HISTORY: Preserved

I've been a little quiet on here for a while. Life happens which is inevitable of course, especially with a 2 month old baby!

I've been trying to keep up on some of my projects. I've done some work on a 1930s quilt I'm sewing, which I've posted about on Instagram. I've nearly gotten my 18th century petticoat complete. It just needs to be hemmed and the tape drawstring to be put in. I'm in the process of cleaning out and organizing my sewing closet. I've even dabbled a bit at my writing, though that's been more sparse than I'd like. Ah well!

Lately, I've been trying to beef up our family's WWII Boy Scout impression/display in preparation for this season of reenacting. It's been a lot of research and acquiring of items, and I've been enjoying it quite a bit! There's just something about camping and scouting in the first half of the 1900s that fascinates me. It's just so cool! I was really excited to purchase two original p…

Yes, I know. Another mincemeat recipe! But making the Mincemeat Cake did not use up all my mincemeat, so when I saw this recipe for cookies I was thrilled. They definitely have a more Christmas-time vibe, but that was not going to deter me. I found the recipe in the Toll House Recipe Book, ca. 1946.

Making the dough was pretty easy. I actually halved it and that still made over 2 dozen cookies, so if you make this, prepare to have a lot of cookies. Since the dough has to be chilled overnight, I tasted it just to see... and it was really good!

The next morning I sliced and baked all the cookie dough and those cookies turned out so yummy. And even if you're not crazy about nuts in your cookies (like me), I'd have to say that the nuts add a much needed texture. I used pecans and chopped them pretty small.

Overall, this is a really nice cookie and a great way to use up leftover mincemeat from Christmas. (I made these a few weeks ago, by the way. Just wanted to mention that in cas…

Let's take a quick moment to ponder the title of this 1940 recipe from the Kate Smith's Breakfast Book for Quick Bran Cinnamon Rolls.

Is this recipe quick? Meh.

Biscuit cinnamon rolls. Yummm!

With bran. Okay, still yum!


I have had a crazy sweet tooth lately. It might have something to do with having a nursing infant around. Or maybe not! Either way, I've been wanting to bake something else out of my Kate Smith's Breakfast Book and finally settled on this recipe for cinnamon rolls. (I still have a box of Grape Nuts that needs to find its way into more of her recipes. I mean, come on. No one's going to actually eat the cereal as is in this house!)

The recipe consists of making the Bran Biscuits and modifying it into cinnamon rolls. Not a weird concept by any means. The Bran Biscuits call for Whole Bran Shreds. I have no idea what those are, and I don't think you can get them anymore. They don't sound very appetizing. Anyway, to substitute I used Bran Flakes.…