I’m revising Modern Girls, and in the course of making changes, I’m doing a lot of research. So far I’ve looked at an early 1900s NYC streetcar map, researched Socialist speakers in the 1930s, and am trying to draw that fine distinction between a café and a club on the East Side. Of course, sometimes in my research, I get off track. Okay, often in my research, I get off track. And I find some truly random things. Such as these gems from an 1866 book of recipes and household tips:

Cooking with Snow

Shoot a Chimney

Lobster's Eggs

Playing with Rats and Mice

Ah, to think I’ve been running my household all wrong! Now to go play with rats and puts some lobster eggs on my cheeks.

From Jennie June’s American cookery book : containing upwards of twelve hundred choice and carefully tested receipts, embracing all the popular dishes, and the best results of modern science … Also, a chapter for invalids, for infants, one on Jewish cookery, and a variety of miscellaneous receipts of value to housekeepers generally

by Croly, J. C. (Jane Cunningham), 1829-1901

Published 1866