THIS HAS BEEN the winter of flu-filled discontent in my house, and as a result, I’ve had innumerable requests for Jell–O. For a foodie like me, this presents quandaries. [click to continue…]
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Posts tagged as:
ladies auxiliary
from 'Seasonal Surprises', compiled by The Junior League of the Lehigh Valley
CAN YOU BELIEVE that Thanksgiving is next week? I can’t, not least because if Thanksgiving is next week, Christmas is less than six weeks away, and that’s terrifying. But rather than panic, I’m going to drown my sorrows in cookbooks––specifically, my old standbys, the Ladies’ Auxiliary collection that seems to be breeding like rabbits (or maybe turkeys) on my bookshelves. This week, in preparation for, uh, next week, it’s time to consider the cranberry. [click to continue…]
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DOES POTATO SALAD make you stand on your tippy-toes, your head, your…shoulders, and…neck and…um, other places that aren’t meant to be stood upon? We love potato salad, though maybe not quite as much as the unbelievable dancing sisters Aggie, Maggie and Elmira Ross. (Their real names were Vicki, Dixie and Betsy Ross–perfect for an Independence Day salute.) Watch the 1944 clip of the contorting triplets above and you’ll get the connection, we promise! And then, with July 4th fast approaching, join us as we dust off our vintage recipe stash for fresh takes on the ultimate summer barbecue and picnic staple: [click to continue…]
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From 'The Betty Betz Teenage Cookbook', 1953
WE HAD OUR first picnic of the summer last weekend, my family and I, thanks to an impromptu visit from a dear sister-friend. Given plenty of advance notice, I had choices to make, cookbooks to consult, menus to plan. [click to continue…]
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Meatloafs aplenty, from the 'Douglaston Cookbook'
IS THERE ANY recipe that is more representative of all-American comfort food than meatloaf? We TSP sisters think not, and apparently generations of ladies agree with us. There are so many meatloaf recipes in our ever-growing collection of recipe boxes and “ladies auxiliary” cookbooks we almost don’t know where to begin. But we’ve never let that stop us before. No matter that two of us are vegetarians–the other two are happy omnivores. We’ve braved the wilds of meatloaf history, and returned with the recipes, some scary, some appetizing, to prove it. [click to continue…]
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from "The Betty Betz Teen-Age Cookbook" (Henry Holt, 1953)
IT SEEMS THAT in every ancient recipe box or ladies’ auxilary-style sisterly cookbook I find, there’s a recipe (or several) for tuna casserole. I didn’t grow up eating it, though I do remember having it once at a friend’s house. Unlike my mother, who taught herself to cook by following along with Julia Child and seemed a bit suspicious of convenience-food casseroles, my friend’s mom, Mrs. Marsh, swore that she couldn’t cook anything without a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup. Hmmm… [click to continue…]
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I’ve always loved what we at The Sister Project refer to as “Ladies Auxiliary” cookbooks–the collections of best recipes collected, bound and sold together to raise money for worthy causes ranging from churches and charities to the Junior League. I’m not much of a joiner, so you’re unlikely to ever find me in one of these organizations–but I can sniff out their publications in a yard sale or thrift shop in a flash.
We’re going to be showing more of these forgotten treasures–as well as wonderful personal recipe collections we’ve unearthed–over the coming weeks. If cooking is a sisterhood, these lovingly compiled groups of ladies’ best recipes deserve to be remembered and retried, even if, at the end of the day, we appreciate them more for the history they contain than for their culinary gems. We hope you’ll enjoy these, and let us know of your favorite cooking and sisterhood artifacts.
HAVE YOU EVER heard of the Sisters of Pythia? I hadn’t, until encountering this lovely piece of ephemera on eBay a few months ago. The cover graphic, with its slightly ominous silhouette and an anonymous artist identified only as “HBP,” was so enticing I had to see more. [click to continue…]
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First time here? Here's the idea: 
No surprise, really, that sisterhood, often life’s longest relationship and always one of its most important, has been the Muse for so much creative self-expression by women, and also by men. 
As the suffix of its name suggests, 
