LUCY BURDETTE: Did you know that today is National Retro Day?? I thought this would be a perfect day to talk about the Key West Woman’s Club Cookbook, including the new edition which I edited last year, and is now out in the world!
The first iteration of the cookbook was published in the 1949. It’s a wonderful piece of history even if you wouldn’t go anywhere near most of the recipes. (Turtle steaks anyone?) It’s all written in the handwriting of various women who worked on the book and contributed recipes, and it has wonderful drawings like this one:
As we mulled over the new edition, we knew we wanted to retain the spirit of both the book published in 1949 and the one published in 1988. Although some of the recipes were the same in 1988, the handwriting was replaced by standard typing, and many of the quirky drawings were also removed.
My job was to figure out what should be retained from both versions and then to add in some modern day recipes from current members of the woman’s club. Luckily, I didn’t have to do the work of scanning or anything else technical. I had to choose, organize, and send it off. Here is T-bone helping me with the layout:
My suggestion was to use some of the hand written introductions and actual recipes as intros to each section. For example, we couldn’t possibly leave out this quote:
I had a spare copy of the second cookbook into which I could sandwich photocopies of the old sections that we did didn’t want to lose. I thought we would be overwhelmed with new recipe submissions, but luckily the number was manageable. I included the banana cream pie that I used in Key West food critic mystery number 12, A DISH TO DIE FOR. I wrote that before I got involved with the Woman’s Club, though there are several scenes that take place there. In fact, Hayley finds clues to the mystery in a box of old drawings that has been stashed at the back of a drawer for years and years.
The cookbook team is still working on marketing. As of today, there is no way to buy the cookbook online. However, there are copies available through our local bookstores, Key West Island Books ( 305-294-2904), and Books and Books Key West (305 320 0208). If you are a local or a visitor looking for a copy, they are also available at the Key West Art and Historical Society, the Woman’s Club, and also will be available at the brand new cooking school.
 |
| With fellow cookbook teammate, Marlene |
We're so glad to have helped save this bit of Key West history. What would you feature for Retro Day?
Your cookbook sounds so special, Lucy . . . what a great project.
ReplyDeleteFor Retro Day . . . some Julie London music . . . .
I don't know Julie London, will go look!
DeleteJulie London was a singer. She was also the nurse ? Receptionist? On a 📺 television series Emergency with Randolph Mantooth in the 1970s
DeleteDiana, Julie played Nurse Dixie McCall on "Emergency" . . .
DeleteLucy, I absolutely have to have one of these cookbooks. Please let us know as soon as they are more widely available. Or, will the bookstores there in Key West ship? I love the drawings that you featured in your post. I hope ones that were of good enough quality made the cut for this new book. I wouldn't mind seeing some old photos, too. It just makes it even more of a history book/cookbook. I'm sure everyone in the Woman's Club is thrilled you undertook the editing of it.
ReplyDeleteI think for Retro Day (and I do love retro), I'm going to give you a description of my mother and two of her neighbor lady friends who were in front of our house and posed for a picture. They were sitting on the driveway edge, all three in sleeveless summer dresses, and the flowers my mother planted down the sides of the garage were behind them. You can see a little bit of our house. I could tell it must have been after supper and they were just sitting there talking, taking it easy (for a change). I loved the summer dresses the ladies wore when I was growing up. And, I could just imagine the kids in the neighborhood playing in the street and yards out of sight of the picture. A lovely retro moment.
What a perfect moment Kathy! About the cookbook, both of those bookstores would happily ship. Just give them a call! I think we saved all of the old drawings in the new edition.
DeleteHow retro is this? Frank is going to hang a bunch of old family pictures in his cabin. Then we plan to drive to a nearby town to check out the antiques/junque stores for some items for the cabin. I'll have to find something retro to eat. Not Moon pies.
ReplyDeletePerfect Pat!
DeleteRetro Day! What a good job you did on that cookbook, Roberta.
ReplyDeleteMy mother grew up in the Deep South with a cook and when my father graduated from college at 20 and moved to New York in the 1930s, his mother sent a cook/housekeeper up on the train to take care of him and his roommates (!). Thus it can be seen that neither had the faintest idea how to find their way around a stove. We had an early JOY OF COOKING and a lot of church cookbooks in our kitchen. However, I don't recall a single dish cooked from them. To keep her brood of five children fed, Mom had a list of easy favorites on repeat. The cookbooks were really for entertaining, which that Greatest Generation did at the drop of a hat. (Selden)
Selden, unbelievable story about your grandmother sending a cook up to NY!! My mom too had a regular rotation of dishes and they were very retro and not that good:)
DeleteThat's fabulous, Lucy!
ReplyDeleteRetro Day: I have a picture of our family of six dressed up for something, possibly Easter, in a suburb of Los Angeles. The three girls have short, straight-cut bangs and pointy glasses. We're wearing dresses with gathered skirts and I can still feel the scratchy net petticoat on my bare legs. White socks and Mary Janes. My little brother wears a little boy's suit with short pants and a plaid jacket and a clip-on bow tie (hadn't joined the rest of the family in glasses yet). Daddy has a sixties flattop hair cut, and our mom's glasses are too severe and she looks uncomfortable.
Foodwise, I have Mommy's Joy of Cooking, which has handwritten notes in the back. I've had to reinforce the binding several times, because I often check it for staples like banana bread or a basic cake recipe. And I have all my handwritten recipe cards of her mother and mother-in-law's Christmas cookies, which Mommy made and which I make every year.
DeleteYour description of the clothes reminded me of my father in his wide legged, pleated pants, worn up to his armpits. Shirt always included a tie, rolled up sleeves and an undershirt underneath - didn't we all have to wear those!
DeleteWe wore those same dresses and glasses for Easter Edith, perfect!
DeleteWe wore them, too. Our Easter outfits in the spring became our church clothes until it got cold in the fall. And I detested those stupid frilly white socks that always slipped inside the patent leather shoes that were so uncomfortable.
DeleteWhat a wonderful thing is your cookbook, Lucy! History, community and food all contained between the covers. You and T-Bone clearly did a great job!!
ReplyDeleteAs for Retro Day: I'd have to ask my siblings if they can remember the actual recipe -- Canned tuna in a white sauce, served over baked potatoes with chopped boil eggs as garnish. Come to think of it, maybe no recipe is needed?! Mum would serve this for supper when we lived in England (early 1970s); times were tough and I imagine this was an affordable meal for a family of five.
My mom and I were the only two out of six who loved creamed tuna on toast. Once I asked her for the recipe, imagining it was a legacy dish handed down by her mother (even though it was quite simple, using the oil from the tuna can, flour and milk). She told me to check Joy of Cooking!
DeleteAmanda, I think you've got that recipe if you can make a white sauce. We didn't have creamed tuna, but we did have creamed chipped beef on toast. So salty, and so delicious!
DeleteThank you for the confirmations, Edith and Lucy!
DeleteAmanda, it's creamed tuna on toast, which was a staple of my childhood. The recipe (for creamed chipped beef) is in the Joy of Cooking. Let me know if you want it.
ReplyDeleteRetro day: my mother's famous shrimp mold. I still have her handwritten recipe.
Love the idea of the shrimp mold:)
DeleteEdith, ME! Creamed tuna on toast was a favorite and one of the first things I learned to make. My mom gave me a cookbook with a white sauce recipe (Settlement Cookbook) and said"Do this." I still sometimes make it for a quick, filling comfort food. Glad to know someone else shares that memory :-)
DeleteMargaret - thank you for pointing me to the Joy of Cooking. I have a copy and shall consult it for this recipe.
DeleteI have my mother's copy of a the red and white checked, cloth-covered Better Homes and Gardens loose-leaf cookbook from the 1940's. I will peruse it for a bread recipe today.
ReplyDeleteI love your pictures and love that the club entrusted their cookbook into your hands. The new one is really beautiful.
thanks Judy! Your cookbook sounds like a treasure!
DeleteI still use my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook which I received as a gift in the late 1960's. I use it several times a week - it's still one of the best cookbooks for baked items.
ReplyDeleteWhat great photos Lucy and I enjoyed reading the process to bring it modernize it.
Thank you! I've got to look at the baked goods in that cookbook when I get home. I've used and tweaked their stuffed pepper recipe.
DeleteI love the look of the cook book, and think I will try that apple cake recipe. Today is go to town and play ‘I’ve been everywhere’ shopping (first time since before Christmas – even out of onions!), so will have to celebrate tomorrow. I did cook a ‘real’ chicken last night – bought from a farmer – disappointingly small, so not the real flavour of an older bird, but, there is some left-over. I could make creamed chicken on toast (S**t on a shingle), one of my mother’s favourites. Not happening here!
ReplyDeleteAs for the appetizer problems and I agree about the olive pits, what do you do when trying to manage a kaboby-thing on a skewer and hold a plate and a drink? Or a hot tiny tomato that wants to splot all over your frock?
Curious question – are you allowed to buy and eat conch? Is it rubbery?
Yes you can still get conch, and it's definitely rubbery. I'm not a big fan
DeleteYour cookbook sounds great and I remember that scene from the Hayley snow mystery. For retro day, maybe I’ll watch Austin Powers movies?
ReplyDeletesounds perfect Diana!
DeleteCongratulations on the cookbook, L/R! And what's this about a new cooking school? Do tell.
ReplyDeleteConch is just about the epitome of retro food, isn't it? I remember seeing it on the menu in Florida when we were staying in Flamingo in the Everglades in 1984. I think as a sandwich.
When you think of retro, what era do you see? For me it's Art Deco/Craftsman/Mid-Century Modern, so 1920's to 1970's. Which is when nearly all our furniture is from. Josephine Tey is retro. Halston is retro. Erté is retro. Jello salads and aspic and beef Wellington are retro.
KAREN: My retro time period would be 1960's-1980s. The 1920's- 1950s is more vintage than retro to me.
DeleteSuch a good question Karen--I think of the 50's...
DeleteSadly, I am not as young as I think I am. LOL
DeleteThe cookbook sounds delightful! I especially love the help T-bone gave you.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking at Angel Fare, the St. Michael's Cookbook, last published in 1986. In May 1986 a group from Oregon Episcopal School got lost in a storm while climbing Mt. Hood. 9 people died, including 2 youth from our church. The cookbook includes recipes from many parishioners and was published to raise funds for the youth ministry and in honor of Alison Litzenberger. The 1986 book makes reference to an earlier version published in 1950. The first recipe in the appetizer section is Recipe for a Happy Day, and the last recipe in the book is a Recipe for a Happy New Year, both from the 1950 cookbook.
What a tragedy! But I love the cookbook description. Wonder what was in Recipe for a Happy Day?
DeleteRecipe for a Happy Day
DeleteTake a little dash of cold water
A little leaven of prayer
A little bit of sunshine gold
Dissolved in the morning air.
Add to your meal some merriment,
Add thought for Kith and Kin,
And then, as a prime ingredient,
A plenty of work thrown in.
Flavor it all with essence of love
And a little dash of play,
Let a nice old book and a glance above
Complete a well spent day.
that's so sweet!
DeleteLucy, can you tell us a little more about the new Key West cooking school? Who is organizing it? And any local chefs introduced in your books?
ReplyDeleteMore to come on the cooking school--it's not quite open yet!
DeleteLUCY: Bravo to you and the other women that compiled this new edition of the cookbook!
ReplyDeleteI am also curious to learn more about the KW cooking school.
I got to see a practice run yesterday--they are calling it more of a dinner experience than an actual cooking class. I'll tell you more soon...
DeleteWhat a great project. You absolutely cannot leave out quotes like that!
ReplyDeleteIt would be criminal!
DeleteSo glad that you accepted my family’s recipe! It means so much to me and my family to keep this alive and it’s also delicious!
ReplyDeletePlease tell us which recipe was yours?
DeleteSho Lichtenstein
ReplyDeleteOh, this is fantastic! What a treasure! And I am in love with the handwriting. And they oh-so of-the-time breezy zippy New Yorker-y style. This is an instant classic, absolutely. (and I think it's also fascinating that we STILL haven't solved the "how to hold a drink and eat a canape and hold a napkin and talk at the same time" problem. Righta?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely still a problem Hank!
DeleteLucy, you shouldn't work T-bone so hard--poor boy looks exhausted! I have a cookbook like this that I treasure, put together by a friend's mother in their tiny town of Elmo, Missouri.
ReplyDeletethat T-bone is a very hard worker:). I love the sound of your cookbook!
DeleteWhat a fun project this mucht have been! It certainly was fun to read about it, and thank you for sharing. I loved these community cook books and had to get stern with myself about collerting them - not enough room. I do have a couple of shelves with special cookbooks though, and a retro stash elsewhere. Retro? My mom used the Betty Crocker cookbook for baking and I learned to make pie crust from it too. One of the first cookbooks I ever bought. It seems very dated now, and seldom used, but it will stay in my house. Mom also had a very old copy (maybe first edition) of the beloved Settlement Cookbook, wedding present I think. And I got the then-current edition as a wedding gift too.Anybody remember these? I also have an update ( now pretty old too!) and not nearly as good IMHO. And close to my heart - Love and Knishes, which was published in my teens and was, I think, the first Jewish cookbook from a mainstream publisher. Each chapter was introduced with a hilarious short essay that I remembered for decades. When a facsimile edition was published ypu can believe I grabbed it! Still funny, and still takes me back to learning to cook with my mom and grandmother.
ReplyDeleteLove and Knishes--love the sound of that Triss!
DeleteThis cookbook sounds wonderful, and I love the photo of the women in their hats. I'm not sure it counts as retro, but after my parents got married in 1950, they lived in my father's college town of Baton Rouge, LA, and my mother had a 1950 cookbook with local recipes put together by a women's group she belonged to (although she was working fulltime on the newspaper then.) I still make my Christmas pecan pie from that cookbook!
ReplyDeletethat's retro in my book Kim!
DeleteI am just finish up a family favorite recipes cookbook. My title is "Mastering the Art of Family Cooking" (stolen/borrowed from Julia Child of course!). I included family favorites contributed individually from my four grandchildren, my two daughters & sons-in-law and some recipes from grandparents and great-grandparents that have been in the family (like banana nut bread and chili from my grandmother). I also included pictures of everyone cooking in the kitchen on each page. And the end page, I included how every one is related and a genealogy chart.
ReplyDeleteAnon, I love the description of your Family Cooking cookbook, especially the genealogy chart! — Pat S
Deletewhat an amazing gift Anon! Something your family will treasure forever.
DeleteLook at those ladies in their fancy dresses and high-heel pups. My feet hurt looking at them. My retro collection is of course my husband's everything POGO. Little action figures. And books books books. I weeded my cookbooks awhile back, so the only "retro" one is The Joy of Cooking. Still the best if you need to remember how to boil and egg.
ReplyDeleteAnyone having problems registering for LCC 2026 in San Francisco ?
ReplyDeleteFabulous work saving the past and updating it for today, Lucy! I love those old ladies group cookbooks, even, as you say, I'm not going to be making many of the recipes features there. I have one from my mother's Alabama Junior League group, and one from the horse club moms from back when my father-in-law was teaching in Connecticut. They're such a great glimpse into a now-vanished way of life.
ReplyDeleteI have a stash of church ladies recipe books and I love them! You did such an amazing job putting this one together, Lucy! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great cookbook! I love the drawings and handwritten recipes. Thanks for all of your work, Lucy, on the new one. For a Retro Cookbook, I'd love to see recipes that do not include any processed food like cans of anything! Cooks prior to WWII used ingredients that came from the land / farm. Keeping it simple today is what we need more of!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you were able to include some of the handwritten comments and drawings! And I'm salivating over the hats in the photo--how fabulous!
ReplyDelete