Lots of goodies from Good Housekeeping, January 1945

I’ve included sort of a grab bag here today, folks….all from the January ’45 issue of Good Housekeeping. The wealth of info pictured below includes everything from ‘modern’ medical news (about tuberculosis and typhoid, etc) to advice for teenaged girls on how to avoid a ‘wolf’ (“He keeps a fresh eye out for new talent, even when he’s with you.”) There are some wonderful cake recipes for a New Year’s ‘open house,’ three pages featuring gorgeous aprons and housedresses (“They iron easily, and they’ll never lose their fresh crispness if you starch them”!), a page of hints on how to handle last-minute beauty catastrophes, and some interesting ideas on creating new closet space in your home. Plus some fun ads. Check out the partying Chesterfield girl on the back cover. Enjoy.

An amazing banana booklet….

“Bananas….how to serve them” is a remarkable publication issued by the Home Ec department of the Fruit Dispatch Company in New York, circa 1942. Fifty beautiful pages of banana recipes…everything from somewhat pedestrian creations like Banana Cup Cakes and Banana Butterscotch Pie, to dishes for the more culinarily brave, like Banana Meat Loaf and Salmon Salad Tropical (that would be salmon, bananas, pineapple, celery, pickles, mustard and mayo). But most impressive are the 71 tiny drawings of anthropomorphic bananas cheerily engaged in a variety of activities, including a fishing banana, a banana doing a handstand, an angelic banana, a banana smoking a cigar…the creativity is breathtaking. I think I’m going to make a delicious Banana-Vanilla Shake (recipe below), and toast that talented artist and the banana period of his or her career. Enjoy.

The Housewife’s Year Book

This little gem, published by the Kellogg Company in 1937 to promote its All-Bran cereal, promises “to be of service every day of the year” with its wealth of wisdom about everything from health and beauty to budgeting to minor household repairs, and most especially, how to avoid the “neglected ailment” of constipation. It has beautiful, detailed little line drawings throughout, lists interesting events for every day of the year (Wednesday, September 15: Typhoon in Japan, 1923; Friday, December 31: First electric lights shown, 1879), and contains a colorful recipe insert in the middle. Below, a selection of pages for your entertainment and edification. Enjoy.

 

Good cooking made easy…

Before Crisco cornered the market on cans of hydrogenated fat, there was Spry…and its folksy spokeswoman, Aunt Jenny. This 1942 Spry recipe booklet is filled with Aunt Jenny’s pithy confidence-boosters for inexperienced young housewives, like “Nothin’ to makin’ Pie Shells if you follow these easy pointers!” and “Every step of these recipes is so clear, so easy….even brand-new brides win loads of praise on their Spry cookin’!”

This was a war-time booklet, of course, so there’s also advice for the homemaker on keeping her family “buoyantly healthy” as part of her patriotic duty. Most of the dessert recipes use minimal sugar, a consequence of wartime sugar rationing. Step back to a simpler time, and enjoy.

Aunt Jenny and Spry to the rescue!