A Real Vintage Dinner

Last week Michael over at Pleasing My Palate wrote a blog post about managing quick meals and some of his favorite ideas to get dinner on the table lickety-split. I have not blogged in a week due to 'life' taking over more of my time than I had planned for...and I am still pressed for time, but don't want to completely lose by bloggiing mojo. So I thought I would do a post about a meal I made a couple of months ago when hubby said, "We have nothing in the house to eat for dinner."

When I hear those words, I am always up for the challenge and can usually come up with something quite tasty. I will admit I have had a couple of real losers over the past 23 years, but for the most part I can get something quite edible on the table most nights.  On that particular night I had a left over roasted chicken with plenty of meat still on the bones, some really good cheddar cheese, fresh spinach and Bisquick. Now before you go screaming about packaged foods not being vintage....

At least I did not use SPAM!!

Salad dressing prepared in a vintage Good Season Container that came with our house.

I made a rue with butter and flour and then added some fresh chicken stock, mushrooms and plenty of fresh thyme. Added the shredded chicken and then topped it off with biscuits with cheddar cheese.

And there you have it dinner in a flash. It took about a half hour to make and then another half hour to bake. Not bad though for dinner on the fly with 'nothing to eat in the house'.

A Blob of Hellman's

In case you have not overdone your cholesterol amounts over the holiday's, maybe this recipe will be THE big hit of your 
New Year's Eve Celebration.

Does not get much easier than this.
How I love the simplicity of hors d'oeuvres from the late 1950's

Peach Pie via "the mother"..well sort of.

Peach, Blueberry, Candied Ginger Crumb Pie

So what started out as a simple peach pie from "the mother cookbook", took on a life of its own yesterday.

There is just something about me that likes to jazz things up. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. In this case, having just eaten a slice, I do believe it worked.

I wanted to make the crust the old-fashioned way, rather than use my food processor, which I am fond of for pastry. I also do not use shortening in pie crusts (although they have come out with some non-hydrogenated that I will sometimes use) but rather I use butter. And what is better than butter? Organic butter! I would usually use un-salted  in baking but this was what I had.

 Cut into little chunks for next step

 

Using pastry cutter to make small pea sized bits of it all

This took all of 5 minutes to make and then I rolled it into a ball, flattened it and put it in the fridge to rest.

I was very short on flour in the house so I also decided to do a crumb topping. As I flipped through "the mother" looking for a crumb topping recipe, I came across a gingersnap crust recipe and a light bulb went off because I knew I had some ginger snaps in the freezer. Out they came and this time I used the food processor to make crumbs of them.  Added butter, flour and sugar and voile..ginger crumb topping.

Now I was on a roll and I thought of ramping up the ginger taste by dicing some candied ginger and adding it to the peaches and blueberries.

 

I took another hint from "the mother" and did not crimp my pastry edges, but rather just pulled them up around the fruit. This is so the spillover (which happens often in fruit desserts) is minimized. It still boiled over in the oven, but I had a cookie sheet under it to catch it all. I added the crumb topping and about 40 minutes later at 375 degrees it was ready.

The past few days I also ironed my somewhat large collection of vintage aprons and am looking forward to showing them off to you next week.

And a big thanks to my sewing friends for giving me advice on making the pattern larger. This is what I am hopefully doing today as you read this, although the procrastination bug has bitten me big time.

See you soon!

Not Very Vintage~But Very Delicious

With another snowy day on the horizon and no where to go, I set about on a small cooking spree the other day. To use up some very ripe bananas and some buttermilk I made Buttermilk Banana Bread with Toasted Pecans. Very good recipe.

Then I set to making Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Bread that I found on this site all the while listening to my sister Patti Sinclair as she was a guest on the radio station WKZE, speaking about her appearance at Infinity Hall today, February 28th.

I started out with some beautiful rosemary from a huge plant I have along with roasting the garlic while the banana bread baked.













Here is the garlic and rosemary together.















Here is the rosemary and garlic mashed together.















The bread after I kneaded it and before setting it out to rise for 90 minutes.















Risen and ready for the oven. Drizzled with organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Crusty Grey Salt.















And finally: Nicely browned and ready to eat.

Crab Meat Cobbler

It's been so snowy here in my little corner of the world that it felt like a good time to hunker down with calorie laden, down home comfort food.

I was breezing through some vintage cookbooks the other day and had a hankering for something made with crab meat. I LOVE crab meat. It did not take me long to find a plethora of ideas from this 1970's cookbook titled The Panhellenic Cookbook Casseroles.

It came to me via the loss of one of my mothers dear friends who passed away recently along with a few other gems. Not being a sorority girl, I had no idea what so ever what the word panhellenic meant, but it soon became apparent it had something to do with sororities as each recipe ended with the name of the contributor and the sorority they were part of.

There are at least 30 or more crab meat casserole recipes to choose from. They must have been very popular in the late 60's and early 70's. I chose a recipe called:

Crab Meat Cobbler
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped green pepper
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup sifted flour
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp Accent (I left this out)
1 cup milk 1cup shredded American Cheese (I used Swiss cheese)
1 cup very best quality crab meat
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
Biscuit dough (I used Bisquick)

Melt butter in heavy pan or over double boiler and add green pepper and onion. Cook until tender. Blend in flour, mustard, milk and cheese. Cook stirring constantly on low heat until cheese is melted and mixture is thick. Add crab meat, Worcestershire sauce and salt; blend thoroughly. Pour into 2 quart casserole and top with tomatoes. Spoon biscuit dough in mounds evenly over top. Bake at 450 degrees for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and biscuits are golden brown. 6 servings.

This recipe was added by Patricia Reno Neff (Mrs. George)
Kappa Delta (Sigma Chi) Alum. Past President
Missoula, Montanta

****I just did a white pages search in Missoula for George Neff and found a listing for a gentleman 95 years old who has a relative listed as Patricia, although from the records it appears she may have passed away.

This dish was so delicious it made me want to open a restaurant just to serve it. Maybe I could call the restaurant "Crab One Way". Truly it does not seem like I could ever grow tired of eating this, although my heart and arteries would not appreciate it.

Meatballs in Buttermilk circa 1968

Last week we were invited to a winter party at my friend Brian's house. He is an amazing host whose parties are always full of great food and wine. This photo was taken at one of his summer parties, where the evening ended around his amazing and warm fire pit.

He usually makes a delicious soup or stew and a ham or turkey and asks his guests to bring either a dessert or appetizer. Because most of the guests are "foodies", there is always a great assortment of wonderful offerings. The party was the day after Valentines day which was a Monday evening. Not the usual night for a party, but for us, many of whom work in restaurants, it was our Friday. Being the day after both Valentines day and President's Day weekend we were all exhausted from the busy nights at the restaurant. When asked, I kept telling Brian I was not going to the party. I just wanted to be home in my jammies watching the Olympics, but hubby wanted to go, so we did.

I live over 20 minutes from the nearest grocery store, so was looking to make something from ingredients on hand. I had some fresh ground turkey and went in search through my vintage collection of cookbooks for a meatball recipe and found a recipe for Meatballs in Buttermilk. I happened to have some buttermilk on hand that needed to be used up as well so thought this the perfect recipe to try. I especially loved that there was a "blue ribbon" symbol next to the recipe. Must be good!! How thoroughly retro, I thought.

When I was recently married in 1979 at the age of 19, I found a cookbook for .50 in the bargain basement of a bookstore. It was called "Favorite Recipes of American-Meats". At the time, I was a vegetarian cooking for my then husband who was a meat eater. Somehow I still have this cookbook in my collection and this is where the recipe came from. The copyright on the book is 1968.

As I went through the ingredients the only thing I did not have enough of was some dried mustard, but I did have mustard seed and so I put it in my grinder and made some of my own.

Meatballs browning on the stove top.

Buttermilk sauce simmering. At first the sauce curdled a bit and I thought, "oh no another vintage recipe disaster". But soon enough it all came together
in a delightful sauce perfect to add the meatballs to.


And the finished product with just a "touch" of smoked paprika added
(not part of the recipe, but I could not help myself).

Somehow I forgot to bring my camera to the party, so do not have a photo of it at the party. I presented the meatballs in a wonderful 1970's chafing dish with a wooden handle and totally 70's design. I was pleased and all the party goers thought they were delicious.

A Snow Day?

The forecast for today was 10"to 15" of snow. It was supposed to snow all day and into the night, but time and again I looked out the window and not a flake to be seen. So I decided to just forget about it and bake some cookies and blog. I started looking through my basket of recipes and then a picture of this cookbook that I had upstairs popped into my head. It is copyrighted 1955. Perfect.

I was in the mood for oatmeal cookies and searched the book to find a recipe and found one for Orange Oatmeal Cookies. I especially liked the fact that the previous owner had checked the recipe. Must have been a favorite. I got this cookbook at a tag sale this summer. I was out and about looking for just something like this and was WAY out in the middle of nowhere and saw a sign for a tag sale. Low and behold I hit the jackpot and think I paid $2.00 plus a Big-Y Silver Coin (no lie) for about 10 cooking pamphlets and books.

The one thing about many of the vintage recipes is that they used many ingredients that today are deemed harmful or at the least not very good for you. I use organic baking products where ever possible and was able to make these cookies using almost 100% organic ingredients.

Shortening 1/2 cup

Organic quick cook oats 1 cup


I egg (although not organic) they are local


Into the oven


Into the cookie jar

They turned out delicious and were just the thing to cheer up my husband. He loves cookies and said they will be gone by tomorrow. The only thing disappointing about this recipe is that it only made 24 cookies. I will have to double it next time. It was simple as could be and they are almost healthy.

Here are some illustrations from the book.
I just adore them.

Bohemian Chicken with Spazel. Oy!

Today I searched through this mega-cookbook to find the perfect recipe for dinner tonight. Something that was not too complicated and fairly quick to make. I settled on Bohemian Chicken with Spazel. It sounded good enough and was straight forward in the directions. At least until I went to start cooking it.

The first thing I cheated on was using my food processor. The recipe asked for the onion, pepper and garlic to be finely chopped. I started chopping it by hand and then said no~Food Processor.
Then I noticed that the recipe asked for paprika, but no where in the recipe did it tell when to add it, or for that matter ever talk about it again. It was only listed as an ingredient. Hmph. I sprinkled some on the chicken and added it to the broth. A little paprika never hurt anyone. I got the chicken and vegetables simmering on the stove and set out to make the spaetzle, something I have never cooked before. Although I DID watch Tyler Florence make it once on his show.

The spaetzle was a catastrophe. The recipe called for mixing 3 eggs with 4 1/2 Tablespoons of flour and some salt. When I read that I scratched my head thinking there was way too much liquid for that amount of flour, but decided to follow the recipe. What I got was a slithering mess of floury egg. I ran upstairs and kicked dear hubby off the computer and quickly googled spaetzle. Up came guess who? Tyler Florence. Eghads. His recipe called for 2 eggs to 1 cup flour and some milk. What to do? I went down and added more flour until it formed a lump. Truly a lump. The recipe in the mother book said to cut it into 1 inch pieces and so I did. Here is the result.

The recipe also called for boiling it in water. I still had chicken stock left over so I boiled it in that. Meanwhile I cooked up some nice brown butter. What doesn't taste good in brown butter?

Right?

These spaetzle were like miniature hockey pucks. They could be used as weapons. I was still not ready to give up on them though, so I chopped up some garlic and added it to the brown butter and the spaetzle. What doesn't taste good in brown butter and garlic? Eh-ummm. Right.

By this time I almost convinced myself they were, "not that bad". All that butter and garlic had to be good for something. I called for hubby and told him, "Vintage dinner is ready". What a good sport. He chuckled as I stood photographing this creation and said it looked good! Wow and thanks. It DID look good. Don't you think? But was it good? Well on a scale of 1-10 I would give the chicken a 6. It was not horrible but it will not be made again by me. The sauce was tasty soaked up with some chibbata.

The spaetzle on the other hand were horrible and we joked about them all through dinner. Some day I will get a real recipe and try these again. OhTyler, I need you. All in all, the chicken was tender and delicious and we just won't talk about the spaetzle ever again. I do get a funny feeling though that this may be a source of laughs between us for many years.

Size 12 Vintage = Size 4 Today

In preparation for sewing after almost 20 years, I went to a local sewing center to pick up supplies. Needles, bobbins, thread, tape measure and a lovely new "needle tomato". The next day I set about cleaning my office to make room for my sewing and whilst organizing I found all of my old sewing supplies. Here is my old tomato next to my new tomato. Which shall I use? In the end I will probably use both. I tend to work all over the place when I am creating. I am like a whirling dervish when I am in the process, so the more the merrier when it comes to supplies.

My one goal for yesterday was to lay out and cut the pieces for the dress. Unfortuntely I did not accomplish this. I took out all the pieces to make sure they were all accounted for. Which they were. Then I ironed the wrinkles and creases out of them. What I love about working with vintage patterns is that some other person long ago, used and created with the same pattern. You can find out a lot about that other person when sifting through old patterns. What I found out about this pattern is that whoever had it first created view 1. All of view 2 pieces (the dress I am making) are still uncut.

Back to why I did not cut the fabric. While pressing the paper pattern I looked with horror at the pieces for the skirt of the dress. Can you say straight and tiny? Oh dear. In general I am a fairly small person, but I am wondering if I am THAT small. I went and got my tape measure to tape my measurements against the pattern. Oy. The measurements DO NOT add up. However when I place the pattern piece against my body it feels like there might be just enough room. But then there are the darts.

I used to sew for my children and can honestly say that this dress is the most daring and complicated pattern I have sewn. I don't think I ever made myself a dress before and I want to do this one right. So I have decided to go to the thrift store and pick up a cheap sheet and cut the skirt out of and see if it will fit. I wish I had a dress form but this will have to do for now. Either that or I diet. Which might not be a bad idea anyway. Touche.

Sewing: A modern women tackles a vintage pattern

Today is the day I start this new project. Sewing a dress from a vintage pattern from the 1950's. I am in love with this dress. Excited to start sewing it and anxious that my sewing skills will not be up to snuff to make this into the dress of my dreams. I purchased some wonderful material from a shop on Etsy. I chose two complimenting fabrics. I will sew the dress in the fabric on top. If you look close you will see dragonflys. The over skirt will be in the other fabric show at the bottom. There are bunnies on this fabric, although the photo does not show them. Recently on the Today Show they did a segment on mixing patterns in clothing and that it is a new trend. So I thought, why not mix the old with the new and see what transpires.

My goal for today is to lay the pattern out on the fabric and (gasp) cut it. It has been many, many years since I have sewn, but I am always one for a creative challenge and with fingers crossed I am praying for a wonderful new dress. Tag along as I blog about this new found passion and help me with ideas on where I might wear this. I have a perfect pair of gloves and pearls to complete the outfit. I say a garden tea party. Any thoughts?

Who is Margaret Mary McBride?

You've got to love a smiley face of raisins on your hot cereal in the morning.

As I looked through the cookbook last evening to make dinner, even though there are 1500 pages, I could not find a recipe that I wanted to cook AND I had the all the ingredients on hand to make. (In actuality I probably did, but nothing was appealing to me. I could have made an egg dish or something along those lines, or a breakfast dish, but ended up making mac and cheese with sausages baked in it) . I live 20 miles or more from a grocery store so if I don't have it on hand, I don't make a special trip. Next week I will make a list and start creating some of these wonders and highlight sections of the cookbook.

I did a search on the Internet to find out more about this cookbook and its author. Who she was and cooking don't seem to go hand in hand and there seems to be a disconnect. Here is Mary Margaret McBride's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Margaret_McBride and here is a photo of her along with more info:
http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/summary.aspx?m=143

The book was published by the Homemakers Research Institute and it feels to me like they put her name on it to help sell the cookbook, but I can't be sure about that. In doing research I found that it also came in a 12 volume set that could be purchased at the grocery store. There are 12 color pages in the book at the beginning of each volume. I will take photos of these and post them at a later date.

The Vintage "Mother of all Cookbooks"

This past month, my husbands family home was sold and with that came much cleaning out of stuff that had been there for years and years. Just before Christmas he came home with a cookbook which I am calling the "Mother of all Cookbooks". I am just getting around to looking through it. It is a behemoth of a cookbook with over 1500 pages. The title of the book is Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking. The copyright on the book is 1959 and my husband believes it may have been a wedding present, as that was the year his parents married.

This past spring I started collecting vintage cooking pamphlets and cookbooks from the 1940's, 50's and 60's. Had I known such a wonder as this existed I may not have been so inclined to keep purchasing more. This has EVERYTHING in it for a 1950's homemaker. From how to tackle a recipe and measure correctly, to choosing wine and how to breastfeed a baby. It has a diet menu for relief of "ordinary constipation" as well as how to un-mold the ubiquitous gelatin mold. There is even a section on how to build an outdoor barbecue.

Imagine if Julie Powell of "Julia and Julie" fame decided to tackle this cookbook. It would be years before she finished. I think it would take me years just to count how many recipes are in it.

Each page of this enormous book is filled with black and white photographs as well as wonderful vintage graphics. Oh I am more than in love with this cookbook. I could yell from the top of a mountain about the wonders of it. I keep flipping through the pages as I am writing this and am finding more and more gems. I just love this little snowman image.

So what shall I do with this new found love that has crossed my path? Published in the year I was born I feel as though some kizmet has brought us together. Well, one thing I know for sure is this is not the last you will see or read about this cookbook. It is enough to make me change the name of my blog, but sassy lassie is just too perfect for who I am and what this is about.

Tonight I am going to search out a recipe and make it for dinner. Scott is not feeling so great, so I may look under the heading of "comfort food". Not sure if there IS one, but I would not put it past this book. There is probably a whole section on soft, porridge like food for when you are feeling down. Stay tuned and see what comes of this nights search.

Adios for now.