I have always complained about my black thumb with houseplants. Last year, my friend Jennifer looked at the rather pathetic specimens around here and advised me that her mother, who has the most fabulous plants, waters them with coffee. i thought that was interesting and then forgot about it til a couple of weeks ago. My basil plant, which I had brought indoors when summer was over, is near my sink, under the fluorescent under-cabinet light. It was doing ok for a while but the leaves were getting smaller and smaller, as they do with insufficient light (or so I thought). In a moment of desperation, I poured a cup of diluted leftover coffee into the plant and now I wish I had taken a "before" picture. Within a few days, it started to grow new leaves and they were normal size! Yesterday I snipped off the top leaves and used them in my pasta sauce. You can't believe how amazing this is!
Snowball Salad
Thoroughly blend a 3 oz. pkg cream cheese, 3 tbsp mayonnaise and 1/2 cup of chopped nuts.
Fill cavities of (canned) peach halves with the mixture; put two halves together with toothpicks. Roll each peach in cocoanut and arrange on salad greens. If desired, serve with whipped cream.
Standard Cream of Vegetable Soup
2 cups vegetable pulp
2 cups thin white sauce
Cook vegetables till tender, drain and press through coarse sieve. Combine pulp with white sauce. Serve hot.
The second piece of ephemera was a menu from 1955. My parents had taken us to Washington D.C. and we had apparently eaten at this place. I wonder if it still exists.
And here are the specials of the day. Read it and weep.
9 comments:
Those recipes are hysterical!!
I think the boy/man is on the cover because he's being served a slice of the cake--why else would the gal bake?! Too funny! I've used coffee grounds mixed with potting soil, but never watered with coffee...will have to give it a try. My plants periodically suffer from benign, and sometimes not so benign, neglect!
I have never tried the coffee technique so I will have to give it a try. My kitchen faces the south, so my window gets a lot of sun. I bought a basil plant a few months ago and put it in that window, and it has been growing like crazy. I have had to put it in a bigger pot once and it needs to be transplanted again. I know that if it weren't for that window and all the lovely light my plant would be dead. I hope that yours continues to perk up and do well. I love using basil to cook with too.
Save one of those filets for me, please. I had to take Sewing and Foods, as well. The latter is where I picked up my lifelong hatred of tuna casserole. The caramel toast was good, though.
Honestly ladies - have you or anyone you know ever voluntarily eaten tomato aspic? I remember first learning to make this as a child in Brownies in Canada - thought it was maybe some strange Canadian thing, and you sure weren't gonna get me to eat it - but then when I was back in the States in Jr. High home ec, here we go again with the aspic., where I decided perhaps it was some socioeconomic class thing that didn't apply to me.
But how 'bout that jug of wine for two for 50 cents on that menu? Now we're talking!
Reading the recipes, I had the odd sensation of laughing and wanting to throw up at the same time.
Any thoughts on using espresso with the plants?
I will have to give the coffee a try, maybe my bird of paradise plant will decide to bloom- something it hasn't done in several years.
I would have to agree about the recipes, none of them sounded particularly tempting to me. But I sure could go for that 50 cent wine!!
Those recipes are so funny. I'm reminded of my nursing school patient care procedures book, which includes things like "turpentine stupes," a supposed cure for chest congestion.
I haven't used straight or diluted coffee. However, I pour my coffee into a pre-heated carafe after it has brewed, and used to save the hot water from the carafe I used to warm it up, and watered my plants with it once it had cooled. The coffee adds some acid to the soil, and a lot of plants are acid-loving. That might be why they are perking up... better than straight tap water!
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