Vintage Appetizer Recipes

Skimming through a 1938 Better Homes & Gardens Magazine, I found some fun recipes for parties and snacks. These might be a bit late for the holidays, but there is always the Superbowl!

Cheese Puffs

Blend one 8-ounce package pimento cheese with 1 well beaten egg; Season to taste. Toast fancy shaped pieces of bread on one side. Spread other side with bread and cheese mix. Broil until brown and puffed. Makes 35.

Pastry Snails

sift 3/4 cup flower with 1/8 teaspoon salt; Cut in 1/4 shortening; add 2 tablespoons cold water to make stiff dough. Roll very thin in oblong shape. Spread with 3-1/4 oz can deviled ham and roll like jelly roll. Chill thoroughly. Slice thin; bake in hot oven (400 degrees) 15 minutes. Serve hot or cold. Makes 36.

Vintage Recipes: Lyd's Bread Pudding and Sauce

Back to the estate shoebox for this vintage recipe for one of my favorite comfort foods. Bread pudding! I'm not certain who Lyd was, but this version of the pudding is good, but I did add a bit of cinnamon to mine. For those of you watching your wasteline, 1/12 of the yield of pudding and sauce is about 220 calories.

Lyd's Bread Pudding


12 slices Hard Bread
½ cup hot water
2 eggs
3 tbs sugar
1 cup warm milk
1 cup raisins
1 tsp vanilla

1. Break up bread and pour hot water over it
2. Mix together remaining ingreadients and then add wet bread
3. you may wish to use cooking spray on dish, then add mixture to dish and bake at 350° for about 1 hour or until brown.

Servings: 12

Lyd's Bread Pudding Sauce

2 cups boiling water
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Mix together sugar and corn starch then gradually add mixture to boiling water while stirring constantly
2. Remove from heat right away as it will thicken quickly.
3. Add butter and vanilla and mix thoroughly
4. Pour sauce over individual servings of bread pudding

Servings: 12

Vintage "Baked Dish" Recipes

These two vintage casserole recipes were simply labeled "Baked Dish." Both were handwritten on a 3"x5" card and sound like good old fashioned home cooking.

Beef & Beans Baked Dish

1 can kidney beans
3 Small potatoes
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion
1 can tomato soup
1 dash pepper
1 dash salt

1. Fry ground beef
2. Chop onion finely
3. Dice potatos
4. Mix all ingredients except soup together and pour into casserole dish
5. Pour soup over top, cover, and bake for 1-3/4 hours at 350 degrees

Servings: 6
Cooking time: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Beefy Baked Dish

2 cans cream of mushroom soup
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion
1 small can peas
4 small sliced potatoes

1. Dice onion and fry with ground beef
2. Peel & slice potatoes
3. Drain meat and mix all ingredients together and bake at 350 for 1-1/2 hours

Servings: 6
Cooking time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Vintage Candy Recipes

It's getting close to the holidays, so I thought I would post some of the vintage candy recipes from the now infamous, at least in my family, shoe box of recipes.

Both recipes were found in the shoe box, hand written on a single piece of yellowed paper.

Chocolate Coconut Drops

2 squares (1 oz each) Unsweetened Chocolate

1 15 oz Can Sweetened condensed milk

2 cups flaked coconut (about 1/2 pound)

½ cup chopped walnuts


1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt chocolate in sauce pan on low heat
3. Remove from heat and stir in remainining ingredients.
4. Drop mixture by teaspoonfuls on greased baking sheet
5. Turn off oven heat and place sheet of candy in oven.
6. Leave in oven for about 15 minutes or until candy has glazed appearance
7. While warm, remove candy from baking sheet.

Servings: 48



Old Fashioned Fudge


2 cups sugar

2/3 cup milk

2 squares unsweetened chocolate

2 tbs corn syrup

¼ tsp salt

2 tbs butter or margarine

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup chopped walnuts


1. Butter 9"x5"x3" loaf pan
2. Combine sugar, milk, chocolate, corn syrup, & salt in a 2 quart sauce pan
3. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until sugar is melted and chocolate is dissolved
4. Cook stirring occasionally until candy thermometer reads 234 degrees.
5. Remove from heat and add butter.
6. Cool to 120 degrees without stirring then add vanilla
7. Beat steady & continuous for 5-10 minutes with wooden spoon until candy is thick and no longer glossy
8. Quickly stir in nuts and spread mixture evenly in greased pan.
9. Cool until firm and cut into 1" squares.

Servings: 32

Vintage Recipes - Lemon Cherry Treats

Baking is not my best skill, but I've had a request for a vintage cookie recipe. I decided to look for something easy, but different. I've found the following vintage recipe in the 1962 book, The Art of Making Good Cookies, Plain and Fancy. The original recipe called for raisins, but I've altered it slightly with dried cherries.

Lemon Cherry Treats
Yield: 4 dozen

1/2 Cup butter or margerine
3/4 Cup sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp lemon juice
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1-3/4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup dried cherried (raisins, dates, figs)

1. Cream butter with sugar.
2. Blend in egg, lemon juice, and grated rind.
3. Sift together dry ingredients and add, mixing until a compact dough is formed.
   
4. Stir in fruit thoroughly.
5. Form 1" balls.
6. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet.
7. Flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in flour.
8. Bake at 400 Degrees for 8-10 minutes.

My husband and I truly enjoyed these. A bit of an accomplishment for one that is known as a terrible baker. Good cook, but terrible baker.