Who is Margaret Mary McBride?

You've got to love a smiley face of raisins on your hot cereal in the morning.

As I looked through the cookbook last evening to make dinner, even though there are 1500 pages, I could not find a recipe that I wanted to cook AND I had the all the ingredients on hand to make. (In actuality I probably did, but nothing was appealing to me. I could have made an egg dish or something along those lines, or a breakfast dish, but ended up making mac and cheese with sausages baked in it) . I live 20 miles or more from a grocery store so if I don't have it on hand, I don't make a special trip. Next week I will make a list and start creating some of these wonders and highlight sections of the cookbook.

I did a search on the Internet to find out more about this cookbook and its author. Who she was and cooking don't seem to go hand in hand and there seems to be a disconnect. Here is Mary Margaret McBride's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Margaret_McBride and here is a photo of her along with more info:
http://www.shemadeit.org/meet/summary.aspx?m=143

The book was published by the Homemakers Research Institute and it feels to me like they put her name on it to help sell the cookbook, but I can't be sure about that. In doing research I found that it also came in a 12 volume set that could be purchased at the grocery store. There are 12 color pages in the book at the beginning of each volume. I will take photos of these and post them at a later date.

The Vintage "Mother of all Cookbooks"

This past month, my husbands family home was sold and with that came much cleaning out of stuff that had been there for years and years. Just before Christmas he came home with a cookbook which I am calling the "Mother of all Cookbooks". I am just getting around to looking through it. It is a behemoth of a cookbook with over 1500 pages. The title of the book is Mary Margaret McBride Encyclopedia of Cooking. The copyright on the book is 1959 and my husband believes it may have been a wedding present, as that was the year his parents married.

This past spring I started collecting vintage cooking pamphlets and cookbooks from the 1940's, 50's and 60's. Had I known such a wonder as this existed I may not have been so inclined to keep purchasing more. This has EVERYTHING in it for a 1950's homemaker. From how to tackle a recipe and measure correctly, to choosing wine and how to breastfeed a baby. It has a diet menu for relief of "ordinary constipation" as well as how to un-mold the ubiquitous gelatin mold. There is even a section on how to build an outdoor barbecue.

Imagine if Julie Powell of "Julia and Julie" fame decided to tackle this cookbook. It would be years before she finished. I think it would take me years just to count how many recipes are in it.

Each page of this enormous book is filled with black and white photographs as well as wonderful vintage graphics. Oh I am more than in love with this cookbook. I could yell from the top of a mountain about the wonders of it. I keep flipping through the pages as I am writing this and am finding more and more gems. I just love this little snowman image.

So what shall I do with this new found love that has crossed my path? Published in the year I was born I feel as though some kizmet has brought us together. Well, one thing I know for sure is this is not the last you will see or read about this cookbook. It is enough to make me change the name of my blog, but sassy lassie is just too perfect for who I am and what this is about.

Tonight I am going to search out a recipe and make it for dinner. Scott is not feeling so great, so I may look under the heading of "comfort food". Not sure if there IS one, but I would not put it past this book. There is probably a whole section on soft, porridge like food for when you are feeling down. Stay tuned and see what comes of this nights search.

Adios for now.

It has been months...

When I posted my last post in September, I was working on writing a post a day. That IS how blogs should work. Not this here and there stuff. What happened? It has been so long ago that now I can't even remember. But let my try to remember, which will be good for this aging peri-menopausal brain.

There was the garden and bounty of vegetables that needed tending.
There was our trip to Maine to visit my daughter.
hmmmmmm
Oh then there were the holidays.
The knitting.

Darn, It seems I have no excuse. At least no good excuse. So I won't try anymore excuses. I will just work on the blog.

I do have to say that my love of knitting did take me off course. I knit many gifts for Christmas. Knit, Knit, knit....that was all I did. No cooking, no cleaning. Just knitting and I loved it.

I have also become enamored with vintage sewing patterns. What can I say? I love the styles. I want to create each one I see. My head starts twirling and spinning in magical thoughts of crinoline, cotton and satin ribbons. I want to be 15 and going to a party with my beau, who waits outside in his '57 Chevy with sweaty palms and too much brill cream in his hair. I yearn for those days, which I never actually lived through. But then again, I love the age of the computer, so I want this grand mixture of then and now. Of youth and maturity. Of puppy love and secure, comfortable old love. I want it all. But for now I will just blog.

Bon Appetit

Was reading through the September Bon Appetit and trying to relax before heading out to work today and came across a couple of things I loved in the magazine.

First off in the travel section which is about the Bahamas it gave reference and pictures to Tippy's which is on the Island of Eluethera and right next door to Betty's house. Betty is our neighbor, well she is more than that, but let's just leave it at that for today's blog post. In the aerial photo you can see Betty's house to the left of Tippy's. She also owns the property that is vacant in the upper left of the photo. I believe it is two acres and it is for sale if there are any interested buyers out there. Scott and I spent a lovely 2 weeks there this past March. It is paradise.

Another shout out in Bon Appetit was for Hungry Mother's which is in Cambridge, Massachusetts and whose pastry chef is a Norfolkian and school-mate friend of my daughter Molly's. Her name is Heather Tirrell and here is a link to her new blog. I also love that their logo is a Cardinal, which is a very significant bird in my life.

I was inspired by the magazine and with only a few minutes left before heading to work, I pulled up the Bon Appetit website to have a look around and there before me was an article stating that Portland, Maine is this year's Foodiest Small Town in America. Wow again. Molly lives in Portland and we are heading for a visit toward the end of the month.

Food is such a big part of my life. I love everything about it.
It made my day seeing places I know and love highlighted in a national cooking magazine. Thanks Bon Appetit for the many years of enjoyment and recipes I have garnered from your pages.

Well that was fun!!

Patti and I had a wonderful time doing another segment for Connecticut Style yesterday morning. I arrived at her house to pick her up at 7:15 and we managed to get on the road by 7:30 with food in tow and ready to go. Oh dear, now I am a poet!

When you arrive at the station you need to call them so they can let you into the locked doors, however Patti forgot Connie's phone number so we just hoped an angel would help us out and we were not disappointed. Within less than a minute there was someone to help us into the station, coolers, plates, cookbooks and aprons in hand.

We were then able to set up completely for the shoot in a very quite studio. Quiet except for Big Daddy, Moody and a few camera robots lurking around. We love all of them!

With everything set and ready to go we went to the "ladies room" to polish our unkempt hair and put on a "dab" Huh! more makeup! As we opened the door out of the studio who was standing there ready to walk into the studio but none other than the star of the show, Miss Sonia. Lots of hugs and kisses.

Hair and makeup fixed we went back to the studio to get ready to shoot.
I wore the apron I highlighted in the previous blog post and Miss Patricia wore a VERY SPECIAL apron signed by the grand dame of cooking herself, Julia Child.

5..4..3..2 "we're ready to shoot?", I exclaim.

Yup..1...and off we went. No time to fret or prepare thoughts, just off and taping...and then it was over.

Patti and I are preparing our next segment so stay tuned.

Vintage Aprons

Last spring when we were first asked to do a segment on Connecticut Style, Patti and I thought of bringing back a time when life was slower paced and food was home cooked (not packaged in a cardboard box ready for the microwave). We wanted to hear stories and memories of yesteryear and the food that brought families together. We still would love to hear those stories and hope through this blog, more stories and recipes will be shared.

I have been known to go a bit over the top when I get "into" something. I research it and want to be true and accurate. It can be a little annoying to some. Sorry. This was my approach a few months ago when Patti and I started Meals~Memories and Messages. I started searching out at tag sales, thrift shops and eBay, items and cookbooks that were from eras gone by. I love reading the pamphlets that came with refrigerators and other appliances and I will share them with you in the days ahead. Some of them are true gems.

The other item I started collecting was vintage aprons. How glorious it feels to wear one and bake a pie. I had rarely worn one in the past while cooking, instead ruining a fair amount of clothes over the years with stains and even burns. But now I have seen the light.

I have hostess aprons (not REALLY meant for serious cooking) and aprons that wrap all around by body and even have pockets. I have a few workhorse aprons that I know were tenderly used by a women I will never know to make delicious meals. They are hand-sewn and smell like Crisco and all things wonderful even after some washings.

This beauty above was given to me recently by my daughter for my 50th birthday.

I love these aprons and will share more of them in future posts. Do you have a favorite apron? Share it with me here.

Connecticut Style. Hope you will watch.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from the producer of Connecticut Style asking Patti and me to be on the show this coming Friday. Sure I said, completely unsure as to how we could pull off a segment with just a couple of days notice.

Patti and I brainstormed and thought of doing a segment on school lunches that were prepared with love my mothers and fathers of days gone by. But we could find little inspiration or recipes, for that matter. PB &J, bologna and american cheese or tuna sandwiches did little to inspire a segment worth watching. ( If you have a favorite school lunch meal, memory or recipe please do share).

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Having just blogged about Julia Child as an inspiration for my passion for cooking, I gave Patti a call and left her a message suggesting some of Julia’s recipes. She called back loving the idea and so that is where we will go with the segment.

This morning I pulled out my cookbook The Way to Cook to look for inspiration and a recipe or recipes that we could do in a matter of minutes on a television segment. I think I have found them, but I need to check with Miss Patti and see what she thinks. You my friends will have to watch the segment to see. See you there.