Nursery Food

I've mentioned on here before that my Mother's copy of Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern started my love of vintage cookbooks. That cookbook, now vintage itself from 1984, is a written collection of great recipes from the 1920-s - 1950's. The Bridesmaid luncheons, teen foods, and more are a fabulous trip into Donna Reedsville. It's not unlike what I try to do here. Only of course, way better in the book! I have ordered this from eBay for gifts for my mother-in-law and others. It is delightful reading.

There is a section on recipes for children, called 'Nursery Food'. I was thinking of this while feeding my two month old baby today.

As with any collection of vintage recipes, there are way too many prune recipes. I wanted to reprint so many here, from Baked Prune Whip, Waffle-ized Prune Sandwich or Escalloped Noodles and Prunes. Instead, I chose Prune Nog:
As the Sterns put it on page 174: "Milke and prunes - two old friends who never let you down."
1/2 cup prune juice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Sugar to taste
1/2 cup Pet milk, diluted with 1/4 cup water
Mix prune juice, lemon juice, and sugar. Slowly add diluted milk. Shake thoroughly or mix in a blender; pour over ice to serve.

The step that is missing of course is - lead child to bathroom and wait for drink to take effect.

I'm reading Chris Grabenstein's Crossroads for a review. I heard Chris speak at Bouchercon a few years ago, and thought - he's so funny, I wonder why he's not writing YA instead of adult mysteries. This is a page turner. Very dark yet funny. I also enjoyed Robert Parker's Boxer and the Spy this week. Usually I have no use for adult writers who think they can do YA, as we know they so often cannot. But these two certainly can.