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 . . . → Read More: Modern Retro Recipe: Pizza Rustica]]>

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

Pizza Rustica

Ingredients:

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.

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.  . . . → Read More: When It Comes to Cotton, Use Chlorine Bleach Sparingly]]>

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.

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 . . . → Read More: Just Add One Firkin of Lemon Lime Soda to One Runlet of Cranberry Juice]]>

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.

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 . . . → Read More: 1961 Built-In Home Office]]>

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.

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-- . . . → Read More: Retro Super Bowl Party Ideas]]>

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?

It didn’t.

Around 6:00, the dough had finally risen.

Punched down and shaped before resting for 15 minutes.

Dough cut into four . . . → Read More: Let Us Make Bread Together (On Our Knees) Part 2]]>

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!

New Year’s Day is just a few days away.  About 20 years ago, I learned of the Southern tradition of serving Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day to bring good luck.  What I’ve learned over the years is that there are about as many versions of Hoppin’ John as . . . → Read More: Modern Retro Recipe: Hoppin’ John]]>

Modern Retro Recipes Winter Edition!

New Year’s Day is just a few days away.  About 20 years ago, I learned of the Southern tradition of serving Hoppin’ John on New Year’s Day to bring good luck.  What I’ve learned over the years is that there are about as many versions of Hoppin’ John as there our regions in the South.

This recipe, included in the Winter Edition of the Modern Retro Recipes eNewsletter, is adapted from two New Year’s Day recipes in the United States Regional Cookbook, published in 1939.  One recipe, called “Hopping John,” is made from red cow peas, rice, and salt pork.  The other is called “Hog Jowl and Black-Eyed Peas” and is made up of just those two ingredients plus water.

Since I’m not sure I even WANT to buy a hog jowl, I use ham hocks instead.  I also add chopped onion and some pepper flakes for a bit of a kick that the original recipes don’t use.

Click here to download a free copy of the recipe in PDF format for your Modern Retro Recipes notebook: Hoppin’ John

For more great winter recipes, visit the Modern Retro Recipes eNewsletter page!

The December/January issue of Modern Retro Recipes contains nineteen pages of retro and vintage recipes with photos and step by step directions!   I once again delve into my grandmother’s green recipe box for many of the recipes in this issue.  There are a few holiday oriented recipes but most can be enjoyed all winter long.

Note: I know the formatting is wonky.  I’ve just spent the past 15 minutes trying to fix it.  There are just some days when the blog has a mind of its own…

Hoppin' John

Hoppin’ John

Ingredients

1 pound package of black-eyed peas
3 pound ham hock, cut crosswise by butcher
1 medium onion, chopped
Pepper flakes, to taste
1 1/2 cups uncooked long-grain brown rice

Method

Soak beans according to package directions.

Add ham hock and onion to the rehydrated beans.

Add enough water to cover.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook until beans and  are tender and the meat is falling off of the bone, about 2 hours.

Remove meat from bone, chop and return to pot.

Add  rice and continue cooking for another hour.

Add pepper flakes to taste and serve.

Illustration from Mode-Maker Metal Business Furniture catalog, circa 1960; Image courtesy of wackystuff on Flickr.com

A huge number of our modern retro homemaking sisters (including myself) have dual careers. Contrary to popular belief  that “the woman’s place was in the home,” there is a long history of homemakers also working outside of . . . → Read More: Dual Career Homemakers]]>

Dear Friends,

Illustration from Mode-Maker Metal Business Furniture catalog, circa 1960; Image courtesy of wackystuff on Flickr.com

A huge number of our modern retro homemaking sisters (including myself) have dual careers. Contrary to popular belief  that “the woman’s place was in the home,” there is a long history of homemakers also working outside of the home. In fact, both of my grandmothers had successful non-homemaking careers!  My maternal grandmother was an astute businesswoman who owned two beauty parlors in Los Angeles and my paternal grandmother worked in the business offices of Sears.  It was quite common for working class homemakers to work in offices or department stores, as teachers or nurses, and domestics among other things.  And, despite barriers, there were many women in the professions before “the women’s movement” took hold.  Before the lines between home and office became so delineated, women worked side by side with their husbands in family businesses and, of course, on farms and dairies.

My point?  Being an ideal 1950s homemaker–the Donna Reed Homemaking Ideal– plays out differently for each woman.  The common denominator is that we view ourselves as homemakers, first, and everything else, second.

Modern society likes to pit people against each other in a black and white world.  Culture wars make it seem like dual career homemakers are engaging in dueling careers and that one or both careers are suffering because of it.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.

My version of The Donna Reed Homemaking Ideal will be very different than someone else’s version.  It doesn’t make my version right and her’s wrong.  It is just different.

For instance, there is a strong possibility that I will be returning to teaching full-time again.  However, these past few years of learning how to be a homemaker have taught me that I can seamlessly integrate the two careers.  Now I know that I can create a healthy and delicious dinner in less time (and cheaper) than stopping for take-out or going out to eat.  I’ve learned how to streamline my homekeeping so that it isn’t devouring hours of my time.  And, now I view teaching as a means of showing people how much I care about them and not just a job.

Working both in the home and outside the home doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.  No matter our circumstances, modern retro women understand the joy and satisfaction of being homemakers, first.

To your fabulous Technicolor life!

Dr. Julie-Ann