I'm kind of a geek when it cones to old cookbooks and recipes. I absolutely love reading about all these old-school things that we don't really cook or eat anymore. Things like weird Jell-o molds and stuff like that. I'm not really interested in actually eating any of this...but I do like reading about it. It's amazing how food is so intricately connected to time and place, and how reading about food from a different era is almost like being in a time machine.
My friend Jane stumbled across an issue of the San Francisco News from July 25, 1941 (click the graphic for a readable version). On the front page, above the fold, was this story about a society BBQ from back in the day when "the Woodside-Atherton summer colony" was a rustic getaway for city-dwellers. Now, the entire area is a pricey part of the ginormous stretch of suburbia that stretches between San Francisco and San Jose and beyond.
Props to Mrs. Betty Downey Westphal, who managed to rock out eight turkeys with a family-secret orange, white wine, and tarragon sauce; all while keeping "fresh as a daisy." You can be certain I would not be that fresh after that much cookery. More like greasy and beer-stained.
