Coast to Coast Housekeeping

I found a couple of vintage cookbooks while doing some spring cleaning this week.

Recipes from oyster salad to chill pills. Literally. HOUSEKEEPING IN OLD VIRGINIA was originally published in 1879. Such a fun step back in time. For example, a coffee cake recipe calls for one "teacup" of molasses. Can't you just hear it?

"Alice, hand me that Haviland cup and the Blackstrap, please."


Another one of the books titled WEST COAST COOK BOOK happened to be written by Helen Brown, which is my mother-in-law's name.

So interesting, however she never lived in California, Oregon or Washington I don't believe. Hmmm, I'll have to verify that. She did in fact live in Hawaii, in 1941 and was a mere 6 years old when Pearl Harbor was bombed. She actually remembers the jolt and watching the nails being jarred from the walls. She remembers her mother gathering their most prized possessions (a fur coat for one) and scurrying Helen and her siblings along while her father kissed them goodbye as they were some of the first to board the boat. Amazing. Can you imagine? I'm sure the only explanation for her mother's presence of mind was the chill pill she obviously took that morning. And afternoon. And evening.

Chill Pills.

Sulph. quinine, two drachms; arsenious acid, one grain; strychnia, one grain; Prussian blue, twenty grains; powered capsicum, one drach. Mix and make sixty pills. Take one pill three times a day.  Dr. E.A.C., Housekeeping in Old Virginia, M.C. Tyree, 1879.

Class dismissed.