Vintage Cookbooks

To state it simply, I love cookbooks! I especially adore vintage cookbooks. I learned to cook from my mother and two cookbooks: Betty Crocker's Cookbook (23rd printing 1974, copyright 1969) and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook revised by Wilma Lord Perkins (Eleventh Edition, 1965). My mother gave me the basic building blocks of cooking and the two cookbooks taught me the many structures that could be created. One of the reasons I love vintage cookbooks so much is that they don't insult your intelligence. They expect that you can debone meat, mix batters by hand, and chop, slice, and mince with your own knife. I no longer wonder that most Americans no longer know how to cook from scratch when many of today's cookbooks use as many convenience items as possible and advertise that all of your meals can be cooked in 30 minutes or less. There are popular chefs whose cookbooks do not follow this trend, but I fear their cookbooks end up being coffee table books rather than kitchen staples. I hope I am wrong, but with the number of people who tell me they don't know how to cook makes me worry.

Another thing lacking in many newer cookbooks is taste. Boneless, skinless meat should only be used to a certain extent. Cooks should not fear putting oil or butter in their pan rather than spray oil. Vintage cookbooks give me the recipes as people used to make them, full of flavor and style, but with out pretension. And after cooking a while, you can be your own judge of whether that recipe you want to try really needs a whole stick of butter or a whole cup of heavy cream. I approach vintage cookbooks as I approach all recipes - I adapt them to my own tastes or those of my guests.

So, my favorite cream of mushroom soup recipe is adapted from a Fannie Farmer recipe. I cut the butter and the cream. I usually use half-and-half rather than cream because that's typically what I have in my refrigerator. My favorite chicken potpie recipe is actually my mother’s, which she adapted from Betty Crocker. If you limit yourself to what is exactly in a recipe, you will get bored in your kitchen quickly. That said, vintage cookbooks are the land of "new" ideas and invention. There is a greater variety of ingredients in comparison to today's limited diet.

My current library of "vintage" cookbooks (and I suppose I use that liberally, since some are from the 60s) includes:

Betty Crocker's Cookbook by General Mills, Inc; copyright 1969, printed 1974.
The Fannie Farmer Cookbook revised by Wilma Lord Perkins; copyright 1965.
[I want to get this book in its older editions as well and compare the recipes.]
The American Heritage Cookbook by the editors of American Heritage, copyright 1964.
Sweets [appears to be by Lydia E. Pinkham's Medicines, no date is given]
The Metropolitan Cook Book by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, printed 1925.
Choice Recipes: How To Operate a Fireless Cookstove by Toledo Cooker Company, copyright 1920.
Victory Cook Book: How to Eat Well... Live Well... Plan Balanced Meals... under Food Rationing by Lysol Disinfectant, copyright 1943 [and free with purchase of Lysol].
Everybody's Cook Book published by The Haskin Service, (no date, but was printed during WWII).
The next two I just received for Christmas from my brother, Kurt, and his wife, Jenny.
Modern Priscilla Cookbook: 1,000 Recipes and Cooking Methods by The Priscilla Publishing Company, copyright 1929.
The Wine Cook Book by The Browns (Cora, Rose and Bob), copyright 1951.

My new favorite sentence is: "Cookery becomes an art when judgment, skill, creative ability and a fine appreciation of flavors enter into it." [Quoted from Modern Priscilla Cookbook] Finally I have proof that I am artistic - with food!

Happiness

I've become the source of many negative comments and diatribes lately. As such, I thought it was best to start thinking of positive things (a la Crazy Aunt Purl, sort of...)

Example--
Negative: Does Maine even have a summer? It went from spring to fall.
Positive: Mmm, fall food! Rosemary, potatoes, squash, turnips, hearty breads, warm stews, spiced desserts, the list goes on and on. And I can knit too!

I got three family recipes from my mom recently - white bread, Swedish rye bread, and nut bread. I've found I need an oven thermometer. My first batch of white bread looked done, but was doughy in the center. The second batch, after reducing the temperature, was right (or so the people I gave it to told me). I will have to explore some new grocery stores as the one I currently frequent does not carry rye flour. I'm sad, but will persevere. My first batch of nut bread is a little burnt on the outside. I know I can bake, I just have to learn more about my oven so that I can work properly with it. (See me not swearing about said oven, but telling myself that I can work with it? I'm not even going to use the "cooking headaches" label for this post. That's positive thinking... at least for me it is. Don't tell me if it really isn't positive thinking because I don't want to hear it).

A Month?!

So, my work has been keeping me busy lately and I have sorely neglected not only my blog, but also the essence of this blog and one of the things that brings me happiness in this world. Most of the cooking in my kitchen, as of late, either doesn't count as cooking (though I am enjoying what I call my "European" meals) or is quick cooking, which I don't find interesting to blog about (hello breakfasts of fried egg sandwiches). I'm tired and feeling a little worn out.

Perhaps sensing my exhaustion, my alarm clock chose this morning to not go off. It's a random occurrence (trust me, I couldn't sleep through the thing) that has me baffled. I got to work late and rebelliously left "early" (meaning before seven). I got home early enough to take my dog for a nice walk. I met a lovely woman who liked talking about dogs, so we walked with her a while, even though Magellen was seriously annoyed that we were sauntering along rather than briskly trotting from tree to tree. Sensing his annoyance (and tired of having him trying to pull my arm out of its socket) we turned around, quickly walked home and I even had time to go to the grocery store!

You should see my fridge. It is the saddest sight ever! You know the scene in Bridget Jones when she's eating her depression away? That's what my fridge looks like, but without the Parmesan and with a gigantic jar of green olives. I didn't buy a ton tonight, no point since I still have at least one week of absolute craziness at work. I was also riding my bike, and I can only carry so much on my back.

Though it's not a cooking feat and I've posted about it before, I made Cream of Mushroom Soup tonight. Yum. I can't tell you how much my body relaxed while I slowly chopped up the 3/4 pound of mushrooms. The Riesling I bought might have helped a bit too, but I had some wine this past weekend and I didn't feel nearly as calm and centered as I did tonight while cooking. I have a chicken in the fridge right now waiting for tomorrow night when I'm going to bake it (probably cut up so that it cooks faster) and serve it with lemon sauce from Betty Crocker. (Not that crappy low fat version in more recent books, but the one from the 70s). I bought some green beans and I have some small potatoes that I plan on serving with it. ("Serving" - to me, there isn't anyone else here to enjoy it).

It's been suggested by multiple family members that I become a chef, but when I get down to cooking and pondering that thought, I think it wouldn't make me happy. I enjoy taking my time, cooking something that I want to make, being creative, and not having the stress of anyone waiting (unless that's family members and I can always tell them to eat a snack while I finish the meal). I think I would enjoy writing a cookbook and I have an idea or two in my head along that line. Maybe cooking for an in-home party once in a while might be fun, but I'll have to find people who could afford me to come and make a mess in their kitchen. I'd clean up afterwards, even; as much as I dislike cleaning up.

I did spend the first two weeks of August in San Francisco, though during the week I was dealing with teenagers and work stuff. I got the weekend to look around San Francisco a bit. It was nice. I had a couple really good meals, one absolutely amazing meal (which are on my "must blog about" list). For now, though, here are a few pictures from my trip to cold and foggy San Francisco.

Random Topics and Some Vegetable Goodness

Yesterday I went to the farmer's market with a coworker. They finally have vegetables. I say finally because I'm sure in Wisconsin the stands have been up and running for some time now, but here in Maine it's cool, rainy, and just not sunny enough for the things to grow quite as quickly. Truth be told, I want some hot weather, but I don't think that's going to happen. Back to the subject at hand, though: vegetables! I bought some fresh basil (expensive! holy lord, don't people know basil grows and grows and paying that much money for it is just insane? Alas, my apartment doesn't get enough direct sun to grow my own.) I also bought some tiny potatoes (they had a name, I can't remember it - not finger potatoes), lettuce, and pattypan squash. I got home eager to use some of my new purchases. I also had a tomato that needed eating (see how it's kind of wrinkly?):



This was the resulting dinner.


I put the potatoes whole in a pan of water, brought it to a boil, added some kosher salt, and cooked until tender.
For the squash and tomato, I combined it with hot capicola, garlic, and fresh basil. It was quite good. Here are the "recipes:"

Pattypan Squash Saute

4 thin slices hot capicola (a type of ham), sliced into strips
1 tbsp olive oil
4 small garlic cloves, crushed
3 pattypan squash, trimmed and cut into thin wedges
1 roma tomato, seeded, halved and sliced thin
1/4 c basil, shredded
freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Heat skillet over medium to medium-high heat.
Add capicola and cook until browned.
Add olive oil.
Once oil is hot, add garlic and cook until fragrant.
Scrape the capicola and garlic to the side and spread the pattypan wedges over the bottom of the pan.
Allow to brown on one side, then turn and brown on the other side.
At the last minute, add tomato, basil, black pepper and salt.
Stir to combine and serve.

Basil Dressing for Potatoes

1 large leaf basil, chopped
2 tbsp sour cream
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp honey
freshly ground black pepper

Put ingredients in a sealable container, seal and shake until combined. Pour over warm potatoes.

WARNING: AN UGLY SIGHT AHEAD

This is the truth of how my kitchen looks after cooking.


I've been doing a lot of sewing lately. I made two wrap skirts without a pattern. It's very simple really. Buy a length of fabric that will fit around you once and then some. Mine fit around one and a half times. After washing the fabric, wrap the length of fabric around yourself and find the length you want the skirt to be. Mark that (my fabric had stripes so it was easy to cut a straight line across), and cut off the excess. Make sure the vertical edges are straight (almost never are when you bring it home from the fabric store), and hem three sides. The unhemmed side will be the top. I used the cut off portion to make ties for this green one:

To make the ties, I cut the extra bit in half. Then I folded that over on itself, sewed it up mostly (except about 1 or 2 inches), turned it inside out, closed the hole and did some detail stitching at the end to match the detail stitching it did at the ends of the skirt. I sewed one tie to each end of the top of the skirt. I also made an orange one, but I still need to add ties to that one. Also, I didn't hem it, but did a zigzag stitch on the three sides and washed it so that the edges would fray a bit. I'll probably replicate that with the ties when I get around to making them.

And now... some random pictures:

Inside of a boat.


Street musicians in Portland.


Clouds over the ocean.


Magellen's new throne, my books. (Sad, really. All those books and I don't own a single bookshelf).


(I know I still owe you the Jamaican chicken (or beef) recipe...)

New England, my new home

When I first moved to Maine, this is what greeted me. When I came to interview there was a horrible snow storm that dumped slush from the sky. I've seen slush on the ground, not falling from the sky. When I moved here, another huge storm hit. I started wondering if I would ever see sun in this place.


For a while I lived in Boston, so here are a couple images:



I also took an evening trip out to Providence to see a lovely friend of mine. I took almost no pictures, but I did get a picture of the State Capital Building.


My brother and sister-in-law invited me to go house hunting with them one weekend. I walked into one kitchen and it was eerily like my parents' kitchen...

...right down to the ugly floor...


I recently went up to Boothbay Harbor with my brother and sister-in-law. It was very cute. I took my dog because I wanted him to be able to get out and run around. We never actually made it to a place where he could run free, but he had lots of fun whining and yelping for sympathy as we went into shops or had the nerve to stop walking for a few seconds. He did get to beg for food though...





And some more pictures, just because:

Honey Mustard Sauce and Excuses

I'm afraid that both parts of this post will be boring. The more boring part: excuses:

For not posting often enough:
I'm preparing to move across the country and have been extremely busy.

For not having photos:
I'm lazy, plus see the note above.

For not having my homework ready to hand in:
I did it, I must have left it on the kitchen table.

The less boring part: my experiment with making a honey mustard sauce:
I suppose the easy thing to do would have been to find a recipe in a cookbook, but after shopping all day Saturday (I hate shopping, except for shoe shopping or when I have a specific item that I NEED to buy. The latter has a maximum time limit of 2 hours to ensure that I don't lose all brain function) and then moving my boxes out of the attic for a good part of Sunday, I didn't even think to look in a cookbook. I just took the pork tenderloin and butterflied it. I dry roasted some yellow mustard seed (about 1 tbsp) in a small cast iron pan, allowed it to cool, and crushed in plastic wrap with a meat mallet. I fried a large white onion in a pan, added the crushed mustard, then added the tenderloin to brown. I figured it was cooking too quickly, so I put two cups of chicken broth and a quarter cup of honey in the pan. It was at this point that I realized that I was near ruining pork tenderloin.

Luckily, mom was there to save the meal. She took the pork out and put it in a dry cast iron pan to brown (and get rid of that porky smell). Then she instructed me to start the sauce separately because the pork had left nasty little balls in the sauce (gross). This time I started with 1/3 cup of prepared Dijon mustard (the other stuff hadn't even smelled like anything), slowly added 2 cups of chicken broth and then whisked in 1/4 c honey. I think I added salt and pepper as well. When it had boiled a bit, mom deglazed the browning pan with a bit of water and added it to the sauce. Then I added a bit of cornstarch/water mixture until it was thick enough to glaze. We put the pork in the sauce and allowed it to sit, covered, but without heat until we were finished preparing the accompanying dishes (corn and mashed potatoes).

Perhaps it was my mood that made me not love this dish, but my dad seemed to really like it. I'll have to try again, perhaps with tenderloin that is grilled (tenderloin tastes best grilled) and using the sauce as an accompaniment rather than the sauce in which it cooks.

Spring, Part Deux - Foliage Revenge

Another picture heavy post. We have a new Nikon D80 in our house. Oh my, how I love it. The sparrows are very lively these past few days. We can see them finding mates and collecting twigs and stems from last year's flowers and herbs for their nests. We've cleaned out the bird houses and hope to have another family of house sparrows dwelling outside the picture window in the kitchen. We also put another one near the bird feeders. The plants are starting to pop up in the garden, as well. This is Dragon's Blood Sedum, which can be used (I think) for a green roof. The tulips, which we've planted in the grass for two reasons. Once they've finished blooming, you can just mow them down. Also, you don't risk digging them up while planting other plants in your garden. The crocus have also come up and are in full bloom.
And we dyed eggs, because they're so pretty, but we got a package of dying tablets that had problems. The red wouldn't dye anything, so we added some drops of red food coloring to that water. The purple wasn't purple, it was blue. We added red to that, too, and ended up with a horrible puce color. That egg ended up in blue dye, thus the multitude of blue eggs. I think next year I'm going to try natural dyes. Red cabbage, onion skins, spinach water... I think those would be really pretty. But what made me happiest of all? The mint is coming up again! I think when I own my own house, I'm going to get rid of all the grass and just plant a bunch of mint. It's so beautiful and it smells wonderful. It makes fabulous tea. I also use it to make a minted simple syrup which I then put in flavored, iced black tea.

The Arrival of Spring

As most bloggers, journalists, and most everyone are pointing out, spring has arrived. It's absolutely gorgeous outside. (Though, that does mean I've lost my bet with my mother that we would get at least one more day of below thirty degree weather. I now owe her a Chocolate Martini. I suppose I'll just have to buy my own Vodka Martini so that she doesn't have to drink alone.) It's so nice outside that we grilled out. Hamburgers (with crushed black pepper and salt), topped with pan-fried onions (done to golden brown perfection) and tomatoes (we actually found some in the store that smelled like actual tomatoes), cooked corn (just the frozen kind, it's been so long since we've had that. I forgot how good corn is), and black pepper kettle chips. It was delicious. I'm now looking forward to the days of hot weather where I sit outside in a tank top and skirt, drinking wine (or a Long Island Iced Tea) and grilling because it's just too hot to cook inside. While I don't have any photographs of our food, I am going to share (a lot of) pictures from something else I enjoy. Running our dogs at the public hunting grounds.
Lichen on one of the most wonderful oak trees. It's still very small, but that tree has so much character. I admit, I have a strange affinity for trees.
The moss is growing and thriving again. I loved that there were still leaves from last year laying on top of it. Of course, my dog wanted to know why I was kneeling down. He trampled the moss. Poor moss.

This is my dog. Cute, huh? Needless to say, he and the other dogs got baths when we came home, but did they enjoy the run. Usually we only walk along the ridge at the beginning of the path. I decided to take them to the back area, which meant going through some pretty swampy areas. This was at the beginning of the low-lying part of the path. It gets a lot more wet. As in, I stepped in the wrong spot and the water came half-way up my calf.

It was a foggy morning and I found some pussy willow covered in dew.

This is our oldest female dog right before she and the others started hunting frogs. In the winter they hunt mice. In the spring, frogs apparently. She and the other female dog (not pictured) are trained to hunt pheasant. Unfortunately, the pheasant population in Wisconsin is dismal. They are also quite good at hunting sparrows in the backyard. I once laughed while telling a guy that I saw someone teaching their dog to hunt squirrels on my university's campus. He didn't think it was funny. Apparently he fed those squirrels.

The Red-winged Blackbirds are back. Soon I'll be riding my bike along the country highways with these birds screaming at me to get away from their territory while I make my slow, arduous way up a steep hill. It's not very good for my personal morale, you know?

And, finally, some more trees. I do love when the seasons change.

My favorite tools

Erin, over at A Dress a Day (see sidebar), had a recent post about appreciating your tools. Whilst making Swedish Meatballs this evening, I realized that I had chosen my favorite kitchen tools. I love this fish spatula because it allows me to get beneath even the most stubborn things. Pancakes? No problem. Meatballs? Easy. Fish? Uh, what's that? Oh, that sea meat you make about once a month? Is that what I'm intended for? I had no idea! What a concept!

The tongs, oh the tongs. Now, my mother tends to reach for these tiny plastic tongs that I think she got with a take-out meal sometime in the past. Those have melted edges. She teases me about how I always choose the largest implement possible to do whatever job I need done. (My dad, on the other hand, chooses the smallest. Seeing him stirring a pot with a teaspoon -the type you eat with, not measure with- is NOT an uncommon sight.) I think I'm about the only person who regularly grabs these tongs. Everyone else seems to hate them because they claim they pinch. I suppose when you don't understand that you should grip the tongs about halfway up instead of at the pivot, that's your punishment. :)

My mother used to have one of those wooden rolling pins with the handles. You know the type? That makes a slight rattling noise as you flatten something (or in this case, crush some crackers into powder)? I loved that! But I also love this rolling pin. It's fabulous.

The timer (ticking type in the mid-ground, not the digital one in the background). My mom has always used these, and like most people, I feel what's good for mom is good for me. I love the sound of this thing slowly clocking how long my meal has been cooking. We use the digital one when the times exceed one hour. It's good, but I check it constantly to make sure it's still counting down the time. No reassuring ticking there.

A while back I posted about a broccoli dish and in the photo of the beautiful vegetable was my favorite knife. A butcher's knife. I love that thing. Again, biggest possible instrument for the job. I'll probably end up married to a really big guy, but love him to death for all the things he can do for me with such vast capabilities compared to all those tiny men! (And there are a LOT of them around, aren't there? I'm not a huge woman, but I am slightly tall and not small boned or fleshed and it makes finding a guy really difficult. I would love to let go of inhibitions and be one of those big women with a small man, but it's just not in me. I can't help but imagine squashing him like a bug between my fingers.)

Perhaps I've had one glass of wine too many tonight....

The requisite introduction:

My name is Kristen. I like to cook. And sometimes bake. And I usually mutter to myself while doing both, thus the name. I find experimenting in the kitchen rewarding, especially when those eating the creations actually enjoy them. So this blog is dedicated to the successes and failures of my kitchen. Perhaps it will help me to remember the likes and dislikes of those I feed. I have friends who can't eat spicy food (never forget to inform heat-intolerant people that the skin of the baked chicken is rubbed with copious amounts of red pepper); my mother has an aversion to strong lemon or sour flavors and alcohols of most kinds in entrees (forgot that when serving her a dish with a sauce made almost entirely of wine and lemon juice...oops); our family also includes the lactose-intolerant and those on salt and sugar-free diets. Holidays have become an interesting time of attempting to feed everyone something they can or will actually eat. Most of the year, however, I spend time cooking for me, and those I live with basically tolerate my experimentation or personal tastes while making occassional requests for "something normal...like meatloaf?"