Recipe for Sleep

Dreamy Dinners Two: More Culinary Lullabies

This week’s episode of Recipe for Sleep, a podcast where we read you to sleep from very old cookbooks, we dip back in to Fanny Merritt Farmer’s vivid recipes.  We’re still in the first section of  "A Book of Good Dinners for my Friend, or, What to Have for Dinner.” Tonight, we continue to read from the first section, family dinners. Like good stories, each menu has a beginning, middle, and an end. From Huntington Soup, to Mashed Sweet Potatoes served in their shells, to Cheese Salad, (the best kind of salad, in our humble opinion, to Orange Tartlets with Meringue.
Place your worries in their rightful cupboards, yesterday’s for what has already happened, and tomorrow’s cupboard for what’s going to happen tomorrow, and close them up. You’ve reached that sweet, quiet time of day where all you have to do is close your eyes and listen Erin Brindley read you old cookbooks.
 
Evan Mosher is our sound engineer
 
You can find the original text here: What to Have for Dinner
 
You’ll find Erin’s own recipes and stories here: Thank Salt

Dreamy Dinners: A Culinary Lullaby with Fanny Merritt Farmer

Welcome to this week's episode of "Recipe for Sleep," where Erin Brindley, a chef and storyteller, reads from timeless cookbooks to gently lull you into dreamland. Join our community at thanksalt.com for more recipes and stories.
This episode takes us on a culinary journey through "What to Have for Dinner" by the legendary Fanny Merritt Farmer. This century-old cookbook is divided into three sections: family dinners, dinners for occasions, and company and formal dinners. Today, we'll delve into the first section, exploring multi-course family dinners that evoke the charm of yesteryear.
Imagine a serene kitchen in your mind, where old recipes unfold like gentle lullabies. Let go of the day's worries as Erin reads menus featuring delightful dishes like tomato soup, rib roast of beef, and apple charlotte. Embrace the cozy atmosphere and drift off to sleep, enveloped in the warmth of culinary nostalgia.

Attractive Menus to Fall Asleep To

At Recipe for Sleep, we find old cookbooks to be a restful place to put our minds as we fall asleep. Not only do we get to peek into the kitchens of the past, but sometimes, like this week, we get to imagine a life completely different from our own. Where our greatest concern is how to create a menu for a fancy breakfast with our friends that does not bore, even without the help of a caterer or a maid. Attractive Menus by Harriet Warner, published in 1916 addresses these and other pressing issues, such as the importance of snow-white linens, matching flower arrangements to your menu, and proper placement of silverware. Let us lull you to sleep with menu ideas for a lovely party.
 
Evan Mosher is our sound engineer.
You can find the original text here: Attractive Menus

Episode5 The Magic Way to Fall Asleep

Tonight, host Erin Brindley will read The Magic Way. The Magic Way was published by Magic Baking Powder and has a charming preamble before it gets to the recipes, lots of tips on baking cakes, and why Magic Baking Powder is the best baking powder. Really, sometimes you do choose a book by its cover, and this third edition, published in 1924, has the most darling cover, from the typeface to the flapper holding a chocolate cake. We’ll put a picture of it up on the Recipe for Sleep Instagram page, but don’t look at that now…I think you’ll remember tomorrow. Erin also has posted a wonderful recipe for Buttermilk Corn Bread at ThankSalt.Com, inspired by the recipe in this book. For now, turn the lights out, put away anything you were doing, and snuggle deep into your sweet covers. You’ve reached that sweet, quiet time of day where all you have to do is close your eyes and listen to me read you old cookbooks.
 
Evan Mosher is our sound engineer.
You can find the original text here: The Magic Way.

Episode 4: 300 Tested Recipes to Sleep to from The A.A. Cookbook, 1895

Recipe for Sleep is a sleep podcast in which we read to you from very old cookbooks until you fall asleep.  In this episode, host Erin Brindley lulls you to sleep with the first section of The A. A. Cookbook by Miss A. Alden and Miss A. Adams, published in 1895. This tome contains 300 recipes contributed by “Very Good Cooks,” and each one reads like a little poem. Fall asleep imagining steaming griddle cakes, whimsical desserts like “Apple Porcupine,” and “Blanc-mange to Please the Children.” Erin has adapted one of the ginger snap recipes, “Alice’s Ginger Snaps,” which is unique and very molasses-y, perfect for a cookie sandwich, available here: ThankSalt.com.
Evan Mosher is our sound engineer.
You can find the original text here: The AA Cookbook.

365 Desserts to Sleep To - The First Two Months

In this episode, Host Erin Brindley is going to send you to sleep with dessert. Reading from the first section of 365 Desserts, published in 1900, you will drift to sleep to dream of tartlets, parfaits, pies and puddings. So many puddings. Chicago Pudding, Paradise Pudding, and Little Princess Pudding. But it was February’s Chocolate Soufflé recipe that inspired the recipe we’ve published at Thank Salt, a light as air and deeply rich dessert. You'll find that at ThankSalt.com 
 
Published in 1900, the full text is available here: 365 Desserts
Evan Mosher is our sound engineer.
 

One Hundred and One Sandwich Recipes to Sleep To.

High up on the shelf of the Recipe for Sleep library is One Hundred and One Sandwiches, and we’re going to read from it, softly and sweetly, until you fall asleep. From giving butter a “violet bath” to making your own peanut butter “with a little sherry or port,” the recipes in One Hundred and One Sandwiches are an oddly soothing set. Host Erin Brindley will read you 101 variations on the sandwich, with themes of Fish, Egg, Salad, Meat, Sweet, Nut, and Cheese sandwiches. Published in 1901, author May Southworth’s details the nearly infinite variations of sandwiches. Inspired by the recipe for the Morrison sandwich, (chicken sandwich filling baked in a biscuit,) Erin has created an accompanying recipe at Thank Salt for Chicken in a Biscuit. Visit that here: Thank Salt
 
Evan Mosher is our sound engineer.
 
You can find the original text here: One Hundred and One Sandwiches

100 Good Apple Recipes to Fall Asleep To

In this sweet and homey first episode, Erin Brindley will read you to sleep from 100 Good Apple Recipes, an expansive compendium of all things Pomological. Written in 1915. Published by the Agricultural College Extension Service of Ohio State University, you will fall asleep to cozy recipes for apple puddings, pies, cakes, sauces, and why you should use Ohio apples above all others. You can find the original text here: 100 Good Apple Recipes
 
Erin has created a recipe inspired by all the amazing apple recipes: Apple Custard Meringue. It has all the things: Buttery pie crust, firm apples, rich custard, and marshmallow-y meringue. You’ll find it here: Apple Custard Meringue at Thank Salt.
 
Evan Mosher is our audio engineer.
 
This episode includes a quaint intro all about apples. If you’d like to skip right to the recipes, they begin at 6:50.