First recipe on the new cooking blog!

The first recipe is: Gingerbread with Lemon Honey Glaze

Ginger Bread with Lemon Honey Glaze

New Blog Launch!

I started a new blog today that is devoted to healthy cooking, you can read all about it here:

Time to Cook a Healthy Food Blog

Photo by: Jim Dorothy

Healthy Nut Butter Balls

Nut Butter Balls

Some of you may know I have recently decided to add recipes to my blog. These Nut Butter Balls are one of my favorite things to eat and they are fun to make. I originally found this recipe online but I have greatly changed it and adapted it to my tastes. These nut butter balls are gluten free, dairy free, refined sugar free, free of preservatives and they are vegetarian (with a slight change of sweetener of raw honey to pure maple syrup they could be made vegan).

Here is what you need:

1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup shelled pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried coconut
(feel free to experiment with the ingredients above, switch out the seeds with nuts if you would like, you can use raw or roasted. Tailor them to your needs and your tastes, you can add chocolate chips or dried fruit cut up into small pieces, the sky is the limit to how these can be adapted).
1 T melted coconut oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 cup honey
1 cup of nut butter of your choice, almond is always good, at home I have a nut butter maker and I like to take mixed roasted nuts (a no peanut blend) and I make home made nut butter. Also if you like your nut butter balls to have a more coconut flavor to them you can use a 1/2 cup of nut butter of your choice and a half of a cup of coconut butter.

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a large bowl, mix all ingredients really well with your hands then roll mixture into balls and place onto a cookie sheet, refrigerate till firm.

When firm store in a container with lid in the refrigerator for up to a week.

New! Now offering healthy and delicious recipes!

Hello y'all, welcome back to my blog!

I have been contemplating posting my recipes on my blog for a while now. People ask me for my recipes quite often and this is a good way to share them. The main thing that has been holding me back is because this is a vintage blog and for the most part my recipes are not vintage. However I pretty much cook in the spirit of old time cooking, so that has to count for something right? (That is my loop hole anyways). I have several food sensitivities/allergies, which means I do not eat foods that contain preservatives or MSG, foods that are processed or prepackaged. I don't eat foods out of boxes and only on a rare occasion do I eat something out of a can (for example black beans). I do not eat gluten or consume milk however I do eat other dairy products such as cheese, sour cream and yogurt. I only eat and cook with unrefined sugars such as raw local honey, pure maple syrup and coconut palm sugar. I make mostly everything I cook from scratch with whole fresh foods just like in the old days. Yes, it can be time consuming but to me it is worth it. Also from time to time I may mention substitutions that can possibly be made so the recipes are versatile and can perhaps work with others who have their own set of food sensitivities that maybe different than mine. Please note I have been eating and cooking this way since Dec. 2011.

The first recipe I would like to share is:

The Pacific Rim Noodle Salad (this dish always disappears fast in my house hold, I have been known to double, triple and sometimes even quadruple this recipe because it is so popular!):

Pacific Rim Noodle Salad, made with buckwheat noodles.

The recipe originally came from New Woman Magazine 1996.

This salad can be made with shrimp, crab meat or chicken. I usually use jumbo prawns (big shrimp).

Ingredients:

1 bundle *buckwheat somen noodles or brown rice angel hair pasta (both are gluten free). If you have another type of gluten free pasta you prefer such as corn you can use that instead. *For people who are on a grain free diet try buckwheat noodles, buckwheat is not a grain it is from the rhubarb family (oddly enough).
*Note if you are allergic to any of the following veggies you can substitute them out with julienne slices of carrot, whole pea pods or celery just to name a few.
1 medium cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut in julienne slivers.
3 to 4 young scallions, cut into julienne slivers.
1/2 medium sweet red pepper, seeded, cut into julienne slivers.
1/2 small hot green chili pepper, such as jalapeno, seeded and cut in julienne slivers (this can be omitted for a very mild salad).
1 lb. large shrimp about 18, boiled, shelled, and deveined, or one 1 lb. cooked lump crab meat, or 2 large chicken breasts (8 oz.), poached, skinned and boned after cooking.
2 thin slices peeled fresh ginger root.
1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced.
1/2 tsp. coarse salt (I prefer coarse pink Himalayan salt).
1/4 Cup sherry vinegar, rice wine vinegar or plain white vinegar.
1/3 Cup toasted sesame oil.
1 Tbsp. Light, low-sodium soy sauce (I use Bragg's Liquid Amino's it does not contain preservatives and is made with non GMO soy beans and much better for you than soy sauce or if you have problems with soy you can always try coconut Amino's I have not tried these myself yet).
Optional garnishes: Sprigs of watercress or small dark-green lettuce leaves; 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted in a skillet until golden brown (this is my personal favorite!); or 1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped roasted, unsalted peanuts.

Directions:

1. Boil noodles in 3 quarts well salted water until just tender (follow directions on package), they should be firm but not hard in the center. Drain immediately and rinse in cold water. Drain thoroughly on cloth towel.
2. In large bowl, combine noodles with vegetables and chili pepper  and toss lightly. Slice shrimp in half lengthwise (or pick over crab meat, or pull chicken into shreds with fingers) and add to bowl.
3. To make dressing, pulverize ginger, garlic slices, and salt with mortar and pestle, or in a bowl using back of wooden spoon. Combine with vinegar, oil, and soy sauce, adjusting each to taste. Toss dressing through salad ingredients.
4. Divide into portions and garnish.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings. Per serving (6 servings) with shrimp, 282 calories: 29% (22g) protein, 28% (10g) fat, 43% (33g) carbohydrate. 115 mg cholesterol; 325 mg sodium.

Enjoy!

Reconnecting with a friend from the past.

Rickey Davis with his dog Baby

I do not normally write about too many modern day things on this blog since it is a blog devoted to things of a vintage and antique nature. However sometimes I have something I just want to share that does not fit into that category from time to time and this is one of those times. A few weeks ago (just after Christmas) I found and reconnected with Rickey Davis, who was my best friend from truck driving school. Back in the spring of 2005 I had made the decision to partake in a "big adventure" this big adventure took me down into the wilds of Texas (as most of you know I am from Oregon) where I went to truck driving school. While I was there I met the cutest southern boy my eyes ever did see! During our time in school we were pretty much inseparable and the best of friends. When the time came for our schooling to commence we each went to work for a different company, we moved and had different phone numbers yadda yadda yadda (you all know that song and dance where you were once inseparable and then you become hopelessly separated) there came a point in time shortly after truck driving school where we lost touch with one another.

However I do not give up that easily and I made it my quest to track down Rickey through hell or high water! After years of searching I found him on facebook he had just started a facebook page about 3 months ago, on his facebook page he mentioned writing a book and now a blog too. I could not believe it Rickey was a writer just like me! Rickey is an amazing writer, his writing is very raw, real and captivating. His writing pulls you and when you are done reading you find yourself wanting to read more (no I am not just saying these things because we are friends and I am not getting paid either). If you are interested in reading some of Rickey's stories and become a blog follower here is a link to his blog: trickyricky35.blogspot.com

Queen for a Day!

I ran across this old article of me that was on the Queens of Vintage a few years ago now, I can not believe I never did share it with ya'll out there in blog land. Well you know what they say right? Better late than never! Here is the link to the Queens of Vintage website just in case you are not familiar with them: http://www.queensofvintage.com/

Vintage Queen no 69 is an art deco girl

Our beautiful Vintage Queen number 69 loves  the Twenties and Thirties. Whether she is portraying a Twenties cabaret dancer or flapper one day and then onto a Thirties housewife or socialite the next, she is the quintessential Art Deco Girl.

Brooksie started off getting into things of this nature from a very early age; she remembers listening to old time jazz and swing with her grandma at the age of five.

When she was in grade school her parents used to take her to the local pizza parlor where they used to show silent films from the teens and Twenties with an in house organ player just like in the old days.

She used to sit enthralled in front of the movie screen watching damsels in distress over root beer and pizza.

Brooksie started collecting small vintage accessories such as compacts, brooches, hankies, and scarves (she inherited her first vintage items when her grandma passed away when she was nine). She has been collecting accessories, vintage clothes, and antiques for almost three decades now.

Currently Brooksie lives in Portland Oregon, she is a vintage clothing model, buyer and seller of vintages clothes, she also sells vintage lingerie, small accessories, and jewelry at burlesque shows in the Portland area.

You can read more about the adventures of Brooksie on her blog at: http://artdecogirls.blogspot.com.

Devil at Dusk - Installment thirty two. "The last and final installment!"

Welcome all to Devil at Dusk Installment thirty two!

Sunday night the Sheriff’s Office got some more reports of UFO’s, this time the people that called said they saw lights of an unidentified flying object around the highway 15 area not far from the farmhouse. Monday morning Jerry and I went and got our search warrant and we made it back over to DD’s aka Mr. Baker’s (“the killer”) house while he was at work. Shortly after arriving we made it into the house, the first place we went was down to the basement. While searching the basement I noticed what looked to be blood stains on the floor and Jerry found a bag with many pairs of beige nylon seamed stockings in it, Eureka! This is the evidence that we really needed to link Baker to the murders. After that we checked the rest of the house but that was really all that we were able to come up with as far as evidence goes. So we left DD’s and went back to the Sheriff’s Office and we showed Sheriff Holifield what we found, we also mentioned the blood stains. The Sheriff told us that it was enough evidence to make an arrest.

By then it was already late in the afternoon so we had a few hours to make the preparations to go in and make our arrest. We contacted all the neighboring police departments and sheriff’s offices and we pulled as many officers, sheriffs, deputies and their dogs. This would also be Sugar the blood hound puppy’s first work debut. We all knew DD got off work in the early evening, at least a once or twice a week he would run some errands or go shopping after work in Bay Springs. We wanted to time it so we were all arriving at his house just around sunset, that way we knew he would be there. Soon it was time to pull our motorcade together, the Sheriff gave me a flashing light to attach to the top of my car and a siren, he told me since I was the lead investigator for this investigation that they wanted me to be at the head of the pack! I was speechless; I had assumed that I would just ride along with Jerry in his car!

So I lead the way for the rest of the motorcade of police vehicles and sheriff cars. We all had our lights and sirens on until we got a few miles from the farmhouse then we turned them off. We all finally arrived at the farmhouse and parked so we were surrounding the front of the house. Then we all started getting out of our vehicles. Just as we were starting to surround the house, DD was taking the trash out. He looked around and realized we were all there to come and get him! He started to run towards the partially wooded area out behind his house. All the men and I plus all of the dogs came after him. He ran through the small wooded area which ends up in a clearing, we all follow. After that we saw the most amazing sight ever!

We saw a large saucer shaped UFO!!! It was just on the edge of the woods in the clearing (a good spot for a UFO to land and to stay somewhat hidden for the most part). DD also sees the UFO (he had the dear in the head light look on his face) and he also sees the men surrounding him. The next thing we know an alien pops out of the UFO!!! It looks like a female (it has a body similar to a female that is) it was thin and short with a big oblong shaped head with big huge black eyes and a nose but it did not appear to have a mouth.  The skin on this thing had a greenish tint and was kind of leathery looking. She ran after DD (The Devil at Dusk) who was our killer. We all stared dumbfounded at the sight that unfolded in front of us! DD started to run toward the men but the men surged forward with guns drawn toward DD. Then the alien finally reaches DD! She takes one hand (her hand had three fingers on each hand, so a total of 2 hands with 6 fingers) then she takes 2 of the 3 fingers, reaches out and pinched the nerve where the base of the head and neck meet. DD drops to the ground, he was out cold! Then the alien rips his clothes off and drags him to her UFO and pulls him in! Then she fires up her UFO, turns on enough lights to light up a football stadium then proceeds to take off!!!

We all just stood there watching like we were in a daze! I really think we were in a daze, I think the alien put something in the air to basically make us stand there and do nothing. Afterwards we all said we felt numb and the whole thing seamed to happen so fast. We felt like we had been in a fog bank.We all got into our cars and drove back to our houses. Jerry came back to my place, we go in, Jerry sits on the couch and I get us some tea. I come back with the tea and sit next to him. We were both still in shock by what we had seen. I say to Jerry… well that was bar none the strangest damn thing I have ever seen in my entire life. Jerry nods his head and says yes ma’am, strangest damn thing ever!!!

The End