Always for some of us there is a month, and a day of the month, and an hour of the day when life is sadder colored than its usual wont, when we have need to lay hold of strength that is greater than ours, and when, indeed, we enter into our closets, and shut our…
Aenisguetzli: A Traditional Swiss Christmas Cookie Recipe
Aenisguetzli, mailanderli, schweizer schenkeli, brazeli. The names of Swiss Christmas cookies don’t exactly trip off the tongues of most Americans and I doubt many have eaten them, either. I grew up very ‘Murican–through and through. It wasn’t as if my family wouldn’t have enjoyed generational traditions, it’s just that our ancestors apparently took the whole…
Simple, Old-Fashioned Christmas Gifts to Make at Home: a 1930s perspective
As homemakers, we don’t always appreciate the skills we’ve cultivated and it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. For example, I bake nearly all of our bread for several reasons, none of which have to do with being a gourmand. I like being able to control the ingredients. Since I always keep the ingredients on hand,…
A Thanksgiving Day Feast: a Menu from 1888
As the days of chill November creep along, the busy housewife ever on the alert, thinks of the coming anniversary, our national Thanksgiving; and recognizing all the causes for thankfulness enumerated in the presidential proclamation–her own heart, meanwhile, glowing with gratitude and pleasure as she thinks of the coming reunion of dear friends, remote and…