21 April 1951 “Movie for a Sunday: Young Wive's Tale”

Well, here we are again another Sunday. I hope you enjoy today’s film. It features a very small roll for a future star Audrey Hepburn.

The film is about the post-war housing crisis and in this scenario it leaves a shy woman to have to share a house with two couples.It touches on many of the early 1950’s issues of the housing needs of a returning army of soldiers and the vast increase in population due to the Baby Boom.

I hope you enjoy and have a lovely Sunday. And don’t forget to send me any guest posts you would like to share with our growing family here.

Happy Homemaking.

19 April 1950 “Guest Post: Frugal Foodies Will Favor This Frosty Cake”

Frugal Foodies Will Favor This Frosty Cake

This weekend I had a chance to try out a cake I’d wanted to try for a long time. A Frosty Snowberry Cake, from a 1950s-era Pillsbury Bake-Off book. The “snowberries” are actually cubes of jellied cranberry sauce that are folded into the batter. The ingredients were the most basic of staples: flour, sugar, egg whites, shortening, and baking powder. By a happy coincidence, I even had the ingredients that I don’t have every day: light corn syrup and cream of tartar for the boiled frosting. Vintage kitchen implements that have gone unused in the time we’ve been here were finally pressed into service. A glass double boiler. Cake pans with metal slider releases.

Photo from the 1953 Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookbook.

Cakes seemed healthier in the 1950s than they are today. No pudding in the mix. No preservatives to give the cake the longevity of Twinkies. My son Wyatt said the cake was “chewy.” I think he meant “bready.” The cake didn’t quite look like the picture shown here, as cakes that come out of our $99 oven tend to look like the Metrodome after it collapsed. However, it scored major points for satisfaction. The cranberry sauce gave the cake the taste and texture of a jelly roll. I didn’t have food coloring to tint the frosting pink, so I added a pinch of raspberry Jell-O instead. It did the job just fine.

Here’s the recipe for Frosty Snow-berry Cake, which was the Senior Winner in the 1953 Pillsbury Bake-Off. Mrs. Marguerite Marks of Camden, New Jersey did herself proud!

This great guest post was brought to you by Susan at Poultry & Prose.

Happy Homemaking.

18 April 1950 “A Question, Shall We Share?”

I have been so busy of late. I have a big project for my printmaking course coming due. We are doing some major changes in our yard and as it is Spring am trying to get my planting in as I can. We are also preparing our home to be a Summer Rental this year so have been very busy. With that business has come some guilt. I felt bad leaving all of you out of it and then I thought, What if they share with me and others?

So, I propose this: If there are very many of you left out there, my followers, how would any of you feel about guest blogs. I have done a few in the past, but as I get many letters from readers saying they like to come to my site to just spend some time, why not make it a place we can all share. You could post a blog here and of course link back to your own site. But, in a way, make more of a community link or hub here. This way I could still do various things like building up pins or adding new fun links in my boxes on the page to great vintage free books etc. Does this seem of interest to any of you?

Let me know, because I would simply get your email submission, look it over and post it. Then the pages could be themed that day to what you are writing about.. Of course I will still write as well, but being so busy it takes time for me to get all my research and thoughts into a somewhat readable format.

I have already received a guest blog submission and will post that tomorrow. I think this shall be quite fun.

Now, you can go HERE to submit. I will also put a submit button on main page or you can simply email directly to apronguestblog@gmail.com

Happy Homemaking and Happy writing. Let’s get some great articles from you, the readers!

-50sgal

7 April 1950 “Movie for a Sunday with Mickey Rooney: “He’s a Cockeyed Wonder”

Today’s Movie for a Sunday is a small often forgot comedy starring MIckey Rooney and Terry Moore, “He’s a Cockeye Wonder”

“Freddie Frisby is informed by Bob Sears that he can't marry Bob's daughter, Judy, as he is only a fumbling failure as an orange picker, and Judy can do better. Freddie's prospects brighten up when he learns his uncle has left him his entire estate, but he learns that the estate consists entirely of a magician's paraphernalia. He decides to become a magician with Judy as his assistant, but while they are rehearsing, they are kidnapped by a band of payroll robbers.”

I hope you enjoy a good comic romp on this Sunday afternoon. I am a little late in posting only because I was out Thrifting and Antiquing with a friend today. I will share my finds on my next post.

Enjoy your Sunday and as always, Happy Homemaking.

4 April 1957 “ Nifty Fifties Bathrooms: Colors Galore and Great Color Guide to Redoing or Recreating a Vintage Bath”

  When bathrooms began to become the norm for the middle class most fixtures were available only in white. There are some lovely examples of hand-painted china type but would have most likely been in a more well to do home.
These lovely delicate blue and white pieces would have most likely adorned new bathrooms in an English Country house of the upper classes or the more well to do suburbs of the upper middle class.
For the most part an early bathroom would have had only white porcelain options.

1 April 1955 “Beetle Stocking Mender & Perfect Rye Bread”

I had thought of a few funny April Fool’s pranks I could play on my reader’s today, but a friend of mine shared this one with me. So, it being vintage, I felt it worth sharing with you. It is from a 1930’s April Magazine and of course was meant to fool the reader. What a rush of excitement there must have been at first look thinking, at last a way to mend my stockings, the money I shall save! Of course as light dawns on the reality of the situation you cannot help but chuckle to yourself. So, there you go, Vintage April Fools Day to you!
Now, onto some lovely vintage bread making: