Well, ladies I’m not exactly sure whether you’d call my experiment a success or not. As I said, I attempted to complete the recipes exactly as they were written in the 1950 cookbook. For added fun, I also tried not to use any labor saving appliances that a homemaker back them would not have had available. That meant grating three cups of carrots with my old box grater, chopping veggies by hand, and parboiling the peppers in a pan on top of the stove instead of steaming them in the microwave. It also meant over two hours of preparation time, and that was with my daughter’s help.

When I planned the meal, I took one dish from each category of the chart given in the cookbook, my assumption being that the writers felt these were necessary for the typical evening meal. I’m not sure if folks really ate like this, but ladies this ended up being an enormous meal! My oldest daughter, Louisa, joined us and she commented that we could have made two meals out of what I had prepared…. the bread and baked apples would have made a delightful breakfast or even lunch. The cheese casserole, stuffed peppers and veggie tray were certainly sufficient for dinner. We all left a lot of food on our plates, and I know that was not typical 1950′s manners!

The recipes themselves were very good, and I think we’ll enjoy them even more with a bit of tweaking. For example the casserole called for American cheese, next time I’ll make it with a sharp cheddar. I think the stuffed peppers would be improved with something like couscous in place of bread crumbs and perhaps the addition of some savory seasonings. I’ll replace the figs in the wheat-nut bread with apricots or maybe dried cranberries. Another surprise was that these dishes were not as heavy and starchy as I had imagined. The main ingredient in the cheese casserole was actually grated carrots, and yet it tasted very rich and satisfying. I’ll definitely be making this again soon.

I really found that the one hour of worry-free time was an immense blessing. When my children were very young this would have been such a help. For most of us with children that hour just previous to dinner can be hectic at best. Little ones are tired and hungry and a mama busy with dinner prep just doesn’t have the time and attention to spare for them as she might otherwise. Today we were able to sit together in the living room, while the house filled with wonderful smells. Table-setting was unhurried, and when it was time to eat we were all in a very good humor. I think I’ll be adding some of my own tried and true recipes to the chart so I can really make this technique my own.

So all in all… a successful days work!

In the days before microwaves and crockpots, homemakers came up with some pretty nifty ideas, I must say.

While engaging in a little recreational reading of my 1950 Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, I came upon this section titled “Oven Meals.” Included are strategies for “making the most of oven heat” and time by planning meals in which all of the components are cooked in the oven at approximately the same temperature and for the same amount of time. The busy housewife only has to prepare all of the dishes and pop them into the oven, say an hour before mealtime… then she can sit back and do something relaxing like tend to her mending while her meal “cooks quietly out of sight.” Mmmhmm….

Admittedly, for the typical new millennium gal, that’s a whole lotta work to be termed “convenient.” But for us atypical gals, who like to make as much as possible from scratch, it does look like a way to make busy-day dinners more easily workable. For example, tomorrow afternoon, Noah needs to be delivered to Daddy’s house at 2:30, Amelia will be starting a Japanese language intensive with pick-up time at 3:30 and the toddler I babysit for is arriving at about 4:30. In other words, serving a healthy homecooked meal at 5:30 is going to be a bit of a challenge.

So, I’ve decided to conduct a little experiment… tomorrow our dinner menu will be:

Golden Cheese Bake

Vegetable-stuffed Peppers

Whole Wheat Nut Bread

Raw veggie platter

and for dessert, Baked Apples with Vanilla Yogurt

Now, according to this handy-dandy chart (click on the image to see a larger readable version), I can pop these all into the oven just before my little charge arrives at 4:30, and dinner will be ready to serve when Amelia and Noah arrive home at 5:30. With the exception of the raw veggie platter and the vanilla yogurt- bows to our 2008 palate- I’m going to follow the instructions just the way they were written in 1950.

And fifty-eight years later, let’s see how dinner turns out!