Spinning a random post from one Hodgepodge question

 

 This week there is just not time to write a Hodgepodge post.  Sometimes when that happens, I'm able to answer just one question and that works out great.  Not this time, though.  The one question I would have answered would have been about my favorite cookbook(s). 

That would take way more time than I have today, so I'm simply spinning it into a post about cooking magazines, vintage and newer, which I have always enjoyed cooking and baking from.  Most of the text is coming from a draft of a book I'm thinking of publishing about kitchens I have known and loved. 

You may never have heard of Farm Journal, a magazine which was subscribed to by farmers and ranches all over the United States — maybe Canada too.  In the 1960s my family subscribed to it.  Near the back of this magazine was a fairly hefty section just for women.  Loads of wonderful recipes that had been sent in by readers or developed in the Farm Journal test kitchen were featured here.  The recipes for a specific issue of the magazine often had a theme — say, garden produce, gifts from the kitchen, cakes, beef or chicken main dishes, or whatever.  When the Farm Journal arrived in our home and I got my hands on it, the recipes were the first things I turned to.  I imagine a lot of country women and teen girls did the same.  

Farm Journal cover from December 1961

And then, logically enough, Farm Journal began to produce cookbooks.  How I loved these books!  My mother purchased many of them — and later on, so did I.  There was a cookie cookbook, a large, comprehensive Country Cookbook, a freezing & canning cookbook, an Informal Entertaining Country Style Cookbook (one of my top favorites), a chocolate cookbook, a family favorites cookbook, a healthy snacks cookbook and many more.  

The Farm Journal Homemade Cookies cookbook

Thanks to the evocative and folksy writing style of Nell Nichols, the Farm Journal food editor,  I could read those volumes by the hour.  The recipes were so delicious, too.  The chocolate cookbook is completely spattered and freckled with brown from baking so many of the sweet treats.  The Family Favorites cookbook is another from which I made recipe after recipe.

When Taste of Home magazine came out, both my mother and I subscribed.  I had been  cooking in my own kitchen for some time at that point.  I think the reason we instantly fell in love with Taste of Home is that it had that same folksy feeling as Farm Journal.  Indeed, the reason Farm Wife News, of which Taste of Home was an offshoot, had originally been started was that all of the older farm magazines and journals had begun to discontinue their women’s sections.  Understandably, rural women missed that and were thrilled when Reiman Publications stepped into the void with Farm Wife News.  My mother subscribed to that, as did I after it became Country Woman.  Then Reiman branched out even more with Taste of Home, a cooking magazine loaded with recipes, and a staff of field editors from all over the United States and Canada.  I still have every Taste of Home issue I ever received, and I've cooked and baked from them often.  When Quick Cooking, later renamed Simple & Delicious, came along, I subscribed to those too.

When each new issue arrived, I would always find a new recipe — usually many more than one — that I couldn’t wait to try.  My mother was the same, and so was my friend Marilyn — and later, my daughters when they had their own kitchens.  We would so often compare notes about what recipes appealed to our families and which one we would like to try first.  Some of my very best recipes came from Taste of Home or other Reiman publications.  Although I enjoyed submitting recipes to their contests, it came to the point where I was limited into which ones I could send in.  So many of our favorite recipes had come from there in the first place!

I stopped subscribing to any cooking magazines some years ago.  I have all of the recipes I will ever want or need (although that doesn't stop me from pinning more to my Pinterest boards!) and right now I am cooking with very limited ingredients due to a special diet my hubby is following.  And yet a couple of weeks ago in Maine, I picked up a free 2024 issue of Taste of Home in a thrift shop.  Must be I still find them somewhat irresistible!

A Christmas kitchen table

 

This is pretty much a repost of something I wrote back in 2008.  I've been trying to simply feature it as a featured post, but since Blogger won't let me do that, I'm going to repost it  Only a couple of readers commented on it in 2008, so I'm sure my newer readers won't mind me posting it again.  Here we go:

This little display on my kitchen island (really an old formica-topped desk built by my dad) sums up so much of what I feel about a Christmas kitchen. The Christmas bandanna underneath it all is one I bought many years ago with just such a use in mind. The little "oil" lamp is from a dollar store and the Merry Christmas ribbon some I bought at Walmart a few years back. The two Gooseberry Patch books, Christmas Pantry and Comfort & Joy, fit perfectly in my kitchen this time of year. The pantry is stocked with plenty of cookies, fudge, and apricot fruitcake, and the makings for many other food gifts. And I find my kitchen at Christmas time to be truly a place of comfort and joy.

The "ribbon candy" is really ornaments, made by my daughter Joanna in 2007. I love the way she packaged them to look like real candy -- and I enjoy them as much (or more) as part of a display like this as I do hanging them on the Christmas tree. The cookie cutters are some of my favorites, and the oversized teacup is from the Mitford snowmen collection. (I found it in a consignment shop a few years ago.) The little rolling pin recipe holder with the candy cane handles was a gift from my granddaughters, and the cut-out cookie recipe is a favorite from my good friend Marilyn. I found the package of vintage light bulbs when we were cleaning the attic, and saved them for just such a use as this.

May your Christmas kitchen be a place like this... filled with sweet old memories and new ones being made... a place where you and your family find joy and where others find comfort too... a place from which your light shines forth to encourage friends and neighbors at this blessed season.

A fun summer find at Dollar Tree!

On Saturday we made a quick stop at Dollar Tree to pick up some items we needed to get for church -- cleaning supplies and paper goods.  While browsing the kitchenware aisle I came upon the nifty item pictured above.  These cute red-checked waxed basket liners are the type you might see in those classic red plastic baskets like they use at take-out places.

I could see myself using these in a number of ways, not just in the summer.  They could be useful at Christmas time as well, for wrapping breads or for lining boxes or baskets to hold kitchen gifts.

Dollar Tree sells the red plastic baskets too, and I think this would be a fun way to serve hot dogs or hamburgers from your backyard grill.  Lots of atmosphere!

As you can see, there are 15 sheets of red-and-white checked waxed paper in each package.  That's a deal in my book for only $1.  And a nice plus is the fact that this product is made in the USA!

Vintage breadbox

Sorry for the blurry pic -- that is a design of lemons on the front.  There's a clearer pic below.

I've never owned a breadbox in 42 years of keeping house.  Depending on the type of bread, we would just keep a loaf on the counter or in the fridge.  Recently, though we had some issues with mice and I went in search of a breadbox.  I'd been thinking for awhile that it might be nice to have one.  It seemed as if sometimes we would have several types of bread on the counter -- say, a sandwich loaf, a few hamburger buns or English muffins, etc.  It looked messy, but I don't really have room for a breadbox on the counter unless something else is removed -- my grandmother's old churn, for example, 

Filled with a spray of leaves for fall

or the bread machine or cookie jar.

However, the mice issue propelled me to do something to safely contain our bread.  I decided to look around at my parents' home, which I am decluttering, and found several breadboxes.  The newer ones (while still vintage!) were plastic, and I was afraid this might hold the musty odors of the cellar where they are stored.  The oldest one is metal.  It was the breadbox we had at our little family camp in the woods while we were growing up.  I think it's probably the breadbox my parents set up housekeeping with.

I brought it home and cleaned it up as best I could. For lack of a better space, I put it on the kitchen island for now.  It worked admirably to hold the mice at bay, and I think we may have caught the last one for awhile.  But I'm not ready to give up the breadbox!

They don't build breadboxes like this anymore.  Notice the red metal tab to hold it securely closed.  It still works perfectly.  On each end of the breadbox there are a half dozen or so small holes for ventilation.  The inside floor of the breadbox was a bit scuffed up, so I lined it with a piece of plastic shelf liner and we were good to go.  The top looked plain and dull so I brightened it up with a vintage cloth and a couple of birds.  Then a friend was getting rid of some things and so I acquired the vintage glass jug.

It looks as if this decanter may have come along with a refrigerator, back in the day.

Something is probably going to have to leave my kitchen counter so this breadbox can live there.  We will see, but I'm guessing the bread machine will be it.

Sharing today with Vintage Charm.

Trivial pursuits

An unexpected snowstorm this morning has given me more time at home than I thought I'd have today.  Do you ever find that when you're given an unexpected gift of time, you have trouble figuring out to do with it?  I finished my quiet time early with the intent of heading out to do the grocery shopping.  As it became light out, however, I realized it was snowing quite steadily.

I've been puttering ever since at various tasks, the most important of which would be my Sunday School lesson.

Image from Amazon.com

I'm all set with the lesson for this Sunday, but I have to work ahead as it often takes me a couple of weeks to prepare.   And it often takes close to a month for our class of ladies to work our way through a lesson together.  I hope that everyone else is learning as much as I am!  And yes, I realize that learning and applying are two different things, and both are necessary for true spiritual growth.

Another thing I did was to put together my Valentine ribbon board.  This is something I try to do every February ... display some of my vintage Valentines as well as other special items from this season.  I've got all the items in place, just need to hang the board in the front hallway.  And I will do a post, probably next week, on my simple Valentine decorating.

This is from 2010, I think.  This year's is more sparse.

I'm also working on making tags from 2014's Christmas cards, always an inspiring task while snow falls outside the dormer window in which my little crafting desk is located.

Again, these are from a previous year.  I'm just getting started with this year's.

And I'm also planning, if time allows, to put together a little sample craft for a "Christmas club" I'm helping out with at a local library.  I'll share pictures when I get it figured out.

I think I'll make a Baked Fish Chowder for supper, and maybe some Iron Skillet Biscuits to go along with it.  My hubby dearly loves the biscuits from that recipe!

Lastly, I've been looking for a chance to slip in these pictures of a rather random sewing project I recently completed: simple pillows for a kitchen rocker.  We have, in our kitchen, a somewhat shabby rocking chair with chippy green paint.  When my grandmother gave it to me, the seat was missing, and my then-12-year-old son and I wove a red and white checkerboard replacement out of macrame cord.  (My kitchen has a strawberry theme.)  I've been reluctant to repaint that chair -- although it certainly could use it and in fact needs more help than that -- because I'm pretty sure my grandmother painted it herself.  Anyway, over time the seat got less comfortable so I padded it with a couple of pillows.  These were small square pillows made from washcloths trimmed with cotton fringe.   (Anyone recognize that as a home decor project from the 1960s?)  Someone had given these pillows, made from red washcloths with ecru fringe, to my mother as a gift.  There was literally no place in my parents' house where red pillows would look even remotely at home, so my mother passed them on to me.  They have lived in that rocker, with time out for occasional washing, ever since.  But they had just given out.  Flat, stained, ugly pillows that I cringed at every time I noticed them, which wasn't terribly often.  I knew I had to replace them, and I thought the best choice would be to make some more washcloth pillows.  So "washcloths for pillows" has been an item on my shopping list for awhile, but I never had time to browse that aisle in Walmart.

One day I was cruising past the clearance section and came upon a package of five microfiber "bar mop towels" in two nice shades of green.  Inspiration struck, and within a week I had carved out the time to make my pillows.

This is the darker green, though it doesn't appear all that dark in this photo.  See below for one of each.

I made each pillow out of two shades of green, so I can have two darker green pillows, two lighter green pillows, or one of each.

The colors are a bit truer-to-life in this lower picture.  My camera is so random at times!  One never knows what it will do.

Are they perfect?  No.  Will they stay pouffy?  Probably not.  Do they serve the purpose and look as good as I need them to look?  A resounding YES!

The rocker itself will have to be a project for another day.

I've taken the fish out to thaw, and fed the wood furnace.  The snow continues to fall.  Now back to tag making!

A simple tea rack

 
Many years ago when our daughters were at a boarding high school, they often brought friends home with them for the weekend.  At that time we kept our boxes of herbal and flavored tea neatly stacked in a kitchen cabinet.  Neatly, that is, until one went to pull out a particular box of teabags.  Then the stacking system revealed its inadequacies and instability.

I will never forget how embarrassed I was one weekend when some of the girls were making a cup of tea.  One of them reached for a particular flavor, and at least a half dozen boxes came out of the cabinet with it in a mini-avalanche of tea boxes!  Yes, we had come to the point where we had so many tea boxes that they began tumbling out of the cupboard.  Obviously, we had to figure out different storage for them.

 I had seen a rack for holding tea boxes offered in a tea catalog for around $80. It was beautifully constructed -- out of oak, if I remember right.  I showed it to Mr. T.  He figured he could make a “rustic” one out of pine to serve the same purpose, and he did. It's still serving us admirably after all these years. I couldn’t get a photo that showed the top shelf (too narrow of an area where the rack is located next to our back door), but the top shelf could be used either for display (which I do) or for 2 additional tea boxes.

Mr. T would want me to caution you, I know, that this rack is what he calls “rustic, very rustic.” It is  by no means fine carpentry and he realizes that. But it's a wonderful storage solution and is commented upon by almost everyone who spends any time in our kitchen.

It's fun, when visitors come and we offer them tea, for us to just point them to the tea rack and let them choose the flavor they like.

At the bottom of the rack, I have hung a teapot hanging made out of felt from a kit some years ago.
I’ve always wanted to make another, and saved the pattern just in case. And after many years, I did make another, this for a dear friend.

And then this final photo, which was not taken in my kitchen, but instead in an apartment kitchen in faraway Nevada. My daughter who lives in Nevada wanted a tea rack like mine, so on one of our first visits there,  Mr. T and our son-in-law worked together to make one. It’s so neat to think of her having something just like mine, that was handmade and designed by her dad, in her kitchen too.  Ten years later, with six growing children, they are no longer in a small apartment, but in a house, where the tea rack is on a dining room wall.


Hope you have enjoyed seeing this  simple tea rack.  If you also have issues with the current system you're using to store your boxes of tea, you might like to think about constructing one for your own use!  Mr. T won't mind a bit if you borrow his "rustic" idea!

I am linking up today with Sandi's No Place Like Home at Rose Chintz Cottage  and Bernideen’s Tea Time, Cottage and Garden Blog Party.  Also with Roses of Inspiration  and Share Your Cup Thursday.

Show & Tell Friday for February 1

For Show & Tell today, I would like to share some nifty items which make life easier in my kitchen. They are all things which Mr. T has added to help me out with kitchen storage. He would want me to caution you, I know, that these items are what he calls “rustic, very rustic.” They are by no means fine carpentry and he realizes that. But these things are a huge help to me and are commented upon by almost everyone who spends any time in our kitchen.

First: The mug rack. This is simply a board with cup hooks in it, placed up at the top edge of the ceiling. I took this photo this morning when several mugs were elsewhere, so that’s why it isn’t full. He put this up because we had far too many mugs to keep in a cupboard. Many are still in a cupboard, and I’ve given away and yard-saled others. But the ones we use almost every day are on this rack. A nice plus to keeping mugs here is that, on days when the wood stove is going in the kitchen, the mugs stay warm. Pre-warmed mugs for hot beverages!


Second: The spice rack. He built this because I tend to buy spices at the dollar store or the kitchen store, and the bottles are larger than the spice bottles sold in the supermarket by the brand-name spice companies. As I acquired more and more of these larger spice bottles, we had to do something, so he built a rack specifically to fit them.

Third: The tea rack. When we came to the point that we had so many tea boxes that they began tumbling out of the cupboard, we had to figure out different storage for them. I saw a rack similar to this (fancy, made out of oak, I believe) in a tea catalog for around $80. Mr. T figured he could make a “rustic” one out of pine to serve the same purpose, and he did. It works admirably. I couldn’t get a photo that showed the top shelf (too narrow of an area where the rack is located next to our back door), but the top shelf could be used either for display (which I do) or for 2 additional tea boxes.

At the bottom of the rack, I have hung a teapot hanging made out of felt from a kit some years ago. I’ve always wanted to make another, and saved the pattern just in case. Maybe someday!

And then this final photo, which was not taken in my kitchen, but instead in a kitchen in faraway Nevada. My daughter who lives there wanted a tea rack, so on one of our visits, Mr. T and our son-in-law worked together to make one. It’s so neat to think of her having something just like mine, that was handmade, in her kitchen too.

To see what others have shared for Show & Tell this week, go visit visit There is No Place Like Home and check out the links. It’s so much fun to see what others have to share!