New website AND amazing chocolate milk!

February 20, 2013 / Rachel / 2 Comments

1. OH EM GEE. I just made the best chocolate milk of all time. Use one part cold evaporated milk (I used Pet Milk) and one part cold water. Mix up. Add chocolate syrup. Stir. Drink. FLAIL BECAUSE IT TASTES LIKE MELTED CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!!!! It’s fantastic! Evaporated milk is double-rich and the flavor is yummy!

2. My new website is live. It’s called The Homefront Kitchen. Check it out HERE to see what it’s all about. The first World War II-era recipe (which I cooked last weekend) will be posted soon!

Antique store finds!

February 16, 2013February 16, 2013 / Rachel / 3 Comments

Well, I went into Southport Antique Mall not expecting to find much and left two hours later with two new (but old) radios, a piece of Depression glass, and a vintage doily!

First, here’s my pink Depression glass ice bucket (sitting on the vintage doily). I’ve seen a lot of Depression glass, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen an ice bucket. It’s surprisingly heavy!

Next, here is a Sonora brand radio, which I’ve discovered is from 1948. I got it for a great price, considering it’s in really good condition!

And finally, this is a Wards Airline radio. This one is my new favorite radio. It’s gorgeous. The problem is that I can’t identify what year it’s from. These radios, sold by Montgomery Ward, were made by a company called Wells-Gardner. This one is model number WG-193, and I can’t locate any information on it. The closest I can find is model number WG-197, which came out in 1936. So I’m guessing it’s from the 30s.

So here are all four of my console-style radios. (I also have a floor model radio that’s upstairs, but it’s not in good condition.)

Also, due to starting my new website (details on that coming soon), I bought the cookbook below on eBay and it arrived today. It’s a Mary Lee Taylor cookbook from 1941. (And if you’ve never heard her, you need to look her up. She read recipes over the air and repeated everything so the listener had time to write it all down!) She had a radio show for over 20 years and was sponsored by Pet Milk.

Anyway, that was my loot from the antique mall. (I also bought a cute little Prada bag that I’m 99.5% sure is a knock-off, but I don’t care because it’s perfectly-sized!)

New project!!!

February 14, 2013 / Rachel / 1 Comment

So I’m developing a website and I’m super-excited about it! It’s going to be dedicated to the WWII homefront and all that it entailed. The site will heavily feature recreation of the recipes from that period. I have tons of recipes from the period, thanks to cookbooks and radio shows and other items in my collection. My plan is to feature one each week, complete with showing the ingredients, preparation, and the finished product right from my own kitchen. (My husband is already screwing up his face in disgust at some of the recipes I plan on making (which he has to eat or he’ll go hungry!)) It’s a great way to explore the flavors of the period, as well as how recipes were modified due to rationing. I wanted a specific web address and had to buy it at a GoDaddy auction, but once it’s released to me next week, I’ll probably be ready to go live with the first little bit of it. Anyway, I’m really stoked and I’ll post the link, as well as more information, once it’s ready to go!

A sucker for vintage advertising

February 5, 2013 / Rachel / 2 Comments

I have a problem.

I ordered an entire case of Pet Evaporated Milk. 12 12-oz. cans. None of why I have an actual need for.
Why did I do this?
I blame Fibber McGee & Molly.

Sometimes, I go to Dollar General Store to buy over-the-counter medicine. Rexall brand to be exact.
Why do I do this?
I blame The Phil Harris – Alice Faye Show.

I ordered an 18-count pack of Lux soap.
Why did I do this?
I blame Lux Radio Theater.

You see, I am highly susceptible to 1940s & 1950s radio advertising. Modern advertising doesn’t get me so much (save the Apple computer ads in 2003 with Verne Troyer and Yao Ming that suckered me into getting my first Mac.) It makes me giddy that I can still get the same products that were advertised 70+ years ago. Through the 1940s, the sponsor of Fibber McGee & Molly was Johnson’s Wax. In the early 50s (1952 to be exact), Pet Milk took over as the sponsor. I’ve been listening to the 1950s episodes of FM&M on my way home from work lately and their slogan for Pet Milk – “sweet, country milk condensed to double-richness” – just resonates with me for some stupid reason. Like, so much that I searched for Pet Milk and was first dismayed that I couldn’t buy it locally and then overjoyed when I found out I could order it from the Smuckers website. I did the same thing for Lux soap because I’m a huge fan of Lux Radio Theater, which aired from 1934 to 1955, and imagine my frustration to find out that it’s neither made nor sold in the US anymore. I ended up ordering it from Amazon, but it was made in Egypt! Both the Pet Milk and the Lux soap came today, which was my biggest bright spot during an otherwise cruddy afternoon.

So anyway, beginning tomorrow, I’m going to use Lux soap when I shower (it smells divine!) and add Pet Milk to my coffee because, after all, it’s condensed to double-richness!!!

A new addition to my collection

November 25, 2012November 25, 2012 / Rachel / 4 Comments

Anyone who knows me knows that one of my biggest obsessions is old time radio – specifically, the show “Fibber McGee & Molly.” (I mean, c’mon, they’re in my WordPress icon. I LOVE Jim and Marian Jordan, aka Fibber and Molly. They feel like family to me!) So I’m quite excited to be adding this Milton Bradley game from 1940 to my collection!

Dear Canada,

September 17, 2012September 17, 2012 / Rachel / 4 Comments

I just discovered Bomb Girls.

Thank you!

Love,

An American born four decades too late

An interesting challenge (the writing process):

June 1, 2012June 1, 2012 / Rachel / 3 Comments

In the novel I’m writing (okay, in one of them I’m writing but in the one I’m focusing on right now), I have to tell not one but two separate love stories. The first one ends tragically, a casualty of war, and the second one is truly the focus of the story. That being said, the first relationship has to feel as authentic and true as the second one later becomes. It’s a hard road to traverse, I’m finding, because I want to focus so much on Lila’s relationship with Jack. However, I have to remember that Danny is Lila’s first love, her husband, the man she thinks will be coming home to her once the war is over. She and Jack are walking parallel paths and once they intersect, her world turns upside down for probably the third time in her young life. Walking these paths with all of them, and showing the beautiful love that Danny and Lila share and then not discounting it once Jack steps into her life, is going to be the biggest challenge of telling this entire story. I’m slowly feeling my way toward how to do it but it definitely requires a lot of thought (and note taking!)

“Now is the Hour” – a World War II-era short story

May 25, 2012 / Rachel / Leave a comment

Ben told Iris a lot of things over the years as they played in the street or went ice skating on the pond. And as much as she told Ben about her hopes and her dreams, there was one thing she always held back. She never told Ben, or anyone else for that matter, what her biggest secret was. It was the kind of thing that Mama had told her girls should never talk about, especially not to the boy himself. A boy should be the one to come calling on a girl, not the other way around. “The fact is,” Mama told Iris as she dropped warm dollops of butter over the mashed potatoes on Sunday afternoon, “that good girls never chase after boys. Your job is to look pretty and smile – if it’s meant to be, he’ll notice.”

He’s about to go off to war and she’s not sure when he’ll be back. All Iris has to do is get up the nerve to tell Ben how she feels before he leaves. After all, he was the one always encouraging her to go after what she wanted.

Full story located HERE