50's housewifeness is back.... sort of

Man.... the last couple of months have been absolutely crazy for me.  I'm sure they have been with everyone else too with school getting out and summer winding down.  I never get over how much women have to do!  And every season, every new stage in child development, and every temper tantrum (mine) brings on new obstacles!  :)   But anyway.... I wanted to catch you all up on a few things I found fun and exciting regarding 50's hosuewifeyness... sort of. 

#1 -  Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette: A Guise to Gracious Living (published in 1952) - I found this book in my Grandma's library forever ago and this last time I visited her she gave it to me.  I was so excited!  It's sooooo 50's housewife!  This book seriously covered EVERYTHING you could think of.  I especially love chapter 42 - gracious living without servants.  Which is totally funny to me these days..... but what is crazy is that is totally why there is a 50's housewife ideal started.  During WWII most people we not able to continue to keep on house staff so women had to get back to basics of cooking, cleaning, and keeping house.  Crazy..... but that's the roots of a women vacuuming in pearls and making jello molds!  ..... you can learn even more about this in #2

#2 - In the August edition of Martha Stewart Living (I have a free subscription thanks to all my coke rewards points!) they have an article about vintage baking pamphlets that was very interesting.... and now I want vintage baking pamphlets.  You'll just have to read the article.  I loved it.  Betty Crocker is a fake! Seriously - she is a fictional women made up by General Mills to sell the housewife lifestyle and their food stuffs.

#3 - The Help - I'm so excited for the movie "The Help" to come out!  I love all the actresses in this movie plus it just looks amazing.  It comes out August 10th when I'll be in Montana so I'm going to have all the men watch the kids while us ladies go to the movies.



How to fool your husband to think that you've been working hard all day long.

I have actually been meaning to post about this for a while but when I was chatting with one of my favorite people the other day and we got on the subject about how it's so easy to fake out our husbands into making them believe we've been slaving away in our home all day long.... when really we were sitting on our butt watching the new chick flick :)  So talking to her reminded me that I should come up with a list of quick and easy ways to get your house ready 30 minutes before you're husband comes home. 

#1: Kitchen

            Dishes - load your dishwasher, and wash out your sink

            Clear anything/everything off your counters and wipe them down*

             

#2: Living Room/Entryway

            Put away anything that is out* (for me this always consists of toys, shoes, remotes)

            Straighten everything up

AND IF YOU STILL HAVE TIME….

#3: Extras:

            Start a load of laundry (makes you look busy)

            Vacuum the living room/entry way

            Take out the trash if it's full

            Start dinner

The 50’s Housewife Golden Rule: Clutter makes everything look terrible, unorganized, dirty and lazy* 

           

Seriously…. This all only takes me 30 minutes and my husband, 9 times out of 10, will say “the house looks good.” ha ha ha!

What's for Dinner?

Easy Italian Crock Pot Chicken
4 chicken breast (I use the frozen ones from Costco and put them in frozen)
1 8oz brick cream cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 package Italian salad dressing mix

Throw it all in the crock pot on low for 8 hours. If you are around you can stir it a bit at the end.
Shred the chicken with 2 forks and you are good to go. Easy!!!

We put this over rice but the next time I make it I am going to try it over pasta.  This is totally a "Mormon meal"..... a new version of a generic,easy, good meal that can stretch to feed a large family or be for just a small family (back in the 80's and 90's it was all about casseroles.... now it's all about easy crock pot dinners).  My one-year old really liked this. 

What's for Dinner?

Light and Fresh Summer Pasta

K..... So I don't really have a "recipe" for this - sorry!  I just made it and liked it.

1 lb of angel hair pasta
4 garlic cloves (you can add more)
fresh sage diced as small as possible
4 tomatoes (mine were kind of small... I'd use more if i had them)
extra virgin olive oil
real shaved Parmesan cheese

cook your pasta, drain and set to the side.  in a frying pan warm up about 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.  press your garlic through a garlic press and add to the warm oil.  i do this on a very low to low/medium temp (i have a gas stove) because I'm not cooking the garlic i just want to get it warm enough that the natural flavor starts to come out of it and you can really smell it.  once that happens (on low it takes a few minutes... seriously you'll smell it) i take the pan off the heat and through in my fresh sage that i have diced as small as i can get it, stir it up.  this is off the heat.  the warm oil bring out the flavor/scent of the sage and you're good to go.  add the oil/herb mix into the cooked past, add diced tomato and toss.  add more extra virgin olive oil to taste and texture.  you want a loose pasta, if you don't have enough oil the pasta will stick together and not mix as well.  once you have served the pasta onto a plate/bowl, add the shaved parm cheese and there you go!!  i love it just like that but my husband and mother-in-law like to add Italian salad dressing to it.  whatever works!

What's for Dessert?

Strawberry Tarts (via Barefoot Contesta)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) cold unsalted butter, diced
• 2 tablespoons cold shortening (recommended: Crisco)
• 1/4 cup ice water
• 2 cups Pastry Cream, recipe follows
• 2 pints whole strawberries, hulled and halved
• 1/3 cup apricot jelly
• 3 tablespoons shelled pistachios, halved, optional

Directions

Combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and place in the freezer for 30 minutes. Put the flour mixture in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter and shortening and pulse about 10 times, or until the butter is in the size of peas. Add the ice water and process until the dough comes together. Dump on a well-floured board and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll out the dough and fit into 4 (4 1/2-inch) tart pans with removable sides. Don't stretch the dough when placing it in the pans or it will shrink during baking. Cut off the excess by rolling the pin across the top of each pan. Line the tart shells with a piece of buttered aluminum foil, butter side down, and fill them with dried beans or rice. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and foil, prick the bottom of the shells all over with a fork, and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.
Before serving, fill the tart shells with the pastry cream. Arrange the berries decoratively on top of the cream. Melt the apricot jelly with 1 teaspoon of water and brush the top of the tarts. Sprinkle with pistachios, if using, and serve.

Pastry Cream:

5 extra-large egg yolks, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups scalded milk
1 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon heavy cream
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks and sugar on medium-high speed for 4 minutes, or until very thick. Reduce to low speed, and add the cornstarch.
With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture. Pour the mixture into a medium saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the mixture thickens, 5 to 7 minutes. Don't be alarmed when the custard comes to a boil and appears to curdle; switch to a whisk and beat vigorously. Cook, whisking constantly, for another 2 minutes; the custard will come together and become very thick, like pudding. Stir in the vanilla, butter, and heavy cream. Pour the custard through a sieve into a bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on the custard and refrigerate until cold.

Makes one large tart or six 4 inch individual tarts. (I purchased my indivudual tart pans at Williams Sonoma and I really like them but you can find them at Bed Bath and Beyond and Sur la Tab)


I love love love these :)  

What's for Dinner?

Ginger Chicken Stir Fry

3 TBS vegetable oil
3 chicken breasts cut in thin strips
2 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and diced as small as you can
4 garlic cloves chopped (I put mine in a garlic press)
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I use 1 tsp because we like it hot)
6 green onions cut into pieces
1/4 cup Tamari (dark aged soy sauce)
3 TBS honey (I use a lot more.... I add to taste)

Rice (I like sticky rice and I just make it in my rice cooker)

Heat a large skillet over high heat.  Add the vegetable oil.  Add the chicken and season with a tiny tiny bit of salt and lots of black pepper.  Stir-fry for a minute to sear the meat at the edges.  Then add the ginger, garlic, and red pepper flakes and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the green onions (and/or whatever other veggies you want to use) and stir fry for another minute then add the Tamari and honey for form a sauce and glaze the chicken (just stir it around).  Cook until chicken is done. 


Other directions:  I didn't have green onions in the fridge tonight so I didn't use them!  But I did have this unknown green leafy vegetable (similar to bok choy I guess?) that my friend Der gave to me..... so I cut that stuff up according to her directions and threw it in my stir fry.  It was great!  If I ever find out what it's called I'll let you know.  You can do this with any veggies you want.  Broccoli, asparagus and sweet peas would all be good options.  Or you can just have it with plain chicken.  What ever you want!!!  My husband is a corn freak, so he added corn and cooked carrots to his.  I hate corn in stir fry so he has to add it to his own bowl. 

All of these ingredients are normal things that you can find at your grocery store.  Tamari is just a dark aged  soy sauce... it's usually found in the Asian food section right next to the normal soy sauce.  I highly recommend you have this at hand.  I like it so much better then the normal stuff for some reason.

"Have dinner ready...a declicious meal ready, on time for his return."

I printed out the "1955 Rules for a Good Housewife" from the May,1955 issue of Housekeeping Monthly magazine just because it's funny.  Never would I "put a ribbon in my hair and be fresh looking" to "prepare myself" for my husband to come home from work.  But something I have been trying to work on is having dinner ready when my husband comes home from work.  He works 3 days a week.... so I thought that was a good starting goal.  It's cheaper and healthier to eat at home, so I'm trying to be better at making dinner.  It's so hard to come up with ideas though!  I've tried to make a weekly menu and shop due to what ingredients I needed for that week but it just doesn't work for me and my family.  So now I try have a very well stocked pantry (which is a completely different post) and try to do a modified version of shopping for the week.  When I'm being a good housewife and actually make dinner it works much better for me :)   But I still have issues with coming up with ideas for dinner. 

Recently I was visiting my family in Arizona and I was talking with some of the women in my family about this.  I wasn't kidding when I said I'd text you all about dinner ideas.  If I do make a decent dinner that goes over well I'll post what it was and the recipe.  So text, email or post me any ideas or your favorites dinners!