The rack

It occurred to me that it was about time I shared some pictures of my apartment.

I have a lot of custom quirky details....

Like the rack

 There isn't really a lot of cabinets to put pots

and pans, so Dad had this installed when he was living there.

We lowered it and now this is where the pots,

pans and strainers hang out (get it?)

 In the background you can see my Turquoise and Butterprint Pyrex

and yes that is Pyrex in the cabinet!

At one point the kitchen was yellow...but Dad got sick of it

and had some faux finish done on all the wall and cabinets.....

I am not a big fan! lol

Oh well one thing at a time!

Be well!

I have a secret

I have a secret, it was in fact a secret goal....

I wanted to reach 1000 posts by the end of 2016....and well that did not happen!

It should happen by early February and there will be a giveaway.

I have no idea what I will give away....



On the way home last week, I saw this frame on the sidewalk....

 It appears to be an Amerindian print.

I found it quite lovely.

 I nearly brought it home but we have a lot frames, more than walls actually

I made some homemade perogies stuffed with cheese, potatoes

and caramelized onions

SOOOOOOOO GOOD! Really time consuming but

definitely worth it

Do you remember last years's post about my Dad and lemons?

He would've been over the moon because they were 3 for a dollar!

My Dad lived for cheap lemons!

See you soon!

What's New

I have been weeding out the Pyrex....What else is new? LOL

I have a new friend who is seriously addicted to Pyrex, I found her on Facebook...She has been very nice and very happy to buy some of my Pyrex.

 4 cups and saucers, Lime Pyrex dinnerware

 Vintage casserole, in box with pamphlet

Promo casserole with caddy. I like to call that one

Butterprint because of the roosters that are found on the Butterprint pattern.

It seems that spring has finally arrived in  Montreal!

We rushed to the hardware store

and got those sweet turquoise chairs....

replacing the ricketty and rotten ones Dad had before.

I can't wait to see the garden in bloom!

Stay thrifty, stay well

Queen of WHAT???

So we had quite a lot of visits this week...and we had 3 scheduled yesterday!

During the first visit, I go in the kitchen and I hear: Yes Miss V. is a Pyrex Queen! Is there anything sweeter to hear???
This made me feel so good, an acknowledgment that my Pyrex ways were A-Okay and even desirable!

I was really surprised that the agent knew about Pyrex and even more that Dan would broadcast publicly my love of Pyrex!
So this the display I decided upon

                                  I think that grey's perfect match is turquoise as in Butterprint.

I am really happy how this turned out!

Will this help sell the house???

I DON'T KNOW!!!

As always be well my thrifty friends and have a great week!

Packing and Displaying

Since we are painting the kitchen grey and white the existing

Pyrex had to go!

                                Of course I am thinking that I will miss my Pink Daisy Pyrex during the
                                transition. In theory pink and grey should work and does work but I wanted a
                                new color scheme and turquoise and white was it.

                                I will miss the Pink Daisy so much because I associate this pattern with my grandma
                                as I inherited her 045 casserole.
  

This will be the home of one of the new display.

It's not done yet so no pics!

Have a great night!

New beginnings

We did a lot of cleaning ,window washing, curtain cleaning, purging,shining,polishing over the weekend.

So I got to change one of the kitchen display

                                             Doesn't it look so fresh?

Thankfully these hardworking people were able to join friends and have dinner and deliver some Pyrex

                                           We were invited by Dan's sister in law for supper and what do you know she adopted a nest of bowl!

                                           

Old Orchard set in its new home

 

To tell you the truth I'm soooo tired, I need to turn in to be fresh for tomorrow :)

 

Sleep tight!

OUCH!

Well it had to happen eventually.....

Last Sunday while I was preparing supper....

I broke a Pyrex!

And let me tell you; it hurts!

This casserole had a sentimental value; my Dad had bought it for me at Brimfield...

You know, it happens so fast. I remeber I had something in my hand, some kind of veggie I believe.

I reached for the 1 pint casserole and next thing I knew it slipped, bounced on the KitchenAid

And exploded in mid-air after....throwing shards all over the kitchen and lodging some in my hand.

Ouch! I couldn't even see them, but I sure could feel them.

 
I picked up the bigger pieces by hand, then I swept the floor and finally I vacuumed.

The hamburgers were overcooked! LOL

Right after supper I was surfing the web and hunting for the very same casserole.

I found one from one of my favorite Etsy sellers Jen from Jen's closet . She is one of the nicest persons I've had the pleasure to 'meet' on the web.

Be sure to drop by for a visit and say hi!

As a matter of fact I just bought a new to me 471 1 pint Pyrex Butterprint casserole! YAY!

I'm looking forward to a weekend of floating in the pool (definitely), thrifting (hopefully), and sampling real Kansas style BBQ (please,please,please) not too far from my house. I will be cooking,gardening and reading too

Yay for summer!

Maybe I can squeeze in a post about some of my Pyrex ;)

T and B

Rest assured Pyrex fans this is not a naughty phrase!

This actually stands for Turquoise and Butterprint. Now these are amongst my fave patterns so I need to keep them handy!

Did I mention that I have Pyrex in the kitchen, the dining room, living room , basement, hall, garden shed,bedrooms and bathroom. This means EVERYWHERE!

So since I'm taking pictures of my Pyrex, it seems a good time to take inventory and rediscover forgotten pieces...

This is the new display in my kitchen.

I love having the Pyrex right there so i can use them all the time!

Butterprint refrigerator set and butter dish

Now I got the fridgie set in Maine in 2007, minus one small one for 10$

It was Dan who spotted it.

The Cinderella set was a gift from Dad (the original Pyrex soldier)

and so was the carafe. The carafe came from a thrift store near my Dad's house

that reeks of cigarettes REAL BAD! I often find things there but I have problems get rid of the smell on me!

Now I was really psyched and inspired by the Pyrex pic challenge!!!

I started cleaning my big wod armoire to `find` some lost Pyrex and some other stuff.

I'm the kind of person who opens a drawer and just stuffs things in it; so I need to clean every couple of months just to find important papers.

By the way Dan is just the same....LOL!

Have a great night

I'll be up bright and early and doing some cool Pyrex inventory!  

Totally Awesome Holiday Giveaway!

Now what do I want for Xmas?  A good job with good pay where they appreciate me and my work, to win a good chunk of money to repair the patio and dig around the foundation to waterproof it, more LLBean  flannel sheets, some Gap Heaven scent and  more than 100 followers!

And here's where you can help make my dreams come true good people of bloggyland (how's that for an intro?). So to all the people of bloggyland a holiday giveaway is upon you!

Here's what you can take home with you:

Here are some helpful things to help you get through the holidays! An amazing Heloise Kitchen Hints book published in 1963. You will learn how to make a wash and wear apron, a new way to make turkey stuffing and so much more! A small green restaurant ware tea pot, perfect for that afternoon pick me up, an Edlund  vintage turquoise can opener and last but not least a 443 Butterprint Pyrex Cinderella bowl.

P.SSSSSSS: I will add other seasonnal goodies to this giveaway!

Now here's what you have to do!

1) Become a follower                                       

2) Leave a comment ON THIS POST ONLY  

3) If you have a blog write about my giveaway   

Now just becoming or being a follower is NOT enough, you must at least also comment to be elligible.

I will ship all over the world, so everyone can join! How cool is that?

Contest closes on Friday December 3rd at midnight 

I will post the items I'm adding to the giveaway as I pick them. Even the people who already won can join the fun :)

Have a great evening!

YUM! Cream of Cucumbers!!!

As promised here's the recipe from my cream of cucumbers; it's especially good this time of year when we have more cukes than we know what to do with...At my local farmstand you could get 5 big cukes for a buck (talk about thrifty!)

This recipe comes from my good friend Josée and I don't know where she got it. I miss you Josée and I can't wait to see you!

Cream of Cucumbers

6 TBSP butter (I always use less)

1 small onion

3 cucumbers seeded and peeled (I always use more and if the seeds are small they stay in and the peel too!)

5 TBSP flour (I used whole wheat and nobody noticed)

6 C chicken stock

1 TBSP chives or parsley

Salt and pepper

1/4 tsp thyme and basil

1/2 tsp chervil (I use lovage)

1 laurel leaf

A smidgeon of ground clove

Melt butter in large pot, add oinion then cukes cook at low heat about 15 min. Add flour and cook 3 min.

Remove pot from heat and add 1 C of stock, stir and put back on the stove and add the rest of the stock.Season. Cook at low heat about 40 min, then remove laurel leaf blitz with your wand mixer.

I usually decorate the soup with chopped chives or chopped green onion. It is great hot or room temperature.

Enjoy!  And remember that everything tastes better in Pyrex!

More Projects Completed!

My oh my oh my! yesterday was magical. We were in the reno zone...so cool!

Ok this is the wardrobe before...One side pantryesque and the other for coats and boots. Notice the before color that deep burnt orange that says: hey! we went to south america and we feel the need to cover the whole house in terra cotta!

After shot. I really like the new panelled doors and that beigy,mocha,brown,khaki color.

Old light (I hate those! we have them all over the house)

New light (I'm totally in love with this one! I've been eyeing it for years now, it's from LLBean-love)

Also this is the toot my own horn moment, I installed it myself and Dan was the helper-I'm the resident electrician)

Our reward...

Lunch! There was some meat, but it was not in Pyrex....so not in the pic!

No blogging for me tomorrow, I'm off to the city for some bloodwork and the annual tit pressing (I hate this)

Have a great evening :) 

VTT: Pyrex Butter Dishes

Merry VTT to everybody!

I decided to post earlier this week. Something about the early bird...You know!

So today it's about the Pyrex butterdishes. I was so sure I had 8 of them. I looked and looked and turns out I only have 7. They only made 7.

They all were manufactured in the late 60's- early 70's. The patterns are (from the first pic) clockwise left to right: Old Town Blue, Snowflake Blue, Spring Blossom Green, Woodland,
Autumn Harvest, Butterfly Gold, and the classic Butterprint.

Do you remember when I wrote that my interest in Pyrex keeps changing?

Well The butterdishes are the perfect example! I had no interest for them until I realised the bowls were taking over the house...So I needed to find smaller pieces...Hence the butterdishes!

I love having one on my kitchen counter filled with a stick of glorious butter goodness! YUM!

For more VTT fun please visit Suzanne at www.coloradolady.com

Do you remember?

Do you remember the tomoto plant I saved from the garbage? Here it is...with 2 beautiful, nearly ripe tomatoes!

I'm so glad I saved it. I can't wait to dig in! With fresh basil and some bocconcini....Lip Smacking!

Second pic is the edamame (soy bean). I feel in love with edamame after eating some at a sushi place.

Last year the seed was sold out. I was lucky to get some this year. I get most of my seeds from www.westcoastseeds.com

I know it's far from my home (It's in BC!) but it's one of the rare places where they sell organic and unusual veggie seeds and so far so good I haven't had any problems with the seeds.

Soy is strange..The plant doesn't flower! And for the time being the pods are flat...to be continued.

Uncle Ben's....That was not a good idea,ok? I got this pouch of Uncle Ben's Bistro Express as a free sample. I love free food...not this one!

Roasted chicken and wild rice...pppppllllleeeaaassseee!

In the entire pouch i had 4 pieces of chicken! it tasted ok.

The rice was overcooked. It's supposed to be a complete meal (with veggies). It had shredded carrot in it. That's it. The taste was nothing to write home about....Am I spoiled?Probably since I cook most everything from scratch, but I would do the same when I was working.

I know it's being marketed for busy people but they could do better, I'm sure! So that is a 2 thumbs down!

Last but not least a pic of the super delicious supper I cooked last night....Grilled Japanese Steak Salad.

Very easy and fast. Here's the link http://food.chatelaine.com/Recipes/View/Grilled-Japanese-steak-salad

If you have a favorite teriyaki sauce by all means use it. I made sauce from scratch following this recipe. http://www.recipezaar.com/Teriyaki-Sauce-55859

I'm sure it would be amazing on chicken, pork chops,tofu.....And it makes enough that you can keep it in the fridge to use in other recipes

I gotta hop on my super bike (I named her Alice) to do the grocery shopping....I got big plans for the weekend....

Showcase Cupboard...OMG

Of course no pics! And the guy that's supposed to help me shop for a computer has not been returning my calls.....

And the tree guy hasn't showed up yet! I so feel like swearing now!

The cupboard is GORGEOUS! You'll eventually see a pic (eventually is a big word). It was a plain white melamine box before, but now it has a beautiful beadboard back painted the same tender green as the rest of the kitchen. The casing remained white. The edges of the shelves were also painted Corn Husk Green.

On the first shelf I place a Butterprint refrigerator set and a Turquoise one. Second shelf has a primary color refrigerator and some Pyrex party pans (lime,blue, and flamingo) and last but not least on the last one I put a 3 piece Turquoise bowl set (Pyrex of course). Now the only thing missing is a glass door....

It was the first thing I looked at when I came into the kitchen this morning! I love it! And I can hear the Pyrex singing!

Dan did a really good job!

Gotta go if I want to work a bit outside before the forcasted rain.....

Re-arranging

I do have a lot of Pyrex....but never too much! And I realized that I don't really use it in sets ( Even if I make the bowl set rotation in the kitchen...like a set du jour, or more a set du mois-I try to change the bowl set every month-not always working!!!)

I realized that I use my bowls in sizes: I cut ingredients for a recipe, I pull out a lot of small 501 bowls, bigger recipe bigger bowls (you get the picture? I'm sure you do!) So I decided to re-arrange my big armoire to feature all the 501s together, all the little casseroles....So far I have done only one shelf, but so far so good! Not working outside the house is pretty exhausting! LOL

And let's face it boys and girls I will have to start looking for work pretty soon :(

But I digress....

And thank you for asking I do feel better! lol

And I have finished season 2 of Angel...On to season 3!!!

I promise not to stuff myself with mindless tv. I will watch it in small doses (Only one or 2 episodes daily!!!)

Actually I have no idea if I'll be able to manage that....chukles...Is there a TV anonymous???? Or an internet anonymous???

Don't you just love the color of Pyrex? It still makes my heart sing!

But the collection takes a lot of place....Why, oh why didn't I fall in love with stamps.....coins???? something light and small???

Probably because I am so visual and the Pyrex colors and the patterns.... A true JOY for my color starved eyes.....Spring oh spring were art thou?

Ok my shakesperian spelling leaves something to be desired! Like all of you are so perfect!!!

LOL kidding,kidding of course you know I'm kidding....

Well folks, be good ,eat your veggies and above all be kind to your neighbors
(You never know they might have some Pyrex.....lol)

Hummmm Massena....

We should've known something was wrong when the U.S. customs officer said: Why you wanna go to Massena? LOL??? Euh....we are curious...we often go to Cornwall and we wanted to know what was on the other side of the bridge....

Well not very much it turns out! We saw a mall- you've seen a Walmart you've seen them all(and besides I was so NOT in the big box store mode!), I was in the quaint little village shop mode.....And the thrift mode....

I was all excited to find a St-Vincent de Paul store in the internet, so it was our first stop. It was as sad as the one in Verdun except that they give food to the needy (In Verdun you have to buy the stale bread and the expired cereal....). We parked the car after that, and nature called so we had to find a place for a pit stop. Road trip tip: I find that hotels have great restrooms and nobody looks at you funny!

Then I needed a coffee real bad and some food like biscotti or a piece of pie. I saw a delightful looking gift/coffee shop called Seasons. Great house, great gifts...They did have Green Mountain Coffee (Love the GMC!!!) but no food.....Disappointment! We had to avoid hypoglycemia at all costs!!! We had spotted a diner named Via Main so we popped by for some great chicken and rice soup. We didn't want to do the lunch thing right now and to tell you the truth Guy Fieri has spoiled me with Diners,Drive-ins and Dives because I have fantasies about these diners!!!

I tell you NO LIES ,there was nothing interesting on Main street even the Rite Aid pharmacy was just OK (I did find what I was looking for : Seabreeze facial astringent). So we got back to the car and on to the next stop (Another internet find) The Bargain Center!

Ok that was more like it! Like a ginormous garage sale....Tons of cool stuff at reasonnable prices! Dan got on of those wooden yellow yard rulers and I found a Corelle saucer for the kitties for a quarter. The down side of having a growing Pyrex collection is that most of what you find you already have it :( They was quite a bit of Pyrex : Verde casseroles( I have), Butterfly Gold bowls (I have), Butterprint bowls(I have), Snack server (it has been promised to me by my friend Celine).....The only one I didn't have was a promotional casserole Golden Pine 1961....3 dollars oh my!!! But deception....there was a big chip on the side so I left it. But the Bargain Center (545 S Main) is definitely a good spot for thrifting in Massena .

I just love that ying yang snack set with the rack! And what about that doll! How wonderfully tacky is it??? LOL

At 1 PM we had recrossed the bridge and at the Canadian custom the agent asked us where we had been....we went to Massena and she said "What for?" we were curious. "did you buy something?" Yes a giant ruler, a bottle of face toner and a saucer for the cats. She just laughed and wished us a nice day!!! We were glad to be back in Cornwall.....But that is for another post! LOL

Blood orange marmalade

First of all I want to write that last friday I made pulled pork in the slow cooker for the first time and it was AWSOME!!!

The first picture is of leftovers coleslaw and pulled pork. I had made some biscuits but we ate them all....That recipe is definitely going into the 'do it again' file!!!

Last week when I saw my dad, he was his usual generous self and gave me at least 10 pounds of blood oranges! I like blood oranges but with such a huge quantity I didn't want any to go to waste....So I searched the net for some recipes and I found a blood orange marmalade recipe that i decided to try. The recipe says to prepared 6 jars....what kind of jars did they want coz' I was only able to fill 4!!! I used the regular jam jar (1/2 cup).....That pissed me off!!! On the plus side it looks really good!
I included pictures of the process. I initially decide to cut the oranges with my el cheapo mandoline but I reduced the hald orange to pulp....So I used my trusty santoku knife (it's a farberware nothing expensive or fancy but a really good knife!)

The recipe just said to pour the hot marmalade into the prepared jars screw the lid on tight and inverse them. After to keep them in the fridge....I don't have place in my fridge :(

And I am really paranoid about bacteria in my canning, so I decided to process my jars 10 minute in boiling water. Can someone tell me how come I alway have renegade lids that don't snap???? 3 lids snapped and the other one not, so that is why in the last picture I inverted the jar- It helps with the snapping! If nothing happens ,that one will go in the fridge....

The loot....

This is most of it...I need inspiration to make the most of the dishes...lol

The first one is called Tulips (I call it Black Tulips) a 1957 cradled Xmas promo. I was not aware that it was so old. I tell you it is MINT!!! No scratches on the design..I did not know it came with a cradle...I got it in Maine ( a Pyrex hot spot...), it was on sale...9.00 (not too bad!)

Second one is a Town & Country casserole with lid (I think it is a 474) I did not have that size...8.00 minus 30%...cool 5.60! Yippee...

Next a 471 Crazy Daisy 5.00 minus 30%.... 3.50 cool..Did not have that size in that pattern

Last but not least...A 471 pink Butterprint! Ho man! How cool is that? 6.00 minus 30%...4.20! I had never seen one! And actually I saw it back in September but I could not make my mind..I was in Pyrex OVERLOAD!!! So I was lucky it waited for me....all dirty with a dead fly in it...LOL

I also picked up 2 small bowls with an unknown to me pattern, but I haven't taken a picture yet...Maybe tomorrow....:)