Collecting Dishes

I have a lot of tea sets and vintage dishes, and they are all different! My Mom likes blue Willow, so all her china goes well together, mine does not! Anyhow, there are a couple of sets that I would love to collect more pieces for.

The first set is a yellow tea set. It was my great grandmothers. I have all the pieces except for the tea pot, I didn't break it, my great grandmother did. But I would love to find the tea pot, or even extra pieces in case it breaks. It is Royal Albert, but with no name on the stamp. There is a gold lattice like pattern on the outside, even the inside is yellow. I have tea cups, saucers, lunch plates, a serving plate, sugar bowl and a cream pitcher. Now I just need the tea pot, or something that goes with it! Keep your eyes out for it!

The next set I have is Mikasa Duplex, by Ben Seibel. He did several collections for Mikasa in the 70s as the brand attempted to increase its cool factor. I have a full set of 6 dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, cups & saucers, 1 serving plate and 1 serving bowl. I found the set at a vintage store on Commercial called Attic Treasures. I got the whole set for $80, great price! And I picked it up just at the right time. As I was handing the woman my money, a guy was telling his friend "look what I found, I am going to get it!", they woman had to tell them sorry... already spoken for!

The dinner plates and salad plates have the star pattern in the middle. All the other dishes are green on the outside and white in the middle.

I found a blog where the writer has a similar obsession to me, but she collects all colours. Take a look.

http://apronthriftgirl.typepad.com/apron_thrift_girl/2007/04/mad_for_mikasa.html

The other peice I have is just that, one peice! But I have seen more, in fact I saw a whole set of it, but it was blue. I would love to have a couple more peices, especially since they co-ordinate with my Mikasa set. The stap on the back has a cluster of 3 leaves and says "turi-design, market, made in Norway" And in the middle of the stamp is something that kind of looks like 2 F's, a bit like this F/F. I think it is a cute pattern and would love to find more!

Recovering Kitchen Chairs

I bought 4 kitchen chairs a couple of years ago with intention of recovering them. The seats were super uncomfortable and the finish on the frame was coming off. They needed some work. I decided to recover the seats and try and pad them to make them more comfortable as well. Here are the supplies I collected to make this project work:

chrome spray paint

replacement screws (the originals are rusted)

1" foam (enough to cover the seats and backs)

vinyl for the seats

staple gun & staples

upholstery nails

I wanted to keep the chrome look of the chairs as I like the retro feel. I went to Canadian Tire and found a spray paint that looks like chrome. After I took apart the chairs I cleaned the frames and sanded them lightly. The spray paint really worked, they look great.

For the seats, you want to cut the foam about 1" bigger all around, lay both the seat and the foam on top of each other on your vinyl fabric. Pull the edges up around the sides to figure out how much you need to work with. Better to cut too big a peice so that you have lots to work with.

You want to pull the vinyl up around the sides as tightly as you can. Using the staple gun place the staples evenly spaced along the edges. You can trim the edges of the fabric after wards if you have an excess. And you can always take it off if you screw up!

For the back of the upper part of the chair I chose a contrasting fabric. I also bought chrome upholstery tacks to attach the contrasting fabric with.

Once I attached the back and the seat back to the legs they were done! I would say the total project took me 10 plus hours, not including the time it took to collect the supplies.

Another Soup Tip

It is officially Fall, and with that comes soup season. As much as I can I try to make my own broth. If you have a roast chicken, or steak with bones, or anything else that has bones, this is the best time to do it.

Making a good broth is relatively easy, I find the more stuff you add the better. If you have been keeping slightly wilted vegetables in the freezer, this is a great time to bring them out. If not, look through your fridge and see what you have. I tend to use broccoli stalks, celery, carrots, onions and lots of garlic. Also any herbs you have, I prefer full branches of rosemary, thyme, basil whatever you have. And with your onion, try to use a yellow onion, include the skins as it will add colour to your broth.

Put all of the vegetables, herbs and bones in a large pot. Fill the pot with water, make sure everything is covered. Turn on your oven to the lowest temperature possible, about 50 degrees. Put the pot in the oven and leave it for as long as possible 6-10 hours. I prefer to do it over night.

Then the next day you want to strain your broth and throw away all of the solid matter. This may seem like a waste, but it will have no nutrients left, all the nutrients are in your broth. Now you can start to make your soup. If you don't want to make soup that day you can freeze it, if I have more than enough for one container of broth I will freeze some of it in ice cube trays. This way you have small portions of broth that you can add to gravy or stir fry or anything that needs it.

Beer Can Chicken

This is a relatively simple meal and it always turns out well! Even if they catch on fire like above!

You will need:

a whole chicken

a can of beer

your favorite seasonings

Start by cleaning the inside of the chicken, make sure there is nothing in there that you don't want. Rinse the inside out and pat dry with some paper towel.

Open the beer can and drink some of it. You only want the can to be about 1/3 full of beer. For beer I just use what ever is in the fridge but the beer can adjust the flavour of your chicken or blend well with your seasonings. For example if you wanted to do an Asian seasoned chicken and use ginger and pepper, you would probably want a light tasting beer that won't conflict with those flavours. If you wanted to do something strong and smokey with hickory, you might want a maple or honey beer.

Take your seasonings of choice and stuff about 3 tablespoons worth in the can of beer. You could also put handfuls of fresh herbs, garlic cloves, onions, oranges etc etc in the can. What happens is once the chicken starts to cook the beer will boil and baste the inside of the chicken. So whatever is in the can will boil in the beer and the flavours will leak into the chicken.

After you have seasoned your beer can you want to season the outside of the chicken with the same seasonings. Once this is done you are going to put the beer can in the chicken. You want to place the can upright with the chicken upright on top of that. It will look like the chicken is standing up. Place the chicken on a hot BBQ (about 400) for about 40 minutes. Or until the outside is crispy looking. (not flaming like above!) A good test for a chicken is when you lay it down you should be able to pull a leg away from the body easily, this is when you know it is done.

Once you take the chicken on the BBQ you need to remove the beer can before you lay it down. You will usually require two people for this. I usually use a fork to puncture the can and pull it out while someone else use tongs to hold onto the chicken.

You want to let the chicken sit for about 10 minutes before you carve it.

In the summer my favorite add ons to Beer Can Chicken are a large mango and tomato salsa and BBQ'd potatoes. In the winter it is great with squash, mashed potatoes and other seasonal vegetables and gravy if you have time!

Salmon with Roasted Tomatoes

I made this for dinner last night and I am quite looking forward to the leftovers!

*this recipe works for around 2-4 people, so reduce or add as necessary.

Ingredients for roasted tomatoes and salmon oil:

6 plum tomatoes cut in quarters (I did a mixture of plum, cherry and heirloom to give colour)

1 tsp sugar

3/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 garlic cloves minced

a handful of fresh basil leaves chopped

a few sprigs of thyme (chop all or remove leaves if you have the patience)

2 teaspoons lemon zest

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Heat oven to 300 F.

Toss the tomatoes in a shallow pan with sugar, salt and pepper. Add the remaining ingredients and toss gently. Roast the tomatoes for approximately 30-45 minutes until tender.

Take the pan out of the oven and prop one side up so that the oil and juices run to one side. Set aside while preparing the salmon.

Preheat oven to 390 F.

Lay foil down in a shallow pan before adding the salmon (I do this for easier clean up).

Ingredients:

1-2 shallots thinly sliced

1/3 cup of white wine

1-2 teaspoons of chopped jalapeno peppers

(instead of the wine and jalapenos I used a dessert wine with a chili in it, this may be hard to find so either works)

Sprinkle the shallots and jalapenos over the salmon, then add the white wine. Allow to marinate for approximately 30 minutes. Now add the oil and juices that have separated from the roasted tomatoes.

Put in the oven for approximately 10 minutes or until the salmon is almost cooked through. Now add the roasted tomatoes on top of the salmon. Put back in the oven for another 2-5 minutes, long enough to finish cooking and heat the tomatoes back up. You can serve this right on the dinning table as it looks beautiful. Maybe add a sprinkling of fresh chopped basil on top for more colour (the cooked basil will be a bit black).

Basil... Yum...

I love basil! I could find a way to make many meals with this delicious herb! I don't think you can use too much of it so it is very easy to cook with. Anyhow, I have just been away for about 3 weeks and my basil plants were a little overgrown and starting to flower. I am hoping to extend the life of these basil plants as long as possible so I cut the tops of the plants at the next sign of growth. I should have done this earlier but never got around to it!

I decided to make some pesto sauce to freeze for later in the year. I prefer to make the pesto sauce with out the pine nuts and Parmesan, that way you can always use it for something else if you want, or just add those ingredients when you want. I guess that actually makes in Pistou sauce, not Pesto, but I am not picky on names.

Pistou Sauce

2 cups fresh basil (firmly packed)

3-4 cloves chopped garlic (or more if you like)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

sea salt to taste

Wash and dry your basil leaves (stems removed), combine them in a food processor with the olive oil, garlic and salt.

I chose to divide the sauce into 2 small containers for freezing, you can also divide it into ice cube trays for smaller portions. This is great for soups and other things. Just freeze the sauce in an ice cube tray and once frozen, pop them out and put in a zip lock bag back in the freezer.

Pesto Sauce (the same thing just a couple more ingredients)

2 cups fresh basil (firmly packed)
3-4 cloves chopped garlic (or more if you like)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

3 tablespoons pine nuts

1/2 cup grated Parmesan
sea salt to taste

Wash and dry your basil leaves (stems removed), combine them in a food processor with the olive oil, garlic and salt. Then add Parmesan and pine nuts until fully blended.

I also love to change up the Pesto sauce and make a creamy version. Just take the Pesto recipe above and add the following:

1 cup cream

1/2 cup feta cheese instead of Parmesan (or both if you love cheese like me!)