Courtship is A Glimpse Into Paradise by Kristin Holt

by USA Today Bestselling Author Kristin Holt

Victorian Americans had a rather peculiar expectation about what marriage should (or perhaps, could) be. To the writer of this vintage newspaper article, Courtship was indeed "a glimpse into Paradise, where all is sunshine and love." The same writer, tongue-in-cheek, teases the young and foolishly in love.

This article so aptly fits with my current WIP (work in progress): The Silver-Strike Bride. I'm having a bit too much fun showing Caroline and Tom (newlyweds) that their glimpse into paradise was a bit of a lie. Their new marriage is in trouble, and neither quite knows how to correct matters.

Vintage Newspaper Article 

Part 1

 

Quote from within vintage newspaper article, The Meade Republican

Part 2

Part 3

Quote from within vintage newspaper article, The Meade Republican

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Courting Couples Play Games

Quote from Vintage Newspaper Article, 1891.

Part 8

Part 9

Isn't it fun to catch a glimpse of Victorian-American life through their newspapers?

What thoughts do you have as you read this vintage article? 

Have you seen behaviors such as those illustrated in this 1891 article in today's dating couples? Have you read historical romances with similar experiences with courtship and proposals of marriage?

by Kristin Holt

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Copyright © 2019 Kristin Holt LC

Victorian Rice Pudding Recipes

by Kristin Holt

USA Today Bestselling Author

I’m having a bit too much fun writing a New England debutante with adequate skills in the kitchen, now on her own as a newlywed bride in Prosperity, Colorado. Not only is her groom slipping through her fingers, but her every attempt to hold his attention runs amok. Including her desire to please him with her cooking. BTW, that current WIP (work in progress) is The Silver-Strike Bride, book 2 in Prosperity’s Mail-Order Brides.

My personal preference is historical accuracy, especially when the information is easily come by. Today I suggested to my heroine Caroline that she please her husband’s sweet-tooth with a rice pudding.

Why? Because she’d likely have the ingredients on hand, even that short distance from the busy mining city of Leadville. Vintage cookbooks and historical newspapers illustrate that cooks made rice pudding throughout the nineteenth century.

The following recipes are listed in order by date, beginning with 1828, and concluding with 1887 (though the inclusion of this longtime favorite continued indefinitely). Note the Victorian kitchen measurements (like wine glass and gill).

Rice Pudding, Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats, published 1828.

Rice Custards.

Sweeten a pint of milk with loaf sugar, boil it with a stick of cinnamon, stir in sifted ground rice till quite thick. Take it off the fire; add the whites of 3 eggs well beaten; stir it again over the fire for two or three minutes, then put it into cups that have lain in cold water; do not wipe them. When cold, turn them out, and put them into the dish in which they are to be served; pour round them a custard made of the yolks of the eggs and little more than half a pint of milk. Put on the top a little red currant jelly, or raspberry jam. A pretty supper dish.

~ Rice Custards, The Summit County Beacon of Akron, Ohio on June 1, 1859.

Rice Custards recipe--a bit hard to read. See transcription.

 

Plain Rice Pudding, The Indiana Herald of Huntington, Indiana on August 11, 1880.

Rice Pudding with Eggs, Common Sense in the Household, published 1884.

Rice Pudding, The Homemade Cook Book, published 1885.

Rice Pudding au Caramel, The Boston Globe, December 31, 1885.

Rice Pudding Without Eggs, Alabama Beacon of Greensboro, Alabama on June 21, 1887.

Are you surprised to see that homemade pudding, made with milk and sugar and rice, could be made to thicken without eggs? I am.

Don’t these historical recipes make your mouth water? (I suppose you’d need to be a fan of vanilla and creamy puddings like I am.)

Do these recipes seem manageable over a wood- or coal-fired stove? Please scroll down and share your thoughts about these recipes and frontier homemakers making and serving rice pudding.

Here are a few related blog articles you might find interesting (click on the image(s)).

Might you be interested in other articles I've written for Sweet Americana Sweethearts? See my page!

Copyright © 2019 Kristin Holt LC

Brief Victorian Engagements

by USA Today Bestselling Author Kristin Holt

We’ve heard the crazy stories were people barely meet one another and BOOM!—they’re married. Well, maybe we haven’t. It surely seems that with the “Mail-Order Bride” trope of Western Historical Romance, that the meet, court for half-a-second, and wed is the order of the day. But what about cases without a courtship by mail, or without a “Newspaper Bride?”

While writing (my current Work in Progress “WIP” is The Silver-Strike Bride, book 2 in my Prosperity’s Mail-Order Bride Series), I had a little too much fun discovering the angst and difficulties spawned by a couple so much in love that they wed quickly... only to discover that A) they don’t know their spouse well, B) they don’t know the other enough to manage, and C) the marriage that had seemed so promising and a “happily-ever-after” is rapidly failing. Don’t worry. This is how Romance Plots go. Hang on through the circumstances and difficulties, as this is hardly the worst of it. As with all (true) romances, this story ends with a happily ever after (though I respect that some niches within romance accept a “happy for now” conclusion). This series, set in a mining-camp-turned-fledgling town high in the Colorado Rockies, began with the bestselling novel The Bride Lottery.

Shortest Engagements

Have You Thought This Through?

At Least Engagements Can Be Cancelled...

The Daily Republican of Monongahela, Penn on April 21, 1897. Part 1 of 2.

The Daily Republican of Monongahela, Penn on April 21, 1897. Part 2 of 2.

It’s Worth a Chuckle

An engagement lasting twenty-eight years!... and the TRUTH about secret engagements.

Sometimes, Short Engagements are a Very Dangerous Thing

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We look back at the “romantic” time of the late nineteenth century, a setting we enjoy reading... and often see a mirror of today (because human nature hasn’t changed all that much). Isn’t it true that today we still see a couple who choose one another and find their parents disapprove. People still break off engagements. Some have lived independently or together for years of engagement, wherein it’s not uncommon for couples to raise children together (This wouldn’t have been acceptable by most in the nineteenth century.) And, unfortunately, scammers have lived in every century and in every county. More than one woman, then and now, have been hoodwinked into believing “they’re the only one.”

I assure you none of these glitches affect newlywed Mr. Thomas Hagenmeister and his new bride Caroline Grayson Hagenmeister. I genuinely love every part of the development of a romance novel, but for some reason, the segment of the plot where this husband and wife must discover who one another really is, beneath it all, has been a bit too much fun. (Both Tom and Caroline are secondary characters in The Bride Lottery.)

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Kristin Holt, USA Today Bestselling Author, writes Sweet Victorian Romance set in the American West. She writes frequently about Old West history and contributes monthly to Sweet Americana Sweethearts.

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