Bloggers have made me a savvier shopper. When I first got hooked on reading blogs a year or so ago, I began to notice that all these women with lovely homes and decor were often finding the goods at their local thrift stores. Here in Newnan, I made my inaugural visit last week to a fairly new thrift store, the One Roof Ecumenical Outreach Alliance on Temple Avenue. If I hadn't been on my lunch hour I would have spent more time browsing the wares, but I saw a sign that said books were 25 cents and made a beeline to the room with all the books! (OK, so I briefly got distracted and picked up this 25 cent napkin on the way. Any fabric with teapots on it is going home with me.)
Two of the books, "Meals in Minutes" and "Lunches and Brunches," were printed in 1963, the year before I was born, and I just love seeing what food fashions were in vogue back then. One has a recipe for Spiced Iced Tea (the pre-Tang version), and this one has a recipe for Pink Parfait Pie you make in the blender. Yes, nothing says "elegant tea party" quite like having a blender on the table with the teapot!
A later but still vintage volume is "The Joy of Entertaining," from 1983. It has a chapter on teas and coffees and a recipe for Petits Fours. Reading these retro recipes gave me an idea, too. Wouldn't it be fun to have a "Retro Tea" and ask all your guests to wear clothes from the sixties and seventies? Perhaps a few beehive hairdos, false eyelashes and frosted pink lipstick? The hostess, of course, would have to assemble some teawares with age-appropriate motifs (those "atomic" designs, perhaps), and of course the color palette would need to include Harvest Gold and Avocado Green. So what do you say? Would you come to my Retro Tea Party?
Wow! great bargain vintage books! I am hooked on books about entertaining, etiquitte and tea!
ReplyDeleteHow Funny! I also have the BH&G Lunches & Brunches one called So-Good Meals both published in 1963. I found mine at a yard sale years ago. On page 52 of Lunches & Brunches is a recipe for Eggs Goldenrod. My husband cooks that for our family every Christmas morning and has since our very first Christmas 28 years ago. (I only wish we had those lovely blue chicken casseroles to serve it in).
ReplyDeleteAnd yes- I would come to a Retro Tea Party! Wouldn't that be fun!!!
ReplyDeleteTeresa, this is TOO funny, but ... I liked those same blue chicken dishes! And that matching condiment dish, too!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely I would! I like all kinds of teas. The only request is that there is....tea! And good company of course.
ReplyDeleteCandyce
I've been reading blogs for less than a year and especially enjoy those that feature tea info. Visiting thrift stores is always fun - like yard sales, you never know what teasure you might find, like that teapot napkin. A retro tea party sounds like fun. I think the only themed tea party I've attended was a Titanic tea.
ReplyDeletefun, fun! I love thrift store shopping! Congrats!
ReplyDeleteSome of those cookbooks reminds me to look at what I have. There were some you found that have been on my shelf for many years. How fun to find new discoveries.
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