Sexy, sexy electricity

Oo-la-la. Looking a little less like Snow White this time, and a bit more like the evil queen, our heroine now confesses that "I talk calmly about how cheap and fast electric heat is, but I can't resist raving about its cleanliness!" Does electricity make you feel all tingly inside? That's the current, honey; you've got your finger in the socket.

I'm intrigued by technique #1: "Use utensils with flat bottoms which cover the heating unit, Straight sides are preferred." Are they ruling out cauldrons, then?

Electric refrigerators are another product this book shills, and they spend a lot of time yelling at us about how to store foods properly. "There is a right and a wrong way of storing food in your electric refrigerator," we are warned. "There is a proper place for everything and there must be sapce for circulation of cold air." "Everything that goes into your electric refrigerator has a right place," intones another caption, with a helpful graphic showing where to place your cooked vegetables, cake and waffle batter (a staple in most households, right?), dessert, pastry dough, and white sauce. White sauce? Who stores that? The arrow points toward an enormous pitcher of it. I'm not posting the photo because it's pretty boring--there's not even a ham, so you can tell this was before the heyday of refrigerator sales when there was ALWAYS a ham. Playing "Spot the Ham" is a favorite pastime of mine whenever I get a new batch of 50's magazines. There's one in every fridge.

This is the "Oven dinner for after the bridge club." Beef ring filled with carrot strips, baked potatoes, green salad, and prune and apricot upside-down cake. I'm both charmed and repelled by the cake. It's got a 1930's look to it that I find appealing--bold, a little jazzy--but I can't see myself seving it. "Oh, don't worry!" the clueless hostess assures her poor guests, "it has apricots AND prunes! Everyone gets both!"

I'd say more, but I have to go take Lois Kanago's cake out of the oven.