COOKING WITH RATIONED FOOD

Good meals with wartime rations was the subject of the cook booklet that this piece has as it's background. All of the work to save food and supplies was a countrywide effort during WW 2. This piece reflects the unity that was created in a country at war by the contributions of every individual cook when it was time to prepare a meal with limited resources. Each state in the blue field is represented by an individual ration stamp.

LYDIA PINKHAMS MIRACLE TONIC

Lydia Pinkham made medicine for "nervous ladies." I have a little advertising pamphlet that tells about the miracle Lydia's tonic...everything that ailed the modern woman was addressed in this pamphlet. The stresses of raising children getting to you? Try a drop of the tonic. The stresses of "feminine problems" creating duress? Try Lydia's tonic. Any guesses as to what this miracle drug might have contained?
This piece is created with one of Lydia's advertising pamphlets. Pages of woes and testimonials are layered beneath thin washes of paint. Looking through the layers is looking back into time. The shapes suggest the faces of the women who made use of Lydia's miracle tonic.

ROSIE THE RIVETER

This lovely lady is Rosie the Riveter...the epitome of the 1940's woman...homemaker, mother, caregiver, wife, and wartime worker. This piece is constructed from a hair school mannequin that was styled by Susan Williams in a typical 1940's up do. Rosie is papered with 1003 Household Hints...she would have needed all of them to survive.

SERVICE WITHOUT SERVICE OF A MAID

These lovely ladies present a charming table setting with lovely centerpieces. What more could you ask of a woman? This was an era when families were losing their maids to other more profitable jobs and women were faced with serving the company without help. This piece is created from a page describing the perfect way to set out a table for company. The advice appeared in Good Meals And How To Prepare Them, c 1930's. The piece uses beeswax and oil paint.

WOMEN & COOKBOOKS: THE WORK

Cookbooks have been one of the dominant literary forms available written by and for women for years. The social and cultural expectations of the times in which these books were written influenced the tone of the writing and the recipes included within them. While history has changed the circumstances and influenced the lives of the cooks who referred to these manuals, ultimately, the gender of the family “cook” has remained the same. I have a photograph of my hands placed in a work smoothed, limestone bowl in front of a Pueblo Indian cliff dwelling. I remember crouching there, wondering what her hands looked like – the ones that worked the corn each day to meal in that bowl for the tortillas for her family. I have a cookbook from1882 entitled “Our Home Favorite” from the Young Women’s Home Mission Circle of the first Baptist Church in Saratoga Springs, New York. I have held its covers, thick with kitchen dirt, and wondered if Miss Edith Mills of 148 Church Street ever tried the Lemon Pie recipe. Her book’s version calls for lemon, sugar, water, flour, eggs, and cornstarch. Sixty three years later, Sarah Marshall of 807 Druid Avenue’s equally worn The Joy of Cooking has a recipe for lemon pie that calls for… lemon, sugar, water, flour, eggs, and cornstarch. Cooking was certainly expected of these three women, but was cooking a joy to them?

These images and objects utilize text and illustrations drawn from actual cookbooks. I have chosen roughly the decade of the 40’s, including late Depression era books through post WW2 books. These books were everyday objects found in women’s kitchens. Many of them were used into disrepair, with notations fading in the margins. Some looked as if an insurance agent had left them on the porch never to be read again. Either way, they were not “precious” antiques. They were held by actual people with actual lives living through life changing events. Many of them belonged to our parents or grandparents.

These images/assemblages are each my response to a particular book. Some of the images employ text and photographs buried within layers of wax and paint. They require the viewer to engage in a search. Visual openings provide spaces through which the viewer might look as if through time. The way in which we remember our history as humans changes and shifts through time as our lives change and as our need to place our past in a more comfortable light dictate. How we all remember a time past is truly a matter of personal interpretation.

ART FROM THE PAGES:THE 1940'S

These vintage cook books not only provide me with wonderful recipes, as seen throughout this blog, but they also provide raw materials for my artwork. Using books and booklets from the 1940's as my starting point, I have been working on oil and wax images that explore the role of women as cook, caregiver, and wartime worker.

...the history...

“ The ability to adjust oneself and one’s needs to an altered condition is a valuable asset…above all let us be cheerful about it.”

Irma Rombauer offered this advice in her 1943 edition of Joy of Cooking. At the time of its publication, this book found an audience in the midst of a world war that would claim over 400,000 American lives. Men were away fighting. Sugar, meat, butter, flour, and coffee were in short supply, and nearly everything had to be purchased not only with dollars but also using ration stamps. Rombauer’s book refers to the “…international obligations (that) would lead our land of plenty to ration cards…” and includes “…a number of emergency chapters added, written to meet the difficulties that beset the present –day cook.” Who was the cook to whom she was referring?

In the five years that began the decade of the 1940’s, the number of American women in the workforce increased from 12 – 18 million. These women left traditional jobs behind to assume places in manufacturing for the war effort. But who would cook dinner? Who would stand in line for rationed goods? Who would be standing in the kitchen with a warm pie when the “boys” came home?

Rosie the Riveter provided America with an image of this “ideal” woman – beautiful, strong, fearless, with a touch of lipstick – ready to step up for duty not only in the factory but in the kitchen. This image was brought to the American woman in the movie theatres, in women’s magazines, and through cookbooks. Health For Victory Meal Planning Guide was published to “ Help Food Fight for Freedom” through the Home Economics Institute by the Westinghouse Manufacturing Co.. On page 20 a beautiful young woman is shown at her lathe in the factory. Below her are instructions for How to Get a Jump on Meal Serving, practical tested suggestions to help double – duty housewives cut time from meal preparation.

In 1945, with the troops coming home from War, Dior announced a return to femininity. Heels were no longer limited to 1”. Skirts became flouncier, blouses blousier. Women were called to their kitchens, lured by the new, modern appliances that awaited them. The gas range was touted as “…a delight that never wanes…lovely to look at – a joy to work with…in the gleaming appliances…lies the secret to delicious meals for your family and extra, carefree hours of leisure for yourself!” What the Mystery Chef began with this statement in 1935 found its true audience 10 years later. Norge Refrigerators declared that with the “…modern kitchen as (her) throne room and a spoon in (her) hand as a scepter, (she) can be the queen in (her) own realm of food.” Convenience food promised freedom from drudgery. Jello products promised to provide new levels of creativity. “Mrs. Consumer” was reborn and women were safely back in the kitchen.

BRONX COCKTAIL

"The chief virtue of cocktails is their informal quality. They loosen tongues and unbutton the reserves of the socially diffident. Serve them by all means, preferably in the living room, and the sooner the better." Irma S. Rombauer 1943 Joy of Cooking

Ms. Rombauer goes on to add that she will be putting the non alcoholic drinks in the front of the book. Those that are intended to loosen your guests' lips will be found in the very back of the book, where she adds via a "commentator" that " Alcohol does not give you courage. It simply makes you see things as they should be." Try this one that we modified to serve in a martini glass.

BRONX COCKTAIL

Juice of 1/2 orange
1/4 Part Grand Marnier
1/4 Part Vermouth
1/2 Part Gin

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice and serve neat.
Pass the stuffed nuts and the tomato bacon canapes and you have a cocktail party!

TOMATO CANAPES WITH PANCETTA

Canapes were all the rage in appetisers of the early to mid 1900's. White bread, especially when it became a commodity able to be purchased in a bag, was the entertainers staple. The bread was best, apparently, when used once stale. I suppose it was easier to cut into fancy shapes. I have never in my life seen a canape served at a party...or have I? I imagine a chat with Irma Rombauer about hor's doeuvres. I bring up the party classic - Bruschetta - as if she may never have heard of such a thing. She retorts with good humor " Oh, you mean toasted canapes?" Yes. I do. In her 1943 edition of Joy of Cooking, Ms.Rombauer suggests that one place a slice of tomato seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika on a piece of buttered bread topped with a thin slice of bacon toasted under the broiler as an hors doeuvre suggestion. The following is my interpretation of her classic pre Bruschetta.

TOMATO CANAPES WITH PANCETTA

1 WHOLE WHEAT BAGUETTE SLICED DIAGONNALY 1/2" SLICES

OLIVE OIL

2 MEDIUM SLICED TOMATOES

18-20 THIN SLICES OF PANCETTA

COARSELY CHOPPED BASIL, PARSLEY, OR CELERY LEAVES TO GARNISH

Brush both sides of the bread with the olive oil.

Place a slice of tomato on each slice of bread.

Place a thin slice on Pancetta on each tomato, but let it drape -don't lay it flat.

Place under the broiler until the bread browns slightly.

STUFFED NUTS

"Canapes and hor's doeuvre are appetizers - co

nsequently any palatable tidbit is suitable for this preliminary step as a repast."

Irma S.Rombauer The Joy of Cooking 1943

I love Irma Rombauer's words of culinary wisdom. In her many editions of her book, Ms.Rombauer brings us timeless recipes just like "Mother used to make." And sprinkled throughout are Rombauer's often amusing comments about what should be served when and why. For a young homemaker of the 1940's, this was the book to have on hand. This edition has the added benefit of referring directly to the cooking conditions imposed by WWII. Chapters containing recipes that use less sugar and meat were an effort to address the shortages of the times. The original recipe I adapted for my friends last evening is found on page 41. Rombauer makes use of either untoasted pecans or walnuts, Roquefort cheese, and drops of lemon juice or cream. She combines the latter two ingredients to sandwich the halves together. Here is my updated version of Rombauer's classic. It is so easy, and my friends loved it.

STUFFED NUTS

1 C PECAN OR WALNUT HALVES

4 OZ SEMI SOFT CHEESE (ANY BLUE VEINED, GOAT, OR CREAM CHEESE)

1t CREAM, 1/2 & 1/2, OR MILK

CHIVES CUT INTO 1 1/2" LENGTHS

UNCUT CHIVES TO GARNISH

Toast large walnut or pecan halves in the oven at 350F until they are just slightly browning and smelling like nuts but not burning nuts.

Work cheese to a smooth paste adding a teaspoon or so of cream, milk, or 1/2.

I used Gorgonzola cheese - any blue veined cheese would also be good, as would a spreadable goat cheese. If you have kids who like nuts, I expect cream cheese would be great as well.

Sandwich the halves together: nut, cheese, one chive piece, nut

Arrange decoratively on a platter.