I was only able to get the okra canned today because the store that I buy my canning jars from decided to stop carrying them. Not wanting to run all over town we called my mother in law to see if she knew where I could get more jars. About thirty minutes later Russ’ mom, the dear that she is, called us from Wal-Mart asking what size of jars and lids I needed! That was totally unexpected, I had planned on going to pick them up myself in the morning. I really am so lucky to have such amazing in-laws.

Anyhow, I will probably make the green beans either tomorrow after I make lemon bars or Monday during the day. Here are some photos of the okra.

Recipe from AllRecipes.

In my (very little) spare time I have been working on painting. The class I am taking at school is another painting course, so I have lots of time every week, both at home and at school, to work on my paintings.

Somehow through all the madness Russ took a day off from work so we could go to the Del Mar races. Here is a snapshot from before the races started.

Currently I am trying to get back in the swing of things. I have ignored my garden for quite a bit, and it really needs some tending to. I have put off baking bread for several weeks, and greatly miss the smell of fresh bread filling the house. I also need to get back in the habit of cooking our own meals. We have been getting take out several times a week just because it is so easy. Hopefully in the coming weeks I can start to get my life back to a more normal state.

That’s my story. More regular blog posts will now resume.

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. The heat here has really been overwhelming. I wanted to bake bread (and post the recipe, as per request!), but it is just too darn hot for anything of that nature right now. Supposedly it is cooling down considerably on Monday, so I will try to get that up this week.

Did you know that I love painting? Well I do, and I really don’t do it nearly as much as I would like to. Last week I decided to set a challenge for myself, which I have been busy with all week. I am trying to finish one oil painting every week for an entire year. I started a second blog to chronicle my journey. I would love to have you guys follow along over on A Year of Paint.

Here is the piece I need to finish by tomorrow night for the first week of the challenge.

This is my brother Roderick, but we call him Roddy. He’s a cheese making goofball who loves rocks and fossils. He and I can talk about food until the sun comes up.

This is his beautiful wife Kyle. She is a fun loving exercise enthusiast whose kind hearted demeanor is enviable. She is incredibly creative and always has fun activities planned.

Together they are currently residing in Portland Oregon, though at the end of the Summer are moving down to Los Olivos California where my brother has been offered a teaching position at a school. They are very active, love going on backpacking adventures, and are always exploring local spots. They cook together and love exploring new and interesting vegetables from the farmer’s market.

Anyhow, the reason I am introducing them to you is because they recently started a blog called Our Homeostasis, which they both write for. It is only a few weeks old, but I have been actively reading, and anxiously waiting more posts and more of their beautiful photography. My brother who was the one who got me interested in making my own mozzarella (and hopefully other cheeses in the future) has already shared a few of his cheeses.

Boiled peanuts and berry muffins.

A cheddar cheese Roddy made.

So go check out their blog, Our Homeostasis, subscribe, and leave lots of comments! Don’t forget to tell them I sent you!

]]> http://www.thevintagewife.com/?feed=rss2&p=1142 3 http://www.thevintagewife.com/?p=1142 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheVintageWife/~3/_mOgOP45QgE/ http://www.thevintagewife.com/?p=1156#comments Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:44:12 +0000 Cedar http://www.thevintagewife.com/?p=1156 ***This post was lost in a recent server change, luckily I had the post backed up, unfortunately I lost all the comments. ***

I usually prefer not to make so many posts in a row about the same thing, but I think it is clear that I am obsessed. I can’t stop buying dishes. Every trip to the thrift store in the past two weeks has resulted in more plates, glasses, and serving dishes. Luckily the cost of all of the following together was right around $10….so my dish addiction is still under some sort of control!

I found this amazing Mikasa Light ‘n Lively serving platter yesterday. There is a small chip on the underside which is totally noticeable from the top. For $1.50 I can live with a chipped Mikasa dish!

Some colorful and fun floral juice glasses.

Snowflake Pyrex casserole dish.

This Pyrex pattern is probably my favorite. I had a small nesting bowl in the past, but it was the one thing that broke during our move. I can’t even tell you how happy I was to find this set. Eventually I want to get the two larger bowls that these nest inside.

Short post for today, but I also wanted to share the wonderful Ben Seibel Mikasa dish that my brother and his wife bought for me. They are such dears. After my last post they found this Mikasa bowl in the vintage shop near there house and bought it for me. Isn’t it just lovely?

All week I have been looking up Mikasa Ben Seibel dishes on etsy and ebay. I love the huge and bright floral prints from the late 60’s and early 70’s that was on so many wonderful sets of dishes. They are so festive and fun, and would be so lovely to eat from outside on a warm Summer evening. I think I am going to start collecting them, but in mismatched prints. I just love all of the prints so much, and I love how eclectic they would look together around a table.

Yesterday when Russ suggested a trip to the thrift store, I jumped at the idea. I was determined to find some amazing dishes. I didn’t even really look at anything but dishes, and I found this set of four dessert plates for $2.95. While they are not the incredible and colorful Ben Seibel ones I have been looking at, they are Mikasa, and I think they are pretty fantastic. The set says Mikasa Ivory China, Riviera on the bottom. I looked them up online when I got home, and had a hard time finding any more from the set, but I am okay with that. I think they will look great for a dinner party paired with a pretty solid colored plate, or another black and white set.

This morning I made French toast with blueberry sauce and served them on my new plates. I made the blueberry sauce last weekend and have been serving it over vanilla ice cream for dessert for a few days.I loosely followed this recipe.

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the blueberries, 1/4 cup of water, orange juice, and sugar. Stir gently, and bring to a boil.
2. In a cup or small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Gently stir the cornstarch mixture into the blueberries so as not to mash the berries. Simmer gently until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the almond extract and cinnamon. Thin sauce with water if it is too thick for your liking.

Recently I have been thinking about school. I have been going on and off for the past three years to the local community college taking art classes and general ed. I am pretty close to being able to get my associates degree, which would be nice to have, but then where would I go from there? Bachelor degree? What would I do with that? I have no real intentions to work outside the home, and I hate the idea of going into debt for my education. I sort of like the idea of going to the community college forever, and don’t feel I need a degree to better my life (at least at this point). This drives my dad mad of course, but hey, it is my life.

Anyhow, on to what I have been reading up on lately–nursery technologies! They offer all sorts of horticulture certificate programs at a neighboring community college. I have been so fascinated lately with growing things, and actually looked into the programs a few years back. I have talked to Russ about it a lot too, and he likes the idea. If all I ever do with the knowledge I gain from the classes is for my own personal use, either now on my little balcony, or in the future when we have enough land to do some serious plant/vegetable growing, then I will be happy.

Besides reading up on different horticulture classes that the school offers, this weekend I have planted a few things. Friday I bought three different kinds of mint (I could not find mint seeds anywhere this year!), chocolate mint, spearmint, and pineapple mint. I had never tasted the chocolate or pineapple mint, but both were delicious. Russ and I agreed that the chocolate mint was our favorite of the three. Yesterday we also transplanted some tomato plants that my neighbor was growing in a pot into a small plot of land on the side of our complex.

On Friday when I bought the mint I also bought some lovely lavender, which I re-potted that afternoon. Before I had done much research on lavender I had purchased a packet of lavender seeds at the market, and tried several times to get some lavender started. I later found out through my gardening books that lavender is extremely difficult to germinate. I decided to buy a small lavender plant at the garden store, though I still really want to succeed in starting lavender from seeds….just for my own stupid self satisfaction.

I hand washed my work gloves after planting the tomatoes and left them to dry on our fence. It was unintentional but it sort of looks like the left glove is flipping us the bird. Sorry, I promise it wasn’t on purpose!

While we were working on replanting the tomatoes I had two loaves of bread rising. The recipe I followed was a new on. I have had a bit of bad bread luck recently, but these loaves turned out beautifully.