STRAWBERRY PIE

Last week, we celebrated my mother-in-law's 99th birthday.  In her heyday, she was a fantastic, prolific cook; so I thought I would share one of her recipes with you.

STRAWBERRY GLACE' PIE

Ione's Strawberry Glace' Pie

Bring to a boil:

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

Stir in:

1/4 cup cornstarch dissolved in 3/4 cup water

Cook 10 minutes

Add:

pinch salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice

few drops vanilla

red food coloring

Coat 2 pints prepared whole strawberries with glace' and put in a pre-baked pie shell.

Chill and serve with whipped cream.

 In her recipe, she said to use whole strawberries; but the ones I bought were huge, so I sliced them.  This created excess moisture, so the pie was a little soupy; but still tasted wonderful as I remembered from years gone by.  Lesson learned:  always do what your mother-in-law says - leave those berries whole!

Ione and her three kids - Bob, Jackie, and Beverly -- 1941

Ione on her 99th birthday with "the kids".

I'm taking a temporary break from the Land of Blog for some rejuvenation and attitude adjustment.  See you soon!

Please check out the following for a plethora of inspiration:

No Minimalist Here for Thursday Open House Party

Have a Daily Cup for Share Your Cup Thursday

Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday

Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special

A COUPLE OF NEW/OLD CONTRAPTIONS

Bob came home recently from a yard sale with this sleeve board, a $2 purchase.  It took me a minute to realize how it was used, since it had rather a complicated apparatus.  Then I knew I had my Mother's old ironing board, and it dawned on me.

 It was designed to be screwed onto the end of the ironing board, then when not in use to iron sleeves; it could be flipped up out of the way.

 The large ironing board was my mother's only board purchased when she married in 1937 for $3.75 -- she ironed every week on it for her entire 55-year married life.  When I closed my parent's house, I couldn't part with it - so many memories of her ironing everything including the household cleaning rags!  The newly acquired sleeve board has this great patent date of Feb. 17, 1903.  In their day, both boards would have been padded and covered.

 Since I won't be ironing fancy, little sleeves anytime soon; this is where I put the sleeve board.  We always need more book shelves to house Bob's collection of engineering stuff.  

 We've had this store paper roll holder for awhile, but it just recently made its way into the house.  Bob's sister gave it to him in pieces - he just recently restored it.  Their family owned a grocery store for years; so along with the string dispenser, the appeal is there!

I have to admit I'm attracted to this type of thing, also; but where am I going to put them??????

I'm sharing our junk with the following parties this week:
Better With Age for Give Me the Goods Monday
Hickory Trail for Efforts & Assets Tuesday
A Stroll Thru Life for Inspire Me Tuesday
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Tuesday
Vintage on a Dime for Welcome Home Wednesday
Ivy and Elephants for What's It Wednesday
No Minimalist Here for Thursday Open House Party
Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday
Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday
Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special

AMBER GLASS BOTTLES

This is a collection that I never intended to start -- it just happened!

About 20 years ago when we were closing out my parent's home, I found this big bottle in my Dad's garage/workshop.  For some reason, I was attracted to it and brought it home.

I love the way it looks with my brown transferware.

Next at an estate sale we found a cardboard box in an attic with about twelve of these Luyties' bottles with homeopathic pills in them - never had been opened.  

Our son, the science teacher, was interested in the compounds listed on the labels; so we gave him the box of bottles.  I kept these three.  The labels really are interesting!  Are you ready for some 'Strych. Phos.' to cure your mental disorder? -- Three to five tablets every three hours.  That should cure something!

Then we started picking up amber bottles at yard sales - they really are cheap - usually about $2.

This past weekend Bob found this bottle with the two little handles and lid with a hole in it.  There are no markings so we don't have a clue what it was for originally.  The Clorox bottle on the lower left below is quite small.  I'm used to Clorox in a big gallon jug!!  Then the fruit jar on the lower right I found at an estate sale a couple of years ago - it is embossed with Wan-eta Cocoa Boston.  In one list in my research, I found it listed as 'rare' and worth $125.  Really??  I doubt it -- I paid 50 cents for it!

The tall bottle below is a Fleishmann's liquor bottle - probably either had gin or vodka in it originally.  The two small jars were snuff bottles.

The number of raised dots on the bottom are to indicate the strength of the snuff.  Both of these bottles have four dots.

I've now become quite fond of amber glass bottles, and am always on the lookout for more -- inexpensively, of course!

I'll be joining in the following parties:
The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday
Better with Age for Give Me the Goods Monday
Hickory Trail for Efforts and Assets Tuesday
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Tuesday Treasures
Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Creative Cain Cabin for Budget Decorating Party Tuesday
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Tuesday
Vintage on a Dime for Welcome Home Wednesday
Ivy and Elephants for What's It Wednesday
Have a Daily Cup for Share Your Cup Thursday
From My Front Porch to Yours for Treasure Hunt Thursday

BLOSSOM WEEKEND

Our small town comes really alive one weekend a year -- Blossom Festival.  The Festival was started 75 years ago to celebrate the blooming of the fruit trees in the many orchards around the area.  We had a late freeze a couple of weeks ago, so the blossoms were fairly scarce; but this is my cherry tree blossoming like crazy. Guess it didn't get the memo about the freeze!  The lack of blossoms in town didn't keep the citizens from celebrating.  A lot of families have their family reunions on this weekend to attend the parade, the craft shows, rodeo, carnival, 5-K run, art shows, etc. etc.

Over the years, it has become quite the attraction for the high school and middle school bands in the state of Colorado to come  on this weekend for music competitions.  There are two days of concert and jazz band judging, then on Saturday there is a 3-hour parade down main street -- lots of marching bands, a queen and court, floats, politicians, restored antique cars and tractors, and school kids.  I forgot my camera, so the only picture I have is this one that my friend, Lynne, took of my grandson, Wyatt.  He is the one carrying the trophy, as his elementary school won first place for their float.  It carries a nice monetary prize, too, so they were really excited.

Back in the 1950s, I attended the girl's boarding school that was located here in town.  Blossom Weekend was a big thing as we were allowed to go to town (under the Nun's supervision, of course) to participate.  I loved going to school here since I didn't have any siblings.  I immediately had a whole bunch of sisters.  We arrived as Freshman in high school as 12-13 year olds, and became teenagers together.  We have remained close, and celebrate periodic reunions.  Four of my classmates were here for the weekend; and we ate, laughed, and enjoyed the weekend activities together.  On Sunday after church, I had them over for brunch and more reminiscing.  (60 years ago while attending the boarding school, I never thought Bob and I would move here 32 years ago to raise our kids.)

I intended to eat on our porch, but it turned cold, so we ate inside.

I made three kinds of mini-quiche; meat sandwiches with toppings, fruit, coffee cake, Madeleines, etc.

My granddaughter, Caitlin, popped in to regale us with stories about how much fun her teenage group had at the carnival on Saturday night.  After my classmates had left, she said that we sounded just like her friends - I don't think she had ever thought of her Grammy as a teenager!!
And, here we are -- combined we have a bunch of grandchildren to talk about.

Girls with Grandmother Faces

We had a great time!

I'm linking into the following parties:
Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday
Have a Daily Cup for Share Your Cup Thursday
The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday
Rattlebridge Farm for Foodie Friday
Little Red House for Mosaic Monday