On "The Curious Cookbook": A Book Review

 

Title: The Curious Cookbook: Viper Soup, Badger Ham, Stewed Sparrow, & 100 More Historic Recipes
Author: Peter Ross
Genre: Non-Fiction, Food History

About the book...
Collected by Peter Ross and with a forward by Heston Blumenthal, The Curious Cookbook presents readers with some of the more unusual and, for then, historically standard recipes spanning from the 1300's through the 1940's.

What I think...
This was a great book! I am admittedly one of those people more than willing to dive into the less appealing side of culinary history along with the more standard fare, so when I came across this book recently it was instantly appealing to me (though I still can't figure out exactly how I ended up finding out about it). 

This book was very nicely laid out with each page, or for longer recipes pages, featuring just one recipe rather than being all crammed in. Following each recipe there was a paragraph giving some historical background and that highlighted the significance of the recipe. Given that food is such a window into past cultures providing both a look at what was available at the time, deemed safe, and offering a look at economic standards and I thought this book did a nice job in capturing all these elements in a more bite sized and casual way. 

It also did a nice job weaving common elements through the time periods, so that the reader could see how certain recipes evolved or how current events influenced what people were reliant on when it came to food, as well as exhibiting some of the recipes that had more to do with being trendy or someone with societal standing.

Additionally, looking at the book itself, the hardcover edition is really nicely bound and has lovely thick pages. The images included were nicely integrated and included kitchen scenes, pages from early cookery texts, sketches of dishes, and advertisements of implements that would have been used in the making of the dishes.

To sum it all up...
A great book for anyone interested in historical cooking and the more unusual recipes of the past! ♥

On Some Christmas Elves!

Last year I went on a reindeer making spree using the pattern from the November 1961 issue of Woman's Day; this year I managed to get a hold of an actual copy of the magazine (someone else had shared the reindeer pattern) and had plans for making the elf on the cover along with Santa. Santa didn't materialize this year, unfortunately, but I did make the elf...sort of. 

While I started following the pattern (shrinking it down to match with the size of Silverbell, the reindeer), somehow I ended up making two girl elves and pretty much ignoring the accessories and clothes. In part, I feel like the beard was a deciding factor for this, and, if I'm to be honest, not making Santa, as I was not going back out to the craft store to find fake fur or something along those lines to make it, I didn't think the white yarn I had looked right, and I had several shades of brown yarn handy.  

Meet Candy!

Cookie and Silverbells are great friends!

The shirt from the original pattern did remain. I just turned it round and have them wearing it as a jacket instead and to break up the stripes I gave them little aprons. The tiny shoes, also from the original pattern, were hand sewn out of felt!

There is supposed to be a third youthful boy elf to go with them, which I was intending to make the vest for, but I never quite decided on what fabric I wanted for the body and clothes, so he's still a little pile of pieces. He might get finished within the week, but we shall see about that dependent on how I'm feeling. Meanwhile, I have these two sweet elves to help me wish you the merriest of Christmas!

 

♥ ♥ ♥

On Gunter Meets Pudding: A Photo Post

 Gunter--Pudding; Pudding--Gunter. Remove the Pudding!

A random and spur of the moment project that ended up being perfect for my tired, unfocused brain as aside from size (pieces were cut free hand) and color of the holly leaves, there are very few choices to make when it comes to how a classic pudding looks. Gunter approves of the pudding! ♥

On Making Angels 1960's Style

A couple of months ago I was digging through the garage for something and found a handful of  craft magazines mixed in with some old kid's magazines. The oldest of the bunch was "Fun with Craft Sticks" from 1966.

It has a few different Christmas crafts in it, the one that appealed to me though, were the popsicle stick angels that appear on the cover (as opposed to the one ladened with decoupage daisies and marbles). As usual, I made adjustments and used balsa wood for the head rather than a bead and felt for the hair instead of plastic wood. Hard to see in the picture, I bent gold paper clips to make the halos.

Jokingly, I've been referring to them as The Supremes!

Ultimately, I think I'd like to get them on strips of green and pink ribbon to hang in rows on the wall for an extra 60's touch! 

Moving on, I also pulled out my 1964 Christmas Magic by Margaret Perry, this time to make angels. The pattern in the book, as with last year's donkey, is actually to make an aluminum candle holder, but I used heavier weight metallic paper and decided to hang them from the ceiling. I also copied and sized down the pattern to make slightly smaller ones. Sorry for the not so great picture, the heater makes them move!

 And thus you have the beginning of my Christmas crafting. Stay tuned for the next round!♥