Christmas Dinner from the 1950s Housewife

 

(Photo from Click America - 1956 Christmas table setting)

Christmas Dinner 1950s Style

Note the formal table setting above. Elegant, polished, shining, and decorative. Polishing the silver was a long and tedious job, but so worthwhile! Beautiful!

Christmas Dinner Menus

Menu #1:

Oyster Cocktails in Green Pepper Shells

Celery and Ripe Olives

Roast Goose with Potato Stuffing

Apple Sauce

String Beans

Potato Puffs

Lettuce Salad with Riced (Grated) Cheese and Bar-le-Duc (currant jam)

French Dressing

Toasted Wafers

English Plum Pudding

Bonbons

Coffee

Menu #2:

Cream of Celery Soup

Cheese Sticks, Salted Peanuts, and Stuffed Green Olives

Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding

Potato Souffle

Spinach in Eggs (hard-boiled eggs filled with cooked spinach)

White-Grape Salad with Guava Jelly (peeled and de-seeded white grapes on lettuce leaves)

French Dressing

Toasted Crackers

English Plum Pudding with Hard sauce

Bonbons

Coffee

(Menus from The American Woman's Cook Book, 1950)

Christmas Cocktail Parties

(Cocktail wiener tree.)

Cocktail parties were popular in the 1950s, and the Christmas cocktail party was no exception.

Favorite drinks:

martinis

daiquiris

mint juleps

whisky sours

champagne cocktails

punch laced with alcohol

Appetizers:

Finger foods such as canapes, Vienna sausages, cocktail wieners, cheese, deviled eggs, and olives.

Sweets such as petits fours, candies, cookies, and other small desserts.

1950s Cocktail dresses:

1950s Christmas tree with lots of tinsel!

Christmas is timeless, however it's celebrated.

Dawn Pisturino

December 13, 2021

Copyright 2021 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved.

The Amazing Apple

Hooray for the all-American apple! Boiled, baked, stewed, juiced, fried, dried, or raw, apples are as American as rock-and-roll.

Eating this amazing little fruit is one of the simplest ways to improve and maintain good health at a reasonable cost.

Apples are high in fiber, which is important for eliminating toxins from the body, lowering cholesterol, and regulating blood sugar, appetite, cell growth in the colon lining, and the action of bile acids in the body.

Apples are a great source of antioxidants because they contain vitamin C and a phytonutrient called quercetin. Quercetin is a flavonoid which is currently being researched for its anti-cancer properties, especially against lung and prostate cancer.

There is only about 10 mg of vitamin C in an average apple, but when combined with the quercetin, research has shown that the effects in the body are equivalent to 1500 mg of vitamin C. Now, that's powerful stuff!

Apples have been proven to have antiviral, antiseptic, and laxative properties, contain a natural sugar called sorbitol, and a wide variety of important vitamins and minerals.

Researchers believe that regular consumption of apples can improve lung function, lower the risks of cancer, heart disease, and stroke, contribute to weight loss, and protect the brain from degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

The Washington Apple Commission recommends eating at least one apple a day in order to reap these benefits.

Cooked apples are easier to digest than raw ones. Apple juice -- especially freshly pressed -- has almost the same benefits as the whole apple.

Apples are a traditional part of the school lunch box. In the kitchen, apples combine well with other fruits and vegetables.

For free recipes and more information, go to the Washington Apple Commission website at

http://www.bestapples.com.

Dawn Pisturino, RN

February 25, 2007

Published in The Kingman Daily Miner, June 26, 2007.

Copyright 2012 Dawn Pisturino. All Rights Reserved. 

Beans: The Healthy Art of Legumes

"Beans, beans, the musical art,
The more you eat, the more you fart."

We've all laughed at that childhood rhyme, not understanding just how healthy beans are for our bodies (farting included.)

If you regularly eat aduki beans, black beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzo beans, great northerns, kidney beans, lentils, lima beans, mung beans, navy beans, peanuts, green peas, pinto beans, and soybeans, you're engaging in a good nutritional practice that provides your body with both protein and starch.

Beans (and peas) are surprisingly low in calories and fat.  They are an excellent source of complex carbohydrates and fiber.  (Good for the ol' cholesterol levels!)  Cost-wise, beans and peas are relatively inexpensive.  They have often been called "the poor person's meat," but you can't put a price on good nutrition and good health.

If you are looking for complete proteins, soybeans and peanuts come the closest.

The downside of eating legumes is the gas they produce.  Combining beans with a grain such as rice can reduce this problem.

Many beans can be sprouted, which increases the protein content by 15-30 per cent.  Most beans contain adequate amounts of iron, B vitamins, calcium, potassium, and phosphorus.

So, if you like chili with beans, get cooking!  Or serve up a mess of tofu and greens.  Baked beans sound delicious right about now.  How about a chilled dilled green pea salad?

You get the idea.

Dawn Pisturino, RN
April 19, 2010
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