10 November 1957 “Blue Green Color Scheme with Clever Wall Storage, and Scones”

Although this article was concerning acoustical tiles that allow for a more soundproof home, I was taken by its vibrant color scheme and clever storage. This home is quite small but really a normal size for the burgeoning suburbs of the mid century. Sound was an issue due to the proximity of close neighbors as well as room to room and more open floor plans. Many new home owners of the growing middle class were either old apartment dwellers, who would have found the ‘small’ home quite spacious particularly with their own garden space. While many more established middle class families fractured away from the bigger family homes where grandmother and unmarried aunts people the many bedrooms and multiple floors.

So, the need for sound barrier was enough that it could support a product line. This same sound proofing would continue on as families made ‘rumpus rooms’ in basements and made over screen porches where Father or teens could listen to their new louder Hi-Fi systems without driving mother or neighbor nuts.

I was really taken by the color scheme. We have talked about blue green as a color scheme before. This use of almost navy on the wall with a pistachio on the steel cabinet and hints of robins egg are all married in the fabric of the curtain which slides to make various ‘rooms’.

This is my favorite bit. You can see here that these very shallow built ins were part of the acoustical wallboard makeover. but, these very same ideas could easily be done by any homemaker or hubby with a more traditional drywall and stud wall. Simply finding the studs and marking out the size you would need, you could either work in the 16’ width framework or open up a section by removing a bit of one of the studs and shoring it up with a 2x4 bracer at top and bottom. It it is an interior wall, even easier as there will be no insulation in the  way. This is the perfect place to use vintage or expensive wall paper as a backdrop where you could only afford a piece. Even a collage of Wallpapers from a free sample book being tossed by your local paint and paper store.

I have yet to redo my own kitchen. It began with more glorious ideas of add on to include a mudroom and separate laundry room and pantry. Every time I reconsider and think of the waste and money, I get more clever and downsize my plans. This built in ‘laundry room’ would be a clever way to do so. I am considering buying a used stackable washer dryer and selling our current normal sized pair that take up much of my kitchen space. This I would build into a corner and with the built in wall I could add these assets here. The more we think of what we do and how we can be more efficient, the less space we can do with when we use that space to its fullest.

So, again my kitchen plans shrink, but with smaller appliances hidden or below new counter space, I may even find room for my breakfast room I always wanted. And it might not need its own room, but simply another corner of my very small kitchen.

What do you think of the colors? Do you like the idea of combining a few working rooms into one, like laundry/kitchen?

And what does one love to do most in ones kitchen? Cook and Bake, of course and so here is a simple but yummy raison scone recipe. It is quite basic and if you don’t like raisons, chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits can easily be used alone or in combination. This is just a good basic all round scone recipe.

Raisin Scone

1. 2 cups flour
2. 1  Tbs baking powder
3. 3 Tbs sugar
4. 1/4 tsp salt
5. 5 Tbs chilled butter cut into chunks
6. 1/2 cup raisons (or similar)
7. 1 cup cream or canned evaporate milk (use full strength don’t dilute)

Preheat oven to 425 F

Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt and add chilled butter cubes. Using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut butter into flour mixture until it is crumbly. You want little butter chunks as that adds flakiness.

Add raisins and cream stirring to combine. Then sprinkle lightly with more flour and flour a surface to roll dough out upon. Flour hands and place dough on floured surface. Knead one or twice, don’t over work it! Press down to about 1 inch thickness and cut with biscuit cutter or inverted glass. Place on greased cookie sheet and brush on cream/milk and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake about 12 minutes, but check as you want them to just have the slightest hint of brown. Remember food continues to cook after you take it out of the oven, so take them out a bit before they look brown enough.

 

Here they are before oven. And here they are after baking and setting. Look at that lovely texture and I love a good raisin scone. I had these as part of my tea break yesterday.

I hope you enjoy these and will consider using space you already have if you are planning any remodels. With our tightening belts we don’t have to do without, we just have to do with MORE brain and planning to most likely better results.

Happy Homemaking.

7 November 1957 “A Frugal State of Mind: Prepare for Harder Times so They Won’t Surprise You”

After my last post comparing our current economy’s direction towards similarities with the Great Depression of the 1930’s, I though I’d follow up with some happier talk. There may be little we can do at present to change the world (though every little bit of knowledge followed by smarter action leads to a greater change world wide) we can still become use to frugality in our daily life.

I thought of this the other day when I had a friend over. We were chatting in my kitchen and she laughed and said I reminded her of her Grandmother.

“Why?” I asked, “Because of my clothes?”

“No,” said she, because of that. And she pointed at my dish drain rack which was currently drying three upside down zip-lock bags and a drying paper towel. She said her Grandmother was always doing things like that.

I had to laugh, because for me it happened organically. In many of my Vintage choices since my project began back in 1955 (2009) they were decisive moves to “try out” and old fashion way. To put on and get used to the actions or clothes of that era. What I have found interesting now, is, that after walking in those shoes as best as one can living in the modern world, I have found myself coming to similar choices just by the nature of my way of life.

  To me, I never buy things like zip lock bags, as my waxed paper works for me to wrap hubbies sandwiches (when he has those for lunch) or my washable glass covered Pyrex dishes serve as ice box (refrigerator) storage. Today I thought of this because we recently had a group of us together and ordered take out Chinese food. We rarely get take out so after it was all done, I saved up all the plastic lidded containers as they are very good storage.

The idea that we have easy to buy and toss storage would never have occurred to me odd in my old life. But, my doppelganger 50’s personality sees too much waste. A zip lock bag that simply held dry or veg matter is easily enough washed out with warm soapy water, rinsed in cool and let dry. It can be used again and again. When it finally gives out, then it can get tossed. A paper towel, which I don’t use to clean normally, is easily enough rung out and let dry for a second go around or a quick hand wipe while cooking.

The amount of garbage we create since my project has easily been reduced to more than half. This less garbage also means less money, because if you are throwing it away, then you are tossing away your hard earned money as well.

This really got me thinking about how we humans, creatures of habit surely, can change. We don’t have to have a drastic change as I put myself and hubby through for our experiment. It can be little things like re-using zip lock bags, buying a few ingredients to make the things you normally buy, such as tortilla ( so simple to make) or bread. HERE is a post I did with tortilla and Bread recipes.

Even the way we live with heat is greatly changed. We once though nothing of just turning on the heat, setting it to what felt good and heating an entire house or apartment. Now, though we have an auxiliary heat of propane in our fireplace and wall unit heater, we even have reduced that. We originally added propane heat as a means to not have to use the electric heat which was expensive. We simply heated the area we were and left the other rooms cold. Now, with oil and propane prices rising, what was once a cheaper choice is now forcing us to look even closer at how we live. We now have two little plug in heaters that are quite economical. We can move them about. We do not heat rooms we are not in and mainly don’t use the larger rooms as time gets cold. Hubby and I each have our own little offices. My little sitting room/office is off my kitchen and dining room and is command central to me. Luckily, though I might have once thought it a hindrance, the room is Very tiny only about 9 x 9. But, with clever planning, I have a sofa and old trunk as a coffee table, my computer on a smaller but efficient desk and one wall of shelves that hold my books, magazines, decorative items to please the eye and my files for running our home and budgets. This room is closed off with a door and can be heated up in a jiffy with our little plug in and I simply turn it off and keep the door shut. It would be so much more to heat the whole house.

I have even come to enjoy that brisk cool feeling of the rest of the house. In many ways I think of our Victorian or even Colonial ancestors and what they felt was ‘normal’ for inside temperatures.

So, though electric heat can be expensive, if one uses a unit that plugs in (There are even darling little ones that look like real fireplaces) and only heat the room you are in, then you save. And, as a family, if you heat a shared room that mum and dad and kids can all share, you not only save, but you have more together time and chances to share with one another. There are myriad of reasons why we once were more a community based culture and one of those was the simple need to share resources and heat. Bodies in one room shared can increase the heat and have a better chance of enjoying their time there than a house of separate rooms holding one person and big areas empty in between heated for no one. Another place money can slip out the window.

I know I have talked about leftovers before and once you cook more for yourself and family, you will be happy for the leftover. A frugal homemaker’s best friend can be the meat grinder. These are still made today and are fairly inexpensive. I have a version in the Corner Store HERE.  You can get simply hand crank versions that use no electricity and are easy to use. Leftover meats stored in the ice box (fridge) even ground together, poultry, beef, are easily converted to a meat pie for dinner and leftovers again for lunch. A simple attachment even allows you to make your own sausage with leftover meats, add some apples and spices or even the bottom of that jam jar you might just toss away. Give it a good scoop and add that and you will be amazed how wonderful leftovers can taste.

You recently saw a spooky cake a friend made for our Halloween party. As she was leaving she said, “Oh it wasn’t that good, you can just toss it out” and I was shocked. “No way, is that going in the trash” I said.

I divvied up a few pieces into slices into a container to save for hubby’s lunches as is. Then I cut up the remainder and put in a buttered crockery deep baking dish. whipped some eggs and milk some sugar and cinnamon and simply poured it over the old cake. Cover that and bake for 40 minutes on 350F then another 10-15 uncovered and you have wonderful bread pudding. The rest of the fondant covering and the crumbs went out to the chicken yard and they loved it. They of course will convert it to eggs for us to enjoy. Waste not Want not is truly an adage I have come to live by.

Even the use of the car can be altered. I am able to live now with one car as I work at home. So, I plan my marketing and errands in such a way that I try to do them all in one day and as local as possible to save on gas and wear and tear on the car. The old me would have felt ‘trapped’, “What do you mean I can’t just hop in my car and drive off somewhere to a shop or lunch with friends”. Well, now I prefer to walk or bike, don’t have to stress about traffic as much and we use easily half the gas. Unfortunately, as gas has risen since 1955 (2009) for us, we are spending close to what we did with two cars. So there was an example of preparedness that paid off. Had we stayed with two cars, insurance, gas and upkeep it would have been a greater burden when gas prices rose, as well as repair costs just to general inflation.

Learning to do with less or to live frugally does not have to seem like a prison sentence and in many ways is the reverse and quite freeing. And with the outlook of our future seeming more bleak than bright, it is better to get on board right away with a few things here and there. When one really just tries to think of it like this: Every trip to the garbage can, stop, think of what you are tossing and why? Did you need it? Could you still use it again? Was it a waste because you didn’t have the time or make the time to use it? Try to change that behavior or action so next week that same trip to the Garbage doesn’t happen again. It sounds simply and silly but it makes you think. And really, thinking and considering is a lost art in the modern world.

The sounds and constant noise and distraction of the modern world makes for an easy place to simply live without thinking. It is easy to grab that credit card and go or just use and toss away, why not? Its so easy and there are so many distractions. We can, however, very happily live in the modern world with cell phones and i-pads and i-pods and computers AND still be thoughtful of our use and waste on a day to day basis. Even simple things like what we spend as a nation on coffee and muffins. Coffee, though going up in price at the store, is still MUCH cheaper to make at home and take with you as is making your own ‘treats’. So, still sit on that park bench or relax with friends outside at a cafe, but let them pay $10 for a cup of coffee and muffin, you slip your little thermos out and your waxed paper wrapped treat and enjoy their company while still keeping your money. They may laugh at you or you even become the ‘quaint little old lady’ of the group, but you still enjoy the experience and have your pin money to spare.

I know these may seem like simple or silly ideas, but I thought it would be fun to start a dialogue about easy ways to simplify ones life to both save money and to make it easier. I love learning from one another and I honestly KNOW that one CAN change bad behaviors. If we want a new or better life we can work towards by being mindful and paying attention to how we live and spend. The homemakers number one tool is her Mind and Intelligence. Let’s keep exercising that muscle and see what clever and mindful things we can achieve.

Happy Homemaking.

4 November 1957 “1957 or 1937: The Modern World Encroaches into the Past”

First of all, let me thank all of you for such wonderful birthday wishes. It felt so wonderful to get such warm wishes from so many. Thank you again, all of you.

 

Today I wonder if I am thinking more of the 1950’s family of plenty or the 1930’s family of want?

For the most part, I only access current information online through various sources. We don’t watch TV and don’t have access to modern cable. Which is fine for me, because whenever I see any ‘news’ programs on at friends homes I just have to laugh. It is more entertainment and speculation and heresy than news. I suppose when one has to keep up a 24 hour news cycle anything can be news and even speculation or what ‘he said’ gets air time. Something Walter Cronkite would have never stood for, but I digress.

What I have noticed when I research various things for future posts is more and more similarities showing up that pin the modern day more to 1937 than my usual research into 1957. Before I go on, let me just say to anyone that I am NOT saying today is as bad as the Depression. But, we must also remember that it has not yet got as bad as the Depressions years because the Social reforms which we now have came OUT of the Depression. So we are going into our current bad state with many things in place, such as unemployment, food stamps, various welfare, Social Security and so on. What is frightening to me, of course, is with these schemes firmly in place we still see a bumpy road ahead.

I also cannot help but see parallels in images such as these.with these of today.Surely today we see less “I want a job” sign (though we do see those as well) because our government reforms of the 1930’s are still in place as of now. But, we see that while we once were upset by the financial world into no jobs and lost homes and farms, we see now that the financial ruin of 2008 has left us wondering why so much went to those with so much who were indeed the cause of the current melt down.

 

Even this image of a modern day farmer in the South West here on his farm with the dustbowl storm stirring up. It certainly has its twin in the Depression Dust Bowl Days.In both situations we act as if there is a variety of reasons for the storms. When the simple fact was after the land was given out during the 1860’s, you farm five acres you keep it, the very nature of the land changed. What was once endless grassland prairies became increasingly large farms from 1900 through 1920s. The land had been set up to keep its top soil by the very nature of the densely planted wild grasses and wind breaks of hedgerows and forest interspersed. As these were cleared more and more and more area with no wind breaks and loosened top soil were formed, the same wind we always had simply gained speed and swept through taking with it the topsoil needed for both growing and holding down the substrate of sand!

then and now

What is amazing to me is, we may not have known then to not farm that way (Though if we simply recalled our ancestry farming in England and Europe, we would have kept hedgerows and multi-crop rotations, as it wasn’t a ‘new’ idea.) However, after the Depression we DID know why it had happened. Even simple things as plowing a certain type of furrow helps maintain topsoil, but after WWII we were inundated with chemicals from the wartime. These industry wanted to find new ways to sell  their product. And today we are again faced with dust bowls. This time, again, we have cleared TOO much to form TOO LARGE vast areas of farming. And today that same topsoil problem is solved with endless chemicals. Chemicals that require farmers to wear masks when spreading, so now this gets mixed in with the ‘dust bowl storms’ and who knows where it shall spread?

Even the drought aren’t simply an ‘act of God’, but as wetlands were removed to make more land to plant less water is available to go up into the atmosphere and make rain and then collect up to do it again. It is simple land science one would have learned in their McGuffey reader, yet we act as if we can’t understand why these things are happening. When really we are simply TOLD a variety of things so as not to try and figure the real problem and then we can argue amongst ourselves rather than fix the problem. Leaving, of course, the solution to large corporate farms and new chemical products to ‘save’ us.

Once, even farms were more part of the ‘small mans’ domain. A local farmer grew a variety of crops and could make a business for his sons or daughters to inherit.

What is interesting is as the farms grew larger, and smaller farmers were forced out until we have what we have today: a very small percentage compared with the 1930s, we were told it was because it allowed the greater populace as a whole to spend less of their income on food. We are seeing that today, that is no longer in the case. If one wants to buy cheap fast food, perhaps it is cheaper, but much of what we consume is not even grown in our country anymore. And those jobs of farm laborers and helpers to farmers are now mainly done by cheap labor from other countries. Thus, we can see how the increase in farm size and decrease in farm labor adds greatly to more job and career loss for the population at large. As well as less actual control over the environment to grow food ourselves if we so chose as a business model.

  Today, many small farmers have to have off-farm jobs to supplement their income. We can see here that in 1930 only 30 % of farmers worked off farm, while today 93 percent do.

Another interesting point is that during the Depression many farm subsidizes started. It was to help sustain the dying land and farmers. Today, however, many such ‘farmers’ are simply corporations run by a few hard pressed farmers. These farms still receive money for over growing products such as corn for corn syrup which, as a food crop, is inedible unless processed into that sugar substitute.

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture distributes between $10 billion and $30 billion in cash subsidies to farmers and owners of farmland each year.

More than 800,000 farmers and landowners receive subsidies, but the payments are heavily tilted toward the largest producers.” INFO HERE.

Another parallel I found was the odd scenes of people standing in line at banks to close out accounts. Here we see people this July in line at the closing of Indymac Bank:

The closing of IndyMac in July, the third-biggest U.S. bank failure, may cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s fund $4 billion to $8 billion, in addition to an estimated $1.16 billion for seven closures through Aug. 1. Premiums for insuring deposits will likely rise, FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said in a July 30 interview.

The major difference being that today the FDIC exists because of what happened in the 1930s. However, because the FDIC exists to back up the accounts of individuals in failing banks still means that money has to come from our tax payer money rather than from the bank itself as its failure to handle our money give to them.

``It's going to be a bloody, expensive mess for the banking industry,'' said Bert Ely, president of Ely & Co. Inc., a bank consulting firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. ``Healthy banks are paying for the mistakes made by failed banks.''

The potential $9.16 billion in withdrawals would be the highest since the insurance account was created in 1933, said Diane Ellis, the FDIC's associate director of financial-risk management.”

A situation more akin to the 1930’s was the recent lines at Bank of America, when customers wanted to close their accounts due to a hike in monthly debit card holder fees. One can understand such anger by their customers when we consider that Bank of America received 50 billion of the bailout money as well as 118 billion in Federal guarantees against futures financial woes. And, many customers were literally barred at the door by police from closing out their own accounts, despite the fact that the Bank is a healthy solvent bank which had no claim to stop individuals from claiming their own money.

And a similar situation happened in NY when customers in Citibank were locked into the building and refused to be allowed to close their accounts. One woman on the street waiting to get in for regular Banking business was arrested. Today, however, with the easy access to video phones we are more aware of such injustice, so it begs to see what sort of result such protests and militant actions on the part of the big banks will result in.

I am immediately drawn to the scene in “Its a Wonderful Life” when Jimmy Stewart’s character has to stop a run on his families small lending organization. When he explains the money is lent out to the neighbors of those trying to get their money and he willingly gives up his own honeymoon money to tide people over, it warms our hearts.

I watched that movie recently with a friend. We had not seen it in years and we felt ‘Christmassy’. I was taken by how differently I now view that ‘evil character’ Mr. Potter. At once I thought he was simply a Plot device to embody the evil of the time, but now watching it, in our current climate, he seems almost mild in comparison to the various people and ‘corporate people’ in the guise of Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and so on. It made we wish, even more, that our TRUE Capitalism could be in the hands of the free people. Small business in small communities helping one another for profit for THAT community and its inhabitants.

Today, how can we say we have a ‘free market’ when a bank far too large to have failed was indeed GOING to fail and therefore got money from the government to help it. What small mom and pop, when Wal-Mart rolled into town, received Government money from the ‘Free’ market to save it? I fear that we have found ourselves in the world that Jimmy Stewart found after his guardian angel made him never been born. His small town became Potters-ville and was owned by one man, one corporation. And with that, very fittingly, we see more seedy areas such as the old bar owned by the character Martini turned into a dive to survive.

I have been a small business owner and I can tell you there was no one there to bail me out as the larger ‘too big too fail’ multi chains rolled in offering everything super cheap. Why have we let it all get out of our hands? I heard a quote from some woman, I can’t recall her name, but she said in defense of ‘millionaires’ that we need them for jobs. “Who” asked she, “Has ever been hired by someone who isn’t a millionaire”.

I found that such a scary lie to spread. There were once MANY people hired by simple middle class people. A few years back, when I owned a shop, I hired people and had three designers and two drivers on my payroll of my little shop. I was NOT a millionaire. In fact I struggled to keep my little business afloat but I paid people OVER minimum wage and I was simply ‘one of them’. Towns and even cities were once filled with employers who were not millionaires providing jobs for others in their community. Such a concept only shows the sickness of our times. That Advertising seems to be the utmost import to any political or news movement. It is very scary. I am frightened for many people who simply have to be lead by whichever ‘side’ they choose. Because, in all honesty, they are both the same side. One has only to look and see that Democrats Big Government and Republicans Big Business are two sides of the same coin. They work in tandem to continue to warp and change our world into one further and further our of the hands of the majority. Small towns are all but gone, there is little chance for individuals to start small business or small manufacturing to provide jobs for their own area as most manufacturing was made huge by a few and priced out of our country by moving overseas. I don’t know why we allowed it all except that we were simply to passive. We were allowed to become to ‘relaxed’ in all the wonder of our ‘retail therapy’.

And there is another glaring difference from the Depression to our Recession. At the time people did not have guaranteed money coming in to tide them over and to then use to go buy i-pods or the latest cell phone to text their friends. There were not endless knit tops on sale racks for 3$ at local big box stores to make one feel they ‘have things’, while their credit card debt piles up and one more local clothing shop has to shut down to compete and one more future homemaker can’t even fathom sewing their own clothes.

The levels to which our current world has infiltrated our abilities to truly live is immense. There are MANY things in the modern world that I am glad of. Medicine being one of the main and even the technology that allows us to communicate like this. But, I wonder have we even the power to go against any of it? I am scared that even those who now protest will simply get co-opted somehow by some talking head or some political party or some corporate power to shift the tides to simply lead us to another level of less freedom in our country. MORE regulations in our daily lives?

Even when we begin to see that it is the banks and the money that controls the world and that the Government is simply made up of and appointed by those same financial institutions and kept interest in by their lobbyists, one is frozen. What can we, the little people, really do?

All I can do, as a homemaker, is to plan. Being a homemaker, that very career path, is based in planning, preparation and lists. Therefore I feel it the duty of any homemaker to be up on what ‘may’ be coming and to plan for it. I know already that my food bill is such that when I shopped two weeks ago using an old 1955 list I had which cost me then $40 (this was 2009 now remember) cost me $72 today! In three years that is the increase in foods for me in my area. So, all along I have been altering my shopping list.

Recently to get back to $40, which is quite a challenge, I have an even more early 1950’s menu in that we don’t eat big cuts of meat all week long. I can’t afford it, so it is spread out through the week in casseroles and various bakes while the big meal dinner of chicken or beef happens on a Sunday. We are fine with that, but it does beg the question, what will it be in the next three years? Will $40 not buy me even enough to get by? Now, I am able to have hubby’s lunch be carved out of the weekly food and my own at home luncheon has become much more crumbs of this or that to keep the flour and sugar supplies down. It might help my waistline in the end!

I know this has been a rather lengthy post and I don’t want it to be political but merely to point out where we are. Because as a homemaker knowing what you have to work with is the cornerstone of successfully running your home. When we have to work with less (Such as ingredients such as flour which has doubled in price for me since three years ago) you learn to stretch what you do have. However, along with the prices rising, incomes seem to be stagnant.

This has often left me wondering should I try and return to the outside the home job market? Am I foolish to not begin to gather up as much extra cash as we can? I have gone back and forth with this with myself and with hubby. It is a tough decision. First off, there are less jobs available, so there is no guarantee that I could even get one. But, thus far, I have decided against it. We feel if we continue to make adjustments and live with what we currently have, we can still plan for the future. My skill set keeps improving our ability to live with less as the bad times continue.

I think I am going to do a few posts about the 1930’s and today and begin to look at more frugal ways to live now. I think our role as homemaker, rather it is our full time job or not, is even more important at a time like this. Prices rise, income stays the same or simply goes away due to layoffs, we need to know how to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves. I only hope we aren’t heading down a road to any great war. But, if that does happen, as many homemakers before us did, we shall persevere and we shall overcome.

Happy Homemaking.

2 November 1957 “Happy Birthday to Me”

Today is my birthday. Though we are not celebrating it officially today, as we have a party planned this Friday, I was surprised with this at Breakfast.

I had set the table as usual for Hubby and I to have breakfast and when I came back in, there it was. It is just a simple little gift, as my presents shall be this Friday, but he didn’t want my actual birthday to not involve a gift.

I love that he even made the little box out of paper himself. As you can see he used one of my favorite colors, as it matches my dishes. It contained two darling little vintage pins. He purchased them from our local shop where I often go to get antique/vintage finds. The ladies who run it love him. Every time I shop there, one of the ladies always says to the others she is working with, “She has the best husband” (referring to me) “He came in last Christmas and just bought the most wonderful things. He just walked right up and new what to get”. So, I am sure they were happy when he walked in the door.

What I cannot fathom is that here we are at another birthday already! As my birthday is at the end of the year, when it arrives I often wonder, ‘Where has the year gone’? This year it seems to have arrived even sooner. I cannot believe that this is my Third birthday in the 1950’s! How has it been three years (well in January it will be) since I started my project?

When I think back to my ‘before 50’s life’ it seems ages ago. Almost as far away as the actual 1950’s and I wasn’t even there. Though the time has speed by I am so happy and grateful to have had these past years with all of you. I have made so many wonderful friends in our virtual community. I am honored and happy that so many of you have come along with me this far on my crazy ride. Though my 1950’s or really ‘old timey’ parts of my life seem completely normal now, they are everyday improved or brightened by my sharing them with all of you. I thank you all for your support and interest and friendship. I am truly blessed and surely happy on this birthday. Thank you all.

Happy Homemaking and Happy Birthday to me!

31 October 1957 “The Halloween Party”

  Well, it is Halloween today. Though we celebrated with our Halloween Cocktail party four days ago. I hope you enjoy today’s spooky treats and treasures.

I am sorry it took me these three days to get this post about our party up. The tail end of October has just got away from me for some reason. Maybe it is my day-dreaming of the up coming Christmas season, which I always love and greatly anticipate.

I was a bad blogger and did not get as many photos as I planned of our guests. There were many wonderful costumes. Here is hubby and myself as the “Spirits of the Jazz Age”

Hubby in his coattail tuxedo and I in an early 1920’s rendition of a Jazz baby. Though you can’t see it very well in these pics, the beads hanging from my headpiece are actual vintage beads from my husbands great Grandmother. I am lucky to have a few such treasures saved from old clothing from the Edwardian and into the 1920’s from various family who thought it wise to clip and save bits of old beads and trim from outmoded and worn out dresses.

  Here we are at the piano. My fan is also vintage 1920’s black silk.

Here my good friend took our theme of ‘fancy dress’ costuming and went as an ‘owl’. I like costumes that are themes but more ‘evening wear’ with a nod to an idea. Such as this Victorian fancy dress costume of a butterfly. One still wears evening clothes but with a nod to the costume, here butterfly wings and insert panels into the dress similar to the patterns on a butterfly wing.

Though we had a fair share of other such costumes. Here a friend came as her interpretation of a Starbuck’s Latte and another friend with her as a Gypsy. I unfortunately did not get photos of all our guests. I am always faced with the conundrum of very meticulously documenting my life verses simply living and enjoying it. I am rather apt to choose the latter and forget the camera all together.

 

Here is a photo of the table. Not everything was set up at this shot, but you can see the general feel. My lovely punch bowl in the middle was a gift this year from Gussie for my birthday. My birthday is in November but she said she couldn’t wait as it was so perfect for our party. She was right.

My friend brought these darling little bag rings which we placed as favors on the cups and I think they look simply darling.

Everyone loves a good brownie. And I as I was making candy anyway, I found these darling skeleton molds. The brownies become little graves with delicate peppermint scented white chocolate deadlies sneaking out. I thought they looked ‘haunted house’ sinister presented on my old Victorian Transferware  Severn Platter.

This recipe HERE for brownies is what I often use and find it really easy and good. I always sprinkle a bit of chocolate pieces into the mix before baking. And as I was making candy that day, I had scrapings leftover and into the mix they went.

I adore old fashioned cake doughnuts. And this time of year, cider and cinnamon doughnuts are a sort of tradition. It always makes me feel such a part of a New England Autumn. This is the recipe I used for these and they are very easy to make and wonderful warm from the fryer or even two days later! I always find that a cake doughnut ages better than a yeast raised.

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

2 eggs

1/4 cup  melted butter

1 cup milk or  1/2 milk and 1/2 cup cream

4 cups flour and a touch more to handle dough

oil or lard for frying

cinnamon sugar

Mix all dry ingredients with a whisk to blend. Add wet ingredients (melted butter, eggs, milk/cream) and mix well

Next add the flour and mix with wooden spoon or flour covered hands. If the dough feels too sticky, add up to another 1/2 cup or so of flour.

Roll into ball (don’t over handle) cover and but in ice box for at least an hour. I prefer to make it the day before. And any leftover dough can be refrigerated for up to a week. Or keep some made up in the freezer for a few months at a time.

Let stand for 20 minutes out of ice box, roll out on floured or marble surface and cut with doughnut cutter.

Your hot oil should be about 360F. I always test with a donut hole first. Let it brown and turn a few times if you need to. When it is done inside in under 3 minutes, it is the right temperature.

Drain and shake in a bag of cinnamon sugar mixture or confectioners sugar. Delicious!

  These darling little candies were simply made by melting chocolates and using a little mold. The mold was designed to hold an Oreo sized cookie. I put a Christmas themed one HERE in the corner store. They are around $5 and are rather fun. I used white chocolate for the white and green and regular chocolate (milk) for the darker. I flavored the chocolate with peppermint, as I really love mint and chocolate. Though that would probably be better for a Christmas party, there were no complaints and the plate was soon emptied!

One of our guests makes incredible cakes. She delighted us all with this scary confection. It was home-made red velvet cake and homemade raspberry jam ‘blood’. He was rather scary but Very tasty.

  We had many beverages and cocktails, but in the center was our 'spooky punch’. It was made with strawberry daiquiri fixings (smashed up strawberries and sugar) and orange juice and ginger ale to make it bubble away. The scary ‘Goblin skin’ is simply scoops of lime sorbet. It was made without alcohol so those quests who don’t drink could enjoy it and those who wanted to could spike it with some white rum. You can also see a delicious bowl of peanut butter caramel corn home-made by one of my guests. I am lucky that my guests always see fit to bring such wonderfully made things to my parties, I am lucky in that.

I am going to close with these fun Halloween ideas from the vintage cookbook Holiday Cookbook.

Enjoy and Happy Homemaking.

30 October 1957 "A Quick Note"

I find myself a bit busy today and want to apologize for no post. I shall return, but rather lost track of time.

I hope all are well and becoming excited for the approaching holiday seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Happy Homemaking.

27 October 1957 “A Halloween Cocktail Party”

I am hosting a Halloween cocktail party this evening. We will have cocktail punch, finger foods and nibbles. It is, of course, a fancy dress or costume party. Hubby and I are going as “The Spirit of Jazz”. I will try to get at least one photograph of us and other guests.

I thought I would share these fun vintage Halloween treats from the Betty Crocker Boys n Girls cookbook. The Fun pumpkin Cake up top is so simple yet so fun.

Here are the instructions for the Jack-O-lantern Cake. And some simply ‘Black Cat Cookies’.

I have always love the early 20th century Halloween images, such as this postcard. And have been equally as fascinated by the ‘Vegetable Man’ one oft sees depicted. Such as this Halloween clockwork vegetable man, painted papier mache. He is 16 inches tall and valued at $16,520. These menacing pumpkin men have zucchini and squash for appendages. Another early Papier Mache’ Vegetable man figurine, this time with a potato body and a Bobby’s cap. His head is removable and is meant to hold candy. This veggie man stands 9 1/2 inches tall and is valued between $3,000-$5,000.

Here is a carved Irish turnip from the early 20th century.

“Throughout Ireland and Britain, there is a long tradition of carving lanterns from vegetables, particularly the turnip, mangelwurzel, or rutabaga. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the larger native pumpkin, which are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips.

While turnips have always been used in Ireland, lanterns in Scotland were originally fashioned from the thick stem of a cabbage plant, and were called "kail-runt torches". It was not until 1837 that jack-o'-lantern appeared as a term for a carved vegetable lantern, and the carved pumpkin lantern association with Halloween is recorded in 1866.

In the United States, the carved pumpkin was first associated with the harvest season in general, long before it became an emblem of Halloween. In 1900, an article on Thanksgiving entertaining recommended a lit jack-o'-lantern as part of the festivities. The poet John Greenleaf Whittier, who was born in 1807, wrote "The Pumpkin" (1850):

“Oh!—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling,

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!

When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!”

The carved vegetable man has many variations to its story. He is often referred to as ‘Jack’. An Irish tale tells that Jack (usually a smart farmer or land worker) tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that the Devil couldn't get down.

“Another version of the story says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen, when he met the Devil, who claimed it was time for him to die. However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods (the Devil could take on any shape he wanted); later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped.”

“The term jack-o'-lantern originally meant a night watchman, or man with a lantern, with the earliest known use in the 1660s in East Anglia; and later, meaning an ignis fatuus or will-o'-the-wisp. In Newfoundland and Labrador, both names "Jacky Lantern" and "Jack the Lantern" refer to the will-o'-the-wisp concept rather than the pumpkin carving aspect.”

Any way you slice it ( pun intended), late season vegetables played a major role in the lives of early people. Often with the idea of chasing away bad or celebrating good harvest. 

I hope you have fun carving your pumpkins or setting up your own Vegetable Man. Halloween is a fun time to dress up, celebrate friends and eat far too many treats.

Happy Homemaking.

 

24 October 1957 “12 Personal Diets for Better Health from 1954”

I thought today I would share with you these interesting diet plans from one of my vintage magazines. This outlines the proper amount of calories and what type of food for those calories as well as sex and age in considering the diets provided.

Here are the four crucial things this article claims will result from these diet outlines.

1. They lower the total number of calories that should be consumed by healthy normally active Americans.
2. They give physicians a new basis for regulating your food intake.
3. If you are overweight they will shed your excess poundage surely and sagely.
4. If you are underweight, they will help you gain the missing pounds you need.

“Once you have made up your  mind that good nutrition is worth while, there is only one dieting secret to learn: Food is the fuel your body burns. If you take in more fuel than your body needs, you will store it it the form of fat. If you take in less,  you burn stored-up fat.”

I love that last paragraph. So simple and straightforward. None of this modern ‘Diet Secrets” and “Hollywood Secret Diet Plans”. Simply stated, eating more than you burn results in fat storage. Burning excess comes from exercise and eating less than you need drops the pounds. Though, even with this knowledge, it can be hard. I still struggle with my weight and would love to shed some pounds.

Here are the plans which are outlined by Sex and age. To add, the substitutions to this are the following.

1. small serving meat is 2-3 ounces
2. Medium serving meat is  4 ounces
3. Large serving Meat is 6 ounces
4. Fish, fowl, cheese or eggs may be substituted  for meat.
5. Spaghetti, grist, potato, rice, starchy beans (Lima, Kidney and Navy beans), Noodles and Macaroni may be substituted for Bread and Are interchangeable with one another.

Enjoy these and let me know what you think of them. Obviously never start a diet plan without consulting a doctor, but such guides as these are really a boon to the Homemaker, as they help in planning meals and shopping for the ingredients and list making.

Happy Homemaking.