Vintage Recipe Thursday: Dessert and a Movie

The yummy Orange Butter Cookie recipe comes from Modern Meal Maker (1935).

I like cookies that I don't have to roll out and cut.  Call me lazy, but I prefer not to have to clean flour and cookie dough off the counter!  These slice and bake cookies are crisp and citrus-y.  Best of all, it's easy to only bake a few at a time and put the rest of the dough into the freezer for next time.

Orange Butter Cookies are to be served with chocolate pudding for a wonderful flavor combination!

Orange Butter Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs (one separated)
1 small naval orange
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
½ cup sliced almonds

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter then add the sugar and cream again. Beat in one whole egg and one egg yolk. (Reserve the extra egg white for later.) Zest the orange and mix into the batter.

Mix in one cup of the flour, then add 1 tablespoon of juice from the orange. Mix in the second cup of flour, along with the baking powder and salt. Add more orange juice to work the flour into the rest of the dough. Add just enough for the dough to come together. It will be stiff. (If you add too much liquid, the cookies will be too cake-like.)

Using parchment or wax paper, form the dough into a 2”-diameter roll that is about 6” long. Chill for at least one hour. If you’re not using that day, place roll of dough into a freezer bag and freeze. You can also make just a few cookies at a time and return the rest of the dough to the freezer. To bake from frozen, just follow the instructions below.

Preheat oven to 350˚ Fahrenheit. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or non-stick silicon mats. You will need one cookie sheet for every six cookies. (I usually only bake six at a time.)

Slice dough from roll into 1/8” rounds and arrange on the cookie sheet, making sure to leave room for dough to spread. Brush tops of cookies with egg white and top with almond slices. When the oven comes up to temperature, bake for about 10 to 15 minutes or until browning around the edges. Cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yields 4 dozen cookies

Adapted from Martha Meade, “Orange Butter Cookies” in Modern Meal Maker (San Francisco: Sperry Flour Company, 1935), 118.

Download and print

Chocolate Pudding

¼ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg (or 2 egg yolks)
1/3 cup (2 ounces) high-quality semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 ½ teaspoons high-quality vanilla

In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir together the sugar, cornstarch, salt and egg (or two egg yolks, both work). Place over low heat and stir in the chocolate chips.

As the chocolate chips start to melt, gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Keep stirring until mixture boils then allow to boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla. I’ve specified high-quality chocolate and vanilla because they will have a great effect on the finished product.

Divide between six sherbet glasses or other containers, cover with plastic wrap and chill until cold.

Serves 6

Adapted from “Chocolate Pudding” in Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook (Minneapolis: Macmillan and General Mills, 1950), 219.

Download and print

*****

Image from Wikipedia

In Too Many Husbands, Henry and Vicky Lowndes (Melvyn Douglas and Jean Arthur) learn that Vicky's presumed-dead first husband (Fred MacMurray) is still very much alive.  Yes, it is pretty much the same plot as My Favorite Wife, released later the same year. Although My Favorite Wife is better known, I prefer Too Many Husbands. It's more grown up. In My Favorite Wife, it is very clear from the beginning of the film that (spoiler alert!) Irene Dunne's character is destined to end up with Cary Grant--after all, his new wife is awful.  What I like about Too Many Husbands is that Vicky Lowndes (Jean Arthur) was capable of picking two great guys to marry.  Although Fred MacMurray is the first husband (and billed before Melvyn Douglas), the script isn't prejudiced in his favor.  Neither MacMurray nor Douglas turn out to be secretly horrible by the end of the film to provide a neat and clean ending.  There aren't many films out there like this one.  I definitely recommend it.

Too Many Husbands is available on DVD.

Dinner and a Movie: Love Before Breakfast

Fair-use image from Wikipedia

This movie isn't much to write home about plot-wise, but it is an oh-so-stylish mid-thirties romantic comedy, so I think it's worth watching.  Plus, Carole Lombard is such fun.  (That black eye is from a bar brawl, by the way.)  The clothes are fabulous, there's a super-cute pekingese and a very deco nightclub with seating that revolves around the dance floor.  Oh, and there's a yacht party--pure depression-era escapism.

Extras:
More photos from Love Before Breakfast at this website.
Carole Lombard photo on Flapper Girl

I don't know if I've sung the praises of ham before, but I think it's one of the most wondrous foods on the face of the planet.  It's so versatile and it's tasty, too!  I like to buy a huge ham, because I get the most milage out of it.  This recipe will bake the entire ham.  Stay tuned for leftovers recipes.

Baked Virginia Ham
Boiled Parsley Potatoes
Sautéed Mushrooms
Iceberg Lettuce with Grecian Dressing

A few tips for this menu:

• Use the pineapple juice from a can of pineapple rings.  We'll use those later.
• The salad dressing can be made up to a few days in advance.
• Start on the potatoes when the ham has about half an hour remaining.  Start the mushrooms last.

Roast Virginia Ham

10-12 lb ham
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon mustard powder
3 tablespoons (approx.) pineapple juice
Whole cloves, as needed

Preheat oven to 325˚ Fahrenheit. Place the ham in a large roasting pan or in a large Dutch oven. Bake for 3 hours and 15 minutes. Meanwhile, make a paste of the brown sugar, mustard and pineapple juice. Set aside.

When only 45 minutes remain, take the ham out of the oven, remove the rind (if necessary) and score the fat. Spread the ham with the paste and poke the cloves into the ham. Return to the oven to finish baking.

If you’ve purchased a pre-cooked ham, check the package directions for reheating, but glaze with brown sugar paste for last 45 minutes of cooking, as above.

Adapted from Martha Meade, “Roast Virginia Ham” in Modern Meal Maker (San Francisco: Sperry Flour Company, 1935), 66 and “Roasting Cured or Smoked Pork” in Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook (Minneapolis: Macmillan and General Mills, 1950), 268.

Boiled Parsley Potatoes

1/2 lb potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup minced parsley
salt and pepper

Wash and dry the potatoes, to remove any dirt. Slice each potato in half horizontally and then divide each half into four or six segments, depending on the size of the potato. Fingerling or new potatoes can be left whole.

Place the sliced potatoes into a 2-quart saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are fork-tender and starting to fall apart. Drain the potatoes.

Melt the butter in the saucepan over low heat, add the drained potatoes and parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. You can cover the pan and leave it on low heat to keep the potatoes warm while you finish up dinner.

Serves 2

Print

Sautéed Mushrooms

1 tablespoon butter
¼ lb crimini or button mushrooms
1 tablespoon minced parsley
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a small sauté pan (like an omelet pan) over medium heat until the butter foams. Meanwhile, clean the mushrooms, trim them and cut larger ones in half.

When the foam is starting to subside, add the mushrooms and sauté until softened and brown, about 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Serves 2

Grecian Salad Dressing

1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon paprika
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon minced chives
1/3 cup lemon juice (about 1 ½ lemons)
1 cup olive oil

Stir together all ingredients except olive oil. Slowly pour the oil over, mixing constantly. Store leftover dressing in a covered container in the fridge. Whisk to re-emulsify.

Yields approximately 1 ½ cups

Adapted from Martha Meade, “Grecian Dressing for Lettuce” in Modern Meal Maker (San Francisco, Sperry Flour Company, 1935), 367.

Print at Scribd.com.

Vintage Recipe Thursday: The New Jell-O Book of Surprises

Goodies from Paramount Antique Mall

Paul and I drove out to Paramount Antique Mall Saturday.  We'd never been there before (we just found out about it).  The place is enormous.  Quite frankly, it was a bit overwhelming and Paul wouldn't buy me a 1930s waffle iron because he said he didn't want to buy an appliance with someone else's 70-year-old waffle crud on it.  Gee whiz.  Anyway, I did find a great scarf for $3.50 (I don't know if it's really vintage or silk, but for $3.50, who cares?), some vintage recipe booklets (of course--how could I resist?) and little Jell-O molds.  There were two women in the booth when Paul and I were digging through the baskets of Jell-O molds to find a matching set (We ended up with 10!) who asked me what I was going to do with them.  "Mold Jell-O..."  I mean, what does one do with a Jell-O mold?  The women looked at me like I was crazy (literally like they were patronizing an insane person--"isn't that cute--she uses Jell-O molds to mold Jell-O; she'll never survive in the real world") and proceeded to tell me about some ghastly craft project involving glitter that renders a vintage Jell-O mold inoperable.  I think I did a fairly good job of hiding my horror.

George Olsen and His Orchestra will make everything better with "Makin' Whoopee!"

It's in the public domain, so you can download it from Internet Archive.

Anyhow, with said Jell-O molds, I made a fabulous recipe from this Jell-O booklet, which was a Christmas gift from my parents.  It's from 1930:

Since I made This Side of Paradise Pudding, I have become (even more) enamored of gelatin.  It is amazing stuff, despite the artificial flavorings.  I am losing my "slow food" street cred!  These Pineapple-Orange Creams are fabulous.  They taste like orange sherbet with pineapple and mandarin oranges.  Yum!

Pineapple Orange Creams

a fun scarf--just in time for warmer weather

I'm sure you'll be seeing recipes from these booklets in the near future!

*****

I realized I haven't posted a drink recipe in a while, so I'll introduce you to one of my favorite tipples--the Gimlet.  All it is is 1 ounce of Rose's lime juice (I want to make homemade some time) and 1 jigger (1.5 ounces) of gin.  That's it!  It looks like antifreeze in its glowing greenness (which the yellow from the lamp neutralized).  I love it.  Unlike the rest of my generation, I'm not a vodka kind of gal.

Traditional British Food: Barley Bannocks

If you've never baked with barley before, try these simple bannocks.

This recipe from Scotland makes a wonderfully tasty quick bread that is similar to Irish Soda Bread both in taste and method. Barley flour is more nutritious than all-purpose flour, but produces a finer crumb than whole wheat flour. Bannocks should be served just out of the oven, but leftovers can be split, toasted and topped with butter for a tasty breakfast.

Barley Bannocks

2 cups barley flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350˚ Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a non-stick mat. Set aside.

Mix the flours, cream of tartar and salt together in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle.

Stir the baking soda into the buttermilk, then pour the mixture onto the dry ingredients and stir together with a wooden spoon. The mixture will be slightly sticky.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface and pat into a ½”-inch thick round. Cut into six wedges and place on the baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes in the middle of the oven. The bannocks will be lightly browned. Serve warm.

Adapted from Carol Wilson and Christopher Trotter, “Bere Bannocks” in Scottish Traditional Recipes: A Heritage of Food & Cooking (London: Hermes House, 2008), 219.

Print at Recipage

Print at scribd

Illustration from Guy Mannering (click to enlarge) from Wikipedia

Speaking of Scotland, my favorite book by Walter Scott is Guy Mannering, which is set in Galloway. It's typical Scott fluff, but is a more enjoyable read than either Ivanhoe or Waverley, mostly due to the supporting characters, including gypsy Meg Merrilies and jolly farmer Dandie Dinmont, who was so popular a dog breed was named after him.

Guy Mannering is the ideal book for a dreary, gray Sunday afternoon in February. Put another log on the fire, put the kettle on the hob, cover up with a (tartan) blanket and be wonderfully entertained.

Public-domain photo from Wikipedia

Dinner and a Movie: Lionel Barrymore Double Feature

fair-use image from Wikipedia

Grand Hotel is famous because Great Garbo said, "I want to be alone." I think it's a rather ridiculous reason for a movie to be well-known, but there you have it. Greta Garbo and John Barrymore, playing a coddled, insecure ballerina and a financially-desperate aristocrat, respectively, have top billing, but Joan Crawford and Lionel Barrymore steal the show. Lionel Barrymore plays an accountant at a large textile firm (run by Wallace Beery's character) who has been told he doesn't have long to live, so he's decided to really enjoy life for once and live it up at Berlin's Grand Hotel. While staying at the luxury hotel, he meets stenographer Joan Crawford, who neither refuses the attentions of John Barrymore nor those of Wallace Beery. Dramatic situations ensue--burglary, murder, lots of moroseness on Greta Garbo's part. It actually is entertaining and it's oh-so-stylish. Those sets! Those clothes!

Bottom line? It's a classic pre-code melodrama. It's an Oscar-winner for Best Picture. You should at least see it once. You might even like it!

Grand Hotel is available on DVD.

The Little Colonel poster

I was originally just going to review The Little Colonel, also starring Lionel Barrymore and (groan) Shirley Temple, because it came out in February 1935 and I wanted something to go with my Modern Meal Maker menu. I can't believe I made it through the whole thing. Lionel Barrymore spent the whole time doing a Colonel Sanders impersonation and Shirley Temple spent the whole time pouting (naturally). Hattie McDaniel and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson are the best part of the whole film, but the film is so amazingly racist it's hard to enjoy without recoiling in horror at some of the dialogue and the situations. It reminded me of a book we had to read in Historical Methods about how Southern writers, politicians and other influential Southern sympathizers were able to control the message over the Civil War by insisting that all the slaves were so happy.

As backward as the whole film is, it was considered progressive at the time because Shirley Temple and Bill Robinson were the first interracial dance "couple." The staircase scene was edited out when the film was shown in Southern states.





The Little Colonel is available on DVD.

Spiced Cod

Buttered Rice

Stewed Tomatoes

Peas in Cream

Washington's Birthday Chocolate Fudge Loaf

If I do say so myself, this menu was a winner. The original fish recipe was "Curried Sole" and I don't like curry powder and I had cod, not sole, so I used the ginger and oil from the original recipe and replaced the curry powder with some of my favorite spices. Feel free to play around with whatever combination you like and whatever proportions you like. If you want to use curry powder, substitute it for the cumin and coriander. This was easy and the whole thing only took 20 minutes (which was how long the rice cooked).

The menu rather reminds me of Furr's, but in a fabulous way.

Spiced Cod

Vintage Recipe Thursday: Chicken Caruso

+

=

I wasn't so sure about this recipe when I saw it in Betty Crocker's New Dinner for Two (1964), but I had leftover chicken, so I decided to give it a try.  It's so yummy and easy and cheesy!  This is one of the quickest, easiest recipes I've ever posted.  I served the Chicken Caruso (which we also lovingly call Chicken David Caruso) with Perfect Steamed Broccoli and a pear half with cranberry sauce, as well as Boston Cream Pie.  We actually had this back in January, but I'm having a slow cooking week this week because of tons of leftovers.  I'm glad I had this in reserve so I wouldn't have to skip Vintage Recipe Thursday!

Chicken Caruso

*****

Click for Tasha's Briar Rose posts

Continuing on with more vintage, I'm doing the Briar Rose Vintage Knit-along at Tasha's blog, By gum, by golly! and I'm very excited because it's my first KAL.  I just thought I would share my gauge swatch--it's Knit Picks Palette in Opal Heather:

*****

P.S. Thank you so much to everyone who commented on Monday's post.  I'm glad you're enjoying "Life This Week."  Provided my life doesn't get in the way, "Life This Week" will be a weekly occurrence!

Life this Week: February 21, 1938

Washington's Birthday Chocolate Fudge Loaf

Today, I'm exploring the February 21, 1938, issue of Life magazine, which is available on Google Books. Here's a little of what interested me:

• First off, we have a Baker's Chocolate ad with a recipe for Martha Washington's Devil's Food Cake.  I actually baked a Chocolate Fudge Loaf from my copy of All About Home Baking, because it has the same fudge frosting, but makes an 8"x8" cake rather than a 15"x9" one.*
• Those crazy young people are obsessed with swing music.  Here's Maxine Sullivan's "Loch Lomond" (1937):

Download at Internet Archive
• I'll bet you didn't know that Sanka will make your modeling dreams come true!
• Preview of Coming Attractions: Marie Antoinette will be the Movie of the Week July 11th
• Hilarious photo of baby who has crossed the Atlantic four times
• If you grew up with The Story of Ferdinand, you'll love this article.  If you are a poor, unfortunate soul who's never read the book, get a copy!  Ferdinand is a Spanish bull who would rather smell the flowers than fight.  Here's the Disney short:

*Washington’s Birthday Chocolate Fudge Loaf

*****

A page from the Spring 1938 Sears catalog from ancestry.com. What would you order?  I totally need that "Cycling Outfit."

Click to enlarge

Dinner and a Movie: For the Love of Film (Noir)

Self-styled Siren and Ferdy on Films hold an annual blogathon, For the Love of Film, to raise money to protect and restore endangered films.  This year's worthy cause is the Film Noir Foundation.  They'll use donations to restore The Sound of Fury (Cy Endfield, 1950).  If you're a fan of classic film or film noir or you just can't stand the thought of something disappearing forever, please

Witness to Murder poster (fair use image from Wikipedia)

As an amuse-bouche for the upcoming second annual George Sanders Film Festival and to go with the film noir theme, I present: Witness to Murder (Roy Rowland, 1954) starring George Sanders and Barbara Stanwyck.  Granted, I'll watch just about anything with George Sanders in it and almost anything with Barbara Stanwyck (man, I've sat through some clunkers), so naturally I was going to watch this movie.

Barbara Stanwyck plays an old-maid interior designer who witnesses across-the-street neighbor George Sanders in the act of murdering some blonde tramp in front of his living room window.  At this point, I was worrying the film would just be a rehashing of Shock, a Vincent Price movie in which Price's character murders his wife in front of a window in a hotel room.  Drapes, people!  Close them before you murder someone!

Examples of noir lighting! (screen captures)

Honestly, I thought it would be worse.  It was actually entertaining--not amazingly so, but not bad.  I just didn't like how utterly amazingly stupid Barbara Stanwyck's character is.  I think the writers sat around and said, "To create dramatic tension, let's have her climb up scaffolding for no reason and visit the murderer's apartment by herself."  Who does that?!  I don't go around visiting homicidal Nazis who know I'm the only witness to a murder they've committed.  It's just common sense.

In all, if it's a rainy Sunday afternoon and you don't feel like working too hard at watching a movie, Witness to Murder fits the bill.  Yeah, it's silly, but it's fun.  Let's face it--George Sanders's bad guys are the best.

In honor of the to-be-restored film, I cooked an adaptation of this 1950 menu from Ladies' Home Journal*:

Click to enlarge

More food than I've ever prepared for one meal

Clockwise from pie:

Chocolate Chiffon Pie

Shrimp-and-Grapefruit Cocktail

Steak frites

Broccoli au gratin 

Green Salad with Bacon Dressing and Avocado

This was the first time I've ever deep-fried anything, so I was both nervous and excited.  I also couldn't believe how much Crisco was required!  Anyhow, the fries were amazing.  Now I need to make donuts!

Everything was amazing except for the Shrimp-and-Grapefruit Cocktail.  It looks really jolly, but it didn't taste like anything except grapefruit.  I ended up finding a container of Long John Silver's cocktail sauce in the fridge and dunking the shrimp in that, which made it tasty.

Like all good women's publications, I'll provide a timeline:

Morning:

• Make pie dough, chill 30 minutes, then roll out and blind bake.  Cool completely.
• Make gelatin portion of pie filling.  Chill.
• Prepare shrimp-and-grapefruit cocktail.
• Prepare lettuce for salad--store in the refrigerator.
• Broil bacon for salad.

Afternoon:

• Finish pie filling, fill pie, chill in the refrigerator.
• Peel, wash and cut fries.  Soak in ice water 1 hour, then dry, wrap in towel and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Dinnertime:

• Heat oven to 350.
• Make Broccoli au gratin and bake.
• Deep fry the fries in batches--drain then keep warm on baking sheet in oven (top rack).
• Meanwhile, make the bacon dressing.
• Next make the steaks.  While they cook, assemble the salad.
• Rest the steaks and assemble shrimp-and-grapefruit cocktail.
• Dress the green salad and plate steaks and fries.

Exhausted yet?  This menu is demented-American-housewife-does-French bistro/Delmonico's/roadside diner (never seen a chiffon pie in France!).  It's totally 1950.

If you need a shortcrust pastry recipe, click here.

For the Love of Film Noir

*

Ladies' Home Journal, March 1950; from Juliana Daniel

This is an ad for our bedroom suite--we have the four-poster bed

Luncheon at the Twin Oaks Tavern

First edition cover (fair-use image from Wikipedia)

The Postman Always Rings Twice, by James M. Cain, was published in 1934.  It's a super-fast read (the edition I checked out from the library was only 116 pages) about a drifter who ends up as a mechanic at a road-side diner in southern California, the Twin Oaks Tavern.  He falls in love lust with his boss's wife, who happens to want her husband out of the way.  The moral?  Karma will get you one way or the other.

I wanted to read a book that would go well with my new (to me) copy of Modern Meal Maker, published in 1935 in San Francisco.  It gives menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner for every day of the year.  I decided to catch up on important reading from 1934 first, because most people were probably still getting through books from 1934 in early 1935.  By reading books published at the time, I'll have menus to go with my reading!

Here's a luncheon menu from Modern Meal Maker, which I thought was very "diner."  I even served it on my (admittedly anachronistic) chartreuse Harmony House Symphony dishes, which were manufactured for Sears Roebuck in the 1950s.

Cream of Potato Soup

Corn Muffins 

Fruit Salad

Coffee, Tea or Milk

The cream of potato soup uses leftover cooked potatoes. It's a good idea when you're baking, roasting or boiling potatoes to cook extras, because they're so useful. You can use them for mashed potatoes, but also in soups or in pies (like the Pyrex Chicken Pie).

I made up the fruit salad recipe to use up the leftover pineapple rings from this post.  You don't have to use canned fruit, though.  This time of year in Kansas, it's really difficult to get ripe fruit of any kind, because we're out of the growing season locally and everything has to be shipped in, meaning it will probably never be ripe!  The bananas took a week to ripen!  I figure that if I can't have local seasonal produce, I might as well get it from a can or from the freezer section.  I've even heard that canned and frozen fruits and vegetables have a smaller carbon footprint than out-of-season fresh produce.  Plus, I just adore canned mandarin oranges.

Cover of Modern Meal Maker; I have a copy from Dinosaur Dry Goods and a copy from Cookbook Addict.

First page--I love the stars! 

Cream of Potato Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 cups milk
2 cups peeled, diced and cooked potatoes (about 2 medium potatoes)

Bring water in the bottom of a double boiler to a boil. In the top of the double boiler, melt the butter, then stir in the flour, salt and pepper and cook, whisking continuously, for about 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, then add the potatoes and turn the heat down to medium. Cook for 25 minutes, stirring frequently, until nicely thickened.

Serves 4

Adapted from Martha Meade, “Cream of Asparagus Soup” in Modern Meal Maker (San Francisco: Sperry Flour Company, 1935), 338.

Print

Corn Muffins

1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 eggs
2 cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350˚ Fahrenheit. Grease two 12-cup muffin tins and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the egg and milk and beat with a wooden spoon for two minutes. Pour in the melted butter and stir again to combine. Pour batter into the prepared muffin tin and bake in the middle of the oven 20 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.

When the corn muffins are finished baking, cool a couple of minutes in the tin on a rack and then turn out of the tin. The muffins should be served warm and can be wrapped in a bit of tin foil to reheat (300˚, about half an hour) the next day if you have leftovers. Enjoy spread with butter.

Makes 2 dozen muffins

Adapted from Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron, “Corn Bread,” A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband: With Bettina’s Best Recipes, the Romance of Cookery and Housekeeping, Complete New Revised Edition (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, Inc., 1940), 315.

Print

Fruit Salad

2 ripe bananas, sliced
1 cup diced drained canned pears (15.25 oz. can)
1 cup drained canned mandarin oranges (11 oz. can)
1 cup diced drained canned pineapple

Combine all ingredients and refrigerate. When ready to serve, divide into four bowls. Leftovers can be kept in the refrigerator.

Serves 4

Adapted from Martha Meade, “Fruit Salad” in Modern Meal Maker (San Francisco: Sperry Flour Company, 1935), 79.

Print

View recipes on Scribd

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.

Dinner and a Movie: Design for Living

Another February menu from A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband:

"Alice Practices Economy"*

Head Lettuce with Celery Seed Dressing

Baked Eggs

Potatoes Escalloped with Bacon

Both the eggs and the escalloped potatoes are baked in a 350-degree oven.  You can prepare the salad dressing and the eggs while the potatoes start baking.  When the eggs go in the oven, you don't have to do anything else until everything is ready to be plated up, which is really nice.  I don't know if this dish is economical or not, because I didn't do the arithmetic, but the authors of A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband say it's cheap, so it must be!

Head Lettuce with Celery Seed Dressing

1 head iceberg lettuce
½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
½ teaspoon celery salt
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon paprika
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tablespoons sugar

Shake together all ingredients except the lettuce in a mason jar. Use an eighth to a quarter head of lettuce per person. Store extra dressing in the refrigerator.

Serves 4-8.

Adapted from Louise Bennett Weaver and Helen Cowles LeCron, “Celery Seed Salad Dressing” in A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband: With Bettina’s Best Recipes, The Romance and Cookery of Housekeeping (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, Inc., 1940), 85.

Download and print

Baked Eggs

2 eggs
½ cup milk
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 350˚ Fahrenheit. Butter two ramekins and crack an egg into each. Stir the salt and paprika into the milk and divide mixture evenly between ramekins.

Melt the butter over medium heat. When bubbling, add the breadcrumbs and stir for a couple of minutes until slightly browned. Pour breadcrumbs over the top of the eggs.
Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and bake 20 minutes.

Serves 2.

Adapted from “Baked Eggs” in ibid., 362.

Download and print

Escalloped Potatoes with Bacon

1 lb potato, thinly sliced
3 slices crispy cooked bacon, cut into small pieces
1 ½ tablespoons flour
1 ½ tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350˚ Fahrenheit. Butter a casserole or au gratin dish and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the sliced potato, bacon, flour, butter, salt and pepper. Mix to combine then pour into the casserole. Pour the milk over and bake 45 to 50 minutes.

Use a casserole that is big enough so that the potato mixture only comes about ¾ of the way to the top. Place casserole on a baking sheet, in case it bubbles over.

Serves 2.

Adapted from “Potatoes Escalloped with Bacon” in ibid., 362 and “Escalloped Potatoes” in ibid., 159-160.

Download and print

*****

Fair-use image from Wikipedia

If you're ready for another pre-code Lubitsch picture with Miriam Hopkins and Edward Everett Horton, may I suggest Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933)?  The premise would still be unconventional today: an independent American woman (Hopkins) in Paris becomes muse to a playwright (March) and a painter (Cooper), which, naturally, requires moving in with them.  Be prepared for bohemian living--sex without benefit of marriage ensues and complicates the entire living arrangement.

Further reading:
Here's an article about Miriam Hopkins on the blog Allure.
George Hurrell photo of Miriam Hopkins at Art Deco.

*****

* From Google Books:

Vintage Recipe Thursday: Caramel Layer Cake

Another great find from Public Market Antiques (click to enlarge)

I added pecans to make a Praline Layer Cake

Caramel Layer Cake

*****

Annette Hanshaw is one of my favorite singers from the 1920s and 1930s.  For your listening pleasure:

"Ain't Cha" (Annette Hanshaw, 1929)


Download song at Internet Archive

Life this Week: February 7, 1938

Come-uppance Cake*

Today, I'm exploring the February 7, 1938, issue of Life magazine, which is available on Google Books.  Here's a little of what interested me:

"It's always summertime someplace in America..."  Don't you wish you could escape all this snow?  If there were still Pullman single-occupancy coaches, like in this ad, you could skip the TSA pat downs on your way to the links this February.

In 1934, the Hays Code restricted "immoral activity" in film and made passionate, lingering kisses at thing of the past.  "...These Movies are now Museum Pieces" gives a glimpse of the Museum of Modern Art's collection of movie kisses from their greater movie stills archive.  If you're interested in watching the films, The Private Life of Henry VIII, The Kiss and The General are available on Internet Archive and all but Reunion in Vienna and Forbidden Hours are available on DVD.  However, Reunion in Vienna will air March 16th at 3:15 a.m. CST on Turner Classic Movies.  I'll be setting my VCR!

"Europe's Little Nations Flirt with Germany and Italy" outlines the division of Europe into two camps: pro-democracy and pro-Fascism.  Countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and Rumania had to decide where their loyalties lay.  There's also a photo from the Oslo Conference from January 18, 1938, which was a gathering of countries that intended to stay neutral during "the next Great War."

"Movie of the Week: The Goldwyn Follies"  Yes, it's available on DVD.  Yes, I've watched it.  It has to be one of the most God-awful, hokey, schmaltzy, ridiculous movies ever made.  I thought if it had Adolphe Menjou in it, it couldn't be too bad.  I was wrong.  Yes, Zorina is a talented ballerina and the Romeo and Juliet pas de deux (choreographed by George Balanchine) is a high point in the film.  However, The Goldwyn Follies is not "an A--no. 1 picture" as Life asserts.  It's comedy is not "really funny."  The most amusing character is Charlie McCarthy (yeah, the ventriloquist's dummy) and he's not even in top form.  Looks like Mr. Goldwyn shouldn't have scrapped Dorothy Parker's script.  The chief attraction of the film is the costuming (by Omar Kiam) and make-up (by Max Factor)--in technicolor.

This article has four pages of gorgeous 1930s shoes.  Need I say more?

"Great Primitive Paintings in America" is a nice introduction to medieval art.

This is a rather silly Life Savers ad, but the clothing is great (and in color!).

"Jersey City's Mayor Hague: Last of the Bosses, not First of the Dictators" profiles Hague's fight with organized labor.  Hague is "a born leader since his boyhood days in Jersey's toughest slums, he is still loud, profane and ungrammatical, but he dresses with conservative elegance."  Frank Hagues sounds like he was a fascinating mix of street and nouveau riche who lived in grandeur while the people of his city suffered.

Check out some of George VI's hunting trophies in "The Camera Overseas."

*So, there's this great Baker's Chocolate ad in which "Paula Gives Mother-in-Law Her Come-Uppance!" I had to bake the cake (I obviously can't resist old recipes).  I made the recipe as written, but I've changed a few things in the recipe I'm posting.  First of all, the filling was way too runny and would not set up.  So, I substituted a filling recipe in the write-up that has worked for me in the past.  Secondly, the chocolate frosting mixture was way too stiff to fold egg whites into, so I just beat in the egg whites.  It tastes really yummy but there's definitely not enough of it to cover the sides of the cake.  Thirdly, (and this is totally my fault) the cake was a bit dry.  I should have taken it out of the oven sooner.  Don't let me scare you away from baking this cake, though.  It's pretty awesome (even a bit dry with runny filling, which I hope my recipe will correct).

Come Uppance Cake