I have moved!

I'm starting fresh...and have moved...not that far away to a new blog called urban repast http://urbanrepast.blogspot.com/. Please visit me there...eventually this blog will disappear. Time to start clean house and start again.

retro food # 13

Remember Whip'n Chill? I certainly do. It was a dessert staple in my house for several years in the 70's. We really didn't have dessert everyday...but for those less than formal, dessert producing dinners....it was there. I was lucky enough to find this great book of "Magical Desserts with Whip'n Chill" [General Foods Corp. - 1965] I bought it at this fantastic retro store on Main St. called Lazy Susan's (3647 Main St.). It cost more than I usually like to pay....but still a deal, and I just had to have it!

I don't recall ever having the Vanilla flavoured Whip'n chill, but we certainly bought the other 3 flavours - Chocolate, Lemon and Strawberry. I remember my mum or stepfather adding fruit and making a simple box of the stuff into an elegant dessert trifle. Frozen blueberries were added to Lemon Whip'n chill and strawberries to Strawberry Whip'n chill. I think they even spiked chocolate Whip'n chill with some booze. We certainly didn't have any of the frothy concoctions pictured from the book...but perhaps if we had the 'Magical Desserts" book things might have been different. If only.....

recent finds

This weekend I went to one of my favorite streets in Vancouver for inspiration and good shopping...Main Street. It seems everytime I go, not only do I get to revisit some of my favorite places...but I also discover new places. One new place ( that isn't actually new) is RubyDog's Art House (4738 Main St.). I found the lables ( above) at RubyDog...they also had some great vintage canned food lables...as it says on the website, RubyDog is THE " source for found, vintage, recycled and just generally amazing art materials" ...it is true, especially if you are into collage. It reminds me of another great source for recyled art materials on Main St., Urban Source (3126 Main St.) which is full of materials collected from local industries. After grabbing some caffine refreshment at The Grind (4124 Main) we continued on down the street...the only other thing I ended up getting were some 99 cent potholders in the same "kitchen" pattern as my home-made kitchen blind.

I recently recieved this book as a gift....it is great..the history of candy making in Canada. It takes me back to the days when I loved Jersey Milk bars, Smarties, Rosebuds, PEP's, Malted Milk bars and Cherry Cordials. I only wish it contained more colour photos, like the cover...but it is an interesting read.
If you want to read more about candy check out Candy Blog : "a blog about candy, things made with sugar, things made with chocolate, you get the picture..."

Hey BTW, did anyone else notice they now have dark chocolate Cadbury Mini Eggs?

auld lang syne

Yes it has been 'old long since' I have last posted in this blog! Boy, that must have been some party!!! It was a very good birthday...but, I just haven't had the initiative to post...but I am back, sort of. This is really just a mini post...just to get into practice again....more to come, I do promise.
January...back to more focused and attentive living! This means eating more fruit and veg, getting more regular exercise ( yoga starts up again next week!), just getting back into a healthy...but not austere.... lifestyle or rhythm.

I have been inspired by a friend of mine, who had some fabulous vintage cookbooks, to investigate more vintage and the history of food...why do we eat what we eat?

'til then...keep on cooking and eating in 2007!

retro birthday

Since it is my Birthday tommorow I have decided to have a retro birthday post. It is a pretty big birthday for me...I won't tell you how old, but some of you could probably guess from the photo above of my 4th birthday. You can't really see me in the photo, just a corner of me, but I thought it represented the theme well. Parties were certianly simpler in those days. I bet my mum had some help planning them with a book like Betty Crocker's : Parties for Children.

Ah, Betty...not only did she cook, but she planned parties as well....what a gal! This book was published in 1964, by General Mills Ltd. It covers all aspects of party planning, including games. Remember these classics? Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Musical Chairs, Murder!, Memory Teaser [we called it the Tray Game], and Beans a Plenty? Do kids still play these games? I doubt it...they are missing out on some good retro fun!

When we got older, we would sometimes create our own parties, and part of that fun was baking the birthday cake. The "directions" above are from one of my favorite retro cook books, Fun to Cook: published in 1955, by the Carnation Co. I adore the graphics in this book, such fun! One classic party thing I always disliked, and still do, are Clowns. They just creep me out. So I don't think I will be making any of these [Creepy] Clown Cupcakes , from the Betty Crocker Cookbook for Kids, for my birthday.
Now this is more like it!
Nothing beats a really rich chocolate cake...and what better to serve it with than icecream balls with fudge sauce! Oooh, it is just decadent retro bithday extravgance from The Better Homes and Gardens - New Cook Book: 1953, 1962! Of course If you have all day to make a cake...and in retro times, they did...then you could make the cake below, from A Guide to Good Cooking: Compiled by the Makers of Five Roses Flour - 1938.

This "really delicious and quite economical to make" Fudge Cake is filled with Date Filling, and frosted with Maple Seven-Minute Frosting. Hmmm, I am not quite sure about that...but I do love the funky plate and tea pot in the picture.

TV dinners

There is nothing more retro than TV Dinners! While searching for another image on my computer I came across this picture I took for a school project while I was studying Photography. What I really wanted was a photo of the old-school TV dinners...you know with the pre-microwave aluminum tray. That is what I remember from my childhood ( yes, I am old!) , not that my Mum bought them that often...but she was a working single mum, and there was a brief period when TV dinners could be found in our freezer. Though I shudder to recall, I believe my favorite was the Salisbury Steak dinner! Boy, has my palate changed! What IS Salisbury Steak? I don't even remember.
So who invented the TV dinner? I always thought it was the Swanson people...but was it? Check out Everyday Mysteries to find out. For more retro photos and the history of the TV Dinner, Wikipedia is always a good choice. But the ultimate in retro TV dinner fun is the Swanson 50th anniversary celebration timeline from the 1950s thru the 1990s and today.


I must admit, as a single person I do eat quite a few of my meals in front of the TV. Which is a shame, in a way, I know...but hey, its no longer Salisbury Steak with apple cobbler!

retro food #12

I am really lucky being in the library business...recently the library I work in had a giant book sale. I took a shift helping to set it up, this involved (among many other things) setting out the books that have been collected ( either books that are no longer part of the collection, or donated books) over the past half year. I made sure I kept close to the cooking section. I was luckily enough to get 7 new books for my collection...and for really reasonable prices! Today, I am featuring one of the books I found at the book sale.

It is the Purity Cook Book ( a publication of Purity Flour Mills Ltd.) Copyright is 1932, with the 3rd revision, 1954. What would you expect from a cook book produced by a flour company?? Especially one called Purity??? Really white bread! This photo really scared me. I'm not sure if it come across on the web, but this bread is unnaturally white....it glows with purity....it is almost the same colour of white angel food cake. I know there is not one ounce of fiber in this loaf.

But, I bet it makes some great sandwiches! For as well know... everybody likes sandwiches!

The caption reads: an attractive tray of sandwiches. Quite frankly, it is kinda attractive...or at least very festive. I especially like the little plant pot sandwiches at the bottom of the tray. I must admit the stripy sandwiches, at the top right, do scare me a bit...what is the green stripe?

What is your favorite retro sandwich?