Happy Thanksgiving

May your stuffing be tasty.
May your turkey plump.
May your potatoes and gravy
Have nary a lump.
May your yams be delicious
And your pies take the prize.
And may your Thanksgiving dinner 

Stay off your thighs.

Stay off your thighs.

Happy Sandwich Day!

Today is Sandwich Day because on this date in 1718, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich was born.  

 from Wikipedia

While the sandwich was named after him, there is debate as to whether he was the first to create and eat a sandwich.

Since today is Sandwich Day, I thought I would share some more recipes from my vintage Better Homes and Garden New Cookbook.

This is called a Choo-choo because the bottom crust is not cut so the bread is still coupled like a train.

I grew up reading the comic strip, Blondie.  So when I think of a sandwich, I think of this guy - Dagwood Bumstead.  He was created by artist Chic Young in 1930.  Dagwood could eat a huge stack of sandwich and in all those years, he never gained an inch.

from NewsRealBlog

Here is the recipe for the sandwich named after him.

I love how this sandwich is topped with an olive.  How appropriate!

from Citrellasmarket.com

I'm joining Suzanne and Vintage Thingies Thursday again this week. 

No Spam, Ma'am

Has there ever been a food product more maligned than SPAM?  Monty Python's Flying Circus used it in a skit.  Surely it was a zonk prize on Let's Make a Deal.  David Letterman quipped about SPAM-on-a-rope in case you got hungry in the shower.  

Like bologna, SPAM was another one of those "meats" I would not eat while growing up.  (I'm not about to start eating it now, either!)  The neatest thing about SPAM was the way you opened it.  There was a little key on top of the can that was used to roll a thin tin strip off the can which would sever the top from the can.  Mom would never let me open the SPAM.

Facts about Spam:

• SPAM was first created in 1937 by Jay Hormel who needed a way to package pork shoulder so it would not go to waste.
•  In a contest to name the new product, Kenneth Daigneau won $100 for his contraction of spiced ham.
• Since 1937, 7 billion cans of SPAM have been sold.
• People living in Alaska and Hawaii buy the most SPAM.
• 100 million pounds of SPAM were issued to the US, Soviet and European troops during World War II.
• Waikiki, Hawaii hosts the annual SPAM Jam. 
• SPAM has its own museum in Austin, MN.

 This is a cookbook of mine.  The copyright on it is 1953.  I love looking at the vintage pictures and reading the recipes used back then.  This is a picture from the cookbook.  Crown Roast Dinner from the Jiffy Cooking section. 

Here's the recipe.

  Crown Roast Dinner?  Really?  How can you think SPAM could look like this?

 from simpleanddelicious.com

Maybe that is why in this cookbook copyrighted some time in the mid-1970's (I lost the cover page!)...

the recipe was reworked and renamed.

The 1970's cookbook also has this recipe using SPAM.

It doesn't matter how you slice it - I'm not eating it!

SPAM facts gathered from www.butlerwebs.com/recipes/spam.htm and www.spam.com/

It has been a long time since I have joined my vintage loving friends at Vintage Thingies Thursday.  I'm going to join the party this week.   If you like vintage things, you will like what you see at Suzanne's.

While I WASN'T Blogging...

...I was spending a lot of time in the studio with Suzy Singer.  These are  a couple of things we put together.

This little half apron has a fabric flower pin at the waist that can be removed to be worn on a jacket or sweater.

The rick rack on this apron is two inches wide.  It is the widest  I have ever seen.

This cute little apron was made from an old pair of blue jeans.  Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will see the vintage hankie peeking out of the pocket.

There have been a lot of cute things coming out of the studio, so stay tuned.

My Ta-Da List

There are still many things left on my Ta-Da list, but I put a good dent in it this week.

Some cute pajama pants made from a vintage bed sheet.

 A couple of bags.

Some pincushions to sell at the shop.

Please note that this is "Finished" for Friday.  All of these things had been started and I finally managed to get them completed.

Some of the above items were packed in these boxes and shipped to their new homes.

Then I decided to do a little something for myself.

AHHH!  Nothing like a pedicure...

"Finished for Friday" is hosted by Lit and Laundry.

BZZZ!

Danielle at Hello Owl wants me to show you something I collect this week. I bet you would be surprised to see that I collect these:

There are many other bee things not pictured throughout the house and yard.  When I lived in Kansas, the license plate on my car was: "BZZNBEA".  

Bees are not the only thing I collect.  I love vintage, antique and retro so there are many collections around our house.  

Take a look at My Place and Yours to see if others collect the same thing as you.

My Place and Yours - Kitchen Love

Never in a bazillion years would I say "I love my kitchen!"  Some day it will be worthy of a spread in House Beautiful.  A kitchen with lots of fabulous wood cabinets, granite countertops, a farm sink, a butler's pantry, an island and all new Electrolux appliances.  It will also have light!  These pictures were taken mid afternoon with a flash.  Until then, I do what I can to make it a place in which I do not mind working. 

 

Don't you just love the "plastic" wall behind this counter top?  It also seems to be missing a refrigerator.  The refrigerator is stashed in the dining room.

I'm joining Vic and friends at Punky and Me.  Click here to see what others love about their kitchen.

Tuesday Tidbits - The Squatters and Room Progress

Not long after we moved into our house, Hubs wanted to see what was underneath the lap siding. He took two small pieces off of a corner of our back porch. Why he did not put the siding back is beyond me.
*You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them.


Last fall, we noticed bits of insulation and the heavy brown paper covering it laying on the floor of the porch. Something was making a hole where the siding had been. It was not long until there was a nice size hole in the insulation.


Then we discovered the culprits. A pair of Carolina wrens made there home in our back porch all winter. I call them The Squatters, Winnie and Will.

This past week, there has been a lot of activity around that hole. One of the birds coming and going every few minutes. It was Will bringing food to Winnie, who is sitting on their nest.

If you look closely, you can see Will sitting at the opening of the nest giving Winnie some food.

In the above picture, you can see Winnie with some food that Will just left with her.

Watching how hard Will has worked this week has made me think that female birds know the secret to having babies. Just lounge around at home and make the male do your bidding.

But then poor Will can not even get a good night's sleep. In the picture below, you can see poor Will with his butt hanging out of the nest trying to sleep. Shortly after I took this picture, he fell out of the nest and ended up spending the rest of the night clinging to the black tar paper beneath the nest.

On Monday, I noticed both Will and Winnie carrying food into the nest. I took a quick peek inside and found four tiny beaks wide open. Stay tuned for pictures of the Baby Squatters next week.

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If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know of the challenge I have facing me cleaning out an upstairs room. If you missed that post, you can see it and the pictures here.

I have made some progress in this room, but not as much as I had hoped. Part of the reason I have not been able to make a lot of progress is I'm not sure what to do with all the stuff stuffed into this room. I thought what I did not want would just go to Goodwill but there are a lot of things I no longer have a need for that are just too good to donate. So I decided to put a little more effort into the clean up and mark things for a yard sale.

Here are a couple of pictures of my progress so far. Like I said, it does not seem like much but you can see more floor.

Now I know you are wondering what wonderful treasures I have found while digging in here.

I found this vintage print and hung it in our downstairs center hallway.

These picnic baskets have found a home in my laundry room/kitchen.

I discovered this vintage lap tray.

It now hangs in my kitchen along with another lap tray that has been on my kitchen counter.


I knew my collection of vintage mirrors was tucked in one corner but I had to clear a path to them. Hubs and I spent Monday evening hanging them in our downstairs center hallway. I am so pleased.

There will be more...

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Hubs has been busy painting some of the outside of the house. I am so pleased with the new colors and I can not wait until it is complete. Probably not until 2011, but...