Showing posts with label 1930s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1930s. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

On Gingerbread and One Humped Camels

My how things have changed.

According to the Food Timeline, gingerbread has been around for centuries, but has shifted and changed with the times, as most things do. 

For example, in the 1930s it was credited with saving marriages.


All Alice had to do was buy a little black satin number and make the dessert her questionably devoted husband enjoyed as a boy in his plantation home. Whoosh! All lustful thoughts of Bonbon Betty Thornton fly out the window!

Here's another happy couple thanking Brer Rabbit for their marital bliss.


The creepy bunny seems to have pulled the kids in too.


Rabbits are not the only animals to be associated with molasses, and therefore, with gingerbread.

Enter the dromedary. 


And not just ANY one humped camel. This one is an angelic dromedary who talks to pictures of the mothers of dead presidents.


Good old George just can't resist Momma Washington's gingerbread.


Apparently Queen Elizabeth  liked gingerbread men, which eventually increased their popularity, and changed the recipe. This waving gingie interested me because of the mysterious holes in his hands:


Why does he have holes in his hands?

Gingerbread houses appeared on the scene after Hansel and Gretel were popularized. What child wouldn't love a book with a cover like this:


(Night terrors anyone?)

Here's a version that I might really try:


It's made from the real stuff rather than the cardboard slabs of "gingerbread" bought in a kit at Le Boutique Big Box. 

Humans could actually consume it.

And that brings us to today. Or at least, to 2006, when the world's largest gingerbread house was constructed.


I brought a plus-sized roll of Pillsbury Gingerbread Cookie dough the other day, with no plans for what to do with it. Maybe I'll create a mini replica. I think Brer Rabbit, the Dromedary, and the Doughboy would all be proud.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Spry! Best Wedding Gift Ever!


Spry Pure Vegetable Shortening did an amazing job with marketing during the mid 1930s through the mid 1950s. They created a character named Aunt Jenny who appeared in print advertisements and hosted a radio show/soap opera.

(In this case, I guess it would be called a shortening opera.)

DiDi found for me a trippy old recipe booklet called Aunt Jenny's Favorite Recipes which of course all demand Spry.

Check out the front cover:

That handsome fella with his arm around Jenny is the ever dashing DH Calvin. For some reason, he's not referred to as "Uncle", which makes me question the nature of their relationship.

The back cover is equally fun.

The book is filled with techniques and tips for the aspiring homemaker. The back cover tips you off that Jenny likes to help newlyweds.


Who wouldn't want a paper advertocookbooklet and an economy sized can of shortening as a wedding present!

Ain't Spry grand?

Thursday, July 7, 2011

New Haul!

Check out my finds from this afternoon!

It includes:
  • Two Better Homes and Gardens magazines from the 1940s
  • A trippily illustrated "fast food" book from the 1970s
  • A hardcover book of "Electric Refrigerator Recipes and Menus" from the late 1920s
  • A 1955 community cookbook published by members of the Women's National Press Club
  • 2 pamphlet's from the 1930s published for Calumet Baking Powder.
  • A campy 1950s cookbook
  • A gold covered, index tabbed general cook book from the 1960s
Can't wait to start going through them!