Happy Mardi Gras Y'all!

Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, is here! According to Catholic tradition, Fat Tuesday is celebrated the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. While most of us today don't eat meat on Fridays throughout Lent, try to give up something and/or try to do something to benefit others on a daily basis, and fast on a handful of days, in the past and in very "orthodox" Catholic families the fasting aspect is much stricter.

Fat Tuesday originated as an opportunity to clear the larder out of tempting indulgent foods and have one last shebang before the solemnity of Lent. Obviously, Mardi Gras has definitely evolved and grown over the years, especially in the town synonimous with Mardi Gras--New Orleans.

We are a little more traditional in my family. Every year for Mardi Gras, Dad makes us a big weekend breakfast spread with the all-important pancakes for dinner. (He is quite the cook...part of the reason Mom married him!) It is simple but delicious and filling which is important because the first day of fasting is tomorrow.

If you would like to make your own breakfast Mardi Gras Dinner you can find all sorts of Brunch recipes here!

Yummy Christmases Past

We have a bunch of nifty vintage cookbooks in right now, many of them with an emphasis on entertaining and parties. One of these is an old wire-bound Betty Crocker's HOSTESS cookbook: Guest Tested Recipes and Party Plans for Every Occasion.



Since Christmas is coming up I thought I would give you a "taste" of some of the yummy recipes and helpful tips inside!



Here are some scrumptious looking desserts...I can attest to the absolute yumminess of the Buche Noel...my older brother had to make one for a foreign language class Christmas party in middle school and we've been making it on and off ever since. Smaller ones are great for the little baking exchange that we do on our street each year but they are also great for teachers, friends, hostesses, and parties. I personally can't stand cherries so we sometimes mix it up and have either a cream cheese and strawberry or a cinnamon-sugar apple filling instead. My Grandma also used to make the Yule Log cake... Seeing that picture makes me think I should ask her to make another one this year!




This book also has some great decorating ideas, like making these wreaths:

Vintage Better Homes and Gardens Sweet Dolly Christmas

Right now we have a copy of the vintage Better Homes and Gardens Birthdays and Family Celebrations book. I just could not resist sharing some of it with you!



Here the dollies are busy making their cookies and candies together for Christmas. Aren't they adorable?



Isn't this vignette of the little doll family gathered around the Christmas table charming?

Elements of the Table: Scrumptious Wooodsgift Farms Memory Foods

I may be jumping ahead of myself here, the table isn't yet set but I am already bringing up the food! But I am just so excited about this that I can't wait to post about it later. For years our family has been going to a local festival and every year our main mission has been to obtain curds and jellies from one vendor, Woodsgift Farms, which we would then stockpile for the rest of the year.

Not only do they taste AMAZING but the couple from Tennessee who make them are just the sweetest, nicest, godly folk you could imagine. Just as good-old fashioned "good people" as the product they sale. When my little brother Josh had torn his ACL (I can't remember if this was his first or second one) and was consequently suitably less than his usual happy self, these lovely people prayed for his quick recovery.

This year, we were thrilled to find out that we would be able to carry it in our shop! Let me tell you as I picked out our first order I was smiling like a little kid at Christmas! We are now pleased to be able to offer this product to our customers. While they make some traditional jams and jellies like strawberry, raspberry and blackberry, they also make what they refer to as "Memory Foods" that your great-grandmother might have made like Honeysuckle, Rose Hip, and my personal favorite of the Dandelion jelly which we currently carry. These are just a few of the delicately delicious floral jellies which they offer and we hope to carry. They also make simply divine Lemon and Lime curds (the lemon slightly edges out the lime as the family favorite and we could all sit down and eat it with a spoon...a healthy treat which I love is take the lemon and mix it with some plain yogurt, DELICIOUS!) and fruit butters. For breakfast, snack or tea, no table is complete without these delicacies. Take a look for yourself. We can always ship!
Kerry

Terrific Timely Tips from WWII booklet

Mom and I were out and about collecting goodies for our store and boy did we find some wonderful goodies at the estate of a 95 year old woman who still had many of her mother's belongings. Many of these items will be added to our inventory soon but they are just so neat that I wanted to share some of them with you!

One of these goodies is a great promotional Swans Down cake flour booklet filled with wartime recipes called "How to bake by the Ration Book". This little booklet features recipes that make do with less. For example there are cakes with little or no eggs or sugar and biscuits with only a tablespoon of shortening. Not only is it interesting to see how creative people were with what they had but these are recipes that are just as good for us today helping both our waistlines and our wallets.

Here are a couple of recipes for you to try:

One-Egg Wonder Cake

2 cups sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
1 cup Sugar
2 tsp. Calumet Baking Powder
1 egg, unbeaten
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
1/4 or 1/3 cup shortening
1 tsp. vanilla

Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift together three times. Cream shortening, add sugar gradually, and cream together well. Add egg and beat very thoroughly. Add flour, alternately with milk, a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Add vanilla. Bake in two greased 8 inch layer pans or in greased large cup-cake pan in moderate oven (375 degrees F.) 20-25 minutes. Spread with topping...


Wartime Drop Biscuits

2 cups sifted Swans Down Cake Flour
3/4 cup milk
2 1/2 tsp. Calumet Baking Powder
3/4 tsp. salt
1 tablespoon melted shortening or oil

Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Add milk and melted shortening. Then stir quickly and lightly until all flour is dampened. Drop from tip of teaspoon in small mounds on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in hot oven (450 degrees F.) 15 minutes or until done. Makes about 18 biscuits.

Bon Appetit!
Kerry