Welcome to the Mid-Century Menu Monday Archive! Here you can find my mid-century menus: dinners from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.
I just love cooking from vintage recipes. My collection includes cookbooks, magazines, and advertising pamphlets from as early as the 1900s, all the way up to the 1960s. Most of my favorite menus, though, are mid-century menus from 1945-1959, when food was plentiful, and the shift to convenience foods and housewives working outside the home was just beginning. (But I have been known to take on WWII rationed meals, and even Great Depression meals on occasion!)
Sometimes, every housewife needs to get a super fast dinner on the table. And vintage homemaking had an answer for that too! This cold-weather dinner comes from a 1950 Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It has step-by-step instructions on how to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes start to finish. How to Get …
How To Get Dinner on the Table in 30 Minutes (A 1950s Guide) Read More »
December! Anyone else love early darkness that drives people home to sit by their fires and spend time with their family? Just me? Ok, then. Seriously, tho, I love December. I love preparing for the holidays, and snow, and baking, and Christmas decorations, and songs, and books . . . I am one of those …
Happy Thanksgiving Week! I love Thanksgiving, and every year, I make a giant vintage dinner — appetizers, turkey, 8-10 sides, pie. I do it pretty much all myself, although I finally have teenagers old enough to help, thank goodness! Anyway, for this week, we all still have to eat (and eat, and eat), so here …
Meal planning is the hardest part of eating at home all the time. Being creative, coming up with new ideas, and then getting those meals onto the table on time is tough. Here are 7 vintage dinners for mid-November to inspire your adventures in square meals. A Week of Menus for Mid-November There are many …
A Week of Menus for Mid-November (Mid-Century Menu Monday) Read More »
Happy Easter! Here are the menus for Holy week. During this week, I finish my spring cleaning (by Wednesday), and then spend Holy Thursday preparing for Easter. On Good Friday, I fast and make a pilgrimage, so those menus also look different than usual. And on Holy Saturday, the children and I finish preparations and …
Mid-Century Menu Monday for April 11 to April 17 Read More »
It’s Spring Cleaning Week! It’s also super windy this year — but at least all my bedding and mattress are getting well-aired! And on top of that, I am sick! But since Spring Cleaning is time-limited by Easter (traditionally), I am doing my best to clean anyway. I will try to rest a lot the …
March doesn’t appear to be going out like a lamb — it came in like a lion and is leaving like one as well. But next weekend is supposed to be nice, so an outdoor excursion with a sporty picnic is planned for Saturday. So welcome Spring with some delicious square meals! Mid-Century Meal Plan …
Spring is here! Of course, it is still supposed to snow — but the sun says it is Spring! It is also almost April, so it is time to put away the fur hat and get out the picture hat! Once we hit 12-hour-days, I wear hats all the time. I don’t wear chemical sunscreen …
Mid-Century Menu Monday For March 21 to March 27 Read More »
I H-A-T-E Daylight Savings time. Actually, the time doesn’t bother me so much — but the groaning and misery from my kids when the time changes do bother me! Fortunately, there are 2 “holidays” this week, so the food makes up for it. Monday, we celebrate Pi Day (because math and education), and of course, …
Mid-Century Menu Monday For March 14 to March 20 Read More »
So, this year March apparently decided to come in like a lion — and it feels like winter this week. I mean, we are still having single-digit (Fahrenheit) temps at night (that’s negatives for all the Celsius housewives.) So for this week, I included a lot of warming, wintery-sort-of-meals. Nothing like a dinner hot from …
