Blueberry “Boy Bait.” How’s that for a recipe title? I think only in 1954 could one get away with a name like that. The recipe won $2,000 at the 5th Pillsbury Bake-Off by a teen-age girl from Chicago, who said she made it often for her friends, assuming at least one was a boy she […]
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Retro Recipe Week, Day Two
It’s retro recipe week! Check out the blog from yesterday for the 1950’s porcupine meatballs, one of my husband Bill’s favorites. Besides anything with meat, his next choice would be a cookie. Bill is the original cookie monster. In the family recipe box where I found the meatball recipe was an old-fashioned oatmeal cookie using lard, which I like […]
Retro Recipe Week, Day One
If you read my blog from a few days ago, you might remember that I was lucky to be in the possession of a treasured family recipe box from my husband’s Finnish side of the family. Many of the recipes are Finnish specialties, but there are also just as many from the 1940’s and ’50’s. I […]
A Walk on the Beach
That girl on the beach is me. A long time ago. It has always been one of my favorite images of my life back then, and also a favorite of my two daughters. It was originally a photograph taken by my college roommate, but the above is an oil painting. A very special painting by […]
Secrets of the Old Tin Box
Anna Juljaana Vanni Halonen was my husband Bill’s Finnish aunt, known to the family as Aunt Ann. When Bill and his cousins recently started cleaning out Aunt Ann’s home in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the kitchen revealed some family treasures. If there is anything that gets my attention more than old cookbooks, it’s old recipe boxes. When Bill […]
The Comfort of Homemade Noodles
To our family, nothing is more comforting on a cold winter’s day than my great aunt Margie’s homemade noodles.
Memorial Day and a 1940’s recipe
Memorial Day is sacred in our country, as it should be. I wanted to honor my Dad today, who was a World War II veteran. This is a photo of the ship on which he served during the war, The USS Porter. I would also like to honor my friend Lisa’s son, Will, bravely serving in […]
Ain’t Life Grand?!
I lost the dust jacket from this book long ago, so it’s not much of a photo. However, the recipes will make up for it. Great Dinners from Life is a classic from Time-Life Books. The first few lines say: “This is a book for people who like to have friends in for dinner. It is […]
