Tomato Rarebit

Another guestpost by Cluedo (the first can be found here). Many thanks to her for attempting this dish. I bought both (yes, there are two) Quickie cookbooks in a charity shop in Crouch End for  £1 each.

It’s been a while since I had an adventure in the land of brewis, fidget pie, singin’ hinges and other stuff I have no idea what it is. This is partially due to the fact that I’ve been a lazy bastard too busy with other stuff, and partially due to Elly’s inability to chose a recipe for me, so I had to do it after all. Pffft… if you don’t do it yourself… But alas, Elly provided me with the perfect choice of book: the She Quickie Cookbook  from 1965, which suggests the kind of Martha-Stewart-cooking-goddess that makes me reach for the sick bag. Each of the photo-story recipes “gives a hot meal that can be prepared and cooked in 15 minutes”, as verified by “Good Housekeeping Institute”, who timed and tested each recipe (feeling nauseous already?).

Bacon Cornettes

Look at this wonderful thing! A friend liberated it from his grandmother’s bookshelves for me and I appreciate it so very much. If I had unlimited shelf space and an extra few hours in the week, I’d probably collect and blog about etiquette and entertaining manuals as well, but there’s only so much time a person should devote to horrified chuckling at kaleidoscopic interiors, conformist gender roles and devilled ham.

 

Spaghetti Bolognese

Collier’s Pie

It’s a bit late for Pie Month, but I did make this during February, but it’s taken me this long to write it up because [insert flimsy excuse here]. It’s from Good Things in England and has no definite date, though, given when GTIE was published, it was before 1931.

Danish Savoury Pie

Basic Fried Rice

Here’s another dish from Kenneth Lo’s Cheap Chow. I went for the Chinese classic of fried rice, which I’ve attempted before without reference to a recipe, with limited success. I figured starting at the very beginning when it came to fried rice might be a good idea, so Basic Fried Rice it is.

Fidget Pie

I’ve been feeling guilty about the fact that the info bit for this blog starts with ‘Adventures in the land of brewis, fidget pie, singin’ hinnies‘, yet we’ve never tried to make any of these dishes.  Something needed to be done about this, so the other Sunday myself and Sarah made Fidget Pie. We used a recipe from Good Things in England, a 1930 compendium of English cookery compiled by Florence White, which is currently available as a sleek looking reprint from the wonderful Persephone Books. The recipe is listed as ‘Mrs Dale’s Fidget Pie’, in the Specialities section under ‘Shropshire’.

Prawn and Bacon Quiche

This is from 500 Recipes for Electric Mixers and Blenders by Marguerite Patten (Hamlyn, 1972).There are loads of 500 Recipes… books around – they’re large, flimsy things, usually with yellowing pages, and quite a low budget look to them. I have this one, and a casseroles and stews one, which promises a lot and delivers little. But, on to the recipe. I like prawns, I like bacon, and I like quiche. So how did this recipe go so horribly wrong?

Bacon and Sweetcorn Pudding

New Casserole Treasury was written by Lousene Rousseau Brunner and published in 1970 by the Cookery Book Club by arrangement with Harper & Row. I bought it for £1.50 in a church charity shop in Dalston last May and have decided to try and make something which actually sounds as though it was conceived in another era, rather than my usual cop-out.

The first owners of my copy were a newly-wed couple in 1971, apparent by the dedication at the front of the book and the author has left space throughout the book for note-taking, some of which has been put to good use. At the end of the ‘Meat’ section:  11/10.71. Tried pork chops in cider. (NO.)

Bacon and Parsley Scones

I was recently given three industry-sponsored recipe leaflets, one of which is dated 1966 and I assume the others are of a similar age.