All posts filed under: Advice

How to make buttered toast – for the confused or curious

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I notice the thin cookbooks – the ones that were promotional items for companies, usually – have recipes that seem painfully obvious.  I’m not sure if that’s because they felt that people didn’t know how to make the basics correctly (don’t think that’s it) or because they just needed to fill space between the real recipes (yes, that’s probably it). So in case you’ve been failing at this your entire life, I bring you – TOAST!!! From Everybody’s Cookbook published by Frederic J. Haskin: “Buttered Toast: Cut bread a day old into 1/4-inch slices, put slices in a wire toaster or on a grate and place it some distance from the fire that it may dry gradually, and then brown as desired and butter.  Toast, if piled compactly and allowed to stand, soon becomes moist.  It should be served as soon after toasting as possible.” Mmmm, it was delicious.  I can’t even mess buttered toast up.  Though I will say that taking pictures of toast is a nightmare – you can’t move faster than melting butter. Hope …

Monday Book Review Sunday: Thanksgiving: How to Cook It Well

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I’ve been cleaning the house, getting ready for Thanksgiving guests and didn’t think to push “publish”.  So a Book Review Sunday that happens on a Monday…well, that’s a Monday Book Review Sunday! As adults so often do, I sometimes make things harder than they have to be.    This includes my favorite holiday: Thanksgiving.  It was my dilemma that the Thanksgiving meal began to take on new levels of increasing complexity with each passing year, until I began to think I completely lacked the ability to pull it off.  After a decade of stress, Thanksgiving went on my mental list of technical things that weren’t meant for me – you know, like being on a space shuttle crew or origami.  Last year I finally decided to try hosting again but this time, I got back to the basics.  There would be no weird pumpkin pie variations (pumpkin fondue, pumpkin cheesecake, etc. etc.) or attempts to somehow combine ham, turkey, sage, cranberry sauce and who-knows-what-else in to the same bite.  If you were at my house last year, …

Harriet Beecher Stowe has a few words to say about fashion…

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While flipping through old cookbooks, you can’t help but take in the notes of advice. In her book The American Woman’s Home: Or, Principles Of Domestic Science; Being A Guide To The Formation And Maintenance Of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, And Christian Homes (written with her sister Catherine – full citation below), she summarizes the following in the Table of Contents: Oh Harriet and Catherine – I hear you!  Be glad you didn’t live to see the era of skinny jeans.  Talk about displacement of lower organs – put them on the wrong way and you’ll practically displace your kneecaps too! Some issues are clearly timeless. A note about this screenshot: This screenshot was taken from a scanned copy of the book.  It is part of a larger collection of scanned, vintage cookbooks from Michigan State University called Feeding America.  You can view this collection of historical cookbooks online. The American Woman’s Home: Or, Principles Of Domestic Science; Being A Guide To The Formation And Maintenance Of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, And Christian Homes.  By Catherine E. Beecher And Harriet Beecher Stowe.  New …