Cooking with Cartoonists: Tuna Fish Wiggle

Dik Browne's Tuna Fish Wiggle.



Do you really want this recipe? Really? Well, if you still do after seeing that photo, just google it. Dik Browne (of Hagar the Horrible and Hi & Lois fame) claimed his wife invented this dish in the early 40s while trying to make chicken-a-la-king on a budget, but it seems to be a pretty well-known recipe (often served over toast). Basically, it's an unbaked tuna casserole, with the sauce poured over the noodles instead of mixed in. I used fresh ingredients instead of canned, but even so....I think baking might have improved it. It was edible, at least (although Emily said it was disgusting and picked at the noodles). But I'm not sure I can believe that his family still was eating this regularly after he became successful!

He did offer up a menu that doesn't include Tuna Fish Wiggle:

Cocktails with Miniature Meat Balls in Jelly Sauce Boeuf Bourguignon Green Noodles Tossed Salad Fruit Bombe Coffee

But the recipes included were either nixed in our vote (green noodles) or too complicated for a small family dinner. I wish I'd overruled them and gone for the green noodles! Next cartoonist, please!

The Cartoonist Cookbook is a book put together in 1966 by the Newspaper Comics Council, featuring 45 popular strip cartoonists of the 60s, with bios, art and recipes. It's a fun thing to have if you like cartooning, but I somehow never got around to actually cooking from it. This year, I decided to work my way through it and try and do at least one recipe from each artist!

Sew-A-Skirt!

I got this awesome vintage skirt sewing kit this week...when I saw it I thought, "a vintage skirt under $10? no-brainer!" (actually, any decent skirt under $10, no-brainer, right?)



And when I got it, I thought it was even cooler, and in such great shape! Here's the back:



But here's the problem: it's a little too cool. I don't know if I can bring myself to actually use the kit! I could trace the pattern and make it up in a different fabric, but that kind of defeats the point of buying it. I could steel myself, and go ahead and make it like I planned. Or, I could just hang on the kit and, you know, think about it for a while. What would you do?

And don't forget, I'm de-stashing this weekend! Loads of vintage patterns are on ebay, ending in just a bit; and this fabric is available in the stash bustin' swap until tomorrow night!

would you like this lovely fabric?

I actually won the first draw of the stash busting swap! A lovely piece of aubergine (that's eggplant to us americans) cotton is coming my way all the way from Spain...and above is my offering! If you'd like a chance to win it, head on over to Zo's and submit your own stash entry! Deadline is midnight Spanish time, which is 6pm EST. Good luck!! UPDATE: the deadline is midnight Sunday! Head on over and check it out!

stashbusting begins!

Step one - finally, I have finished sorting through the patterns I've been collecting for years; pulled a great big lot to say goodbye to; scanned them, sorted them, and listed them on ebay. This is a project I started months and months ago, but finally, it's done! So hopefully by this weekend 120 vintage patterns (and a handful of newer ones) will be off to new homes! I'm also letting go of my near-complete run of Atomic Magazine issues and some cool fashion books by Edith Head, Carmel Snow (famous Harper's Bazaar editor), and Dorian Leigh. You can see all the auctions here, or if you just want to look at the vintage patterns, sit back and enjoy this slideshow!



Step two - the Stashbustin' group has a stash busting swap going on starting today -- I'm going to dig out some fabric and join in! Each day a different fabric is up for grabs - deadline for the random draw is 6pm EST. Of course, the net is zero since fabric will come back in....but the idea is to have something fresh and inspiring come in to your house, while getting rid of letting go of something you really don't have any use for. So I say it counts. Now I'm off to rummage through my stash and pick a candidate or two!

Cooking with Cartoonists: Blueberry "Muffins"

Time for another recipe from The Cartoonist Cookbook! Artist #2 is Dick Brooks, who based his strip, "The Jackson Twins" on his own twin sisters. I hope they didn't mind!

His dinner menu was pretty impressive -- just reading it made me feel sleepy:

New England Clam Chowder Steamed Clams Boiled Lobster Corn on the Cob Cape Ann Blueberry "Muffins" Fresh Strawberry Shortcake Chablis

(This menu is followed by instructions to go out back, lay in your rope hammock, and sleep for three hours after dinner!) Now, once again that's a meal I can't argue with. It's also a meal that would overwhelm our small household. I was intrigued by the quote marks around the "muffins" and everyone here likes baked goods, so it seems like the natural choice. And as it turns out, the reason they're "muffins" and not just muffins is because...they're not muffins. It's a coffeecake! But in our house there is no coffee...so let's just call it cake.

Dick Brook's Blueberry Cake:
2½ c sugar
1 c butter, softened
3 eggs
1 c milk
5 t baking powder (yes, 5!)
1 t salt
5 c flour
1½ pints blueberries (this is 3 cups, or about 145 grams)
sugar
cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside. Cream sugar and butter, adding eggs one at a time. Add milk, then add flour mixture slowly and beat until blended. Stir in blueberries and then spread into a 10½ x 15½ x 2 inch pan and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top. Bake for 1 hour, testing for done-ness before removing. I used that big chunky sugar -- sanding sugar? But regular sugar would work fine.

Now, I don't know what kind of crazy pans Dick had, but I had nothing close. I ended up using a 9 x 14 pan. The batter seemed awfully stiff as I spread it into the pan:



I was worried that it would be too dense. But, it baked up amazingly!



Unfortunately, I did not test for doneness, because the edges were so brown I thought it had to be done. An hour later, the center had totally collapsed and I had to dig the partially cooked center out and throw it away. Boo! Next time I will try two small pans and I will check it before taking it out. Fortunately, the parts that were fine were delicious:



In the words of the five-year-old, "YUM YUM YUM!". I will definitely be making this one again!

The Cartoonist Cookbook is a book put together in 1966 by the Newspaper Comics Council, featuring 45 popular strip cartoonists of the 60s, with bios, art and recipes. It's a fun thing to have if you like cartooning, but I somehow never got around to actually cooking from it. This year, I decided to work my way through it and try and do at least one recipe from each artist!

stash busting!

Purging and destashing are big in our house right now, and one of the areas I've needed to tackle is my sewing stash. I've been slowly working at it, buttons are organized; notions are organized and cleared out. I'm just about to finish a huge purge of my vintage pattern collection, and next I need to start tackling the fabric. Now, I have nothing compared to serious fabric stashers, believe me. But, I need to get it moving out of here. See this?



I took that almost two years ago. And I still have probably 75% of that fabric (no, that isn't my stash! it's just one shelf I photographed.)

And as it turns out, destashing seems to be in the air....tons of people have gotten the urge to purge. And now, there's even a support group/pledge going -- and I've taken the pledge! Everyone's doing it in their own fashion -- my personal goal is to work through everything I've got and either sew it up, sell it off or donate it. All I want left at the end of this year are fabric lengths that are for a specific project; basics that are good to have on hand; and I'm sure I will give a pass to a few import/vintage fabrics that I just can't let go of. And from now on, only buy fabric I have a definite use for. No more stashing! If you have more fabric than you know what to do with, why don't you join us in...

I've got a notion...

Several of them, in fact. I love vintage sewing notions (although, I rarely find them around here) but it's hard to use them! There's something about opening up a package that's lasted this long that makes me hesitate. But...using them is also a lot of fun! So, to encourage myself to actually use my vintage notions, I started taking photos of them to "preserve" the packaged versions. Here's what I've photographed so far:



You can also see them all here. Now, which one shall I use first?