Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Thrifty Acres: Let's Party Like It's 1958 - Part Two

Hello! As promised in my previous post, another look into some entertaining trends 60 years ago, courtesy of the Good Housekeeping Party Book.

My Part One post featured occasions in which there was a "guest of honor", like a mom, dad, mother-to-be or a child. So for this post, I thought it'd be fun to feature more general events. There's no shortage of ideas for round-the-clock, all-year-round gatherings!

For example, we're currently in the summer months, where outdoor entertaining is the norm. Anyone up for a Fashionable Five-O'Clock Party? "Slightly wilted businessmen, and ladies in full skirts and broad-brimmed hats, drop in for a cool drink before dinner...To forget the heat, the ladies and gentlemen languidly play darts." The only "food" at this event, apparently, was bits of fruit to eat and champagne or ginger ale to drink.

Rather just have "the girls" over? Then it's time for a Sociable Morning Session: "Brunettes sunbathe, and blondes relax in the shade of the forenoon, while they catch up on chatter or neglected darning...Serve refreshments from Junior's wagon, rigged up like an Italian street vendor's cart...To forget the heat, ask each guest to bring along the morning paper for reading aloud". Iced coffee and gingerbread were on the menu. 

Want a bigger spread for your outdoor event? How about a barbeque? Ten such parties are mapped out, from a Share-The-Cost Dinner (everyone brings their own steak) to a Progressive Patio Party to a Fresh-Air Buffet (barbequed lamb shanks were the main course).

Then there's a Dozen Perfect Little Picnics, such as the Berry-Picking Picnic, a Sunrise Picnic, and a Lazy Day Picnic in which all the foods come from the store. But perhaps the most unusual of these is the Spaghetti Picnic: "A nice change from the usual picnic fare. Cook spaghetti at picnic; carry sauce in pot to warm over fire. Carry salad in vegetable crisper..." Huh? Here I'd always thought picnic food tended to be easy to serve - hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, brownies, stuff like that. Somehow cooking and draining spaghetti at a picnic spot, and warming the sauce over a fire, seems like a hassle to me! 

And for Weekends Of Fun In A Cabin, there's a number of meals the hosts can serve to their guests, such as Tray Breakfasts (set food out for guests to serve themselves), We're Going To Live At The Beach (a spaghetti dinner on Saturday) and Sunday Dinner. The latter sounds rather formal: pork chops, rice, beets with spinach, sliced cucumber salad, cake and ice cream. Another Sunday Dinner features creamy lamb stew, and after a Berry-Picking Spree, a veal chop dinner awaited. 

The only casual-sounding dinner was the one that followed We're Going To Spend A Lot Of Time Fishing. It must have been assumed that the fisherfolk wouldn't be successful, for no fish appears on the menu. Instead, it's country-style hash, chili sauce, garlic bread, a lettuce salad, a choice of several light desserts, and beverages. 

Of course, there's three other seasons of the year, and naturally the Good Housekeeping Party Book know about them too. Several table centerpiece suggestions per season are offered. If it's a fall, a Little Luncheon table could show off red or yellow carnations, or dried grasses, or bayberries or sumac. Simple arrangements, but the meal itself doesn't sound so simple: Mixed Grill of Sausages,Peach Halves and Spiced Prunes, Tossed Water Cress with French Dressing, Hot Buttered Toasted Sprinkled With Parmesan Cheese, cake, pie or ice cream options and Coffee. 

If this is a "Little Luncheon", I'd hate to see the menu for a big one!

For either a fall or winter dinner, Mrs. Busy Citizen can serve Chicken a l'Orange, Herb Peas With Zucchini, Tossed Greens With Ripe Olives, Broiled Buttered Rye Crisp, Glazed Chocolate Angel Food and Coffee. All this, with a table centerpiece that might feature white gardenias, red and pink carnations, or a bird cage filled with roses or freesia. 

I'm not sure where "Mrs. Busy Citizen" was supposed to find the time to cook that sumptuous meal and arrange the table centerpiece, but we are told that the cake and chicken can be prepared ahead of time.

Lastly, spring! Yellow tulips, daffodils, white lilacs, violets, forget-me-nots, magnolias: these all sound like very typical flowers for that season. So perhaps to be different, it's also suggested that the hostess can create arrangements using fresh parsley or young carrot plants (seeds sown 4-5 weeks in advance of the event). 

And to serve with these pretty posies or feathery greens? Well, there's a Favorite With The Girls: Cheese Souffle, Asparagus Vinaigrette or Green-Bean Salad, Toasted Herb-Buttered French Bread, Two-Tone Plum Bowl (two varieties of canned plums, topped with sour cream). 

This menu has a nice "ladies who lunch" ring to it, but I'm not sure how to categorize Featuring Watermelon Pickle. For this dinner, one serves Plenty Of Fried Chicken, Hot Buttered Broccoli or Zucchini, Watermelon Pickle, Salted Almonds, Crisp Rolls, Unsweetened Coffee Jelly With Sweetened Cream and Coffee. 

I'm not sure why watermelon pickle is featured in this dinner. Isn't the fried chicken (homemade, of course) actually the star of the meal? 

I don't know - maybe featuring watermelon pickles made perfect sense 60 years ago, or maybe my head is just in a whirl after looking through the Good Housekeeping Party Book. And I didn't even touch upon the variety of teas one could host, or breakfast/brunch affairs, or the selection of Thanksgiving dinners or Christmas parties. 

Yes, my head might be in a whirl with the sheer number of entertainment possibilities in this book, but I enjoyed myself anyway. It was a lot of fun for very little money!
 


Saturday, July 14, 2018

Thrifty Acres: Let's Party Like It's 1958 - Part One

Hello! I'm fascinated by the vast amount of entertainment ideas in older cookbooks, so naturally I snapped this up a few days ago at a local thrift store:

The Good Housekeeping Party Book, edited by Dorothy Marsh and Carol Baker. It was published in 1958. 

A LOT of information was packed into the 270 pages of party planning, with chapters covering such topics as "Little Luncheons And Dinners", "The Business Couple Entertains", "Come To Tea", "Come For The Weekend", "When The Club Meets" and more. There's three sections on children's birthday parties, divided by age groups. And speaking of clubs, there's even advice on parties hosted by teen clubs and college groups. 

And of course, there's advice on preparing for holiday gatherings, showers, Mother's Day, Father's Day, "Bon Voyage", housewarmings, adult birthday parties, and more. It would have been quicker, it seems, to list the days on which no party is necessary!

Some of the party suggestions still sound like they'd work today, 60 years later. For instance, a mother-to-be would probably still enjoy a "Lady-In-Waiting" shower: "Ask guests to bring gifts to glamorize (the mother-to-be) during the last months of waiting, in the hospital and in her first days of parenthood: A bed jacket, a necklace, hair ribbons, nail polish, etc." Invitations were designed to look as from a royal house, and the guest of honor got a corsage too. Sounds like a nice bit of pampering! 

So after the "Lady-In-Waiting" has become a mother, then what? Mother's Day, of course! A deluxe breakfast in bed is one possibility: dipped strawberries, sauteed ham, scrambled eggs, hot biscuits and honey, and choice of coffee, tea or cocoa. All this is delivered in a tray, "complete with a rosebud". 

Sigh - I've been a mom for 23 years now and have yet to receive a breakfast like that on Mother's Day. But I guess I shouldn't complain about that, as I've never served a big breakfast like that either. My husband and daughter aren't big breakfast eaters. I've treated houseguests to eggs and sausage, but it hadn't occurred to me to fix them biscuits and honey as well. And never a dipped strawberry either (that's just strawberries accompanied by a bowl of powdered sugar).

I like one of the other Mother's Day party suggestions even better than the nice breakfast, though: "A Drive In the Country". For this event, the family drives off to the country after church. "A picnic basket (its contents a mystery to Mother) is stowed in the luggage compartment..." The book goes on to give the menu, which has five eatables and two beverages. 

Now, my question is this: how could the rest of the family prepare or bring in all that food and drink in advance without Mom finding out about it? That wouldn't have worked with my mom, and it wouldn't have with me either! But I do like the idea of the surprise picnic lunch.

What about Dear Old Dad? Of course, the Good Housekeeping Party Book has several ideas for Father's Day. One of them is cute, like a party for several dads along with their sons. Thus, dessert is "Initial Apple Pie" (cut initials of each man in piecrust). 

However, "Something For The Boys" had me scratching my head. For this party, "Dad's old buddies" have been invited over as a surprise for him. What, they have to give up Father's Day with their families?!

But "A Midnight Raid" sounds just plain sad to me. "Everything goes on as usual on Father's Day, and Dad feels like the forgotten man. When he finally consoles himself with a trip to the refrigerator, he finds on a tray the makings of a Dagwood special". And along with the sandwich fixings, Dad is also left a note telling him where to the find the cake that has been hidden from him. 

Poor Dad, feeling forgotten! Maybe his surprise upon learning Father's Day had been remembered after all would have been worth it, but I wouldn't try something like this to find out. 

Moms and dads, of course, have those titles because they are parents. So let's not forget their kids! As I'd mentioned, there's three sections on kids' birthday parties. I had to chuckle at the admonishments for simple parties for one-year-olds, like "keep it small". When our daughter turned one, she was part of a playgroup that included five other kids, and the playgroup events were always at night so all the parents could attend. This meant that our daughter's first birthday wasn't exactly small.

The book also advises: "Omit candles for children 2 years or less". Phooey on that! I used to enjoy buying those number-shaped candles for our daughter's birthday cakes, beginning with her very first birthday. 

But moving on, this party book continues with several birthday celebration ideas for every year on up through the teen years. A lot of fun ideas here for younger kids, like cookie making/decorating, a bike theme (just for boys, though; girls get a dress-up party instead), puppet-making, backyard sleepover, pirate fun, soda parlor party, and more. Most of the parties don't sound much different from the ones highlighted in Family Fun magazine. That is, except for the mention of providing a victrola for record-playing. Victrola? Records? I'm guessing those words don't show up in Family Fun!

Not sure if the teen party ideas have held up as well, though. A pie party theme? "Pancake Parade"? Come dressed up as a magazine title? 
Coat-hanger Party? (the attendees craft things out of coat hangers. Why?) 

I've only scratched the surface of the Good Housekeeping Party Book, so I'll describe more gatherings in Part Two.

Saturday, July 7, 2018

Get Carded: Cooking Up A Happy Birthday

Hello! We visited our out-of-state daughter last weekend to celebrate an early birthday with her. Her birthday's actually today, though, so I'll show off the card I made for her. 

Materials used:
  • white card stock
  • art paper scrap (top edge of card)
  • orange art paper scrap
  • cookware ad from 1974 catalogue
  • image of woman from 1940's crafting magazine
  • "cooking up a happy birthday" - orange ink stamped on white card stock scraps; orange ink edging on these scraps
  • vintage black eyelet
  • decorative yarn
  • "The cook was in very good humor" - words cut from 1930's grammar book
A close-up of the card:

I found the cookware ad first and it was a happy coincidence that the colors of the woman's outfit was a close match. It may seem odd to use a vintage cookware ad for our daughter's card, but there definitely was a method to my madness. The cookware shown above is similar in appearance to two matching saucepans I'd found for my daughter several years ago when she needed cookware for the first time. The woman who sold me these saucepans at a garage sale told me they had originally been her grandmother's, so it wasn't surprising that they looked like they came from the same era.

Of course, saucepans that old aren't going to look as pristine as the set in the ad does. Over time some of the interiors had chipped away, and more recently, our daughter had accidentally burned the bottom of one of them. I'm sure she could have used enough elbow grease to get it clean. But when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, replacement saucepans were one of her requests.

Not only did the cookware ad on the card reference the old saucepans, it also foreshadowed her present from us: I found a cookware set on sale, and in the color that matches her kitchen linens, so the purchase was a no-brainer. She wasn't expecting such an upgrade from her two old saucepans, so she was delighted with her gift. 

So yes, you could say we cooked up a happy birthday for her!
 

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Made It: Happy 4th Of July!

Hello! My dad would have been 96 today (he lived to be nearly 94), so my siblings and I planned a get-together in his honor. Alas, the gathering fell through, so instead today my husband and I visited the one sibling who wouldn't have able to attend: a brother who was hospitalized over a month ago with life-threatening health issues. Fortunately he is much improved now and may be allowed to go home soon. 

I made him a decoration in honor of the holiday:

Materials used:
  • white card stock backing
  • 1880's ledger paper (there are subtle red and blue lines on this paper)
  • Uncle Sam stencil set
  • white card stock decorated with red marker (pants, hat)
  • vintage time card, altered with blue acrylic paint and stars stamped with white acrylic on top of the  blue paint (jacket, hat, stars in upraised arm) 
  • white card stock scraps (beard and hat brim)
  • black art paper scrap (shoes)
  • beige art paper scrap (hands)
  • red art paper scrap (stars)
  • 1974 catalogue (man's face)
  • red ink (July 4) 
  • blue ink (2018) 
This was the first time I'd used the Uncle Sam stencil set, which had been a garage sale purchase years ago. I think another time I'd use more vintage catalogue images- for example, men's shoes instead of shoes cut from art paper scraps. I think this would bring more interest to the piece. 

As it was, the man's face from the catalogue was a late edition. I'd cut a face shape from beige art paper, using the corresponding part of the stencil set, then I drew a face on the shape. But after I was done I wasn't overwhelmed by what I'd drawn. So out came my scissors and the vintage catalogue. 

I forgot to measure the finished work, but I'd guess its dimensions are around 6"x9". My brother seemed to appreciate this simple gift, but to me the real gift was seeing him back on the mend!