31 January 1956 “ Desk Set and Floating Island”

This year I am excited to re-watch (well for 1957 me it will be the ‘first viewing’) of the Tracy and Hepburn movie “The Desk Set”.
I adore this movie for many reasons. The first being the simple pairing of two of my favorite actors, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. The duo were a real life pair and I can truly see them together. The grounded ‘average man’ quality of Tracy just fits the New England Blue-blood eccentricities of Hepburn.
Secondly, this movie really touches a major issue, the computer. Though done in a very Hollywood comedy way, Amorak (the computer) is threatening to take over the lives of the research department of which Hepburn is the head. Throw in a fun love triangle and you have a wonderful movie.
The sad moment for me, when I watch this movie, is that the 21st century me always points out, “Well, it’s all fun and laughs, but honestly those jobs, that very department really won’t exist in a few decades. I can do as much research in 10 minutes on my computer as it would have taken those girls a week of reference material and phone calls”. But, what can one do, the computer certainly came and has not left us anytime soon.
This movie is definitely worth a watch and if you would like to watch it now, simply click on the “APRON TV” button on the side panel and it will take you to my YouTube channel. There click on classic movies, Desk set is there in its entirety. Enjoy.
Now, a very small inconsequential moment in this movie that I love is that in one scene Tracy and Hepburn eat a ‘Floating Island’. The first time I saw this movie I wondered, ‘what on earth is floating island’? Since then, of course, I have found countless versions of this recipe in my cookbooks and magazines.

Here is the section of the movie where they talk about the floating islands. It is at exactly 5:29 on the little counter if you want to forward ahead to the actual dessert. It has little to do with the plot, but I often find moments, such as the beginning of this clip when he is in the kitchen, fascinating. Because being a time traveler one wants to get things right, so to see a kitchen set up and used, it makes a Vintage Gal’s heart go pitter patter. I adore the copper saucepans on the wall and have my own small collection started back in 1955. They do not come cheap but are perfect for certain things. For example, a copper bowl is one of the best bowls to use to make stiff egg whites as one would need in a dessert like ‘floating island’. As to why a copper bowl is better and easier to use, I found this explanation helpful and scientific:

The bowl you use makes a difference when you are whipping egg whites. Copper bowls produce a yellowish, creamy foam that is harder to overbeat that the foam produced using glass or stainless steel bowls. When you whisk egg whites in a copper bowl, some copper ions migrate from the bowl into the egg whites. The copper ions form a yellow complex with one of the proteins in eggs, conalbumin. The conalbumin-copper complex is more stable than the conalbumin alone, so egg whites whipped in a copper bowl are less likely to denature (unfold).

A floating island is basically meringues made from egg whites floating on a custard made with those eggs yolks. There are many varieties out there. My 1950’s Better Home and Gardens has a recipe for a Strawberry Floating Island.As does the Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook. This also has the basic floating island recipe as well.
And just for fun, to share a vintage show you may not have heard of, “My Miss Brooks” that involves some cooking and kitchen antics. This show ran also as a radio program on CBS from 48 to 57. It was adapted for TV and in 1956 (last year) was made into a film of the same name.
Here is the first part of the episode. To watch the rest just go to the APRON TV under classic TV. Enjoy!

And here is the movie trailer for the 1956 Feature Film: 

Happy Homemaking.

10 January 1957 “Gay Little Dots, Spritz Cookies, and The Art of the Book Continues”

I thought I would start today with this lovely ad from my 1956 Better Homes and Gardens. It is for an Armstrong floor. First of all, to some it might see a bit ‘icky’ perhaps like something someone grew up with and loathed. To me it has a very Doris Day movie set feel.
There are two things I love about this ad: First I really adore that floor! A lovely 50’s Grey (not the bland darkened sad sea gray we see so often today. I believe Pam at Retrorenovation.com calls it Graige-which it is!) I am sure this is that grey I often see if fabrics, lampshades, upholstery on vintage items, somewhere between a fine men’s flannel suiting (think The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit) and a soft bunny. Now add to this good background pink and blue and white dots and you are in heaven. Well, at least I would be in Heaven. I was thinking how lovely this would be with robins egg blue (as pictured) but still punctuated with Reds and Butter yellows. It could be a dream. And those swirly brackets might seem rather Three’s company (decade’s away) I think they are rather fun. If we decorate with things that might not seem ‘in’ but are joyous to us, then we never have to change them or feel we aren’t quite ‘keeping up’. There is much to be said about consistency and constancy. Particularly in today’s rapid changing world where even our phones are not expected to live out the year!
Now, the second think I love about this ad is the word ‘gay’. I have tried, here and there, to incorporate more 50’s words into daily usage. My favorite is the word, “fine”. If you pay attention to speech in movies from the 30’s to the 50’s you will often hear things such as:“Well, fine, just fine” for something being good, or alright or ‘cool’.
Therefore, the use of the word ‘Gay’ to mean fun, happy, darling I am trying to bring back. When I was young the term “Gay” meant two things, one being a person with that life choice OR mostly to young kids, dumb or stupid. Such as, “Those pink legwarmers are so Gay, you should get the neon green” or some such. You get the idea.
Now when I read in my books, magazines or see on my TV (which is no tv at all but simply old shows sometimes played or old commercials) the word “gay” it means the polar opposite. It is fun, wonderful.
“What a lovely gay print that fabric is, won’t it make darling curtains?” And so on.
So, to all you vintage lovers out there, why not try to re-introduce the word for its original meaning and see how many people join you after awhile.
These don’t look that amazing, but they were rather good. Yesterday I used one of my Christmas gifts, my cookie press, and made some spritz cookies. I love these cookies and always have. My own mother used to make these in every concievable shape and style and had them dipped in chocolate or coated in bright sugars. They were the perfect tea cookie for bridge parties, teas and holidays. I recall getting to help turn the dial on the press when I was young. Of course, I never learned to make the cookies, as I never learned any Homemaking skills. I believe my mother just thought it was a different time (the 80’s) and I didn’t need to know. So, I never bothered.
I am glad to say they are rather easy to make and a joy to create. My head is spinning with the ideas of ways to make these cookies. There is a thin and ridged disc that makes long thin cookies great for dipping or for halves to sandwich cream frosting in between. I imagine gay little pistachio flavored green cookies (ah ha, see ‘gay’ meaning darling, I told you…)and robins egg blue half dipped in dark chocolate. Oh, the cookies I shall make.
Here is the Recipe I used from my Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book.
Now, as you may or may not know, a big part of this year for me is Art & Craft. This month and next I have set myself the task to create, write, and illustrate a children’s book. I showed a few sketches before. This is a sample page. It is not done, by any means, but you can see the various layers. The little girl, Imogen, needs more layers as does the background. This scene will have flowers, fence, building and of course, the Hen, Buttons. I was excited to find the font I would like to use, as you can see here in the sample text, as it is a very classic children’s book text.
I cannot help but be influenced by the art and children’s illustrations of the 1950’s. In fact, I want to be, my only fear is that I am so immersed into it, it will only seem derivative of that time rather than original work. We shall see what we shall see. But, I really enjoy the process and style and I love working with colors. So, all round for me, it is fun but VERY challenging. There is much that goes into a book such as this, but since I have made sure that some part of each day goes to it, I hope to follow through with this first big Art & Craft task.
Again, let me know what you think. This is not a finished page by any means. It needs many more layers but I know some of you have wanted to see the process of build up of how I work, so there you go.
I hope all are having a lovely day and Happy Homemaking.

7 January 1957 “Elvis on Ed Sullivan, Chocolate Pie, Chocolate Eggs and Thought’s of Spring”

Last night, the 6th of January 1957, was Elvis’ third and final appearence on Ed Sullivan.
He did a number of songs including “Hound Dog,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” “Too Much,” “When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again,”

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but ended with this gospel favorite, “Peace in the Valley”:

I found this interesting little video on 1957. What we must remember, when we look at the prices they list, such as milk for $1, is that to make it equivalent to our time we have to multiply it by $7 dollars. So, though it sounds inexpensive, milk was actually $7.00 a gallon. Again, we see that small farms are still a part of the overall production of foods for our country and it is only 3 a gallon now because of the over production and corporate farming of today.
Also, the average home price they mention does not coincide with my findings, as 20,000 would make it about 140,000 for today. Still, a fun little video though. But, as with anything made for a quick browse, the details behind and the accuracy is going to be a little off.

I made a chocolate cream pie the other day for one of my desserts this week. It is really a rather simple pie to make, especially if you use the easy ‘mix in the pan pie crust’.

50’s gal Chocolate Cream Pie in Chocolate Crust

Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract

Directions

1. cream egg yolks and sugar. Add in cornstarch, cocoa powder, salt, and milk, stirring gently.
2. cook over medium heat in a saucepan, stirring constantly, until mixture just begins to boil. Then, remove from heat and stir in butter and extracts. Cool slightly before pouring  into pastry shell. Chill before serving.

Now, for the chocolate crust:
I use my Pat a Pan recipe for a single layer easy pie crust:

1 1/2 C Flour
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 C  Salad Oil
2 Tbs milk

But to it, I added 3 TBS unsweetened bakers powdered chocolate. and one extra tablespoon (making 3 total) oil. This makes a nice chocolaty pie crust as well.
These arrived in the mail yesterday. They are the latest addition to my little ‘suburban farm’ life. They are called chocolate eggs because of the beautiful rich deep brown shade. The are the eggs of a French breed of chickens known as Black Copper Maran’s. This close up still doesn’t really do the color and pigmentation and speckles justice, they are just a beautiful egg. To see how dark they are compared to a traditional brown egg, look at this: Here you can see what my Ameracauna’s blue eggs look like, then the copper maran and then a traditional brown, such as my Orpingtons and Cochins lay. Though this is not a picture of my eggs, it shows the variance.
Here is what a rooster and hens look like. They are a currently very sought after breed and their eggs are suppose to be delicacy. Many French chef’s pay through the nose for these deep brown eggs. I hope to get enough laying hens to supply our local farm for some pin money and to help pay the cost of keeping the chickens for myself.
Although I love our current rooster, I am hoping to keep a maran rooster so I can get pure bred eggs, as the fertilized eggs sell for as much as 50 dollars a dozen on ebay!
I purchased one dozen (though I did not pay that much) and I placed 4 under a broody hen in my chicken house and the other 8 our in an incubator in my little sitting room.
A broody hen, for those that don’t know, is a hen which wants to sit and hatch her eggs. Many modern production breeds have had this bred out of them, but heritage breeds and older breeds like I have, such as the chochin and Orpington, often will go broody. This is what I wanted, as this is a more natural way to hatch out your chickens. And the joy of watching a hen with chicks is wonderful.
This is the first time my hen has gone broody, so I hope she will continue to sit. The plan is she will stay on the eggs and when they hatch in the incubator, you quietly introduce them to her under her and she accepts them as if she has hatched them and then raises them for you. I have a special broody pen inside the chicken house, so she is still with all her hen friends, but they cannot get to her or knock her off the nest. Or, when the chicks hatch, attack the little babies. If it all works there will be pictures to share, of course.
 HERE is a site about the breed, if anyone is interested. Their eggs are highly sought after and they are a great dual purpose bird. This means they are great egg layers as well as meat birds. I have been trying to decide, since last year’s hatching, what breed to have as a possible meat bird. These may do the trick, we shall see. And, hatching them now means I will have laying hens by June or July.
Since the very first of January I have had the “Spring Bug” of wanting to hatch chicks, order eggs, sketch out this year’s garden ideas. I really honestly love all four of the seasons, and just when I think I love one season, then next arrives and I get excited for that one. Though, Spring has to be a favorite. The potential and the hope it brings. The joy of setting the seeds, planning, dreaming of the summer bounty. I am not sure if I would enjoy Summer as much if I lived in a climate that was warm year round. But, then again, I would be able to grow more things more often, so I can’t really guess unless I did it.
I did save seeds from some of my veg last year, as I made sure to order heritage old plants. IT is really imporatant, for any of you gardeners out there, to try and order and save as many ‘old plants’ as possible. One hates to be a doom sayer, but if Peak oil ever becomes true and we are in a place where we aren’t mass producing, then the majority of the seeds of what we eat at the grocery store are made to only grow either one season or only when reacted with certain chemicals. There are MANY people selling heritage and old strain plants, so look for them online when ordering.
THIS SITE HERE is the company where I ordered my fertilized Maran Chicken eggs. They also grow, harvest, and sell heritage seeds. I might order from them this year and they sell on eBay as well. I have not ordered seeds from them before, so I cannot say how good they are.
I also have many heritage seeds in THE CORNER STORE as well. I actually ordered a lot of my seeds through my Amazon store last year, through smaller dealers. I think I listed all the seeds under the various plant, tomato, cucumber etc.
I am also excited to use my growing compost this year for my garden. Since this will be our second summer back here in this house, I feel I can build on what I did last year and improve upon it.
Are many of you excited about gardening? Any of you interested in keeping chickens? There is also the joy of wearing lovely Spring colors and lighter fabrics again as well. Ah…Spring.
Well, enjoy your day and as always Happy Homemaking.

7 November 1956 “Q & A Sunday: The Coffee Cake”

I actually received a few questions about my coffee cake. Two people, overseas readers, asked how I made the recipe without yeast and letting it rise. So, I thought this lovely breakfast or tea-time cake deserved some good answers.
First lets address the old fashioned recipe which does include yeast and a rise time. This recipe also makes lovely buns, very like cinnamon buns. This is the recipe I use from my Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School book from 1955. (note for this recipe, when it refers to yeast cake on pg 67, it is merely telling you to dissolve your yeast in 1/4 warm water.)

This is really a rather easy recipe, but the wait time and messing about with yeast can be an issue for some or for any new bakers. I know I first approached yeast with some trepidation and fear, wondering if mad scientists or movie-type explosions would result.
There are ‘easier’ or no yeast versions of both Coffee Cakes and Kuchen in my other cookbooks. In fact Kaffee Kuchen shows up most times on the same page as Coffee Cake in most of my vintage cookbooks as well as various magazines of the time. They all are about the same. The difference with a Kuchen versus the Cake, is in the kuchen the yolks are added separately and then the whites are beaten stiff and folded in. My recipe in my Better Homes also includes a ‘Topper’ which is the usual brown sugar, flour, butter made into a crumble. However I have also seen Kuchen recipes that simply have you add a well beaten egg, not separating the whites. But, by and large, the Kuchen tends to use the beaten egg whites.
The basic Coffee Cake recipe I use is basically either of these two. One is from Better Homes and Gardens the other from Betty Crocker. They are basically identical. I, however, use melted better rather than oil or shortening or margarine.
You can see they are basically the same recipe. I usually make the Streusel filled coffee cake found on the Quick Breads page. This mixes the streusel in the middle and on top, quite yummy.
This is very easy to mix up and does not require your mixer. Just some bowls and a wooden spoon is all I use.
Here is the sugar, melted butter ( I use stove but you could easily pop butter in the microwave to melt it, even in the same bowl-less clean up), and egg. See what a lovely color it is.
Here it is after the dry ingredients have been added. I don’t even sift my drys for this, I merely measure it straight in and stir away. A coffee cake is very forgiving. You can see the crumble made up in the bowl next it. Those are my fresh chicken’s eggs, they started laying on my birthday!
Here you see I have put in half the batter (you can spread this batter with a spoon, it is not runny like a traditional cake, making it rather easy to manipulate). And here it is before baking with remainder of the batter and the rest of the crumble.
And, finally, fresh from the oven: And straight to the breakfast or tea-time table. Look at those delicious bits of crumble and warm golden cake, mmm…
So you can see, it is rather easy and sets up nicely. It is a nice cake to have about for a quick snack and it packs wonderfully.
Coffee cake is also a good tea cake. It has the firmness that allows one to eat it with their fingers while holding cups of tea, much like an English Sponge. In fact, I find that an English Sponge, a Victoria sponge and so on, are rather similar to our Coffee cake.
Now a coffee cake can also mean, quite literally, a cake which contains coffee. Today that usually means instant coffee, but I am sure using fresh brewed could work but you would need to adjust it to your liquid ingredients.
The sponge (sponge cake) served with English tea can be a Coffee Sponge. Thus, a Coffee Cake, in that it contains coffee.  Every recipe I have seen for a Victoria sponge seems rather similar to a basic no yeast coffee cake, with varying degrees of complications, such as having to stir in each ingredient in a certain order, to serving the cake layered with jam and cream and dusted with confectioners sugar. Any UK readers out there, please give more information. When you eat ‘coffee cake’ ,if you do, is it a coffee sponge? Or do you eat the ‘coffee cake’ that is the yeast risen similar to our coffee rolls? Do let us know.
Here is a very easy Victoria Sponge recipe. It’s base, much like the coffee cake, seems a great vehicle to make any various forms of cake by simply mixing in. This cake, as well, is usually cut in half frosted with jam and dusted with confectioners sugar, yummy!
Victoria Sponge (if you click the image you will get the recipe in metric measurements, we Americans refuse to let go of our Imperial)
Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch pan. Sift the flour and baking powder into a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a medium bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time mixing thoroughly with each addition. Slowly stir the flour mixture in with the butter, sugar, and eggs. Beat in the milk and vanilla until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan
3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. This cake is traditionally served unfrosted, just cut in two horizontally and filled with jam or custard and dusted with confectioners' sugar.

Here, then, is a recipe for a ‘coffee cake’ that is a sponge with coffee in. It comes from HERE.
1 Cup Caster Sugar
1 Cup Self raising flour
3 Eggs
2 Tbsp Camp Coffee
For filling:
Butter 3oz
Icing Sugar 3oz
Coffee (to taste)

• Beat together sugar and eggs until light and fluffy

• Add coffee then fold in flour

• Pour into two 8 inch sandwich tins and bake at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes

• For the filling: beat together equal quantities of butter and icing sugar, till well mixed

• Add coffee to taste

• Sprinkle a little icing sugar on top when put together and finished

So, here is to a wonderful Sunday morning and a nice hot piece of Coffee Cake, Kaffee Kuchen, Sponge, or whatever you like to call it. Happy Homemaking!

17 October 1956 “I revisit an Old Friend”

Now, readers, that old friend isn’t a person nor even a place, but a cake. That’s right, ladies and gentleman, a cake.
Back in my early days of 1955, it seems so far as to almost have been in 1955, yet is under two years ago, the kitchen was a new frontier. I was having a 1950’s dinner party and with all the newness of the kitchen and the cookery book, I felt overwhelmed. Then, out of the blue, my friend saved me: The Best Two-Egg Cake. You can read about that first encounter in my old post HERE.  Re-reading that post, I had forgot how in those early days  things, such as the microwave, lurked around every corner to taunt me with the convenience of modern cookery.
The reason for my friends recent return yesterday, was convenience and a slimming pantry. I have learned, over the past two years, that to have a stocked and prepared pantry is important. Yet, I have also learned that to over-stock can often be a mistake both financially as well as for your baking results. Things, such as baking powder, even baking chocolate, loose thier flavor and cooking chemistry with time. So, with my weekly shopping schedlue, pantry basics take their turn in my weekly budget. One week may be flour and sugar, so cream of tartar or baking powder takes a back seat.
In the beginning I thought little of simply going out and filling up my cart just to see all those items waiting for me, as if I OWNED my own grocery store. For me that is no longer my situation. I have found, then buying less, having the essentials on hand but in smaller quantity, has allowed me to be both more frugal and more inventive. I often think of our 40’s wartime sisters faced with empty larders and having to invent sweets from ground up beetroot or egg-less cakes. So, for me, I often can find myself at the end of a shopping week with less things. Do I think, “drat, I forgot to buy this”, no for you see it is planned, in a way. I allow myself to fill the needs of the week within the allotted shopping budget and make do with what needs to be done.
I noticed, as time when on, how many advertising in the 1950’s ladies' magazines will show a new freezer packed to the rim with food. I think this must have felt a safe or happy thought, coming out of the war and also living in the threat of the nuclear bomb, as the Atomic Age was. Yet, as we can see, it was truly a false sense of safety, as their never was a need for hoarding and it merely worked its way into our American way of shopping. We wanted to ‘save up for a rainy day’.
I remember when I lived in Paris as a young girl. There were many aspects of that city that showed how different other parts of the world were to my own USA. Even the way one was treated as a customer was foreign to one who was used to the ‘the customer is always right’ mantra here in America. But, what I really noticed was the French housewife’s shopping.
Being young and rather poor I, out of necessity, would shop daily for my sustenance. I was no cook then, but found my ‘budget’ best used to grab some bread and cheese here, pate’ there, today an afternoon on a sidewalk cafe’ and a cigarette. My empty shopping basket was out of necessity, but I noticed, as I frequented the daily stalls and local Super Marché’, that I would see the same faces again and again. I came to learn that the French housewife does shop daily or almost daily, prefers fresh ingredients and to hand pick them herself every day. Even when fresh wasn’t available, daily shopping seemed to be the norm.
I must tell you readers, for those of you who have not been to Paris, the quality of fresh food available at every turn is wonderful. There one finds stalls of veg/fruit a fish monger, a butcher, and on and on. Wonderful fresh food at one’s fingertips.
In our country we began to want to have shelf-life, longevity, and ease in our food. This began to be more important than flavor, or nutrients of the food. Now, when one really considers the quality of prepared food in taste and nutrients, I am sure most would be appalled. But, when one doesn’t know, there is no comparison.
For me, store bought and easy here in the USA had become the norm. Yet, now, after two years of increasingly more home-made, I sometimes find prepared or store-bought foods to be almost inedible. After you have become accustomed to a home-made cake, try a box cake and you will know the difference. Even a pastry I once enjoyed at a chain cafe now tastes like chemicals and I wonder how I ever enjoyed it. Knowing the chemistry and ease of baking has made me appreciate ingredients. Therefore, when marketing day comes, the pantry does not get restocked full every week.
This week, my baking chocolate was almost gone from last weeks chocolate cake and a few nights of homemade hot chocolate (another thing that is far easier and tastier than premade mix you had hot water to). I also checked my egg supply (my hens have not yet started laying) and counted out the remaining breakfasts of the week. So, I knew a white cake (using so many precious egg whites) was out as well. Then, of course, I recalled my good friend: The Best Two Egg Cake.
For those of you who have not yet wanted to tempt fate with making your own cake, I really can suggest this as a good starter. It really is quite simple. And when making this cake, really when doing any baking where one is creaming butter and sugar, really give that some time. The longer you cream your butter and sugar (to a point) the lighter your baked good will come out. This is a secret to light home-made cakes. What I have noticed is the super high moistness of a box cake tastes bland and rather cardboard like to the lightness combined with rich density of a homemade cake. And quite honestly it is not harder to make a homemade cake. You are still adding dry to wet ingredients and mixing it. Yet,  you can control what you are putting in and will learn to tweak recipes as you go. A pinch here, a dash of this there. And even a base recipe like this can become an easy chocolate cake with added baking chocolate or a touch of peppermint for the holidays.
So, from that simple recipe you get a lovely dense and moist yellow cake. It has such a rich almost pound cake flavor, but really minor ingredients.
It serves up a treat!
And, when you are also low on confectioners sugar, as I was, you turn to your other old friend, 7 minute frosting. Many frostings require powdered or confectioners sugar to thicken them and are often just a ‘mix it up’ frosting. When you use regular sugar, which is coarser, you must make a boiled frosting, sometimes using egg whites as is the case here, to get a stiff frosting. The wonderful result of this type of frosting is the sheen! It is a marvel to look at.
I think this close up of yesterday’s cake shows the joyous sheen and movement if this easy frosting. It colors a treat, taking food color and making it a true shade. Wonderful at holidays, looks splendid coated it coconut, toasted coconut, dusted in powdered chocolate, a great canvas for shaved bits of rich dark eating chocolate. It is an all round good staple to have in the homemakers baking arsenal. So, do try it if you have not yet done so. Here is the recipe from my cookbook with variations on it.
So, I hope you enjoy trying this cake. It is a good penny pincher and yet always elicits happy smiles at the dinner table. Even my friend who often says, “Oh, I don’t like frosting, too sweet” raved about this cake yesterday. And it is a sweeter frosting, but it doesn’t have that over-sweet waxy taste of a bakery or grocery store frosting taste. Give it a try.
Until tomorrow Happy Homemaking!

9 & 10 October 1956 “Jam, Chocolate Cake, Left-Over Pie, and Bread: From Field to Slice”

  I realized I forgot to share my finished Jam and recipe with you the other day. While speaking of canning I must tell you about my first incident with canning. I sometimes forget, now well into my second year of life in the 1950’s, that it was not that long ago I could hardly boil water.
My vintage friend and I had decided to try some canning early on in my 1955 year. We both had never done it before and only had some basic books to use. We were so careful measuring and preparing the jars and I set my then ‘new’ vintage canning pot with rack to boil. We carefully lowered our first set of jam into the water, eager to make our first batch. Then, we waited…and waited. We heard no pops and could see the lids were not indented, so we simply went onto more prep work for more jam.
I forgot to mention, this was late in the evening that we had decided to do this. We were also working on some art projects for a craft fair we were going to go to the next day. So, time went by. When it reached midnight and no indenting lids, I told my friend to go home and I would stay up and baby-sit our first batch of jam.
At around 1 a.m. I simply gave up and took the jars out. Thinking we had made some horrible mistake. When I removed the jam you could see the liquid in the jars boiling inside. Oh, well and off to bed.
The next morning, when I came down to make breakfast, it was like Christmas morning when I noticed the jars had all popped in the night and were happily dented in! Needless to say, that batch of jam was VERY cooked, but it was then that I learned the ‘popping’ didn’t happen until a few minutes after you remove them from the boiling water. I feel I have come a long way. That is also why I feel like any of you out there who can barely boil water that why to try the adventure into cooking and doing more for yourself, don’t worry. It is possible and rather fun along the way.
Now, my jam. I had mentioned I was in the middle of using up the peaches I had received from my MIL from her little fruit orchard. I also had some leftover rhubarb I had picked at our local farm early Summer that I hadn’t used, so simply froze the full stalks. I decided to combine the two. Thus, Peach Rhubarb Jam.

Here is the recipe:
50sgal Rhubarb & Peach Jam

• 1/2 cup rhubarb diced
• 4 cups mashed peaches
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• Lemon zest
• 4 Tbs liquid pectin

Get your big canning pot boiling. (any pot large enough to have boiling water that will cover the lids of whatever size jar you are using) I have an old large metal canning pot with the metal rack insert that you lift the jars in and out. I bought it at a local sale for a few dollars. They are not expensive and as usual, I always try for vintage, as I know it will last. But, they do have new variety that are nice. I have some books and Canning equipment in the Corner Store HERE if you would like to check that out.
I blanched my peaches first. This makes canning peaches much easier. Especially if you are doing a large patch. This recipe makes 6-7 8oz. jars.
Set water to rolling boil and then drop in peaches for about 5 minutes. I found with these peaches, as they were more ‘natural’ (that is not overgrown for the consumer market, just an old peach tree in my MIL yard that yields small little plum sized peaches) it took a little longer. Have an ice water bath ready and simply plunge the peaches in. The skin should slide off fairly easy. I also find this really prepares the peaches to be mashed. With a firmer store bought peach the mashing might need some cooking to achieve it. But with these, the were rather mushy when I was done and simply cut out the pit and sliced/smashed them into my measuring cup to get about 4 cups.
Cut rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces and cook with 1/4 cup lemon juice (I like fresh lemon juice, but you can use bottled in a pinch). Cook this until it is soft, about five minutes or so.
Now place the peaches and the sugar into the pan with the rhubarb and bring to a boil. Then, simply spoon into clean and dry canning jars, wipe mouths of jars clean and dry, put on the lid and place in your large pot of boiling water for canning. Make sure the lids are under the boiling water. I boil for 10 minutes then take out and wait for the fun little ‘pop’ sound. Always laughing, of course, recalling that first batch of ‘all-night’ jam with a friend.
I forgot to mention. I used liquid pectin in this recipe but you could also use powdered. The trick is:
4 tsp powdered pectin = 2 TBS of liquid pectin.
Also, remember that when you use DRY PECTIN you add it to the juice of fruit before heating. Then after you have brought it to a bowl add the sugar.
When using LIQUID PECTIN you add the sugar and juice/fruit together and THEN boil and add the liquid pectin AFTER. It took some research to find this out, as I had both liquid and powdered pectin depending on the recipes I had found and the other day had only liquid left. So, I hope this  helps you out.
I made a new chocolate cake recipe the other day that I really like. It was nice and dense and very old fashioned tasting, though the recipe was new. I made the frosting through an error and was, as usual, happy with it. I often find when I run up against a problem, in this case I had less confectioners sugar than I had thought (forgetting I had used some the previous day). So, without enough sugar to stiffen it into a good firm spreadable frosting, it basically became icing.
Though it was a simply mixer frosting, I then treated it like a 7 minute frosting, but added no eggs. I simply put it in a double boiler (for me that is a pot with boiling water with a smaller pot set in) and used my electric mixer for 7 minutes.
This was the Frosting recipe I used:

EASY CHOCOLATE FROSTING
1 stick butter
4 tbsp. cocoa
1/3 c. milk
1 lb. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt

Combine butter, cocoa and milk in saucepan and heat until butter has melted. Beat in sugar, vanilla, and salt, beating until ready to spread.

But, then I found out I did not have 1 lb. of sugar and had already made the liquid ingredients. Shame on me, for I should have had all my ingredients out first. I am so used to baking and cooking and usually try to stick to my lists for pantry and shelf so I assume there will be ingredients there. I had forgot, however, that the previous day I had used up some confectioners/powdered sugar unexpectedly.
So, to that I added marshmallows broken up and then put it in the double boiler. It made a thicker liquid, which I poured onto my cake. When it set, it was a beautiful smooth as glass surface. A good trick with such liquid icing on a cage, is to pierce the cake with something, a knife or the small ends of your beaters, so the icing drips and sets into the cake, this is wonderful.
Dark Chocolate Cake

• 3/4  cup  butter, softened
• 3    eggs
• 2  cups  all-purpose flour
• 3/4  cup  unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1  teaspoon  baking soda
• 3/4  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
• 2  cups  sugar
• 2  teaspoons  vanilla
• 1-1/2  cups  milk
•     Chocolate-Sour Cream Frosting (see recipe below)

directions

1. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly grease bottoms of three 8-inch round baking pans or two 8x8x2-inch square or 9x1-1/2-inch round cake pans. Line bottom of pans with waxed paper. Grease and lightly flour waxed paper and sides of pans. Or grease one 13x9x2-inch baking pan. Set pan(s) aside.
2. In a mixing bowl stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder; and salt; set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed until well combined (3 to 4 minutes). Scrape sides of bowl; continue beating on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition (about 1 minute total). Beat in vanilla.
4. Alternately add flour mixture and milk to beaten mixture, beating on low speed just until combined after each addition. Beat on medium to high speed for 20 seconds more. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan(s).
5. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 35 to 40 minutes for 8-inch square pans and the 13x9x2-inch pan, 30 to 35 minutes for 8- or 9-inch round pans, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Peel off waxed paper. Cool thoroughly on wire racks. Or place 13x9x2-inch cake in pan on a wire rack; cool thoroughly. Frost with desired frosting. Makes 12 to 16 servings.

As I am doing a recipe post, I figured I might as well share last night’s dinner with you. I had made a slow cooker meal of corned beef, potatoes, corn and onions the previous night. It was quite good. Then, as I usually do, Hubby gets another version of the previous night’s dinner for his lunch the next day. Now, I had quite a bit of the meal left and I did not want to simply serve that leftover again in the same form, so I made one of my good ole’ stand by’s. I call it ‘left over pie’.
Basically, I make a very simply in the pan pastry and then fill it with the leftovers. In this case I baked the crust for ten minutes and then shredded the corned beef along the bottom. Took all the corn and potatoes and mashed them. Then I put a layer of green beans over the meat and topped with the whipped potatoes and grated a bit of leftover cheese along the top.
  This is always a fun and easy way to use up leftovers. You can, of course, make a top layer crust as well, but in this case, it was more of a sheppards pie affair and the browned potatoes and cheese on top are so yummy.
This might actually look rather bad to anyone who doesn’t eat meat, but I assure it, it was quite good.
This is my old make in the pan pastry. This recipe is for a two layered pie, so for this pie I simply cut back the ingredients to:

1 1/2 C Flour
1 1/2 tsp Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 C  Salad Oil
2 Tbs milk

Both versions are so easy to make and you can whip it up rather fast. Company will always be impressed with homemade pie, rather savory or sweet, and this actually makes a very light and flaky crust.
Now, just for fun, this interesting video.This isn’t a vintage video, but it is an interesting watch. This gentleman in UK used his allotment to grow wheat and he takes you from seed to loaf. A great teaching tool for you homeschoolers just to show a very small version of wheat to bread production. Also very interesting how he uses some garden machines and modifies them to work in the wheat process. Obviously not practical for many of us, but very interesting none the less.

4 October 1956 “Red Velvet Cake and Peach Rhubarb Jam”

Yesterday I hosted a birthday party for my friend. I forgot to get pictures of us, as we were having too much fun, but the ladies dressed 50’s vintage and we looked darling. I wore the last dress I shared with you that I made, the blue flowered sheath, with a brown cardigan and belt and shoes, and a brown fabric flower in my hair. Fun was had by all.
I made, upon request of the Birthday girl, red velvet cupcakes.
This is the recipe that I used. I found it HERE. Though it is a modern recipe, it seemed similar to the others and I had not tried them before. I would recommend them. They are quite good and more chocolaty than the more traditional version. Though, it is still a very subtle chocolate cake taste as opposed to a heavier chocolate fudge cake. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 fluid ounce red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 20 paper baking cups.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter and frost with desired frosting.

This picture actually makes them look redder than they actually did. But, they had the reddish/brown cast you get from the older recipes that don’t call for red food dye, but actually get the reddish color from the chemical reaction of  the acidic vinegar and buttermilk tends to better reveal the red anthocyanin in the cocoa. Before  the higher  alkaline "Dutch Processed" cocoa that we now use (most likely what you have in your pantry), the red color would have been more pronounced. This natural tinting may have been the source for the name "Red Velvet" as well as "Devil's Food" and similar names for chocolate cakes.
For example, my Betty Crocker cookbook has this recipe for Red Devils food cake. It does not have red food coloring or vinegar in it: (click to enlarge)

During the war, when sugar was in short supply, cooked beets were often used, for their higher sugar content, thus giving a natural reddish color. Obviously, not a sugar beet, as that is a white vegetable.
I have not tried a beet recipe, but would like to. This ONE I found sounds quite good. If any of you make it, let me know how it turned out.
Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp dark cocoa powder (not Dutch processed)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup fresh pureed beets*
1/3 cup oil (I use a sunflower/ rice bran oil blend)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Method:
*I used 3 medium sized beets and got approximately 1 1/2 cups of purée.
Wash the beets, scrape/ peel and slice them. Cook them (steam cook or microwave) till they’re well done. Cool and purée the cooked beets along with about 3 or 4 tbsps of water, in a blender till smooth. Keep aside. You can do this ahead and refrigerate the purée for a day or else freeze it till required.
To make the cupcakes, first whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a bowl till well mixed. Keep aside.
Put the puréed beets, oil, lemon juice and vanilla extract into another bowl and lightly whisk together till mixed well.
Pour this into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix just enough to combine. Divide the batter equally between 12 cupcake tins lined with paper cups.
Bake the cupcakes at 180C for about 20 to 25 minutes. A skewer/ toothpick inserted into the centre should come out clean once they’re done.
Cool completely and decorate with frosting of your choice. The usual choices are butter roux (boiled) frosting or cream cheese frosting.

I also found this little bit of Red-Velvet cake history from Canada:

In Canada the cake was a well-known dessert in the restaurants and bakeries of the Eaton's department store chain in the 1940s and 1950s. Promoted as an "exclusive" Eaton's recipe, with employees who knew the recipe sworn to silence, many mistakenly believed the cake to be the invention of the department store matriarch, Lady Eaton.

In the 1920’s the Waldorf-Astoria was known for its Red Velvet cake. And according to a legend, a patron asked for the recipe and was billed an exorbitant amount. Her retaliation was to spread the secret recipe through a chain letter.
Here we see a Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel NYC 1950’s. Aren’t they lovely?
Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 ounces red food coloring
• 2 tablespoons cocoa (heaping)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vinegar

FROSTING

• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup butter (must be butter)

Cream shortening, sugar and eggs.
Make a paste of food coloring and cocoa.
Add to creamed mixture.
Add buttermilk alternating with flour and salt.
Add vanilla.
Add soda to vinegar, and blend into the batter.
Pour into 3 or 4 greased and floured 8" cake pans.
Bake at 350°F for 24-30 minutes.
Split layers fill and frost with the following frosting.
Frosting: Add milk to flour slowly, avoiding lumps.Cook flour and milk until very thick, stirring constantly.Cool completely.Cream sugar, butter and vanilla until fluffy.Add to cooked mixture.Beat, high speed, until very fluffy.
Looks and tastes like whipped cream.
Today I am using up the last of my peaches. My mother in law has peach trees on her property and gave me a good amount. I am amazed by the shelf life of these peaches, as I have had these for the past month in a brown bag in my ice box. They are still fine. They have never been sprayed or any chemicals used on these trees and they are the small natural peaches, not the big over genetically altered grocery store peaches, so  I am not sure if that is why they lasted so long.
Here they are coming out of their ice bath. I blanched them (Place them in boiling water for 5 minutes then plunge into ice water, the skins slide right off).
I also had some leftover rhubarb from early summer that I put in my freezer that I want to use. So, Rhubarb Peach Jam. I will let you know how it turns out.
Until tomorrow, Happy Homemaking.

29 September 1956 “A 50’s Gal Remembers Her Youth”

I was thinking lately how I might recall my fictional youth. Being the age I am now in 1950’s would mean my ‘teen years’ would have been spent in the 1930’s. This is when I would recall my own first foray’s into fashion and music. My cooking and even my memories of my mother would be from this time, mainly. Many of us identify with that time when we were teens into early 20’s and so I thought I would share with you what my fictitious 50’sgal memories could be.
I might be getting too old for what may have been one of my favorite radio shows, “little Orphan Annie”

I would most likely look forward to listening to Fibber McGee and Molly.

What young lady isn’t always excited about the latest fashions!

Patterns such as these would be my template for my own wardrobe, mixed with store bought I imagine. The ‘New Look’ I will encounter with Dior after the war will seem oddly familiar to these lengths I wore in my youth. And these predictions from the 1930’s to the year 2000 will seem fantastical.

A lady’s hair is her crowing glory and short but highly stylized is the look of the day. Though it is becoming a little looser than the 1920’s. Although some of the styles will seem familiar, again, in the 1950’s. This 30’s look on Alice White is not that far removed from these 1950’s styles. Maybe I would even covet the brave new brush in colors used in high fashion, such as this winning exhibition of hair design in London 1935.
And though I would be going to the pictures and seeing all the glamorous stars, even hoping to be as lovely and decked out as them    I would still have to contend with seeing images such as this. If not in my own town, then at least in papers.
A young gal would most likely be expected to learn to cook, even if she were lucky enough to have a maid later on (except the upper classes of course).
 This might well have been me in a cookery class in the 1930’s. How old fashioned it would seem, looking back now in my modern kitchen with a dishwasher, easy to use range and large refrigerator and freezer.
And the 1930’s kitchen might only seem different with all the newer appliances, but bright fun colors and linoleum were still what was ‘in’.
Here are some recipes from a cookbook I have from 1926 that I sometimes use. I imagine it would have been in my mother’s kitchen and perhaps she would have given it to me. These are some fun dessert recipes:
And, certainly, the old music would still be played on the radio here in 1956 and I might tap my foot recalling summer dances in my long slim satin dresses, flowers floating in water, paper lanterns, men in wide pants toting ukuleles.

So, on a day such as today, when my mind might wander to my youth, these are some of the things that I would recall. Do any of you have any particular things of the 1930’s that you love?