Kitchen Retro

Friday, February 10, 2012

How To Wear Dozens of Hats At Once

It’s all about the hats. A cartoon tuna in a hat urges us to make tuna soufflé with a hat - and make sure the hat is high! This makes it fancy because only formal tuna soufflés wear top hats. Yes, make sure everyone is wearing tuxedos and ball gowns tonight, Mom.

I’ve been meaning to write about this terrific ad (which I found here ages ago) for a long time. But I didn’t. You know why? Because I made a URL bookmark for it that ended up being buried in a bookmark list. I rediscovered it this week - thanks to Clipix.

Clipix is a terrific new online tool you can use to organize any and all images you find and love online by making as many Clipboards as you like. You can use it for anything, not just images - but the first thing I wanted to do was pull up all the images I’d lost track of. I wanted to see them together - and Clipboards are just what I was wanting (even though I didn’t even know they existed).

It’s really easy to sign up for a Clipix account using either Facebook, Twitter, or an email address. There is a little Clipix icon that you drag to your toolbar. This allows you to save any given image (or anything else you see online, for that matter) onto the Clipboard. It’s quite easy to move images around on different Clipboards ; and you can also set up Multiboards, which are groups of related Clipboards.

Syncboards are Clipboards that you use with friends and family - to share anything you like among as many people as you like. You can post any of the images on FB or Twitter, and its easy to set your Clipboards as public, private, or just for some friends to see.

You can use Clipix for tons of things besides finding images. How about making the best shopping list ever, that you can add to in the store? You can do that if you use the Clipix iPhone App. Or make some Clipboards into vacation planners, gift lists, reading lists and as a way to save great articles for later reading - it’s so much easier to organize almost anything if you can visualize it on a Clipboard. At least it is for me. You can see a screen shot of my "In the Retro Kitchen" Clipboard above on the right.

It is so inspiring and fun, and makes me remember why I love these images so much.Clipix is revolutionizing the way I think about my writing, my blogs and any lists I’ve been making on tiny pieces of paper. Imagine making a Google Image search and just being able to gather striking images into groups - complete, I’m happy to say, with citation and a link to the original.

I am having so much fun with Clipix, it’s a bit hard to tear myself away to write this, but I wanted to share it with you. Because if you ever have anything you want to gather and look at (I think that’s pretty much all of us, right?), I think you will love Clipix. It will let you wear as many hats, so to speak, as you like - even a high hat to go with that fancy retro tuna soufflé.clipix

Promoted Post

Thursday, February 9, 2012

A Puritan Recipe For Romance

I was amused by the juxtaposition of these two ads in a 1937 magazine so I scanned them together. There's an exciting occasion in here somewhere, bookended by Pilgrim Rum and some very salty toothpaste.

John Alden chats up Priscilla, sans cocktail

Pilgrim Rum will certainly make your Old Fashioned pop, because it is 90 proof and in a squat, no-nonsense bottle. Old Fashioneds date back to the 19th century; the term was first used in the 1880s and they mainly consist of whiskey - not rum - mixed with a little Angoustora bitters, a sugar cube, and a dash of water. You add a lemon twist, an orange slice and a cherry to make it look nice, too. According to Wikipedia, brandy is used instead of whiskey in Wisconsin (why Wisconsin? they don't say).

Perhaps in New England they substitute rum. Yes, just like the Pilgrim Fathers. I can just see John Alden and Priscilla Mullins chatting it up over a few Old Fashioneds, can't you? Their love story was probably a fiction made up by their descendant, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in "The Courtship of Miles Standish." You see, Miles sent John to tell Priscilla he, you know, liked her. And guess what happened? Priscilla said (in the poem, anyway), why don't you speak for yourself, John? The rest: made-up history! So if we want to imagine them all downing a few Old Fashioneds, I say, why not. Miles in particular could have used one, I believe.

After you've had that sugary Old Fashioned, you will no doubt be thinking: I certainly wish I had Brighter Teeth and Healthier Gums (yes, you will be thinking in capitalized words). And this is where Worcester Salt Toothpaste comes in. It contains "specially powdered pure salt, milk of magnesia and other beneficial ingredients." Well, salt was often used as a traditional teeth cleanser, but - oh dear - Milk of Magnesia? This is used for upset stomachs and - I hate to tell you this - as a laxative. So let's just ponder that for a moment.

Food Company Cookbooks

I hope that this is not what makes Worcester Salt "really sensible." Maybe it is sensible in that it will tell you to stop after one Old Fashioned. And since "you will like it more and more every day" (that's what they think!) soon you will be brushing your teeth with Worcester Salt Toothpaste instead of reaching for the Pilgrim Rum. Or maybe you'll want to combine the two experiences and try whisky toothpaste* instead. Which probably gave John Alden the dental Dutch courage (and alluring breath) he needed to woo Priscilla Mullins.

*This post was another double feature - whiskey toothpaste and a half-nightgown. Any John Alden/Priscilla Mullins/Pilgrim courtship jokes you can think of go right about here.