Snacks, Scenes, Shopping

December 5th, 2009

December has arrived. I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone by! Winter arrived promptly, as soon as December first hit, the temperatures really dropped and the ground is all frosty in the mornings. My chickens are probably having a hard time finding things to peck at in the frost, this is their first winter! We’re supposed to have snow tomorrow, and next week I have lots of plans- Maya and her husband Trevor are coming for a visit, so hopefully it isn’t too cold and we can still get out of the house often. I need to trek out to the suburbs to visit the Japanese bookstore, because my subscription to Fudge Magazine has finally started and the December issue is waiting for me out there! Here’s one of my posts from the summer, which has scans from August’s issue. I promise I will scan all the best editorials! I have also uploaded the images to a flickr set.

It’s a chilly, quiet morning and there’s fog all over the place outside, I can’t even see to the end of my street! I’m baking some honey-ginger toasted muesli (based on this recipe and it seems like a nice time to show some photos of things that have found their way into my house (or my belly) lately! My favorite is pictured above, a glowing globe! I picked this up at a big thrift store sale and was so happy that it is fully functioning. It emits such a warm light, it’s really nice to have around. Right now it’s just sitting on the floor, I haven’t really found an official spot for it yet. Working on it!

At the thrift sales I tried to allow myself some time to check out the housewares, instead of going clothes-crazy then going home, and I’ve been finding some nice things! Actually, all but one (the white blossom dish) of these items came from the antique mall near my house (also having a sale!), and I picked up a shiny little black squirrel, a milk glass chicken dish (now holding my soft butter), and some shoe clips for only $1!

I also grabbed a couple of old handcolored stereoscope images, I left them behind on another day and this time I couldn’t do it again, had to get them. I love the bored lady and the weird coloring. I also picked up a couple other paper items, but they’re being sent out with a little package and I want it to be a surprise!

More nice housewares- a “I’ll trade you a wheat for a brick” dainty teacup, a creamer dish with funny bug-eyed chickens and roosters on it (funny that I found this, after spending a couple hours looking at vintage chicken-themed items on etsy/ebay), a little 60′s vanity mirror and a small vintage Portland Rose Festival dish (“for you a rose in Portland grows”). Everything was really cheap, which is how I like it! Definitely made braving the 50% off sales worthwhile.

At the same sale, I picked up this big sweater and printed t-shirt top. The sweater was another one of those items that had been left behind before, it’s kind of huge and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to attempt a reconstruction, but I might give it a shot. Or, I might just wear it as it is! It’s soft and mustard-colored, so I can’t really go wrong. I like the top more and more every time I see it- at first, I was like, “Is this ugly or cool??” and really couldn’t decide, but I’m so glad I got it! I think it will look awesome with some pants. It looks like fancy old wallpaper or something. The purse isn’t new, and I actually had it up in my old shop for MONTHS and no one every bought it, which seemed crazy to me, cause I love it! I think the little metal keyhole design is really awesome. Anyway, I guess it’s a good thing that it was so neglected by shoppers, because I’m using it all the time now. I didn’t have a small shoulder bag like this, and it’s so useful for thrifting because it’s just big enough for my usual junk to fit inside.

And now, something completely DELICIOUS… or a few somethings. I really, really love to cook, and I am proud to say that all of the dishes seen here (minus tea, actually yeah, I made that too, at my secret faux-French factory) are mostly invented by me! The pancake is a modified recipe, and guess what the flavors are- PUMPKIN EGGNOG. It is like a fall holiday explosion of deliciousness. It was actually really easy to make, I just found a good pumpkin pancake recipe and replaced the milk with eggnog. Done! They were amazing. The toasted pumpkin seeds are really easy to make too, just toss them in whatever spices you like and bake ‘em up! I used sugar, curry powder and cinnamon. They were a big hit at Thanksgiving dinner, such a great little snack! I also invented those little mini-quiches and made them look extra twee by cutting out some star shapes with a cookie cutter. I had leftover dough from the pies, so I cut out big circles and popped them into a muffin tin. Originally I was going to try to do some kind of pumpkin eggnog mini pies, but I wanted to do something savory instead so I sauteed up mushrooms and leeks in truffle oil (and olive oil), mixed them in a bowl with a couple eggs, parmesan cheese and salt & pepper and this is what they turned into! They were really good, I’m going to make a full-sized version soon. These were also brought to Thanksgiving dinner! Last, some new tea- it’s good! Basically tastes like black tea with a subtle black cherry flavor, it isn’t overwhelming like cherry coke tea or anything.

Finally, a common scene these days out my window- major amount of birds flocking, perching, generally acting crazy. I love seeing a huge group of them zoom around! My chickens are funny about other critters in the yard- they hate blue jays, hate crows, but are buddies with all the squirrels. It’s pretty much the cutest thing ever seeing my chickens side by side with some squirrels snacking on peanuts or whatever I’ve tossed out for them that day. Unfortunately the one who was laying (Scramble) has stopped now cause it’s cold, so I hope winter passes by quickly so that the egg factory gets started up again!

Entry Filed under: food,life