Ladies Aid

It's Wednesday and the German Ladies Aid is meeting at my home today...

 

I want to be sure and have everything in tip-top shape,

that Mildred is such a snoop you know.

 

Only my favorite recipe for coffee cake with the freshest ingredients will do for this group.

Betty will be trying to get a look at my recipe but she isn't going to get it!

 (It's 1937...she's not likely to find it here on our blog is she?)

 

 

Quick Fruit Filled Coffee Cake

1/2 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 egg in one cup measure with enough milk to fill

1 tsp. vanilla

1 can (any kind) of fruit pie filling

 

Topping

1/2 cup butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

 

Cream butter and sugar until soft. Add dry ingredients. Mix in egg/milk and vanilla. Pour in greased 9x13 inch pan. Cover with 1 can fruit pie filling. Top with crumb mixture topping. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes. (Blueberry tastes extra good!)

----------------------------

While my coffee cake is baking we'll hold our meeting.

There's new officers to elect and fundraisers to decide upon.

 

But it's after the meeting and during lunch...

 that we get to gossip and

discuss where the best place is to get your hair done in town...

 

 

and the newest styles in hats.

 

 

 I wonder if Edith knew that the blouse she was wearing was all wrong for that skirt?

b



Household Hints

"Saturday Cleaning"

was a ritual at our house....

If you had anything you wanted to do

you had better get some cleaning done first!!

Have I carried on that tradition?

Heaven's NO!

I have to be pretty bored 

to pick up a dust cloth on Saturday

(or any other day of the week!)

Dusting was always my weekly job...

and now dusting is an annual job at my house:)!

Since tomorrow's Saturday

and this wonderful cool weather 

reminds me of Fall Cleaning,

I thought you might

enjoy

Some household tips from

 The Ladies' Guild

Of The

Ebenezer Presbyterian Church

Lennox, S. Dak.

Published 1949

"When washing windows, put a few drops of kerosene

in your water, and they'll shine beautifully."

"Clean silverware by rubbing with a raw 

potato dipped in soda."

"A little glycerin added to the rinse water

 will keep baby's woolens soft and fluffy."

"Put aspirin in the water of your cut flowers

and they will stay fresh longer."

Before starting out on a dress buying tour,

slip a "waterwave" net cap into your purse.

Don it before plunging into the "pulling-on-and-off" ordeal 

and you will leave the shop

 quite as neatly groomed as when you left home.

~~~

all good tips then

and now!

Tomorrow let's 

grab our caps and gloves

and go dress shopping!!

flour sack towels

When my grandmother needed a break from her daily chores she would sit down in her big wooden rocker and do her stitching, which usually meant mending shirts or darning socks. But it was when she was doing embroidery that got my attention. I loved all the pretty colored threads and the tiny stitches she was making.

 

It was this grandmother, who had the patience of Job, that taught my sister and I how to cross stitch on flour sack towels.

 

 

 

Up until 1950, food items such as flour, sugar, cornmeal, and chicken feed were packaged in tightly woven 50-100 pound cotton sacks. During the depression, between 1929 and the late 1930's, everything was hard to come by. Frugal housewives would re-use these cotton sacks and make them into clothing, toys, quilts, curtains, pillowcases, and of course, dish towels.

1949 newspaper ad

 

In the 1950's flour companies began using a cheaper method of packaging, paper sacks, and the re-use of flour sack towels went by the wayside.

 

As a kitchen towel, flour sack towels are lint free, dry quickly and wash beautifully.

 

 

I refuse to use a kitchen towel without something pretty stitched on it...

 

 

and still love all the threads and doing embroidery. 

b



zucchine bread

You can bet when your grandmother got up early in the morning

 and put her apron on it meant business...

 

 

This is Mrs. Derby...people still talk about the wonderful pies she made

at the Derby Cafe in Chamberlain, SD..

That's quite a legacy.

 

As a girl we did our baking on Saturdays...

after our housecleaning was done.

 

It was quite a commotion with three of us,

my sister Rhonda, mother and myself,

all working around each other in the kitchen.

"No talking! I'm counting teaspoons here!"

 

So go get your apron on....

because I'm sharing  Lila's Zucchine Bread today

 

 

I know, mom should have checked that spelling...

but really...I have to use my spell-check every time I type it in.

I love her hand-written recipes.

 

Lila's Zucchine Bread

                                                      Mix till fluffy:

3 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 cup salad oil

 

then add:

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

3 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp mapleine

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp baking powder

 

                                                      Then add:

2 c. grated zucchini

3 cups flour

1 cup chopped nuts

 

Pour into 2 greased bread pans.

325 oven

3/4 to 1 hr.

 

 

I like to make one regular and two mini loaves (for sharing).

 

enjoy!

b

 

 

Making Aunt Verola Proud

This was my dad's sister, Verola.

She married a hard-working pig farmer, Roland...

they had one son, Dennis.

My dad always felt a little sorry 

for Verola because she worked so hard 

on their pig farm in Iowa...

I'm guessing she was a happy 

hard-working farm wife

and loved the life she chose!

I don't remember anything about 

visiting their farm (I was too young)

but the stories my siblings tell 

me about chasing Roland's pigs

and tracking in mud on Verola's floors...

I think it would also be a safe bet 

that Verola felt sorry for my dad

and his life of raising 5 wild children!!

~~~~

Like any good farm wife in the 50's

she cooked everything from scratch,

and nothing went to waste!

Here is her recipe for 

Refrigerator Pickles....

Bring to boil:

1 Cup Vinegar

2 Cups Sugar

1 Tablespoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Celery Seed

Combine:

7 Cups Thinly Sliced Cucumbers

1 Cup Sliced Onion

1 Cup Green Pepper

Pour the sugar/vinegar brine over

the vegetable mixture and stir.

Cool and place in the refrigerator...

these will keep up to one year!

We are still finding cucumbers on the vines,

but since we aren't picking them everyday,

they are getting too big to pickle in our quart jars!

This is a great way to use those over-sized cukes...

and I love that sweet pickle taste!!

I had plenty of fat cucumbers to spare

so I doubled the recipe to fill this 

gallon size country jar!

I think I'll start charging 

5 cents a slice....

maybe I can save up enough to buy a pig!!

Have a sweet day!

Lisa