1920's Apron

My Sister bought me the book "Vintage Notions" by Amy Barickman.  It's a tribute to Mary Brooks Picken and "The Women's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences" which she helped found.

It's a wonderful collection of articles, recipes, advice and patterns dating from around 1918 to the 1930's.  The books is such a fun read.  Lot's of this and that making it really easy to hop here to there in the book.

When I found this 1920's apron pattern I couldn't wait to try it.  So I bought some inexpensive bright feminine fabric and a happy contrasting bias tape....and hopped right in.  It's made from a yard of fabric folded on the bias and cut out paper doll fashion.  All edges are bound with the bias tape.  Then ties are sewn and attached...then voila!!!...cute little slip over apron!

Seleste agreed to model for me....umm...it's a little...no a lot large...but you get the idea!

...a little overlapping bow....

...scalloped bottom edge....

...I want to do this again!!!

Lately...

There have been so many thoughts going on in my head lately....maybe...just maybe...I'll write them here soon...but here are a few pictures of things from my life lately....and a recipe....

Byron knocked on the door and I answered to find him standing there holding a very agitated rooster.  I looked at him inquiringly.....He just wanted to show me how pretty the rooster was getting....Byron loves animals and that makes me happy...

....a close up of Mr. Rooster...

Byron bought me an easel for Christmas....I think he's not so subtly urging me to start painting again!!!  I do believe I will....and soon....I propped up a sketch I quickly did recently on it....Talia informed me, "I Luuuoove it!", and "Please!!! Can I have it!!!!"  That makes me smile. 

Yes, I am going to start painting and drawing again.  Really, I can't help but draw...I can no more resist a piece of paper and pencil or pen placed in front of me than....well....I don't know...No more than something anyway!

Seleste noticed some of the potatoes sprouting, so I told her how when we were kids we used to prop them up above water using toothpicks and let them grow in a window....I returned to find....Not one, but this.....

It's planting time here.  I just finished planting eight varieties of tomatoes, eight varieties of peppers, and four varieties of eggplant.  Byron and I planted the Irish potatoes outside as well.

These are the varieties we planted.  Really, It's planting time here!

This morning Byron made these yummy bagel sandwiches for breakfast.  See those beautiful navel oranges in the background?  I must say these are the juiciest sweetest oranges I've ever had, and they're right off our tree!

...Anyway....I want to give you the recipe for this breakfast sausage.  It's yummier and less greasy than other sausages and you can make it a lot cheaper.  I used pork rump roast.  I think it's also called Boston butt...anyway you use ground pork.  I ground the pork myself.  The meat cost $1.89 a pound and that's not on sale.  When our local store puts it on sale it's around $1.29 a pound.  Jimmy Dean at our local stores cost anywhere from $2.98 a pound to almost $4.00 a pound. 

Making this yourself and freezing it in 1 pound packages can save you quite a bit.  It you buy the meat on sale you can save anywhere from $1.69 to $2.69 or so a pound....hmmm....pretty significant.  I got the recipe off of the Internet somewhere and just jotted it down instead of printing, so I'm not really sure where I found it.  Here it is anyway....

Yummy Breakfast Sausage

2 lbs ground pork (you can use 1/2 venison or wild pig as well)

2 tsp Dried Sage

2 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Marjoram

1 tblsp Brown Sugar

1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I more than double this because we like spicy!)

1 pinch Ground Cloves

Mix it all up real good.  Use what you want and freeze the rest.

We like to use it in breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, white gravy, and dressings.  You can use it anyway you use a Jimmy Dean type sausage.  Try it.  I know you'll be surprised.

The Winter Garden and This Year....

This  year I hope you decide to grow something for yourself....maybe some herbs outside the kitchen door or a five gallon bucket with some cherry tomatoes or a tray of salad greens or maybe you will decide to plant a fruit tree in the landscape....Each time I walk in the garden there is a new surprise...a new lesson....a new disappointment...yes disappointment...everything doesn't work...often I try something several times before I am successful with it....all those disappointments make the delight of success many times greater!!! 

Cabbages are one of those things.  I've got growing these babies down pat now!  I think.....or I hope!

This is the ornamental ones from the front garden.  Their bright dots of cheer stand out among all of the dead foliage.  We've had a freeze (very odd) already and the tropicals are dreary shades of grey and brown.  They'll have to stay there and protect the roots until spring when I prune away all the ugliness and the new bright foliage emerges.  Grey and wet, that's the best way to describe our winter.  Thank God for the garden.

Lots of citrus still on the trees.  We pick as we need it.  The fruit keeps much better on the trees.

All of my garlic is up and growing....

The kumquats didn't fare very well in the recent freeze...so much for the predicted mild winter :-)

Broccoli!

....this is an example of delight after many disappointments.  I have never successfully grown Brussels sprouts.  Here is my first semblance of success.  I cannot tell you how delighted I was to see this.

My first try at red cabbages got off to a disappointing start.  They were attacked viciously by something...well attacked hungrily by something is more accurate.  I believe the vicious or hungry attackers were my chickens!

...and here is Delta modeling my very finished first afghan.  It's more of a lap blanket size.  Very time consuming...and heavy...and warm.....

....REALLY!  You ought to grow something this year!

I Hope...

...Your Christmas....

...was filled with friends and family....

...Sharing love and traditions....

...companionship and joy...

...advice and secrets...

...abundance to give...

...simple pleasure of just being and working together....

...experimentation and something new...

...pride in accomplishment...

...and unbearable cuteness!!! (our Delta's growing)

Our Italian fig cookies were made at Grandma Rivero's house and the recipe was similar to this one Italian Fig Cookies. 

When my Mother-In-Law was a very very young mother (17 years old) she lived on a street with quite a few Italian families.  My Father-In-Law worked on tug boats which kept him away from home most of the time.  Her Italian neighbors thought she was widowed and began to call her the "little widow".  They took her under their wing and shared their wonderful food with her and how to make it.

These cookies were made at Christmas time and for St. Joseph's altars.  All of the ingredients for the altar had to be begged for door to door.  All of the ladies got together and made huge batches of these cookies.  Each lady having their own responsibility. 

One day my Father-In-Law was home and all of the ladies were delighted to see the little widow "had a boyfriend".  Eventually they were learned that this was her husband and even many years later they laughed about the young "little widow".

Our filling included:

raisins

dates

figs

pecans

walnuts

orange peel

nutmeg

cinnamon

allspice

Steen's cane syrup

If allowed to dry a couple of days and then sealed, these cookies last up to a year!

...oh yes,  I like them dripping with icing and covered in those adorable dots.

This Saturday's Wedding

I so enjoyed doing the flowers for this Saturday's wedding...I love the delicate ultra feminine look...here is a pic of the filled silver tussie mussies the mothers carried....sweet...

The bridal bouquet was a teardrop of blue hydrangeas and white roses...um....um....I am so ready for the strapless look to exit the wedding scene...it's been ten years!!!...arghhhhhhh....something different please designers....designers?.....designers?....are you listening to me?!...anyway the bride was beautiful....

...the bridesmaids carried a swanky arm bouquet of callas and peacock feathers wrapped in gold ribbon...it reminds me of the '20's for some reason.....really like them....especially since it is a departure from the round pave' bridesmaid bouquet look....

This is the bride's son....he was an adorable stinker....I overheard this conversation....

...between him and this little girl....boy, "...I hate all this..",  little girl.." you bettah not say dat...you remembah what ya mamah said huh?...Let's go have a convahsation?!"  ...hmmm?  I guess his mammah had been having some convincing conversations about proper wedding behavior!   Oh, too cute....I adore, adore, adore, children in weddings......

...making sure the musician has his equipment set up and in working order before the wedding begins...

Simple delicate cake topper....I love this location for weddings...It's a shabby chic plantation home and an old church...The weddings take place in the house or the grounds and the reception in the church...huh?...but I love it!

...the giant old palms and cypress trees are breath taking...Looks like the groom is saying..."c'mon guys line up!"

...this is the front of the home.  These old plantation homes were designed to be seen from the Mississippi river when they were built long ago.  Now the levee blocks the view of the river, and the back of the house faces to highway.  If you climb to the top of the levee you can imagine how beautiful the view of the plantation homes must have been from the deck of a steamboat.

This particular home "Woodland Plantation" has the particular fame of being the home featured on the Southern Comfort bottle...

...there's also a beautiful swampy area complete with gators and snakes...ha ha...no really...there are gators and snakes....did I mention this place is kid friendly?...

...the ceremony area presided over by a great old Louisiana bald cypress...

...and a simple bouquet of blue hydrangeas to adorn the church....

Click here to see other wedding flowers I've done.

This Amazes Me

It's amazing how much food that can be grown with part time effort.  All of this is from my garden!  Much of it was grown with minimal effort. 

The citrus was as simple as planting a tree in the spring, giving it a little water every now and then during dry spells the first year, watering it during any extended dry spells the next year, spreading a little composted chicken manure around it twice a year, and when black soot appeared giving it a spray of neem tree oil once a week several times at twilight....and now....a beautiful tree that gives abundant fruit chock full of nutrition and goodness!!!!   I would encourage anyone to try it...

So much idle ground being mowed, trimmed, treated and fed...taking up time, effort, and money....why?  Your land has so much to give you...plant a seed....a tree....a plant......and let it give......

Green beans from the garden...(the frost last night has just about killed them....but oh what bounty while they lasted!)

...dried chili peppers ready to crush...

....PECANS!  (I have twelve gallons of pecan meat in the freezer right now.  I plan to make praline pecans as presents to teachers and friends....super yum...I'll post the recipe later.)

Pickled Cauliflower and canned green beans from the garden.  Super juicy yummy sweet grapefruit and navel oranges from the trees....

Green onions, green peppers, green cucumbers, and yes...potatoes!!! From the towers...I must recommend the towers...I'll tell more later.  There's my compost bucket.  I never chop anything without having my bucket ready....those are stalks of dried basil seed I need to save....

Summer stuffed artichokes from the freezer warming up.....

...and a very sweet and crisp cabbage freshly picked from the garden...

....my Mother-in-law and I made the most delicious venison sausage from two large roasts a cousin gave us.  This is soooo delicious...It is mixed with ground pork 1/2 and 1/2.  After figuring all of our expenses we estimated the cost to be $1.05 a pound....compare that to $3.89 that a local grocery charges for a similar product.

...there's plenty to store and plenty share...

....value the land....be nice to the land...and It'll will give to you....

Recent Harvest