Vintage 1950s Food Candle Salad

Something special for the holidays

This was in my Cookbook for Children recipe book growing up. We made this every Sunday morning while my mother was busy making waffles. I made sure we had bananas left by Saturday night to make these candles.

Candle Salad

Place a leaf of lettuce on a plate

Put a round of pineapple on the lettuce

Cut a peeled banana in half and place it in the center of the pineapple. Balance it until it stands straight.

With a toothpick fasten a maraschino cherry on the end of the banana.

Fun and Enjoyable!

Vintage 1950s Food

Something Special for the holidays.

Swedish Meatballs had to be on the buffet table every holiday throughout the years. The meatballs were a huge hit and everyone loved them with the delicious sauce that is served with them.

Swedish Meatballs

1 lb chopped beef                                   1/4 tsp pepper

1 cup soft bread crumbs                         1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 cup milk                                                Fat

1 egg, well beaten                                  1 cup hot water

2 medium onions chopped                     1 Tbsp flour

2 tsp salt                                                 1 Tbsp cold water

                                           Cooked hot rice

Put the first 8 ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Heat 2 tbsp fat in a large skillet. Form mixture into 1-inch balls using a teaspoon, drop into a skillet (a few at a time) to brown. Remove and keep in a warm place. Continue until all meatballs are browned. Use more fat if needed.

Add hot water to the drippings in skillet and bring to a boil. Blend flour with cold water. Stir into hot mixture, cook until thickened stirring constantly. Return meat to skillet. Cover, simmer for 30 minutes. Arrange hot cooked rice on a platter, pour meatballs and gravy over rice. Serves 6

Vintage 1959s Food

Hot Milk Sponge Cake

The 1950 Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book was a go-to recipe source for basic home baking.  It was produced when home cooks baked and cooked daily. This recipe is updated a bit.

Serves: 8

Cooking Time: 30 min

Cooking Vessel Size: 9-inch round cake pan

Ingredients

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

1 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla

fresh fruit and powdered sugar for serving

Instructions

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch round cake pan with cooking spray and line with a round of parchment paper.

Measure flour, baking powder, and salt into a sifter or sieve and sift together. Heat milk in the microwave for 20-25 seconds. Drop the butter into the milk to melt it.

With an electric mixer on high, beat eggs 3 minutes until thick and lemon-colored. With machine running, gradually add sugar, then stir in the dry ingredients, mixing just until all dry particles are incorporated. Stir in hot milk-butter mixture and add vanilla until well blended.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until cake tests done when a toothpick is inserted in the center. Remove pan to a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Serve garnished with fresh fruit and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Note: for a healthy snack my neighbor used cottage cheese as frosting and added fruit on top.

Vintage 1950s Food

Something Special for the holidays

They're fun and so easy to make for scout meetings, open house, group functions, etc. for the holidays.

Puddin' Cookies

Mix well 3/4 cups Bisquick, 1 package instant pudding mix,( any flavor), 1/4 cup salad oil, 1 egg.

Form into small balls, flatten with hand on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 8 minutes at 350 degrees (mod) Makes 3 dozen.

Vintage 1950s Food

Something Special for the Holidays

Here's a deviled egg recipe from the 1950s. Oh...so many memories of family holiday dinners!!

Stuffed Deviled Eggs

4 hard-cooked eggs
1 tbsp. Heinz Sweet or India Relish
1 tbsp. Heinz Tomato Ketchup
1 tbsp. mayonnaise or salad dressing
1/2 tsp. Heinz Prepared Mustard
Salt & pepper to taste

Remove the shells from the eggs. Cut eggs lengthwise; remove yolks. Mash yolks; blend with remaining ingredients. Refill egg whites with mixture. Chill. Makes 8 deviled eggs.

Note: You can fill the egg whites with a spoon, or you can fill them using a pastry bag and a star-shaped tip. They look like Christmas trees by adding green or red food coloring to the mixture.

Vintage 1950s Food

Something special for the holidays

Tuna Fritters

2 cups all-purpose biscuit mix
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 egg
2/3 cup (small can) undiluted evaporated milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-1/2 cups tuna (or diced, cooked ham)
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons finely chopped green pepper
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1/2 cup chopped celery
Fat or oil for frying

Directions

Blend biscuit mix, seasoned salt, egg, evaporated milk and lemon juice in a bowl. Add remaining ingredients and blend well. Drop from teaspoon into deep hot fat (375 degrees F) or into 1/2 inch hot fat in a frying pan. Fry 1-1/2 to 2 minutes. Turn and fry on the other side. Drain on paper towel. Serve at once with cheese sauce.

3 Minute Cheese Sauce

1-2/3 cups ( 1 large can) Carnation undiluted evaporated milk

1/2 t salt

2 cups grated American cheese

Simmer evaporated milk and salt in a sauce pan to just about boiling (about 2 minutes). Add cheese and stir until thickened and smooth (about 1 minute)

Note: The sauce can be used on baked potatoes, hamburgers, fries, etc.

Vintage 1950s Food

The 1950s were all about having hor's d' oeuvres or what my family called snacks: before and after a meal. When we came home from school in New York, my mother always has something interesting for the 3:00 snack. This was a wonderful late school year snack when it was getting to be summer and throughout summer.

Gazpacho Snack

1/3 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
2 tbsp. chopped onion
2 tbsp. plain yogurt
2 tsp. wine vinegar
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. ground red pepper
9 cherry tomatoes, each cut into 4 slices
36 Low Salt Ritz Crackers

In a small bowl, stir together cucumber, green pepper, onion, yogurt, vinegar, garlic powder, and red pepper until blended. Place a tomato slice on each Ritz cracker. Top with 1/2 teaspoon vegetable mixture. Serve immediately.

Makes 3 doz. appetizers

Vintage 1950s Cars

Vintage 1950s Cars

Dodge Coronet, 1956

          The Coronet was an automobile that was marketed by Dodge as a full-size car in the 1950s, initially the division's highest trim line but, starting in 1955, the lowest trim line. From the 1965 to 1975 model years the name was on intermediate-sized models. A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring

          The 1955 Coronet dropped to the lower end of the Dodge vehicle lineup, with the Wayfarer and Meadowbrook names no longer used and the Custom Royal added above the Royal, Lancer, and La Femme. Bodies were restyled with help from newly hired Virgil Exner to be lower, wider, and longer than the lumpy prewar style, which in turn generated a healthy boost in sales over 1954.

          1956 was the last year of this body style before the change in 1957, the only differences offered in 1956 from the previous year were trim packages and the new Dodge D-500. suspension. Under the hood, the engine received larger valves, a full-race camshaft, and a double log intake manifold that used two four-barrel Carter WCFB carburetors and a shaved deck for 8.25:1 compression. This all added up to 285 bhp. It was the fastest car from the factory that year.

          1976 was the final model year for the Dodge Coronet, at least so far as the name Coronet was concerned. There were two body styles offered,  only two four-door models, the four-door wagon. and the four-door sedan. The former Dodge Coronet 2-door model was replaced by the Dodge Charger Sport 2-door model.

Vintage 1950s Men's Fashion

Vintage 1950s

Men’s Plain Dress Shirts

          In the early years, men’s dress shirts were dull and plain just like the grey flannel suits. White, blue, light pink, mustard yellow, light green, light grey colors in smooth finishes complemented the suits. They fit rather wide and baggy (no modern trim fits yet) with a single cuff. Cufflinks were optional but generally too fussy for this simple look. Most men’s dress shirts had a single breast pocket.

          The most popular shirt collars started out as straight pointed collars with or without buttons. As tie widths and knot shapes moved from narrow to wide to ultra-skinny over the decade, so too did the collars. A straight spread collar accommodated most of the 1950s ties that had a wide tie knot. Narrow straight collars went with standard 3 inch or ultra-skinny 2-inch ties.

          There were also a few years when the round collar or “club” collar tie came back in fashion from the turn of the century.  Collar pins also came back in style for more conservative dressers and added a nice upscale touch to point collars.  Almost all collars shortened during the decade. Most of today’s men’s shirts resemble those from the 1950s.

Vintage 1950s Movies

Vintage 1950s

Movies

African Queen

The African Queen was released December 23, 1951. It is a British-American adventure film adapted from a 1935 novel by C.S. Forester. It was photographed in Technicolor. The film stars Humphrey Bogart (who won the Academy Award for Best Actor – his only Oscar), and Katharine Hepburn with Robert Morley, Peter Bull, Walter Gotell, Richard Marner and Theodore Bikel.

          The African Queen was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1994, with the Library of Congress deeming it "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

          In 1951, two of the world's most beloved — and highest-paid — movie stars, Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart filmed in sweltering jungles around the Belgian Congo (today is known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo) spending seven weeks filming a WWI-era romantic-comedy-adventure film about a hard-drinking riverboat captain, Charlie Allnut (Bogart), and his burgeoning love affair with a prim Christian missionary, Rose Sayer (Hepburn).

          

The shoot was often a grueling experience for the crew, particularly 

Hepburn, who suffered from dysentery caused by contaminated water. She refused to let it affect her work and never missed a day of filming. Unlike Hepburn and much of the crew, both Bogart and Huston remained healthy throughout the shoot.

Vintage 1950s Toys

Vintage 1950s

Toys

Pogo Stick

         

          The modern pogo stick was invented by Max Pohlig and Ernst Gottschall, from Germany. A German patent was registered in Hanover on March 1920 for a device they called a "spring end hopping stilt". It is thought that the beginning two letters in these men's last names is where the word "pogo" comes from.

          The two-handle pogo stick design was patented by George B. Hansburg in 1957. Hansburg described the origins of the Pogo name colloquially in a story of a young Burmese girl with the aforementioned name whose father had created a crude version of the device so that the daughter could travel to the local temple for prayers. An earlier design with a single upright vertical handle patented in 1955 posed something of a risk to the user's chin. Later, improvements to the pogo stick have been made, including the Vurtego, Flybar, and the BowGo, which allow operators to jump much higher than with a simple coil spring pogo stick. Backflips and other tricks are now possible on some of these newer sticks, which has contributed to the growth of the new sport of Extreme Pogo ("Xpogo").

          Whatever improvements or different types are made, the basic design idea of a person riding on a spring remains the same.

          Extreme Pogo, or Xpogo, is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks on extreme pogo sticks, defined by their durability and potential for height. Today's Xpogo sticks have the potential for over 10 ft. of height (measured from the ground to the bottom of the tip). Extreme pogo is a relatively new extreme sport and is currently emerging into popular culture as evidenced by the growing number of Xpogo athletes around the globe.

Vintage 1950s Music

Vintage 1950s Music

Standing on the Corner

         Standing on the Corner is a popular song written by Frank Loesser, 

 published in 1956. It was introduced by Shorty Long, Alan Gilbert, John Henson, and Roy Lazarus in the Broadway musical, The Most Happy Fella.

         The song was made popular by the Four Lads recorded March 1, 1956. The recording was released by Columbia Records.  It first reached the Billboard charts on April 28, 1956. It peaked at #3 on each of the various charts at the time: the Disk Jockey chart, the Best Seller chart, the Juke Box chart, as well as the composite chart of the top 100 songs. The flip side was My Little Angel. Jimmy Arnold, was the lead tenor for The Four Lads in 1956. Arnold is sometimes erroneously listed as the song's co-author.  A version by The King Brothers became popular in the United Kingdom in 1960 when the musical was staged in London's West End.

          On February 9, 2010, the Irish group Celtic Thunder released their 4th album entitled It's Entertainment. This album, meant to pay homage to past musical styles, features their youngest member Damian McGinty singing Standing on the Corner. Celtic Thunder's DVD of the same name features McGinty dressed in a sweater and cabbie performing the number.

To hear this catchy tune  go to: 

Vintage 1950s Food Molded Spring Veg. Salad

Molded Spring Vegetable Salad

Ingredients

1 pk. lemon-flavored gelatin                                1 cup sliced radishes

2 cups water                                                        1 cup diced cucumbers

1 t salt                                                                  1/2 c sliced green onions

1t vinegar                                                             Crisp salad greens

Mayonnaise

Directions

Dissolve gelatin in water as directed on package. Add salt and vinegar. Chill until the consistency of unbeaten egg whites. Arrange a few sliced radishes on the bottom of an oiled 5-cup ring mold. Pour in a little gelatin to "anchor" the radishes. Chill until set Fold remaining radishes, cucumbers, and onions into remaining gelatin. Pour into mold. Chill until set. Unmold on to a large serving platter. Garnish with salad greens. Serve with Mayonnaise. Makes 8 servings