Modern Retro Woman » home economics

The Contemporary Conventional Home in 1958

Dr. Julie-Ann — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:48:36 +0000

This type of home is best exemplified by the average real estate dealer’s offering in a city or suburban development. House is usually pretty new, though it may need some repairs. Designed for efficient modern life, although rooms are likely to be small and boxlike compared with older houses. Many electrical gadgets to reduce the drudgery of household chores. Often comparatively new materials will have been used. Ceilings likely to be low, and little space between your house and your neighbors’. You may be able to mutually “enjoy” each other’s Hi-Fi and TV sets. It is a fairly standard American home–clean, convenient–but not inspiring in spirit. ~ Mary Jean Alexander, Decorating Begins with You, 1958.

NPS Home design No. M-38; Image courtesy of SportSuburban on Flickr.com

MA-3596 House Plan; Image courtesy of SportSuburban on Flickr.com

Boys' Room "Better Homes & Gardens" October 1960; Image courtesy of SaltyCotton on Flickr.com

"New Kitchen Cabinets" 3, "Better Homes & Gardens" January 1951; Image courtesy of SaltyCotton on Flickr.com

I grew up in a contemporary conventional suburban ranch-style house (I couldn’t find any exterior photos of our house–even online! My mother must have them all). The housing development was built in the mid-1950s and my family moved into our house in 1962. Back then, our neighborhood was considered the boonies and was still surrounded by citrus groves and ranches. By the time my mother sold the house almost 40 years later because my dad had died, Los Angeles development had not only overtaken our neighborhood but it had progressed another 20 miles northward.

Are you a “contemporary conventional” person?

You Have Taste-Develop Confidence In It

Dr. Julie-Ann — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:32:37 +0000

Whether you believe it or not–and whether you like it or not–you have taste. You may prefer chocolate ice cream to vanilla, a vacation at the seashore to one in the mountains, or fluffy ruffles to severe pleats–and everyone has a favorite color. So you have taste, but do you have confidence in it? Perhaps THEY aren’t using ruffles this year, or its much more chic to be seen at Estes Park than Cape Cod or Martha’s Vinyard. Or, you just don’t DO a room with yellow (your favorite color). Would this pressure affect your feelings about any of these? There seems to be in progress a concentrated, persistent, and efficacious conspiracy devised to weaken your confidence in your own taste. ~ Mary Jean Alexander, Decorating Begins With You, 1958.

Better Homes and Gardens, 1961, Mod Living Room; Image courtesy of vintagegoodness on Flickr.com

If Mary Jean Alexander was lamenting the conspiracy by experts to destroy your confidence in your own taste, imagine how she would feel now with scores of television shows, magazines, websites, blogs, and Pinterest constantly giving us an ideal that we “fail” to live up to because we either don’t have the resources or the ideal doesn’t ring true for us.

Last fall, I was sharing information from a 1937 home decorating textbook written by Elizabeth Burris-Meyer. While I found many of her ideas useful, I was starting to get annoyed by her pedantic style of writing. If we didn’t follow her rules, then we didn’t have any taste.

Baloney (to put it nicely).

My goal in sharing the information from these mid-century books and textbooks that I find is to help us take what we love about that time period and make it our own in the modern world. It is also to help us learn what we would have learned in Home Economics if it were still being taught in the schools.

One of the things I really enjoy about leading the Only Own Beautiful Clothes virtual retreats is helping the participants gain confidence in their ability to define and create their own personal style. They go in thinking that I’m going to tell them what to wear and end the retreat with a personal vision that reflects who they are as women.

You have taste. Let’s develop your confidence in it and figure out what to do with it!

Bear Rug, Optional

Dr. Julie-Ann — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:07:36 +0000

{The ultimate romantic getaway is right at home…}

Photo credits (all from Flickr.com):

Upper left: Better Homes & Gardens, January, 1951; SaltyCotton

Upper right: Household Magazine, 1952; SaltyCotton

Mid-left: Better Homes and Gardens, 1961; Vintage Goodness

Mid-center: Fireplace; t conway

Mid-right: Better Homes and Gardens, 1961: Vintage Goodness

Lower left: Better Homes and Gardens, 1961; Vintage Goodness

Lower right: Drawing Room Fireplace; Osborne House Bed and Breakfast

Modern Retro Recipe: Pizza Rustica

Dr. Julie-Ann — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:09:59 +0000

Dear Friends,

Like many people from large families, we draw names for Christmas gifts and put a $20-25 limit on how much we can spend on the gift (either for the actual gift or the supplies for said gift). This past Christmas, my youngest sister drew my name.

When I was spending a couple of days with my mother at her time share down by the beach in Orange County, we decided to go to this huge antique mall that is nearby. And that is when I saw it: The Gold Cookbook written in 1947 by Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy (with an introduction by Oscar of the Waldorf). Think of The Gold Cookbook as a cross between The Joy of Cooking and Julia Child.

Money was a bit tight for us at that time so I couldn’t justify buying another vintage cookbook. But my sister could…! I called her up and asked her if she would like to give the cookbook to me for Christmas. She liked the idea. My mother took care of all of the arrangements.

When I opened it on Christmas Eve, I feigned surprise and delight that she would know exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

Anyway, I was browsing through my new cookbook for a new egg and cheese recipe to try and found this recipe for “Pizza Rustica or Italian Ham and Sausage Pie.” When we lived in New Jersey, we got in the habit of calling a “pizza” a “pie.” This pizza really is a pie.

Immaculate Baking Co. All Natural Ready-to-Bake Pie Crusts; I let it come to room temperature for 40 minutes in its package--twice as long as the box recommends--before attempting to unroll it.

The kind of crust you use really makes a difference. I bought an “all natural” ready-to-bake pie crust made by Immaculate Baking Company at Whole Foods and was completely dissatisfied with it because the crust was dry and gritty. I should have known I was going to be unhappy with it when I had trouble unrolling it and it broke apart (yes, I brought it to room temperature) but used it anyway. I always tell clients to listen to their instincts! I wish I had listened to mine! I ended up scraping the leftover innards out of that pie crust and putting it into a homemade crust and re-baking the pie.

I was planning something different for dinner tonight but it is a rather windy and rainy day and I think I will make this pie, instead! It is perfect for a Winnie-the-Pooh kind of blustery day.

The original recipe calls for one pound of Italian ham and 1 pound of Italian sausage. Basically, you want a spicy ham and sausage. The level of spiciness is up to you. I found using Black Forest ham (slice 1/4″ thick at the deli) and mild Italian sausage (like they use on pizzas) to be perfect for us. Play around with the ham and sausage until you get the combo right for you.

Pizza Rustica

Ingredients:

1 pound Italian or spicy ham

1 pound Italian sausage

6 eggs

30 oz. carton ricotta cheese

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon dried parsley

salt and pepper to taste

2 – 9″ pie crusts (for top and bottom)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 450F. Cut the ham into small pieces.

Brown the sausage if it isn't already cooked.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl with a whisk.

Add the ricotta cheese to the eggs and continue whipping/beating until smooth.

When smooth, stir in the Parmesan cheese.

Then stir in the cinnamon, and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fold the ham and sausage into the cheese mixture. (Ironically, the original recipe forgot to mention this step)

Dump the filling into a pastry lined 9" pie plate. It will be mounded up but it settles as it bakes.

Cover with other pie pastry, crimp edges, and make a few slashes in the top. Bake at 450F. for 10 minutes; Reduce temperature to 350F and bake for another hour, or until the crust is golden brown.

We enjoyed it for dinner with artichoke hearts and a green salad but it would be perfect served for brunch, too.

When It Comes to Cotton, Use Chlorine Bleach Sparingly

Dr. Julie-Ann — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:02:21 +0000

Clorox bleach advertisement, c. 1960s; Image courtesy of bluwmongoose on Flickr.com

This post is inspired by a comment left on Home Ec 101′s Facebook page in response to her post about why we should wash our sheets regularly. The commenter said she washes her sheets every week with bleach..

I fell for the ads. You know, the ones where a family is wearing white clothes while they are out camping? Of course they are covered with mud and dirt and other camping remnants. Chlorine bleach to the rescue!

And so, faithfully over the years I added chlorine bleach to our white loads of laundry because I couldn’t bear the shame of dingy socks and underwear. And when they started looking a bit yellow, I just used a bit more bleach.

Until 2009, that is…

I took a textiles class as part of my custom clothing certificate. I think my 30-years-younger-than-me classmates thought something terrible had happened to me when I accidentally said out loud, “Oh…my…goodness!” during one of the lectures.

I didn’t mean to say it aloud. I really didn’t. But it was one of those life changing moments.

What did my professor say that was so life changing for me?

My professor put up a slide that quoted the textiles textbook (I was a bit behind in my reading *sheepish look*):

Use of chlorine bleach is appropriate for spot removal, but should not be used in regular laundering because excessive bleaching weakens cellulosic fibers (2007, Sara J. Kadloph, Textiles, 10th Edition, Pearson)

My regular use of the bleach was actually causing my whites to deteriorate and look dingy and yellow. And, I was not being a good steward of my money because I was shortening the life of those garments and had to replace them more frequently than if I hadn’t used the bleach.

You may have heard that the sun is the best way to bleach whites. Unfortunately, according to the textbook, the sun oxidizes cotton which degrades and turns it yellow, too.

Your Best Bet To Keep White Cottons White

Hard water is often a culprit in causing whites to look dingy. If this is the case, adding a water softener or conditioner such as baking soda or borax (which is also a sanitizer) will help prevent hard water minerals from clinging to your whites. Just follow the instructions on the box.

An oxygen based “bleach” such as Oxiclean does an amazing job of keeping things looking white. The chemists in the group will have to explain it all to me but essentially one of the ingredients turns into hydrogen peroxide when it hits the water. And, according to my sister’s best friend who is a delivery room nurse, hydrogen peroxide is what nurses use to keep their uniforms clean (and she became a nurse when they still wore those white uniforms and not scrubs). Oxiclean itself is pricey but you can get “generic” versions for much cheaper. That said, you don’t need much for it to do its good work.

As an aside, after I posted the laundry soap recipe yesterday, I discovered that variations on the recipe often include either baking soda and/or oxygen based bleach.

I also read on a laundry website that white vinegar is an effective pretreating method to get dingy clothing white again. I haven’t tried this method, so cannot verify the information. But, I thought I should throw it out there…

Bottom Line

Since giving up bleach, The Mister’s whites do seem to last a lot longer. If I remembered when putting in a load of white stuff, I would add either borax or baking soda. Since making my own laundry soap, though, I don’t seem to need to add anything except the Sun oxygen based bleach if The Mister’s clothes are really dirty (I really need to make him those coveralls I’ve been promising him for a couple of years now…).

I don’t miss the bleach…at all.

Why I Gave Up Tide Detergent (And All of the Others, Too)

Dr. Julie-Ann — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:18:54 +0000

I’m pretty sure I gasped quite loudly. Certainly, the lady standing near me in the laundry aisle turned and looked at me with a questioning look on her face. The price tag for the Tide Free and Gentle laundry detergent was almost $18.00. Over 40¢ a load. But I knew the other detergents either irritated The Mister’s skin or didn’t get his work clothes clean.

I grimaced as I put the box in the cart and vowed to find another way.

And I did.

Several years ago, I came across a post on The Simple Dollar blog about making your own laundry detergent, but it was for liquid detergent and I prefer powder. It also seemed like an involved process so I let it go.

I did another search for homemade laundry detergent after Christmas and was pleasantly surprised to find a post on DIYNatural about making a powdered version. Stacy Makes Cents also has liquid and powder recipes (I follow her on Facebook).

Homemade powdered laundry soap: Borax, Washing Soda, and Ivory Soap

The Ingredient List:

Armed with their information, I headed out to buy the entire list of ingredients:

Arm & Hammer Washing Soda ($3.99)
Borax ($3.38)
Ivory soap (10 pack of 4.5 ounce size for $5.79)

Yep. That’s it! Three measly ingredients.

Now, the washing soda (not to be confused with their baking soda) can be a bit tricky to find in some parts of the country. I picked mine up at an ACE affiliated hardware store because I knew they had it (if they don’t have any in stock, they can order it for you and there is no charge for the shipping). I also found a tag for it (but not boxes) at a Super Walmart for about 50¢ cheaper.

Now the Borax is the same stuff that has been around forever with all sorts of household uses. Shop around for this. I’ve seen it at Target and Ralphs/Kroger for over $7.00 and other places for what I paid for it at Walmart.

I opted to use Ivory soap instead of Fels-Naptha. I know there are other laundry soaps and Octagon is a favorite, but I didn’t see any of the other soaps. People seemed to be happy with their results using Ivory and it is what we use to bathe, so I decided to go that route. Keep in mind as you decide which soap to use that many people commented that soaps with moisturizers, such as Dove, caused problems for them.

The Recipe And How To Make It

Homemade Laundry Soap Recipe

1 Bar of Soap

1 Cup of Borax

1 Cup of Washing Soda

You’ll love how easy this is…

Grate the soap. Almost all of the tutorials I read or watched on You Tube, showed people grating their soap by hand. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen for me.

I got out the food processor. My grandmother used to wash dishes with Ivory, I just figured that I would make sure I got the thing good and clean before using it for food again.

Grate your soap in the food processor.

Put the blade in the processor and the other lid on. Turn it on.

Add the powders through the hole in the lid.

Feed the powder through the lid with the processor running.

You will get a consistency very similar to store-bought laundry powders.

What it will look like after it has been processed

I keep mine stored in the old Tide box and use a coffee scoop (1/8 cup or 2 Tablespoons) for measuring.

It takes about 3 minutes (plus processor washing time) to make up a batch of this laundry soap.

We’ve been using this soap since January 6th and I have to say that I absolutely love, love, love it. We have very hard water so I use one or two scoops depending upon what I’m washing. If The Mister’s work clothes are extra dirty, I just add a scoop of Sun oxy cleaner (which is basically powdered hydrogen peroxide). Note: I add it to the washer and let the soap dissolve before I add my clothes.

Week 1: I notice that there are some residual suds coming out of the clothes. No wonder the previous detergent has been irritating the skin.

Week 2: The Mister’s new work socks smell a bit like petroleum…it makes sense since they have a petroleum by-product fiber in them (polyester). Makes me wonder if the other detergent was cleaning or just masking smells. I also notice that the optic additives that make clothes seem brighter (and mask stains) are washing out.

Week 3: The clothes smell like…nothing! They are also quite soft and look very clean. Even The Mister’s work clothes. I notice that The Mister hasn’t been scratching himself due to detergent irritation.

Does It Save Me Money?

Using the recipe above, a cup of the soap is about 47¢ (based on what I paid for the ingredients; each batch makes about 3 cups of soap). That comes out to about 6¢ a scoop. Even using two scoops and some Sun oxy cleaner, I’m paying less than 20¢ a load. The Tide was over 40¢ a load. So, yes, I’m saving money. A lot over the long run.

But, more important, there is a sense of satisfaction from using my own homemade soap (it feels so retro) and it is more eco-respectful.

Bottom Line:

I don’t think we’ll ever go back to store bought laundry detergent.

Have you ever tried homemade laundry soap?

Just Add One Firkin of Lemon Lime Soda to One Runlet of Cranberry Juice

Dr. Julie-Ann — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:05:53 +0000

Mystery Salad recipe found in my grandmother's green recipe box. Personal collection.

Dear Friends,

Unearthing old family or magazine recipes can be fun. But they often cause consternation because they use measurement terms that aren’t common anymore. For instance, if you use the recipe in the title, you will end up with 27 gallons of punch.*

So, where can you go to translate some of those vintage measurements into modern terms? The trusty Old Farmer’s Almanac website, that’s where. Since they’ve been around since 1792, they’ve seen measurements come and go. Their website has several different pages that offer measurement conversions (including metric equivalencies).

One of the recipe roadblocks I’ve run into with Depression and War era recipes is the use of numbers for can size instead of the modern method of indicating ounces. For example, a recipe often will call for a #2 size can of tomatoes. In modern terms, a #2 size can is the same as 2 1/2 cups or 20 ounces. The food historians at The Food Timeline help us understand the history of these terms and how to translate it into modern cooking terms. They have a whole bunch of PDF’s that can be downloaded/printed out for easy referencing.

I’ve received a lot of letters from readers who feel intimidated by vintage recipes because of the outdated terminology. I’m here to encourage you to go ahead and give them a try! We have this vision of our grandmothers spending hours in the kitchen creating these complicated dishes when, in fact, most older recipes are actually rather simple in comparison to modern cooking show creations. In most cases, the hard part is figuring out the modern measurement equivalent.

By the way, The Mister says he can understand how “firkin” fell out of favor but he kind of likes “runlet…”

To your modern retro life!

Dr. Julie-Ann

*Truth be told, the original recipe, from the 1950s, only called for two quarts of cranberry juice and a quart of lemon lime soda topped with two cups of frozen strawberries. I don’t have any recipes that call for firkins or runlets.

1961 Built-In Home Office

Dr. Julie-Ann — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:20:13 +0000

Better Homes and Gardens, 1961 - Built-in Office; Image courtesy of VintageGoodness on Flickr.com

I’ve been attacking paperwork all weekend. The Mister and I have been wondering if the advent of computers has actually made life more complex rather than simple.

My grandparents had a built-in desk in their den (complete with lift-out shelf for the typewriter). Everything they needed was contained within that desk.

Today, I’m yearning for that level of simplicity.

Retro Super Bowl Party Ideas

Dr. Julie-Ann — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:46:27 +0000

Hosting a Super Bowl party? No need to buy those cheap plastic football doo-dads at Party City! Go retro with these football party ideas…

Special Cheese Tray Idea, c1964; From 50 Wonderful Ways To Use Cheese, a promotional booklet put out by The American Dairy Association; "Football fans will tear down the grandstand-- if you build it with cheese! This platter, with a simple football field design on green paper, with cheese and olives ingeniously used as players, makes a perfect snack tray for before and after game parties. The clever hostess can develop similar ideas for other events." Image courtesy of alsis35 on Flickr.com

Coca Cola Ad from 1951; Image courtesy of Paul Malon on Flickr.com

"He-man host dinner of corned beef and cabbage lets Dad entertain his pals in great form." "Better Homes & Gardens" December 1958; Image courtesy of SaltyCotton on Flickr.com

Line-Up For Leisure, 1946; Image courtesy of Paul Malon on Flickr.com

I love, love, love the cheese platter but I think my favorite idea is the sterling silver football-shaped ice bucket. Do you have any retro-themed ideas for Super Bowl Sunday?

Let Us Make Bread Together (On Our Knees) Part 2

Dr. Julie-Ann — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 18:49:10 +0000

When we left my bread making adventure the other day, we wondered whether the bread would continue to rise enough for us to have it with dinner that night.

It didn’t.

Around 6:00, the dough had finally risen.

Punched down and shaped before resting for 15 minutes.

Dough cut into four loaves.

I tucked them all into their respective loaf pans and covered them with their plastic wrap blankets. The Mister said it looked like a nursery. We waited. And we waited. Finally around 11:00 they had doubled in size. I forgot to take a photo before putting them in the refrigerator. I was tired and wasn't going to stay up to bake bread. I'm not THAT dedicated!

The poor guys didn't like being in the fridge. They got all shrivelly. I took them out to bring them back to room temperature. In theory, it should just take a couple of hours for it to come to room temperature and the yeast be all happy and gassy again. So, I took them out at 7:30 in the morning and it took until almost 5:00 for them to get back to baking condition. *sheesh!* Good thing I wasn't in a hurry or anything!

Still not as high as I would have liked but they were going in! The one on the right was our little runt loaf. He was The Mister's favorite.

Forty-five minutes later, not perfect looking but everyone was happy and the house smelled fabulous!

Dumped out of their pans.

Cooling their heels.

It was worth the wait. The time in the refrigerator acted as a yeast retarder so that would have more time to do something or another with the net result of a tangier flavor. Perfect!