Miscellaneous Stuff

I’m tired of the whole self-isolating thing now.

It’s not like I am on the go every day.  Most days (under normal circumstances) I am at home BUT I have the option to go out – to run errands, pick up one thing at the grocery store, visit the shops on the square, make a trip into Rosenberg to get whatever the hell appeals to me.  Not so much right now.  Ugh

I have stayed busy with many half-finished and thought-of-doing projects.  So, mostly I’m just whining.

One of the many odd things I have is a collection of very vintage cookbooks.  I enjoy them.  I rearranged that group of very old books recently and stopped to look through a couple.  The oldest one (maybe 1880-1890) belonged to my great grandmother.  The book itself is very fragile and the name of it has worn off but it offers some interesting recipes, like Charlotte a la Parisienne . . .

Along with ones for Keeping Steel Knives from Rusting, Keeping Ivory Handles from Cracking, and Purfying a Well.  Cookbooks were a lot more interesting, back in the long ago days.

Stuck in among the cookbooks was this little gem.

It was put out in the early 1920’s by American Maid Flour which was evidently located in Houston, TX.  And, yes, it has stories

plus a few recipes

We’ve had several rainy to drizzly days lately.  It’s good, we need the rain but it means I’m truly house bound.  Today the rain finally passed on.  So, I went out and walked the neighborhood.  Didn’t see any people but I did notice cars – parked in driveways – something I don’t see during the week normally.  I also took a few pictures

This is an excellent treehouse tree.  I’d like to move it to my yard.  And this is the biggest cabbage I’ve ever seen.

I recently posted a recipe for making maple candy using 100% pure maple syrup.  I like maple candy so I decided to make it myself.  The only bit of advice I have to offer is – when the recipe says beat it for several minutes – it means for about two minutes.  It sets up fast.  So fast, I couldn’t get it into molds.  However, it tastes just as good broken in bits.

I set out a few decorations last Friday for Ostara.  When my children were young, I made and dyed few hard boiled eggs.  Mostly I made Cascarones (which are blown eggs, dyed and filled with confetti).  It’s good luck to have a Cascarone cracked over your head.  You can buy them these days but 50-odd years back, not so much.  And, for years I saved out a particularly pretty egg for future decorating.  These days I set them out with the Bunny Family.  For 6 or 7 years Michael would give me a new bunny.  I finally told him to stop or the Bunny Family would be completely out of control.  Then a few years ago, I sent each grandchild one of the bunny children.  I kept the original two though.

As I got out the baskets, etc, I decided to include only a few eggs.  I’m concerned the Demon Duo will decide those are for them and I will have broken eggs and confetti everywhere. 

Some of the eggs are ones my mother made – silky eggs with a cross stitched band.

And finally, I replaced all the broken part of my tea cup feeder.  Filled it with seed and hung it outside the window.

It’s hard to see but there’s a Cardinal on it in this picture and Daryl keeps a close eye on it.

23 Mar 2020