I created a Vintage Food Tag! Care to play along?

As the rather self-explanatory title of today's post sums up, I recently decided to create a fun vintage food related tag, which I answered myself in the YouTube video below.  :)

I touched on this in my video, but just to recap, I had seen many tags over the years, plenty of which related to vintage, but none that directly focused on vintage food. As I'm a huge fan of this topic (as evidenced by the many posts, recipe ones included, that I've penned on the topic here over the years), I thought it would be a blast to start a tag starring vintage food related questions.

If you'd like to play along as well, and I really hope that you will, you can do so either via a blog post and/or a YouTube video, so it's totally open to folks in either (or both) spheres.

Here, more or less word for word :), are the fifteen questions that I created, as they appear in my video:

1. What are three of your favourite vintage foods that are still around (aka, on the market) nowadays?

2. What is one of the vintage (food) brand that you like the most and why (do you like it)?

3. Do you cook vintage recipes sometimes yourself?

4. Do you have a favourite vintage recipe?

5. What is one of your most treasured recipes that came down to you through your family or someone else dear to you?

6. Who/what is your favourite vintage food mascot?

7. What is your favourite vintage decade from a culinary standpoint?

8. One or more great vintage store bought foods that you wish they'd bring back?

9. Do you ever serve vintage dishes for parties, holidays, or other special occasions?

10. And if so, is there one (holiday, etc) in particular that you like to make vintage dishes for above all the others?

11. Do you collect vintage cookbooks/recipe booklets?

12. Do you have a favourite vintage cookbook?

13. One thing that you think was better about vintage food/recipes?

14. And one thing that you think is better about modern food/recipes?

15. What would your dream vintage meal be? 

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Of course, if you don't want to answer all these questions, but would like to share your replies for one or more of them with me, please feel free to do so either here in the comment section of this post or over on YouTube.

Fall really does equal the return of comfort food season, which was also a big driving force behind the creation of this fun tag, and I'm absolutely thrilled about that fact! There are several delicious fall and winter vintage recipes that I've been tucking away throughout the year to share with all of you here once the mercury plummeted and I'll certainly be doing just that in coming months.

Many thanks to all those who play along - be sure to share links to your posts or videos if you do so that I can check out and enjoy reading/hearing your answers to the Vintage Food Tag as well!

Seven unexpected places to source vintage wardrobe inspiration from

As admirers and wearers of vintage clothes, most of us constantly keep our eyes peeled for ideas and inspiration when it comes to our outfits. This isn't to say, of course, that we can't come up with ideas for fabulous ensembles on our own, of course we can, but rather that we appreciate the sartorial aesthetics of our beloved mid-century decades so much we can never get enough of seeing examples of clothing from days gone by.

Whether you're brand new to wearing or vintage or have been sporting it for decades, it never hurts to have new sources of inspiration to turn when putting together your outfits, and today we're going to take a peak at seven such sources which go beyond the more obvious examples, such as vintage movies, magazines, catalogs, ads, and books. Those five are incredible for sure, but sometimes it's fun to shake things up and expand your inspiration horizons.

Vintage cookbooks: When one thinks of vintage cookbooks, the first thing, naturally, that springs to mind is recipes! And, of course, that is generally their main purpose, but scores of old school cookbooks are teaming with vintage photographs and/or illustrations of women preparing, cooking, and/or serving food, oftentimes in daywear and an apron. Cookbook covers can be an especially good source of photographic inspiration, but don't forget to flip through the pages, too, as many cookbooks - especially those from the 1950s - are teaming with a delightful mid-century illustrations.

Museum exhibits: Many museums the world over hold exhibits featuring vintage and/or historical clothing and costumes, and/or have permanent displays of such items. If you're lucky enough to live in a town with one or more museums, be sure to keep an eye on this exhibit schedule to see any upcoming shows relate to vintage fashion. By the same token, anytime you're visiting a new city, if your schedule permits, you may want to visit the museum (or museums) there to check out the vintage clothing, accessories, shoes and other mid-century items of all kinds that they may have on display.

Vintage sewing patterns: We all know that vintage sewing patterns are an awesome way to recreate period perfect fashions, but - regardless of if you sew or not - have you ever stopped to just admire the beautiful illustrations and fantastic fashions that most vintage sewing pattern sleeves (the packaging that patterns are housed in) are adorned with? Time and time again I've been struck by how lovely these tiny works of art and have often thought how gorgeous they'd as framed art unto themselves. Sewing patterns captured the fashions of an era perfectly and are a truly invaluable source of vintage wardrobe inspiration to my mind (for oodles of vintage pattern inspiration, be sure to check out last week's post Forty fantastic sewing patterns under $40.).

Vintage calendar art: Then, as now, oodles of calendars were produced each year, many of which included excellent illustrations and photographs depicting the fashions of the day. Far beyond just pin-up girls, vintage calendars (and their covers) sometimes showed featured everything from people at the beach to Norman Rockwell illustrations, women in domestic scenes to families celebrating the holidays together, all of which can be fodder for vintage outfit ideas.

Vintage movie posters: I'd venture to guess that just about all of us pay close attention to the fashions that appear in the classic movies that we watch, but when was the last time you paused to study the clothing shown on vintage movie posters (and, in this day and age, DVD/Blue Ray covers)? Oftentimes vintage movie posters highlighted the stars of the film in the most iconic, beautiful or daring outfits that appeared in the movie itself, and can be a great way to inject some straight-from-Hollywood style into your outfit repertoire.

Old family photo albums: If you've been following this blog for any amount of time, you'll likely know that I am a die-hard fan of real world vintage photographs. As much as I love seeing old snaps of celebrities, there's nothing quite like the relate-able qualities that come from seeing images of folks just like myself as they went about their lives a few decades ago. There is perhaps no better record of exactly what people wore during a given era than the photographs taken during those years, and should you happen to have any old family photos available to you, I cannot encourage you strongly enough to turn to them for vintage outfit inspiration. If you don't (or on top of the photos you have), be sure to check out posts here such as Saturday Snapshots, as well as websites like Flickr that are positively teaming with vintage family photos.

Vintage product packaging: Akin to movie posters, cookbooks, and calendars, vintage product packaging can often be a great source of fashion - and hairstyle! - inspiration. For example, vintage hair accessory packaging (such as that used for bobby pins and hair nets) often depicted women's heads (and sometimes part or all of their bodies, too) sporting absolutely beautiful hairstyles and ways to use said products. You needn't stick to just fashion related packaging however, remember to also soak up the images you see on everything from food packaging to record albums to household products. Anywhere a clothed figure is depicted, you have a potential source of inspiration!


{All images above are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}

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It's easy - especially in this digital age where we're constantly bombarded with hundreds, if not thousands of different images each day, to see any number of the examples above, take them in for a split second, admire them, and then move on. Instead I encourage you to stop and truly study what you're looking at. Observe the woman (or women, or men, as the case may be) in the images before you and study her (or them) from top to bottom.

Look at her hat, her hair, her accessories, her garments, her hosiery, her shoes, and her make-up. Ask yourself what appeals (or, conversely, doesn't appeal) to you about her look. Do you have pieces in your closet already that you could use to recreate a similar outfit? Or, alternatively, if you're a sewer, would you be interested in creating such a look from scratch yourself? If you love an outfit (or hairstyle, make-up look, or single garment/accessory), would it be hard to track down something similar today either in the form of a original vintage, reproduction, or vintage appropriate piece?

Perhaps you like a look, but don't want to recreate it now, maybe you're tucking it away in your mind's inspiration file for future use and/or are studying it intently to help expand your general knowledge on a certain era. There is no wrong or right way to observe an image, but there is a way to help ensure it becomes engrained more deeply in your psyche and that it to truly spend 10, 20, 30 or more seconds studying that image and devoting it to memory.

This isn't to say, of course, that you must to treat every vintage image you come across like a book you need to memorize for a future test, goodness no, but rather a fun reminder of the marvelous power to help inspire and influence us that the vintage images around us have.

I hope that you enjoyed this list of seven wonderful sources of vintage wardrobe inspiration and that you'll share your favourites that haven't been mentioned here in the comment section. One can never, ever have too much inspiration on hand, so lets all pool our years of vintage experience and share those spots that fuel our vintage fires time and time again here.

Introducing a new static page of vintage recipes

On a dark and stormy night recently, as rain pelted the windows with vicious ferocity and the room was illuminated by the blinding flash of wild bolts of lightning, the idea came to me that it was high time that I rounded up all of the recipes that have every appeared here and plunked them down in one handy-dandy spot so that readers everywhere could quickly and easily scroll through the tasty dishes that have been featured here over the years and find just the thing for their next family meal, dinner party, or even holiday feast alike.

How the two events - a turbulent storm and the idea of making a static page (in the navigation bar at the top of the site) full of vintage recipes - came to be connected is really anyone's guess. I think though that it may have to with the fact that, for as long as I can recall (and part of me has always liked to think that this is because I born on a stormy night) whenever a tempest approaches, and then begins its frenzied dance across the graphite hued sky, I find myself filled with a sort of electric energy that always gives me a lot of mental clarity and makes me feel immensely recharged for a short spell. As such, it doesn't surprise me at all that this idea arrived amongst the claps of thunder on a sizzling hot, soaking wet evening.

As long time readers and new followers alike are likely to know, sharing my love of both food history and cooking has always been a key element here at Chronically Vintage. Recipe posts started popping up early on in this blog's life and have continued on a regular basis ever since. Whether I was dishing about some of the recipes that have been near and dear to me and my family for years (and in some cases, generations) or posting the instructions for a highly varied array of old school eats, there's been no shortage of culinary fun here.

I'm really thrilled actually that the this idea popped into my head, as it's one of those things that as soon as you think of it, it seems so incredibly obvious and which you know you need to implement asap. And so, my dears, that's exactly what I did. Starting that very night, I began culling through back posts and gathering up as many recipes as I could find (each recipe is listed as a link which takes you to the post where it originally appeared).

I tired diligently to track down each and every recipe that has ever appeared on this site, but should you ever happen to find one that isn't listed on the newly created vintage recipe page, please let me know and I'll add it on the double.




{Like myself, I know that many of your adore both cooking and vintage recipes, so I hope that you'll discover (or rediscover) some awesome meal ideas on this newly created page. Charming 1940s illustration of a happy homemaker via Captian Geoffrey Spaulding on Flickr.}


After mulling over how best to arrange the recipes, I decided to list them alphabetically within various categories (such as main dishes, vegetable dishes, cookies, desserts, etc), as I figured that this approach would best mirror how many cookbooks are arranged and would facilitate the easy finding of any type of dish you might be trying to locate a vintage recipe for.

As new recipes spring up here, they too will be added to the list shortly thereafter, so that whether you're hunting for something you remember seeing back in 2010 or a tasty treat from just last month, you can quickly scroll through the list and track it down.

Cooking and all things pertaining the culinary arts have been very near and dear to my heart, and I've adored sharing so many easy, classic recipes with you over the years. I hope that you'll enjoy this new vintage recipe page and look forward to sharing many, many more virtual meals with you in the future.

The lives of vintage items before they reach you

✯ Day 142 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

The second half of May might seem like a rather odd time to suddenly wax poetically about the smell of a wood fire, but that's precisely what I'm in the mood to do this crisp, buttercup sunshine kissed morning.

You see, a few days ago a small parcel containing vintage recipe booklets (aka, cookery pamphlets) I'd ordered online arrived and the moment I tore open the bubble envelope, I was greeted with the unmistakably sweet, soothing, instantly recognizable scent of a wood fireplace (I'd even go so far as to say that the scent was distinctly that of hickory wood, but as I don't profess to be an absolute expert on smoky odours, I'll simply call it a robustly scented wood smoke).

The items themselves are in wonderful condition, especially given their very fragile nature and age. I like to close my eyes and picture that they've been stored loving for the past several decades in a country farm kitchen, on a shelf near an old wood burning cast iron bot belly stove, taken down every now and then when their owner needed a time-honoured dish for a church potluck, baby shower, or anniversary supper.

I see  her as being a charmingly sweet women in her 70s or 80s, soft white curls framing her sweet-as-a-baby-doll round face, a beloved, well worn apron covering her handmade dress, named something sublimely grandmotherly like Mae or Elsie.

 

{I can't help but imagine that it was a deeply beautiful vintage wood burning cook stove like this splendid example, which comes by way of 7thswan on Flickr, that produced the tell-tale scent my "new" cookbooks are imbued with.}

 

In Elsie's house that same scent of good old fashioned wood smoke had permeated everything, from the patchwork quilt on her four post bed to the lace curtains she'd hung up on the sitting room windows back in 1952.

It would be stronger - more heady - in the winter, but always there, even on the toastiest of August afternoons, when the stove was turned off, diner coming instead from the incomparably fresh vegetables she'd picked from her verdant garden earlier in the afternoon, her beloved collie Annabelle trailing her around the rows of butter lettuce, plump radishes, and ready-to-tumble-from-the-vine heirloom tomatoes.

Of course, I'll never know the true back story of these simple, wonderfully charming recipe booklets, nor where - or when - they picked up the delightful wood smoke perfume they came packaged with. In collecting and buying vintage and antique items we so often are in the dark when it comes to the lives these pieces have owned before they became our own.

I don't create quaint little tales for every yesteryear item I get the joy of adding to my collection, but any time one arrives with a distinct (pleasant!) scent, I can't help but let my mind spin creative stories of the people, places and years that that something I now call my own were an important part of.

In collecting and treasuring vintage pieces, do you also find yourself, my sweet dears, captivated by thoughts of the people who possessed those treasures before you? (Whether they smell, soothingly, of decades worth of fireplace smoke or not )

Five great places to buy vintage cookbooks online

✯ Day 134 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

There's something cyclic about collecting - or at least there is for me. I have a rather broad range of items that, given the time and budget, I could happily collect until the cows come home, however I've found that I grow certain parts of my overall array of collectibles in spurts. One moment I might be mildly obsessed with seeking items to add to my trove of Girl Guide and Girl Scout pieces, the next week I'm spending hours pouring over vintage hats on online.

Naturally many of things I actively gather are vintage. Clothing, magazines, sewing patterns and books are the key yesteryear items that I've been slowly acquiring a selection of over the past several years. Recently, I was bit again by a particular collecting bug again: my love of vintage cookbooks.

As someone who adores cookbooks of all eras (especially those that include personal commentary and/or historical information from the author), it's not all that much of a surprise that I'm smitten with old school cookery books. :)

My collection of these practical, highly engaging books is admittedly very, very modest in size, but that doesn't make it any less priceless to me. From itty-bitty promotional pamphlets to breezily written cook booklets that frequently feature wonderful mid-century illustrations and/or photographs, to hefty classic culinary tomes, my eclectic tastes mean that I'm open to the possibility of collecting just about any sort of vintage (think those from the era spanning 1920 - 1965) cookery related book.

When it comes to sourcing vintage cookbooks, second hand shops, relative's kitchens (or attics!), etsy and eBay are all very good, very logical places to start looking, but if you've presently exhausted those sources or are looking for even more spots to track down vintage cookbooks, the following five websites are all splendid places to find thousands upon thousands of meals worth of diverse vintage recipe books.

-Old Cookbooks: This site definitely has one of the biggest and best selections of used, rare and vintage cookbooks and booklets online, stocking a very impressive collection of over 15,000 titles that are just ready for you to take one or more home. Here you can search by a really good array of subjects spanning holidays to regional cookbooks, all of which are updated frequently.

-Vintage Cookbook: Many topics are covered amongst the wonderful antique and vintage titles listed on this charming site, including children's cookbooks and those featuring recipes from famous restaurants and special places (they even has a tiny selection of the book cookbook accessory, vintage aprons!).

-Abebooks seller Vintage Cookbooks: Housing more books than anyone could read in a thousand lifetimes, the second hand book site Abebooks.com is one of the absolute best spots to find used books online, and seller Vintage Cookbooks is an excellent place within Abebook's walls to track down recipes from the past.

-Advertising Cookbooks: According to the homepage of Advertising Cookbooks they "specialize in vintage and modern advertising cookbooks, those recipe booklets, pamphlets and brochures published by food manufacturers to promote their products. Our vintage cookbooks appeal to those who love good home cooking as well as to those interested in collecting cookbooks." Here you can search by product (such as pasta or bacon, or by well known brands including Campbell's, Jell-O, and Pillsbury), making finding exactly what you're looking for all the easier and more enjoyable.

-Cookbookery: With more than 30,000 vintage and modern cookbooks in stock, this immensely well stocked website is truly like a candy store for vintage cookbook collectors! With reasonable prices, a marvelous selection of old school recipe books, and even the ability to request a specific title, this great site is an absolute must for anyone with a passion for vintage cookery books.

 

The vast majority of the cookbooks for sale on these sites are long out of print. In fact, generally speaking, only a few (massively popular) vintage cookbooks (such the 1950 classic Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook pictured above) have been reproduced in more recent years, meaning that the as time goes on, more and more yesteryear cookbooks, recipe booklets, and promotional pamphlets will become rarer and harder to track down.

This thought - paired with a general love of cooking - is one of the biggest driving forces behind what beckons me to collect old cookbooks. As well I am compelled to give old cookbooks a home because of the fact that they're amazing slices of time and history, as viewed through the eyes (or perhaps more aptly, the stomachs!) of those who cooked for the generations that came before us.

Whether you have three or three hundred vintage cookbooks, their allure is undeniable. You can put them to practical use and try out the recipes they house (while some old school recipes are very eyebrow-raising indeed, others are timeless masterpieces that deserve a place in our modern kitchens) or simply house them on your bookshelf to read and enjoy for their gastronomical history and appeal.

As I'm submerged in a wave of vintage recipe book collecting at the moment, I couldn't let another day go by without sharing these five wonderfully handy websites with all of you. If you're also a fan of collecting vintage cookbooks, what are your favourite spots to source these terrific slices of the culinary past from?

Getting in the mood for Cinco de Mayo with 1930s Mexican recipes

✯ Day 124 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Happy first Wednesday of May 2011, my wonderful dears! How are you each on this fine spring day? I hope that you're well and that this month is off to a positive start for each of you. I'm still buzzing with the spirit of May Day and looking for reasons to celebrate, which got me thinking about the fact that tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo (which means "the fifth of May" in Spanish).

Though May 5th is sometimes erroneously referred to as Mexico's Independence Day (that falls on September 16th), it is in fact the day which commemorates the Mexican army's victory over the French during 1862 the Battle of Puebla (about forty years earlier Mexico had won its independence from Spain, however the country's fate - and ability to stand as its own nation - were still fought over in various skirmishes and wars, including the Battle of Puebla).

Today, while not a national holiday in either Mexico or the US, Cinco de Mayo is widely celebrated, especially amongst Americans with Mexican heritage (interestingly, Cinco de Mayo has become more widely celebrated - including annual May 5th parades being held in various US cities - in American than south of the border in Mexico, where it is most noticeably observed by those in and around Puebla), and it's certainly open to being observed by anyone who wishes to delve into the spirit of Mexican history.

Without a doubt, one of the best (and most delicious!) ways to celebrate any country's history and culture is through its food. Mexican cuisine, while particularly famous for certain dishes and ingredients (such as corn and chili peppers), is a rich, diverse branch cooking that's been popular in America - and throughout the world - for quite a long time now.

In the spirit of celebrating Cinco de Mayo, today's pair of vintage recipes (for Hominy and Chili Scramble and Spanish Beans) are ones with a distinctly Mexican vibe to them, as interpreted by US brand Gebhardts in the 1930s.

{Colourful image featuring vintage Mexican recipes from a 1932 Gebhardt's cookbook that comes by way of Eudaemonius on Flickr. Click here for a larger version.}

 

Both of these recipes sound extremely easy to whip up, require just few ingredients to make (I'm not entirely sure what "Mexican sauce" refers to in the Spanish Means recipe, perhaps what we chili sauce today?), and quite tasty sounding. (If you're looking for canned hominy, it can be found from brands like Juanita's on Amazon.com.)

Whether you try out on of these 1930s dishes, opt for a different vintage Mexican recipe, or turn to your favourite Mexican foods of all time, I hope you'll join me in celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a meal full of wonderful south of the border flavours that sure to put everyone at your table in festive mood!

Vintage 365: Charming Vintage Recipes blog more than lives up its name!

✯ Day 51 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

Recipes, be they old or new, have always been a major passion of mine. I adore discovering and reading them every bit as much as I do whipping them up in my kitchen. I think that recipes hold a secret wealth of information about who were are - or were - at any given moment in time. From the humble, generally incredibly economical recipes of the early 30s to the wild and wonderful meat/pineapple/maraschino cherry/Velveeta filled gems of the 1950s that hostesses adored serving, recipes speak volumes for the era that they hail from.

I'm always on the prowl for vintage recipes, and over the yeas I've encountered a number of excellent sites that I turn to time and time again both for the joy that they present in the form of the old school foods they features, but also for my own menu planning needs. One such site that I've adorned for quite some time now is Coralie Cederna's exceedingly wonderful blog, Charming Vintage Recipes.

Chock-a-block with fun, fascinating, often very tasty sounding recipes from the mid-twentieth century (which are presented in the form of typed vintage recipes cards, making this site even more awesome right there!), this excellently recipe-rich blog is a joyful look back at the diverse dishes that folks tucked into during the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s (such as the great Blueberry Pie Surprise recipe featured above, which I think sounds every bit as scrumptious today as when it first debuted decades ago!).

I visit this Charming Vintage Recipes as often as I can (new posts are added several times a week), and always leave feeling both as though I've got a lovely little history lesson and like I really, really want to head straight for the kitchen and try out these terrific vintage culinary ideas right away!