A to Z Monday

...the edible edition

Brought to you this week by the letter R

For one of Grandma J's all time favorite cereals.....Rice Krispies. 

Grandma J and her siblings never had sugared cereal as kids, and she never gave it to her kids.   Why you ask?  OK, you didn''t ask, but she'll tell you.   It's because cereal taste awful with sugary milk.

Rice Krispies is crunchy and flavorful without ruining the milk, and Grandma J loves her milk.

As a kid, when Grandma J was one of three kids before the last two brats where born, her mother Rita sent away for three puppets....Snap, Crackle and Pop.   They would be worth plenty today, don't you think?

Grandma J loved making Rice Krispies Treats for her kids.    They still ask her to make them because she uses real butter and lots of marshmallows.

At Christmas time she makes Rice Krispies Treat wreaths.......

They've become a big hit at her daughter's  place of work every year.

Then A-Ron asked Grandma J to make him a special Rice Krispies Treat for his team's bake sale.

Yes, he asked for the Cookie Monster.   Two of them.   They sold for  $5 each.   And yes, the bake sale was in front of Walmart...you could have guessed, right?

Any cookie cutter can turn a Rice Krispies Treat into something festive, patriotic and easy.

But somehow, not everyone gets the drift of making these simple treats.....

It's too bad they never translated the Rice Krispies Treat recipe in Chinese.

Now, mosey on  over to A to Z Mondays and check out a plethora of R foods, hosted by Jen at unglazed.   It's never to late to join in!


Grandma J has a garbage load  plethora of stuff to tell you about her trip and her return to the Spa.   Standing on her head and spitting rubber nickles isn't one of them, but close!

A to Z Monday on Tuesday
....the food edition

Brought to you by the letter Q

But since Grandma J is on a Revolutionary Road Trip, driving over 600 miles a day in treacherous weather....

.....she forgot her name what day of the week it was! 

She crossed rivers like the Mississippi, Swanee, Black,  and Chattahoochee.

Then she saw Mobile 'Bama in the distance, and knew she was just a few more river crossings away from Biloxi Mississippi.

And now she's busy resting in Biloxi Mississippi.

The only Q's she's seen are Quarters.

Lots of Quarters.

Grandma J thinks you can still see some fabulous Q foods over at A to Z Monday hosted by Jen at unglazed.  

A to Z Mondays
...the edible edition


Brought to you this week by the letter P



 

For Pickle.  Which is really a cucumber that you do stuff to, and it becomes Pickled.  

Here are some of Grandma J's favorite Pickles....

  (click on pictures to enlarge)

Jumping right to the head of the line is a scared pickle

Of course in 1972, scamming some of your son's Easter eggs for pickling is always a good idea.  This practice has since been outlawed.

And what's a meal without dessert....

Pickle Sherbet....a pregnant idea!

I know, you already figured out that Grandma J isn't a pickle lover.  Somewhat a no brainer, don't you think?

But....she is fixing to head on out on her third infamous road trip.  This is like no other road trip in history.   No books, no meet ups, and no sponsors. She will however, be driving a Ford with SYNC and satellite radio tuned to the 80's 60's.  Can you feel the excitement mounting? 

Now please mosey on over to A to Z Mondays, hosted by Jen at unglazed for a plethora of P foods.

A to Z MONDAY
....the edible edition


Brought to you this week by the letter O

As in Oreos!   And  you know, Grandma J can't have Oreos without milk.

Any way you chose to do it......

Here's an Oreo ad on a billboard in Los Angeles circa 1955. 

This Magnolia-wood, aka plastic toilet seat looks a little bit like an Oreo.....

Check out all the other O foods at A to Z Monday, hosted by Jen at unglazed.

A to Z MONDAY
...the edible edition

Brought to you this week by the letter N

....as in Nuts

But, let's not talk about plain old Nuts.  Grandma J wants to talk about Nut stuff....

Like her ancient Planter's Peanut Mr. Nut costume that she's planning on buying for $10k.

Of course Mr. Peanut is almost older than Grandma J dirt.  Here he is celebrating  his 30th birthday during the great depression.....probably.

Somewhere on God's green earth, Girl Scouts sold salted Nuts in the '50s.  Did you know Grandma J was a Girl Scout in the 50's?   She didn't know about the Nuts.

Peanut butter is a super popular Nut food....yes it is

In the early days, no one scared the bee gee zuzz out of kids like Beech-Nut's mascot.  See all the kids running away?

So, in 1931....Beech-Nit made an executive decision to switch.....

.....to gum.   Of course their marketing focused on Beech-Nut Gum for smokers.

click picture to enlarge

It wasn't until they got rid of those morbid looking men added secretaries to their ads did Beech-Nut Gum take off like wild fires.

Skippy had it's share of Nuts.....but Grandma J only knew about Skippy Peanut butter.

Of course everyone jumped on the peanut butter  and wagon, like Laura Scudder.   After a while she moved to Idaho...and you know the rest of the story.

Peter Pan had Wendy whip up some snacks with his brand of peanut butter. 

Big Top Peanut Butter decided to use lots of kids in their ads....literally!

There are other Nut stuff...like Grape-Nuts. 

Over the years the grape-Nuts evolved like no one's business.   Here is an example of a vintage Grape-Nuts ad....

The sucessful businessman knows how to start his day with steady nerves and a keen, clear brain with Grape=Nuts.......oh my, who knew?

OK, now we know the secret to our man's attempt at superior brain.

Grandma J isn't nuts done, she has a couple more really freaky odd peanut ads for you......
 
 

That's right...it's PeaNut Andy, Miracle Worker...  the mascot that never quite made it. So bad, so sad.
 
 
 

Here's Karo's ad for PeaNut Pie.   Thank goodness the world has been purged of these scarey babies!

Now, scoot on over to A to Z Mondays, hosted my Jen at unglazed to see some normal N foods.  And hey, it's never to late to join in!

A to Z Monday
....the edible edition

Brought to you this week by the letter M for Milk.

Do you remember the commercial catch phrase....Make Mine Milk?


Let's take a walk down the memory lane of Milk...in no particular order......

 

click on all photos to enlarge

Here's good ol' Elsie, the Borden cow. She tried her darnest to convince Rita that I'd love that powdered  stuff.  

Then, Elsie got a hair up her arse all clever and decided Hemo was way better than plain old milk. Kind of like the cat's pajamas.   What  the heck is Hemo?

So, while Borden's  had Elsie pushing  powdered milk or Hemo, the hired her husband Elmer to sell......

Glue!  Ok, so Grandma J is getting out in left field and totally off subject.....let's get back to the milk thing.

In the thirties and forties, evaporated milk was the rave.   You could store these cans in your pantry and never worry about them going bad until you opened them.  

Grandma J misses Fibber McGee and Molly....and please take note that Johnny Carson was known as Jack!

Now good old Elsie was pushing a trifecta, which now included bottled milk.  Homogenized or pasturized...who knew!

Then one day in the 1950s, the world was introduced to the Pure-Pak!  That's right, the cardboard box milk container.   The one that fifty years later would be considered un-green.

Of course the  milkman latched on to the Pure-Pak container and mothers all across the country had no problem letting their toddlers open the door for this guy. 

Meanwhile, our neighbors to the north, in the Canadian Rockies, had a much better take on the whole milk thing.

And where did they find kids with this demonic look for ads back in the 50's?   And I thought only Rita cut her daughters' bangs into little stubs like that.

Now, a question for you.......

 Have you ever seen a refrigerator/freezer like this before?   Grandma J wouldn't mind having this...even if it was turquoise.

Now mosey on over to A to Z Mondays, hosted by Jen at unglazed to see a plethora of other M foods.