Love and Olive Oil

Clips & Quips: Near and Dear

Grandma's Old Cookbooks

I recently acquired a few of my late-grandmother’s cookbooks (they go perfectly with the priceless box of her handwritten recipes) including a well-used copy of the Joy of Cooking (something every cook should have in their kitchen), and a decades-old Mastering the Art of French Cooking, its dust jacket just barely holding on. But my favorite of the bunch is the International Jewish Cookbook, complete with its masking-taped cover and torn pages. From what I can determine (it’s missing the title page) the book was printed in 1918, well before recipes were structured as they are today. Rather, the recipes in this book are listed in paragraph form. It’s amazing, and I can’t wait to try some of them for myself.

Here’s an excerpt from the introduction:
“The author and compiler… is a household efficiency woman, an expert Jewish cook, and thoroughly understands the scientific combining of foods. She knows the housewife’s problems through years of personal experience, and also knows how to economize.”

I might just start calling myself a household efficiency woman from now on. Well, in-efficiency woman would probably be more accurate in my case (ha!)

(Related: does anyone know of any book repair services in Nashville? I’d love to preserve these so I can actually use them, but they are in a very fragile state.)

Taylor and I are headed to Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, meeting my family there and staying in the apartment my grandparents have owned for decades. I’m excited, but it’s also the first time I’ll be staying in the apartment there without my grandma there too, and that’s going to be a bit hard to get used to. It’s also the first year since we moved to Nashville in 2007 that we’ve traveled for the holiday (Thanksgiving travel is stressful, we avoid it if we can). I’ve been put in charge of the potatoes and the cranberries (check and check), while Taylor is the gravy and dressing man. Are we capable of cooking an entire Thanksgiving feast in that tiny little apartment kitchen? Wish us luck…

Looking for some last-minute Thanksgiving inspiration of your own? Lucky for you I’ve taken it upon myself to document every single thing we’ve ever cooked in the 8 years we’ve had this blog (what good is having a food blog anyway if not for that?) Hop over to the Thanksgiving recipe archives and start your stomach growling.

Gorgeous Nashville Sunset

The other day we were working away when all of a sudden the light started to change color, the room seemed to practically glow in golden orange, gradually deepening to blood red as the sun continued to set. It was apocalypse-level creepy, until we peered out the window and saw what could be described as the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever seen. The sky looked like something straight out of an impressionist painting.

It’s nice to know that in this world of darkness and destruction, there is still so much beauty to be found.

And this is why I can never make the bed.

Rule #82 of cat ownership: Let sleeping cats lie. Even if it means your bed goes unmade for weeks on end.

Rule #83, of course, is making sure that your sheets match your cats. It’s a good thing that we don’t have any orange tabbies, as I’m not sure I could stomach orange sheets.

If you remember from our last Clips & Quips I mentioned having to move out of our home temporarily as our floors need to be fixed due to water damage. Would it surprise you to know we’re still waiting? It’ll be February before anything happens at this rate. Don’t you love insurance bureaucracy?

Anyway.

Around the web…

I’m so proud of my husband Taylor who just released his first sewing pattern. The Desmond rolltop backback (named after our cat, of course) features a snazzy rolltop and a zip front pocket. He’s been making clothes and jeans and bags for the past 5 years or so, documenting it all on his blog. The pattern is his first, and its success so far definitely has him planning for a follow up pattern next year (a messenger bag, perhaps?)

My love for TsumTsum would be be complete without these socks. Adorable.

Speaking of socks… am I horrible for wanting every single one of these? Crazy socks are the best.

Have you seen these new enhanced business cards? What a cool idea (basically a chip embedded in the card is ‘scannable’ by any smart phone. (BTW, I adore Moo, and I know you will too. Place your order using my referral link and get 10% off your first order!)

The ampersand addict in me must have this t-shirt.

The sugar addict in me has already ordered a pair of these amazing leggings, designed by the one and only Cakespy. Also: more cute socks!

(It should be clear by now I have a serious sock problem).

I’ve never been a wallpaper fan, but I’d change my tune if it meant we could use this delightfully design-y wallpaper. Now I just need to figure out which wall in our house could pull off such a dramatic look.

Double frosted cake. Why isn’t this more of a thing? In my opinion ALL cakes should be double frosted.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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3 Comments

  1. Love your ramblings!
    and CATS! Gotta LOVE CATS!!!! I have two cats too, and they’re both ginger kitties. 

  2. Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It actually was a
    entertainment account it. Look complex to far delivered agreeable from
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  3. I don’t know of anyone in Nashville, but here in Boston, there’s a vintage cookbook store called Farm and Fable. The proprietor may have ideas!

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