1700's - 1800's Handwritten Cookbook

Being in love with the 1700's - 1800's life and cooking, I would like to have a handwritten cookbook in old style form. In search of how to accomplish this, I came across this tutorial;
http://www.squidoo.com/book-binding-how-to-make-a-leather-bound-moleskine-journal-craft-tutorial#

Today we made special cupcakes and tried a 'new-to-us' icing for the chocolate cupcakes. Fast! Good, depending on your tastes. Take one 8 oz container of frozen Cool Whip or the like. Place it in a microwave proof bowl. Add 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Microwave 1 min. Stir mixing it all together as much as possible. It will look like this.

 

These were the ingredients that we used. After the one minute in the microwave and the stirring, we placed it back into the microwave for an additional 30 seconds. Upon removal we stirred again until totally combined.

This is what it looked like after we were done mixing the melted chocolate chips and the melted topping together. We picked up the cupcakes and holding it upside down, dipped the tops of the cupcakes into the icing and twisted the cupcakes in a circular motion to coat the tops. It will set up a bit when it cools. We added sprinkles on the tops, but it really would be optional. Fast and easy! The taste is like the semi-sweet chocolate chips so if you are thinking a sweet frosting type, this isn't it. But it was good. Could probably also be used as a brownie topping.

I was told that you should allow the corn to dry in the field on the stalk. We wanted to try drying the corn in our house and thought that it might look 'old-timey' to have them hanging from the beams in our log cabin. We also left some corn to dry in the field.  The corn on the left was allowed to dry in the field. The corn on the right dried hanging from the rafters in our house. The corn on the left had it's husk left on in the field while drying. The corn on the right was dried in it's 'open' state.  We recently brought in the sweet corn which had been left in the field and it wasn't completly dried, (unlike that which dried in the house), so we pulled back the husk and hung it up to finish drying.

Today was the day to store our dried sweet corn as seed for next year's crop. We had selected ears of corn which looked to be some of the best we had grown this year. We clothes pinned them up on cords strung between our beams in our log cabin. These have been drying here for about a month or more.  When the kernels are completely dried and well dented, you can take store the corn seed.

 

We have a large pretzel or cheese ball container in which to save our seed. We label the container with the date and the name of the seed which we are storing. This year we are storing Golden Bantam Cross sweet corn. You can store the seed for 2 to 3 years unfrozen, or in the freezer for a long, long time.  You have to make sure that the seed which you are storing is from heirloom open pollinated plants. This way the seed will stay true to the produce that was grown the year prior. Make sure the seed is well dry before attempting to store it for the next season / seasons as it may mold if it isn't.

 

 

The larger container allows me to stick both of my hands, along with a cob of corn, down into the container. With my hands in the container, I encircle the cob with my thumb and forefinger and rotate my hand around the cob, brushing the corn off of the cob into the container.

 

My son actually just puts one of his hands into the container and pushes the corn off of the cob.

Civil War Handwriting Part 2

Spencerian Ladies' Hand- Mid-1800s Handwriting Part II

Knowing how to read and write in the Spencerian style is fun but also helpful. I have found that being able to read and write in the Spencerian style has allowed me to read old letters and the inscriptions in books and on the backs of photographs easily. It takes a bit of practice but it is worth the effort. Reading Civil War soldier letters isn't such a struggle anymore. I loved to read the letters before, but now I love it so much more. It is immensely helpful if you have to read any large amount of period writing at a time. It is a beautifully romantic script I urge anyone that wants to learn to give it a try.

This is the guide for lowercase letters in the Spencerian script.










Some tips on writing:

* Press as lightly as you can for the thin parts of the letters. Apply a small bit of pressure for the darker parts.

*If your dark parts of the letters are not as dark as you need them at first, you can go over them again until you can do it naturally in one stoke.

* It helps if you mark out lines on the page in pencil to keep all of your letters straight.

This is the stroke guide for writing the lowercase letters. Please forgive its blurriness, I could not get it any clearer.









Remember if you mess up there are two acceptable period corrections you can use:

1. You can “go with it.” Just leave it as it is, if it isn’t a big mistake, no one may notice it. If you don’t believe me, take a look at America’s most famous document: The Declaration of Independence.

Spencerian Hand Writing

Spencerian Ladies' Hand- Mid-1800s Handwriting

Period handwriting is beautiful. A long time has passed since such a beautiful, aesthetic hand has been taught in schools. A common script in the mid-1800s was the Spencerian Ladies' Hand. It is a type of copperplate, similar to the kind that our parents (maybe??) learned in elementary school. There were numerous booklets and pamphlets written at the time to demonstrate how to write it. Many men and women also used Round Hand, which is very similar.
For those of you interested in learning how to write in a period style, Lessons in Calligraphy and Penmanship is an amazing resource to learn virtually everything you need to know to learn. They have scans of original teaching books, as well as modern guides and videos that teach you all you need to know.

I have been trying to learn myself . I wrote out a guide in Spencerian Ladies' Hand (Left.) The darker parts of the letters are made by increased pressure, not by twisting the pen, like is common with other calligraphy "fonts". The nib you should use for this "font" should be very fine with a lot of bend to it. You can still buy Spencerian Pen Nibs. They can also be found by the boxes on Ebay. I just use what I have at hand.

I couldn't find many guides that showed the order in which to write each stroke. I wrote out the order that I used to make the strokes. I tried to make the strokes in the most natural way of writing. Hopefully, if you are interested in writing it, it will be comfortable. (We have to thank Andy for the pretty red ink I got to use for the arrows and numbers.)

HOMEMADE "SHOUT" LAUNDRY STAIN REMOVER

To make "Shout" laundry stain remover I used the following directions. We tried the results against the 'real' "Shout" and like it equally as well, if not better. Try it and let me know what you think!

MIX TOGETHER:
2/3 cup of Dawn liquid dish soap
2/3 cup of Ammonia (a cleaning product which acts kind-of like a bleach BUT we did spray this on colored clothes and leave it there for over an hour, then washed it out with no ill effects. BUT if you have a very favorite colored shirt, or whatever, please use at your own risk).
6 TB Baking soda
2 cups of warm water (warm to hotter will help the baking soda to dissolve)

After mixing these together ...you can start by mixing the hotter water with the baking soda to dissolve it first then add the dish soap, water and ammonia, (please keep your face away from the ammonia bottle),...... Place in any spray bottle, (such as an empty "Shout" bottle?), and use! Give it a good shake before using it each time. Spray the stain, rub it together, let it soak a few minutes, Wash.  PLEASE try this on a colorful rag or something to see if it takes the color out of your clothes before using it on colors ..as I said it didn't take the color out of ours.