Christmas At Our House!

I finally got some decorating done!  It’s always so much fun to pull the Christmas décor out of storage each year.   Lots of pics. to follow.

I added a few things to my table

an ornament shaped chalkboard that I embellished with buttons

Hung in the dining room

This turned out to be one of my favorite vignettes.  Inspired by my bird collection

this was fun.  someone gave me a bunch of (free) vintage goodies like old buttons, rick rack, etc. last week and I mixed in some of my vintage ornaments with them

Love the graphics on those buttons!

My mantel.  No one does reproduction vintage better than Cody Foster!  The cards are from my Nanny’s card collection. 

More vignettes

Angels and snowflakes waiting for the perfect Christmas home.

Like Debra, I LOVE paper whites.  Unfortunately I have to confess that mine are silk! 

Another one of “the girls”

Joining the following wonderful parties this week…….

FEATHERED NEST FRIDAY

FRIDAY AT THE CHARM OF HOME

INSPIRATION FRIDAY AT THE PICKET FENCE

VINTAGE INSPIRATION FRIDAY AT COMMON GROUND

Direct links for all of these wonderful parties are located on my bottom left side bar!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Denise

What’s a gill? Some old fashion recipes

Have you ever heard of a “gill” as a measurement in a recipe?  I hadn’t.

I was going through my recipe books this morning, clearing out a few, when I ran across this cook book.

Cooking in Wyoming

It has some interesting and old old recipes.

So……back to a gill……………

1 gill equals 1/2 cup

this recipe is “Webster Cake”

It reads as follows…..

  Webster Cake is a very old southern cake that has been made through many generations of Thanksgiving and Christmas time.  To make the cake, take 1 cup butter, 3/4 cup molasses, 1 gill of milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of soda, 3 cups flour, 1/2 pound citron, 1 1/2 cups raisins, and currants and spices to taste, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.

 

That’s it.  No temp. or anything else.  Just the way that my Grandma used to cook.  Just a tad bit vague. The old fashioned way!  Oh….and I (in my great baking wisdom) had no idea what citron was.  It is one of the citrus fruits that you usually find in fruit cake.  I think…….??  Anywho…….this recipe looks doable.  I wonder what “spices to taste” would be?  This sounds a lot like it could actually be a fruit cake?  If so, my Nanny used to make the BEST fruit cake ever.  She would make it about a month ahead of Christmas, soak it in a LOT of rum, wrap it well, store it in a cold closet and bring it out around Christmas.  It was a very heavy and yummy yummy cake.  Wonderful with a cup of coffee.

 

 

Here’s another recipe from 1882.  If you really and I mean REALLY love mincemeat, this is the recipe for you.  You can either feed the entire town or can up enough to last you for years!  Personally, I’m not a fan of mincemeat pie.  I don’t know why it never occurred to me that YES dummy, it DOES have meat in it!

So here we go………

• 4 1/2 pounds of beef neck meat, you may also use venison or elk meat.  (Gross)
• 5 pounds apples
• 5 pounds sugar
• 2 pounds seedless raisins, soak several hours in hot water
• 2 pounds currants, soak several hours in hot water
• 1 pound of beef suet (I thought this was something you fed birds)
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 5 tablespoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 3 quarts cider
• 1 tablespoon mace
• 2 tablespoons ground cloves
• 2 tablespoons allspice

Boil meat until tender.  Grind (rather coarsely) meat, apples, and suet.  Mix other ingredients.  Simmer 30 minutes.  Seal in sterilized jars for storing.  

They lost me with the boiling 4 1/2 pounds of beef neck meat.  Just the thought makes me a little nauseous.  ):

So get out your old-fashioned cooking utensils and get with it!    Oh……and if you need the recipe for cooking a wild porcupine, I have it!  Not EVEN kidding!  This cook book is a keeper, if for no other reason, just because of the crazy recipes.  Thank GOODNESS for our modern times!

One more thing…….that red and white dish towel is from Ikea.  If you are fortunate to have one close to you, they are the BEST kitchen towels I’ve ever had.  They absorb well, and better yet……they’re only 79cents each!

Denise

Christmas?

This is the extent of my decorating so far.  Not a brag (for sure) more like a confession.  All of my Christmas decorations are in the long low closet under the stairs, which seemed like a wonderful idea earlier in the year.  Now when I open the door, I just groan and close it. 

I do love my dining room table though.

I’ve noticed that lots of people are doing a more simplistic back to nature look this year.  So far, my décor is VERY simplistic!

The burlap is the remaining ruffle material from my curtains I just made.

She’s beautiful any time of the year.  I just tucked a glittered leaf in her hand.

I have every intention of filling in my hutch with bottle brush trees.

Dried hydrangeas with a little simple glitter.

From the living room.  It’s a start. 

In the meantime, I’m living vicariously through all of the wonderful blog parties out there!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Denise

Jack’s Room

I’ve been working on the guest room again.  There was a possibility that we were going to have guests in early November, which didn’t happen but any excuse will do.  I bought new bedding actually a couple of months ago.  I am so fickle when it comes to textiles!  It seems like I love a pattern for about a day and then I’m ready for something else. 

 

I found this set at T.J. Maxx and then made the burlap pillow.  I don’t just love it but it’s very “guestish” if you know what I mean.  I should maybe just stick with neutrals and forget it. 

That actually is what I did with the curtains.

I can’t say these won’t go with everything!  And I actually love the way they turned out.  To save money ( since this is such a HUGE sliding glass door) the top half is drop cloth and the ruffle is burlap.  That way I didn’t need nearly as much fabric for the bottom.

Since I didn’t line them, I left the sheers up.  Also, this is on the South side of the house.  So the sun really heats things up.

So since things were looking all nice and spiffy Jack the cat decided this was his favorite room.

He has such a hard life. 

So Jack suggested a dog and cat theme……

I was happy to have a new place to hang one of my all time favorite pictures.

I moved my little doggie collection in here for now.  The green glittered tree…..that’s the closest thing I have to Christmas decorations so far.

Doggie on the bed side table.

And here’s the rest of the room.

and I had just painted this gray…….I keep telling myself it looks just fine…

I’m all ready for guests!  As long as you don’t mind sleeping with a cat.

Denise