I bet you say that to all the wabbits….

Gee, ain’t I a stinker? -Bugs Bunny

I have a little family of bunnies living in my back yard. I think they’re incredibly adorable. However, if they start eating my plants, I may take an Elmer Fudd stance on waskily wabbits…

In other news, my dear sister visited today. Since I had the swanky new camera out, I decided to take a few “artistic” snapshots of her and of a bit of garden decor. Enjoy. Or not.

Pretending to have a green thumb.

I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden. ~Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666

Howdy,

I certainly hope everyone had a lovely long weekend, mine was full of productivity! Or, at least the illusion of productivity anyway. I worked half the day Saturday, then came home to an afternoon of yard work, assisted by a dashing and incredibly helpful friend who, thankfully, mowed the yard for me while I went about cleaning out a flower bed.

I’ve been meaning since I moved into my house to tackle this massively long flowerbed in my back yard- which has been choked to death by a couple varieties of ivy, weeds and a number of other unwanted foliage for goodness knows how long now. However, until this weekend I havent really had the chance. So, on Saturday I rolled up my proverbial sleeves and donned my dainty gardening gloves and went at it, fully expecting to end the afternoon with a clean slate of a flower bed. Boy, was I wrong.

The ivy and other vining plants which have had years to grow unmolested in the flowerbed had so deeply intwined and rooted themselves around every single thing they could were a complete you-know-what to pull out. I tugged and pulled, and tugged some more, and nearly fell on my backside several times. After several hours of work (with more assistance) I had only gotten about a quarter of the bed cleared out. sigh.

Sunday found us back to work in the flower bed, with more tugging and pulling, more of me cursing ivy and all its family members, and as of today- only half of the flower bed is cleaned out. I fully intend on working on it some more tonight as soon as I get off work.

On a much more pleasing note- I managed to bring back to life a really pretty hanging plant I had bought for myself some weeks back to put on my back porch from the hands of certain plant-death… I went away for a weekend after not watering it for a couple days without leaving instructions to water it with my mom who was coming by to feed my cat. So, I came back and it looked pretty much like it was clinging to life by a hair (or root?) However, some intensive watering treatments seem to have done well in getting it back to looking somewhat healthier.

Also, last week I planted my tomatoes and my pepper plants. I also had full intentions of building a raised bed to plant them in, but unfortunately I lacked both the skills and the money to purchase any materials I needed to build such- and, an advert put out on freecycle for materials didnt turn out successful. So, instead I pilfered through the piles here at the good old recycling center and managed to come up with several large stainless steel containers in which to plant most of my tomatoes and my wee pepper plants. I ended up with not enough room, so I planted four of the tomato plants over in a section of the aforementioned flower bed I had been working on.

Update:

So, I didn’t end up working on the flower bed tonight- but that was because I made a little side trip today after work which ended up finding me with two little flower boxes and a bunch of flowers to plant.

Soooooooooo I planted stuff instead. Here are the results, and a few photos of the tomatoes and things as well.

Tomatoes in the pilfered containers!

Cute little planter:

And finally, I now have Hydrangeas!!! Horraaaaaay!

Dude, it’s not that hard: Helping the Environment.

Perhaps I’m a bit biased in the whole environmental arena, being that I work for my family in an industry which makes recycling its business, but I am completely appalled on a near-daily basis on how completely apathetic most people seem to be when it comes to the environment.

Now, I frequently refer to myself as a “conservative neo-hippy” which I believe means, in a nutshell, that I hold somewhat conservative political views and that I don’t believe that you have to be a tree hugging, dread-locked, sandal wearing tye dyed fruit loop to care about the environment. On the same note, I’m also not going to buy into the climate crisis global warming hoopla, only because I’ve yet to see any realcompelling evidence beyond theory and hype to prove that so-called global warming is in fact, a man made deal. However, I do very firmly believe that what we have here on earth is a very precious resource and as custodians of this planet, we should do whatever we can to keep it around as long as possible.

Setting aside my own feelings on global warming, I recognize that as Americans we are inundated by the media with information on how to “go green” in an effort to curb the climate crisis. It seems, however, that despite the growing trend to actually care about the earth, the average American still seems to have a complete disregard for environmentalism in any form. Furthermore, as some companies step up to the plate to provide environmentally friendly, green products- other companies continue to wade us through the mire by producing products that are worse for the environment than they used to be. Every time we take one step forward, someone comes along to have us take two steps back.

Case in point: those frickin 100 calorie packs of things and other convenience foods. Instead of having one big bag of chips or cookies, you instead have one big bag of chips and cookies filled with lots of little bags of chips or cookies. The amount of extra waste generated there is nuts! In addition to that, you’re paying extra for less food! The fact that people actually buy these without thinking about how much more trash it produces is just insane. Beyond that, all these convenience foods that people purchase because they’re too lazy to cook is absolutely ludicrous as well. Go to the supermarket and all you see down the isles are boxes of things like ”its pasta salad to go.” Since when did it become so difficult to make pasta salad you need a BOXED MIX to make it? Have we become such a lazy, careless society that we can’t do something as simple as make a side dish without purchasing a box to do all the work for you? Gah. And besides the obvious amount of preservatives and other bad-for-you ingredients added into those things- the waste! oh, the waste!  But the continuation and growth of these types of items on the super market shelves just seems to tell me that there is demand for this stuff, which makes me wonder- are Americans just really self centered an uncaring about the environment and the impact they have on it, or are they just clueless?

For instance, I try to make an effort whenever possible not to use plastic shopping bags when I get groceries. I just don’t like having a billion of those plastic grocery bags floating around- because I refuse to throw them out unless I’ve used them at least twice, sometimes three times. Anyway, it always amuses me to see the confused, shocked, or curious expressions on peoples faces when I show up at the grocery store with my own shopping bag and say “no thanks, I can bag my own.” I’ve yet to see anyone else in my hometown use reusable shopping bags. (not that there aren’t others using reusable shopping bags, I just haven’t seen them around here yet) What gives, people? Reusable shopping bags are incredibly inexpensive- something like 99 cents a piece- and for myself, I never need more than two to carry groceries- and that’s on a day when I’m buying more than usual. You can fit way more groceries in two shopping bags than you can two plastic bags- plus the shopping bags usually have longer handles to fit over your shoulder, which distributes the weight evenly and makes them easier to carry. Instead of making 3 trips to the car to get groceries out, why not make one? Every single grocery chain in my town has reusable grocery bags for sale (even the dreaded wal mart) but yet I NEVER see anyone else using them. Do people just not know what to do with them, or do they just not care? I just don’t understand why this whole caring for the environment thing is so hard for people to get.

Here are some ways that I try to do MY part to be greener every day- these are things practically anyone can do, too. Its really not that hard:

• REUSE! Of course, I use the aforementioned reusable shopping bags. Buy 3 or 4. Keep a couple in your purse or car.
• RECYCLE- duh, this one is a no-brainer. Even my little podunk town has recycling facilities where you can take household items to be recycled. Besides the facility my parents own, there are several drop-off points in a variety of different locations where you can take your stuff. Through diligent recycling, you can lower your waste output significantly. I have maybe a bag of trash per week.
• Turn off the lights- if I’m not in a room, the lights aren’t on. It drives me crazy when you go by a house somewhere and the place looks like a frickin airport or something. Is there someone in every room of that McMansion of yours? If there isn’t, turn the light off! I sport a very tiny electric bill every month because of this.
• Turn down/off the heat/air:I have a dear friend of mine who despite living in a tiny apartment on the 3rd floor of her apartment complex still feels the need to keep the heat cranked up to like 75 degrees almost 24/7. It also only May and she’s had the darn a/c on already. The girls electric/water/sewer bill is the same or slightly higher than my electric/water/sewer/gas bill- and she lives in a way smaller place. What gives? She doesn’t turn the heat off when she’s not home, and she keeps it blasting. When I’m not home, the heat is off, and when I am home, its turned down and I wear socks! While other people are complaining about how high their gas bill is every month, I never pay more than 60 bucks.

Besides that, I try to buy products that are organic or are grown using sustainable agricultural methods. I know it isn’t always the easiest or cheapest alternative, but with the money I save on my electric and gas bill, I can afford to spend a little more money on better produce.  Also, I make it a habit to go to the grocery store every other day or so and only purchase what I can eat for the next couple days. It takes a small amount of planning and a little bit of extra time- but it keeps me from going to the grocery store once a week, buying what I think I’ll eat for the whole week, then throwing a bunch of it out because I didn’t use it, or didn’t get time to cook, or it went bad, or what have you. I waste so much less money and food doing it that way.

Well, I recon that I’ve managed to rant up here on this soap box for a right good while now… I’m gonna step down for a bit and hope at least a few of yall decide to maybe take a little bit away and start living just a teeny bit greener. It’s really not that hard.

 

Recent Purchases.

Hello everyone, its me again.

So Its been a few weeks, and I thought I ought to add something- so, here are a few recent purchases to place in the the antiques and retro file. First, I give you two new vintage tablecloths to add to my collection: They were a steal at $15 and $25- I think they’re lovely and very nice for spring/summer. I when I saw them, I couldn’t pick which one I liked best, so I decided to get them both:

I think the one looks awfully nice on my table. How do you like that wild paint color? I was looking through some vintage magazines and was inspired to use that color after seeing it on everything from walls to appliances to cabinets. I also have a 1940’s decorative planter in the exact same shade- so I went with it. Most people either love it or hate it. I happen to be the former.

In the antiques department, I’ve also recently picked up two lovely 19th century engravings- one, an 1847 godeys fashion plate. And the other, an 1850’s engraving of a young lady and gentleman stealing a kiss and trying to keep the kiddies from peeking. I think its adorable.

Also on the vintage front, I scored two awesome cookbooks- one is a c. 1930 “Meals: Tested. Tasted. and Approved.” This ones from the Good Housekeeping institute. No unapproved dishes here. The other is a fantastic 1950’s home economics book- it includes not only recipes, but how to arrange a kitchen (both a “normal” kitchen and a farm kitchen) how to select fruits and vegetables, how to be thrifty, and of course, how to take care of children!

While I especially love the absolutely disgusting recipes in these kinds of cookbooks- (ie: deep-fat-fried brains) I do also enjoy using the especially yummy looking recipes in these as well. So, For your cooking pleasure- here is a recipe I thought looked good from Good Housekeepings “Meals: Tasted, Tested and approved.”

Stuffed French Artichokes:

6 french artichokes

1 clove garlic

1/2 teaspoonful salt

1/2 cup grated cheese

2 tablespoonfuls olive oil

1/8 teaspoonful paprika

1 cup fine soft bread crumbs

Wash and remove the tough outside leaves of the artichokes. Cook them until tender, then drain and press the leaves loose from the heart, so that they will stand apart, but do not break them off. Meanwhile, blend the salt, paprika, grated garlic and oil. Also combine the bread crumbs and grated cheese. Stuff between the artichoke leaves with this cheese mixture and pour the oil mixture over all. Bake in a moderate oven 375 degrees F. for 15 min. Serves six.

I think I’d probably add a dash of onion powder and maybe a bit of season salt to the oil mix, but other than that- I think it would be pretty fantastic. If I was making this recipe, I’d also make sure to use a really high quality extra virgin olive oil. Its a good idea to use high quality ingredients all the time- but especially so in something like this.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy! I might try this soon and post a photo of the results!

By the way- my ever curious kitty says hello!

You say Toe-may-toe I say Toe-mah-toe…

Well folks, summertime is officially on its way. I have recieved my very first shipment of wee tomato plants for my garden! Tres exciting! I ordered these suckers from The Tasteful Garden, as I wanted a variety of heirloom tomatoes, and I found Burpee’s costs to be a little more expensive in comparison. Plus, I like that this place is a family owned operation as opposed to some big company. I ordered the “Heirloom Tomato Plant Combo” which includes 6 varieties of heirloom tomatoes the company selects for you. As this is my first time growing tomatoes on my own, I figured it would be kind of neat to just be given a random variety and I can experiment with what I like and don’t like. In addition to that, I ordered the  “Culinary Herb Set of 6″ which includes one each of basil, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary and mint.

My kitchen garden is starting to grow!…. pun intended! This is of course, in addition to the little heirloom variety bell pepper plants I started from seed back in February which are coming into their own now. I have no clue what varieties those are, as once again, I bought a “mixed bag” seed pack and just decided to see what comes up. On the front of the package was a peculiar looking mottled purple variety I hope decides to show face this summer.

Hopefully this summer wont prove I have a black thumb as opposed to a green one. This is really my first unassisted attempt at growing things on my own, so I’m kind of praying I wont muck it up too bad. The flowers I’ve planted dont look worse for wear, but I think they could be nicer. I’ll have to be extra attentive to my vegetables, especially as I have some seriously grandiose plans for canning this summer, which I certainly hope to be able to achieve. Speaking of canning- I’ve got some great plans for some interesting foodstuffs. I’d like to try my hand at a couple pickle recipes, including some oddball ones you don’t see every day.

A dear friend of mine and I were recently having beer and supper at a local Irish place and we got the opportunity to try pickled walnuts, which were placed in the delicate arrangement of his ploughmans platter. Before you crinkle your nose, they really werent all that bad! They were a little tangy and a little sweet with a blast of cinnamon and clove. Anyway, our curiosity has now been peaked, and we’ve decided to try our hand at making them. Apparently, they were wildly popular in the 19th century and are mentioned a number of times by Charles Dickens. 

In addition to that, I’ve got a recipe for your run of the mill dill pickle, and brandied peaches. I’ve always wanted to try those, so we’re gonna give it a whirl this summer! I also have salsa, tomato sauce, and vegetable soup on the canning agenda for the summer months. I am SO looking forward to it!

 

Vintage Kitchens and The Gallery of Regrettable Food.

Hey y’all,

Its me again.

Being that I’m STILL in the process of moving things from casa de mom and dad to my own house- I still havent managed to go dig out my digital camera so that I might take some pictures of my house as it is now compared to what it was when I first got it. So, in lieu of a gallery full of somewhat boring before and after photos, I thought I might speak briefly of some of my favorite collectibles and introduce you to one of my favorite websites.

I adore anything and everything having to do with vintage kitchens. Vintage kitchen appliances, utensils, mixing bowls, flatware… you name it, and I drool over it. One of my favorite websites selling vintage goods is Retro Redheads. They have everything you need to complete your vintage kitchen. I’m in the market for fun and cheerful vintage tablecloth, to go on my tres cool 1950’s chrome edged Formica table. I think that something along the lines of this incredibly loud, cheesy 1950’s souvenir tablecloth is just the ticket:

It would definitely go with the vintage souvenir plates I’m also overly fond of.

In addition to all the distasteful tacky ephemera I love, I’ve also recently started collecting vintage cookbooks (and one 1950’s home economics textbook). I’m not certain if I’ve started collecting the cookbooks so much for the fantastic recipes as I do for the cheesy illustrations and horridly unappealing food photography. Speaking of cheesy illustrations and horridly unappealing food photography- I must share with you one of my favorite websites.

The Gallery Of Regrettable Food is a website I found a couple years ago which contains some hilarious commentary on mid-century cookbook photography. Check it out. I wont be offended if you don’t laugh as hard as I do when I read through these things.

Even if the Gallery isn’t your thing, do check out James Lileks’ other commentaries located in what he calls “The Institute of Official Cheer.” For any other like minded vintageophiles, you’ll certainly get a good laugh from it.

Welcome!

Hey y’all,

Welcome to my blog! I’m relatively new to this blogging thing, so forgive me if there is some kind of protocol for introductory entries which I am unaware of. First of all, I’ll suggest that you read the “about me” page, which will give you some kind of idea of who I am. Second of all, I’d like to introduce everyone to my house, which I’m certain will be making a number of appearances here as I piddle about trying to get it fixed up. Forgive the poor photograph, someone parked in front of my house and I wasn’t able to get back far enough to take an adequate photo. I am incredibly excited about having moved in about a month ago. My house was built in 1947 and prior to my moving in, was only ever lived in by one family. As you will come to know, I’m a huge fan of 1940’s and 1950’s material culture, so my home suits me to a “T.” One of the biggest things I loved about the house upon moving in was how little had been done to it over the years in the way of remodeling. My house has retained much of its mid-century charm, with many of its original features in tact. While some might cringe at a 1950’s kitchen or bathroom that had never been remodeled, this is, or so I think, one of the best things about my house! I love my original Formica counter tops, my original cabinets and most of all… I love my late 40’s, early 50’s Tappan cook stove. My kitchen just wouldn’t look the same without that stove in it. That stove just makes the kitchen. Besides that, it still works, and it cooks great. I did have to buy an oven thermometer to make sure the oven was still cooking at the correct temperature- its about 25 degrees hot, but just a little adjusting gets things right. And I swear up and down that oven cooks things better than any other oven I’ve ever used! In my next blog, I’ll post some pictures of the inside of the house as I’ve gotten it fixed up.