Category Archives: food

November 29, 2011 · 4:11 pm

Cookbook Tuesdays: Metropolitan Life Insurance

Whoops, I missed a week of Take A Peek Wednesdays, where I scan and post some vintage advertising gem. To make up for it, or in other words, completely unrelated, let’s start Cookbook Wednesdays, wherein I feature some or another vintage cookbook in my collection, shall we?

We shall.

Here we have two copies of the Metropolitan Cook Book, graciously provided as freebies Â (originally; I had to buy them)Â by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The one directly below is from February of 1948 and on the back is rubber stamped with the insurance agent’s contact info (Wayne Campbell, 4324 Sheridan, GE. 1893). The foreword states that the recipes included are intended to balance both budget and health, and includes a page or two of recipes to be made with leftover meats. I’m particularly fond of the meal planning advice that “at least two vegetables, in addition to potatoes, should be used in every day’s meals.” Yum! I do love my veg. I also love this blue and red grid design. And look at that lettering!

1948

Below is the June, 1953 edition with The World’s Most Adorable Food on the cover. This edition dismisses with the foreword but is illustrated inside, with more food items so happy to provide you with quality noms. I mean really, have you ever seen happier muffins than those on the cover of this booklet? I should think not.

1953

As usual, clicking on the images will enlargify. Back next week with more! Or tune in tomorrow for some vintage advertising goodness.

The bits you DON’T see.

After a weekend spent mostly eating cake and being taught a few new piping tricks, I had a craving I couldn’t shake when I finally got home yesterday. So, new decorating tips purchased. Fresh cake baked. As per usual, I can’t get the texture right, but it’s good enough. The part I really care about is the frosting: my first attempt at a Swiss buttercream. Using the recipe and tutorial from Smitten Kitchen, the experience is easy-peasy and problem free.

Except for one thing. One not-so-tiny thing.

In my jet-lagged haze, I used salted butter.

And so the beautiful, silky frosting is dumped, the cake layers are wrapped in wax paper and tucked into the freezer. There’s always tomorrow.

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Filed under food, vacation

April 17, 2011 · 9:47 am

Dessert Ketchup

I have a dozen tasks to accomplish before biting the bullet and PACKING* for Viva, like, immediamente, but instead I’m going to share with you this potentially horrifying recipe which I read last night in a 1956 issue of True Story.

No. 4, Ketchup in Dessert**

Heat oven to 350Â° F. (moderate). Place 4 cups sliced tart apples in buttered shallow baking dish. Combine 1/2 cup Heinz Ketchup and 2 tbs. lemon juice. Spoon over apples. Mix 3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon, 1/3 cup softened butter or margarine until crumbly. Spread over apples. Bake 40 min. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream. Serves 6 to 8.

I’m really, truly hoping that one of my readers (ahem, that’s you) decides to make this. I’m curious. Like the way you’d drive past a car accident, sick to your stomach but looking anyway. That kind of curious.

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*My garment bag has been “packed” for weeks, although dresses keep getting cycled in/out. It’s the bulky stuff (shoes, handbags, HBA) that needs organizing. I’m rully-rully hoping to get it all into my Big Red Suitcase this year, instead of my Gigantic Orange Suitcase.

**This recipe was part of a “name the dish” contest, with a grand prize of $5,000. I’m curious as to what the winning entry wound up calling it!

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Filed under amusement, food, vintage, Viva Las Vegas

December 29, 2010 · 11:36 pm

Thick and Tired

Over the summer, my life unexpectedly upheaved. (I know the syntax is incorrect. Poetic license.) The pain of events has diminished, but still lurks and pesters and sneaks up behind me and taunts and is generally very mean. I have progressed, however, from not being able to eat much at all, to apparently attempting to bury alive my sorrow with dairy products. I mean, really. Butter? Awesome stuff. I’ve been allowing myself to eat as much as I want of whatever makes me feel good.

But I don’t feel good. I’m bloated. My pants don’t fit. My lower back is starting to hurt. And I feel, generally, like poo.

I know that the “holiday” season isn’t yet over. I know that resolutions typically start on January 1st. But I’m sick and tired of feeling thick and tired. So I started today. I won’t be doing anything crazy, no cabbage-juice-and-bird-nest diets, but I am very much looking forward to being more conscious of what I eat, what I drink, and to feeling better. And to once again fitting into that spectacular dress that I bought just in case I go to Viva14.

Here’s to good health.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: Some very dear friends in Chicago sent me a gorgeous and meaningful teapot (see above) for Christmas. It will make the whole drinking-plenty-of-fluids thing that much more graceful, and will continue to remind me how lucky I am to know such cool people.

4 Comments

Filed under food, friends, holidays, Viva Las Vegas

August 15, 2010 · 3:48 pm

Welcome. Now leave.

Messy Stuff: My life is a bit upside-down right now. That’s all you need to know, but it’s why I’ve been generally absent from all of my usual online activities. And from a bunch of in-person stuff too. Now go away.

Oh, wait. I invited you here by writing this. Okay. Well, then. Ummâ€¦

One Thing: The catalog project that a friend and I have been contracted for is finally reaching the point where enough copy is written and photography is completed that the thing is starting to look darn good, if I may say so. Many-many-many thanks to my partner-slash-boss, who is so very skilled at Tetris-ing seemingly impossible demands into visually stimulating layouts. Also, we did three straight days of studio photography with about 300 babies/toddlers (okay, more like 19) and I didn’t break out in hives. Also, I learned that I am damn good at putting together flat-pack furniture. I suppose it comes from years of decorating my living spaces on a college student’s budget, which was all I had to work with even many years out of college. Perhaps my next tattoo should be of a set of Allen wrenches (hex keys to some of you).

Another Thing: I’m still toying with the idea of selling off my shop‘s inventory to any interested vintage vendors. Or of hoarding what I have, buying (with what money?) as much as I can get my hands on, and opening a brick-and-mortar location (also, with what money?). Which is 13 shades of crazy, but finding meaningful full-time employment working for someone else has been, let’s be generous and say:Â difficult. What I would love is to work at a vintage store, if it would pay enough to cover my living expenses. Which are pretty low, if I don’t maintain a savings account or 401k or, you know, eat.*

Also: I promise that I have more fun stuff to list in the shop as soon as I am no longer Trapped Under Something Heavy. Thank you for your patience, and let me know if you’re looking for anything specific. I may have it in my unlisted inventory, you never know. Well, you know when you ask.

And Then: I never intended to leave Twitter for so long, but I was surprised by how much I don’t miss it. I still plan to come back, but with a greatly thinned Follow list. As soon as I figure out how to do that, because I only follow accounts that I actually care about in the first place. Some of you need to shut the hell up a bit, though. A good copy writer once told me, “pretend every word costs a dime.” Which is a bit of advice that, if you read my blog posts (and you do, obviously, because you’re reading this) you know that I myself often ignore.

For Drewseph: Hi! Halloween is coming. Which means that Halloween Costuming Blog Posts are coming. Plotting is afoot, and a couple of preliminary purchases have been made, but that particular plan may be out the window already. Time will tell.

When All Of A Sudden: It is entirely likely that a certain red (mostly) headed friend will come over today to help me re-dye my horrifically ignored hair, which has been neither cut nor colored since my beloved Lacey worked her magic on me for Viva. Which, if you don’t recall, was the first weekend in April. Do the math. It’s not pretty.

Th-th-th-that’s all Folks. See you soon. Maybe.

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*Cheese, I love cheese, rahhlly I do. And I love cheese that costs $24.99/lb. although I don’t BUY cheese that costs $24.99/lb. Not while I’m so precariously underemployed, I don’t.

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Filed under food, friends, Halloween, tattoo