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.

Football in the 40s and Vintage Finger Food

Even though the "Big Game" did not debut until 1961, that doesn't mean Football wasn't a big deal in the 40s. The NFL existed in the 40s, and they even have the pictures to prove it. (For the record, Da Bears were the ones to beat - Go Bears!)  The NFL Championship game was pretty much the precursor to the Super Bowl. In 1940 The Bears scored what remains to be the most number of points earned by a single team in league history. (Go Bears!)

The 1940s also brought a new league onto the scene, the AFL III. The Bengals and the Chiefs were borne from this league. Their foray into the competition was short-lived though (1940 - 1941), and they are credited with the dissolution of the American Professional Football Association. (That would be according to Wikipedia, and since I don't know what I am talking about, we'll just roll with it.)

I do know this about football; the helmets in the 40s did not look like they could provide much protection.

Don't worry about that big guy running at you. This'll keep ya safe.

                                                      

Now, for those of us that don't know much about the game. Here is an instructional video from the 40s. We can learn all about how football is just like chess, except with head injuries.

Of course, all this sports chat is because this week's recipe was made for a Superb Owl party. Now, I'm not a sports person, per se, so the "party" in question actually took place at my office during my lunch break. But whatever, a party's a party and I always welcome the chance to lure new people into my vintage food experiment.

I've made the only real transportable finger food the book has to offer, canapés. Nothing is more fun than a snack food with a pretentious sounding name.

There are a variety of canapé toppings suggested in the book. There are a few listed in the standard part of the book and quite a few more in the wartime rationing sectioning. Frankly, I thought they all sounded pretty gross. I found what I took to be the two least detestable versions in the rationing section.

We start with toast points.

Toast is my specialty.

The first topping was a mixture of 1 cup grated cheese, any kind (I used finely shredded jack because of a grater mishap that I don't like to talk about), 4 Tbsp chopped sweet pickle (I used sweet pickle relish. That was not a good idea), and enough mayonnaise to bind the mixture. This looked and smelled about as appealing as it sounds.

The second was a mixture of 1 cup liverwurst, 2 Tbsp mayonnaise, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, and 1/4 tsp pepper.

The resultant "spreads" struck me as a bit stomach turning.

So this was a food, that people would eat... on purpose. Interesting.

I was sincerely hoping that these would be a lot more presentable on toast since I was committed to feeding this delicacy to my colleagues. I felt like I had a reputation around the office for not being a horrible person. This dish was sure to blow my cover.

Sadly, my hopes were dashed...

"Is that dog food?" - Confused Coworker

I really, really tried to bring myself to try one. It seems wrong to blog about food without actually eating it. But I couldn't do it. Piping this mess onto toast was triggering my gag-reflex, there was no hope of me actually ingesting it. However, my brave contemporaries did try them. Word on the street is the cheese mixture was good. I don't buy it. The relish was a mistake, it was my mistake and I totally own it. I seriously thought that relish was just grated pickle. It is not. Not even close. A few people had the liver paté. All of them seemed to really like it, and most of the liver was gone by the end of the party.

I will definitely not be making this again. Toast points are made for caviar (something else I won't eat) or BLT dip only. Oh well. Live and learn. Now let's enjoy some kicky ball.

The Trouble with Bread and Butter in the 40s (Bread Recipe)

Oleo... if you are a fan of crossword puzzles, you are familiar with the term. Oleo is an old-school, colloquial term for margarine. Although the product had already been on the market for some time, oleo was not truly popular until wartime butter rationing. The reason for its lack of public appeal is that it was a giant pain to use. When it was developed (during the 1800s), dairy farmers got hella jealous and lobbied to disallow the product from being dyed yellow. Without the yellow dye oleo just looks like a gross hunk of fat that nobody wants to eat. Butter makers knew this well, because they were dying their own product. A law was passed, but left room for a loophole, wherein margarine makers included a dye pack that could be worked in at home.

"Easy" is false advertising, but "E-Z" is marketing.

Once butter rationing went into play, oleo made its way into kitchens across the country. Homemakers and children everywhere took on the laborious task of coloring margarine. (Apparently having a yellow spread is very, very important to people.)

As though this was not trouble enough, for a brief period in the early 40s a law was passed forbidding the sale of pre-sliced bread. The ban, intended to reduce the cost of labor in bread production, was short lived (Jan. 18th 1943 - March 3rd 1943). There was too much backlash from the public. It seems like an odd place for people to draw a line, especially considering all of the hardships during that time, but I feel like I understand. February 1943 was officially the worst time in American history to make a simple piece of toast.

In honor of their "rising" troubles, I am baking bread... from scratch. I have never baked bread before, because it seems like a process that is both time-consuming and a little bit intimidating. So. many. steps. (I was not entirely wrong.)

The recipe du jour is the Standard Recipe for White Bread.

To make the bread add 1 cake (or envelope) yeast to 1/4 cup lukewarm water and 1 tsp sugar. Set that aside for 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, add 1 1/2 tsp salt, 2 Tbsp shortening, and 2 Tbsp sugar to 2 cups scalded milk. (I had to call on my parents for this one. Scalding milk means almost bringing it to a boil.) Add the softened yeast to the milk mixture (making it smell like beer... and milk... yum) and 3 cups "sifted" flour. (Yeah, I'm not really about sifting any more.) Beat well.

Good luck removing the dough from the mixer

Add an indeterminate amount of flour to make the dough soft. (I took this to mean, add flour until the "dough" stops sticking to your fingers.) Put a bunch more flour (I'm seriously not being any less specific than the cook book) onto a board and knead the dough on that surface until "smooth" and "elastic."

Nothing says smooth like dry flour.

Place the dough in a greased bowl. Flip the dough over so it gets greased all the way around. Leave the doughy mass in the bowl until it doubles in size. Punch that baby down and cut into halves. Round each half into a ball and let stand 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Grease the tops and let rise until it doubles in size. Bake at 400* for 10 minutes.

But wait... there's more... Reduce oven temperature to 375* and bake for 40 minutes more.

30 minutes in. Is "golden black" a thing?

I only have one bread pan, so my other dough ball is being left idly by to grow and grow while waiting its turn. It's creepy and reminds me of Panera's "mother."

The first loaf is really tasty, even despite the fact that it's a little too done. I plan to watch mother closely to try and get her out of the oven right at the point of Maillard Reaction. The most delicious chemical reaction known to man.

I recommend the recipe, if baking bread is your cup of tea. For me, I will continue to revel in the amazing gift that is pre-made, pre-sliced bread available wherever things are sold.

The Bare Cupboard

I had big plans for this week's recipe, but alas I am lazy and the store is far. I checked the book to see whether there was anything I could make from the items I have on hand, but as anyone with teen-aged children knows, there really isn't anything on hand. If it's edible, it gets eaten pretty quickly.

In honor of my empty cabinets, I present you Old Mother Hubbard as interpreted by Ray Harryhausen.

Ray Harryhausen was a prominent stop motion animator. He served during WWII helping to make propaganda films, which included contributions to Capra's famous Why We Fight series. Old Mother Hubbard was part of the animated Mother Goose Stories, released in 1946, which was his first big civilian project post enlistment.

Harryhausen's influential work had a broad impact on special effects and helped push us toward the amazing feats of film we see today. (More importantly, I have a hunch he inspired those amazing Tool videos.)

In my own amazing feat, I will go to the grocery store soon... probably.

It's A Wonderful Life and a Simple, but Festive Dessert

It's A Wonderful Life, released in 1946, is one of my all time favorite films. Much to the chagrin of my family, I watch it at least once every winter and love it every time. The movie was not so well liked when it was released as it is today. When it first ran in theaters, it didn't even recover it's productions costs. It was considered by the FBI to be communist propaganda. This, to me, is a completely valid interpretation, but that is what is so amazing about the movie. The first few times I watched it I saw the story of a man whose life begins to unravel, only to have an angel reveal to him why his life has so much meaning. Later, like the FBI, I started to see a story about the importance of socialist programs and the evils of capitalism run amok. (Although, I must say, Pottersville looked pretty fun to me.) Later still, I saw the story of a man with big dreams who got tangled up with a woman who had a sinister plan to tie him down for the pursuit of her own goals. She won.

The real reason audiences disliked the movie (according to the Special Features on my DVD) is that it was too schmaltzy. It was dubbed "Capra-corn."  But I don't find it to be that syrupy, and there are some great sarcastic one-liners, like:

"You call this a happy family!?  Why do we gotta have all these kids!?" (Ouch Dad!)
"I was saving this money for a divorce, if I ever I got a husband." (Now that's practical thinking.)

And who doesn't love the Charleston over the swimming pool scene? It's a classic for sure.

In order to celebrate my own "wonderful life" (well, really I had intended for this recipe to celebrate the new year ) I've made a simple, festive dessert called a syllabub.

The syllabub is made by whipping two cups of whipping cream until stiff. Then fold in 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 Tbps rum. "Ripen" in the refrigerator for a half an hour. The book says to cover it, but it adds the phrase "of course" so you can feel stupid if you didn't think of that on your own.

I decided to make half with rum and half with cocoa powder so my son could try one too. He said that his was "good and chocolaty." I was worried that I wouldn't like mine, since I'm not a fan of liquor, (and I bought the cheapest rum I could find), but I found it to be quite tasty. Light, a little sweet, and a little buttery.

"A civilized syllabub to blow your mind" - Tori Amos

I'm calling this one a definite win. I will certainly make more of these for company and will try some of the variations found online with champagne or lemon juice. A wonderful life? Maybe. A wonderful dessert? Absolutely.

Armistice Day Snowstorm (No Recipe)

Here in the Midwest we are being kicked in the teeth by the weather.  I was planning to make a syllabub to ring in the new year, but snow, slush and now a deep freeze have been keeping me from the market where the sweet, sweet rum is located - so no recipe for this week.  Perhaps next weekend I will be able to make the celebratory dessert to commemorate things like seeing the sun, not shoveling, or passable roads.

In the meantime, I will just be glad that it isn't Nov. 11th, 1940. The date of the infamous Armistice Day Snowstorm.

Now that's a lot of snow!

This was a snowstorm that famously sneaked up on the Midwest, like a thief in the night during what began as a warm and sunny reprieve from wintry weather, to dump 5 ft of snow on the ground and created drifts up to 20 ft high with it's 45 mph winds. Yikes!

Keep warm and if you have some rum around, heat it up. I've heard good things.

Christmas, 40s Radio, and Cookies

The 40s just screams Christmas to me. Most likely because I grew up watching movies like It's A Wonderful Life, and Holiday Inn. As a child we had this great Christmas album of 40s era carols that folded open to make a pop-up winter village. Peeking into the windows of the little houses and listening to that album are among my favorite childhood memories.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to be making some authentic 1940s Christmas cookies. I tied my hair up in a kerchief and put on some holiday radio shows before I got to work. I am now a definite fan of The Shadow, a "wealthy man about town" who can make himself invisible and uses his power to solve mysteries. Radio in the 40s was excellent, there are no two ways about that.

Now, let's enjoy The Andrew Sisters singing Winter Wonderland while we get down to the business of baking.

The first batch of cookies I made were Standard Refrigerator Cookies. I opted for the "spice" variation to make them a bit more festive. Because "Refrigerator Cookies" have their own section in the book and this version is the "standard" one, I was expecting a nice and easy experience. I was wrong.

To make the cookies sift 6 cups flour, 4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt together. In a separate bowl, cream 1 1/2 cups shortening and 3 cups brown sugar until fluffy. Add 3 eggs and 2 tsp vanilla. "Add to which bowl?" I don't know. My guess was the one with the shortening and sugar. Because I chose the spice variation, I decided to add my spices at this point. To the dry bowl I added 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp nutmeg. (The instructions say to add this to one portion of the dough. Since I didn't know what that meant, I ignored it. Oddly enough, this is not where the cookies started to break bad on me.) Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and make into a dough.  Once you have your dough, or in my case, bowl of crumbs...

Yeah, this will totally work

...divide it into six pieces and shape each piece into a log, then chill. (Sadly this means put into the refrigerator, not grab a beer and watch television.)

I could not get mine into logs. I rolled them into balls and hoped that the log would come to me by magic after I refrigerated the dough.

This will probably work out, right?

They didn't. I re-crumbled each section and added globs of shortening until I was able to get a the texture needed for shaping and general cookie making. Then I made my logs.

Once you get a chilled log of dough, slice it "very thin".

And now I get why pre-made cookie dough is a thing.

Bake at 375* for approximately 12 minutes.

Finally... cookies

These cookies smelled. Cinnamon and nutmeg are usually fantastic, but not today. For all of the trouble these little buggers caused me, I think they are really gross. The recipe yields 10 dozen. 120 really gross cookies. No thank you. I only made around 40 or 50 (still too many). My son likes them though, so I'm hoping it's just me, because these cookies are for gift baskets. Nothing says love like funky cookies.

The second set of cookies went much better. They were Scotch Shortbread (my favorite cookie), so what could go wrong?

These easy and wonderful beauties are made by creaming 1 cup butter and 3/4 cup brown sugar. Work in 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour. This will actually produce a dough, I promise. Chill the dough for a bit and then roll it out and cut it into shapes. Bake at 325* until they smell delicious.

Mmmmmmm

I'll toss in a bonus recipe that is not from the cook book. If you want to make a really special variation of the Scottish Shortbread, sandwich preserves (strawberry or raspberry) between two cookies, glaze the top with confectioners sugar that has been melted down with a touch of hot water, and top that baby off with half a maraschino cherry. Ooh, I'm hungry just thinking about this.

I doubt I'll get honest feedback on the cookies (because they are gifts), but my contention is that Refrigerator Cookies stopped being a DIY thing for a reason (even Martha Stewart's recipe uses a mix) and Scotch Shortbread is always amazing. This particular shortbread recipe is super easy and has only three ingredients. Fantastic!

Happy Holidays!

Plastic and Tea Sandwiches

Plastics were a big, huge deal in the 40s.  Due to the scarcity of resources coupled with the great needs of the troops, scientists turned to plastics research to fill the gaps.  Plastics production increased some odd 2000+% during the war, 85% of which was used for war efforts.  Plastic was made better and cheaper. During and after the war plastics were everywhere. Our world was forever changed. I cringe to imagine a world where shampoo is in a glass bottle. Say what you will about Monsanto, but in 1945 they surely saved a lot of feet from broken glass.

During the plastics boom of the 40s they made just about anything from this exciting, new material. There were plastic hats (ooohh.. fancy), plastic clutch bags, and even plastic bras (which sounds silly, but was designed as safety equipment for factory workers).

Here is a film from the 1940s which explains about the history of plastic, it's uses during the war, and it's destiny to change the world at home.

Of course, now we know we may have overdone it a little bit, but there is no doubting that plastic was a game changer.

Okay, on to our recipe which has nothing to do whatsoever with plastic. I'm on vacation, so working out an easy segue just isn't my thing right now.

Due to baking burnout, and the fact that tomorrow I will transform my little kitchen into a Christmas cookie factory, this week's recipe is easy-peasy. I've made tea sandwiches.

My sister and her husband came by for a visit and I thought the "attractive sandwiches" would work well because I wasn't certain whether they would be arriving hungry.

I made two kinds. The first of which were egg sandwiches. They are super easy, simply slice up hard boiled eggs and lay slices of egg onto slices of lightly buttered bread. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

yum

The second kind were chicken sandwiches, which is just a really basic chicken salad. These are made by chopping 1 cup chicken meat until it is very fine (or buying canned and attacking it with a fork), mix into a paste by combining with 1/4 cup mayonnaise. Spread the paste onto slices of bread.

you had me at paste

In order to make these boring, but delicious creatures into amusing and delicate tea sandwiches, the crusts must be removed and the remaining sandwich cut into shapes. After cutting a few with cookie cutters, I decided that I would quickly run out of bread and made the remaining sandwiches into squares. At the very end, I got creative and realized that triangles are also a thing. The whole endeavor was an enormous waste of bread.

This is an awful lot of food waste, even without wartime rationing

The resultant sandwiches are super-cute and very tasty though. If I didn't hate the thought of throwing away so much bread I would definitely consider making a wider variety of these for parties, perhaps with different breads and some garnishes. They were a hit.

Take that Subway! Who's the sandwich artist now?

Another Cake and Swans Down in the 40s

This week was my sister's birthday. Happy birthday, sis! So I invited her over for retro cake and coffee (all my coffee is retro, because I use a stove-top percolator). Unfortunately, her car broke down on the way, but the cake was already in process. So I guess I will eat the cake? Is that rude? I don't really know the protocol for birthday cake sans birthday person.

This recipe, like the last one, calls for "cake flour."  I normally avoid recipes that don't use all purpose flour, because I don't want to have multiple flours around the house. It seems redundant. For these recipes I've decided to bite the bullet and picked up some Swans Down Cake Flour. I chose it because of the old fashioned packaging.

The ribbon along the top of the box says that this flour has been in production since 1894. During the 1940s Swans Down was a popular cake flour and according to their website in 1945 General Foods introduced the first boxed cake mix under the Swans Down name. I also found that during the war there was a Swans Down war ration cook book with recipes modified to compensate for shortages in things like eggs, butter, and sugar.

Today's cake recipe, certainly did not account for any egg shortages, because it called for eight egg yolks. Prudent and heart healthy, that's my kinda cake.

The cake is called a Gold Cake. To make the cake, cream 3/4 cups shortening with 1 1/4 cups sugar. Add 8 egg yolks and continue creaming. Sift 2 1/2 cups cake flour with 3 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt. (Since my last entry I have learned that a mesh strainer makes a much better sifter than any actual sifter on the market.) Add this to the creamed mixture alternately with 3/4 cups milk and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat until smooth between each addition. Bake at 350* for 20 minutes. The recipe says that it will make three 9" cake pans (which I have now purchased), but I was only able to get two pans worth from the batter.

They came out looking pretty nice.

For the frosting, I attempted a recipe from the book. It was difficult to find a recipe that doesn't call for raw eggs. I guess salmonella wasn't a big concern back in the day. I made Eggless Confectioners' Frosting. This is made by combining 2 Tbsp milk with 1 cup confectioners sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla. I chose to make it using one of the suggested variations by adding 2 Tbsp cocoa.

This makes the runniest possible "frosting." I chilled it in the fridge for a bit to make it spreadable, but it kept getting soaked right into the cake. There wasn't enough to cover everything so I went back to my trusty old whipped cream recipe to finish it off. You can see the color variation in the frosting, but I think it looks alright.

Definitely looks homemade.

I was a bit concerned when I cut the cake, because it started to crumble like crazy.

Hmmm.... do you suppose it's a bit dry?

The cake was actually really tasty (as were both of the frostings). I could detect just a hint of baking powder in the flavor and it was a touch dry. Not enough to be bothersome, but if I were making this cake again I would cut the baking powder down to 2 teaspoons instead of 3. I really liked the flavor of the frosting from the book. I would recommend it for a pour-over frosting and use something else in between the layers. This recipe was very good and seems to leave a lot of room for latitude. With a few tweaks here and there I think a few really special cakes can be made.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to have another slice.

Arithmetic in the 40s and Feeding Little Ones

40s kids were taught arithmetic prior to the "new math" movement. New math was introduced in the 1960s as an attempt to keep American schoolchildren's math and science skills competitive with Russia.

So, how was arithmetic done back in the day? To me, it actually seems a little neater.

Take for example the problem: 723 - 186. The old way the math would be done as such:

  723
-186      

Instead of borrowing from the 2 to make the 3 into 13, one would subtract the 6 from 3 by counting six backward from three like such... 2,1,0,9,8,7. Making 7 the difference (answer). You would then "carry" the one (because you went past zero once) and add it to the 8 (or if you wanna get fancy you can take it away from the 2) in the next column.

To me it's neater, because you don't wind up with number soup all over the place when writing it out on paper. I remember making simple errors in grade school after losing track of all the carrying and borrowing that was scribbled all over the teeny tiny margins between the numbers on my homework assignments. Just look at this crazy mess...

Ones, Ones everywhere!!!

To me, this looks so much less confusing...

No slashes, just a couple of ones. Ahhhh - nice.

I'm sure there are advantages to the "new" way that I'm just not seeing, but aesthetics is clearly not one of them.

Tom Lehrer explains the differences humorously and thoroughly in his hit song New Math.

I could listen to this song over and again and still get a giggle, but alas, it is time to move on to our recipe...

What does math have to do with our recipe? My son invited some friends over to be test subjects in his science fair project. He needed them to take a math test under varying conditions so that he could test the condition's effects on cognition. Pretty cool, right? Asking people to come over and take a math test isn't easy though, so I plied them with cake.

The cake is called a "One-Two-Three-Four Cake"... sounds appropriate enough. The ingredients are super simple, but the steps are surprisingly particular (just like math).

To make the cake cream 1 cup butter with 2 cups sugar until fluffy. Add 4 egg yolks one at a time (hang on to the whites). Beat the mixture thoroughly after adding each egg. Sift 3 cups cake flour with 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 3 teaspoons baking powder three times. That's right THREE FREAKIN' TIMES. Because sifters are so cooperative this won't be frustrating at all. (Note to self: look into buying some sort of fancy sifter). Add half the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture with 1/2 cup milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients and a 1/2 cup more milk. Beat until smooth again. Beat the egg whites until stiff (whoops! I don't remember reading this when I was making the cake). Fold the egg whites into the batter. Pour into three 9" pans and bake at 350* for ~ 25 minutes.

I don't have three 9" pans, so I used a bundt pan.

Yup, looks like cake batter

After about 30 minutes the cake smelled done, but the batter looked wet, so I gave it another 5. After five more minutes I started to smell burning. (oh boy!).

Phew! This looks okay

Removing cakes from pans has never been my strong suit. I always line my pans with wax paper, but that solution is a no-go for the bundt pan. After shaking the thing like a maraca for a few minutes, the cake was finally free.

Well.. most of it was free anyway

I frosted the cake with whipped cream. That recipe wasn't from the book, but it's my stand-by. Just a little bit of heavy cream mixed with your desired amount of powdered sugar, whipped into a frostable consistency.

Frosting to the rescue!

I'm not sure the kids liked it much, but my fiance and I both enjoyed it. It struck us both as a sort of casual company cake and not a special occasion cake. It was a little crunchy on the outside, airy on the inside, and not too sweet. It would make the perfect compliment to coffee with friends.

This one will definitely stay a regular in my everyday rotation.

Dec. 7th 1941

No recipes today, for it is a day of remembrance.

http://i.imgur.com/6h5He2t.jpg

Thanksgiving in the 40s and an Appetizer

In 1863 President Lincoln issued the Thanksgiving Proclamation which established Thanksgiving as a national holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November. This was done in an effort to promote nationalism during the Civil War. Prior to that Thanksgiving celebrations were held locally at different times throughout the fall.

This was all well and good until the date was changed by President Roosevelt. As an attempt to heal a faltering economy, in 1939 FDR proposed moving the holiday to the second to last Thursday, allowing for an early start on holiday shopping. The idea was a bust as some states moved the holiday while others didn't. Confusion ensued for two years until 1941 when congress passed a law officially moving the holiday from the last Thursday of November to the fourth Thursday.

So there we have it... the 40s gave us Thanksgiving on the date as we know it.

I will in turn give... Potato Croquettes.

I am lucky because my step-sister (a wonderful cook) hosts Thanksgiving. I do like to bring an appetizer. It's a good chance to try something new; if it's terrible it just gets lost in the fray. No harm, no foul.

The first step in making the croquettes is to make mashed potatoes. I wasn't sure whether potato flakes were a thing in the 40s, so I made the potatoes from scratch. Easy enough... right?

Well... I put too much water in the pot, so when I added the potatoes they made the water overflow, which doused my burner, killed the flame, and jacked up the stove. I disassembled the range top, dried everything out and eventually got the entire burner to light. One. flame. at. a. time.

As I write this part (waiting for the taters to boil) the house stinks of gas and I feel a bit woozy. Good times.

To make the croquettes combine 4 cups mashed potatoes with 2 tbsp milk, 3 tbsp melted butter, 2 egg yolks, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 sprigs parsley (this is apparently a popular holiday ingredient and was all sold out), and a dash of cayenne (which I forgot - this is why I'm a bad cook, well that and breaking the stove, but I digress). Beat the ingredients together "until light." Shape the mixture into amorphous oblong shapes. Roll the shapes in breadcrumbs, then egg, then breadcrumbs again.

mmm... potato twinkies

Fry those babies in hot oil (385*) until brown.

Hot action shot

Here is the finished product...

I had my reservations, but this looks pretty good

Rolling mashed potatoes in breadcrumbs is NOT easy and I imagined they would fall apart in the oil creating some funky, hot potato slime for me to clean up. I am pleasantly surprised by the results. A sneak test revealed a bland flavor, but without the parsley and cayenne I can hardly blame the recipe for that.

I made them the night before so they needed to be reheated before serving. I found the best way to reheat is to place them in an oven set to 375*.  After five or so minutes realize that you are running late and turn the heat to 425*. Listen for the sizzle, it means you are burning the breading, but not warming the filling. Give up. Remove the croquettes from the oven and wrap in tinfoil. Place the foil wrapped plate on the floor of the car and crank the floor heater to high. Drive like a mad woman for approximately 40 - 45 minutes. Perfect.

I was a little nervous on account of the unconventional reheating method, but the croquettes were a big hit. Everyone really like them, even the little ones.

I will definitely keep this one in my repertoire as a base recipe. I think they would be good served as a plated appetizer if made with garlic mashed potatoes and paired with a chipotle aioli sauce. Mmmmmm....

Let's Get to Work... My First Victims

The 1940s saw a lot of changes for women. Most notably was the entree of women into the blue collar labor force. Prior to the war it was common for working class women to have jobs like nursing, cleaning, child care, etc. However, middle class women stayed home, and quite often had domestic help. Because of the war the male, blue collar labor force was shrinking as were everyday resources which were being diverted to the troops. Thus, Rosie the Riveter was born. A marketing campaign to bring women into factories. It was quite a success and I've read that by the end of the war a third of factory workers were female. You go girls! Here are some really cool pictures of women in the 40s gettin' er done. It's amazing to me that these women did physically laborious jobs, took care of the home, and still made the time to work in fancy up-dos. These ladies are making me feel lazy.

Alright... on to the recipes. I decided to make two. One from the standard portion of the cook book and one from the wartime ration part.

The standard recipe was for Peanut Butter Cutlets. It's a vegetarian alternative to a meat cutlet which "offers both adequate protein and iron."

The recipe:
Mix 1 1/2 cups peanut butter with 1 1/2 cups hot milk. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and some pepper. (How much pepper? Who knows? However much you think you would like in your peanut butter slush.) Dip slices of bread into the slurry and saute in hot fat. Garnish with pickles and olives.

Here it is... sizzling peanut butter bread

Can you believe I forgot to add the pickles and olives??? Blast!

My parents were our first retro dinner guests. They were starting to regret coming by when I served this up. Surely the pickles would've absolved their reservations. Oh well, next time.

The consensus was that it tasted like peanut buttery french toast. My son thought it was decent, my mom really liked it, my step-dad said it was horrible. I though it was okay, until I got a bite with noticeable pepper. Peanut butter and pepper, as you might expect, do not belong together. I have since relocated them to opposite sides of the kitchen. They have no business being near one another.

The recipe from the war ration section went over quite a bit better. It was a Rice and Chicken Casserole.

The recipe:
Bone and cube cooked chicken (or buy two cans, which is what I did). Cook up two cups rice according to the package directions. Stir in 2 beaten eggs, 2 cups milk, 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Pour a layer of rice mixture into a casserole dish, add a layer of chicken, and top it off with the remaining rice mixture. Bake at 350 for ~20 minutes.

This looks like food, so it's already an improvement.

The results were bland, but completely edible. My son and I liked it, but we added copious salt and pepper. My step-dad liked it and said that he would eat it again. I think he was just relieved after the cutlet. My mom doesn't like rice, so obviously a giant plate of rice wasn't her favorite. In all my excitement, I'd forgotten the first rule of hostessing. Don't serve people foods they hate. Whoops!

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I might add a little peanut butter the next time I make french toast and if I'm ever in the market for a flavorless meal, the chicken dish will definitely hit the spot.

Next weekend my sisters are coming by with their young children. Hopefully the book can produce some kid-friendly recipes. They're sure to me my toughest critics.

The Victory Binding of the American Woman's Cook Book

Here she is... is she not a thing of beauty?

Sure she's a little worn out, but who isn't these days?

I came across this book as a teenager while poking around in the basement. I had just read George Orwell's 1984 and was fascinated to learn that "Victory" was a real wartime ration thing and not just something from the novel.

Later, I developed a fascination with WWII, making this book even more of a curiosity to me. When I became an adult and ventured off to my first apartment, my step-dad was kind enough to send this much beloved cook book with me.

The book served as a great guide-post for the novice in the kitchen. There are sections that explain about measurements, nutrients, table-settings, food pairings, definitions for cooking terms, and even sample party menus.

It's also quite an interesting piece of history. The book begins with a quote from General MacArthur about the importance to the war effort of saving and doing in the home.The first three quarters of the book are loaded with everyday recipes and some bourgeois recipes. Lots of advice for the upper-middle class woman during wartime. (Did you know that it is possible to host a dinner party without the help of a maid?) The back part of the book gives recipes that can be made from wartime rations.

It is really a wonderful book which has been part of my life for quite some time. I am excited to share pieces of the book with all of you and to share the adventure of eating, not only my cooking, but some seriously vintage eats, with my friends and family.