Tatting - A Collar from 1950

From Workbasket magazine, November 1950. Two pages of instructions (and advertisements) on my Flickr account. Even if you weren't interested in the collar (and I'm not), that's a nice holiday motif for a snowflake ornament.

Nothing Like This Ever Happens When I Go Shopping

This is now officially my second favorite version.

Vintage Images - Christmas

It's almost December, so here are some holiday cards from Dover.

A Tale of Two Sundays - December

No fancy holiday dinner here, just homey Sunday fare for 1927 – Boiled Chicken with Egg and Parsley Sauce, Boiled Rice, Mashed Carrots, Escalloped Tomatoes, Waldorf Salad, Date Muffins, Orange Pudding, and Coffee.

Two desserts seemed to be the norm for Sundays in 1927; of course, the leftovers could have formed the basis of Monday’s breakfast, Monday always being the kind of day where things are rushed and time is short. The remains of the boiled chicken undoubtedly wound up in some kind of casserole on Monday night. The recipe for boiled rice is not as bad as some from that era, it only calls for 20 minutes of steady boiling. When did this country stop cooking starches to death, I wonder—my Detroit Times cookbook instructs me to boil macaroni for 40 minutes, for example.

The orange pudding looks tasty and cheap; a sort of orange-flavored bread pudding calling for breadcrumbs, one orange and one egg.

Orange Pudding. Cover 1 cup bread crumbs with 1 pint milk and let stand until milk is absorbed, then add ½ cup sugar, the yolk of 1 egg, and the grated rind of an orange. Turn into buttered baking dish and bake for 1 hour in moderate oven. Remove from oven, turn over pudding the strained juice of 1 orange, and a meringue made with the egg white beaten with 3 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar. Return to oven to brown the meringue.

The 1953 cook was more ambitious, serving her family Tomato Bouillon, Roast Ribs of Beef, Yorkshire Pudding, Lyonnaise Carrots, Celery Cabbage Salad, and a Jellied Plum Pudding. I can’t find the Jellied Plum Pudding in any of my Culinary Institute pamphlets, but here’s Plum Fluff, a simple dessert from a time when no one worried about eating uncooked egg whites.

Plum Fluff

1 #2 ½ can plums (about 16 oz)
1 T. lemon juice
2 egg whites
4 T. confectioner’s sugar
1 cup heavy cream, whipped

Drain plums, remove pits and mash plums with fork; add lemon juice. Beat egg whites until stiff; beat sugar in gradually. Fold whipped cream and plums into meringue. Chill about 1 hour.

Caturday!

Quote of the Day

Speak your mind, but ride a fast horse. ~ old cowboy saying.

"With signs and wonders, and with divers miracles..."

The Lions are beating the Patriots.

'Tis The Season To Live Dangerously

I can't get today's Pattern of the Past to load, so here's a silly cat video.

Knitting - A Blouse in Larger Sizes from 1953

From Smart Knitting and Needlecraft, 1953, a knitted blouse in those hard to find larger sizes. Instructions on my Flickr account.

Vintage Images - Thanksgiving

Some black and white Thanksgiving advertising cuts, copyright-free from the nice folks at Dover.

La Patronne Ne Mange Pas Ici, Part Deux

There's a plastic squeeze bottle labeled "Fox Urine" on the kitchen counter.

They Also Serve

Last week’s post stirred up a number of comments on the presence, or absence, of hired help in American homes during the first half of the 20th century. At least judging from the tone of my pre-1960 cookbooks, the expectation was that a middle-class family could afford full or part-time help, particularly for parties. And although cookbooks do tend to present the ideal as opposed to the attainable, a sober look at economics supports this assumption. Particularly in regions where there was a large, undereducated and disenfranchised demographic (such as African-Americans in the South, Irish in the Northeast, and Hispanics in the Southwest), one of the few—if not only—employment opportunities for women lay in domestic service.

This is still true. When I was a first lieutenant, stationed in California in the mid-1980’s, even on my pay I could afford the services of a nice lady named Mrs. Lopez who sent someone over every Monday to clean our house (I was with the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at that time and our CG, General Comfort—grossly misnamed, that man—firmly believed that we should spend at least 3 weeks out of every month living in tents way out in the High Mojave desert and bombing the hell out of the local real estate. I would come home, do laundry, and head back out again. It cured me forever of my former fondness for camping). It never occurred to me that I should check Mrs. Lopez’ citizenship, so it’s probably a good thing I have no plans to run for public office.

Currently, the domestic and kitchen staffs at the nursing home that shelters my father are made up entirely of recent emigrants from the Balkans and the Middle East. When their English gets better and their prospects improve, they’ll move on to less exhausting and more remunerative occupations. In the meantime, I must say that I’m very grateful to them. They take much better care of him than I could.

Looking at my 1955 copy of The Supermarket Cookbook, I find an entire section of menus for entertaining that take the servant question into account. These are all for ladies’ luncheons, but I'll admit that the spousal unit would be lucky to get this kind of cooking for dinner.

SUGGESTED MENUS FOR SMALL LUNCHEONS FOR FOUR OR SIX WITHOUT THE AID OF A MAID

Melons
Deviled Crabs, Potato Chips
Hot Rolls
Mixed Green Salad
Wine Jelly, Whipped Cream

Jellied Consommé
Carrot strips, Gherkins
Chicken Mousse with Green Salad
Melba Toast
Canned Cherries and Whole Apricots

Broiled Grapefruit
Stuffed Celery, Olives
Noodle Ring with Creamed Mushrooms
Lettuce with Tomato Dressing
Sponge Cake with Butterscotch Sauce

SUGGESTED MENUS FOR SMALL LUNCHEONS WITH AID OF COOK AND WAITRESS

Hot Mushroom Canapés, Relishes
Cheese Soufflé
Spinach with Rice, Corn Sticks
Mixed Green Salad
Melons filled with Berries

Consommé Bellevue
Che-Braz*, Relishes
Broiled Chops
Potatoes Hashed in Cream
Artichokes with Vinaigrette Sauce
Hot Rolls
Orange Soufflé

(*Che-Braz are a hot hors-d’oeuvre made of grated cheese and chopped Brazil nuts. I’ll spare you the recipe).

Bill Mauldin Was Right

Earlier this week a couple of Darwin Award candidates took it upon themselves to assault three nicely dressed gentlemen (one of them in a wheelchair) on a street in London. Pity those suit-and-tie clad sissies were, respectively, a Royal Marine, a British Army captain, and a member of the SAS, returning from a reception in their honor at Buckingham Palace.

Why is there never an anonymous bystander with a camera around when you need one? I’d pay money for that video.

(h/t to Popehat).

Caturday!

I Should Be So Lucky

Me: Are we having server issues? I haven't gotten a single email since yesterday afternoon.

Departmental IT Functionary: Maybe no one wants to talk to you.

Quote of the Day

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors. ~ Voltaire

Damn those Pilgrim Fathers

I have a quarterly report due at the end of the month to the agency that funds 49% of my operating budget. I was just patting myself on the back for having all next week to finish it when it dawned on me that it's a short week due to Thanksgiving. Arrrghh.

The Online Bookshelf - Her Letter

A romance in rhyme, with wonderful faux ante-bellum illustrations. At Project Gutenberg.

Prisoner of Love

Explanatory note: Thing One is twenty-two years old, has big brown eyes and curly dark hair, and is cute as a bug.

Me: Where have you been all afternoon?

Thing One: One of the sanitarians took me over to the county jail to do a kitchen inspection.

Thing Two: I see they let you back out.

Me: Maybe we should dust him for fingerprints.

Knitting - A "Modern Blouse" from 1948

A blouse knitted in grey with red triangles, from Modern Knitting, 1948. Instructions on my Flickr account.