Old Swedish Books

I recently acquired these awesome, old, Swedish books. Back when Ryan and I went to Chicago for the weekend for our friend's wedding, they used these great books as part of their centerpieces. When the wedding wrapped up, I was told I could take some home! (I didn't steal them, don't worry) Luckily, Ryan had lots of room in his carry on bag!

I think old books are beautiful. They just have a certain kind of charm about them. 

Some of these books are from the 1800s! And check out this old cookbook! I have yet to try any recipes yet, but I may have to give an old, Swedish recipe a whirl.

My favorite part about them are their bindings - they are so intricate and have such neat designs. [yes, I'm aware I'm a nerd]

I put all of them up on our shelf in the living room. I love adding things to our apartment that make me smile. These remind me of our wonderful time in Chicago and of our friends' fun wedding day!

Antique finds

I shared a little bit about my and Ryan's little trip last weekend, and promised another post with our antique finds.  Here is that promised post!

Ryan and I always try to go in at least 1 or 2 antique stores when we are visiting a new town.  It's something we started to do back when we first started dating. Ryan would always help me look for Shelley cups for my mom.  He quickly developed a keen eye for them and we always had fun finding interesting things.

So when we took our little trip last weekend, one of the first things we did was look up some nearby antique stores.  The first one we went to was called Window Box Antiques in Camarillo. One of the most exciting finds for me there was this:

I have seen this cookbook popping up all over the web, but it's so hard to find a reasonably-priced copy out there. Even on Amazon, a "new" version goes for $60! That's a little too rich for my blood. So that's why when Ryan and I went into the Window Box Antiques (one of the best organized antique stores I've ever been in!), I was astonished to see that little buddy for only $16...on sale!!! I may or may not have let out a high pitched yelp. Ok, I totally did.

Needless to say, I quickly snatched it up, took it home, and tried out the Brazilian Coffee Cookies. Yum. They were pretty darn tasty. Very crispy which I enjoyed for a change.  The perfect coffee-dunking cookie (or "cooky" as Betty Crocker refers to them) if you will. 

I thought it would be hard to top that purchase.  But we forged on and found this little beauty (also at Window Box):

Ryan and I are collecting different antique plates for our china.  I'm excited for the day when we have enough to have a fancy dinner party and can set our table with our hodgepodge of plates. I love the blue.  Even though it's from England, it looks Scandinavian to me.  Then again, I think a lot of things look Scandinavian, maybe because I just want everything to have some kind of Scandinavian flare. 

And last, but certainly not least, we found this awesome old suitcase. Brass hinges and everything. Sorry for the terrible, grainy photo of it below. It measures 35" by 20" and when I saw it I instantly thought that we could make it into a coffee table (maybe someone else had the same idea...see the ring on top? haha)! So we bought it with plans of building a wooden base to set it on.  

I told my mom all about our finds and mentioned our old suitcase we were going to make into a coffee table. Then yesterday, I got a text from my mom (so technology-savy, isn't she?!) saying she was in Pottery Barn and saw an old suitcase turned coffee table displayed there!  Pottery Barn's table is $699.  Needless to say, I'm glad we bought our suitcase for $15. 

pottery barn

All in all, we had great success antiquing this time around.  Sometimes we don't find anything.  It's always fun to score some sweet deals and relish in some nostalgia. 

Happy Friday people! WOOO!

Knitting from the 50's

During a recent trip to Micheal's, my eye caught a new line of yarn: Vanna's Glamour.  Apparantly Vanna White is now endorsing yarn.  Naturally, I bought a skein in honor of my oldest sister who is obsessed loves  Wheel of Fortune, or as she likes to call it - "the Wheel".

The yarn is a yellowish-mustard color, for some reason it looks quite dark in the picture below.  I wasn't sure what to knit at first, and I can't say I have an exact idea of what I'm making, but I'm fiddling around with what will perhaps turn into a cowl?  I found a new stitch in a 1950's McCall's Knitting book called the "easy lace knit stitch" and am giving it go!

I acquired three of these fabulous McCalls Knitting magazine-books from the 50's from an older lady from my church back in Michigan about 10 years ago.  She also gave me her stash of knitting needles (which quadrupled my then amount of knitting needles) and some yarn.  I guess you could say that's when my knitting obsession kicked in.

  

And below is the new stitch I'm trying out, easy lace pattern.  And there are tons of classic pictures and poses in this book.

Remember when your soccer coach would wear a hand-knit cardigan?  Yeah, me either.  But apparently they did.

And I'm seriously considering making these for me and Ryan.   They're pretty spectacular.  And they just look so happy wearing them.

But the picture that takes the cake is definitely this squirelly-looking man.  The poses that all of the models make in the book are priceless.  But there's something about this guy that just cracks me up.  I'm laughing at him right now actually. Ha.

Here's to knitting up a storm!

DIY: Yogurt

Who else can't believe that February is almost over?  2012 is seriously flying by... 

I don't make resolutions for the New Year, but I do make a little list in my mind of things I want to do more of. And this year one of those things was to make more home dairy products.  I acquired this little gem of a book, Home Dairy, which gives detailed instructions and helpful tips for making all kinds of your own dairy.  I've already tried cheese and butter, and today I tackled yogurt.

It's so simple that I have a feeling this will be a repeated project every few weeks.  I never want to buy yogurt again!  

Here is how I made it...

Recipe:

slightly adapted from Home Dairy

4 cups whole, low-fat, or skim milk (I used skim)

3 Tablespoons live yogurt (make sure the container says it contains "live, active cultures") 

Or in place of the live yogurt you can use 1 packet dried yogurt culture.  

Heat the milk until it almost reaches boiling, about 180 degrees Fahrenheit.  A candy thermometer is very useful here. 

Remove milk from the heat and let cool until 110 - 115 degrees F.  Add 3 Tablespoons prepared yogurt or your dried yogurt culture.  I let my prepared yogurt come to room temp while I heated and cooled the milk before adding it.

Once fully incorporated, pour into glass jars.  I used recycled jars from pasta sauces, well washed of course.

Once in jars or containers for storing, let the yogurt temperature stay between 110 - 115 for about 6 hours.  I preheated my crockpot on low, then added the glass jars and secured the lid, and then turned the crockpot off.  This should give your yogurt a warm place to culture for the next 6 hours.  

Other methods include pouring the yogurt into a thermos, in a cooler with jars of hot water, or in a preheated but off oven.

Refrigerate and use within 1-2 weeks.  

Note: Homemade yogurt tends to be thinner in consistency than its store-bought counterpart.  If you prefer your yogurt to have a thick consistency, try adding 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin in the first step while heating your milk.  Or you can also try adding dry powdered milk, 3-4 tablespoons during the first step.

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Who doesn't love butter?

When I think of butter, I think of Paula Deen.  I think of toast, bagels, and filling every nook in my waffle with butter.  I love butter.  But who doesn't?  

(note: this is a purely rhetorical question, I really don't want to hear about anyone who doesn't love butter)

In Ashely English's Homemade Living : Home Dairy, she walks you through how to make fresh, homemade butter.  Delicious.  Butter is so easy to make.  You probably made it way back in preschool (or at least kids who grew up in MI did...) by shaking a jar with a marble and cream in it.  It's so easy and so good.

I had some leftover heavy cream sitting in my fridge from when Alisha and I made cheese last weekend.  And since I don't really use heavy cream, I decided to whip up some butter!  It turned out wonderfully and now I have 2 balls of butter and 1 jar of fresh buttermilk.  Yum.

The entire process is pretty darn fun to watch.  You start with whipping the heavy cream.  And then it starts to look like this:

Then like this:

Then like this:

And then like this:

And finally like this:

It took about 10 - 15 minutes to whip the cream into butter.  There came a point when I started to worry it was never going to turn into butter.  Then I drank another cup of coffee and before I had time to finish it, the butter was done.

It is pretty grand waking up and having fresh butter and marmalade on your toast. 

Life is good.  Happy weekending.

Adventures in Home Dairy

I recently acquired Home Dairy, a fabulous book all about how to make yoru own dairy products ranging from cheese to sour cream.  Let me tell you, it is amazing.  If you are at all interested in making your own dairy products this book is a huge help! Ashley English does a fantastic job of laying out all you need to know about your favorite dairy items and how you (yes, you!) can make them at home.

Making cheese has been something I've done twice before, both times a simple farmer's cheese.  I was feeling ready to take on something a bit more challenging...but not too much more.  So my friend Alisha came over and we decided to tackle the Indian Paneer cheese recipe in the book.

We got to work. We brought the milk to a gentle boil, which took quite some time, but we were being extra cautious and kept it on pretty low heat to avoid scorching the milk.

The best part of the process was hands down when we added the lemon juice and saw the milk coagulate before our very eyes.  Gets me every time.

 Then we drained the curds in a cheesecloth.

And pressed the curds with some weight.  We used some heave books and heavy votives.

And three hours later, voila! Paneer!

Another great thing about the Home Dairy book is that after giving you a number of recipes for cheese, yogurt, and ice cream (among various other delicious dairy delicacies...), Ashley includes recipes that incorporate the dairy products you just made, such as Saag Paneer.  It's a delightful combination of Indian spices, spinach and the paneer cheese.  Mmmm.

The day was a raging success.  Next we will try our hand at another cheese - goat perhaps?  Then onto the complicated cheese section - swiss and gorgonzola here we come!

Christmas E-Book

I'm happy to announce that my Ho Ho Ho Christmas Gift Bag tutorial has been featured in this Christmas E-Book! It is full of great ideas for homemade Christmas gifts among many other things. So if you're looking for some fun, free ideas, check it out!

A little gem

Back in Texas, Ryan and I went to an antique store where we found this beauty:

Yes, it's exactly what you think it is - a 1950s cookbook of all Swedish recipes.

Complete with pickled herring recipes galore. What more could this girl want?!

I have to admit, I'm a little curious what "herring pudding" tastes like...