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.

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!

From neighbor to neighbor….

….friendly advice about everything from clothespins to curtains to hot chocolate, all from the January, 1946 issue of Woman’s Day Magazine.