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The Humble Apron’s Not-so-Humble Existence.

23 Jul

The principal use of the apron was to protect the dress underneath because a woman only had a few.

Aprons were easier to wash than dresses.

Aprons required less material than dresses to make and mend.

Aprons served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

Aprons were wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion were even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, it could be wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, a gal could walk out onto the porch, wave her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

A Thought:

Grandmothers used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. My, how the times have changed!

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Posted in A Little Randomness, Retro Ramblings and Vintage Verbosities

C is For Cookie! and Chocolate! and Christmas!

24 Dec

I’ve received a lot of requests for the recipe for the chocolate mint cookies I posted about (at least I think I posted about them…I’m pretty sure I did…hmm…) earlier when my cousins came over…so, I thought I’d post the recipe for you all to enjoy. Maybe you’re off on break with your kiddos and want something easy and fun to do, or maybe you just want a secret stash of chocolate minty goodness for yourself

Chocolate Mint Cookies

1 box chocolate cake mix (dark chocolate or milk chocolate work great!)
1 egg
1/3 C water or milk (water works just fine, but milk might make the cookies a little more rich)
1/2 stick of butter, melted
Andes Mints (whole) or Andes Mint Chips (one bag should be good)

Preheat oven to 375°.

Blend all ingredients well; batter will be stiff. Drop rounded spoonfuls onto parchment lined cookie sheet. If you can form dough into a 1” diameter ball, great, if not, that’s ok! The dough will be a little sticky, so it’s hard to roll in your hands.

Bake for 10-12 minutes; remove from oven. Allow cookies to set for a couple seconds.

If you’re using the whole mints, just place the (unwrapped) candy on the cookie and allow to melt. If you’re using the chips, press the back of a teaspoon into the top of the cookie, like a thumbprint cookie. Fill the “thumbprint” with one teaspoon of the mint chips and allow to melt (add more or less as desired).

Use a toothpick to swirl the melted chocolates and mint so you get a lovely blend of mint green and chocolate on the cookie.

Place cookies in the refrigerator until the melted chocolate is set.

These package so nicely – they’re perfect for last minute gifts or cookies for Santa!!

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Posted in Fresh Baked, Homemade Gifts, Recipes, Tales of a Domesticated Goddess

Cookie Extravaganza…sort of…

16 Dec

My husband and I have the rest of the week off of work, to relax a bit, but mostly to finish up our Christmas shopping and what not before next week (NEXT WEEK people…NEXT WEEK IS CHRISTMAS!!! Who authorized that?!) We don’t really have any formal plans for our time away from the office, except for today and Friday. Today my cousins Emily (21) and Alyssa (19) came over to make cookies for Christmas Eve (more on that event later); Friday is our designated shopping day, followed by a hockey game that evening.

To start the morning off, I decided I’d take a break from cleaning up the kitchen and play with my new camera. Have I mentioned how wonderful my husband is??? I never really give him a list for Christmas – we always buy each other things throughout the year, so there isn’t much left for Christmas…and it doesn’t help that my birthday is a week after Christmas! As always, he finds some way to surprise me every year, and this year was no different. He got me a new camera for Christmas!! How do I know, you ask? It came in the mail yesterday…and we don’t do a very good job of keeping secrets around here! Anyway, I played with it at bit this morning…by the way, the Penguin ornament is the only ornament on our tree this year…I like to say I’m going for a minimalistic approach, but really I’m just being lazy.

Shiny star atop our scarcely decorated tree.

Pittsburgh Penguin ornament my parents gave my husband.

As soon as they arrived and we did the usual visiting and chit-chatting, we got started on the cookies. As ambitious as we felt, we didn’t really make it too far! We started with the peanut butter kiss cookies (peanut butter cookies with a Hershey Kiss in the center). Those went together super fast, and we were pretty chuffed about the progress we were making.

Hershey Hugs

Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

We thought we were pretty clever by using the white chocolate Hershey Hugs It doesn’t take much for us to feel clever.

Emily wanted to make some sort of Andes Mint cookies…she wasn’t sure what the recipe was, so we kind of made one up using what we had on hand. Let me tell you, these things are AMAZING. Even my husband likes them, and he’s not a huge fan of sweets. They taste like a Thin Mint, only…better. Yeah, I said it…wanna fight about it? I wish I would have captured video of Emily trying to roll the cookie dough into little balls using her spoons…it was quite entertaining. But, you’ll have to settle for tantalizing pictures of the cookies instead

Melting the Andes Mints...

Minty Melty Goodness

At this point, the ideas were flowing; we were certain that we could keep up our momentum and have several dozen cookies to show for our efforts. We took a break for lunch and decided while we were out to stop at the store to get more supplies (I failed to take a picture of what we had when we started…everything is still displayed on the counter, so maybe tomorrow I’ll get one…this will show you just how overboard we went then you can laugh at our thinking we needed more supplies!)

After a nice lunch at the South Side Soda Shop (it was feature on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, you know) and a trip dodging the Amish at the store, we returned home…much more lethargic and sleepy than before. In fact, on the drive to and from the diner, I noticed my two cookie elves dozing off in the back of the car! We contemplated starting another batch of cookies, or working on the chocolate covered pretzels, but my elves were increasingly weary. Their eyes drooped, and their spirits snoozed. After packing them up with some cookies to share with their men-elves, I sent them on their way before it got too dark.

I decided to make another batch of the chocolate mint cookies…so tasty – uh, I mean – so easy…yeah, that’s it. Easy. And Tasty. Mmm….minty….melty….mmmm….*drools*

My day is coming to a close as the Chicago Blackhawks start the 3rd period leading St. Louis 3-0. Yes, I like the Blackhawks…my husband likes the Pens…we are a house divided. I think his Penguin needs a friend on that tree, don’t you?

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Posted in A Little Randomness, Fresh Baked, Tales of a Domesticated Goddess

Freebies!

26 Sep

Since I’ve been neglecting you all lately, I wanted to share a few freebies with you! (Yes, I am trying to bribe your love with free stuff…there, I said it. Think of it this way, by this logic, I should be posting freebies quite often…)

To get you in the mood for the season, I am working on more of these recipe cards for you to save and do with as you please. They make great gifts for holidays or great hostess gifts. All the cards I design feature seasonal vintage clip art, or vintage ephemera. I don’t sell them at all, so what you see here is what you get. To download your freebie, click on the image you’d like – this will take you to Flickr. Once you’re at the photo page, there will be a series of icons along the top of the picture – click the one that says “All Sizes” and has a little magnifying glass with +. Click ”Original” from the list of available sizes, then click “Download the Original Size” Save the image as usual, and feel a little warm and fuzzy inside because you just got something for free!

**Note – these are not for resale!**

First, a couple with recipes included on them…

Spiced Pumpkin Seeds Recipe Card feat. vintage Halloween graphics

..and this one features a recipe for a very simple, but tasty chili (it’s my go-to chili recipe, definitely not top secret, as you’ll see!) And I apologize for the cheesy name – I’m lame.

Simple Chili Recipe Card feat. vintage Halloween graphics

Ok, onto the blank cards for your yummy treats!

The Littlest Witch Recipe Card feat. vintage Halloween graphics.

Black Cat _04 Recipe Card feat. vintage Halloween graphics.

#4 in a series of Black Cat Recipe Card feat. vintage Halloween graphics.

#3 in a series of Black Cat Recipe Cards feat. vintage Halloween graphics

#2 in a series of Black Cat Recipe Cards feat. vintage Halloween graphics.

#1 in a series of Black Cat Recipe Cards feat. vintage Halloween graphics.

Warm Harvest Wishes Recipe Card feat vintage graphics.

Gather Together Recipe Card feat. vintage graphics.

Give Thanks Recipe Card feat. vintage graphics.

I hope to have more in the coming weeks. I’m working to finish up a swap project for Craftster, and I also have a Halloween costume to make, and a party to help plan, but I will try to get some more freebies for you…in the meantime, please enjoy these!

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Posted in A Little Randomness, Freebies!, Recipes, Tales of a Domesticated Goddess

A Freebie for You – Recipe Cards

19 Jul

As a way to thank you for taking time to read my blog, I would like to offer you some recipe cards. Now, they’re not too fancy, and may not be every one’s cup of tea…but I get a kick out of the Victorian clip art from the Dover publications.

Feel free to save them, print them, and use them – but please – PLEASE do not sell them. All images are courtesy of Dover Publications, royalty-free clip art “Crafters Cornucopia,” “Floral Vignettes,” “Old-Time Vignettes,” and “Folk Art Designs.”

Recipe card featuring Dover "Folk Art Design" clip art

For more of the “Folk Art Design” recipe card series, please visit my Flickr account here: Folk Art Design Recipe Cards (will open in new window).

Recipe card featuring Dover clip art from "Floral Vignettes" and "Old-Time Vignettes"

For more of the Victorian Children series of recipe cards, please visit my Flickr account here: Victorian Children Recipe Cards (will open in new window).

Recipe cards featuring clip art from Dover Publications "Old-Time Vignettes"

For more of the “Victorian Ladies/Fabulous Hats” series of recipe cards, please visit my Flickr account here: Victorian Ladies in Fab Hats (will open in new window).

I actually had a lot of fun putting these together, and I’d like to continue to do so as time allows. I hope you enjoy these, and thanks again for taking time to read my blog! It’s much appreciated!!

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Posted in Freebies!, Fresh Baked, Tales of a Domesticated Goddess

Fresh Baked Fridays – Muffins!

16 Jul

Ok, ok – I know I’m a little early…if I didn’t post this now, I will certainly forget about it and then you’ll think I’m a loser. Even though you know I’m a loser any way, but we’ll pretend you love me.

Peach and Strawberry Muffins (not mixed…although that might be kind of tasty…hmm…)

Two cups self-rising flour…(I realized after I made the first batch that I forgot to take pictures along the way…forgive the sloppy looking bowl!)

2C Self-rising flour

1/4 C Sugar

1 large egg, 1 cup milk, 3-4 tablespoons of applesauce (or vegetable oil if you prefer), vanilla extract (to taste – I measured for the first batch, but for the 2nd I just dumped some in…probably about 1 teaspoon if I had to guess.)

...add the wet ingredients...

Stir together until ingredients have been incorporated – not too much though. Once the dry ingredients are mostly wet, add in your fruit. I used frozen peaches and straberries for these, by all means use fresh if you have them! I do think the frozen strawberries added a bit too much liquid to the batter – and I think I stirred this one too much, which resulted in dense, thick muffins.

Strawberries taking a swim...

...and now the peaches...

Pour into lined muffin tins about 2/3 full (or more if you’re a rebel. I’m a rebel.)

...fill lined muffin tins...

Sprinkle with sugar before placing tins in 425 degree oven. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops have a nice golden brown color.

Peach Muffins

…mmm…

Strawberry Muffins

Yeah…that’s good stuff, Maynard. Good stuff.

Simple Muffin Recipe

Makes about 24 muffins

2C self-rising flour
1/4 C sugar
1 C milk
1 large egg
3 tbs vegetable oil (I used 4 tbs of applesauce)
1 tsp vanilla (optional)
Fresh or frozen fruit, cut into chunks, amount may vary depending on fruit (real helpful, I know!)

Preheat oven to 425; grease or line muffin tins.

Combine flour and sugar in medium bowl; add wet ingredients. Stir gently, just until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Add fruit, and gently combine. Batter should still be lumpy.

Pour into muffin tins, about 2/3 full. Sprinkle with sugar before placing oven.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until tops of muffins are a nice golden brown.

Now, sneak one for yourself before every one realizes you’ve baked anything – best served warm with a great cup of tea or coffee.

Enjoy!!

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Posted in Fresh Baked, Tales of a Domesticated Goddess

Blackberry Muffins!

25 Feb

Blackberry Muffins, originally uploaded by thepeachmartini.

Another creation from Kim’s Kitchen! Quite easy, and very tasty!!

Blackberry Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/4 cup, plus 1 tablespoon sugar – divided
1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups fresh blackberries, chopped (frozen is ok too!)

Preheat oven to 375. In large bowl, cream sugar and butter. Add egg, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Combine flour, salt, and baking powder – add to sugar mixture, alternating with milk. Blend well. Fold in blackberries.

Fill lined muffin cups 2/3 full; sprinkle tops with remaining sugar. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan or on wire rack; best served warm but great any time!

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Posted in Tales of a Domesticated Goddess

Any Good Foodie Blogs?

20 Feb

Ok all you foodies out there – share your favorite foodie blogs with me! Baking is my first love, but I’ll try anything once

2 Comments

Posted in A Little Randomness, Tales of a Domesticated Goddess

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