Thanksgiving Feed - Pep (1950)

I've fallen off my schedule and just like a cook who forgot to defrost the turkey before Thanksgiving Day, I've got some time to make up! So, get ready, here's the first of a half-dozen Thanksgiving Day treats to get us in the mood for food!

Kellogg's Pep, "the sunshine cereal" was a sponsor of The Adventures of Superman radio program and the whole wheat alternative to Wheaties Cereal back in the 1920's. It's also touted as one of the first vitamin "fortified" cereals on the market. It eventually died a quiet death from the side effects of obscurity in the 1970's. Seems like I remember it showing up on shelves at the local A&P, but I would have been less than ten and memories from that age are sketchy at best.

Strange that an ad that ran in the March 6, 1950 edition of Life Magazine would come across comparing father and daughter. I'd have expected it to feature daughter serving daddy breakfast and lecturing him on the "builder-upper" powers of Pep instead of showing off her Rosie the Riveter guns. Maybe the world isn't as black-and-white as this ad. Speaking of that, you've got to love a bowl of cereal that could be mistaken for dry leaves, don't you? If 50's ads and cookbooks have taught me anything it's that you eat with your eyes first. Judging from this ad, I'd sooner touch a match to a bowl of Pep than put it in my mouth!

Happy National French Toast Day!

I'm pretty sure some of the observances I find really only exist on the internet. I mean, National French Toast Day? Sure, I like French toast, but should it have its own day? I guess, if you're a toast-head and feel strongly enough to march on the Bastille for your right to soak bread in milk and eggs, we'll today is your day.

What's potentially the first ever recipe for French toast actually appeared in the Roman collection of recipes. Apicius. Searching You can find a 2009 translation of the work on Project Gutenberg and within its digital pages you'll find a recipe for Aliter Dulcia which loosely translates to "otherwise sweet" (at least to the best I can determine). If you're interested in cooking a 5th century version of French Toast, here's how:

Break (slice) fine white bread, crust removed, into rather large pieces which soak in milk (and beaten eggs). Fry in oil. Cover with honey and serve.

Like most early recipes, this one is short on methods and measurements. There's no micromanaging the amount of time you soak the bread, no instructions on how thick to slice the bread, nothing saying you should only use artisan oil crushed from the pits of olives from a mysterious village in Southern Umbria. We've been a culture of perfect, of Martha Stewart judgmentalism, where nothing's worth doing if it's not nearly flipping impossible and worthy of Instragram bragging rights. Anyway, if you want a more modern recipe, check out this one from the French Cook Book for American Families, by Xavier Raskin, published in 1922:

Morris Bacon!

I know I usually choose my ads based on how humorous they are, but this one is a little different. I don't know what it is, but the imagery and simple presentation really appealed to me. I just about can smell the bacon and it makes me think of one of the many fall weekends I spent in Brown County or camping at Raccoon Lake as a kid.

Morris was owned by Armour and this ad comes from a 1922 issue of Ladies' Home Journal.