I am often chided for not being a good cook. I have a husband that is very talented in the kitchen so why should I even try? When our daughters were younger, they would ask me to make their favorites for dinner – reservations! When they went off to college, they wrote home saying they missed dad’s cooking. And when we go into antique stores and view kitchen utensils, hubby always patiently takes the time to explain to me just what it’s for – often very loudly to embarrass me.

So, why, do you ask, does a woman known to be a non-domestic goddess have a slew of vintage cook books? Because they are fun to display and are highly collectible - that’s why. There are wonderful pictures and designs, and of course, recipes.

One of my favorites was for proud, new owners of Monarch ranges. For their purchase of a new stove, they were rewarded with a booklet called “Dora’s Diary.” Cute cover with a girl in polka-dot jammies, getting ready for bed and writing in her personal journal. Her pup sleeps nearby. Inside you’ll see another picture of her with utensils ‘a-flying.’

The book has some nice ‘basic’ recipes, even for me, they are not too complex, but the fun part is the cartoons. One features a maid, serving the elite guests. She is wearing only her underwear and the caption is “Yes mam, you told me to be sure to serve the salad without dressing.”

Another favorite booklet is called “Beans - enjoyable the world over – grown in Michigan.”  It shows a gent on the cover, obviously a ‘world traveler’ from the tags on his luggage. Inside the cover you’ll find folks dressed in costumes from their various home-lands and 36 pages of bean recipes. This is a cookbook to toot your horn about, if you get my drift.

And how about this one from Hires Extracts – for Root Beer at Home. The little boy is so charming. There is a recipe for root beer cake and root beer gelatine too. I learned that you can actually make root beer or ginger ale at home, using a combination of Hires Extract and Fleischmann’s Yeast cakes. Yummy.

The unique part of this Hires booklet is that the back has the recipes in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Slovanian, Polish and what appears to be Chinese or Japanese. Pretty progressive for that time.

One of my son-in-laws teases that ‘ketchup is too spicy for me’ so he’d be proud if I used this booklet with ideas for cooking with Tabasco sauce! From appetizers to chicken, to salad dressings, to seafoods, it just takes a drop or two to ‘jazz it up!’

This 1933 booklet called “The Hostess” shows a scene that is rare nowadays. It shows mom in her apron and dress, standing on the porch waving good bye to her daughter. The girl wears a hat, dress and ‘Mary Jane” shoes and is headed off to school, letting mom stay home to her house-wifely chores. Handed out from the “Richelieu Store”, it has prize winning recipes. The first prize was $10, second was $7.50 and on to 12 sixth place winners at $1.00 each. A section in the back talks about the “food ticker going up.” Yikes, prices were going up everywhere back then, glad I live in this day and age. Yeah, right.

Clabber Girl Baking Powder was very popular and this Baking Book was probably a prized possession in 1934, the date it was printed. I remember a can of this on the shelf at grandma’s house! And no advertising tin collection is complete without an example.

 

Lastly, I would like to thank fellow-bloggers Deanna and Collin for their introductions (somewhat bizarre) of the “mushroom” to our readers. What kitchen would be complete without some Fairy Ring Mushroom recipes? The booklet was from the Mushroom Growers Association of Chicago (all men so they say) and presented by Edith G. Shuck, Director of Home Economics, Chicago Daily News. Inside the cover you’ll find “Mushroom Facts You Should Know”, probably pretty important, especially to your guests who would like to be able to make it to a return invitation!

I guess I can make no more excuses and must wrap up this blog and start dinner – HA!

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This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 4:06 am and is filed under collecting fyi, flea market finds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.