Monday, February 14, 2011

Life this Week: February 14, 1938

Today, I'm exploring the February 14, 1938, issue of Life magazine, which is available on Google Books. Here's a little of what interested me:


"Occasion: a meeting of 1,000 small businessmen...invited to come to Washington and tell [the president] what to do about the Recession."  This could have happened February 2nd of this year.  Ironic that "the bulk of the conferees turned out to be angrily critical of the New Deal" yet asked for government loans to "buy and build."

Lord Tweedsmuir Opens Canada's 1938 Parliament- Lord Tweedsmuir was the novelist John Buchan, who wrote The Thirty-Nine Steps.  He was appointed Governor General of Canada in 1935 by George V.

Fair-use image from Wikipedia
Movie of the Week: A Yank at Oxford
Robert Taylor plays a braggart American jock who, somehow, manages to get into Oxford on a scholarship.  Lionel Barrymore, Maureen O'Sullivan and Vivien Leigh co-star.  You might also recognize Robert Coote, who plays Wavertree.  He played Bob Trubshawe in A Matter of Life and Death.  Overall, the movie is silly and predictable but good fun.  Oxford looks great and Vivien Leigh is amusing as the man-crazy wife of a local bookseller.  A Yank at Oxford isn't available on DVD, but TCM airs it.

Georgia O'Keeffe article: "best-known woman painter in America today"; the article has two full-color pages of her work and photographs of her New York apartment and New Mexico ranch

Remember: men won't like you if your hand lotion smells like kitchen soap.  Also, if you were thinking of inventing Donkey Basketball, you're too late.

Is it me, or does Abraham Lincoln's stepmother look like Sydney Greenstreet?

Appropriately enough, considering current world events, The Camera Overseas has a feature entitled King of Egypt Marries His Prettiest Subject.  Evidently the king paid his future father-in-law $1.50 for her.

*****


Unfortunately, there weren't any recipes in this issue, so I'll have to provide a menu from my copy of Modern Meal Maker (1935).  


Veal Chops
Browned Potatoes
Creamed Cabbage
Stewed Tomatoes

The creamed cabbage is the same recipe as the creamed cabbage in this menu.  I just cooked it longer since the oven was at 325 for the veal instead of at 350.  Evidently creamed vegetables were very popular in the 20s and 30s.  We'll probably eat our weight in Béchamel sauce this year!

Veal Chops with Browned Potatoes

2-3 small potatoes, peeled and diced
2 (4 oz.) boneless veal chops
2 teaspoons butter
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon minced scallions
1⁄4 cup dry vermouth or other dry white wine
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Preheat oven to 325º Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, place the potatoes in a baking dish and put them in the oven (it doesn’t matter if the oven is up to temperature yet). Start the potatoes cooking now so they’ll be cooked through when the veal chops are ready. Dry off each chop with a paper towel and season to taste with salt and pepper.

In a large oven-safe skillet, heat the butter and oil over medium-high heat until the foam from the butter has almost subsided. Add the chops and brown 4 minutes, then turn them over and brown for another 4 minutes. Place the chops on a plate.

Add the scallions to the pan and cook for about a minute. Pour the wine over and scrape to deglaze the pan. Add the thyme, stir and return the chops to the pan. Remove the potatoes from the oven and place them in the skillet with the chops. Cover the skillet and cook in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the juices from the veal are no longer pink. Midway through cooking, turn the veal chops over and stir the potatoes.

Serves 2

Stewed Tomatoes

28-oz. can whole tomatoes
½ onion, peeled and grated
2 tablespoons sugar
salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Simmer while the veal chops are in the oven (about 20 minutes). The liquid from the tomatoes should be thickened.

5 comments:

  1. If I may say, the best thing about this post is your delicious food!

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  2. This weekend, inspired by your beautiful dishes, I tried to make a kind of strudl (with ricotta cheese and nuts, rasins) as a Valentin's present. But it turned out aweful. I'd better stick to the apple strudl that I can make more or less sucessfully (that is, it's edible, though a far cry from your dishes that are a visual feast in itself).

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  3. Your daddy says, "yes, she does look like Sydney Greenstreet!" How cool is that you can look at old magazines on your kindle? Well, your dad is off to make Valentine dinner (steaks and ?), yesterday he baked a Raspberry Choc Cake. It turned out lovely. I'll put up photos soon...Happy Valentines! Love you!

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  4. This dinner is homey and good. It is exactly the sort of food my grandmother favored (but without the cream sauce). She actually made wonderful veal chops by breading them and then pouring over stewed tomatoes and baking it in the oven. My mother made this too. If you are into veal chops and retro dishes, you really would love this. I have to dig up the recipe. I think I have made a vegetarian version of it with breaded eggplant. The way that the breading soaks up the tomato juices is fabulous, in a eggplant parmesan kind of way. But the stewed tomato flavor gives it an interesting twist.

    Oh, and I love the look at Life. Fascinating, and when I get a chance I want to see that movie clip.

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  5. Iz bakinog ormara- I'm sorry your strudel didn't turn out so well! It happens. I totally ruined a pie shell yesterday.

    Mom- can't wait to see photos; chocolate and raspberry is a favorite combination!

    Laura- the baked tomato-y veal chops sound amazing. I love veal! I think the eggplant sounds yummy, too, but it's on the short list of foods Paul doesn't like, so I usually only have it when we go out to eat or for my lunch. He doesn't like squash, either, but he'll eat almost anything else!

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