Category Archives: collections

May 18, 2012 · 12:04 pm

Cookbook… no, wait, Cookcards? (Ham and Bananas Hollandaise)

 

Ham-Banana. Fun to say, questionable to eat. Click for biggyness.

You read this blog, so you know that I lazily collect old cookbooks. That is, I don’t actively seek them out, but I “somehow” have two shelves full and as many more stacked in piles on my dining room table. Bad Housekeeping Seal Of Approval.

When I was a kid, my mom had the McCall’s Great American Recipe Card Collection set of, well, recipe cards. The plastic bin for them was a light beige on the bottom, hot stamped with some sort of patriotic shield-and-eagle thing, and a clear, hinged lid. I never made a single thing from those recipe cards, and I don’t know if my mom did either. Somewhere along the way, it disappeared. Nobody was saddened.

About 5 years ago, I picked up my own nearly-complete set of the 1978 Better Homes and Gardens Recipe Card Library. I’ve never made a single thing from these recipe cards, either, but I did finally go through each and every one to pick out some that look tasty. Many are dubious, and I’m sure they’ll get posts of their own in the future.

Today’s post is about a stack of those old McCall’s cards, found for me last week by my friend Erin of ThedaBaraVintage. My plan is to share these 1973 recipe cards with my customers, and most of them are feasible for today’s palate. Zucchini Tossed Salad. Peaches in Marsala. Salmon Steaks Tarragon. But a few, just a few, would test the taste buds of anyone I know. It will be a crapshoot, and I hope my customers enjoy the gamble. Will you get a recipe card for Creole Doughnuts (Beignets), or for Perfection (gelatine) Salad?

Because I know that everyone will want to make the Ham and Bananas Hollandaise shown above, I’ll share that recipe with you here.

6 medium bananas
1/4 cup lemon juice
6 thin slices boiled ham (about 1/2 lb)
3 Tbs prepared mustard
2 envelopes (1-1/4 oz size) hollandaise sauce mix
1/4 cup light cream

  1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly butter 2-quart, shallow baking dish.
  2. Peel bananas; sprinkle each with 1/2 Tbs lemon juice to prevent darkening.
  3. Spread ham slices with mustard. Wrap each banana in slice of ham. Arrange in single layer in casserole. Bake 10 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, make sauce: In small saucepan, combine sauce mix with 1 cup water, 1 Tbs lemon juice, and cream. Heat, stirring, to boiling; pour over bananas. Bake 5 minutes longer, or until slightly golden. Nice with a green salad for brunch or lunch. Makes 6 servings.

You’re welcome.

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Filed under amusement, collections, food, friends, kitchen, nostalgia, vintage

May 11, 2012 · 3:03 pm

Cookbookery: Big Boy Barbecue Book

Yesterday, I promised my Facebook followers (and IG and Twitter) a post dedicated to one of my newest finds: the Big Boy Barbecue Book: Shows how easy it is to cook on Spit or Grill. And so here you go!

Published in 1957 by the “Tested Recipe Institute” with the “cooperation” of the Big Boy Mfg. Co., this spiral-bound booklet is filled with…well, it’s filled with instructions for using a Big Boy grill or any of the possible Big Boy accessories, such as the (snicker, giggle) Big Boy Electro-Rod briquet fire starter. Now don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of helpful hints to be found, but you have to push through the Big Boy propaganda.

One full page describes the many benefits of barbecuing at home, including this gem:

That’s right, wifey has only to make a salad and dessert! Here’s the first of 4 dessert recipes included in the booklet:

Yup, that shouldn’t require any kitchen time or clean-up!

For those of you hoping that this gem of a book will find its way to the shop, I’m sorry to disappoint you. This one has already been claimed, but I’ll try to make some equally interesting items from my cookbook collection available in the future.

As Julia Child would say, Bon Appétit!

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Filed under advertising, collections, food, kitchen, vintage

March 8, 2012 · 4:35 pm

New New New (and slightly less-new)

Hi, I’m Troy McClure and you may remember me from such educational films as… no, wait, that’s not right.

But I am Tiddleywink (Design, Vintage) and Winkorama Vintage Sewing. Happy to fulfill your vintage clothing, vintage sewing, and freelance print production dreams. Not necessarily in that order.

As of today, I’m also Tiddleywink Retro. It’s not really a big deal, just a little shop for the misfits: the items of clothing, etc. which don’t qualify for my Etsy shop because they’re not truly vintage, but are too nice and/or expensive to simply toss in the donation pile. Trust me, there’s plenty in the donation pile already. These are things that I either bought for myself but never wore, or bought as vintage for the shop only to find upon close inspection that they’re not as “vintage” as may have been advertised. And so here is where those items will be posted, hoping for new homes. The listing prices will be set at whatever I paid for each item; no more, no less. No markup. No profit. No sales. No discounts.

Tiddleywink Retro. It looks an awful lot like this.

Due to the nature of the store contents, I hope I won’t be updating it very often. But, you know, things happen. Maybe a dealer missed a dead-giveaway label hidden in a side seam. Maybe a dress I bought online is a few inches shorter than I’d hoped. Maybe I ordered two pairs of identical shoes planning to return whichever pair didn’t fit, only to have the store go out of business before I could send a pair back. Um, you know, for instance. Hypothetically. (Yeah, that once happened.)

So stroll around, take a look, tell your friends. Buy stuff that deserves to be worn, rather than hanging in a dark closet with no foreseeable future.

You can get to all of the above links, and more, from this one swell page:

Swell, innit? Click to visit.

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Filed under collections, day job, design, fashion, jewelry, life-threatening clutter, shopping, vintage

January 10, 2012 · 5:51 pm

Cookbook Tuesdays: Mirro-Matic Pressure Pan // Stuffed Peppers

Woo! The final in our Mirro Challenge series. (The winner won’t be chosen until tomorrow, so there’s still time to post your recipe review in the comments of that there linked post, hint hint.)

I’ve written about my 1954 Mirro-Matic Pressure Pan before. I’d used it (against modern safety precautions, don’t follow my example) for canning, and when I discovered the Hip Pressure Cooking site, I started using it more frequently for dinner. But I’d spotted a fancy new electric model at Costco, one with digital settings and a timer, and as much as I love Sturdy Old Timey Stuff, I wanted that newfangled Cuisinart jobbie.

Lo and behold, my dad and his wife splurged and got it for me for Christmas! The old one will go into storage for the time being, because I love it so (and it will work even if the power goes out) but the new one gets all the gigs now. I’ve actually only used it twice: to prepare an overdone roast (user error; I’m still a n00b at this) and again last night to steam a giant globe artichoke in a record 10 minutes. TEN. MINUTES. That includes bringing the cooker up to pressure.

I considered posting a recipe from the new Cuisinart guide today, but quite frankly, most of the included recipes are annoyingly fussy and they’re also all written specifically for the fancy electric cooker which might confuse any of you with “regular” pressure cookers. “High” on the Cuisinart is a mere 10psi, so timing is different. Instead, I’ll post a recipe from the trusty 1954 guide by Mirro. I haven’t actually made this one yet, but I do have 6 bell peppers in the fridge which need to be eaten soon or sooner, and a pound of ground buffalo in the freezer. This recipe for Stuffed Green Peppers is the short list! (Click image to enlarge)

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Filed under collections, food, kitchen, life-threatening clutter, vintage

January 3, 2012 · 5:07 pm

Cookbook Tuesdays: Magical Desserts

If you read last week’s post (and if you didn’t, why not?) then you know that I’m giving away a copy of Magical Desserts with Whip ’n Chill to a random taste-tester of the likely-inedible Banana Tuna Salad.

I still have a hard time typing that out.

Anyway, I thought the prize itself deserved to be shown off with a more in-depth mention than it received last week, so here we go.

Back in the early 1960s, General Foods introduced a product called Whip ’n Chill to their Jell-O brand lineup. Available in chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, and lemon flavors, this “deluxe dessert” (instant mousse) mix could be served plain or, with the help of this 44-page recipe booklet from 1965, originally available for 25¢ and the tops from two boxes of Whip ’n Chill, be turned into a number of potentially delightful desserts.

You will learn that Whip ’n Chill is synonymous with versatility because its light creamy texture can be chilled plainly in dessert dishes, sherbet glasses, or pie shells. It can be layered in parfait glasses with fruit, nuts, or whipped cream. It can be frozen in fancy shapes or simply in a freezer tray. It an be turned into a frosting or filling to make a plain layer cake or angel food cake an extravagant delight.

Etcetera, etcetera. For every recipe with an unfortunate or uninspired name like Refrigerator Loaf (ladyfingers, vanilla Whip ’n Chill, peanut brittle) or Applesauce Dessert (vanilla Whip ’n Chill, applesauce, nutmeg), there is an equally magnificent sounding recipe the likes of Heavenly Lemon Cream (lemon Whip ’n Chill, sour cream, lemon zest) or Emerald Créme Pie (too many ingredients to list).

But what really got me interested in this cookbook were the photographs of some of the more fanciful desserts. I’ll leave you now with some images from the book (click to enlarge), and encourage you to try your hand at winning a copy for yourself. No box tops required!

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Filed under collections, food, nostalgia, vintage