I am continuing scans of the Good Housekeeping cookbook series. There are a lot of them, so it will take me a while, but I realized that I had two of the latest scan – Good Housekeeping’s Appetizer Book. Then I remembered that waaaaaay back in the day when I was starting my blog and scanning journey, I had acquired this book somewhere and was looking through it for ideas. To my horror, I saw the following recipe:
I mean, C’MON. Some flavors are just not meant to meld together, amirite?
I decided to use my family to test this concoction out. Their assessment was “not bad,” although I didn’t have the guts to try it. Are YOU brave enough?
Check out this lovely recipe (p. 4) and many others here.
I’m kind of on a scanning kick, y’all. After about a year of not having a scanner because my old one didn’t survive the move, I purchased a new one a few months ago, and now I’m ready to make it earn its keep.
Last week I scanned the wonderfully corny MEAT POWER cookbook, courtesy of Swift. I now have a smattering of other cookbooks that I’d like to scan in, particularly a collection of Good Housekeeping cookbooks that I found all grouped together in a disintegrating binder. The binder’s gone, but the cookbooks live on, and some of them have such great crazy 60’s graphics that I just have to scan them in. Case in point:
Lots of crowns going on in these illustrations. Not sure what that’s about, but it’s goofy enough that I like it. Also lots of angry-looking people with crowns and dorky-looking animals wearing crowns. I dunno . . . but I’m drawn toward funky graphics that have no point.
Ok, I get the first two things are lobsters, but what is that other thing on the right . . . with legs? A table (since there’s a vase on it)? Why does it just look so out of whack?
Lest you think I’ve lost my ever-lovin’ mind, let me assure you that I did not just blurt out this phrase without any inspiration. My inspiration was, in fact, a little booklet published by Swift — the meat company — with tips and tricks for holding different types of parties. The back of the booklet touts the “meat power” – and it’s a graphic that I’ve seen in various vintage groups. I mean, c’mon . . . it’s funny.
Here we have the usual selection of 1950s animatrons (I want to know what mom is thinking in that middle picture!) with everyone living their best life. They even have some spectacular ideas for holding a stag party. Forget those plans of visiting the strib clubs! Here ya go:
Decorations: Make a cigar centerpiece, using at least one cigar for each man present. Write humorous fortunes on narrow strips of paper and tie them on each cigar with ribbon bows. Guests helps themselves to cigars after dinner and read their fortunes aloud.
Games: At a stag party, men usually get together for games of their choice. For extra entertainment, have a soap box contest. The only thing needed is a soap box for the guests to stand on while they deliver a 3-minute talk on silly subjects that they draw out of a hat. Write the subjects on slips of paper for the guests to draw in turn. Sample subjects: “If the barter system is adopted, how much should. a good wife be worth?” and “An effective method of stopping snoring.”
Now doesn’t that sound like FUN?
It’s on page 5 if you need a complete menu for said stag party.
Smack dab in the middle of the booklet is a nice colored insert touting all of Swift’s new products, like square shaped turkey roasts (I wish I were joking). It also contains a nice little reference for how long to roast different types of meat and types of boneless oven roasts.
Whoever owned this cookbook must have used it quite a bit, for many pages wear the proof of various dishes being made, which you can see on the scanned pages. That’s how you know that the recipes must be fairly good.
Last year I turned the milestone age of 50. This year, I turned — wait for it — 51. I remember when 50 was drawing near that I found myself not dreading it as much as I did when I turned the big 4-0. Forty was when I had to start wearing readers and coloring my gray hairs on a regular basis. Forty was when I felt my body start to slow down a bit; it wasn’t as easy to lose weight. Everything began to gather an extra bit of “padding.” Life was busy while I raised my teenage boys and kept on going in my teaching career.
Fifty kind of just appeared because I didn’t think about it as much. Two months after my big birthday, my college roommates came for a girls’ weekend. All of our birthdays are close together; Alex turned 50 on January 3, Suni turned 50 on January 9, and I turned 50 on February 3. So by the time the girls’ trip came about, we were all officially entrenched in our new decade. We had such a fun time shopping in Chicago, going out to eat, and even taking in an Elvis show at Buddy Guy’s Legends with my husband’s band playing. We spent time doing absolutely nothing, and that was perfect. We didn’t really have to pack our time together with activities; in fact, most of our time together was spent at my house.
In my younger years, I was a little obsessed with audio and video recording moments with my life. This obsession has become a little bit of a blessing and a little bit of a curse, for it is completely cringy to observe the idiocy of my younger years. I thought I had life all figured out — and I had no freaking clue. I know that is just the way life goes, but it is hard to watch it now.
And yes, I took plenty of videos of my college roommates and me, and it is interesting to compare us at age 21 to age 50. Back then, we were so worried about what we were going to wear to the bar and spent SO much time getting ready. Was our hair OK? Did we have the perfect shade of lipstick on? Was so-and-so going to be at the bar, do you think? There was so much mental energy that went in to just fitting in – but also wanting to stand out and be noticed by that perfect guy.
Fast forward to age 50, and none of that matters. All of us have been divorced, and two of us are currently remarried to the people we feel we should have married the first time. When we go “out on the town,” the focus is being together and laughing and remembering good times we’ve had in the past. I give zero craps about whether I’m in fashion or if my hair is perfect or if my makeup is on point. Friendships that have lasted over half of your life are rare and precious, and that becomes increasingly obvious as one ages. Our time together is definitely focused on each other rather than ourselves.
This past February, my husband’s band had a week-long gig at Busch Gardens in Tampa, and my best friend from high school decided to also fly down there and spend several days with us there. I marvel how I can rarely see these friends, but when you’re with them in person, it’s like you’ve been with them every day. You fall back into old patterns. Our time together was a breath of fresh air, and I am so thankful for the ones that stick around throughout time.
