Food Friday: Wine Soup

Yes, you did read the title of this post correctly. Today's recipe is for wine soup. Who knew that pretty much anything could be made into a soup?

Today's recipe is from the Improvement Society of the Second Reformed Church. New Brunswick, New Jersey (1890), page 6. I just love one of the quotes found on the title page. "Bad dinners go hand in hand with total depravity, a properly fed man is already half saved." Boy, did that make those women in that congregation nervous? I can just see the gossip, "Did you see Mrs. Smith's husband, he's a heathen. Well, you know his wife can't cook."

Food Friday: American Women's ORT

From the collection of Gena Philibert-Ortega

In some cases, a community cookbook represents a much larger community that is outside the boundaries of a city or even county. In the case of A Portfolio of Cookery. From Traditional to Modern by the Women's American ORT. District XI (1975) that community includes several western states.


The introductory page of the cookbook explains "Women's American ORT is an organization dedicated to the philosophy that vocational education can give constructive direction and secure productive lives for those who receive it. This concept has been its guiding light since 1880 and, as a result, over one million men, women, boys and girls have been graduated from ORT schools." ORT is an acronym for Organization for Rehabilitation through Training. You can read more about the Women's America ORT on the Jewish Women's Archive website.

Food Friday: School Lunch

Do you have fond memories of school lunches? No, not the ones your mom made and you  brought to school in your plain brown bag or themed lunch box. I'm talking about the ones prepared by the lunch ladies and served to you on plastic-molded trays where every food item had its place.

In elementary school I rarely ate in the cafeteria. My mom prepared my lunches and though today I will admit I was lucky she did that for me, as a young child there was a certain allure to the lunch ladies' school lunch. Now in those days the lunch ladies really cooked the lunch. They didn't microwave foods and they didn't heat up the food sent to them. They cooked the lunch.

When my kids were in public school, the school lunch was quite different. The only fresh food was the salad bar. All other foods were bought prepared and  then heated except for the one day a week that the local pizza chain brought in pizza.

I knew the school lunch had gone down hill when a week before school was to go on summer break, all the food that needed to be used up was brought out. This was a child's idea of a feast since the only things they had in abundance were chocolate muffins, doughnuts, and pastries. Oh you could get something from the salad bar, but really what kid is doing that when it's an all sugar menu?

In honor of the 1940 Census, I thought I would post something found in a 1940s cookbook this week. The American Woman's Cookbook had several printings but for those purchasing it during the World War II years you could get The Victory Binding of the American Women's Cookbook, Wartime Edition. Edited by Ruth Berolzheimer.  This edition included "victory substitutes and economical recipes for delicious wartime meals." Being a Wartime Edition, very fittingly it was dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur.

This cookbook also includes menu suggestions. One set of suggestions involves the school lunch. Why not celebrate the 1940 census in a big way and pack one of these lunches for your children or grandchildren?