Thursday, June 30, 2011

Vintage Recipe Thursday/Life this Week: June 27, 1938

I got lucky, because the June 27th (1938) issue of Life magazine has two recipes in it: Gem Tossed Salad and Gin Juleps.

1938 drink, 1938 telephone

First off, the gin juleps were a disaster.  Don't get me wrong.  I love gin (as you probably know if you read this blog with any regularity), but I fully believe gin is made to be mixed.  Sipping straight gin with some ice and mint is not my idea of a refreshing drink.  "Refreshing" drinks don't burn.  That's what's great about a Gin and Tonic or a Gin and French or a White Lady.  I've never had a mint julep before, though, because I'm not the biggest fan of bourbon unless it's got lots of soda in it or if it's in a baked good.  Paul didn't like his gin julep either, but if you'd like to try it, the instructions are at the link above.

an individual bowl of Gem Tossed Salad

I was worried about the Gem Tossed Salad, but it turned out to be pretty tasty.  The recipe sounds like it was created by an insane person: lettuce, watercress, avocado, olives, vinaigrette dressing (OK so far), grapefruit sections and pineapple tidbits.  To be honest, though, it's pretty typical of the twentieth-century salad.  I used everything except the watercress, because ours had gone all manky in the fridge.  I don't have a recipe; I just put in the amount of everything that looked right.  As for the "French dressing," I used a 3 to 1 extra-virgin olive oil to lemon juice mix and added salt and pepper and "Italian herb mix."  Once you get the salad all tossed together, everything tastes like dressing and avocado.  Not a bad thing.

*****

Reading "America: Millions of Its People Set Out to See Their Country" made me realize I need to do a lot more domestic exploring.  The only attraction I've been to on the list is Emporia, Kansas.  That is, if eating at the Pizza Hut counts, which I doubt.  Which attractions have you seen?

*****

The Tivo is back.  It turns out that the big electrical storm we had actually fried the outlet that powered the TV, which threw the HDMI port (which was connected to the Tivo) out of whack.  We turned off the breakers last night and Paul opened up the outlet and we discovered that there was a bare wire in there touching a rusty screw.  Fabulous.  We plugged the TV into a different outlet and now everything (except that poor HDMI port) is hunky dory.  I'm now waiting on the landlords to arrive to fix our dangerous outlet.  

10 comments:

  1. I agree with you about gin...gin and tonics are fabulous...straight gin, uh, not so much. Your salad, though, looks refreshing and tasty. And hooray for solving your electrical mystery :)

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  2. I could use a refreshing drink of gin, unforunately, I'm allergic to any kind of alcoholic drink. Like really ) :

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  3. The Grand Canyon, the Ozarks, New Orleans, and Newport for me...I think that's it. When we lived in Virginia, there was an exit off the highway for "Willoughby Spit." I always thought that was the most awesome name ever.

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  4. I will take slight exception with the "gin being made to be mixed" as there are few things more delicious than a well-made gin martini (assuming good quality gin and vermouth are used)--but I fully understand they are not for everyone! My favorite summer drink, though, is a gin & tonic with some bitters in it (a pink g&t).

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  5. Not a big fan of gin and that salad does sound crazy, but it looks so pretty!

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  6. Oooh, I'll have a gin julep please! It loooks so refreshing.

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  7. I love that you make these vintage recipes. I have some old German cookbooks I love to read. You salad looks perfect for summer.

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  8. The salad sounds insane in a good way. I love grapefruit and avocado. The pineapple has me wondering though. . .

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  9. I don't like very strong alcohols either. the salad looks very tasty : I love salads with some fruit and I am a fan of avocados (I eat a half almost every day).

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  10. I like your phone. ;-) The salad looks good. My mom would love it with the pineapple. I think I would prefer it without, but would love the nice sweet Texas grapefruit and all the other ingredients. Thank you for participating at Joy of Desserts, Lauren.

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