Month: August 2012

Hi! I can’t think of a clever title for today’s post.

Today’s blog is photo heavy, with a lot of those photos of being of clothes and other goodies. But first, here’s some of the veggies Mark harvested from the garden yesterday. We had a lot more the day before, but he used all of the harvest (broccoli, cherry tomatoes, jalapeno and Hungarian wax peppers, fairy eggplant) along with some new vegetarian Tofurky pepperoni that I picked up in VT over the weekend, in some delicious homemade strombolis! I should have taken a photo!

Oh!  I promised I would tell you about the best meal I have ever eaten!  I ate at The Clover House Restaurant in Colchester, VT on Saturday. I had the portobello mushroom ravioli and it was absolutely delightful I can’t think about it too much because I will get hungry and the pita, hummus, and carrots I am eating at the moment are no match. Locals, make the trip across the lake and check this place out!

I was so busy on Saturday that I didn’t get a chance to post my weekend haul of second hand goodies.

Here’s what I got: green dress with polka dot tie (80’s?), sea foam green and white dress (60’s), and three slips-thrifted. Scarf skirt, two lunch boxes, a pile of multi colored tights-yard sale. Not pictured: three Tom Lehrer records. Grand total: $12.

Here’s yesterday’s outfit:

And a close up:

I don’t know why I looked so damn grumpy in this photo. I wasn’t I swear! Details: black ruffled sweater-consignment shop, 50’s dress-gift from Dad, Jolly Green Giant tights-retail, Doc Marten Oxfords-online, black plastic beaded necklace-yard sale, ring-gift from Dad.

I wore this dress earlier in the summer and I think I liked how I accessorized it back then much better.

A close up:

Details:  the vintage green cardigan belonged to my Gram and my Dad and he gave me the vintage plastic purse a long time ago. My Mom gave me the antique necklace and the ring is new and it was a gift from my sister. The shoes are retail and are very old.

Maybe the grump face is because I didn’t like how I accessorized this outfit.  I think the black sweater and the Docs might have been comfy, but they didn’t do much to make me feel fabulous.  I do like the green tights with this dress, however.

Check out these lovely 60’s cat statues that I snagged for a buck at my favorite thrift shop!  My hydrangea is doing quite well too!

Speaking of hydrangeas, I forgot to post this outfit from last week. Here’s the outtake first.  I was attempting to get my full outfit and the hydrangea in the same photo.  As you can see, it didn’t happen.

A full shot:

Close up:

Details:  I really like yellow and grey together. 80’s dress and 60’s chiffon scarf – thrifted, 60’s tights-second hand shop, 60’s enameled yellow flower pin and 60’s yellow plastic ring-yard sales, shoes-retail.

Phew!  I am all tuckered out!  It’s been a busy week!  Last night we went out to dinner with friends and tonight we are traveling south about 45 minutes or so to see our friends and their new house and have dinner with them.  Tomorrow is going to be busy too, I think.  I need to wake up!

I forgot to take a photo of my hemp soap bag, so that will have to wait until another day.

I hope you are all having a splendid day!

 

If I had a nickle for every time the words “tomato and mozzarella salad” popped up in my site stats, I would have a bucket full of nickles. Heck, when you do a Google image search for those words or when you add basil to the equation, this photo comes up in the first and second row of results, respectively. In the vast land of Pinterest, the only thing that has been repinned from my site, is this salad. People dig my tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad!

Since this is such a popular post and the first time I posted about this salad was almost four years ago, so I guess a repost is okay. Besides, if you have a garden this year, you might be inundated with cherry tomatoes, basil, and peppers! I know we are!

Tomato, Basil, and Mozzarella Salad
2 1/2 cups of  halved grape or  cherry tomatoes (or you can use larger tomatoes, but chop them up)

1 bunch of fresh basil, chopped

1 container of fresh mozzarella balls (I used the small ones), drained

5 Jarred pepperoncini or fresh 2 Hungarian wax peppers peppers, seeded and chopped (optional)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Sea salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

First, wash your basil and tomatoes well. Veggie Wash is what I use. Next, halve (or chop) the tomatoes and cut up the basil. I find that using kitchen shears to be the easiest way to chop herbs.If you have some pepperoncini peppers lingering in the fridge, you can also seed them and chop them up to throw in the mix. Finally, add the mozzarella balls, giving everything a good stir.

I generously sprinkled the mix with sea salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Then I drizzled the oil and vinegar over everything. After stirring the salad well, I covered it and let it marinate for at least two hours.

This was good on the first night, but it was even better the next day as all of the flavors melded together.

And there you have it! The recipe for the most popular search teem ever, or well…in my blog anyway.

Have a great night everyone! I will be back tomorrow with some thrifted goodies, a hemp soap bag, and a mention about the best dinner I have ever eating in my whole life, no joke!

I love potlucks!  I wish I had more of them, but folks get busy and it doesn’t always work out that everyone can get together.  I was fortunate enough to go to a potluck on Saturday, but I didn’t have a lot of time to make something.  Also, I have learned from experience that it’s never a good time to try a new recipe out on a party or on company.  I am still shuddering about the cheese ball fiasco of the Christmas in July party last summer.

For last Saturday’s event, I made my black bean, corn, and tomato salad.  This is my go to salad for potlucks.  I also make a taco dip, but someone else was making one, so I decided to bring this.  I almost always have the ingredients on hand.  Here’s a photo of the salad on top of some tofu scramble that I had for breakfast this morning.  I usually like to put my tofu scramble in a flour tortilla, but I was scrambling to get out the door this morning and I didn’t have time to do that:

 

Black Bean, Corn, and Tomato Salad

(Note: This salad is very easy to double or triple.  Just use larger cans/packages of beans, corn and tomatoes, and more spices.)

1 (15.5) oz can of black beans (I use Goya)

1 (14.5) oz can of diced red tomatoes (I use Red Pack) or a cup and 1/2 of chopped fresh tomatoes.  I suppose you could use prepared salsa (or your own homemade salsa) but I have never tried it that way.

1 (10 oz) bag of frozen corn

1 medium onion, diced (I usually use red onions, but you can use any kind of onions you have on hand.)

1 envelope of Goya Sazón with Coriander and Annatto – scroll down, it’s the second product on the page (if you are doubling this recipe, use two envelopes).

Chili powder, pepper, and garlic powder to taste.

Mix all ingredients together and let chill for about an hour in the refrigerator.  Serve with tortilla chips.

You can add chopped chillies, fresh garlic, or bell peppers to this salad as well.  Also, I don’t add salt, because the Sazón has MSG and is pretty salty on it’s own.

On the fashion front, here’s yesterday’s outfit:

Outfit details:  Vintage “working woman” dress (I can’t place the age on this but I think it must be late 70’s, early 80’s), vintage 70’s red tights, (so old and saggy-baggy that I have to wear my undies over them so they don’t fall down!), vintage 60’s shoes- all thrifted.  The headband came from the dollar store and red plastic bangle was from a yard sale.

Gratuitous close up shot.  Dots! Stripes!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day wherever you are!  Tonight I am going to karaoke…but I don’t think I will be singing.  If I do though, I will be singing “Stray Cat Strut” by the Stray Cats.  I am a crazy cat lady after all:

Outfit details:  vintage 70’s Wrangler snap front shirt-thrifted, jeans-second hand shop, boots-retail, but very old, silver bracelet-gift from Dad, crazy cat lady plaque-a gift from a friend who snagged it at a rummage sale, Ox the cat-found on the side of the road.

See you later, blog friends!

 

 

 

 

 

Before I get started, I wanted to ask a question.  When I get comments on my blog, I try to always reply to them.  Does anyone see my replies, either by checking back in with the website or by email?  I am just curious, that’s all.

Mark and I have been taking it easy in the days since his Pop passed away.  I went back to work on Thursday and by Saturday, I was itching to get some second hand goodies.  I didn’t feel like driving all over the area to hunt down some rummage sales, so I went to one of my favorite thrift shops.  Here’s what I got:

Vintage Hawaiian dress (From Hawaii and it has a Tiki head on it!), late 70’s-early 80’s polyester “working woman” dress, 70’s polyester maxi dress (Someone invite me to a fancy party so I can wear this soon!), Lord and Taylor 80’s ruffled plaid shirt, 60’s psychedelic scarf, 60’s sleeveless polyester turtleneck, 70’s Wrangler snap front shirt (Ride ’em, cowboy!), 70’s nylon robe, and 60’s loafers (Brand name: “Fling!”) There is one more dress, but it’s going to be for sale so I didn’t include it in the photo.

Some kitchen goodies: two vintage pink Watertown Lifetime Ware melamine sugar bowls and a vintage sugar dispenser.

All thrifted for a grand total of $7!

Here’s the Hawaiian dress in action.  I wore this last night when I went to a potluck with college friends that I haven’t seen in almost 15 years.  I ate good food, laughed until I cried and my sides hurt, shared stores (and pieced together ones from the old days), and had a great time.  I made my black bean, tomato, and corn salad.  This is so damn easy to make and it’s my staple potluck dish.  It’s tasty and I almost always have the ingredients on hand to make it.  It even works well wrapped up in a flour tortilla.  I have a little left, so I will take a photo and put the recipe up this week.

Here’s an outtake.  I swear, the outtake photos are some of the best.  I call this pose, “Oh no!  I think the camera is going to fall!”  This damn photo cracks me up every time I look at it.  I made it my Facebook profile photo so I can look at it often.

Now, for some food talk.  I hate wasting food.  Absolutely hate it.  This is why I love to roast vegetables!  When they look like they are starting to go bad, I toss them with a little oil, spices, and roast!

I adore the flavor of roasted tomatoes.  Here are some store bought grape tomatoes that weren’t looking that great.  With our own garden about to produce more tomatoes than we can handle, I will be roasting a lot of tomatoes in then next few weeks.  There is a lot of oil left over so I am going to pour it into my salad dressing shaker bottle and see if I can come up with some sort oil and vinegar salad dressing.  Heck, it’s already seasoned with garlic, salt, and pepper!  Side note:  this dish is one of my favorite vintage Pyrex refrigerator dishes.  My mom gave it to me and it was my first refrigerator dish.  I have five pieces total now and I am always on the look out for more.  I could buy it on eBay or Etsy, but that’s too easy and I really enjoy the hunt.

This photo makes these carrots look burnt, terrible, and unappetizing.  However, they are very tasty!  I had a bag of baby carrots that were a bit dodgy, so I tossed them with oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.  Unfortunately, I was distracted when I was shaking it out of the jar and I poured way too much paprika on these poor carrots.  They taste great though!

Today has been a day of housework and grocery shopping and cooking.  I am flat out exhausted!  Right now I am in my cozy spot, oddly enough with no cats, blogging and listening to The Monkees on Spotify.  Thank goodness for Spotify because I am hearing some unreleased tracks and I am totally geeking out about them.  Anyway, after I got all my chores done, I took a lovely, hot bubble bath and put on this ’70′s dress that I bought for $3 two weeks ago at a thrift shot and forgot to take a photo of.  I just love this dress to itty, bitty bits!  Mark hates it.  It’s not something I would wear to work because I am sure I would get the sleeve caught on something and hurt myself, but it’s perfect for a evening of lounging like tonight.  Or, for twirling around and skipping barefoot through a meadow of flowers, which is secretly what I want to do when I put this dress on.

You know, for someone who has never been a big fan of the color blue, it’s been creeping into my wardrobe more and more lately.

Phew!  This is the longest and most photo heavy post I think I have ever done here!  I hope you all had a great weekend and are refreshed for whatever life has in store for you this week.

Have a great night and keep cooking!

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite things about summertime (besides rummage sales) are strawberries.  I haven’t been strawberry picking in forever and each summer I say I am going to go and I don’t.  Maybe next year I will.  My goal is to pick a bunch of strawberries and freeze ’em so I can have the delicious taste of local strawberries all year.  Supermarket strawberries are good, but they aren’t anywhere near as tasty as local berries.

I have been back on a wine spritzer kick this summer.  I got it in my head that I wanted to make wine spritzers with strawberry wine last week and I was delighted that my friend came over to try them with me and to have a little snack as well!

I served sliced radishes and cucumbers (both from local farms) with a sprinkling of Gorgonzola cheese, a splash of balsamic vinegar, some Himalayan pink salt and fresh ground pepper, and topped with a Nasturtium grown in my garden.  We also had some fresh Vienna loaf spread with butter.

Here’s a close up:

Interesting fact:  the spoon you see in this photo was my Gram’s.  She used it in her sugar bowl for as long as I can remember.  My mom recently gave the spoon to me and she said Gram used it for as long as she can remember too!  That aluminum coaster was also my Gram’s.  I have a set of six in a little holder.  They take me back to being a little girl and having to use coasters at her house.  If you come to my house, I will make you use a coaster too.  I am coaster crazy!  Perhaps it’s hereditary.

If you want to try to make these wine spritzers, just know that I tend to go a little heavier on wine than spritzer, hee hee.

For starters, I used this New York strawberry wine.  It was very good.  Next, I plucked some spearmint from my garden and tore the leaves up and put them at the bottom of the glass along with some sliced local strawberries.  I think this is where a muddler would have come in handy, but I don’t have one, yet.  I added a generous (look at the size of these glasses!) slug of the wine and topped everything off with about a half a cup of seltzer (although club soda would have worked as well).  Add a strawberry to the rim of the glass and you have one refreshing and tasty strawberry wine spritzer!

Here’s an outfit from a while back.  I haven’t been taking photos or doing much with myself since we found out my father in law was sick.

When I took this photo, I was melting!  Outfit details: robin’s egg blue cardigan-consignment shop, dress-retail, but very cheap on clearance, tights-retail, very old knee boots-retail, necklace-retail, baby tomato plants-volunteers from last year,waiting to be put in the garden.

Here’s a close up, because who doesn’t love a close up?

I love this necklace. I saw it on a the checkout clerk at the grocery store and I asked where she got it. I went out and got one the next day. It’s so darn fun!

I hope you are all doing swell, blog friends.  I still haven’t made my “crab” patties, but I plan on it soon.  Also, I have a new idea for fried green tomatoes, and heaven knows I have plenty of green tomatoes in the garden this year.  Have a great day everyone and keep cooking!