Plan a Summer Automobile Picnic

July 20, 2021June 28, 2021 VintageJenny

Family of five enjoying a picnic outdoors in the 1920s. Mom unloads the hamper while little sister enjoys a drink, little brother munches a sandwich, and dad talks to big sister, who sits with a warm cup of coffee or tea.. She holds a teacup in her hand and an insulated Thermos bottle sits in front of her. — Ah….. enjoying the great outdoors and meal at the same time!

Wide automobile ownership brought the great outdoors within reach of a whole new audience. Previously, people could go as far as the local streetcar, the interurban, or the train could take them. Or they could ride a horse if they had one. For short excursions a bicycle would work well. But nothing beat an auto when you wanted to plan a summer automobile picnic an hour or so away from home.

Taking off in your auto

The automobile picnic actually became a term on its own in magazine articles. With the extra space afforded by the car, owners could pack it to the windows and take practically every luxury with them when they headed out for their nature dinner.

When you think of supplies, you may want to use fabric shopping or tote bags instead of hampers if your car space is small. Bags can be hung from the clothing hooks or tucked into places that a large hamper will not go.

The prepared picnic addict kept a special shelf of supplies, plus more hidden away in the automobile trunk. If you wanted to pull a picnic together on short notice, you needed a few items on hand. Here is a bona fide Twenties picnic list that will help you plan your summer automobile picnic.

Supplies that make easy work of the picnic lunch

Wherever you store your seasonal things, you should have these available:

Paper plates
Tablecloth
Napkins
Cups
Doilies
Empty cracker boxes
Rolls of paraffin (waxed) paper
Strong market bags with handles (paper or burlap are good materials. Today I’d suggest a reusable fabric shopping bag. The Twenties picnicker would have loved such a light and useful item.)
Thermos bottle
Lemonade pail (a covered/lidded pitcher with ice makes a good, sanitary substitute.)
Picnic hamper

… And the shelf-stable food

These are the foods that should sit on a picnic shelf of your pantry so you can throw together a great vintage summer automobile picnic in a short amount of time:

Stuffed olives (or simply jarred olives. They really don’t need to be stuffed.)
Jellies (grape, strawberry, mango…whatever your family loves)
Grape and pineapple juice
Mixed pickles (these are different vegetables all pickled together like small onions, carrots, cauliflower, tiny peppers… and they often would be home canned in small 8-ounce jars for portability and cost. Check the Ball Blue Book if you want recipes (Amazon link; look for it wherever canning supplies are sold), or take a look at this Hot Pepper Mix of pickled vegetables from the Ball website to get an idea.
Pickled herring — sh! This is great on crackers as an appetizer. If you like pickled herring, that is.
Potted ham or chicken (This was an early solution for canned meats. Substitute a can or two of whatever meat you like canned. You can still buy potted meat. You may or may not like it. Think Spam.)
Canned soups
Boxed cookies
Boxed salted and plain crackers (This is calling for saltines and.. say.. an unsalted cracker like… do we still have those? I can’t think of any. If you know of an unsalted cracker on the market please let me know in the comments.)
Pimientos (This was the Twenties cook’s solution to adding color and nutrition of various meals. Roasted peppers in everything! They kept better this way than in the refrigerator and fresh.)
Canned salmon
Canned tuna
Prepared salad dressing
Sweet wafers (These are very thin cookies often used to decorate desserts. You may be able to find them in the grocery with the Italian cookies. Look on the top shelf. Pizzelles are a type of sweet wafer. If you happen to have an ice cream cone waffle iron, a small flat waffle cone makes a great wafer. I do, because gluten free ice cream cones are few and far between.)

Let’s not forget the refrigerator!

Lest you think that everything for your picnic needs to come off the longterm storage shelf, you will find a few items in your fridge to spice up your day:

Mayonnaise
Home-made salad dressings
Hard boiled eggs
Cold boiled potatoes
Green peppers
Celery
Fresh tomatoes
Young onions (we would call these spring onions or green onions or scallions.)
Lettuce
Lemons
Fresh fruit

Of course you won’t use all of this! This is your store from which you pull all the things you need for the ultimate picnic. Maybe you have a fresh loaf of bread on hand. You can make tuna sandwiches, or chicken salad sandwiches. You can have hard boiled eggs (transport them cold in the shell and let everyone peel their own), or you can make deviled eggs (transport them filled and facing each other, wrapped in plastic or waxed paper. Unwrap them, twist them apart and each person has two deviled eggs!)

Pull some fresh fruit, some cookies, and pack a drink and you’re done! See how easy this can be when you have supplies ready and on hand? Not every picnic needs to be fried chicken and corn on the cob.

Note: if you are fixing anything with mayonnaise, please keep it chilled in a cooler until it’s consumed. Warm mayo, while it probably won’t kill you, is less than tasty on a sandwich or in deviled eggs.

Add a Sweet Surprise

If you like, and you have the time and the equipment, you can make up two quarts of ice cream a bit ahead of time, pack the container in a cooler with ice, and tuck it into the car for after lunch or dinner. Even simple vanilla made with milk, half and half (light cream), sugar, and vanilla tastes heavenly when it’s fresh.

Traditionally, of course, this could be made in the kitchen sink: fill the sink with ice and enough kosher or rock salt to make it even colder, and place a metal bowl into the sink with your prepared ice cream mixture. You should have enough ice to make the bowl cold. Start stirring. Stir until you think your arm is going to fall off, and then stir some more. Switch arms. Hold the bowl steady and stir with your other hand. Every now and then you’ll need to scrape the stuff off the sides of the bowl so new unfrozen stuff can take its place. Is this easy or quick? Nope. But I hear it works if you have no other alternative.

Don’t forget the auto supplies!

Filling your car with picnic-ready equipment will ensure that you’re always ready for a trip. Consider these additions:

Canned heat, stand, and pan to fit on it. (I keep my canned heat on the pantry shelf because my car gets really hot in the summer. You may want to, as well.)
Charcoal, in case you find yourself at a park with usable grills.
Toy pail and shovel for each child, especially if you are going where there is sand. Or rocks. Or loose dirt. Or leaves.

Two tasty on-the-go meals

Here are two options for picnic meals, Twenties style. Each of them can be made largely from the ingredients made above, with some additional items that you’ll notice. Substitute wherever you like. Plan your summer automobile picnic to make yourself happy. This is your picnic.

A Fireless Meal

For those days when you can’t fire up the park grill, here’s a menu that you can pack and go:

Potato salad (using those cold boiled potatoes from the fridge)
Eggs stuffed with Ham (minced ham + a little mayo in a hard boiled egg white. Use the yolks, or not.)
Sliced fresh tomatoes
Nut bread sandwiches (nut bread sliced thin; two pieces held together with cream cheese or butter)
Lemonade
Cookies (fresh or from the shelf)
Sliced fruit in Raspberry Jelly (this is probably calling for sliced fruit in something like raspberry jell-o)

An Automobile Lunch

Hot Buillion from the Thermos Bottle
with Salted crackers
Sandwiches of cream cheese and maple sugar with graham bread (this is a sweet sandwich to balance the soup; graham bread is whole wheat bread.)
Vegetable salad (prepared fresh or steamed cold veggies with a little salad dressing to perk them up, whatever you have)
Sweet pickles
Chocolate cake
Iced Tea

Neither of these will take a huge amount of time to put together if you already have most of the ingredients. And they are substantial meals for on the go. Use these, or rely on favorite foods when you plan your summer automobile picnic this year.

If you’d like an option for more of a tea-party picnic than a traditional picnic, you might like my entry on creating a summer porch party. These recipes require a bit more care in packing but they are just as tasty.

The Creative Corner · Vintage Needlework

Easy Vintage Tatting Patterns

July 15, 2021June 24, 2021 VintageJenny

Pile of handmade white tatted lace on a dark wood table. — Nearly two yards of tatted edging. Made with only 1 shuttle and thread.

When you learn a new craft, you have to start somewhere. Last time we talked about tatting, I gave you several options for learning online. If those worked for you, then you are ready to use a simple pattern or two. These easy vintage tatting patterns will get you started.

Most people start by making tatted edgings. For one thing, you don’t have to spend most of your time tying off rows like you would if you were making a round piece like a doily. And second, the more you do something, the better you get. Especially with muscle memory, which is a lot of the art of tatting. With an edging you make the same movements over and over until they become natural and almost automatic.

Easy tatted edgings can use only a shuttle thread to make rings, or they can use a shuttle thread and a ball thread to make simple rings and chains. The patterns I show here use only a shuttle thread.

All you need is a shuttle

Not only are these easy to make, these edgings are incredibly portable. If you have a full shuttle and a length of lace in your pocket, you always have something you can work on if you find yourself with a spare ten minutes here and there. Some of these laces I’ve carried for years in a metal container in my purse or simply in a pocket of my jacket.

If you need a shuttle or thread you can use for tatting, you can find an amazing selection of both at The Tatting Corner.

Five tatted lace edgings arranged on a wooden table. They become more complicated top to bottom. — All these are tatted with only one shuttle thread.

Today I’ll tell you how to make all five of these easy vintage tatting patterns. Whether you want to start with the simplest one or everything from the middle point up looks easy-peasy and you’re ready for more challenge, I have an edging for you.

All of these edgings use only one shuttle thread. As you can see from the top photo, you can make these strips as long as you like. One of the nice things about tatting is that you can cut it. If you love making a particular edging, and end up making two yards of it as I did in the very top photo, don’t worry. Some day you’ll find a use for all of it or some of it.

Like I usually do, I’ll give you the instructions in order from easiest to most difficult. That way you can hop in wherever you like. None of these examples are washed, pressed, or starched. They appear just as they will coming off your shuttle. After you drag them out of your pocket or bag a few times they may even have a few wrinkles. That’s okay. Wet them down and lay them out when you’re finished with them. They’ll straighten right up.

The first two patterns came from a 1926 article on simple one-shuttle tatted edgings. They are simple and delightful and you might fall in love with them.

Ring, ring, ring

White tatted edging made from identical loops linked next to one another. Lying on a wooden table. Text: This simple tatting pattern is great for sharpening your skills. Vintage Living, Modern Life

Edging 1 is the same ring over and over. In a fine thread it makes a beautiful edging for a doll dress or baby outfit. This example appears in a coarser size 10 thread. An edging this size could trim an apron, blouse or shirt, hat, or tea towel.

Edging 1

Make a ring of 6 double stitches (ds), picot, 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, close ring. Leave a good space of 3/8 to 1/2 inch, and begin the next ring. The second ring is 6 ds, join to the last picot of the first ring, 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, close ring.

Here are the same instructions as you might see them in a modern tatting book:

R 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds. Cl R. Leave 1/2″. R 6 ds + 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds. Cl R.

The – stands for picot, the + means join. R stands for ring, Cl means close.

Edging 2

Tatted edging that looks like clovers, with three rings per cluster. White thread lace on a wooden table. Text says: This beginner tatted edging can be used for trimming all kinds of things. Vintage Living, Modern Life

Edging 2 is a very simple cloverleaf. Three rings made together, then a space. Then three more rings. It may take a few repeats to get your head around how the three lie next to each other to make the clover. At least, it did me.

Instructions:

Make a ring of 6 double stitches (ds), (picot, 6 ds) 3 times, close ring. [So spelled out this is 6 ds, p, 6 ds, p, 6 ds, p, 6 ds.]
Leave a very short space of thread, about 1/8 inch, and make a second ring of 6 ds, join to last p of preceding ring, 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, close ring.
Leaving another very short length of thread, and make a third ring just like the last one.
Leave about 1 1/4 inches of thread, or enough to allow cloverleaves to lie flat. Make a ring of 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, join to middle picot of last ring, 6 ds, picot, 6 ds, close.
Continue with the second cloverleaf, beginning with step 2.
Repeat for the length desired.

In modern notation this would read: R 6ds – 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds, cl R. R 6 ds + 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds, cl R. R 6 ds + 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds, cl R. Then the second cloverleaf instructions would read: R 6 ds – 6 ds + to middle p last R, 6 ds – 6 ds, cl R. R 6 ds + 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds, cl R. R 6 ds + 6 ds – 6 ds – 6 ds, cl R.

Use whichever notation makes the most sense to you. They are the same.

Edging 3

This pattern dates from the late 1930s or 40s, and is a bit more difficult to do. It still uses only one thread on a shuttle, though. So if you can do the first two edgings you should be able to do this one too, with a little practice.

light-colored tatted edging made of two different-size rings. On a wooden table background. Text: This unique edging from the Forties almost forms a scallop on the sewing edge.

Unlike the prior two edgings, this one uses rings of two different sizes. I made the sample in size 10 thread but you can use whatever size you want. Ready?

Make a ring of 5 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 5 ds, close ring.
Leave 1/2 inch of thread if you use size 10 thread, a bit less with smaller threads. Ring of 3 ds, join to last picot of previous ring, 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, close ring.
Leave the same amount of thread as before. Ring of 5 ds, join to last p of previous ring, 2 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 1 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 5 ds, close ring.
Repeat from step 2 to desired length, alternating large rings and small ones as shown.

Edging 4: The edging which must be named… always

I promised I’d give you an edging this time that is so popular that it has its own name. This one is called Hens and Chicks. The hens are the large rings in the middle, and the chicks the smaller rings which attach to each side. Together they make an attractive little scallop.

This edging appears in almost every beginning tatting book from 1900 on. Sometimes the rings are different sizes, but the idea is always the same: a row of rings on the top, with hens and chicks clinging to the bottom. This edging is fun to do. That’s why you see two yards of it in the top photo.

Tatted lace edging in white thread. The lace forms small scallops. Text: Nearly every tatter knows this edging by name.

To make this edging you start along the top even edge.

Make a ring of 4 ds, picot, 4 ds, picot, 4 ds, picot, 4 ds, close ring. Another way to say this is to make a ring of 3 picots separated by 4 ds.
Reverse work. (If you haven’t see this before, it means to turn the ring you just completed upside down so that the shuttle thread faces up, ready to make a new ring.) Make a ring of 7 ds, p, 7 ds, close ring.
Reverse work. Now the first ring you made is on top again. Make a ring of 4 ds, join to last picot of previous ring, 4 ds, picot, 4 ds, picot, 4ds, close ring.
Reverse work. Make a ring of 7 ds, join to picot of small ring, 2 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 2 ds, picot, 7 ds, close ring.
Reverse work (RW) and make a ring of 4 ds, join to last picot of previous ring, 4 ds, picot, 4 ds, picot, 4 ds, close ring.
RW. Make a ring of 7 ds, join to last picot of large ring, 7 ds, close ring.
Repeat from Step 1, joining the ring to the last ring as before.

Want to see this in modern notation? It looks more like this:

R 4 ds – 4 ds – 4 ds – 4 ds, cl r. RW. R 7 ds – 7 ds, cl r. RW. R 4 ds + 4 ds – 4 ds – 4 ds, cl r. RW. R 7 ds + 2 ds – 2 ds – 2 ds – 2 ds – 2 ds – 2 ds – 7 ds, cl r. RW. R 4 ds + 4 ds – 4 ds – 4 ds, cl r. RW. R 7 ds + 7 ds, cl r. Rep from beg.

Whew! See why the wordiness of step by step instructions gave way to the notation above? It saves space and after a little practice you can almost see the ring before you make it.

Edging 5

Tatted edging in shades of green and pink. It's ruffly with lots of small thread loops. Text: This edging from 1919 Not as complicated as it looks.

This is not exactly a beginner’s edging. However, I found it in a 1919 magazine so it is very vintage. We might even call it antique. I tatted this sample in size 20 Lizbeth thread instead of the size 10 threads I used for all the other samples.

However, this example is also made with only one shuttle and one thread. It’s not as complicated as it looks. The progression goes like this: large ring, small ring, small ring, large ring, large ring, small ring, small ring… and so on. After one big one it’s two small and then two big, and then back to two small.

Make a large ring of 2 ds, picot, (1 1/2 ds, picot) 11 times, 2 ds, close ring. You will have 12 picots total. Note: To make a 1 1/2 ds, make the first half of the ds stitch as you make the picot and then follow it with a full double stitch. For the last picot, make it with a full ds and then a second full ds to make your 2-ds count at the end of the ring. Or play around with it until you find a rhythm that works for you: you need a full ds and either the first half or second half of the stitch between each picot. How you do it is really up to you.
Reverse work (RW). Leave a space of thread about 1/8 inch, and then make a ring of 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, close ring.
RW. Leave a short space. Ring of 3 ds, join to 11th picot of large ring, 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, picot, 3 ds, close ring.
RW. Leave a short space. Ring of 2 ds, picot, 1 1/2 ds, join to last picot of 3-picot ring, (1 1/2 ds, picot) 10 times, 2 ds, close ring.
RW. Leave a short space. Ring of 2 ds, picot, 1 1/2 ds, join to last picot of 3-picot ring, (1 1/2 ds, picot) 10 times, 2 ds, close ring.
Repeat from Step 2, continuing to join to the last picot of the small rings and the 11th picot of the large rings.

Find your favorite

I hope that this small selection of one-shuttle edgings gives you at least one that you love and can turn to again and again when you want to trim something special or you simply want to keep your hands moving.

Play with these. Change the sizes of the rings. Add picots to make them more lacy. Try various sizes of threads. This photo shows what the rings look like when the stitch count changes.

Four tatted rings in four sizes, attached at the bottom by a thread that loops from one to the other. Text: Size 10 thread. Difference between 3 double stitches (ds) between picots, 4 ds between picots, 5 ds between picots, and 6 ds between picots.

You can see what a difference it makes to change from 3 ds between picots to 6 ds between picots. Don’t be afraid to try something new. It’s only thread. It won’t care if you cut off a length and toss it because you didn’t like the effect or you got a stitch count wrong after you closed a ring. You are still creating. And with these easy vintage tatting patterns that use only one shuttle, that’s what counts.

If you missed the intro to tatting post, you can find it here. Next time I’ll show you some simple edgings that use both rings and chains, drawn from vintage sources.

The Vintage Kitchen

The Best Vintage Leftover Ham Recipe

July 13, 2021May 17, 2021 VintageJenny

White plate, holding a small baked potato covered with a creamy ham sauce. — Ham in a cream sauce over a baked potato. Delectable.

Everybody has leftover ham sometime, if they eat ham at all. It might be from last night’s celebratory dinner, or perhaps some deli ham is about to go south in the refrigerator. When that happens, this delicious recipe comes to your rescue. It is the BEST vintage ham with cream sauce recipe I’ve used so far. It’s tasty, the family loves it, and it uses up the ham that would otherwise molder in its refrigerator box.

The cookbook actually called this Ham with Cream Gravy. You may call it Delicious. The original recipe, of course, was written in one dense paragraph. I’ll break that down for you into steps in the recipe.

Making the ham and cream sauce

The technique is very simple. First you chop or dice the leftover cooked ham, and brown it in a pan on the stove. If you start with ham slices, learn about the benefits of snipping instead of chopping in this post I wrote about Ten Uses for Your Kitchen Scissors.

Ham cubes in a pan on a stovetop. — The beginning to a quick and easy dinner

Once the ham is toasty warm and a browned as much as you like, remove it to a bowl. The browning on the ham pieces give it flavor. While you don’t want to burn it, a bit of the brown brings out that savory-sweet ham taste.

Next, you will make a white sauce.

Pan on stove cooking a white sauce. A whisk stirs the mixture. — White sauce in process, ready for the diced ham.

Then, once your white sauce is thick and bubbly, re-introduce the ham to your pan. Let it simmer for ten minutes or so over low heat to combine the flavors, and then stir in salt and pepper to taste. It’s that easy, and that delicious.

A pan of small ham cubes floating in a thick sauce. — Ham in Cream Sauce thickening for dinner

Serving it up

Although the recipe included no serving tips, I’ve found that one of the best ways to serve this is with potatoes. Any potatoes. I’ve used cubed fried potatoes, frozen potato tots and crowns, baked potato, and mashed potatoes. The beauty of Twenties recipes is that simple foods combined with imagination make some great meals. Use what you have. It will be awesome.

It will, however, appear very beige. A side salad or a green vegetable goes a long way towards making this a full meal. Steam broccoli on the back burner while you make the gravy or throw a simple salad together while the the finished sauce cooks on low to meld the flavors.

Actually, my absolute favorite way to serve this is in a tortilla wrap like a burrito. Place a light layer of cubed fried potatoes, top with a layer of the ham mixture, and roll up. Unfortunately, most gluten free tortillas don’t have the strength of those made with wheat flour. So unless you have a really strong gluten free tortilla in hand, this assembly becomes a frightful mess quite quickly. Because of that I abandoned the bread wrap and started serving it plated. And no one complained. They snarfed it down just like the wrap version.

Plus, tortillas don’t appear in many 1920s – 1950s cookbooks in the U.S., so if you add one to this dish you strike out into uncharted vintage cooking territory. It’s tasty, though. You may decide this is the best vintage ham with cream sauce recipe, too.

Since we don’t use much whole ham here, I buy one and dice it for this recipe, storing the rest in the freezer in 2-cup allotments. That way I always have “leftover” ham on hand!

Print Recipe

The Best Vintage Leftover Ham Recipe: Ham with Cream Sauce

Use that leftover ham in this cream sauce that goes over vegetables, biscuits, or even wrapped in a tortilla.

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings: 5 1/2 cup servings

Equipment

large saucepan or frying pan
small whisk
small bowl

Ingredients

2 cups cooked ham, diced
4 tbsp butter, margarine, or oil
2 cups milk

Instructions

Cook the diced ham in a hot pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Remove the ham to a bowl, leaving any grease in the pan.
Check the amount of grease in the pan. If cooking the ham left a substantial amount, add butter or oil until you have about 4 tablespoons. If cooking the ham left no grease at all, add all 4 tablespoons of the butter or oil.
Add the flour to the melted butter, oil, or grease, and whisk together until completely mixed and smooth.
Pour in the milk slowly, stirring all the while. Continue to stir until thickened, and then return the ham to the pan.
Reduce the heat to low, and simmer for ten minutes. Taste, and then add up to 1/2 teaspoon and up to 1/2 teaspoon pepper if you like.
Serve over potatoes, biscuits, vegetables, or wrapped up in a tortilla.

Poems from the Pages · The Magazine Rack

Poem: July

July 1, 2021May 28, 2021 VintageJenny

This month’s poem, July by Susan Swett, is an old one. The poet died in Boston in 1907.

Susan lived with her younger sister Sophie, and both made their living as writers. Susan wrote poems and short stories. Her sister wrote stories and for a while was an editor of Youth’s Companion magazine. Susan’s poems appeared in children’s magazines like St. Nicholas as well as periodicals aimed at adult readership.

Of all her work, July is probably Susan Swett’s most famous poem. It appeared in children’s readers, women’s magazines, and you can find it online today.

Life of the poet

Born in Maine in 1843, Susan wrote one book of short stories, Field Clover and Beach Grass. It was published in 1898. A regional writer, her stories focus on the New England area that she knew. Much of Field Clover and Beach Grass is written in a New England dialect. However, she wrote her poems in standard English.

Published the day after her death, her obituary says, “her poems… reflected in a peculiarly happy manner the writer’s intimate knowledge of nature and her fondness for birds and flowers and all the various phases of the outdoor world. She was a ‘nature lover’ in the broadest and best sense, and though her fine talent for writing was for many years hindered by impaired health she has left many word-pictures of field and forest and garden that are deemed among the best of their kind.” (The Boston Globe, Jan 1, 1908.)

July

I hope you enjoy this month’s magazine poem, July, by Susan Swett. It appeared in a copy of Needlecraft magazine in the early 1920s.

        July 
by Susan Hartley Swett 

When the scarlet cardinal tells
  Her dream to the dragon-fly,
And the lazy breeze makes a nest in the trees,
  And murmurs a lullaby––
    It is July.

When the tangled cobweb pulls
  The cornflower's cap awry,
And the lilies tall lean over the wall
  To bow to the butterfly
    It is July.

When the heat like a mist-veil floats,
  And poppies flame in the rye,
And the silver note in the streamlet's throat
  Has softened almost to a sigh––
    It is July.

When the hours are so still that time
  Forgets them and lets them lie
Neath petals pink till the night stars wink
  At the sunset in the sky––
    It is July.

If you would like to read other poems that magazines of the day thought their readers might enjoy, see A Song of June and Hurdy Gurdy Days.

Parties and Visits · Recipe Collections · The Vintage Kitchen

Recipes for Your Porch Party

June 29, 2021May 18, 2021 VintageJenny

Table filled with tea sandwiches, dessert, coffee, and cake for a porch party. — Put together a porch party your friends will remember.

In the Twenties and Thirties porch parties gathered people together. In a day before air conditioning, home owners and guests embraced any opportunity to spend time outside. Picnics on the grass weren’t for everyone, although they were popular. The porch party gathered everyone onto the cool front porch. They sat in comfortable chairs and enjoyed special nibbles or even a full luncheon. And if the gang didn’t gather for a special occasion, such as a shower, guests usually brought along their workbags. Knitting, embroidery, tatting, and crochet kept hands busy while conversation flew. Porch parties were so popular that entire menus often appeared in magazines and cookbooks.

Revive this tradition and host a porch party of your own. All you need is a clean, nicely decorated porch, a few guests, and some food. Invite a few favorites over and give these recipes a gander. These recipes for your porch party will fit your vintage (or not so vintage) gathering perfectly. They were designed for outdoor entertaining in warmer weather.

You could add hot tea to this menu and call it an afternoon tea. Or use the Peruvian chocolate recipe from the list and call it a luncheon party. (You may want to have a pitcher of water available, however. The Peruvian chocolate recipe is very rich, iced or hot.)

Add a small bowl of mixed olives and a bowl of mixed nuts to the foods listed here and you have a beautiful Twenties porch luncheon. The cream mints provide the perfect ending to a vintage luncheon. They cleanse the palate after a meal, and appeared on tables regularly.

1. Sweet and Savory Sandwiches

These Sweet and Savory Tea Sandwiches offer four options for quickly made, tasty sandwiches. Serve them at your next vintage-style small gathering or formal tea. And if you’ve never hosted a formal tea but always wanted to, these sandwiches will start you off.

This Peruvian chocolate tastes like something between a normal hot cocoa recipe, and the thick drinking chocolate that you find in cafés. This is a drink to savor. It’s not too sweet. Enjoy this one with a friend or friends and some good conversation.

If you’re looking for a light and cool dessert for warm weather, look no further. This Fruited Cream recipe from the 1920s fills the requirement. It’s smooth, fruity, sweet, and cold. And Fruited Cream gives us an example of some of the best from the Twenties kitchen.

The Many Layered Jam Cake is one rich cake. A bit more involved than an everyday cake, Many Layered Jam Cake definitely tastes like more than a sum of its parts. This is a delicious, decadent cake for your next vintage gathering.

Looking for something to add sparkle to your next small get-together? These easy fondant Cream Mints are simple to make and they taste great! And even better, this 1920s recipe was almost lost to time.

Use these recipes for your porch party. Or your patio party. Or your pool party. These dishes will make your party, whatever it is, a memorable event.

The Creative Corner · Vintage Ways

Make Yourself a Rainy-Day Box

June 24, 2021May 28, 2021 VintageJenny

Sometimes I come across vintage advice that is so good that it stops me cold. It doesn’t have to be huge, or timeless. It just has to be useful. Like the suggestion to iron a circular tablecloth from the center out to keep it straight and even, and then to roll it on a curtain rod to keep it that way instead of folding it. Who figured that out? And more importantly, how did information like this ever fall into the black hole of forgetfulness? Today’s advice: Make yourself a Rainy-Day Box.

A lined basked filled with a ball of yarn and sock knitting needles. Next to it sit four spools of silk thread in green, pink, red, and blue. — My Rainy-Day Box filled with socks to knit and silk thread for lacemaking.

A vintage idea that still stands strong

Rainy days can be dreary. A truth no less accurate today than it was 100 years ago. The air carries a chill, rain pelts on the windows, and the skies look gray and foreboding. This is not exactly the type of weather that makes us want to grab a filled picnic basket and head for the nearest park. So what do you do if rain falls and cancels your plans? Open your Rainy-Day Box!

I used to dislike rainy days. The patter of the big drops on the roof was a signal for the entrance of the gloom family, in droves.
Clara M. Neville, contributor to Needlecraft Magazine, 1921.

This idea appeared in a small article in an 1920s magazine. The suggester wrote “I used to dislike rainy days. The patter of the big drops on the roof was a signal for the entrance of the gloom family, in droves. … I doubtless succeeded in making other folks as miserable as I was myself by my low spirits.” This struck me, for sometimes I feel gloomy on rainy days as well.

So I followed her advice. I found a small box to serve as my Rainy-Day Box, and then I sat for a while, thinking. The little empty sewing box sat in front of me as inspiration. What did I really want to do but never seemed to find the time? What did I want to finish but always found myself pulled in seventy different directions as soon as I sat down to work on it?

A box of opportunities

As I looked around my work room, the answer became clear quickly. I love working with silk thread and yarn. It doesn’t have to be shiny and slick; it can be nubby and matte. Over time I’d amassed a small collection of Gütermann silk threads. Because I wanted use it for lacemaking instead of sewing, I specifically bought the flower and leaf colors. These would find their way into my Rainy-Day Box for making Oya/Armenian needle lace.

So I gathered a few things that you can see in the photo. These launched my own Rainy-Day Box, and now I too look forward to inclement weather. It’s filled with colors I love, threads I long to use, and projects that once upon a time filled my someday list. When I finish one project I will slip another one into the box for the next rainy day.

Put your box together

What kinds of things can you put into your own Rainy-Day Box? Here are some ideas:

Drop into your box that book you’ve been dying to read but never seem to find the hours to make it happen.
Do you relax by cooking? Slip that recipe you long to make into your box. If it requires non-perishable ingredients such as raisins or currants, purchase those and put them in your pantry with a big inked X on the front so you don’t use it for anything else.
If you want to learn a new skill such as tatting, place a shuttle and small ball of thread into your box and spend the day learning. (Try size 10 thread for learning. It’s bigger and easier to see the stitches.)
Interested in spending time watching a movie you can’t fit in any other way? Put a DVD in your Rainy-Day Box. If you use streaming services, write yourself a note with the title and the service and drop it into your box so you can find the information when you need it.
Would you like to immerse yourself in a project like knitting socks or crocheting a vintage yoke for a camisole? Place your goodies into your box and await the next day filled with wet skies.

As you can see, it doesn’t matter what you are into. If it fits in your Rainy-Day Box and it brings you joy, it works. And if it doesn’t fit, find yourself a bigger box. It doesn’t matter what you put into it as long as it makes you happy.

If you need ideas for projects to fit into your Rainy-Day Box, check out these posts I wrote on learning to make tatted lace with a shuttle, five great vintage crocheted edgings, or this turn-of-the-century travelogue about England.

Decorations and Decor · Parties and Visits · The Creative Corner

Make Your Porch a Summer Room

June 17, 2021May 27, 2021 VintageJenny

Illustration of a summer room front porch with a porch swing, rug, two chairs, and a small side table with a table lamp, reading books, and a plant. — Inviting furniture, outdoor lamps, and a few good books make a popular warm weather spot.

Doesn’t this scene make you want to curl up with a good book or that project you’ve been hoping to start? This is a perfect illustration of a porch used as a summer room. Before air conditioned houses and apartments people moved outdoors in warm weather. Houses were hot, and people needed alternatives.

Not only were houses hot, but they could also seem claustrophobic in warm weather. The very house that seemed so cozy during the wintertime might feel oppressive during the hot summer months. Changing curtains and pillows from winter to summer fabrics helped. The best result, however, came from moving meals and entertainment to a whole new area.

Living and dining outdoors

The porch became the summer living room, and sometimes the warm weather dining room as well. Breakfasting on the porch could be delightful in the right weather, not to mention weekend luncheons and weekday dinners.

Black and white photo of a wooden table and chairs on a tile outdoor patio floor. A light hangs from the ceiling and an open arch leads outdoors. — A small but effective outdoor eating area.

A visitor who stopped on a nice day rarely made it into the house during the summer months. The hostess didn’t lack in hospitality or manners. She entertained in the most inviting area possible. Drinks and snacks made their way from the household kitchen to the front porch for relaxed, breezy socializing.

A porch with screens fitted to porch openings was ideal, but not everyone had those. Usually the porch had some kind of roof or covering. You see that in all the examples shown here. To be cool, an outdoor oasis needed to be out of the sun. Even a good awning could provide that at the right time of day.

Inside of an enclosed front porch of a 1920s home. Two large windows to the left sit above two chairs and a small table. In the middle of the room a table for four sits. The table is decorated with a flower arrangement. — An enclosed porch offers space to get away and relax.

Furnishing the outdoor space

All rooms need furnishings and the outdoor summer room was no exception. Furniture included comfortable chairs, couches, and a small but sturdy occasional table. Sometimes the table was made of wicker, while other times one of painted wood took its place as book and lamp-holder. Even if the porch included a ceiling light in the center, a table lamp or two gave a nice touch of comfort to the outdoor room. (Be sure to keep it unplugged when not in use if it’s outdoors. Summer storms can be quick and violent, as we all know.)

An indoor/outdoor mat or rug often found its way to the porch for the summertime as well. It helped to contain dirt tracked from the street and made the area look a bit more homey.

Fabrics used for porch cushions and pillows needed to withstand the season’s changing weather then as they do now. Today you can purchase beautiful pads for outdoor furniture, or make your own from a fabric like Sunbrella. Fabrics of the Twenties included stripes in greens and browns, heavy denim weave fabrics in colors other than denim blue, and bright plastic-like oilcloth.

Porch decorated with wicker couch, two chairs, and two small tables. Trees and foliage appear in the background. — Festive stripes and wicker furniture decorate this porch room.

Most of all, the colors of a porch decorating scheme were bright and inviting. Small spots of red, yellow, and black might offer a welcome contrast to more cooling colors like greens, blues, lavenders, or grays. A red and gray pillow on a gray chair, for instance, is very vintage. And quite welcoming.

Take a look at your own outdoor space and see how it can become a vintage-style living room. If you want something to serve your first porch guests, you’ll find these Sweet and Savory Sandwiches quick to fix and easy to serve.

The Vintage Kitchen

Easy Fondant Cream Mints

June 10, 2021April 27, 2021 VintageJenny

Leaf-shaped mint candies in a white bowl. The mints are colored yellow, green, and pink. — Easy Fondant Cream Mints can brighten your next get-together.

Looking for something to add sparkle to your next small get-together? These easy fondant Cream Mints are simple to make and they taste great! And even better, the recipe was almost lost to time.

Before I started these I did a pretty extensive online search on cream mints. I got… nothing. Then I started hunting through my collection of vintage and antique cookbooks. Finally I found one mention, then another. Along the way I stumbled upon this easy fondant cream mint recipe.

Usually, cream mints are made from fondant. Not cream cheese, not marshmallows. Fondant. Like the creamy white or pastel centers you find in chocolate covered candies. It’s the same stuff.

Fondant Wars: Cooked vs. Uncooked

Fondant comes in two varieties: cooked and uncooked. Making cooked fondant requires sugar, water, cream of tartar, patience, a candy thermometer, a stand mixer or really strong arms, time, and patience. Did I mention patience?

One of the issues with cooked fondant is that it takes so much time. It creates a wonderful product that you can then use in all kinds of candies, but it takes two days to make. Literally. First you cook it and then it has to sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours to “ripen” so it’s ready to use. Once it’s ready you assemble a set of cooking utensils again and complete the candies.

While cooked fondant is fun to make (especially if you have the patience), today I’m going to talk about uncooked fondant. This recipe for easy fondant Cream Mints takes about half an hour to 45 minutes, plus drying time. (Cooked fondant requires drying time, too.)

Perhaps this uncooked fondant recipe fell out of favor in the United States because it calls for an uncooked egg white. I have a great substitute for that, and it’s meringue powder. Meringue powder is pre-cooked and safe to use. It’s what cake decorators use to make Royal Icing, that rock-hard icing used for cake decorations that will break your teeth if you chomp too hard.

Several different companies sell meringue powder, and you can get it online or locally. If you don’t have a local cake supply store, you should be able to find Wilton meringue powder at your local grocery or craft store. One container of it goes a long way.

Flavors Old and New

To flavor your mints you will need a food-grade oil such as LorAnn. I’ve used LorAnn oils for many years in candies and they work very well. You’ll only need 1/4 teaspoon of the oil, unless you want them really strong.

Today when we think of mints, we automatically picture the mint flavors: spearmint, peppermint, wintergreen (wintermint). That was not true for the vintage cook. Mint flavors in the 1920s and 1930s included lime, clove, and cinnamon in addition to mint. If you truly want to put a modern spin on this vintage recipe, you can make your mints taste like black cherry, fruit punch, or root beer. All these flavors are available from the LorAnn website, plus many more –– but they also make the traditional flavors of lime, clove, and cinnamon. Whatever you choose, get a flavor you like. These tiny bottles go a long way.

Using Your Mints

In the vintage household, nuts and mints often finished the meal along with a cup of coffee. A small dessert usually accompanied the meal. The sweet course already completed, the thoughtful hostess served coffee with mints rather than chocolates or anything heavy after a well-designed dinner or party. Mints cleansed the palate. They tasted refreshing. And they believed (perhaps rightly) that mints helped with digestion.

You can use these mints to spice up a small party. Color them to match your theme, or leave them pristine white. Include them in little nut baskets at each person’s place at the table. Or you can fill a small candy dish with them and watch them disappear as the evening continues.

Begin to include them after meals for your own dinners. They are easy to make, you can create whatever flavors you like, and you are no longer dependent upon the mint manufacturers of the world who produce peppermint and spearmint. Want clove-flavored mints? Make them!

The Basic How-To’s

To make these easy fondant Cream Mints, you will mix together meringue powder and water to equal two egg whites and then whip it with your mixer (or a whisk) until it bubbles. Then stir in your flavoring. If you want less than the 1/4 teaspoon called for in the recipe, use less. For a very light flavor you may want to only use a few drops.

Mix and knead

Add a little salt, and then stir in, a little at a time, up to four cups confectioner’s sugar. It may take awhile, and this is where your electric mixer comes in handy. You won’t stop until the mixture has a clay-like consistency. It won’t be as stiff as Play-doh, the wheat-based clay many of us grew up playing with. It will, however, be close. Your fondant needs to hold its shape.

Ball of fondant that looks like a lump of white clay in a silver bowl. — The clay-like fondant ball is flavored and ready to tint.

When it reaches its clay fondant stage, remove it from the bowl and place on a flat surface to knead it until it’s smooth. If you have a marble pastry board, great! I don’t, so I used a silicone pastry mat. After all, a hallmark of the vintage life was use what you had at hand.

Three balls of white fondant sit on a pink mat. Each one has a different colored food dye bottle sitting next to it: red, yellow, and green. — Now the ball is divided into three, and waiting for two drops of color to be kneaded in.

Color it beautiful

If you want your mints to be two or three different colors, this is the time to divide it. I divided mine into three balls about the same size. I poked a hole in each ball and added two drops of McCormick liquid food color. That was enough to get vibrant pink, yellow, and green. If you want even lighter pastel colors, only use one drop. If you want to color the entire batch one color, you’ll use 5 to 6 drops of color or less.

Small balls of fondant sit on a dark pink mat. The balls are pink, green, and yellow in color. — Pink, green, and yellow balls ready to roll and cut.

Cut and dried

Then you’ll roll the fondant out. Use your cutter to cut small shapes, no larger than an inch. I had an ivy fondant cutter on hand. Bento cutters would work, as would any set of mini cookie cutters.

Note: You can’t use metal cookie cutters on a silicone mat. They will cut right through it. Lift your rolled fondant to a cutting board or a sturdy platter if you want to use metal cutters and you use a silicone mat to protect your countertop.

Once your mints are cut out, you let them dry. Move them to a wax- or parchment-paper covered cooling rack. Let them dry for several hours, and then turn them over to finish drying overnight. Place your finished mints in a storage container. These do not have to be refrigerated, but you will probably want to separate colors with paper if you keep them all in one container. These should keep for several weeks in an airtight container.

Print Recipe

Easy Fondant Cream Mints

Make these cream mints to add pizzaz to your vintage meals.

Prep Time30

Cook Time0

Drying Time23

Total Time23 30

Course: Candies

Cuisine: American

Keyword: dinner mints, fondant

Servings: 12 people