Retro Recipe - Petite Peach Pies

This weeks retro recipe comes from another of my BH and G collection.  I do believe several of my childhood birthday cakes came from this book. 

Now that my chix have flown the coup ( at least temporarily) I rarely make desserts, but this was just too tempting.

Lets see if we can transport ourselves to a "fine french restaurant".

Our assembled ingredients.

OK, I know I said once before that I try to avoid prepared foods, but here I go again,  all my values right out the window for a pretty french tart!

This mess is the gelatin dissolving in water.

Boiling the preserves.

Don't these look like the most gorgeous egg yolks?  They are actually peach halves being drained.

The preserves are spooned over the peach halves.

Zee lovely cherries on top.

Just showing off my mad photography skills.

The recipe with my notes in blue:

Petite Peach Pies

• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 1 12-ounce jar (1 cup) apricot preserves
• 1/4 cup cream sherry
• 1 1-lb 13-oz can peach halves, well drained ( I could only find peach halves in sugar syrup, so not only did I drain them well but I rinsed them in water first)
• 8 baked 31/2 inch pastry shells
• 1/2 cup whipping cream, whipped (am I the only one with an aversion to whipped cream?)

Soften gelatin in cold water.  Head preserves to boiling; add gelatin; stir to dissolve.  Add sherry.  Cool till slightly thickened.  Place peach half, cut side down, in tart shell.  Spoon preserve mixture over.  Chill.  Serve with whipped cream (or not) and a stemmed maraschino cherry.

So, were we transported to a fine french restaurant as promised?  Not so much.  Was it good kitchy fun? Oui.
Actually I think this would be quite good if one left out the pastry shells all together, and sliced the peaches, added the preserve mixture and spooned the whole thing over vanilla ice cream.  Better. Much better.
If you try this, please let me know how it goes.  Also if you have a retro recipe you'd like me to try, please send it along.
Have a beautiful day.
Yancey

Vintage jackpot

Still feeling a bit peaky but I seem to finally be on the mend.  A thousand apologies for the sickly pictures I posted last time, my fever must have been raging otherwise vanity would have stopped me, hope I didn't scare any small children.

.I wanted to share some of the vintage finds from last weekend in Salem

This coat is black and white leather.  It reminded me of a star trek episode.  I tried it on and Braxton actually loved it, even encouraged me to buy it!  After almost 30 years you would think I know the man better.

I'm pretty sure Marcia Marcia Marcia had one of these in every color.

The label on this says "thalheimers french room" which means something to my fellow Virginians.  Once the jacket was off I noticed the stains under the arms.  Sad.  Thank you kind man for holding this while I took the pic.



I do love a structured bag.



Another gem.

Of all the things I left behind this one haunts me.  Matching shoes and bag!  The shoes were actually a size 5 but they were a little scuffed as was the bag.  Why didn't I remember the wonders of shoe polish?

Does anyone know how a lady was supposed to keep this from blowing away?

So cute.

Again, a structured bag, the second thing that haunts me.

I actually meant to go back and buy this, but I forgot.  It would have been perfect because I'm a Leo.

Well that was our trip to Salem.  I will definitely go back, the best luck I've had so far.

Random:  Last night we saw The Social Network.  Note to self:  never piss off someone who is waaay smarter than you.  Lesson learned.

I'll be back next week feeling my usual perky self.  Have a beautiful weekend everyone.
Yancey

Room Dividers - 'Cuz Breaking Up is Hard to Do

Great idea for recycled record wall curtain

Room Dividers -Searching for cool ways to break up a great room or give privacy to a small space...

We’ve got a small cottage to Mod-ify, about 1500 square feet after turning our garage into a Studio for the girls and for BYdesign. We’ve had a great time transforming AcornHill from Over-the-Hill looking on the inside, to colorful, youthful, and FUN! Yancey, says we are “Youthanizing” the space.

The challenge of the day is that we have a laundry room that is now a great ugliness (we'll share pics later) as we go downstairs and use our Studio. In the past we could ignore the eyesore, but no more. And so we are looking at using a curtain room divider perhaps to visually separate the hallway from the washer/dryer/cleaning supply mess, yet, Yancey wants some light in that room – we don’t want to totally wall the space off.

We also have a space in our kitchen above the counter top that separates our newly acquired Danish Modern Dining Room from the kitchen that we would like to make more stylish and private, perhaps with a hanging room divider, but again, not cut the light or chop up an already small space. A challenge! Yay!

Thought I would share some inspiring ideas from my research on ways to separate space – whether in a great room, or in a small cottage like ours, or an apartment shared by other roomates.

Hope you enjoy!

Shine on! Braxton


Re-purposed book covers! Left Click to ZOOM

Classic Mid-Century stained glass styling

Translucent panels visually separate space but let in the light. Nice!

Mod Jonathan Adler-esque room divider

Stunning color story with graceful arched movement. A winner!

Bunching open shelving systems add storage and divide space. Can add another unit as needed... 

Delicate hanging curtain. Love this!

Fantastic serpentine open shelving. Very nice!

Love the Mod-ness here! Again, add panels as needed.

Fun idea could be used as a space divider

Another recycled record story. Covered here with inexpensive contact paper and linked by wire. Hummm...what's your fav?

Make me over - what I've learned so far

Last weekend Braxton and I decided to check out the vintage/antique stores in Salem Virginia, which is a little college town just outside of Roanoke.  Remember last week I was whining saying that I wasn't having much luck finding vintage clothes here?  Well, lookie what I found.

This is a mod party dress actually from the 60's, and I love love love it.  It fits well, it's short, and it makes me want a cocktail, like now.                                        

Full disclosure as to why I look so cranky/rotten in these photos; I have some sort of cold/flu thingy.  My hair is up because I just couldn't be bothered to do anything else, my eyes are red because I have a fever, my red nose is NOT because I celebrated national margarita day yesterday. Oh and the reason you can't see my feet?  Pink fuzzy slippers.  Can I have an awwwwww?

 Party dress from the back.

 This is a jacket that came with a skirt I'll show you in a minute.  I wanted you to see how this jacket has a nipped in waist.  This is something I've learned from this blog;  on my particular figure type (curvy) a nipped in waist is almost always preferable.

 Curvy jacket from the back.

 Now this is a boxy jacket that I already had in my closet.  See how it does NOTHING for my figure?  With a boxy garment the widest part of your figure is what get noticed, in my case the bootay.  With a nipped in waist you notice the smallest part of my figure, my waist.  See it's that easy.

 Boxy jacket from the back.

 This is a waist band of the aforementioned skirt.  Yep, that 24 american inches.  Is that even possible?  It would take Mr. Pearl's most heavy duty/steel belted corset it get me in this skirt.  Not in this lifetime.
 Want to see the bottom line?  Yes, I got a gorgeous party dress and the two piece suit (even it I can't wear the skirt) for less than $45.00!  Somehow I'm beginning to feel better.

Unsolicited tip of the day;  before I began Make me over I was the one who was always running from the camera.  This blog has forced me to see myself from the cameras perspective, and what an eye opener it's been.  If you are feeling brave I suggest you take a full body picture of your self everyday for a week, and see what YOU learn.  Do your fashion choices flatter you?  How do your color choices make you look and feel?  Try it, and please let me know how it goes.  Would love to know.

Why oh why did no one tell me about national margarita day?  That was information I could have put to good use, now I have to wait a whole year!
Have a beautiful day.
Yancey

RETRO RECIPE - Hawaiian Shrimp Platter





Lately I've been collecting a series of cookbooks published by Better Homes and Gardens in the 60's.  Actually, I believe these books continue to be published today, but, I'm only interested in the ones from that decade.  My mom must have had everyone of these books, but alas, when she died I did not get a single one of her cookbooks, which is why I collect them now.  I have been able to find them easily, they were apparently quite popular, and I've never spent more than $5.00 for one.

Last night for dinner I made this recipe. It was really quite good, and very easy.  I love the mention of "a touch of the orient". 

Gasp!  Does anyone else write in their cookbooks?  I find it's really helpful when you make changes, as I do frequently.

The assembled ingredients

The shrimp ready to go in the oven.

Chopping one whole onion.

Slicing one whole green pepper.

Saute onion and pepper in olive oil. That's the rice cooking on the back burner.

Arranging the rice on the platter.

Arranging the vegs on top of the rice.

After the shrimp has been arranged around the rice and vegs.

This recipe includes two things I almost never use; processed food - in this case the breaded shrimp - and white sugar, which I left out.  Braxton and I agreed it would have been just as good or better had I used fresh shrimp which I probably would have sauteed in a little olive oil.
As you are about to see I made quite a few changes to the recipe.  I try to make things healthier usually by adding more vegs than are called for and less fat and sugar.
We thought this dish made a nice presentation, and was so tasty that I'm pretty sure I'll make it again with the unbreaded shrimp, also, it made for a fairly inexpensive meal.  What's not to love?

The recipe with my changes in blue.

HAWAIIAN SHRIMP PLATTER

• 1 10-ounce package frozen breaded shrimp
• 1/2 cup chopped onion / I used one whole onion
• 1/4 cup chopped green pepper / I used one whole green pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine /I used olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sugar / I left out the sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons vinegar / I used rice vinegar just because that's what I had
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce/ I used low sodium soy sauce
• 1 1-lb 41/2 ounce can pineapple tid-bits/ I used a 8 ounce can*
• 2 cups hot cooked rice/ I used brown rice **

Cook shrimp according to package directions.  Set aside, keeping shrimp warm.  I waited and cooked the shrimp so that it would be ready at the last minute.
Cook chopped onion and green pepper in butter (olive oil) till tender but not brown.  Combine sugar (left out) cornstarch, vinegar, and soy sauce.  Stir into onion mixture.  Drain pineapple, reserving syrup.  Add syrup to onion mixture.  Cook and stir till mixture thickens and boils; cook 1 minute longer.  Stir in pineapple; heat to boiling.  Serve over rice, with the shrimp.  Serves 4.

* The dole company sure did a great job of selling canned pineapple to mid century housewives.  So many recipes of that era called for this "exotic" ingredient.
** I always cook my rice in organic chicken broth.  It's sooo much better.

Enjoy!
Yancey