Did You Know Your Fridge is "An Aladdin's Lamp"? Part 2

If you haven't read Part 1,
I highly recommend that you do so
before reading this post which is Part 2.
You can read Part 1 by clicking here.

Continuing on through the reading that is helping me gain a better appreciation for my refrigerator, the next section of the book helped me realize just how new the home refrigerator was to the homemaker of 1927 when this book was published.

Click on the image below to enlarge for reading

Chilled fruit for breakfast; frozen ice cubes in water; firm butter squares or balls; crisp salads and frozen desserts... all were a novelty that one didn't usually enjoy at home. That is, until the home refrigerator came along. When I read this, I try to get into the head of the homemaker that suddenly had vast culinary horizons opened to her. How must that have been?

I've seen a lot of technological advances in my own lifetime, and the advent of the microwave oven is the only thing that I can think of in my personal experience that would be akin to the advent of the refrigerator for these women. I remember the first microwave oven we purchased for the family when I was 11 or 12 years old. I remember all of us huddling around it to witness the phenomenon of being able to boil a cup water in a minute. It was miraculous! The culinary possibilities seemed endless!

That's how it must have been for these women (and their families) that were being guided by this book (and others like it) through the uncharted waters of home refrigeration. The culinary possibilities must have seemed endless.

Did You Know Your Fridge is "An Aladdin's Lamp"?

A couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to acquire a vintage recipe book that was originally published in 1927 by the General Electric Company entitled "Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus: Specially prepared for the General Electric Refrigerator". It's a hardcover book and the original price printed on the title page reads "Price Two Dollars". I was pleased to find that it was authored by a Miss Alice Bradley whose is credited as being "Principal of Miss Farmer's School of Cookery, Cooking Editor of Woman's Home Companion, Author of : Cooking for Profit, Candy Cook Book, For Luncheon and Supper Guests" (that's some resume!).

What is so charming and wonderful about this book is how it instantly transports me back in time to the perspective of the "modern American homemaker" of the late-1920's and what new horizons she was enjoying with the invention and availability of home refrigeration.

I am so charmed by this, that I hope you'll indulge me over the next few posts as I share my reading with all of you. And since the original print is what lends it much of its charm, instead of re-typing the text I've decided to share scans of the original pages with you.

Click on the image to read it in an enlarged size

See what I mean? Reading these words has caused me to reflect on how much we take for granted in the kitchen. To the homemaker of the late 1920's, a fridge was "an Aladdin's lamp" and "a form of health and happiness insurance" for her family. Nowadays we just take that big square thing in the kitchen for granted. Who knew it was such a magical thing? Apparently our grandmothers did!

Click here to read Part 2 in this series

A Braver Woman Than I

This is another contribution from Grammy's recipe box. I inherited this recipe box as a young girl when my Grammy passed away from ovarian cancer. Over the years, I have cherished its contents. Some recipes date back to my Grammy's mother El and Grammy's aunt Esther in the 1910-20's. If you use a recipe or cooking tip from Grammy's recipe box, I'd love to hear about it.

To see more of Grammy's recipes, click on the "Grammy's recipe box" label at the end of this post.


I recently posted how I am too afraid to make up the vintage recipe for homemade marshmallow that I found in my Grammy's recipe box. Well, there is a braver woman than I out there named Emiline at Sugar Plum. She took on the daunting challenge and succeeded! You'll have to visit her blog to see her amazing food photography that showcases her results.

Emiline wrote in her post about this vintage recipe adventure of hers:

"The recipe was simple and I loved the vintage(?) feel of how it was written. I'm not sure how old Grammy was when she made marshmallows, but I kind of picture her making these in the 50's, wearing cateye glasses and saddle shoes, maybe while watching I Love Lucy."

Here's how vintage the recipe truly is... it was written in fountain pen by my great-great-aunt Esther sometime between 1910 and 1930-ish.



The way I can date this recipe is that some of the other recipes my Grammy's box are actually dated with Esther's name in the top right corner. This undated recipe looks like those dated ones so that's how I can zero in on a date. I can imagine that Esther probably jotted down a lot of the recipes that her niece, Elsie (my Grammy) would have witnessed Esther making and fallen in love with. Elsie probably made this recipe from that time forward into the 50's (and beyond) as Emiline envisioned.

And those cat-eye glasses and saddle shoes Emiline envisioned? Well, I don't think Grammy wore saddle shoes BUT here is a photo of little me wearing my Grammy's cat-eye glasses! I loved her glasses (she had more than one pair) because she always got the really snazzy ones--some with little rhinestones.

As for watching "I Love Lucy" while making the recipe? Well, that would have been problematic because as that show was being watched by most households in the U.S., my Grammy was living in the Indian Valley nestled in the northern woods of California where TV signals didn't really reach until the 60's. She would have been accompanied by radio if anything.

Grammy probably also made this recipe at an earlier time when she lived in the San Francisco Bay Area during the thriving and bustling 20's, 30's, and 40's. Here are two great photos of my Grammy Elsie outside her place of work at a grocer's in downtown Oakland in the 1930's. She's the one sitting on the curb in the first photo...

Yup, my Grammy was a stylish marshmallow-making woman! And now that honor belongs to Emiline at Sugar Plum. Way to go, Emiline!!!!!!

From Grammy's recipe box: Vintage Sunkist Recipes

This is another contribution from Grammy's recipe box. I inherited this recipe box as a young girl when my Grammy passed away from ovarian cancer. Over the years, I have cherished its contents. Some recipes date back to my Grammy's mother El and Grammy's aunt Esther in the 1910-20's. If you use a recipe or cooking tip from Grammy's recipe box, I'd love to hear about it.

To see more of Grammy's recipes, click on the "Grammy's recipe box" label at the end of this post.

I don't know about everywhere else, but here the temps are soaring into the triple digits. I just can't think about food all that much when it's this hot.

But heat like this does make me think about tall cool glasses of refreshment! In my Grammy's recipe box, I found these three practically pristine vintage Sunkist recipes.


I don't know if it's the recipe that I love more or if it's the vintage illustrations. Ever since I was a very little girl, I loved the illustration style of the mid-20th century. There was (and is) something about the shading, the colors, and the printing that makes me feel all twittery inside (that's that best way I can describe it). These illustrations that are included on these recipe cards are a perfect example of what I mean.Well done colored pencil drawings do the same thing to me. I know... I'm weird... Moving on...

These cards were originally printed on recipe card stock in the standard recipe card size. But they don't have any copyright or publishing information on them. And like I said, they are practically pristine which means my Grammy probably put them in the recipe box when she first got them and then never took them out again.

This has to have been a Sunkist promotional of some sort. I wonder if Grammy sent for them with labels. It's hard to say. What I like most about these is the recipes are classics. The drinks would still be as popular, easy to make, and refreshing now as they were over 50 years ago. You gotta love that!

Since these are so beautifully illustrated I thought you might like to download hi-res versions of the above recipes to print out for your own recipe box. I've made them available online at Flickr. The instructions for downloading the hi-res version will be on each recipe at that site.

Click here for Grape Juice Lemonade
Click here for Sunkist Lemonade
Click here for Sunkist Orangeade

Not Brave Enough for Homemade Marshmallow

This is another contribution from Grammy's recipe box. I inherited this recipe box as a young girl when my Grammy passed away from ovarian cancer. Over the years, I have cherished its contents. Some recipes date back to my Grammy's mother El and Grammy's aunt Esther in the 1910-20's. If you use a recipe or cooking tip from Grammy's recipe box, I'd love to hear about it.

To see more of Grammy's recipes, click on the "Grammy's recipe box" label at the end of this post.

Okay, I admit it... I'm not brave enough to try to vintage recipe for home marshmallow that I found in my Grammy's recipe box. There. I said it.

Not to make excuses, but I have visions of me in the kitchen creating more heat than is sane (considering the August heat we're having) and ending up with a mess akin to the attach of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on New York City.

I love to Twitter and one of the people I follow both on her blog and on Twitter is Emiline at Sugar Plum. She mentioned the other evening on Twitter that she was considering making some homemade marshmallow. I asked her later if she had and admitted my lack of bravery in trying Grammy's recipe. This was her reply, "I didn't try :( I decided it was too much work -might try in a few minutes. Need to find a recipe. Wish I had Grammy's recipe."

Well, Emiline, ask and ye shall receive! Here's the recipe. May you be braver than I.

This is typed exactly how the recipe reads:

Marshmallow

Soften the following ingredients well:

• 2 T gelatine
• 1/2 c cold water

Cook the following ingredients to 236 degrees F or until it threads about the length of the arm:

• 2 c sugar
• 3/4 c boiling water
• 1/8 t salt

Pour syrup slowly over gelatine, beating constantly until thick and cool (about 20 min.). Flavor as desired. Color. Butter a shallow pan slightly and dust with powdered sugar. Turn the mixture out on this and smooth top evenly. Dust with powdered sugar. Let stand overnight. Cut in squares. Roll in sugar.

Variations:
Chopped nuts, figs, raisins, or candied cherries may be added to the recipe. Plain marshmallow may be cooled in cocoa-nut before dipping in sugar, or dipped in melted chocolate.

When A Zucchini Gets Away From You

This is another contribution from Grammy's recipe box. I inherited this recipe box as a young girl when my Grammy passed away from ovarian cancer. Over the years, I have cherished its contents. Some recipes date back to my Grammy's mother El and Grammy's aunt Esther in the 1910-20's. If you use a recipe or cooking tip from Grammy's recipe box, I'd love to hear about it.

To see more of Grammy's recipes, click on the "Grammy's recipe box" label at the end of this post.


It's my fault. I was the one on "zucchini watch", and I failed in my duties. I failed to check the zucchini yesterday, and it got too big (as zucchini will do).

So what do you do if your zucchini gets away from you?

We decided to try a vintage recipe, "Stuffed Zucchini", out of my Grammy's recipe box. The recipe had been cut out of a magazine and looks like it's circa 1960s-1970s.

Hubby did the preparing on this one and found the recipe to be very easy to follow (which is a pleasant bonus when making a vintage recipe).

Here's what the recipe says (with our editorial comments in red italics):





Stuffed Zucchini
No browning or boiling, just bake and serve.

2 pounds zucchini [obviously, we just had one BIG one!]
1/2 pound ground beef
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons dehydrated onion flakes [Hubby used French's Fried Onions instead]
2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1 teaspoon oregano leaves
1 teaspoon salt [definitely needed more]
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2/3 cup spaghetti sauce [Hubby used Prego traditional]

Halve zucchini. Scoop out centers leaving 1/4-inch shell; place in shallow baking dish. Coarsely chop zucchini centers; mix with next 8 ingredients. Spoon into shells. Top with sauce. Bake in 350 degrees F in oven for 30 minutes. Serves 4. [If you use 2 pounds of zucchini]


In the future, Hubby suggests that browning the ground beef would be better. Why? Because brown food tastes better!!!! And it would also reduce baking time.

Hubby said that the baking aroma brought back memories of his grandmother's kitchen because culinary creations of this kind were common during the 1960s. After baking was over, Hubby let it cool a bit since it came out of the oven the temperature of "hot magma".

Once it had cooled a bit, the tasting commenced. The flavor of the sauce against the filling mixture was good, but it definitely needed more salt. Once Hubby pumped up the salt, the flavor came alive. Hubby said it's not something that he would be addicted to, but it is most definitely a great quick meal option for using up zucchini from the garden--particularly zucchini that's gotten out-of-control huge!