I come to you on bended knee to forgive me, I have NOT finished my March dress. It is very vexing, as I have (since my 1955 year) been getting much better at time management and ticking off my lists. I could give a slew of reasons why, but I have come to realize that excuses are just that, so why bother. I did, however, manage (as I had promised myself) get my dress form made as part of this month’s challenge. Here it is with my pattern pinned to it:
It was easy to make, but definitely required help. It is three layers of duct tape (the last layer was white duct tape, as I thought it gave it a more ‘dress form’ look). So, my dress is still in this state.
Isn’t the fabric fabulous, though? I am not sure if I have shown this fabric, but it is in the same color family as my other material so my spring/summer palette will be the blues and greens. It is going to have a little folded raised neckline as well.Having my dress form has been MORE incentive to me to continue to lose weight. Everytime I pass by it I think, ‘Jeesh, is that what I look like from the side?” So, when I saw this, I had to laugh:
Especially since that is pretty much me at the market now! Although I would just go home and bake a batch of éclairs and want to eat them all!Speaking of baked goods, here is the spread I made for hubby the other day to take to work.
There are my homemade oreos, macaroons plain and half dipped in dark chocolate and white cupcakes with white frosting. This is my latest white cupcake and frosting recipe and I LOVE it. They are so moist and dense. My friend had one and said, “Okay, you are making my wedding cake”. I am not sure if I have shared this recipe before, so here it is:50’s Gal Wedding Cake Cupcakes
Ingredients
-4 egg whites
- 1/2 cup milk
-1/2 cup cream
- 2 tablespoons vanilla
- 3 cups sifted cake flour ( I make my own cake flour, but it is worth using it in these cupcakes. To make your own you just take one cup regular flour and remove 2 TBS of the flour and replace it with 2 TBS cornstarch. S0 in this case, I put in three cups regular flour, took out 6 TBS of the flour and then measured in 6 TBS cornstarch)
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons softened butter
Preheat oven to 350F
Mix egg whites, vanilla and 1/4 cup milk.
In a large mixing bowl, combine cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix together to blend. Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk mixing on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed for a couple of minutes, then add the egg, vanilla and milk mixture in two equal parts, mixing until blended.
Pour the batter into prepared cupcake trays.Bake for about 15-20 minutes, remove when almost golden yellow and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. ( I let mine stay a little white on top, as things continue to cook after you remove them from the oven and I find they stay more moist that way) Let cool and Ice them
Frosting Recipe
- two sticks butter (room temperature)
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoon cream
Frosting Directions
Mix all the ingredients until spreadable consistency. Too runny? add more sugar. Too stiff? add more cream TBS at a time. I like to use a pastry bag to ice the cupcakes and then I sprinkle sugar on top for a little sweet surprise crunch! Here is a close up of the lovely buttery frosting.
Having egg yolks left from these desserts and also leftover ham, I decided to make a crust-less quiche.
I didn’t feel like making a crust and so devised this crust less version of a quiche. I had found one recipe for one but it called for Bisquick (which I never have as I make pancakes, biscuits etc from scratch). So, I got to thinking, “what is in Bisquick? It must just be the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder and salt.”So, here is how I made the above. It was so moist and delicious and easy and could easily be vegetarian. I had cooked a ham earlier in the week and we had been eating off of it all week. So, before the bone went into the stock pot, I cut off most of the remaining meat and cubed it for this recipe.
50’s Gal Leftover Crust-less Quiche
4 eggs (plus I added the two leftover egg yolks so about 5 total)
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 TBS Baking Powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup grated aged cheddar
1/4 softened butter
various veg ( I used tomatoes and leftover asparagus and green beans)
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Mix all together except veg and meat, batter will be a little lumpy, like pancake batter. Then toss in veg and meat (really this anything you want). Grease a 10” pie plate and pour in. Bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown. This is a lovely melt in your mouth dinner. It is a cross between a frittata and a quiche and it couldn’t be easier!
Someone asked me the other day on a post about my sheets. They wanted to know if I used only fitted sheets, it being 1956 and all. Well, I actually have both fitted and flat sheets. Many may not know it, but fitted sheets have been around since the early 50’s. I have ads in my magazines from the mid 1950’s showing such sheets. This is from a 1955 magazine.
Here is a close up of the text:
This is from a 1951 
So, I am not sure how expensive they were or how common, but I definitely felt if they were in magazines in 1951,then by 56 they’d be pretty common. And just because they were pretty, I thought I’d share some more pictures of our Crocus before they are all gone. These are in my front yard.
And, as Easter is coming, here is a fun song sung by Rosemary Clooney.
