Banana Salad Bazaar, ?1937

I like the seer specializing in bananas; a safe subject for seers.

Histories of grocery delivery

I was always impressed with the organization in the 1937 book The Alice Bradley Menu Cook Book: Menus, Marketing, and Recipes, where she says to keep an eye on one's staples "and order more" when needed, and where she lists something under "Market Order" every day but Sunday, with a much larger order for Saturday afternoon or evening. She says her recommended normal daily deliveries are for the most perishables, though she assumes all her readers have refrigerators so she includes items that will last long enough that way. She also mentions to substitute home-grown when available.

Here are histories of grocery delivery I've run across; I've not done research on this myself:
from Boston University: https://www.bu.edu/bhr/2015/02/01/780/
from Wikipedia with a fascinating though just 3-sentence-long worldwide history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_delivery

A homemade chocolate bar!

My current pandemic-time food suppliers don't carry chocolate boohoo, but then I found out how to make my own, and I adore it!!

homemade chocolate bar!!!

Stir together eg with a silicone spoon:

         ¼ cup cocoa powder (your favorite one; not Dutch process if possible which has a weird aftertaste and anyway has gotten rid of antioxidants)

         ¼ cup coconut oil at room temperature (I actually prefer for this a coconut oil that isn't super coconut-y in flavor, such as Whole Foods brand; but if I were going to make this a coconut chocolate I would use my favorite, Vitacost brand, which is nicely coconut-y) (note if you have coconut butter which is just a version of coconut oil that's a bit harder you may want to try it – I haven't – for a bit harder chocolate bar)

         1 Tblspn or a tiny bit more honey

         ¼ tsp vanilla extract

Spread out a bit on a piece of waxed paper large enough to fold over generously. Then fold over to cover and press out until pretty thin (maybe 1/8"). Score it a bit on top of the wax paper top with a table knife if you'd like.

You could even decorate it a bit at that point (with decorative scoring or, with the "lid" off, things like a few nuts and/or dried fruit and/or coconut).

Be sure it's covered nicely in its paper and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Unwrap and break apart and store with the same waxed paper torn apart keeping the layers separate. You'll probably have to keep it in the refrigerator.

Much adapted from eatbeautiful.net; they have a nicely detailed alternative I haven't tried that uses cocoa butter if you can source that. But I adore this; it tastes just like the chocolate bars I normally get but costs a fraction of their price! inc that it does not require those expensive moulds (which may not work great with such a thick "batter" as I think they're designed to pour in the chocolate).

A free general food planner in case your food is unusual nowadays

I'm not able to count on getting the ingredients for the vast majority of my recipes, but I'm having healthy and delicious food nonetheless, as I explained in my last post. However, almost all of the many food planners I had or had created didn't work with my current situation. So I've made a more general food planner that specifically includes the fact I'm having more smoothies nowadays, and also that we're all facing challenges. I just made it in black and white so I use as little expensive ink as possible. The planner is available free at https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z53F7EE29Pmp_8Yj-iKnEh14vauICgWW/view?usp=sharing ; feel free to change it and use it and share it in any way except don't sell it please.

How I'm dealing actually retro-ly with current challenges

I'm not young and all that enough to go out to get my own groceries, my old service is horrendously dirty nowadays, and yikes there has been horrifying crime in my area by at least one local delivery man.

So guess what, I'm having food delivered by UPS and FedEx. I tried meal kit services again after fiascoes of years ago, but they still didn't work for me. But I'm so excited -- I've found 4 that seem to work at the moment, and which are so good, and of course I'm so grateful to them, that I might continue them When Things Are OK Again! That's even more likely because I realized goodness I'm spending the same or less on food, and it's ever so much easier! My choices, available where I live in the USA (updated in July):

very basic foods like olive oil, grains, and I must admit sugar: Target

milk and eggs: a local milkman (yes, I am very lucky to have that possibility -- though my milk arrives at 3:30 am and greatly excites the cats who feel it necessary to come jump on my bed so I know creamy goodness they can't even have has arrived!)

(um, I did have a good fruit source but they started using dry ice rather carelessly and it made me sick)

(and I did have a good fresh vegetable source but they started having the opposite problem, having no chilling, so almost everything spoiled)

(so I'm looking into other options!)

Of course grocery delivery was extremely MORE common (at least pre-pandemic) say a century ago, wasn't it...though wasn't ordered online of course.

National Seafood Recipes, 1924

I love the subtitle! And who can resist recipes like "National Surprise" and "Fresh Snow Balls"?!

Diamond Walnut Recipe Gems, ?1970