It's almost Spring???!!!

Well, I thought it was almost spring. My hyacinths and tulips have started coming up and the grass at the edges of the roads were getting green, then an amazing thing happened this weekend. IT SNOWED!!

We haven't had any measurable snow for several years now and yesterday it snowed most of the day but the temps were over freezing so there was not much accumulation.

Last night I was awoken by sleet hitting the bedroom window and I thought "oh no, ice" but sometime during the early morning hours it started snowing again and we had 6 inches!

Of course school is cancelled in the south if just one flake flies, but DH and I slipped and slid on into work without any problems.

I had bought some onion sets Friday with plans on getting them into the ground on Saturday, but it rained all day and now we have snow. But in Virginia if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute and it will change. This weekend we are supposed to be in the upper 60's!

I am so enjoying this snow! One last hurrah for Old Man Winter. (I hope!)

Linda

"NOS" and stuff

Good Morning, I have been a bad blogger lately but we have been so busy!

Last week while I was at the thrift store I bought a 1973 Avon craft kit for .50. So this past weekend I decided to put it together. The pattern had the fabric with the pattern already imprinted so all you had to do was sew it up, cut it out, and stuff and embellish. It turned out really cute.

His name is "Nos". The reason behind the silly name is when I told my son he was made from all vintage 1973 parts, he said (being a car guy) "Oh he's nos" I said "What?", he said "You know, Nos, new old stock". So that's the story behind his name. I will confess I felt a tiny bit guilty about cutting up and making a mint, in the box, vintage pattern, but I got over it. And I did have the good sense (for a change) to cut a paper pattern of all the parts before I put it together so that I can make another one sometime.

I have also been doing some growing!

Here are my tomato seedlings! I am so glad they came up well. I saved my yogurt cups to start them in. I have heirloom Brandywine, Big Boy, and Beefsteak. I also have some peppers that are just beginning to come up too. It really gets me anxious for spring!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

TGIF! Good Morning everyone!

When I was little and stayed at my Grandparents house one of my favorite things to do was play paper dolls. And not the kind of dolls that you bought and cut out, mine were cut out of the Sears, JC Penney and Montgomery Ward catalogs. I could hardly wait until a new catalog would come out so that I could have the old one to cut up.

Believe it or not, I saved all my paper dolls from the 1970's! Tuesday when I was home sick I thought about them and went searching and sure enough I found them. Opening the lid to those boxes was like taking a trip back in time. I saw so many of my "old friends".

Check out those 1970's clothes! I love them!

This particular model, modeled for many years and was my favorite, I thought she was so beautiful (and still do)

I also loved the dolls dressed in long dresses. I especially love the lt blue dress third from the left. I would so wear that now!

Look at all the "patch work" clothes. I really like the patchwork dress on the little doll near the center.

Showing ones middiff was even popular in the 70's, but not at my house! Though I do like that red bandana fabric skirt.

Look at all the pink and check out the wide legs on some of those pants along with the ever popular mini skirt!

Do little girls still with paper dolls anymore? I played with mine until I was a teenager! I would cut out the dolls with the outfits I liked, then I would show my great aunt and she and I would get the fabric and make them!

For more fun show and tell head over to Theres no Place Like Home http://kellishouse.blogspot.com

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Friday Show and Tell

TGIF! Welcome to Show and Tell! Every Friday Kelli over a http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts show and tell. It's alot of fun.

This week I would like to show you some books I have by my very favorite author Della T. Lutes.

I first found these books when I bought The Country Kitchen at a thrift store several years ago. I was hooked after the first chapter! All the books except Gabriels's Search are about the author growing up in Michigan during the 1880's. And all the books center mostly around food and life in the country.


Here is an exerpt from The Country Kitchen about her father's birthday which was January 1st.:
"Times when my father felt most English there would be roast beef, this was not often owing to the fact that beef was not easy to obtain on the first of January. A great pan of beans, baked, nice and white. Pumpkin pies were most in evidence, since this was my fathers favorite - pumpkin custard with thin, golden-brown tegument over the top like cellophane covering for a pixies bed. Yeast bread, salt-risin' bread and "riz" biscuits filling the large, sunny old kitchen with a warm crusty fragrance which, mingled with that of roasting meat and spices released from fruity jars, teased the appetite almost beyound endurance. And into the kettles, timed to the hour of need, went the potatos, onions for creaming and the Hubbard squash for steaming".


Does that not make your mouth water!!! If not, how about this:
"Flanking the caster and adorning the table here and there were dishes of brandied peaches, apply jelly, grape jelly, dill pickles, mixed mustard pickles, and piccalli, all in fancy dishes of glass or majolica."


These books are full of down home, country living and Mrs. Lutes isn't stingy with her food! Throughout the book there are the recipes or "receipts" for many of the dishes written about.

Now you can't just go to the bookstore or library to find these books as the are out of print. But, they can be found time to time on Ebay. They are definitely worth looking for!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weeked!
Linda

Tasty Thursday Peanut Butter Jumbles

If you like gooey, salty, sweet treats, than this is the treat for you! This recipe whips up in just a few minutes and if you serve them warm with a cup of hot chocolate, you'll think you have died and gone to heaven.

Peanut Butter Jumbles

1 cup sugar

1 cup white corn syrup

1 cup peanut butter (make sure it's from the safe list!)

1 teaspoon vanilla

6 cups Chex cereal (I used wheat and corn)

1 cup salted peanuts ( I didn't have any, but they're better if you use them)

1 cup M & M's

Pour cereal and peanuts in a large bowl. Set aside. Heat sugar and corn syrup together. Bring to a boil and boil for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter and vanilla. Pour over the cereal and nuts, then add the M&M's. Mix together and put into a 9x13 pan lined with tin foil. Cut while still warm. YUM!

Enjoy!

Linda

Weekend Fun!

Good Monday Morning! Hoping everyone had a great weekend.

My sister and I always celebrate our birthdays together as I was born on January 22 and she was born January 20, almost 5 years later.

This isn't a very good picture of us. She is on the left and yours truly is on the right holding our birthday brownies. Neither of us are very big on cake, so I made some brownies and peanut butter jumbles. (I had the peanut butter way before the recall!) I will post the recipe for the Peanut Butter jumbles on Thursday.

Last Friday I went back to the estate sale but the other cookbooks were gone:( Oh well, it just wasn't meant to be. However, I found this little elf there!

I think he's cute as can be, but Yngwie says he looks evil!

I am starting Jazzercise tonight and am really excited about it. I would like to lose about 10 pounds but would be happy just to lose some inchs off my waist. I'm getting a little too big for my britches!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Linda

Friday Show and Tell

T.G.I.F.!!!!! What an odd week weather wise this has been. Starting with icy road conditions on Monday and today it is supposed to hit 60 degrees! I'm all for that warm weather!

Kelli over at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts Friday Show and Tell and it is so much fun!

Today's show and tell is some cookbooklets (is that a word?) that I bought at a yard sale a few weeks back.

I almost love the pictures of the front of the booklets as much as I love reading the recipes.

I really love the "lady" in the red cookbook in the top left corner. Little body, great big head!

There were about 60 of the booklets and I paid $10.00 for them, which is high for me. But I have enjoyed looking through them so much, it was worth the price. BUT! There were two more boxes of these cookbooklets at the sale that I didn't get. Guess What? In the paper today they are advertising again! So, at lunch today I will be heading over to see if those two boxes are still there because I have $20 in birthday money that is burning a hole in my pocket!

Hope everyone has a great weekend

Blessings

Linda

Tasty Thursday

Happy Thursday! See that silly looking little girl in my blog header? Well, she happens to turn coughcough48coughcough today! Funny, I still feel 16. But trust me, I don't look it!

Today's tasty treat is Sweet Raspberry Muffins. These were soooo good. Even dear son who claims not to like raspberries, liked them. As a matter of fact he said they were "Rockin"! So I think I will call them:

ROCKIN' RASPBERRY MUFFINS:

2 cups biscuit/baking mix (I used Bisquick)

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 cup cold butter

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup raspberry jam

Glaze:

1/2 c. confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons warm water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract.

In a bowl, combine the biscuit mix and sugar. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the milk just until moistened (batter will be thick). Spoon about 1 tablespoon on batter into 12 paper lined muffin cups (I used a decorative muffin pan with no paper cups). Top with 1 teaspoon on raspberry jam. Spoon the remaining batter over the jam.

Bake at 425 for 12-14 minutes or until lightly brown. Cool in pans for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine glaze ingredients until smooth. Remove the muffins to a wire rack and drizzle with glaze. Yield 1 dozen.

YUM YUM. They really are rockin' with a cup of hot tea!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Linda

Picture Tag!

Linda C over at http://linda-seasonsoflife.blogspot.com/ tagged me for a photo challenge! She said go to the 4th folder in your picture file and post the 4th photo is there.

Ok! This one is going to be weird to most.

This is a photo that my son downloaded. It is of Stevie Ray Vaughan, whom my son claims as the great guitarist on Earth, ever! He was doing a report for school on him in the 6th grade (he is now a junior) and the photo is still in my folders. I think it may be time to do some cleaning up of my picture files!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Linda

BRRRRR!!!

Here in Virginia we must hold the record for breaking records! This Saturday when I got up it was zero outside!!! It was so cold that when I went out you could see ice crystals forming from my breath. My aunt called and said it was -3 at her house. Typically we are around 32-34 this time of year.

But this morning when I got up the thermometer said 30. So I was thinking..YAY! Heatwave! That elation only lasted until I got in my car to come to work. Usually it takes me about 30 minutes to get to work. This morning it took an hour and 30 minutes. The roads were solid ICE! There was a light dusting of snow on the road and I thought it was just snow, but no! Ice underneath. They had closed off the main road so I turned down a side road which was very slick, but had very little traffic and I had 4 wheel drive and made it ok. My girlfriend called and said she was about 15 cars behind me. By the time she turned off on the side road someone had wrecked on that road and they closed it too and told everyone to go home until ice melts.

But here I am, fine and dandy at work, thank God!

I thought I would show you the cutest apron that I found at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago.

Lets Twist! Is that not the cutest apron ever! Only $2.00!

I have been working on my "happy" shelves for Valentines day, but they're not ready yet!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Linda

Tasty Thursday

I don't know about you but our weather lately has been pretty dog gone cold! Here is SW Virginia we have mostly moderate weather conditions but todays high was 30 degrees at 7:00 this morning with the temps dropping into the teens as the day progresses with a windchill in the single digits! Now that's cold for us!

So on a day like today there is nothing better than a stick to your ribs dish to serve your family. Last weekend I made Boston Baked Beans from my 1956 Betty Crocker Picture cookbook and it was declared a keeper by my family!

I got it this fall along with the book on the left at an thrift store. I love the photos in it. They are so bright and colorful.

Boston Baked Beans:

Soak overnight in cold water: 2 cups of navy beans that have been washed and picked through.

Simmer in same water until tender (1-2 hours).

Drain and save the water. Place in a 2 qt bean pot in layers: (and I just happen to have my husbands grandmothers bean pot!)

the drained beans, 1/2 pound of salt pork, and 1 sliced onion. ( I used what was called side meat in the grocery store and sliced it.)

Combine: 3 tablespoons of molasses

2 teaspoons salt

1/8 teasooon of pepper (I used much more)

1/4 teaspoon dry mustard.

Pour over beans and add just enough of the reseved liquid to cover the beans. Cover and bake. Now this is where I didn't read ahead on this recipe. It says to bake for 8 hours! I only baked mine for two hours and that was plenty of time! I also added a little more of the reserved liquid during the cooking time.

*** Cathy reminded me I didn't mention a temperature. Bake at 300 degrees.

Let me tell you these beans were out of this world good! Thick, slightly sweet and sooooo tender.

I served mine with Savory Cheese Scones which I highly reccomend. You can find the recipe over at http://mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com/.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Linda

More Little Dolls

Last Friday I went to an estate sale that was close to where I work, during my lunch. The house was full of the most beautiful things, but WOW were the prices high.

But as always, I was able to find a few things in my price range that I couldn't live without!How cute are these??? Teeny, tiny little dolls in a teeny, tiny high chair and strollers! The dolls themselves are about an inch long. They are now sitting on a shelf in my sewing room to make be happy when I look at them.

And with the dolls was this: It has a picture of Natural Bridge (an attraction in our area) and says Seat of the Nation. I about died laughing when I saw that in the bag with the dolls. The lid even opens.

You never know what you will find!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Linda

Show and Tell

Good Friday Morning!

Kelli over at http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ is hosting show and tell. It is so much fun to see everyone's treasures.

This week I would like to show you one of my oldest cookbooks. It is the White House Cookbook and mine is copyrighted 1899.

Apparently, this is what the White House kitchen looked like in 1899.

Throughout the book, on the blank pages, someone has written recipes in a penmanship that has long been sent to the wayside. The writing is faded so badly on most of these pages that you really can't read them.

There are lots of cutouts and recipe cards in the book as well. I love it when I find hand written recipes.

Now since it is a cold, wintery day, I leave you with this recipe to fix for your family this weekend. Direct from the White House Cookbook!

Nothing like some stewed frogs to excite your family!

Have a great weekend!

Linda

Tasty Thursday- Tropical Pie

Welcome to Tasty Thursday. It is my plan to post a new recipe that I have tried each Thursday.

I love old cookbooks. Especially the ones from the 1950's. They are always so colorful and bright and the photos of the food make my mouth water.

Look at the cover of this book:

Don't you just want to kiss that little fellows chubby cheeks? And those doughnuts! Don't even get me started on doughnuts as they are one of my weaknesses. This cookbook was put out by Crisco in 1949. There are so many yummy sounding recipes in it that I had a hard time deciding which one to make. However, when I saw the picture of the tropical pie, I knew that was the one.

Tropical Pie:

1- 9" baked pie shell (I used the pillsbury ones, because they are better than MY homemade)

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup flour

1/4 tea salt

1 1/4 cup milk

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup orange juice*

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon grated orange rind

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Meringue:

3 egg whites

1/4 cup sugar

Maraschino cherries

shredded cocoanut**

Combine sugar, flour, salt and milk. Cook over hot water until thick. (about 20 minutes). Beat egg yolks and a little of the hot milk muxture and return to the first mixture stirring constantly. When thick remove from heat. (about 5 minutes.) and add orange juice, lemon juice and grated rind. Place in the baked shell.

When filling is cool, top with meringue made by beating egg whites with sugar until stiff peaks form. Place of pie and decorate with cocoanut and cherries. NOTE: I put the pie back in the oven on 400 degrees and cooked my meringue until lightly brown, about 5 minutes.

* I used a fruit called minneola's instead of oranges. They are a cross between a tangerine and a grapfruit.

** I did not use the cocoanut.

This pie was absolutely delicious! It was very light with a more citrusy flavor than just a lemon pie. It would be perfect for a hot summer day.

Hope you give it a try!

Blessings

Linda

The Foxfire Book

Having grown up in the country and having both sets of grandparents living on farms, I have always loved books about gardening, animals, and homesteading. When I was about in my early 20's I discovered the Foxfire Books.

The Foxfire project was the brainchild of Eliot Wigginton, a high school teacher at Rabun Gap High School in Georgia in 1966. His students would interview the older folks in their region about the "old time" ways and how they grew up. This progressed into a magazine that was published by the students, then became a series of books beginning in 1972. There are now 12 of these books.

As you can tell from the photo of my copy of Foxfire One, it has been one very well used book! There is a wealth of information in every book. Everything you would want to know about self-sufficient living. There are chapters on gardening, how to cane a chair, how to build a log cabin, make soap, recipes, plant lore, you name it! There are also some "mini" biographies of some of the people they interviewed and they are so interesting to read. It continues to amaze me how these people thrived and lived with only their natural resources and very little to no money.

One of my favorite chapters in this book is Home Remedies. Some of these I am pretty sure I WOULD NOT do, but they make for interesting reading:

Bleeding - Place a spider web across the wound.
Chest congestion - Wear a flannel shirt with turpentine and lard on it all winter.
Colds- Drink whiskey and honey mixed. (We did this when I was little!)
Cramps - Turn you shoes upside down before going to bed.
Croup- Render out some mutton tallow, add beeswax and place it on the back underneath the victims shirt.
Earache - Roast cabbage stalks and squeeze the juice into the ear.
Sty- Run the tip of a black cats tail over it.
Bee Sting - Put moist tobacco on it. (This works, we did this when I was little too.)
Nosebleed - Hang scissors, points up, on your neck.
Sore Throat - Take a sock you have worn inside a boot for almost a week so that it has a bad odor and tie it around your neck.
Warts - Steal a neighbors dishrag. Wipe it across the wart then bury it in the woods.

The one I find most interesting is for Burns - Find a person who has never seen their father and have them blow on it. My Grandmother told me when she was little that her mother would take her many times to blow on burns, as my grandmothers father died before she was born. She would also be called to blow in babies mouths when they had thrush.

I highly reccomend these books and I have found that most are available at our local library and they are also still in print, so check out Amazon!

Blessings

Linda

Spring Fever in the Dead of Winter

It happens to me every January. The seeds catalogs start arriving in my mailbox and I start dreaming about those beautiful, abundant weed free gardens that I will have come spring. (Remember dreams are different from realities!) This is a few that I have gotten so far and I have already ordered seeds from Baker Creek. This is a new seed company to me but they have been in business for some time. They specialize in heirloom seeds. Their catalog is just beautiful and filled with the most unusual vegetables.

I had to have this blue pumpkin/squash. Isn't it the cutest thing? I also needed these:

Unfortunately we have 3 more months of winter weather here. But Mother Nature keeps teasing me with days like yesterday when it was in the 60's! So I walked out to the vegetable garden which looks like this:

and the rose garden that looks like this:

But next month is a good time to put in fruit trees and we have decided to plant 2 more cherries, 2 apples and 2 plums. So I spent some time marking out where I wanted to put them.

So, how is your gardening dreaming coming along this winter?

Blessings

Linda