Congo Squares

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"Congo squares have all the crisp, crunchy goodness of Toll House Cookies with a taste you'll say is different and extra good.  They're a pleasure to make and a pleasure to serve... so rich and satisfying, so appetizing in appearance.  Delight your family's semi-sweet tooth with this appealing taste treat!"

I didn't read that pitch before making these bars.  If I had I would have caught on to the "crisp, crunchy" part and realized it really means "rock, bricky".

I had only seen the lovely illustration of the Congo line of treats.  Bar treats are never the texture of cement so I tried this recipe out in hopes of a chewy, moist treat.  I didn't set a timer (never do) and once out of the oven and sliced they were perfect!  The disappointment came in the next day when I retrieved one of these bars to discover I could use them now as hammers.  I figured it was my fault, I had overbaked them, and maybe that is still a bit of the case.  But now reading the ad, these are meant to be tooth chippers.  Mr. Husband has been treating them like biscotti and dipping them in his tea to eat.  I am not a fan of home-baked crunchy cookies so these are not worth the effort to me.  If you like eating cinder blocks here's the recipe:

Congo Squares

2 3/4 cup flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup shortening

2 1/4 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 cup nuts

1 package chocolate morsels

Mix and sift flour, baking powder, salt in a bowl. In separate bowl combine melted shortening and brown sugar.  Stir until well mixed.  Allow to cool slightly.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add dry ingredients, then nut meats, then chocolate morsels.  Pour into greased pan and bake at 350 degrees 25-30 minutes.  Yields 48 bars.  When almost cool cut into bars 2 x 2.    

 

New Shoes

 

Not these.  These are my old shoes.  I bought them probably 20 years ago at Target.  I didn't start wearing them until about 4 years ago though.  I loved the style and the star pattern but couldn't figure out what to wear them with...duh, pretty much anything!  I stumbled across them in the back of my closet when I was doing my Kon-Mari-ing, basically brand new, and they are most definitely joy sparkers.  I have worn them just about everyday since.  They started to get a bit ratted out, fabric splitting, over a year ago.  I decided that was fine, it made them look kinda punk rock.  Now though, the plastic sole is cracking and more fabric is getting skanked out, their grunge look appeal is heading toward crackhead skid row-esque.

They certainly aren't making these anymore so I had to take matters into my own hands!

I bought a pair of inexpensive black slip-on shoes from walsmarts (10 bucks).

Dug out my fabric paint, a star paper punch, old scrap vinyl, and a paint brush.

Here's an image of the process.  It's fairly self explanatory:  Punch out stars from vinyl, press stencils firmly onto shoes, paint with fabric paint.

Ooooh!!! Stary!!!

I worked on these off and on for a couple of days.  They were extremely fun/relaxing/therapeutic to do.  I don't make very many crafts (other than food) anymore since my house is already at max capacity.  For the past several years I do crafting that is for temporary use such as birthday or holiday decor.  I craft presents around the holidays for others but they aren't stuff that is my style. I do a lot of utilitarian  crafting to repair stuff or make things we need like face masks.  There's not so much in those kinda things that the process is enjoyable or even the finished product.  I think my Boston Terrier Paint By Numbers were the last involved craft project I have done, and that was a bit of a pain in the beginning with making the outlines and paints.  The fun didn't come in until the painting part. But these shoes were quick satisfaction from start to finish and cheap!  I love cheap.

☆   ☆    ☆    ☆   ☆    ☆    ☆    ☆    ☆    ☆    ☆  

Here's a bonus bit for this post. Back in Jan 2019 I helped a friend of mine run a craft class that was personalizing these same kinda slip-on shoes using fabric.

She charged like 50 bucks for the class with all supplies included.  As all are very much aware, I am a cheap skate.  There is no way I would have paid this.  These shoes are 10 bucks, the fabric can be remnants, so total investment is maybe 12 bucks.  But my friend has got a damn good stash of hip fabric so that could have been worth it to most.

This is just one box of several she brought:

Lots of cool stuff...comics, video games, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Disney, Universal Monsters, Nightmare before Christmas, Halloween, NASA....all of that licensed stuff.  Also believe it or not there are people out there that need help crafting.  She had like 20 people sign up!  

Here are a just a few of the crafted shoes I was able to get a photo of (click to enlarge):

Some people brought their our shoes also, as seen with the high top Converse with Wonder Woman.

I liked the way the shoe on the far left was done.  The crafter choose to cover the entire shoe rather than do a collage which makes it look "real".  The 'How -To' for this is just mod podge fabric onto a pair of shoes...that's it.  I have a feeling that over time the stars on my new shoes are gonna start flaking off (I think my paint may be 15 years old!) so I might try this technique to cover up the start of any skank shoe look!

BBQ S&P

I love vintage cute stuff that comes in an even cuter box! 

I bought these mini glass s&p shakers off ebay, probably in 2001.  Mine do not have faces on the chefs but I have seen others online that do.  The mini grill stand has a secret compartment under the grill top.  Not sure what could go there....  Maybe the Chef's secret spices!

 

Here is a scan of the box cover because I love it and figured others would too!

Medium Rare Meat Bull Markers

 

I can't think of what these are officially called.  They are for marking hamburgers/steaks on the grill for what preferences one may have: Rare, medium rare, medium, and well done.

That sounds like too much work to me.  I say you get what you get or have a bowl of salad. 

I bought these cuties as kitchen decor, not to nasty them up with raw meat anyway.

These picks were a very early ebay purchase I made probably in 2001...yikes.  I have had them for 20 years?!  I still love them!

BBQ Plate

 The plate I used for the Frito Party was all covered up with a hot dog...I mean, a glamour dog, and corn chips so the decoration couldn't be seen.  The plate is ceramic and restaurant-ware quality, being very hefty and hard to break.  When PB was younger it was his official meal plate because of this, also the separate food compartments were ideal during those years when kids don't want their food touching....and it's microwave safe! 

Frito Kid Backyard Party

 

August's Frito Kid Party Ideas for Kiddies (1954) suggestion is a Backyard Party!  Now, living in Florida we stay indoors from May til Dec because the weather is brutally hot. No backyard party is gonna be put on by the sane.  However, I love the aesthetic of vintage BBQ and used to collect various items around the theme so I was still smitten with this idea, we just moved the 'party' indoors.

The games for this party sound like fun and are very indoor friendly.  The refreshments call for "Fritos Glamour Dogs".  

What could it be?  Caviar?  Grey Poupon?

Refreshments all dished up.

Turns out glamour dogs are just hotdogs filled with primarily onions, cheese, and ketchup.  And are pretty darn tasty!

I used soy sauce as a sub for Worcestershire since that's what I had on hand.   I also topped the brownies with crushed Fritos because that makes sense.

In the next upcoming posts I am going to highlight some of my vintage BBQ items seen above because they are just too fun not to get some spotlight.

Golden Punch

While going through some old cookbooks of my grandmother's I came across this cut out recipe for Golden Punch glued to the inside cover (1980s?).  A couple of weeks ago I was discussing "punch" and everything in this one sounded tempting (along with I needed punch for August's Frito Kid Party) so I made this batch, getting to use it double posts!

I decided to use the ingredient list as serving suggestions for the amounts.  It's just punch, no need to get all technical with it.   I used:

• No Water
• 1 sleeve sugar free powdered Iced Tea with Lemon 0.23 oz
• Orange Juice with pineapple juice 52 oz
• No sugar
• 1 tbs grenadine (all I had)
• 2 liters sugar free chilled Ginger Ale

Pour everything together in a punch bowl, serve and enjoy!

My store didn't have Nestea (I think it's still being made).  I used to loved that stuff when I was a kid.  I would eat it like Lik-m-aid.

The punch was really good and the color would make it perfect for Autumn.  The weather is still boiling where I live during that time so an iced punch is ideal, but I bet it could be warmed slightly too!

The punch bowl and cups seen above belonged to my great grandmother.  The set was used for my mom's baby shower for me and I used it at my shower for PB.  If anyone was getting married, having a shower, a birthday party....my mom always put this punch bowl into service.  Looking through some old photos a few months back I came across my 13th birthday party and saw the trusty punch bowl on the table near the snacks.  The mugs are kinda dinky in size though, only holding like 1/3 cup.

Squirt Melon Punch

 

It's a new Bar-B-Q trick!

I found this image out in internetland so we can't reference "next page" for the recipes, our minds will just have to wander.

What constitutes as a "punch"?  Because all I did was hollow out a watermelon, pour a liter of diet lemon lime soda in and garnished it with melon balls and strawberries.  That's just not enough to be a punch.  Some other beverage or sherbet or juice needs to be involved.

Wait...wait..wait.  The next line says "Mixed drinks almost make themselves when you start with Squirt.  Experiment, you can't miss!"

A-ha!  It's some kind of rum infused Jungle Juice! 

That explains the bottom line of suggesting the kids make Squirt-kebobs and Squirtcicles, the parents are gassed and don't know what they are saying. 

If I made one of these for a party I'd have to keep an eye on my old pal Bernice.

She would think the whole "punch bowl" was her drink vessel,  adding a straw and then complaining about not having a cocktail umbrella for it!

Cheer Up!

I used this vintage green glass beverage bottle as a fake Squirt bottle in the past post and then realized it needs it own post.

Cheer Up

A Delightful Drink

A Real Super Charged  Beverage

Must be full of caffeine right?

 Nope.  Full of Lithium.

For Hospital, Home, and General use.

General use?!  What's that mean?

If my plants are looking a bit a droopy Cheer Up could help?

Squirt Bottle Box

Here is the little vintage Squirt Soda box I used in a previous post along with scans for your crafting pleasure: 

Ooohh! Recipes!

Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun! Fun!

If you don't like fun, then you better not drink Squirt.

 

Chocolate Charlotte Pie

 

I had half a package of Lady Finger cookies left over after the Frito Kid July party and then came across this vintage recipe that made good use of them!

The original recipe calls for making stove top pudding and adding gelatin to it and then whipping the topping...nope.  I just went with instant pudding and cool whip. I didn't have plans of cutting it into wedges and just scooped it into bowls, lunch lady style!

Frito Kid July 4th Party

 

July's installment for the Frito Kid's Party Ideas for Kiddies 1954 calls for a July 4th Party.  oh...woopie.

Fourth of July rates as my second least favorite holiday (easter taking gold).  Let me count the ways.  

1. It's so damn hot that I am sweating my nonexistent balls off.  2. It seems to be a day for the rednecks to be even more rednecky...It's not just "beef, beer, bbq"...it's also about blowing shit up for them.  Git er done with some illegal Alabama fireworks!  I pray every year for those fireworks to take out as many Busch beered grimy fingers as possible.  3. There is also the fact that blue is a hideous color...yes, fact.  Certain shades of blue are known to be so hideous they can cause the viewer to have a strong desire to relieve the disgust by means of removing their eyeballs with a melon baller.  Unfortunately our American flag contains this precise shade of blue.  

  So I was looking forward to this party spread just as little as May's theme involving prissy ass fairies. 

Let's get this over with:

The Spread, with minimal blue barf.

Ice cream on sticks dunked in crushed Fritos.  This is sooo good!

Fruit Punch, just a powder drink mix.

Lady Finger cookies...I gave them some Frito fingernails!

There you have it. 

 Eyeballs still in place. Rednecks in the ER.  Fritos in ice cream... It's a great 4th after all!

 Until next month!

Frito Kid Cowboy Party

From my 1954 Frito Kid's Party Ideas for Kiddies booklet I present June's Party theme: Cowboy Party! 

 Maybe Frito Kid's birthday is in June because this one is right up his tumbleweeded alley!

This party includes something new, a recipe for Frito Burgers (given below).

Yeehaw!  Sody pop in a tin cup, Frito-fied burgers, and panning for chips of gold!

So what did I do differently from the recipe, because you know I have to put in my own little tweaks.  I used ground turkey to cut calories, only it does have the tendency to be a bit bland.    I also used spicy ketchup in place of tomato juice.  I added some Tony's seasoning and some dehydrated onion to the meat before pan frying.  The grocery store was out of the bakery slider buns I had requested and subbed Hawaiian sweet rolls instead, which I had my doubts about.  I'm not a fan of sweet stuff on savory...only savory/salty on sweet.  I thought the burgers where surprisingly good even with the slightly sweet rolls.  All of that added salt from the corn chips helped the blandness, but I think the real flavor was courteous of the ketchup.  

That's a trick I will hold onto for the future. The corn chips didn't add any crunch since they are mixed in with the moist meat and they kinda sogged out by the end of frying, but not in a bad way, just melded together.

Now don't be a yellow bellied varmint! Treat your favorite cowpokes to some Frito grub from your own chuckwagon!

And till next time, Happy Trails Partners!

Pine-Applesauce Dessert and 16 year blogiversary

 

{Household Magazine April 1954}

The first recipe {see here} I posted on the first day of MhiCty 16 years ago was for "Pine-Applesauce Dessert".  Only I didn't give the recipe (click above image for that) or much less the name of the damn dish.  I was more memorized by the flower garnish made from marshmallows.  I still am!  So I thought it would be fun to have a do-over for this year's post, and include pertinent information...like what it tasted like!

Ta-da!  

This dish has a refreshing taste and is perfect to stave off the searing heat of the summer.  I decided to "healthy" it up by using sugar free on all ingredients other than the marshmallows, making it diet friendly.  

On construction: I am not too pleased with the lack of jelled consistency I got compared to the promise of firmly congealed bars presented in the original recipe.  The applesauce layer on the bottom deflates on the plate even after hours of chilling.  Their layers are precise and even but the reality is more of a slopped together look.  Those original bars look like they were cut with a laser while mine appear hacked out with a throw pillow.  And believe me, I worked to get mine looking presentable.  I layered them with a level (eyeballed really) and cut out the "bars" with a sharp Ginsu knife (a generic Big Lots version).  

The fault is not with me, that I know.  

Maybe jello was made of stronger stuff back in 1954.  Asbestos?  Who knows... but look at those marshmallow flowers!  They turned out perfect!

I have noticed a trend that for dedicated blog writers the "seven year itch" is about at the 15 year mark.  It kinda blows my mind that I have been doing this for so long and I don't have any intentions of quitting.  I am always coming up with things that I want to try, showcase, or comment on.  I started out doing this blog to be part of a community but most of those members jumped ship years ago.  I then shifted to doing this just for my own amusement and if anyone happens to stop by there's always some potted meat canapes and clamato punch they can snack on.  

I have mentioned before that this blog is my happy place where I put my best foot forward.  However when life is at a low I don't have the creativity or the motivation.  I am not good at faking it.  It's interesting to me to look at the number of posts that I do each year because it follows a trend in my real life.  When life is going well I am more creative and productive.  When my life is near rock bottom I just can't do this.  This past year has been bad for everyone in the world.  Even without covid happening it's been very bad for our family.  And right now I am not feeling it for "happy".  I don't want to besmudge MhiCTY with negativity so I will not go into details.  I am just formally putting it out there that posting is going to be sparse over the remainder of the year.

Oddly enough I have been toying around with the idea of starting a separate blog that is kinda the opposite of this one.  No pictures, long ramblings, and tons of bad mood.  It would be a place where I could also write about one of my passions which is stuff, decluttering, and the psychology behind our relationships to possessions.  But again, it would not be dusted, tidy, and shellacked like posts are around here. 

Ehhh... I doubt people want to read my incessant bitching unless it's topped with a shit ton of marshmallow flowers!

Frito Kid May Flowers and Fairies Party

This was the only party idea in my vintage 1954 Frito Kid Party ideas for Kiddies booklet that I had zero interest in.  It involved ribbons and pink and fairies and blah! Throw on a tutu and let's all be princesses!  Not my bag of Fritos.  

I almost skipped it but I do enjoy a challenge where I can take something lame and make it as excellent as I possibly can.  

There are no fairies that I like in the least so I decided to invent my own...Frito Fairies!  I gave them Frito colored paper wings, although I considered trying real Fritos in place (too weighty and a waste of a good chip!)

And for the flowers I used some of my vintage plastic blooms.

The menu is simple:

Peanut butter and jelly star sandwiches    Fritos     Lemonade   

Punch glasses of Lemonade (from a mix).

Star shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I added crushed up Fritos in the sandwiches and it needs to be the next big trend...Deeee-licious!