December 17, 1923

Whenever we dive into renovating an old house, we wonder if we will find any hidden treasures, be one of those lucky people that finds a bag of silver hidden in the floor boards. No such luck yet, but we did find newspaper used to shim up the floors. The 10" x 6" Plain Dealer sections give snippets of what was going on in world as well as locally, December 17, 1923. President Harding had just died in August, leaving Calvin Coolidge to assume the presidency. His political stumping for re-election was underway and we all know how affective that was. Billiards was a popular sport, recipes were a part of the news then, comics smacked popular culture and pre-TV soap operas were published to entertain readers. Some of the political articles could be from last week. The advertisements are a hoot, really, who advertises men's pajamas anymore, unless they are maybe the 1923 price of $1.69?

There's an interesting recipe for Potato Chocolate Cake, with the caption, "Here's a recipe that smacks of war-time."  I had to use a magnifying glass to read it, the font noticeably smaller, probably to save space. Wonder if anyone could have read it to make it?? Think I will try to make it when I get my kitchen back. Here's the recipe:

3/4 c shortenung
2 c sugar
1/2 c chocolate
1 c mashed potatoes
2 eggs
3/4 c milk
2 1/2 c flour
5 t baking powder (yikes!)
1/4 t nutmeg
1/4 t allspice
1/2 t cinnamon
1/2 cloves
1 c chopped nuts
1 t vanilla extract

Cream shortening. Add sugar, melted chocolate and mashed potatoes; mix well. Beat eggs separately and add yolks to the first mixture. Add milk and dry ingredients which have been....

Well, that 's the end of the recipe, the rest torn off onto another page. Wonder what happens to the egg whites??? Oh, well. Worth winging it just to try it.

We also passed the electrical rough in inspection.