Monthly Feature
Lyndi knows what it’s like living without certain foods due to allergies, sensitivities and conscience.

We are in a nostalgic time of year. Acorns have fallen. Hickory nuts are begging to drop. Leaves swirling. Savory soups. Heavenly cinnamon-baked goodies baking in the oven with their beckoning scent wafting in the air.

Are you ever sentimental about certain foods? We are tied to our pasts. Foods have strong connections for us.

As a child, I remember my mother having a stack of vintage cooking pamphlets. Only, they weren’t vintage then. They were just “old.” They came in all types of topics: cooking with aluminum foil, cooking with Diamond almonds, oh, and yes, many of ours had covers that boasted gelatin molds of various concoctions: fruits, meats, and vegetables. Others were filled with page after page of margarine, shortening and ingredients unknown to me with recipes with otherworldly names such as bone marrow on toast.

Vintage cooking pamphlets provide a culinary stroll down memory lane.

As the air turns to crisp and ovens are heating up around the country, now is the time to pull out and dust off your own vintage cooking pamphlets. Raid your mothers or grandmothers cabinets. Not finding any? Do what I do and search out a local used bookstore. Head to the cookbook section and look around. I guarantee you will find them. They’re inexpensive, too. Mine are a quarter each.

Not all have strange and unheard of ingredients. Not all have shortening-laded ingredients. Many of these gems have wonderful comfort foods and forgotten dishes that have fallen out of style.

Here’s an example. This recipe book comes from Chiquita Banana and it is filled to the brim with recipes featuring the humble banana. It was a revelation!

BAKED BANANAS
Serves: 4
Source: United Fruit Company, 1947

Ingredients
4 firm bananas (use all-yellow or slightly green-tipped bananas)
1 ½ tablespoons melted butter (or margarine)
Salt

Instructions
Peel bananas. Place into well-greased baking dish. Brush well with butter or margarine and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees) 15 to 18 minutes, or until bananas are tender… easily pierced with a fork. Serve hot as a vegetable, or as a dessert with cream, syrup or a hot fruit sauce. Important: When browning is desired, place the baked bananas under broiler heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

See what I mean?

Serve hot as a vegetable? Would you have thought of that? Me? No way. And that is exactly why I am obsessed with vintage cooking pamphlets and their unexpected offerings.

These days as you browse blogs, subscribe to newsletters and purchase the latest cookbooks, are you finding the same recipes repeated again and again? That’s one of the joys of these little inexpensive gems. They are a breath of fresh air.

Try something new by going with the old.

Happy Eating!

Lyndi

Please check out Lyndi’s popular food blog NWA Foodie!