30 June 2012

Blasts From Culinary Pasts

Carting these off to thrift store. Mother had them out, did we want them before they left. I took them home for a fast look before they head out.

That was only winter. What? I didn't look until today. Bag of thrift headed out, so one quick look today.

First Blast - Soup cookery!! Remember? Casseroles with creamed anything. Meatball stew. Stuff we kids could make on Saturdays when mom was working.
Things I didn't remember:
A whole chapter on surprising cakes and breads with the undefinable something and rosy glow of tomato soup. Eep.

Second blast: Altrusa's Favorites
What, who was Altrusa, we asked. Mother has no idea where it came from. Front leaf : Altrusa Club Objectives reflected a focus on supporting women in business and the professions as well as an array of educational outreach, public service, and nonpartisan political engagement.

A little Internet snooping showed that the history of the organization goes back to 1917, initially formed (in Tennessee?) by/for women to support the progress of women entering the profession during World War I. It has expanded in gender and in location, international perspectives and humanitarian concerns, including literacy projects.

Cookbook is decidedly still from a women's group, based on the printed objectives, and decidedly about the same vintage as the soup cookbook. Recipes with cake mix, canned soup, a taco dip to serve with taco flavored Doritos.

Blast three: a church cookbook from 1987, on Belmont in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. I am copying out a recipe or two - see the notecards sticking out?

Then it will go away.

What I am not (NOT) doing: taking the centennial cookbook to the local church in case someone wants their own blast from the past, nor the Altrusa one to the international headquarters located downtown.

There's only so much blast left in paper ephemera and cooking nostalgia.

Goodbye, cookbooks!

27 June 2012

Daylight

F Leapin O

Thirty+ years ago, this was an intended pillow. I think it was a gift for my mother. Saw it last Christmas, carefully stowed in a drawer, two knit rectangles, neatly folded once.

Took it home to finish it up. Months more it sat.

Took it back to my mother's for a brief summer visit, along with supplies.

Happily, it will be staying. Her decor can still carry a curiously gold, Lydia's Rug Yarn pillow, made by her daughter. What a hoot.

Pardon the photo. ElizabethSable would despair of the photo aesthetic.

It took about two hours, with distractions, to sew and stuff a pillow form, stitch in a zipper by hand, and stitch ip the remaining seams.

Take note, UFO's. I'm rocking some finishing, kicking it old school.

01 June 2012

So Long Mayhem, er, May

In addition to the usual May end of term events, the past days saw the following activity, in no particular order:

Office relocating - two of them plus three other rooms - for major renovation project;
Unpacking the office filled with storage moving crates - which resulted in looking like a cross between being in a giant Lego and being in an organized episode of Hoarders;
Graduation preparations, two sets;
Quilt making, one gift from start to finish;
Flower planting at the cemetery for Memorial Day;
Salad making, all sorts;
Road tripping with a couple teenagers, complete with a game of Botticelli and a whole lot of Rihanna;
Knitting on the road, xxx yards into a sweater and half a sock;
Registering for conferences;
Organizing workshops;
Making lists;
Crossing off lists;
House hunting;
Freaking out about house hunting;
Getting ready to decide I can't move this summer;
And getting ready to try catching up on sleep and laundry and cleaning and everything that was abandoned for the last several months.

Hello, June!