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My Cat's Pajamas finds - 2014

The Cats Pajamas has so many dress options to choose from. Dressy, casual, floral, plaids, lacy, rayon, cotton or even sequins and they are all beautiful in their own way, but ...I love, love house dresses! They are easy to put on when your running errands, running around with kids or having a nice picnic with your husband. You can dress up with peep-toe oxfords, be comfy with simple white canvas tennis shoes or even punk them up a bit as I have with black combat boots. Either way you choose to wear them, they are a must in vintage gals closet.

My new Gloria Swanson dress is  the only one of my dresses that I would wear with heels and maybe add a  purple crinoline.  I can't wait to wear them and post photos.

Gloria Swanson Forever Young

Plaid Turquoise dress

Purple and blue floral house dress

Light blue gingham with pleats

Black Kelly handbag

Cat's Pajamas 2014

Hemmens Cultural center

Finally! After waiting for months it was here, the first Cats Pajamas Productions vintage show of the year and I was excited as can be. Two floors of vintage clothing, shoes, jewelery and more. Everywhere you look it is covered with racks and tables chock full of vintage items ready to shopped. I was so ready for this, well, not entirely ready, but I was going to be. I just had go through a couple of things.

I start planning what I want to wear a couple days before the show. I go through my closet and start checking off my list of requirements for a suitable outfit for the show. 

• Is it comfortable for the entire day? 
• How long will it take me to get ready before my husband starts looking at his watch?
• Easy on and off for trying on clothes?
• Can I bend over without something popping out?
• Shoes - comfy flats or show them off heels?
• Which purse will hold my hairpins, lipstick, money, my willpower not fall in love with everything?
• Hats?
• Hairstyle?
• Era?

It actually wasn't too difficult on deciding my outfit. Each year I've been to the show has been a learning experience on what went right or wrong. Yet, just in case I still go through my mental list. I decided on a Toile de jouy material dress with a sweetheart neckline and my comfy Aris Allen shoes. I decided no hat or updo, so that I could easily try on hats without constantly removing mine or ending up with a rats nest hairdo.

My husband dropped me off and took the kiddies with him. I felt just like my kids at a Lego store, wanting to jump up and down from excitement as I walked inside. The vintage music sets a nice tone and seeing fellow shoppers in vintage clothing is fun. I immediately head downstairs to visit Peggy and her husband Allen from TresYours Vintage corner. We talked and she then proceeds to show me a dress... a 'Gloria Swanson Forever Young dress'. Fit like a glove, it's mine and so was an open bottom girdle. TresYours came through as usual. I purchased 3 other dresses from Carole's closet and a black handbag.
I had a swell time! I am now counting down the days until the next show...in September!

I pretty sure the Cat's Pajamas had every vintage item covered.....

Dresses

Menswear

Ties

Umbrellas

Shoes

Jewelry

Bow ties and belt buckles

Hats

and more hats

they even had a hat stretcher!!

I highly recommend making a visit to the Cats Pajamas Productions shows. As you can clearly see in the photos they have everything a vintage gal or guy would love and could possibly need.

In my post last year I did write a review on the Cats Pj's and wrote how I preferred the Saturday morning show over the Friday night show. I still do, personally it just works out better for my family and I like my filling my mornings with some awesome vintage shopping! I just wish it was every morning and so I wait...

Which came first...

Chicken and drop biscuits or dumplings

I recently cooked 'Chicken Fricassee with Dumplings' from Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook that I thought and had been told was from the 1950's, since it had no date inside.  As I began prepping the chicken I realized that I had cooked this recipe before. After cleaning up, I retrieved my 1936 Magic Chef cookbook and it had the same recipe idea with a couple changes.

My family loved the 1950's version of the recipe instead of the one I had cooked before, so I assumed on taste that it had been updated throughout the years. I looked online and I saw a picture of my 1950's cookbook that actually dates it back to 1930. The recipe my family and I thought had been improved upon was actually written 6 years before the 1936 Magic Chef.

Until I find out for sure which one came first, I'll leave it up to you to decide which is tastier...

1936

Stewed Chicken with Drop Biscuits & Gravy (1936)

Temperature, 275 degrees; Time, 3 hours 

then

Temperature, 450 degrees; Time 15 to 20 minutes.

Cut 3 1/2 or 4-pound chicken for stewing. Place the pieces on a rack in a roaster. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of salt over it. Pour 2 cups of boiling water in the bottom of the pan and cover. If the cover has a valve, open it. Place in the oven at 275 degrees for 3 hours.

When the baking period is completed, remove the pan from the oven, pour off excess fat and save the broth for the gravy.

Have ready a biscuit mixture made as follows:

Biscuits

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons fat
3/4 cup milk

Mix and sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in the fat. Add the milk and mix to a soft dough. Drop by tablespoons on the chicken. Place the chicken and biscuit mixture in the oven at 450 degrees and bake uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes.

While the biscuits are baking, prepare a gravy.
Gravy
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter
broth

Mix the flour, salt, pepper and butter. Add the hot broth and enough water to make 3 cups of liquid. Stir and cook on the surface burner until the mixture reaches the boiling point. Serve hot over the chicken & biscuits

Yield: 6 servings.

1930's ?

Chicken Fricassee with Dumplings(1930)?
Time: 1 1/2 - hours. (Serves 6)
4 - 6 lb. Stewing chicken
1 small onoin
2 sticks celery
1 carrot, sliced
2 sprigs parsley
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1/2 bay leaf
1 tablespoon salt
1 cup cream
Finely chopped parsley

(1) Singe, wash, dry and cut chicken in serving pieces, dip in flour.
(2) Place 2 tablespoons fat in roaster, add chicken, brown over medium heat.
(3) Barely cover with boiling water. Add onion, celery, carrot, parsley sprigs, peppercorn and bay leaf (or may be prepared without browning, then omit step 2).
(4) Bring to boiling point, cover roaster, reduce heat to very low until chicken is tender. Add salt the last half hour of cooking period.
(5) Remove chicken to the preheated serving platter.

Gravy

Strain broth and return to unit over a low flame. Stir in cream slowly, thicken with about 1/2 cup flour and 1/2 cup milk combined to a smooth paste. Pour gravy over chicken, sprinkle with chopped parsley.

Dumplings:
2 Cups flour
3 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon butter
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Sift flour with baking powder and salt, mix in butter. Beat egg and add milk. Stir into dry ingredients. Batter should be quite stiff. Drop by spoonfuls on top of chicken. Try to find pieces of chicken to park dumplings on. They will be lighter if not soaked with gravy. Cover roaster, raise heat to 1/4 flame. Bake for 20 minutes without lifting cover. Remove cover, lift dumplings to serving platter, sprinkle with finely chopped parsley or chives. Arrange chicken in center and pour over gravy. Serve bordered with a mound of prepared rice, dumplings or noodles around outside of platter. Baking powder biscuits or cornbread work well.

*If you don't want to cut up the chicken yourself, buy one that's already cut into pieces.

*Both recipes are good, but I found that 2nd recipe that added the vegetables, flour and fried lightly sealed in more flavor.

*Both recipes say you can pour gravy over the biscuits turning them into dumplings, but I chose to leave them dry. (My son has SPD and there are certain food textures that bother my son. If I had poured the gravy over the biscuits the soggy texture would bother him).

 

Have fun cooking either one recipe or both.

 

Victory in the Garden

Victory Garden - 2013

Finally! Victory in the garden. I had done it. After some time of being unsuccessful, I grew not one thing, not two, but 8 garden beauties. I grew 2 types of Tomatoes, Basil, Oregano, Pumpkins, Hungarian peppers, Jalapenos & 1 little Cabbage. This is my post on what I went through trying to grow a garden and my need for earning my vintage gardening patch.

I had many reasons as to why I wanted my own 'Victory Garden'...it brought back memories of gardening in California as a child with my grandmother, an excuse to buy vintage gardening hats, new place to take pics, gardening is relaxing, teaching my kids about fresh produce, saving money, possibly even canning for winter, all good reasons. Personally I felt that growing a successful garden would somehow earn me a "Vintage gal gardening patch". Little did I know that was a long ways away....

First area I picked was behind my garage & very small. I don't know what I intended to grow in such a small spot, but I had refused to ruin the openness of my large backyard. When I began digging I found just about every little thing that could be found in the backyard. My neighbor pointed out that the previous owner was a junk collector and tossed his trash in the backyard. Nothing grew! Too junky. That patch is now our dog run. 

Second area was all the way back of my yard. I dug it, used an old window screen to thoroughly clean the soil. My neighbor suggested I cut down some branches for more sunlight, but I felt guilty cutting into my beautiful big trees. Okay, my neighbor was right. Nothing grew! Not enough sun. This is now my firewood area.

Third area. Third time a charm? No! Too muddy. This is now my compost area.

Fourth area. I can't even remember why it didn't work. After this last try I just concentrated on planting flowers in my front yard. Hostas, what a confidence booster they are. Wow can they grow!

I'm a vintage gal in every other way, clothing, cooking, sewing, decorating and every time I wore or made something I felt I was earning a patch in vintage accomplishments. As a Girl Scout dropout I knew the importance of badges, after all I'd earned 4 or more like 3 before I left. This gardening patch was tougher to earn than I thought and the "I can do it" attitude was waning.
A couple years went by and my neighbor had been moved into a nursing home. New neighbors moved in and they began digging their garden. Gardens to the left of me, gardens to the right of me. My competitive nature came out and I thought there's no way I can let myself be the only one without a proper garden.The new neighbors unknowingly gave me a push to try again and so I did. I took what I learned from the previous tries and I went for it. Again.

First - I realized that having a big beautiful garden wouldn't ruin my spacious yard, but would add to it. 

Second - I finally had enough sunlight. Due to past storms, we had lost some trees. No guilt in cutting them down.

Third -  I built a proper fence, something I hadn't tried before. I asked the hubs to let me do it myself after we both realized, that his center mark is different from mine when measuring for a garden fence.
When I had finished digging, screening, building, decorating and finally planting, I waited & waited anxiously for the first sprout to come through. It was tough, but somehow I knew I would have something this time. I just knew & I did!  Seeing the tiny little red tomato hanging on the vine felt incredible. My family was proud of me and I was proud of me. I had done it!!

Thanks to the support of my family, friends, neighbors tips and vintage gal motto 'We Can do it'! I did. I had earned my vintage gal "Victory Garden patch" and it was real. I got one every time I picked off the vines in my new garden and they were delicious.

Hungarian wax peppers

Plum tomatoes

Good harvest

A picture before I finished the entry door.

I found two vintage gate doors & chair for decoration.

In the background is my first garden attempt...now a dog run.

A not so ripe Pear

My very first Tomato.

Homemade pasta sauce

Ration Bread Pudding

Delicious Bread Pudding

I recently had to postpone a 1960's Mad Men party, due to very bad winter weather. Luckily, most of the food I was going to serve would keep until needed, but not the large loaf of bread I had purchased for my retro Fondue. I had already cut it into cubes and was just about to make the Fondue when the cancellations started coming in. I set the bread aside until I could find a recipe, so that I wouldn't have to throw out the stale bread. I looked through my vintage cookbooks and other vintage sites for recipes that were authentic and simple. I finally found a recipe on one of my favorite blogs...'The 1940's Experiment'. I had to change it a little, when I realized I didn't have the exact ingredient portions, but the recipe is so delicious that it didn't make a difference.

       Ration Bread Pudding

• 10 ounces of stale bread. Cut into medium sized cubes
• 2 ounces of melted margarine or butter
• 1 ounce of Sugar
• 2 ounces of Raisins
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons of Cinnamon
• Milk about 1 ounce. Enough to moisten bread.
• extra sugar for a lite sprinkle topping

Place bread in bowl and add about 2 tablespoons of water. Just enough to fluff the bread, but not soak it. Set aside. In another bowl beat egg lightly with fork, till well blended. Add butter, sugar, raisins and cinnamon. Mix well with fork.

Squeeze out any extra water from bread, if any. Add milk. Fluff bread, then add rest of the ingredients together and mix.

Pour into greased pan 9 inch square pan. Half way through baking, Sprinkle a little sugar on top.

Bake at 320 till lightly browned around edges.

*If bread is too wet, cut back milk or too dry add a little more.

*You can use any stale bread. Just make sure to remove any toppings that would ruin the sweetness of the raisins and cinnamon.

*Remember that this is a rationed ingredient bread. If you would like, you could add more cinnamon, raisins or sugar to taste.