Vinegar Valentines and a Sweet Treat

Last weekend was Valentine's Day.  A wonderful, amazing holiday wherein we show our love for those nearest and dearest to us by fattening them up with candy.

Valentine's Day wasn't always just about showing love though, in the '40s (actually from the mid 1800s through the 1950s) it was also an opportunity tell 'em how you really feel.

In addition to the flowery and poetic cards given to sweethearts there were also "vinegar valentine" cards to share with those who had prickly personalities.

It sounds mean, right?  Of course, there were a variety of cards to convey the sentiment of "Hey, you're creepy.  Stop hitting on me."  However, there were also cards for things like letting a mean sales clerk know you don't like his snotty attitude, or telling a snob she's fooling no one.

Sadly, I know around 6 people who need this card.

                                       

I think this is an ingenious means of social control.  I have to wonder whether people were more polite back then for fear of getting a bunch of angry greeting cards every February.  I would imagine that if a person were to receive more than one of these, they would have to re-think their way of approaching people.

As fun as these cards are, I am nowhere near brave enough to send one.  Were they still in fashion, I'd probably receive one calling me a "percy pants" (40s slang for wimp).  Instead of being mean, I celebrated Valentine's the modern way... by making old-fashioned candy.

This week's recipe is a candy called "Panocha."

It's pretty easy to make.  You start by heating up 1 cup milk with 3 cups brown sugar until it reaches the "soft ball" stage (aka 238*).

This is pretty boring, better listen to some tunes.

Once the sugar mix is properly heated add 2 Tbsp butter and 1 tsp vanilla.  Let this sit until lukewarm. When it's ready, beat the mixture until it is creamy.  (This was the only difficult part and I wasn't able to get mine "creamy" only just a little bit thicker, I guess.)  Stir in 1 cup of nut-meats (I used walnuts) and pour into a buttered pan.

Had the book been more specific, I would've known to use a smaller pan. Sigh.

Once it hardens, cut into squares and serve.

After waiting countless hours (okay, like 2) for the candy to harden I gave up and got myself a spoonful of sticky, nut filled, candy slurry. It tastes like something that it isn't quite ready to be eaten, but very sugary so it's not all bad.  My best guess is that this will eventually turn out to be basically toffee with walnuts.  If you have the patience for candy-making, I say go for it.  From what I can tell, this is gooey, cavity-inducing, goodness in the making.

A Wintertime Solution 40s Style and a Hearty Winter Meal

We have arrived at everyone's favorite time of year... the dead of winter.

In December the winter doesn't seem so bad (that's because it's still fall), in January the weather starts to get hard-core, but there is a sense that we only have to make it through the one month and then the worst will be over. With February comes the disappointment that it's all still happening, and the sudden realization that March usually sucks too. Then we start to remember that one time it snowed in April or that year where it seemed that summer never started at all. Ahhhh!!!!!

Winter came in the 40s as well (of course), and one enterprising man felt he had the perfect solution for the problem of trying to traverse Chicago's icy streets without wasting fuel or rubber. I present you Joe Steinlauf's "Ice Bike."

The bicycle, designed to punch through the ice, had no rubber on the tires, and was even equipped with mittens on the handles. I like the way you think Joe. Not mentioned in the article, but if one were to wander into the wrong part of town, I believe the wheels could be used for self defense.

I don't anticipate getting much cycling in, as I plan to deal with the remainder of this particularly harsh, Midwestern winter the best way I know how... by eating rich and hearty foods. Mmmmm.

On this week's menu we have Swiss Steak. Warm, heavy, stick-to-your-ribs Swiss Steak. The perfect way to kick-off a month long pseudo-hibernation. 

To make the steaks season 1/2 cup flour with salt and pepper. Pound the flour into 2 lbs round steak with a meat mallet (or if like me, you have no meat mallet, you can set up a more complicated system involving wax paper and a rolling pin).

There's a joke here, but I can't tell it to you.

Brown the meat in hot fat, then add a few onion slices, 1/2 green pepper, 1 cup boiling water, and 1 cup strained tomatoes. (I didn't know what strained tomatoes were, so I used stewed tomatoes. A way too late Google search indicates that I should have gone with tomato paste.) Cover the pan and let simmer for 2 hours. Alternatively, this can be cooked in a casserole dish, in the oven for 1.5 hours at 350*.

Oh man, even raw this looks good. **drool**

It smelled amazing and waiting for it to be ready was an almost painful experience. Sadly, it was a painful experience with no end. It turns out stewed tomatoes are no substitute for tomato paste. You see, stewed tomatoes have a much higher water content, and water, of course, burns off. If you are, say, on the phone with your bestie and not paying attention to the stove, you won't notice that the water is gone and that your amazing, tender, and savory steaks are being converted into lumps of coal.

I can at least compress this into diamonds, right?

I shaved some un-charred meat from one so I could get a taste of what could have been. In the immortal words of Tiffany, "It could have been so right."  My fiance had one and he ate the whole thing, he said it was pretty good, but I think that just means he was pretty hungry.

Honestly, I'm shocked that I've made it all the way to post 14 before burning something to a cinder. My son teases me that hearing the fire alarm is how he knows breakfast is ready. It's a little sad though, because we were all really looking forward to this one. However, I am grateful to be living in a time when a cooking failure is merely a bummer and not a waste of the tightly rationed family food supply.

Oh well, I am hanging up my apron for the night to have a supper of cheese sticks and ice-cream sandwiches. Nutritious.