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Leah at Life with Lou is showing us (in exquisit detail) how to make her Magic Boxes, the greatest thing made from paper yet. This is wonderful–giving a gift IN a gift, and with total class.

From a 1954 Craft Magazine:

Every good cook has at least one recipe of which she is extra proud. It maybe a cake, a salad or main dish, but It IS sure to be one that she has individualized with her own idea of seasoning or flavoring.

Mrs. N.D. of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, remembered this when planning her offers of custom-made wooden plates and bowls, for customers. She, will design a plate to “fit” any recipe, and letter in any recipe of not more than twelve lines.

Such plates are especially popular for wedding presents and for gifts for bridal showers. The older, more experienced cooks like to think their tried-and-true recipes are apt to be a boon to the young bride; and the young bride is apt to think so, too.

“Heirloom” recipes are often used, too, to make an heirloom plate. More often than not, these are old-world recipes that have long been in the family.

Recipe Plate

Mrs. Davis chooses the decoration she considers most suitable for the special recipe, but she always gets the purchaser’s approval of the design before executing it. Usually the pattern chosen or designed is suggestive of the recipe, Naturally a Pennsylvania, Dutch recipe would call for design of quaint Amish children, or the traditional tulips, hearts and distelfinks of the Pennsylvania Dutch designs, while an old-world Dutch recipe might be surrounded by little Dutch boys and girls, and Dutch windmills. A recipe for cherry pie might have sprays of cherry blossoms around the border. And one recently designed for “Sour-Cream Chicken,” featured a pair of cocky young roosters.

Plates larger than the usual ten-inch ones are charged for accordingly.

If the plates are intended to be used as wall hangings, they are equipped with hangers, and a simple shellac finish is used over the painting. This will allow the work to be washed lightly. But if the piece is really to be used as a plate, it will be given three coats of waterproof finish, usually a waterproof lacquer.