Edith Adams' Cottage - Vancouver Sun

I am enjoying the regular special features in the Vancouver Sun marking its 100th anniversary.  Recently the Sun announced that it had set up an Edith Adams website on which it intends to post 75 years of previously published recipes and homemaking advice.  For those of you not familiar with Edith Adams, this is a fictional name given to the cooking/recipe/homemaking department at the Sun, which had a succession of editors, and the "Cottage" was their inhouse test kitchen.  This is a picture of editor Marie Moreau in the Cottage (picture from the Vancouver Sun website):

Many cookbooks were published under the Edith Adams' Cottage name which I think contained winning recipes submitted by readers.

I checked out the Sun's new website: www.edithadams.com and have enjoyed perusing the old recipe clips.  So far, they have posted mainly sweets:  cakes, candies, cookies as well as canning recipes.  Sure brings back memories of my mother in the kitchen.  Especially at Christmas time, Edith Adams' Cottage was regularly consulted for special recipes.  They published recipes in the paper weekly, and also had a phone line that you could call in which I remember my mother using.

To my surprise I came across the Edith Adams' Christmas Baking cookbook recently while helping my Aunt downsize the contents of her condo in preparation for moving to a seniors retirement home.

Here is the cover page and the table of contents:

 

 

Skimming through the cookbook, I see lots of recipes for fruitcakes (made in the days before the fruit was already cut up and before nuts were already blanched and sliced), as well as shortbread, old English plum pudding, cookie recipes from other lands including Russian, Finnish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, and Swiss, and then lots of bars and slices (eg Cherry Coconut Slices), rolled cookies, mincemeat, then lots of jello Christmas salads, cheese balls, dips and turkey leftover recipes.  Several that my mother used to make for the holidays.

 

At the end are lots of ideas for "Homemade Gifts and Decorations", including Creme de Winter Jelly, Wine Jelly, Jiffy-Made Yule logs, Christmas candles.  Also various "paste" and other curious recipes - newspaper clay, library paste, finger paint, scrap soap bath bags, and bouncing mothballs!

 

Does anyone remember these curious things?