Retro Recipe Friday!

Some of you may already be aware that I am a collector of vintage cookbooks. I have a lovely collection with cookbooks dating back all the way from 1912! It’s fascinating to read about all the ingredients and methods that were used during different times; and the cookbooks that came out around the great depression talking about rationing and substitutions are captivating. They are truly a wonderful piece of history, and I cherish each and every one of them.

So, with that being said, I thought it would be a lot of fun to try a different recipe each week from one of my vintage cookbooks! And with that, voila! Retro Recipe Friday was born! I know some will be delicious, and others maybe not so much, but it’s going to be so much fun cooking these old recipes. I hope that you will enjoy this as much as I do!

So with that, let’s begin!

This weeks recipe came from Betty Crocker’s Hostess Cookbook. This cookbook not only has lovely recipes but serves as a handbook for any hostess. It was published in 1967.

Cover

Contents

One of my favorites from the book, all made of fruit and veggies! If only I were more artistic…

So here it is, the first recipe for Retro Recipe Friday!

This Weeks Menu 1/4 – 1/10

Sunday 1/4 – Breaded Pork Chops w/ Carrots & Green Beans

Monday 1/5 – Pan Fried Trout w/ Sauteed Squash, Zucchini, & Onions

Tuesday 1/6 – Chili Lime Tilapia w/ Asparagus

Wednesday 1/7 – Lemon Rosemary Salmon w/ Steamed Winter Vegetables

Thursday 1/8 – Rosemary Garlic Roast Leg of Lamb w/ Red Potatoes

Friday 1/9 – Grilled Tilapia w/ lemon butter & capers w/ asparagus

Saturday 1/10 – Olive Oil Poached Salmon & Artichoke w/ Lemon, Garlic, Mayo Dipping Sauce

Please feel free to reach me through the contact page or email me at theretrohousewifelife@gmail.com for any of these recipes 🙂

Blue Apron – Review & 2 Free Meals For Readers!

Imagine a world where you had someone to put together your meal plan, recipes, and even go grocery shopping for you, and at the end deliver it all to your front doorstep.  Sounds like a fantasy right?

Blue Apron has turned that fantasy into a reality!

As a busy mother and housemaker, Blue Apron is a Godsend.  I sit down every Sunday and plan my meals for the week as well as prepare my grocery list.  Sometimes it takes me almost an hour to try to figure out what to make, I hate to make the same dishes all the time, and recipes that I find online can be hit or miss.  Blue Apron takes all that stress away!  All you have to do is set your dietary preferences, and they do the rest for you.  The meals sent to you are designed and tested by professional chefs, and all the ingredients you need are sent to you, already measured out.  All ingredients sent to you are top quality and from local suppliers, they are also delivered in a refrigerated box so you don’t have to worry about being home exactly when the box arrives.  Along with all these great benefits, Blue Apron allows me to cook something new and different.  I’m able to try something I likely wouldn’t have, that way we aren’t eating the same meals over and over again.  That definitely gets boring!

You are able to have a healthy, home cooked meal, minus all the stress, in about 40 minutes or less!

The first meal I cooked was the Chicken & Chestnut Pasta.  Here’s a copy of the recipe card:

With all the ingredients included in this dish, I was very curious to see how it was going to turn out.  It was delicious!  The chestnuts gave it a wonderful nutty flavor and crunch, and it was really full of flavor.

Next I made the braised moroccan-style salmon & greens.  Here’s the recipe card:

 

As I’ve mentioned before, we eat a TON of fish at our house, so I was really excited to try this!  The citrus flavor and vegetable were absolutely delicious.  This one is definitely going into my rotation.

The third meal I made was acorn squash tempura tacos w/ smoked spanish paprika-lime sauce. Recipe Card:

I was very nervous to prepare this as we don’t ever have meatless dinners in our home.  But after trying it, I couldn’t believe how much “meatiness” the squash provided.  You really didn’t miss the protein as this was very filling.  The combination of spices was wonderful, and I will definitely be sharing this recipe with my vegetarian friends.

Blue Apron is great, and I highly recommend their service.  The food is delicious and easy to make, and they truly relieve any stresses that come along with making dinner.

The first 50 Retro Housewife Life readers can click here for two free meals from Blue Apron!  I hope that you will enjoy cooking with them as much as I have.

 

* Disclaimer: I received one free box for this review.

Hello Fresh – Review & Discount Code!

I love to cook.  I love trying new foods, learning about new ingredients, and best of all, seeing the smiles on my family’s faces as the enjoy the delicious meal I’ve just cooked for them.  Unfortunately, creating gourmet meals at home is incredibly time consuming and expensive.  You have to find the right recipe, get the sometimes impossible to find ingredients, make sure you get the freshest meats and produce, etc.  It can be a lot of work to put a great meal on the table!

Until now.

Hello Fresh makes putting a delicious meal on the table as easy as opening a box and following directions.  I’m able to have the freshest ingredients along with an easy to follow, step-by-step recipe delivered right to my doorstep!  Hello Fresh, where have you been all my life?

Hello Fresh is a weekly meal delivery service that you can have as often or not as you’d like.  It’s so simple, you go online and fill out your profile including dietary preferences, select how often you’d like your deliveries, and wait for that lovely box to arrive to your home.  That’s it!  No more meal planning or walking up and down the aisles at the grocery store trying to find what you need.  Hello Fresh delivers it all right to you, and the ingredients are even already portioned out for you!  The box is also insulated and full of ice packs, so if you’re not home right when the box arrives you don’t have to worry about ingredients spoiling.

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to try out my very own HelloFresh box at home!

The first meal I made was the Creamy Penne w/ Chicken & Sun-Dired Tomatoes.  Here is the recipe card:

As you can see it lists all of the necessary ingredients, all of which were included in the box except for the olive oil.  I love that it also gives you the nutritional information!  On the backside of the card they give you step by step directions including pictures.  I promise you, even the most novice of cooks can follow the directions and end up with a delicious meal for your family.  The pasta was delicious!  It was very rich and flavorful, the kids kept stealing it off of our plates!

Next was the Caramelized Onion Shepherd’s Pie.  Here’s the recipe card:

I have to tell you I was very nervous about making this one.  My husband grew up eating Shepherd’s Pie, and his mother is an excellent cook.  I’ve never even tried to make it just for that reason, so I was really hoping that this would compare.  It ended up being a huge success, and he even asked that I start making it using this exact recipe!  Thank you Hello Fresh 🙂

The third meal I made was the Mustard Crusted Trout.  We eat a lot of fish in our house, so I was really excited to try a new fish recipe.  Here’s the recipe card:

Absolutely delicious!  The trout was very good quality and the flavors were excellent.  I will definitely be repeating this recipe again in the future.

 

With Hello Fresh, you are getting the “best of the best” ingredients.  Everything is local and farm fresh, and they even have an in-house dietician that approves all the meals.  Having professional chef’s design your meals also means you get to learn about new ingredients, as well cook new things you wouldn’t usually make at home.  As a housewife, it really helps relieve the stress of finding recipes, menu planning, and grocery shopping.  Sometimes I feel like I’m at the grocery store half the day by the time I’m done, so I’ll definitely be using Hello Fresh again.

Hello Fresh and myself want all the readers of The Retro Housewife Life to try their amazing service too… so they are offering 25% off your first order!  Use the code HELLORETRO at checkout.

 

* Disclaimer: I was given one free box from HelloFresh for this review.

Lemon Dill Poached Salmon Fettucine

In our house, we eat a lot of fish, so I am always looking for new recipes and ways to prepare it. There is this fabulous little Italian restaurant we go to for lunch once a week, and they have the most amazing poached salmon there. It’s what we both get every single time we go! I love how poached salmon tastes, it really helps it to retain flavor and not dry out. Now I of course was not going to attempt to make the same recipe as they serve at the restaurant, but I wanted to make something similar. Here is the recipe I used and it turned out wonderful!

Lemon Dill Poached Salmon Fettuccine

• 2 salmon fillets
• 2 servings fettuccine
• 1 1/2 cups dry white wine
• 1 cup water
• 3 lemon slices
• 5 sprigs fresh dill
• 5 sprigs fresh parsley
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 3 tbl butter
• 2 tbl olive oil
• salt & pepper
• thyme, dill, lemon zest for garnish

Cook fettuccine as instructed. When finished, drain well and toss immediately with butter and olive oil.

Combine dry white wine, water, lemon slices, sprigs of fresh dill, springs of fresh parsley, fresh bay leaves, butter, olive oil, and plenty of black pepper and salt to taste. Bring this combination to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat to a simmer, then add salmon fillets. Cover and cook for about 7 minutes or until salmon is just done. Remove salmon and let cool, then break into large pieces. Add the salmon to the fettuccine, and garnish with thyme, dill, and lemon zest.

Try to have the salmon and fettuccine finish around the same time, that way you can serve it warm.

Enjoy!

KitchenAid Mixer … I love you.

As a self-proclaimed retro housewife, mother/step-mother to three little ones, and wife to a very busy (and hungry!) man, I find that the majority of my day is spent in the kitchen.  I truly love cooking, I enjoy every aspect of it, and since becoming a homemaker the one thing I enjoy most is making as much as possible from scratch.

Growing up, my family was definitely not traditional.  My dad was retired and stayed at home to take care of me and my mother worked what sometimes seemed like 7 days a week.  My dad did all of the cooking and cleaning, taking care of me, etc., and my mother was there for me to help me with sports and academics.  A little backwards, no?  Because we were so busy, most meals were things that could be easily thrown in the oven and done in 20 min.  Chicken nuggets, fries, fish sticks, and the occasional spaghetti were dinnertime regulars.  As the youngest of 4 girls, I think my parents were just flat out exhausted and took advantage of modern conveniences.

I remember staying up in the evening watching shows like Leave it to Beaver and Bewitched on Nick at Nite.  The idea of a housewife tending to the home and children and the father walking through the door everyday at 5pm with his suit, hat, and briefcase sitting down to a delicious meal was so foreign to me.  I was beyond intrigued.

If you were to look at my Amazon WishList, you would see it mostly consists of kitchen items, primarily KitchenAid Mixer attachments.  I own the basics, the whisk, dough hook, and paddle mixer, and I also have the book “The Mixer Bible”, but can you imagine what I could do with all the amazing attachments they offer?!  From the ice cream maker to the pasta attachments, and the fruit and vegetable grinder to the sausage stuffer, I’ve pretty much got them all on my list.  For a person like myself who so much enjoys making food from scratch, can you even imagine the possibilities?!  My mind gets lost in a dreamworld thinking about it.

So, what exactly what I make you ask?  Well, let me tell you.  This would be the meal of all meals.

I’d start off by using the food grinder and sausage stuffer and make delicious cheddar jalapeno sausage served with spinach and chopped tomato salad.  The spiciness and sausage made from scratch!  Oh my goodness my mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Next I would use my pasta roller and ravioli maker attachments to again, make from scratch, a mouthwatering butternut squash ravioli.  The delicateness of the ravioli and mixture of herbs, spices, squash, and cheeses would literally melt in your mouth.  Yes, I promise you it would be that good!  Alongside that I would serve an amazing French Baguette with a recipe that actually takes 2 days to make!  The fluffiness of the bread served warm so the butter slightly melts when you spread it on… ah!  Heavenly.  Now we get to my favorite part of any meal, dessert!  I would make a plethora of sweets, something to appeal to everyone’s tastes buds.  I’d use my ice cream maker attachment to make Dulce de Leche ice cream.  Who doesn’t love that?!  I’d also make a strawberries and cream dessert that is so light and fluffy and sweet, and is topped with fresh strawberries.  And you of course can’t leave out a classic, meringues!  They are so quick and easy to make with your KitchenAid mixer.  And for all my chocolate lovers, including myself, a triple chocolate cake, three layers of three different types of chocolate.  On the side serve some of that freshly made Dulce de Leche ice cream and you are sure to go into a sugar coma!

That meal would truly satisfy every food craving I could possibly have.  It’s amazing how many possibilities you have with a KitchenAid mixer, especially with all the attachments they offer!

So tell me, what are your favorite things to make using your mixer?  What are the dream items you would love to make using their attachments?

 

Sweeten Up Your Weekend

 

Sweeten up your weekend with some delicious chocolate chip cookies!  Not only do they taste great, but children love to help make them!  Enjoy!

 

Ingredients

 

1/2 lb unsalted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

3 cups baking flour

1/2 tbl salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 16 oz bag chocolate chips

 

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
• Using your mixer, combine butter, both sugars, and eggs. 
• Put mixer speed to low and add flour, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. Mix until well combined. 
• Use a large cookie scoop and scoop dough onto a lined baking sheet. You want your dough balls to be approx 2 inches apart. 
• Cook for approx 20 min or until lightly browned. Transfer to wire rack to cool. 

 

Edited with BlogPad Pro

The Downfall of Dinner

Dinner use to be almost like an event. The whole family gathers together around a beautifully set table, dinner fresh out of the oven sizzling with heat in elegant serving dishes, the aroma filling the air bringing a smile to everyone’s face and causing mouths to water and tummies to growl with anticipation. The father sits at the head of the table, smiling at his lovely wife, admiring her for cooking such a wonderful meal, then turning to his children, feeling so proud of all they do. They bow their heads as their father says grace, then begin to eat the amazing meal in front of them. They discuss their day, discuss current news events, and enjoy spending time together as a family.

They are brought together by this meal. They bond and share because of this meal. They spend time together uninterrupted because of this meal. One meal can mean and do so much.

And now it seems that is lost. How many families do you know that sit down together at the dining table to eat a home cooked meal? How many families have a meal without their cell phones next to their plates or the tv on? It seems hardly any. The wonders of dinner are lost.

One thing that has contributed to this is technology. As a society, we are consumed by it. We can’t have our cell phones more than a foot away from us, or a tv on because we can’t bare to miss our favorite shows. Or an ipad to keep the little ones occupied. Technology has taken over our lives and ruined family meals.

Another thing is the increased amount of women working outside the home. Mothers are working 40+ hour weeks and still trying to manage their homes and families. The last thing they want to do is go home after work and picking up the kids and try to figure out a delicious meal to make from scratch. It’s much easier to stop at a drive thru or heat something in the microwave. By the time these women get home all they want to do is relax, and I can’t say that I blame them.

So, what do we do about this?  How do we bring back the sacred family dinner?

Meal Planning

If meals are planned ahead of time, it is possible to make a delicious meal even if you are a working mother.  We have so many resources to find quick and easy or gourmet meals to prepare for our families.  Whether you use pinterest, allrecipes.com, or just a google search you can find just about anything!  I would suggest that working mothers plan their meals for the entire week.  It will help eliminate stress and also make it easy to prepare a grocery list for the week.  If you are fortunate enough to be a housewife or stay at home mom, you can plan as late as the night before.  I go to the grocery store everyday for fresh ingredients, so planning my meals the night before works very well.  I think a lot of it is just figuring out what works best for you and your situation.

Along with meal planning, you can also make a lot of food ahead.  My sister and her friend do this and it seems to work very well for them.  They prepare several meals ahead of time and keep them in the freezer.  They then just need to be defrosted and heated up, cooked, or put in the crock pot.  Speaking of crock pots, crock pot meals are great!  You can make many wonderful meals using the crock pot, put your ingredients in the crock pot in the morning and everything is ready by dinner time.  I love making my pot roast in my crock pot, the delicious aroma filling the whole house!  When my family gets home they can’t wait to eat dinner!

Turn Off Electronics

Family dinner should be just that, focus on family.  TV’s and cell phones should not be present at the table.  All distractions should be turned off or put away.  Having some nice music playing in the background is nice, but that should be the only thing on.  Outside of spending this time eating it is a time for sharing and enjoying time together.  It’s not a time for updating a Facebook status or checking twitter.  It’s important to show your children how important this time is together.

At the end of the day, it’s about making the effort, making this a priority, realizing how important this meal is together.  Taking the easy road out doesn’t benefit anyone.  Fast food is bad for your health and that precious time together is lost.  I challenge you this week to bring your family together for dinner if you don’t already!

John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.

 

My Unpopular Opinions

 

Not everyone agrees with my views. In fact, most people don’t. I consider myself to be in the small percentage of women today that love being a true woman. I am proud to be a homemaker, I love it, and there’s no other job I’d rather do. I love taking care of my family. I enjoy cleaning and organizing, cooking, arts & crafts, decorating, etc.  I also love fitness, I hike, run, do yoga, and even ballet. I am a shopping addict and love to incorporate a retro housewife style into my everyday wardrobe.

I realize homemaking is not for everyone. There are some women that would be truly miserable doing this job, and that’s fine. Some women aren’t able to because of financial reasons, I understand that and obviously you must support your family first.  You have to so what works best for you and your family.  However, I believe that the art of homemaking is being lost more and more through the generations, and I hope there are enough of us out there to keep it alive!  I do believe that God created women for this role in particular.  It’s natural for a woman to nurture and love.  Our hands are small and petite to be able to sew and clean even the smallest of areas.

I also believe that a wife should submit to her husband.

Ephesians 5:22-24

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

1 Peter 3:1-7

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands

Titus 2:5

To be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

I think that his belief if mine is probably one of the least popular among women today.  The thought of submitting to your husband makes most women cringe.  When on earth did we become so proud?  I think of it like this, a woman has no problem submitting to her boss at work.  He tells her what to do and she doesn’t think twice about doing it.  She shows her boss respect, doesn’t talk back or down, doesn’t nag, etc.  Doesn’t question his authority.  Why?  Because if she did so she would lose her job.  But what about at home?  Many wives have no problem doing the exact opposite to their own husbands.  They nag, talk down, and disrespect over and over again.  Why?  Do they not fear losing their marriage like they do their job?  When did a boss at work deserve to be treated better than the man you married?  The man you chose to spend the rest of your life with!

As women, we can show our love and devotion to God by treating submitting to our husbands as we do to the Lord.  Is it easy?  Most definitely not.  None of us our perfect.  There are times when I lose my cool, talk back, storm off, etc., and I always end up regretting it about two seconds later.  I think to myself, how could I have behaved like that?  How could I have spoke to the man I love so much in that way?

Now trust me, I wasn’t always this way.  I didn’t always believe this.  A few years ago I was one of those women laughing and looking down at the thought of being a submissive housewife.  For those of you that are ready to change, get a fresh start, and improve your life, here are a few books I highly recommend that talk about this type of lifestyle.

The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan

Found here on Amazon

The Surrendered Wife by Laura Doyle

Found here on Amazon

Fascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin

Found here on Amazon

The Good Wife’s Guide by Darlene Schacht

Found here on Amazon

I’m so glad that you have found my blog!  I will be posting often about homemaking, cooking, and everyday life.