Then And Now # 108: See's Decorated Eggs For Easter

Here's wishing all of you a lovely Easter Sunday, and if you are very lucky, perhaps the Easter Bunny may have left you a beautifully decorated egg from See's Candies.
This advertisement from 1974 shows you what they looked like back "Then":

Yellow roses:

And pink roses:

And here's an example of one decorated with pink roses "Now":

The lovely picture above was part of an insert that came in our newspaper, along with a coupon.
 I wasn't able to make it to a See's Candies shop in order to use the coupon, unfortunately!
Have a wonderful day, everyone, - whether it includes chocolate, or not!

Then And Now #107: Bisquick

Today's post features that versatile mix known as Bisquick.
Bisquick has been around for a good, long time!
Here's an advertisement from 1937.
I love that they're using the gorgeous Franciscan dishes! I have a small collection of that set (sorry I haven't time to try and share a photo of it with you today!) - but isn't it lovely in the aqua color?

And another one, this time - we have Bisquick biscuits in a basket. (Say that real fast five times!) from 1952:

And here we have two more vintage ads; these are both from 1954.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake looks pretty good.
It was one of our Daddy's favorite cakes:

Ooohh, and here's an ad for both Bisquick and Reddi-Wip.
Yes, Strawberry Shortcake looks good, too.
I must be hungry or something.....

Next up, we have an ad from 1964.
I will take some of that rolled turkey roast AND some of those sage biscuits, please......
definitely need something to eat ..

I found this cookbook at a thrift store, and I was sure I didn't have it:

I love the artwork inside:

And the food photos aren't bad, either:

Yum:

This advertisement is from 1964, also:

To send away for the cookbook that I DID already have - this one:

 (The other edition I found just recently was published in 1967.)
I do not remember seeing the Whole Wheat Baking Mix, and I don't know what year this advertisement dates from:

But the package I have in my pantry right now touts that it is "Heart Smart",
so, I mean - that's perfect for February, right?

I also found this recipe tin at a thrift store:

(So I added to my stacks of other cute vintage recipe file boxes I've already been collecting over the years.)
I decided I needed to make a recipe out of one of those cookbooks.
So I ended up with Peach Cobbler:

Here's the recipe from the vintage Bisquick cookbooks:

And the Shortcake recipe:

It was good; we liked it!

(I added a little cinnamon to mine.)

Chocolate (Cream) Cheese Pie, A Recipe From Farm Journal

 I made this creamy, delicious chocolate dessert yesterday:

The recipe actually comes from a cookbook we grew up with,
 Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook, published in 1965:

I have Mother's copy, and the recipes in it are fabulous.
Some of our family favorites were the Frosted Apple-Raisin Pie, Crisscross Cherry Pie,
and the Best-Ever Lemon Meringue Pie, which really IS, by the way; it always got the highest bid when Mother would make one and take it to one of our 4-H Pie Socials.
Does anybody do Pie Socials any more? Our 4-H ones were fund raisers, and they were just plain, good, old-fashioned family fun. They were meant for the whole family to go, and we would bring our pies as donations, and then they were auctioned off. Maybe there was also a pot-luck dinner to enjoy; I can't recall.
But it was neat, and I miss stuff like that!
At our Gold Oak Union Elementary School Halloween carnivals, I remember also having a Cake Walk, and as I recall, working that - or participating - was fun, too.
 (I'm not sure now whether those were a 4-H Club sponsored event or if perhaps it was our 8th grade class to raise money for a class trip? Either way, they were enjoyable!)
 An array of cakes were donated by the club/class members and/or their families, and then we used a record player. There were taped out squares on the floor to walk as the music played, we'd stop the music, and then I guess we picked a number to determine the winning square? Your ticket(s) enabled you to "walk", and if you were the winner, then you got to pick whichever cake you wanted from the table. I mean, come on - how great is that?
All right, yes, I digress!
Those memories came flooding back as I was typing - so back to the topic at hand.

This is a picture of the pie from the cookbook:

And here is the recipe for the Short-Cut version:

 I didn't make the Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust this time, because I had some Cocoa Krispies in the pantry, and I found a recipe for a pie crust using Rice Krispies in an old magazine, so I decided to try that.
And then I also didn't feel like putting it in a pie plate, so I used an 8X8" Pyrex dish instead.

Here's the "crust" recipe, if you're interested:
Melt one cup of semi-sweet chocolate morsels with 1/4 cup of butter in a microwave-safe bowl for one minute or so and stir together until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth and creamy.
 Stir in 2 cups of Rice Krispies or Cocoa Krispies and press mixture into a lightly greased pie plate or square baking dish.
You could fill this crust with anything, of course; like ice cream or pudding, to create any number of refrigerated pies. It was definitely something new to me - and I really like it.
But honestly, this chocolate dream - I mean cream  (or do I?) - stuff is so delicious and so rich and decadent, I actually don't think you even need any type of crust. I think it would best be served as a wonderful sort-of Chocolate Mousse type of dessert in crystal goblets or sherbet dishes.
It's pretty fabulous. I love chocolate and I love rich things - but consider yourself warned, if you do not.
(I previously wrote about this pie back in my inaugural  "Then And Now" post, in June of 2008.
 (Click here  if you would like to go back and read that post.)
 I've also written about the Farm Journal Cookbooks more than once. Indeed I have, and for good reason.
All three of the Gold Country Girls have a collection of these fabulous vintage cookbooks, and I feel that the recipes they hold are worthy of a whole slew of posts!

Celebrating October With Brach's Candy Corn (Again)

I've already written a "Then And Now" post featuring Brach's Candy Corn, back in 2012 (click here to read it), so today I'm just doing a quick re-visit to celebrate the arrival of October.
I found another great old advertisement for Brach's Halloween candy in one of my old magazines, and I figured it was most definitely "share-worthy"!
I'm glad October is here, and it would be unusual for us to reach temperatures at or over 100 degrees this month around these parts - but not unheard of.
Me? I'm hoping for the best.
I want "HOT" to be over.
Here's a close-up of a corner of the ad:

 How cute were those little house-shaped cardboard "Paks"?
And I love the little pre-packaged cellophane bags, all ready to go for the Trick-Or-Treat set!
I'm so sorry I neglected to get the year on this ad; I tore it out of a magazine and forgot to write it down.
But I'll guarantee you that I'd have been happy to get one of those little packets when I was a little girl going door-to-door in my costume.
And here's a picture of the entire page, a colorful one featuring
"Brach's Halloween Candy For Trick Or Treat":

And then, just for fun - here's a photo of the way their candy corn package looks "Now":

In fact, I just purchased those at the grocery store this morning!
I also wrote about Brach's Candy Corn back in 2009.
Because I LIKE it - can you tell??
It's kind of fun to see how the package has changed over the years, and besides that, I showed another of the great vintage magazine advertisements in that post, so please do go back and read that post again, as well, won't you?
Happy October, everybody!
Here's hoping we all have a "Spooktacular" month!

Road Trip Stop:Tillamook Cheese Factory

Okay, so yes - our road trip was back in May.
 But I'm only just now finally getting around to writing some of the posts I wanted to share about our trip!
No more excuses, just content.
When Lori and I were not staying with family and friends, we attempted to find the least expensive lodgings available.
Some of the places reflected that fact in an unfortunate way, but we wanted cheap, and you get what you pay for.
Lesson learned.
We were delighted, however, with our accommodations at
  Surfside Oceanfront Resort in Rockaway Beach, Oregon.
I want to go back and stay there again for more than just one night. We had a family suite, which meant we each had our own bathroom, the separate bedroom had another TV, and there was a full kitchen, too. I was able to stay up late and not disturb Lori in any way. For us, that was perfect.
We were able to visit the Tillamook Cheese Factory while we were in the area.
 I took pictures of some of the large photos that were hanging up on the walls.
We had last been there in 1966! Our family took camping trips when we were growing up, and one of the longer ones {which was that summer} took us all the way up into British Columbia.
That trip included tours at not only Tillamook, but also the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater, Washington.
 (Daddy used to drink Olympia Beer. I just watched "The Graduate" last week and Benjamin Braddock was drinking it, too, in the movie!)
I didn't remember very much about the cheese factory tour we went on back then, other than huge long vats full of cheese curds, and getting a sample of their wonderful cheddar cheese at the end, which has always been my favorite.
We were only able to see their Temporary Visitor's Center, which  meant no tour this time. We still enjoyed the visit very much, and each of us made some purchases, and we also had some ice cream while we were there.
And, why not?

You have to know I could not resist a photo "op" inside this VW!

And here it is - and here I am:

Click here to read an article about what happened three years ago to their fabulous little orange VW mini buses that were being hauled with this rig:

I had to bring home one of the little mini VW orange buses - it was just too cute to pass up!
I hope to be able to go back there again after they have their Visitor's Center Grand Reopening in 2018.
And just in case you thought I was kidding about liking the cheese, this is what we happen to have in our refrigerator right now here at home:

We're cheese people, folks. Plain and simple.
I also bought a souvenir tee shirt for my husband's birthday, which was two days after we got home from our two-week trip. It was his favorite gift, so I'm glad I thought of it!

Back to the ice cream: I found the flavor Lori had tried at the grocery store when we got back home:

Yes, it IS as good as it sounds!
(The one I tried that day was Malted Moo Shake - also fabulous, by the way!)
And later at a different store, I saw this pint of frozen custard, and I had to try it, as well:

It was good, but I still mourn the fact that I can't seem to buy a peach ice cream at the supermarket like whatever we used to get when we were kids. It was probably either Safeway's Lucerne brand, or possibly Crystal.
 I think I'll have to try making homemade peach ice cream some day, and see how that turns out!
Some day... yes, but it won't be anytime soon.

More Oatmeal Cookies - And More Quaker Oats Tins

I'm back today with another post about oatmeal cookies.
Yes, I know  - You may think that I've already written everything there is to say about this subject in my previous post 
but, you see - I beg to differ, LOL!
I baked these yummy little morsels recently....

  ....  because I wanted to try yet ANOTHER recipe!

I had found some file folders in storage that I hadn't laid eyes on in years, and one of them contained recipes.
I don't believe I had ever made the Oatmeal Cookies with the Jell-O Pudding in the batter before. I had tried the Chocolate Chip cookies (many years ago) and I liked them a lot.
I added some cinnamon to the recipe, and then I froze the dough in little balls:

Then I baked them a couple of days later, as early in the day as possible, because it's so hot this summer.

The recipe did, indeed, make five dozen; I ended up with 61 cookies, in fact!

I also came across some more Quaker Oats tins that I had forgotten about.
I found this one in storage with some other tins; it's from 1984:

And the next two were tucked way back in the corner of a cupboard, and I'd forgotten they were even there.
From 1983:

And this one is from 1990:

So, now I guess I'll have to decide which ones I'm willing to part with, because we live in an old house - and there's no way that I have the space to keep five Quaker Oats tins in my cupboards!

Cookies With Quaker Oats

I love oatmeal cookies - how about you?

I got my Quaker Oats tins out of storage a while back, and now I have them in my pantry.
I wanted to use this one to store my Quaker Oats:

I have also tried a couple of new (to me) recipes for oatmeal cookies, instead of making the same ones I have always made.
(Honestly, I'm not sure why? I'm starting to wonder, and think to myself , "Stick with the tried and true, Heidi - just stick with the tried and true!".)
But I made these...

Gratuitous close-up on the batter:

"Peanut Butter Crisps" - oh, yes - now I remember; that was the reason why!
It was because I liked the idea of peanut butter being in there, since my husband also loves peanut butter cookies!

And they were good; I know we both liked them.
I have this tin, below, also.
I can use it to store oats, as well....

... or I can use it to store the cookies, themselves.
(I think I like that option better, LOL!)

I found an old magazine ad from 1992 that I had tucked away; it was to fill out the form and send away for the very same tin:

I'm sure that's what I did. I used to love sending away for things like that - I don't see any offers like that these days.
Another thing of the past, I suppose.
 I've sold or given away a lot of my old tins, but I like my Quaker Oats ones, and I wanted to keep those. 
I also decided to try this recipe recently:

(The photo seen at the top of my post shows the Oatmeal Hermits in the Bar Cookie variation.)

And I know exactly why I tried THAT recipe.
It was all about ease of preparation, and time.

Seriously, does it GET any easier than "combine all ingredients: mix well"?
 I melted the butter in the microwave in a large glass measuring pitcher, and I made the bar cookie version so I could just throw it in the oven, bake them and be done.
It was later in the evening when I made them and I didn't want to mess with drop cookies.
And they were good, too.
Just the other day, I decided to try the recipe below (also torn out of a magazine from 1992, and found with the tin offer):

I tweaked it a bit, though. I did not add nuts nor Toll House Morsels, instead I threw in about 1&1/4 cups of raisins and an extra half-cup of oatmeal, plus cinnamon and a bit of cloves.
And here's a photo of my latest batch:

But most of the time, I just make the regular old tried and true Famous Oatmeal Cookies, from the recipe on my tin:

Because I have always liked THAT recipe!
I've been making them since I was a kid.
(Oh, but I do absolutely have to add raisins, though. And some spices.)
Like I said, I just love oatmeal cookies......