Rattling On...

What's cooking?

On Saturday I went out of town on the hunt for something in particular. A piece of furniture that used to be everywhere, going for a song. When I didn't want one. Now...

Anyway, in the window of a charity shop was a poster for a little local antiques and collectors fair, on in the church hall at that very minute. And it wasn't half bad. I got this casserole dish which I will probably use more as a serving dish. Nice.

Nicer was the sandwich, brownie and mug of tea I had with some older ladies who were visiting from Liverpool. I never got round to asking them how they found their way to a little village in Derbyshire.

Nicest was on the way out, a book stall manned by a laconic chap (all sold in aid of church funds on this stall) who just couldn't understand why I fell over myself to get into a box at the back.

Five for a pound. And even then he thought he was robbing me and wouldn't take any more. I'd paid to get in and bought lunch so I didn't feel too bad about it. You can bet someone else wouldn't have had qualms if I hadn't taken him off at the elbow.

I am now checking what to expect when summer arrives, as surely it must? The sun was out yesterday...

Easter bunny...

When you have a few (who am I kidding) vintage jelly moulds you'd better also have a child that isn't averse to eating jelly. Unless you only use them for decoration; but I like to try them out as well. Other than a tiny bit at the front that stuck, this one was most successful, possibly a little more patience would have helped.

Old moulds like this often won't stand level, and I have a cunning solution to that. I jammed this one into a large gravy boat, with a kitchen roll buffer to prevent scratching.

I don't know who designed these moulds but they are a bit on the odd side. The strange rippling on the back adds a prehistoric exoskeleton touch, while the feet are a little too rat-like for comfort. But I suppose you're not meant to scrutinise these things too deeply.

I'm not mad keen on aluminium, the mess it makes of tea towels and the gritty texture. Do you remember the big scare over aluminium pans and the fear that they were causing some forms of dementia? I suspect you'd have to eat a few pans before it became much of a threat.

Some baking is in order today, I think.

Me (new) old china...

I got to work on Monday morning to find a mountain of crockery on the bench. Hmmm... couldn't resist a quick shufty through... oooh, lots of vintage. Pangs of retro-induced wanties coursed through me.

M saw me eyeing it all up. 'I thought you'd like that.' He said. 'I saw you looking at all those old plates in Food Tech the other day.' Indeed.

After what I considered to be a polite pause I ventured to enquire to whom it belonged.'Me' he said 'Or at least it's from my Grandma's house'...

Maybe I slobbered or something, but he laughed and said 'I know you like that stuff so you can take whatever you want and school can have the rest.'

I think I may have even run over to the piles. School has gained a lovely plain white dinner service and I got all the groovy stuff. M and his Mrs think I'm slightly insane, they may well be right.

Let this be a lesson to anyone trying to hide an addiction. You can't. Something will always give you away. In my case it was the Tams 70s plate in a cooking lesson we were giving. I just had to turn it over in my hands and make an admiring comment.

He likes caravans and fishing. There's room for everyone in this big old world. Tell me, is there anything you'd like to share? We're all friends...

 

Eat me...

I have some little terracotta pots outside on the front doorstep which have primulas in them. The birds really like to eat the plants. So, I went to the local pet shop where they also sell seasonal garden stuff, and bought myself three new ones. Two to replace the snack pot and one for inside this mug, bought in a charity shop.

The cat, as I soon found out, also like eating them. I only left the bag by the sink for a couple of minutes and came back to find him chowing down. He tried to pretend he was sniffing them, but the raggy edges gave the game away.

I put the compost inside a small sandwich bag first, to save the mug being spoiled as it has a little bit of crazing and if dirt gets in there it's nigh on impossible to shift.

I know this as a few years ago we had a new boiler fitted while we were away on holiday. I came back to find the fitters had used my little, very old, decorative blue and white bowl (kept in the kitchen window) for teabag slops. I tried everything, soaked it in all manner of recommended concoctions. Then threw it in the bin.

My trusty assistant, Coco, helped with the photo shoot. At one point she too gave the plant a good sniffing and started to lick her lips. What is it with primulas?

In other news:

The pond is now full enough for the blackbird to have a good soaking whenever he chooses.

The blog counterfeiter is still happily at it.

And, here I was going to get something off my chest. Something to do with a comment I left on another blog, and to which I got a rather curt and moral reply. I took it like a man and continued reading the blog. Then I go and read a post endorsing what I got remonstrated with about. (That looks like nonsense written down but you get my meaning) This person has done an about face on their original, and let's face it strident, standpoint. People can be very frustrating. So, I won't mention it...

Please release me, let me go...

What's the point in having a thing about kitchenalia if you never use it? I sometimes find half the fun in baking, for example, is choosing the tin ( I have them in all shpes and sizes), wondering where it's been on its travels, that sort of thing.

Mostly the baking tins are old family relics, ones that were thrown out to make way for non-stick versions. I don't mind all the greasing and lining and would line a non-stick anyway. Just in case. I have old pie plates and pudding basins as well. The main rule is that I wouldn't make food in anything cracked, chipped or crazed. Partly, mostly, for hygiene reasons, but also as anything damaged is liable to break once in the oven. But that's where displaying comes into its own. 

I love this old aluminium 2 pint jelly mould and have used it a few times over the holidays. I always rub a little vegetable oil over the inside before filling it, to make release easier. But if it's stuck there's only one solution... the hairdryer. On full blast and played for a minute or so over the outside, it works wonders, and there's a very satisfying suck as the jelly leaves the sides of the mould.

I am very easily amused...

Light fruit cake...

Is the title an oxymoron? It is not a dark cake, I'll grant you, but in dietary terms it wouldn't pass any sort of calorie controlled test. But it's the name of the recipe in any case, and it tastes good.

I think making interestingly shaped cakes adds a bit to the process. Don't ask me why, it's just a fruit cake, but the moment it pops out of the tin is special. Mostly because it's a relief it hasn't stuck to the interior and fallen to bits! 

I have a few interesting tins now, the best of which is a somewhat seasonal affair, but has been used every year since I bought it. And on that basis was worth the silly amount I paid for it. I was seduced again the other week, in a local cookware/crockery shop. They had a sale on, and I was drawn in.

There, on display, with one third off, were some Nordic cake tins. The rest is history, but you'll have to wait a little longer to see that one as, once again, it has a bit of a seasonal theme to it, though could be used on on more occasions than a fir tree tin...

Another 50p find...

Today's vintage find... a complete and boxed (albeit on the tatty side)Tala icing set. Think of the hours of fun this will provide in the half term holiday, now only three weeks away. Not that I live from break to break, but some weeks are longer than others.

And is it just me, or does this icer have a vaguely menacing surgical look about it? Ladies, you know what I mean...

Thrifty finds...

I mentioned I'd fallen on some nice thrifty finds at the weekend...

The melamine cups and saucers were probably the best bargain-50p each set. They are like new, not a mark on them. I love melamine and I'm sure I've mentioned that fact before on this space. I have a rather nice orange butter dish (Melaware) that I use every day, and a blue jug sits in the bathroom. The rest of my small collection gets used occasionally. These will be for display.

Another product I find irresistible is...

...vintage Tupperware. This item is quite a subdued colourway for the 70s, it's more lemony than the picture suggests, but it was hardly light yesterday when I took it. I have some other stuff that's a really garish green...lovely.

I know some will find my tastes peculiar but that's not my worry. The Tupperware was only 49p and it's enormous. Talk about value for money and a cheap hobby!

I'm sure it all has something to do with nostalgia for my childhood somewhere along the line, but I was fond of melamine and Tupperware as a child as well. And old cake tins, biscuit cutters, 50s fridges, 40s all-in-one kitchen units (you know the ones with the worktop that popped out of the cupboard), painted floors and iron beds.

My other ace find was an embroidered cloth, a really beautiful one in linen. It's in the washer so that will have to wait. 

Obsessive? Me?

I read Alicia's post over at Posie gets cozy yesterday and thought to myself 'I must have one of those!'

But of course I don't live in the US, where the purchasing of just such an item is easy as peasy. Not so here. I tried every Google combination known to man. Zilch.

At this point any normal person would have thrown in the towel. Not I. I just must have a cake tin that marks out slices in such an authoritarian style. Undaunted I decided to venture abroad, to Germany. To German Amazon to be precise. My usual passwords etc. worked fine and I pressed what I assume to be the Buy Me button. I didn't order from the US as I've been stung on import duty in the past, despite having paperwork and invoices- they wanted the money or I didn't get the goods... over.a.barrel.

It is now just a matter of waiting and hoping that I haven't pressed the wrong button...

For anyone interested it's a rehruckenform in German (also known as an almond cake or Scandinavian/Austrian cake). There are cheaper ones than I chose but I wanted non-stick and the heavier ones usually cook better and don't burn the cake.

I shall be baking the said cake as soon as the parcel hits the mat. Oh, and please don't tell me they have them in John Lewis, I may cry.

With apologies to Ms Dietrich...

Falling in love again

Never wanted to

What am I to do?

Can't help it

Who'd have thought it? Portmeirion? 

This is the design known as Totem and I can see this will be more than a fling. The Hornsea will just have to man-up and accept the competition.

The annual trip...

Yesterday we went on our annual post-Christmas trip to Burleigh and its great factory shop. There was also a rather good sale on. I know these pictures are probably very similar to last year's, but pottery is pottery!

This year they had a tree up near the lovely open fire and tea and coffee are still free if you make your own in the little kitchen. As they are now owned by Denby I had wondered if things would have changed, but not so far.

I love seeing all the patterns piled in together on the lovely display dressers, of course it makes you want to buy. I do have lots of their stuff all ready, in different colours, but went to get a tureen to match one I already had. They didn't have one but did have a larger version in the same pattern (like the one in the first picture in last year's post). As it was in the sale it was a bargain. 

I may have managed to buy a couple of jugs in complementary patterns as well. You can never have too many jugs, although that theory is being severely tested in my cellar.

The next pictures are for Colleen. She will understand... they are to do with the advent calendar on her blog. Day 21 to be precise!

If the spacings are all to pot on the post today I'm not going to bother. I've had to re-load the pictures countless times, everything disappears or re-orders itself. This happens periodically, obviously the planets are in the wrong alignment or some such.

Day 8 of the No Luggage saga.

Shhhh...

...don't tell anyone, but these aren't Hornsea, they're actually Arthur Wood. But hey, they fit the 70s bill and so are good enough for me.

I've been doing a bit of Saturday morning thrift shopping and these were one of the purchases. This was another...

A copper fish shaped mould of course. Who could resist? And so handy for when I'm making, er, you know fish shaped things.

The new shelves are filling up nicely, but I'm not happy with the arrangements so won't show them until I have a better display. The problem is that a lot of the Hornsea is dark coloured and lost against the pine. I could paint the shelves or just the back but I don't really want to. So it's trial and error at the moment. Not that I don't have a bazillion other items I could potentially arrange on them...

It's pouring down outside, dark inside, and I'm nursing the after effects of something that happened yesterday. After work I went to the DIY store to get lightbulbs, you know why, and was pootling round looking at potting compost. As you do. Suddenly I was overcome with the most incredible itching and burning sensation on my chest which rapidly spread up my neck and to my face. I felt most odd. I rushed to the checkout and then home for some antihistamine tablets. Which made me feel better but today I have very swollen and sore eyes.

Lunch had been cooked by someone else yesterday. It was a chilli shepherd's pie. I was eating away when I came upon a peanut. In a shepherd's pie. I stopped eating immediately and didn't say anything, and I thought I'd got away with it. Obviously not, and the reactions are getting progressively worse. I must get to the doctor's and mention it. One day. Meanwhile I'll carry the anti-histamine with me.

I love nuts, and used to happily munch away on peanuts without much in the way of trouble. It is very annoying as I only have to smell them (or peanut butter-aarghh) and I want them. Such is life.

Torture by fairy cake.

Life seems to be one long cake stall at the moment. There has been one after another at school, all for good causes, but so many. 

I get asked to bake all the time. I take this as a minor compliment and not just a sign that I am a soft touch- on baking standby for all occasions.

There is no point in showing any finesse, all that's required is a sugar rush and garish presentation skills. I hit on a great decorating scheme that the kids loved. Fairy cakes topped with real milk chocolate and Haribo sour cherries, the big ones that look like a bunch.

Then, at the last stall I rolled up with my tins to find that my idea had been stolen by another member of staff (who had the grace to look shame faced). Is nothing sacred? I have had to move on to Smarties flowers. Time consuming, and involving brain work. A most unsatisfactory combination.

A departure from the usual scenario at last Friday's stall involved a Staff Raffle as well as student cakes. I didn't hold out much hope of winning, even having spent a fortune on tickets, but there was champagne and other goodies up for grabs.

I won flapjack.

Made for each other.

I've been on the lookout for some kitchen shelves for a while now without any luck. My Dad was ready to make some, just waiting for my measurements.

But on Saturday as we were driving past a row of shops in Sheffield I spotted a painted dresser top. It was a bit chunky for what we wanted, so we decided to trawl some of the other 'antique' shops along the road. We found another painted version but it needed a lot of work for the price. The man sent us to the upstairs of the shop where the stripped pine was, and you can see what we found.

MrH likes to haggle and the bloke wasn't shifting. But they were a steal in my opinion at £45. And the bit I like the best...

The heart shapes in the sides. My Dad couldn't have done those, though he'd have had a good go, bless him.

Of course there'll be more on them than one meat plate, but it shows the scale well, and I'm still deciding what'll look best. Hornsea figures large.

We've had the drawers since we got married and bought them in a house sale. They were black with paint but cost next to nothing. We had them dipped and applied a lot of elbow grease and they've done sterling service ever since. At the moment they hold baking things, tea towels, cutlery and such.

After cleaning, waxing and polishing the new shelves are a really good match for the old drawers. The radiator is under consideration. Only problem is we need it and there's nowhere else for it to go really.

I'm just mad about Saffron, and Saffron's mad about me...

As part of the kitchen spruce-up I also painted these old shelves, home now to the treasured Hornsea ware. My Dad made the shelves for my bedroom when I was a teenager and they've followed me around.

Accuracy is not my Dad's strong point with carpentry (or anything else, really) he's more of a speed-freak. If you want a job done quickly, with major mess, then he's your man. You just have to be a bit unfussy about straight lines, ninety degree angles, or having to do a lot of cleaning up. Having said all that, I'm a stranger to the concept of dust sheets myself so something has rubbed off.

However, as I've mentioned before, I am a stickler for symmetry and geometry. Best, then, to look at the shelves from an angle...

I was out and about the other day and nipped into a charity shop I rarely go in as it's mostly clothes, but there on a shelf, all lonely and crying out to be snapped up was...

 

Oh yes, come home with me, baby. Join the collection. £2 of sheer Hornsea. This style is Saffron, and I know I'm a pattern tart (this is the 5th now) but I can't resist. I'll soon have every shade of daube from khaki to compost. Love it.

The top shelf...

...has the sugar shakers, but for some reason I cropped one of them off the picture. These are the more 70s-ish ones, so maybe it was s ubliminal cropping that went on. I love the lettering on these. It's one of those things that really dates a thing, the lettering style. You can tell if something's 20s, 60s or whichever.

I was at an antiques fair recently (that's antiques in inverted commas...more like a flea market with exorbitant entry prices) and saw two storage jars in the same design as the orange shaker. Mrs Woman was trying to tell me they were 50s. Never. And she was asking too much for me. But I do think about them..

valu