Serve Something Spectacular

This weekend, I was shopping with a friend, and we stopped into a local thrift store.  While surveying the offerings, a stack of magazines caught my eye, and I was immediately shoveling handfuls of old cooking serials into my arms.  I would have guessed that these magazines were from the 60's or 70's, but I suppose I'm not a good guesser of period food styles yet.  These phenomenal booklets were published in 1985, and offer photographic evidence of some pretty ridiculous and unbelievable dishes.  While it's true that these dishes are not fake food, but real recipes, it's hard to believe that some of them could ever exist.  I'm going to share some of these photos with you today, I hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.

Note: Please note the foods that are 'Gelee' or covered in Aspic.  Aspic is a savory gelatin glaze; think meat flavored jello.

Breast of Turkey and Sliced Tongue in Aspic and Pate-Stuffed Chicken Breasts en Gelee.  Yum!

Poached Fish with Cucumber Scales

Turkey Breast Galantine

Pear Feuilletes with Caramel

Roast of Beef en Gelee

Vanilla-Ice-Cream Bombe Surprise (The surprise is grapes, apricot jam, and kirsch)

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Sunday Hot Links- Menus and Food Timeline

From the LAPL menu database. Part of a menu from the Seven Homes Restaurant in Denmark, circa 1960s.

This week on the Fake-n-Bake blog, I bringing you two new phenomenal links that I have recently stumbled upon.

Los Angeles Public Library Menu Collection
The first is a database of period restaurant menus at the LA public library.  You can search for menus by Keyword, Restaurant, Cuisine, and Date. This is useful in many ways. Not only is this a gem for ephemera buffs and paper props creation, you can also us it to research food history! Wondering what was popular in New York restaurants in the 1930s? Pop onto the database and browse menus from that period. Some of the menus even have images of their restaurant decor and meal selections, what more could you ask for? Take some time and poke around, I'm sure you'll be thrilled with what you find.

Food Timeline
Reference librarian Lynne Olver has put together this database which is an invaluable tool for food craftsters. From "a la carte" to "zweiback" hundreds of articles discuss the history of food, and a timeline dating back before the beginnings of agriculture lays it all out.  Whether you need to know what Christopher Columbus was lunching on or need a recipe for popcorn balls, you'll find what you need here.

Happy Propping!

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Short and Sweet- Candy Links

Hey all, I was looking online for vintage candy wrappers when I found these two websites.  I haven't given them thorough scrutiny yet,  but they both seem to be worth a peek.

http://www.candywrappermuseum.com/
This is one person's collection of candy wrappers past and present. A good resource for your propping needs.

http://mistertoast.blogspot.com/2006/06/candy-bar-wrappers.html
This is just a short, fun blog post with some sweet old candy wrappers.

Enjoy!

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