tea herself in the drawing-room.  A table is equipped with spirit-lamp and shining kettle of silver, aluminium, brass, or copper, and dainty caddy, all laid ready upon a teacloth as fine and as elaborately embroidered as may suit the taste and means of the household.  It gives one a feeling of perfect confidence to see this table laid in readiness, and to note that the preparations are complete, even to the little silver strainer which prevents the leaves from entering the cups.

At many such tables there are three or four infuser spoons for the use of those who like tea made in the cup.  In these days of mal-digestion there are many who regard a teapot as a found of possible disaster, as, indeed, it sometimes is, when the tea is left so long upon the leaves as to extract all their tannin.

Hot cakes are served really hot, and freshly toasted, in the house of the perfect hostess.  Late comers are not offered them in a discouraging condition, dried up and hardened round the edges by having been kept hot in the oven.  The oven is no place for hot cakes.  Small plates are left ready for such as like to eat these cakes by the aid of the pretty little knives and forks made expressly for use at tea.  Some callers still prefer the saucer only, according to Victorian etiquette.  Hot toast, brown all over and well buttered, is indispensable to a good tea in cold weather.  In summer its place is taken by strawberries, cherries, peaches, nectarines, or whatever fruit may be in season.  Fruit knives and forks are laid in a little heap ready for anyone choosing fruit

Sandwiches of various sorts and bread-and-butter, brown and white, are the indispensable portions of fare provided.  Cakes, petits fours, and delicate litte sweet biscuits come next, and the thoughtful chatelaine will not neglect to provide the plain, dry biscuits to which so many of her friends are limited by medical advice, or by the counsels of their beauty doctor…”

Every Woman’s Encyclopedia, Vol III, ca 1910-12, available as a free download (one of a total of seven volumes) from the Internet Archive.

Caturday!

Look What I Brung You, Pop!

Chunk proudy “fetched” a stick in to Brian this morning.  Unfortunately, it was what was left of one of the two blueberry bushes he’s been coddling since last fall.

Quote Of The Day

image from Pinterest

Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap. ~ Robert Fulghum