Bisquick Summer Recipes

If you've ever been a regular reader of women's magazines, you'll know that occasionally some issues contain a recipe insert from one food company or another. I used to see them in Womans Day, Family Circle, McCalls, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens and others of that ilk all the time.

This particular insert, The Bisquick "No Time to Cook" summer recipe book (1978, 8 pages) came from a Good Housekeeping magazine.


These magazine inserts are not as common as other recipe booklets, probably because they were thrown away with the magazine itself. However, sometimes the insert would have been removed from the magazine and saved along with other newspaper and magazine recipe clippings. (I probably don't need to tell you that I was one of the savers.)

This booklet also had an offer for the Betty Crocker's Bisquick Cookbook which could be obtained by mailing in three Bisquick box bottoms. It was a hardcover three plastic rings inside that held seven separate booklets: Holiday Hospitality, Strictly Thrifty Meals, Mobile Meals, Be-My-Gues Best, Love & Friendship Foods, Ameriacn Favorites, Foreign Flair, with an Index for the over 200 recipes contained within, and Basic Bakings, the seven basic bakings for Bisquick baking mix.


One of the recipes from the insert is shown below, along with their photo of the prepared dish. The Zucchini Appetizers are on the lower half of the plate.




There is another booklet from General Mills that was published later with this very same title, except that it one of a series of Bisquick recipe booklets. This Bisquick "No Time to Cook" Summer Recipe Book - Volume III (1980, 8 pages) came from a Ladies Home Journal and the recipes are entirely different from the earlier version.

Sunbeam Appliance Accessories

Well, let's see if I remember how to post as it's been awhile. I've been on some new medication that's just about done me in. So much for me being the only one I know who's not taking some kind of pill for something. And if this is my new normal, then I'm in trouble! My apologies to those who've commented and I've not responded like I normally would.

Today's item of interest is a small catalog which I found laid in the pages of a Sunbeam Mixmaster Instruction and Recipe book. I'd guess it's from the early 80s as the order form specifies that the offers inside expired on September 1, 1982.

On the front are some wonderful vinyl quilted appliance covers that you could order. They had a white background with colorful yellow, red and orange fruit and vegetable designs. If you ordered three or more appliance covers then you would also receive a set of five matching bowl covers.

The prices seem pretty reasonable (by today's standards, anyway): The bowl cover set (if ordered) cost $1.95. The covers for the 2- and 4-slice toaster, the can opener, the blender, the coffeemaker and the cooker-fryer with the crocker insert were all only $1.95 each. The Mixmaster mixer or food processor covers were $2.00, the Power Plus Mixer cover was $2.25. You could also get a Deluxe padded food processor cover for $12.95. And get this: Postage and Handling was only $1.00.

One can still find these types of appliance covers today, though most are made from cotton and not vinyl. I did, however, find a set of what appears to be the originals shown in the catalog here. And if you search for "appliance covers" on Etsy, you'll find some really cute handmade ones.

There were several accessories that could be ordered for the Sunbeam Deluxe Mixmaster (for models 10, 11, 12, MM, 1-71, 1-72, 1-73, 1-76, 1-80, 601 and 701 series). A Disco-Chef food slicer/shredder, a food grinder attachment with required power unit and a juicer attachment were available. You could also order a set of stainless steel bowls (4 qt. and 1-1/2 qt. with covers), a set of dough hooks (for the 225 watt mixers) or a set of regular beaters.


The food grinder, slicer/shredder and juicer for the Power Plus mixer were slightly less expensive than those of the Deluxe Mixmaster.

Accessories for the Food Processor included a french fry cutter ($15.95), a blade holder (10.95), additional drop-in blades ($17.95 for a set of three), a funnel and pusher ($12.95), an additional container ($17.95) and the Tool Caddy/Recipe Book holder ($13.95).


There was a hardcover Food Processor Cookbook with 250 recipes available for $4.95. It would fit into a special pocket of the deluxe cover.

I think my favorite items are those for the Sunbeam Large Frypan. You could get a ceramic crocker vessel that fit inside the pan to use as a casserole, a broiler cover (not recommended for the teflon pans), a glass cover or a steaming tray that fit inside the frypan that was useful for steaming eggs, vegetables or seafood.


There were also accessories for the Sunbeam Beverage Maker and the Sunbeam Coffeemaker. Interesting to see that a box of 300 coffeemaker filters cost $3.00 back then. I believe the same quantity goes for about 99 cents these days. Of course, they're probably made in China now.

There's a list of Sunbeam Appliance Service centers as well, showing locations in 45 states. I recognize the location in Houston, on Richmond Avenue, as I went there once many years ago to purchase a new glass lid for my slow cooker. As I recall, the replacement lid cost almost as much as the slow cooker itself. I've still got the lid and the slow cooker, and sure hope that I don't break it. The plastic lids on the newer slow cookers are very unappealing to me. I wonder if that place is still there. Somehow I doubt it. Now we're just supposed to throw the broken appliance away and replace it with a totally new one. Got to keep that economy moving!

The Gloucester Fisherman

Today's recipe booklet is a bit of a fluke, mainly because I found it at a thrift store in the nearby suburbs. This is only the second or third time I have ever found a recipe booklet with a publication date as early as this one in a thrift store here in the nation's fourth largest city.

Although it's really not that old at all, Old Gloucester Sea Food Recipes (1936, 32 pages) is way older than those I usually come across by chance here in Texas (outside of an antique sales venue, anyway). I was quite surprised to see it there, mixed in with the meager selection of other used cookbookbooks that hadn't changed much since the last time I'd visited.

The artwork on the cover sets it apart immediately from the glossy photographic covers of fairly recent supermarket checkout booklets which are the kind I usually find. Sadly, I can find no artist's name in which to attribute the delightful illustrations found on the covers and throughout the booklet.

The Gloucester Fisherman was otherwise known as Frank E. Davis of the Frank E. Davis Fish Company which was located in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His company, established in 1885, specialized in mail order fish, supplying canned and salted fish products to people all over the country.

On a page in the rear of the booklet is a color illustration of some of their canned products: shrimp, mackerel, codfish, crabmeat, salmon, sardines, lobster, Finnan Haddie, herring, fish flakes, tunny and clam chowder, as well as a package of codfish steaks.

This illustration was for a "Get Acquainted Assortment" and was not all-inclusive of their available products. The recipes call for other items not pictured, such as clam juice, clam soup, clam bouillon, clam cakes, codfish fluff, fresh codfish, fresh mackerel, codfish, haddock and mackerel roe, caviar, anchovy paste, oysters, sea moss, fresh halibut, fish chowder, Norwegian fish balls, and fish flakes.

The booklet also shows renderings of their place of business, first a small fish shack, as shown in the Introduction below, and then later, a large, modern concrete stucture.

This being the 1930s, the booklet also mentions the use of "sanitary methods" in the new building, a marketing point that advertisers used extensively back then when people were more cautious of processed food.

Cameos of Frank E. Davis and his son Arthur C. Davis are also shown.

There are quite a few recipes inside, occasionally illustrated in color. There's an alphabetical recipe index on the last page, as well as recipe suggestions divided into breakfast, lunch, dinner and those suitable for luncheons, suppers and parties.


I thought the following were a couple of the more unusual recipes:

CHOCOLATE JELLY

2/3 cup Davis Sea Moss
3 cups Cold Water
1/2 cup Sugar
4 tbsp. Cocoa

Wash Sea Moss well, measuring after washing, pressing down firmly in cup. Put in pan with cold water and boil fast for five minutes or until the Sea Moss is partly dissolved and liquid quite thick--strain through cheesecloth. Mix suar, cocoa and hot water, add strained sea moss, put over fire and boil for a second or so, so it will mix well. Pour into moulds which have been wet in cold water, set in a cool place for one-half hour. Will keep a number of days without getting tough.
*************

FOR COUGHS AND COLDS

Davis Sea Moss
Sugar
Lemon Juice

Place a little Sea Moss in cold water and set on back of stove until somewhat glutinous or syrupy and strain, adding a little sugar and lemon juice. A spoonful or more, occasionally, will be found very soothing to the throat.
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What are Fish Flakes? Is that similar or the same as tunafish? Maybe it was the fish equivalent of tater tots. This recipe sounds like Creamed Tuna to me:

FISH FLAKES CREAMED

1 can Davis Fish Flakes
1 pt. Milk
Butter
Pepper
1 tbsp Flour

Add a pint or more of milk to the Fish Flakes, according to the size can used. When it boils slowly, add butter, a little pepper, and thickening of one heaping tablespoonful of flour in enough cold water to make a cream. Stir well, and cook about five minutes longer.
***********

The recipe for Devilled Crabs on this page was used at least once or twice as is apparent by the stains and the notations in fountain pen ink and pencil:


This old Davis Fish Company ad from 1901, as do many of their other advertisements, speaks of a free Recipe Book that's included with each order. Perhaps this booklet is one that came with someone's order. Someone from landlocked Kansas, who might have been deliriously happy to acquire ocean fish and seafood in any shape or form.


The rear cover of the booklet has a wonderful map showing locations of the company plant in Gloucester and their fisheries in Nova Scotia.