Every year the Newberry Library, located in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, hosts a 3-day book sale. Now, this is not like any other book sale you have ever been to-- it involves 100,000 books and hundreds of people lining up hours before the sale opens to the public.
[Left: A Feature on Christmas Lingerie (seems a little scandalous for the '50s! and Right: "A U.S. Capitalist Has Fun in Moscow".]
This Thursday I was roughly 101st in that line, I'd opted to go right before it opened on the first day rather than 'camping out' like some of the other more manic bibliophiles ahead of me. I'd been to the sale twice before, each time vowing not to go back the following year, but the lure of vintage cookbooks and cheap novels keeps me coming back.
After the doors opened at noon, I managed to make it to the near-empty room that housed the art/photography/'collectible' books. I speculated that the majority of the people opted to go the opposite route, to start first in fiction or the history sections which left me enough time to leisurely pick out a few vintage cookbooks and pamphlets as well as the find of the day, a stack of 1950s magazines (Life, Saturday Evening Post, McCalls) that had been shoved under a table, completely ignored by the other shoppers. Each magazine cost only 50 cents and while they're in rather rough shape, I adore old advertising and the graphic design/lettering/illustrations of the time period.
When I arrived in the fiction section it was utter pandemonium-- imagine dozens of people, shuffling slowly forward, eyes scanning rows upon rows of books with only inches of space constituting an aisle-- so I scooped up three movie star biographies (Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Judy Garland) and admitted defeat. There is no way I can spend more than an hour in there, you start getting a little manic and are on this odd adrenaline rush after it's all over
Of course the worst part is getting all of my purchases home, I lugged 20-pounds' worth of books on to the bus and was that person who put their carrier bags on the seat next to them (which the CTA advises against, heh).
Eventually I'll scan the covers and pages from the magazines but for now you'll have to deal with some low-grade photographs.
Highlights from this 1955 little cooking booklet include Three-Men-in-a-Tub Salad (cataloupes, canned pineapple chunks, cream cheese, salad dressing), Rodeo Stuffed Frankfurters (hot dogs wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cheddar cheese), Creamed Chicken in Potato Cups and Chinatown Chop Suey (the recipe asks for MSG, ew). Am I the only one that has no idea what constitutes 'chop suey'? It seems like a 1950s idea of what a Chinese/Chinese American dish would be... this recipe calls for pork, beef AND veal to be cooked with cauliflower and celery with a sauce made from soy sauce, molasses, cornstarch and MSG. Of course this is served over 'boiled' rice. It seems that in the 1950s soy sauce and/or MSG= 'Asian' dish. If you add tinned pineapple tidbits it becomes 'Hawaiian'!
I have dozens of these recipe pamphlets, a lot of them were issued by companies/organizations related to the product, much like our Power of Cheese/Got Milk campaigns. If you're bored with your usual ways of preparing meat, you could try making a fruited meat roll (I kid you not) or some heart goulash (made with 1 cup chopped cooked heart-- did not specify which animal). You could also stuff the heart, made it in a 'casserole Italienne' or go sweet & sour.
The shrimp & bbq recipes are much more tame though they do involve CANNED shrimp, do we even can shrimp nowadays?
Can you spot the Pyrex primary color refrigerator dish set residing happily on the bottom two shelves?
Um, this is rather amazing... I have no idea how this works, it appears that you could customize your fridge by switching out panels of fabric? Has anyone seen one of these in person???
YAY, meats in a can!!! Now, unlike a majority of the public I DO eat Spam (having grown up in Hawa'ii). I do, however, dispute the idea of this being a 'healthful' meal idea.
Is it sad that I'm kind of wanting some of that purple-coloured Kool-aid right now?