Diner Style Hashed Browned Potatoes

   I love writing about diner style and old sub shop recipes.  Part of it is the thrill of reconstructing a recipe that may have been lost to time had I not saved it, the other part is because this is the world I grew up in.  Being almost 43 I am allowed to have a hindsight perspective on life.  The world we live in now is not the world I grew up in and I'm not entirely sure we've progressed while marching to the never ending tune of progress.

Save Me a Booth

1963 Booth's High & Dry Gin

1963, the age of "Mad Men" and last bastion of male the male controlled world... at least that's what we like to believe but those of us in the historical "know" realize that women have controlled the world from behind the scenes for thousands of years.  A fight over just one woman's affections led to the Trojan War, and later the fight over the love of Cleopatra was legendary to this day.  So don't tell me that women didn't have the power of life and death in the past.  Cut to the present and it's all about equality... unequal equality and fuzzy math.  I see it in Alaska where I work in the summertime.  See, women work up there which is fine, I'm all about equal opportunity, however don't demand a different set of job requirements "just because you're a woman".  This is neither fair nor equal.  Either you can do the job or you can't, but bending the rules doesn't apply.

I know I'll be lambasted about this in the comments... or maybe not.  I haven't written on the blog in so long I don't think anyone actually reads it anymore.  It doesn't matter, it's Friday and later today I'll be enjoying a Gin Martini on the porch whilst continuing a lecture series on World War I that I've been listening to in my spare time. Enjoy the day and don't take life too seriously, remember "There are many here among us that feel life is but a joke."

Eggplant Creole

Note: This recipe has been edited 12/18/14 from the original as I finally got it to come together the way the original was supposed to look like when finished.

This recipe is from a Crisco sponsored cookbook printed in the early 1920's.  When I first saw it I expected something spicy, after all it's Creole and Louisiana is known for it's fiery foods but in this case Creole seems to be mean cooked with tomatoes.  I made this recipe the way the original was laid out but immediately saw the need for some changes as the cooking directions are rather vague as vintage recipes are wont to be and it also calls for the boiling of the eggplant which was something of a disaster (We now boil the eggplant, see below).  Keep this in mind when you make it that this is the modified, kitchen tested recipe which is what sets this blog apart from other vintage recipe sites.  This recipe was a side dish in it's original form but by the 1930's the Great Depression had turned it into a main dish.  I ate it with a poached egg on top and it is both a nutritious and filling meal that doesn't cost that much.  This recipe lived on into the 1960's where it appears again in another of my cookbooks returning to it's roots as a side dish.

Antonio y Cleopatra Cigars

In the wide wide world of drugstore cigars Antonio y Cleopatra is unquestionably one of the better ones available.  Yes it's a machine made cigar but with a pedigree stretching back to the founding of the company in 1879.  Originally handmade in Cuba they were forced to move like so many other cigar makers after Castro's nationalization of the cigar industry.  Today they are made in Cayay, Puerto Rico and still are a great value in the wilds of the brands available in drugstores.  Certainly easier to find than cheap avo cigars.