The dry-erase markers I use to make my whiteboard To-Do lists have dried out. I’d put “Buy new dry-erase markers” on the list, but…
Not Today’s Post
That is, today’s post was intended to be something else. But it requires a lot of scanning and merging, and I was busy with other things. For instance, did you see the HELLO, ALFRED SHAHEEN silver Lurex pants I posted at Tiddleywink Vintage today? Because they are stellar.
No, today you get a recap of a conversation I had with my friend Erin of Theda Bara’s Vintage Boudoir while we were out together hunting for goodies for our shops. In what seems like a typical day for us lately, she found a bag full of goodies and I, well…
Donut-All batter dispenser by Nordic Ware
Me: I’m getting this. For myself.
Erin: Are you going to make donuts?
Me: Well, I’m not making them without this.
Now on the not-so-immediate hunt for a good fried donut recipe. I probably have a few pinned on Pinterest already. If you have a favorite, please let me know!
Filed under collections, food, kitchen, life-threatening clutter, vintage
Watch It Wiggle, See It Jiggle
White Sangria Splash as pictured in "JELL-O Celebrating 100 Years"
I’m on a gelatin mold kick lately. And by “lately,” I mean for the past 6 months to 20 years. Or so.
Ed. Note: If you are a vegetarian, whenever I say “gelatin” or “JELL-O,” feel free to replace the word(s) with “vegan jel dessert” or “agar” or what have you. Adjust the amounts and directions in recipes for whatever gelling agent you prefer.
Today’s post was going to be a gelatin two-fer, with a recipe that dates to 1955 and has been a staple in my family for as long as I can remember, and also a recipe for a vegetarian gelled tofu-based number lest anyone think that bone-suckers are the only folks who have to suffer through “creative” molded salads. But that post will make an appearance at another time because today’s gelled creation is instead:Â White Sangria Splash. Because, you know, gelled wine.
This recipe comes from a 96-page booklet called JELL-O Celebrating 100 Years, which is included with a Tupperware Jel-N-Serve mold I’m currently offering over at Tiddleywink Vintage.
White Sangria Splash
1 cup dry white wine
1 pkg (8 servings) or 2 pkgs (4 servings) lemon gelatin
3 cups cold seltzer or club soda
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tablespoon orange juice or orange liqueur
3 cups seedless grapes, divided
1 cup sliced strawberries
1 cup whole small strawberries
- Bring wine to a boil in small saucepan. Stir boiling wine into gelatin in medium bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved. Stir in cold seltzer and lime and orange juices. Place bowl of gelatin in larger bowl of ice and water. Let stand about 10 minutes or until thickened (spoon drawn through leaves definite impression), stirring occasionally.
- Stir in 1 cup of the grapes and the sliced strawberries. Pour into 6-cup mold.
- Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Unmold. Garnish with remaining grapes and whole strawberries.
Makes 12 servings. Prep time: 15 minutes. Refrigeration time: 4 hours.
Filed under advertising, food, kitchen, nostalgia, vintage
Time Travel
(This is a mini-post. A full-length post with vintage recipes should arrive in your RSS feed later today. You are subscribed via RSS, right?)
This morning, I noticed that a neighbor has honeysuckle vines which have kindly crept over the top of the property-line fence. I skipped over to take a whiff, and was instantly transported back about 30 years and 1800 miles to the honeysuckle vines that grew on the chain-link fence running between Johnny Van Der Meer Field and the houses on Woodside Ave in Midland Park. Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey.
For My Next Trick…
I’m combing my hair, right? And then I set the comb down on my rad, vintage, circle-wire vanity shelf. Which already has a (larger) comb and a bunch of barrettes on it, so the (smaller) comb slides off the top of the pile. I see it fall down, hit the carpet, and bounce under the vanity. So I bend down to pick it up…
and it’s NOT THERE.
Well, of course it has to be there. I check right up against the baseboard…nope. I lift up the area rug…nope.  I check right up against the baseboard again. I shake out the area rug. WTF? The floor in this vanity space is about 3 ft by 4 ft, if that. Not exactly enormous. I am perplexed. I mean, seriously perplexed. This isn’t some hypothetical problem I’m having trouble with, this is a PHYSICAL OBJECT  that I WATCHED fall to the floor. What in the freaking hell is going on? I spend the next 4–5 minutes fruitlessly searching the same 12-sq-ft area, because I don’t know what else to do. I’m pretty sure there isn’t a physical anomaly in my house, so IT HAS TO BE THERE. I am now down on my hands and knees with my head on the floor when I discover, after nearly 9 years of living in this condo, that the baseboard does not actually meet the vanity cabinet. There’s a 1″ high gap above the baseboard, and below the vanity, that the comb must have bounced into. I think about sticking my hand in there to feel around for it, then remember the photo that was posted to Instagram last night of the dessicated rat that someone discovered while demo’ing their kitchen cabinets, and decide against it.
It’s okay, I have another comb.
Filed under life-threatening clutter
shoes and pie 