Showing posts with label vintage finds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vintage finds. Show all posts

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Ingredient of the Week: Marshmallows

I picked this one!

I made green jello salad. 

I used to die for this when my Aunt Anne made it and I was fortunate enough to be there.


So sinfully good. It actually doesn't contain any jello. The green stuff is pistachio pudding mix.

A fun retro bowl for a fun retro recipe.

I am currently into faux cut glass. {The bowl is plastic in case you can't tell.} 

~

Green Jello Salad
 
1 box pistachio pudding
 mix
1 carton cool whip 

1 can crushed pineapple, drained

1-2 cups mini marshmallows

 
Mix pistachio pudding mix with cool whip. Stir until it all turns green. Add pineapple and marshmallows.  Stir and then chill. Serve chilled.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Buttermilk Coffee Cake

My first coffee cake!

Josh says he likes coffee cake. I wonder what he will think of this one. It's a pretty basic recipe from the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook.
   
Not bad.

 
Serve on 1950's dishes with coffee, and enjoy!

~

Buttermilk Coffee Cake
from The Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook, 12th Edition

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups (330 grams) packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup (10 2/3 tablespoons) butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 beaten eggs
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup chopped nuts

  • Grease bottom and 1/2 inch up sides of a 13x9x2-inch baking pan; set aside. In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs; set aside 1/2 cup. Stir baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg into remaining crumb mixture.
  • In another bowl combine eggs and buttermilk. Add egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Combine reserved crumb mixture and nuts; sprinkle over batter.
  • Bake in a 350° oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Serve warm.

Yield: 18 servings 

Calorie Content: 225 calories per serving, or 3.37 calories per gram

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Wednesday Haul Y'all


Black leggings covered in cat hair are pretty much my uniform.
 

One can never have too many prep bowls.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Pics of the Day

Flower arranging is not my forte. But I was super proud of this arrangement I made for my mom today.

She came over for Mother's Day and we ate French toast.


In other news:

 I've got my eye on you magnolia...

Friday, May 11, 2012

Haulin' Glass

A few glassy goodies from Thursday's thrifting haul:

Actually the decanter is from a different day, but I cleaned it up yesterday. 

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Coffee-Chipotle Oven Brisket

I have fallen a little behind with my cooking group. Last week's ingredient was coffee; yesterday I finally got around to making Coffee-Chipotle Oven Brisket from The Homesick Texan Cookbook.

It was a marathon cooking day. I made brisket, barbeque sauce, potato salad, coleslaw, and Pioneer Woman dinner rolls. I started out fresh and alert, but by 3pm I was pretty much disheveled.

Here's my 1 cup brewed coffee, for the sauce.

Spices for barbeque sauce.

Yay for my wonderful new vintage prep bowls.

I like this prep bowl too. It's Fire-King, one of my very favorite retro brands. It's holding ketchup, vinegar, lemon juice, worcestershire, and a minced chipotle chile for the barbeque sauce.

Here's the meat.
   
It cooked for 6 hours.

Coffee-Chipotle Barbeque Sauce

This sauce is good! I half-way thought it was going to be gross for some reason, but it was like my favorite part of dinner. {It's got a kick to it.}

~

Coffee-Chipotle Oven Brisket
from The Homesick Texan Cookbook by Lisa Fain

1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons chipotle powder
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 3- or 4-pound brisket, the flat cut, preferably with a bit of fat still on it
4 slices of bacon
1/2 medium yellow onion, cut into slivers
4 cloves garlic, cut in half
1 cup Coffee-Chipotle Barbeque Sauce (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 325° and line a baking sheet with foil.

Mix together the salt, black pepper, chipotle powder, mustard powder, and cumin. Rub both sides of the brisket with the spices. Place brisket on a large sheet of foil, fat side down, and top it with the bacon, onion slivers, and garlic. Wrap the brisket tightly in the foil, and then wrap it with another piece of foil to ensure that no juices leak out. Place foil-wrapped brisket on foil-lined baking sheet (bacon side up) and cook it for 6 hours.

After 6 hours, remove the brisket from the oven and let it sit in the foil for 20 minutes. After it's rested, open up the foil (be careful, as very hot steam will escape) and remove the brisket from the foil. Add 1 tablespoon of the brisket juices to your barbecue sauce.

To serve, take off the bacon, onions, and garlic from the brisket and cut slices against the grain. Serve with the barbecue sauce on the side. If you want a bit of a crust, place the brisket under the broiler 5 minutes before serving.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Coffee-Chipotle Barbeque Sauce 

1 tablespoon bacon grease or vegetable oil {use bacon grease, it's fantastic!}
1/4 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo, minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup molasses
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup brewed coffee
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Pinch of ground clove
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Salt, to taste

Heat the bacon grease in a sauce pot on medium and cook the onion for 10 minutes or until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.

Stir into the pot the chipotle chile, ketchup, tomato paste, vinegar, lemon juice, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, coffee, black pepper, mustard powder, nutmeg, clove, and smoked paprika. Turn down the heat to low and cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste. If it's too thick, add a bit of water to make it thinner. Will keep for 1 month in the refrigerator. 

Yield: 2 cups

Saturday, April 21, 2012

How to Yard-Sale

The yard-saling tips below are mostly based on this morning's yard-saling expedition, which included 5 stops.

~

Unless you just want to gawk at the pretty houses, avoid yard-sales in rich-people neighborhoods. They suck.

The sellers are not especially friendly, and they don't have anything good for sale. 

If you see community gates and out-sourced landscaping... 

 { Keep driving. }

You want to see country roads and old houses, beautiful in their own way in the 7am light.

You want a sweet little country boy, age 3 or so, to greet you at the chain-link fence and give you permission to open the gate.

You want to meet the grizzled older gentleman sitting on his porch who is parting with his jadeite coffee mug on your behalf.

{ These are all very good signs. }

Cattail.

Happy yard-saling!

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Cookies

Mom and I have been making Christmas cookies for the last two days.


We used recipes from my grandma's old Christmas cookie booklet. 

Cherry-winks.


Pinwheel cookies.


Cookie press win.


Cookie press fail.


We made tamales too. 


While I was over at my mom's yesterday, Josh was wrapping presents. This is what I came home to. 


So, a few weeks ago I found these vintage cookie tins at a local thrift store.


(Closeup of cuteness.)


Anyway, I'm seriously in love with these.


They're just perfect for our retro-fabulous cookies!

Love the sides.


Cherry-winks, pinwheels, icebox with pecans.

Cacoons, spritz.

Merry Christmas!!!


Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Simple Things

I love lettuce. I like to wash each leaf individually...



...And put the leaves in this here old-timey colander.



Then I like to tear it all up into little pieces...



...And make a big ol' dinner salad!

Monday, December 28, 2009

Vintage Things!

My mom and I have a thing for small-town thrift stores. We both enjoy rummaging through old dishes and knick-knacks, searching for something special. It could be a primary-colored Pyrex bowl or a peony platter. But for us, the holy grail is the vintage cat figurine. Well, I scored big this year.





These are from an antique shop in Mena...





...and this one is from the plant/consignment store in Mt. Ida. (They have plants outside and old stuff inside.)