RETIREMENT ANNIVERSARY...

 It's now been thirteen years of retirement (8/8/08 at 4:00 p.m.) and I do celebrate every day in one way or another.  This comic was in the paper today - how timely!

MERRY CHRISTMAS - Menu, Vintage Postcard & Comics!

 

How wonderful to have a distraction during the pandemic!  CHRISTMAS!   For many, this will not be a wonderful Christmas, for far too many reasons.  But, as in everything, we do the best we can with what we have.  So, here are a few Christmas distractions for you.  First, a laugh or two.

Since many/most of us are staying home for our Christmas meal, you may want some ideas for the menu.  Here is a menu, dated December 25, 1944 for dinner at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois.  H. G. Kruithoff mailed this postcard to Miss Opal Kruithoff in Sioux City, Iowa on December 26.  He checked off the items he ate on the postcard.  Notice his little checks in the first image below.  On the back of the card, in the second image below, the message states:  "Well Opal this what I had.  I took every thing and I'm so ful that I'll bust if I eat any more.  Some how the meal didn't taste has good has Moms.  What did you have?"  This is exactly as written.  

Perhaps your meal will include JELLO.  The Minneapolis StarTribune had a little snippet about Jello, copied here.  

"The base ingredient of this well-known product has been part of dessert dishes as far back as the late Middle Ages, but it was a cough syrup maker in 1897 who made it into what we know today.  Pearle Bixby Wait started mixing powdered gelatin with fruit flavors and sugar.  The result was sold to the Genesee Pure Food Co. in 1899, and within a few years, advertisements in the Ladies Home Journal and the distribution of Jell-O cookbooks as a marketing tactic set the product on its way.  The gelatinous dessert has an entire museum devoted to it in Leroy, New York, where it was created."

Following is one of the early booklets, dated 1930.  Inside it notes that Jell-O won  awards at 1) the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Mo in 1904, 2) the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, OR in 1905, 3) the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, WA in 1906, 4) the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition in Norfolk, VA in 1907, 5) the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, CA in 1915,  6) the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Diego, CA in 1915, and 7) the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia, PA in 1926.  Impressive!

More recently, in 1973, "The New Joys of Jell-O" was published.  

I hope you enjoyed this mish mash for your Christmas diversion.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL.  

TAKE CARE AND WE'LL SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, MY FRIENDS!

 So many of us are staying home this year due to Covid-19, and a number of friends aren't excited about fixing a big turkey dinner - for two people.  Not a problem here - even when we've gone elsewhere in the past, I still return home to make a turkey dinner for the two of us.  We love the leftovers! 

Following are two vintage postcards.  The first is a menu of a "Grand Dinner In Honor of Thanksgiving" featuring oyster stew, fish, turkey, sweet potatoes, crisp celery (glad to hear it wasn't wilted celery!) and for dessert, apples and pumpkin pie with coffee.   I like that the menu also includes the "Toast" - "Let Thanksgiving pleasure Be memories best treasure."  Good thought!

This card would have been published in about 1910.

Because of Covid-19, air travel is NOT advised.  Thus, the following postcard is particularly fun.  It was given to United Airlines passengers on Thanksgiving Day 1964.  Printed on the back:  "Thanksgiving Greetings from aloft...aboard a United Air Lines Mainliner, Thanksgiving Day, 1964."  It is also noted that United Air Lines was "The Airline of Sports Champions."  Who knew?!?  

For the flight, passengers were treated to shrimp cocktail, wafers, roast Vermont turkey, cornbread stuffing, giblet gravy, glazed sweet potatoes, buttered green peas, crisp roll, cranberry sauce, mayonnaise dressing, pumpkin tartelette and tea.  What a meal!  

Here is a random cartoon to follow these big meals.

Despite the many, many problems we're facing now, Thanksgiving is a good time to remember the good things we have in our lives - big and small.  A few thoughts for you to reflect on this particular Thanksgiving Day:

*  Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

*  Life is a continuous process of getting used to things we haven't expected.

*  When life gives you 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1,000 reasons to smile.

*  A positive attitude is a magnet for positive results.

*  Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

*  The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

*  The grass isn't greener over there.  It's greener where you water it.

*   Life is a bumpy road, and laughter is your best shock absorber.

HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING DAY EVERYONE.  ENJOY THE VARIETY LIFE HAS TO OFFER.   LOVE, ADINA

FOODIE FUNNIES! YIPPEE!

It's a good time to find reasons to laugh.  In keeping with the themes of cooking, gardening and collecting (or just cooking/food), here are a few comics out of our local newspaper.  Enjoy!  And all best wishes to all of you.

ARLO 'n' JANIS by JIMMY JOHNSON

W U M O MIKAEL WULFF AND ANDERS MORGENTHALE

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE by CHRIS BROWNE

ARGYLE SWEATER by SCOTT HILBURN 

RHYMES WITH ORANGE

ZITS BY JERRY SCOTT AND JIM BORGMAN

 

PICKLES by BRIAN CRANE

ARGYLE SWEATER by SCOTT HILBURN

F MINUS by Tony Carrillo

DIRTY SPONGES!!!

I just had to share this hilarious article by James Lileks from the Minnepolis StarTribune.

That smell coming from the fridge? Don’t ask   JAMES LILEKS, StarTribune, Minneapolis

Depending on the article and the quantity of alarmism the author wanted to inject, the headline either said, “Kitchen sponges have lots of bacteria” or “You’re smearing bubonic plague on your toddler’s high chair tray.”

You’re pretty sure you’re not doing that, but you check your pantry anyway to see if any packages say “This product was processed in a facility that handles milk, nuts and rats.” No? You’re good.

The news that sponges had microscopic gunk isn’t — what’s the word I’m looking for? — news. You know that when you wipe the cutting board after slicing raw chicken, the germs don’t go away just because you squeezed the sponge. “I’ll just strangle the little buggers. That’ll do it.”

No. You use antibacterial soap — which we all suspect is absolutely useless — and you run the sponge through the dishwasher before putting it in the microwave. If anything’s still living after being drowned and baked, it deserves to live. Send it to Mars, and in 25 years it will have evolved into something that stands erect and greets us when humans finally land.

I’m not worried about my sponges. I’m worried about my fridge, which smells.

Let’s back up a second. In the old days, you would take out everything and discover the source of the olfactory offender. Elderly fish. Cheese with a pelt. Milk that made you think “maybe that’s where they get stucco.” You washed the fridge, and that was that.

Now you sit down and google that problem, even if it means fridge-freshener ads will follow you around the internet for a fortnight. Autocomplete reassures you that you are not alone. Type in “Why does my fridge smell?” and you get:

Why does my fridge smell funny?

Why does my fridge smell hilarious?

Why does my fridge smell but cannot see?

Why does my fridge smell like Joe Pesci’s toupee?

Huh? Does he wear a toupee? Google that ... Wow, here are “16 little-known facts about ‘Goodfellas.’ ” Eventually you’re reading the biography of Mafia figures, and when your wife comes home and opens the fridge and makes a face, she says, “What happened?”

“Well, Paul Castellano went to Sparks Steak House without realizing that the meeting had been set up to rub him out.”

“You rubbed what on the steak? Smells like sour motor oil.”

“No, it’s not the compressor. I googled that smell already.”

Wife gets that expression that says: You spend entirely too much time by yourself, you know.

Here’s the odd thing: It wasn’t a recognizable aroma, like spoiled fowl or green meat. It smelled like some strange antiseptic chemical. Googled: “Why does the ice smell like chemicals?” You expect some poindexter to adjust his glasses and say, “Actually, ice is made of chemicals, like everything else. It’s hydrogen and oxy.... Ow, you stepped on my foot.”

“Actually, I trod on it.”

Anyway, more googling revealed that any strong smell in your fridge will eventually infect the ice, so you should either clean the inside or sell your house.

“Use hot water,” my wife said.

“Let me check Zillow first.”

The cleaning starts by putting something in the fridge that absorbs odors, like cat litter. We had none, so I got some from a neighbor. That seemed to make it worse, so I went back and asked for some fresh litter, maybe from the bag this time? Thanks.

Eventually, the odor diminished to the point where it was now either faint, or a hallucination. Family members would come home and find me standing in front of the fridge, sniffing. It’s still there. A faint, sharp tang, like a dental hygienist dipped in rubbing alcohol. “I swear it’s still there,” I’d announce.

Only one thing left to try — besides taking everything out and washing the fridge, i.e., doing something about it that might actually help.

I put the kitchen sponge in the freezer. Within a day the odor was gone. From which I can only conclude that the microbes in the sponge feasted on the peculiar aroma. Hah! Victory!

Come to think of it, the disposal smelled a bit; why not put the sponge down there and flip the switch?

Should have defrosted the sponge first. Well, we needed a new disposal anyway.

MORE FOODIE FUNNIES

Seven years ago I started this blog.   As you can tell, I only post periodically; but I didn't want this occasion to pass without sharing something with you.   So... time for more FOODIE FUNNIES!!!!
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FOODIE COMICS

I didn't read the comics until Kevin came into my life.  He is very much into humor and kept pointing out funny comics to me.  In no time I started reading the comics as well.  They are a wonderful way to start each and every day.  Of course, the comics that appeal to me the most are those that pertain to food.  Here are a few to make sure your day has a bright spot.  Enjoy!!!

TO READ COMICS THAT WERE POSTED PREVIOUSLY, CLICK ON THE "CARTOONS" TAB IN THE COLUMN ON THE RIGHT.

LEAP YEAR - LEAP DAY - FEBRUARY 29, 2016

Remember as a child learning the verse:

Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November

All the rest have 31,

Except for February.

What about February?  Well, in three out of four February’s there are 28 days, but in a Leap Year there are 29 days.  This year is a Leap Year and, accordingly, this February 29 is Leap Day.  Why is this necessary?

At the decree of Julius Caesar in 46 B.C., one day was added to the calendar in order to synchronize our calendar with the Earth’s orbit around the sun.  To simplify, the Earth takes approximately 365.25 days to orbit the sun every year.  It’s that .25 of a day that creates the need for a leap year every four years.

Like many astrological events, Leap Day has a tradition.  In Ireland and England tradition allows women to propose marriage to a man on that day.  It is questionable how this tradition came to be.  One belief is that in 5^th century Ireland St. Bridget complained to St. Patrick that women had to wait too long to be asked to marry, and St. Patrick decided that on Leap Day it should be allowed.  Another belief is that the five-year-old Queen Margaret of Scotland enacted a law setting fines for men who turned down marriage proposals from women during leap year.  Regardless of when or how this tradition came to be, it appears from a quick review of YouTube videos that this tradition continues throughout the world.  Fortunately, in our modern age, it is now okay for women to propose marriage on any day of the year.

Of course, the tradition was captured on postcards during the Postcard Era in the early 1900’s.  Here are two examples from my collection.  The first card is quite serious, a direct request for marriage.  This postcard was sent to Mr. Chas. P. Arthur, Hampton, Iowa.  The sender wrote:  "Wish I was with you or you were with me... either one would be all right.  Don't you think?  Lovingly, Alethie".

"My dear and much respected sir, I send you this your love to stir; I ask your heart not in a jest, and hope you'll grant my fond request.  I'll be your wife until you die.  And now await your prompt reply."

The postcard above was postmarked April 8, 1909, and mailed to Miss Etta Tohd (?!?), Maiden Rock, Wisconsin.

Celebrate this Leap Day by watching the delightful rom-com, "Leap Year."  Spoiler Alert:  If you haven't seen the movie, don't watch this film clip!

COOKBOOK TITLES - A CARTOON

I just had to share this with you.  Have a laugh-out-loud day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DEAR FRIENDS! VINTAGE POSTCARD.

I find many cartoons by Hilary Price in her "Rhymes With Orange" comic strip to be delightful.   Today she offered "A Thanksgiving Pie-Ku."  

     "greetings, hips and butt -
       so much pie coming your way
       sorry - it's worth it."

The perfect Thanksgiving haiku, don't you think?

To you, dear friends, this lovely vintage postcard says it all.

CUPCAKES?

Sorry that most of my posts these days are from the comic strips, but they're so funny!!!!

 

RECIPES CARTOON

A GREETING FOR THE NEW YEAR.

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL NEW YEAR MY DEAR FRIENDS.

ORGANIZING YOUR RECIPES

I have rather an extensive filing system to manage all of my recipes.  I'd be happy to tell you all about it... but more people than not use the following system:

I can't help laughing out loud (LOL!!!) every time I read this.  It was in this Sunday's comic section of the Star Tribune.  Thanks to "Rhymes with Orange" by Hilary B. Price.

HALLOWEEN PUMPKINS

Ray Villafane sculpts pumpkins.  Perhaps you've seen some of them as they arrive in your email box from friends.   Check out more of his carvings on his Facebook page.

Villafane is an American artist based in Arizona.   According to Wikipedia:  "In 2007 Villafane was contacted by High Noon Entertainment and asked to participate in the Food Network's Challenge Show for a segment called "Outrageous Pumpkins". He competed against three other professional pumpkin sculptors and won all three rounds to receive the grand prize.  The Food Network contacted Villafane again in 2009 to come back to the show and defend his title. He was also the grand prize winner for the "Outrageous Pumpkin Challenge II".  In 2011, he carved the world's biggest pumpkin to resemble zombies.  He also provided pumpkins for Heidi Klum's annual Halloween party in Sin City in 2011."

ARUGULA: A CARTOON

DIET MENU

Anyone who knows me knows that I've been collecting vintage postcards for years!  One of the categories that I collect are "menu" cards.  After indulging over the holidays, it is time for me to get going on a diet.  I pulled out this postcard to help me plan my diet meals.  Take a close look!

I think that if I follow this diet closely I should be able to lose the necessary pounds!  LOL!!!

LOVE THOSE DESSERTS!!!

Mondays can be trying with work and all, so I thought you may enjoy a little cartoon.

TODAY...A CARTOON!