BBQ Display

The newest theme for the mini display shelf is B-B-Q aka: Bar-B-Q, Bar-B-Que or Barbeque!

I personally don't understand why the summer is always associated with barbequing.  I get that it's an alternative to heating up your kitchen but that's the dimmest reasoning I have ever heard.  So let's choose...Do you want to stand over an open fire outside in the humid 90 + degree weather with the sun beating down on you or would you rather run your stove indoors with shade and enjoy the AC giving it what it can to keep the room at 75 degrees?!

There's just no answer other than to avoid the outdoors at all costs in the summer.

No thank you to skin cancer and sweating my balls off.

But!  I do enjoy B-B-Q themed vintage items so in with keeping with the lemmings (i.e., herd mentality)

 I put together this bold (Well Hell Yes, It's Bold!) and saucy display!

To solve this summer heat, meal dilemma I highly recommend leaving the cooking to the microwave or a cereal bowl.  

Pinto Bean Casserole

 I am back again today with another vintage savory dish that leaves much to be desired.

The serving suggestion as seen below looks hot, bubbly, and creamy:

{image source}

I chose to make this dish because it has only three ingredients and they are all on my diet (when using whole wheat noodles).  I mean, not that I have been on my diet for the past year as my wide ass can attest but if I wanted to be, this dish would work.  

There's just so much wrong here.  I followed the instructions and the amounts but the final result looks too noddle-y and certainly not creamy or casserole-like.

It tastes as it looks...like bland ass noodles and beans.  And believe me I spiced the hell out of it.  There are very few savory dishes that can't be saved by Tony Chachere's except this one.  I was looking online at other recipes for Pinto Bean Casserole and discovered none of them were this boring.  They had taco seasoning, cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, you know, flavor.  Part of me is tempted to try and fix it up with some additional ingredients from the grocery store and the other part of me sees it in the garbage can. 

Sausage Corn Bread Supper

 

Whenever I try to make vintage savory dishes they rarely turn out appealing.  Not appealing to look at and certainly not appealing to eat.  I had high hopes of reproducing this amazing looking 'Sausage Corn Bread Supper' because the ingredients were simple and their image of the finished dish looked real and gorgeous.

But back in the real-real world it turned out as a bland eyesore.

Let's pick this thing apart, and I mean that literally.  I had to pick off the cornbread that had baked over the top of all the decorative sausage links.  We had to pick off the apple rings because they were bland chewy disks.

And the recipe name says "Supper" right?  Mr. Husband asks as he sees his dinner plate "Is this it? This is the entire meal?"  

Reality started to set in with me as I realized there are no vegetables here.  This isn't even a side dish.  It's a bread with some bonus fatty sausage involved.

PB completely refused to eat it...but that is always to be expected.  

This dish isn't an absolute from oven to garbage can kinda thing though.  Cornbread with sausage is damn tasty.  I  home made some apple sauce as the recipe recommended and that was pretty good when incorporated with the cornbread.   

Just leave off the apple disks and eat with your eyes closed.

Blogiversery Bathroom Reveal

Lord have mercy, MHICTy's is 18 years old today!

To celebrate I am sharing my decorated bathroom.

Last summer I worked on several big projects around the house even if I didn't have everything pulled together for "perfect".  Ideally for my bathroom I would love to have the floors and the fixtures professionally redone but other more financially pressing things always horn in.  So I am stuck with the modern era peel and stick tiles and the cracked pedestal sink the house came with. 

Also the bathroom is located in a spot where there is no good natural light other than the blaring, blinding setting sun, so these photos are not the best.

But enough apologies, here's the powder room:

Several years ago I found 8 yards of this amazing atomic bark cloth at an estate sale for 10 bucks!  I sewed it up into curtains for the window and shower.

I also used it as the primary inspiration, pulling the mucky green out as the color for the walls.  I did a sponge painting technique on the walls with gold paint to somewhat mirror the gold in the fabric. 

We snagged this vintage pink swan plastic light switch cover from the bathroom wall of a thrift store that was closing down:

The General and Angela are finally up on the wall.  I found the ceramic seahorses in a storage shed, broken in chunks at an estate sale several years back.  I paid a buck and then just glued them back together.

Mr. Husband replaced both light fixtures in the bathroom with vintage ones.  

This is the overhead light shade attached to an inexpensive new light fixture:

I have had these chalkware fish for ages!  I bought them from ebay probably 25 years ago:

There are those mermaid cuties!

There is only one small niche in the bathroom that gets a spot of decent lighting and that's this lower shelf of the storage cabinet.  I included many images of this shelf to help ease the assault on your eyes of all the other horrendously badly lit photos.

I wish I would have taken before/after photos of these chalkware swans.  We bought them for super cheap at an estate sale 4 or 5 years ago.  They had been sloppily painted white with, I don't know, a toothbrush?  I repainted them with black acrylic paint with accents of gold nail polish!

 Also visible is the other vintage light fixture Mr. Husband switched out.

We don't have a lot of flat surfaces in our bathroom so here are the little we have cluttered up with doo dads and what-nots:

The Eisenhowers keep watch to make sure everyone is washing their hands properly: 

Above the door I hung a bunch of vintage hair and beauty helpers.  I don't think the colors work properly here but I went with it anyhow.

On the wall behind the door I am still working on hanging up a barrage of vintage bathroom related ads such as this warning about mildew being murder!

So there is it!  My garish, maximalist tinkle town! 

Here are all the past blogiversaries for your viewing delight:

2021~16 years

Pine Applesauce Dessert and 16 years

2020~ 15 years

MHICTY 15

Tickled Pink

Pretty in Pink Past

Ella the Pink Elephant

Mr. Bubble, Take me away!

2019~14 years

Dining Room Reveal

2018~13 year:

Blogiversary Tupperware Party 2018

2015~10 year:

Decennial Intro, 10 year Blogiversary 2015

Decennial Post II: Sit a Spell, Q&A

Decennial Post III: Apron Craft-a-Long

Decennial Post IV: What's Cooking? Apron and Recipe Swap

Decennial Post V: Writing For Swapatorium

Decennial Post VI: 15 Minutes of Fame

Decennial Post VII: The Lost Episode(post)

Decennial Post VIII: The Theme is Themes

Decennial Post IX: Recipe Card Box

Decennial Post X: 10 Year Blogiversary Gala Event!

2006~First year:

1 year Blogiversary 2006

Or you can click on the handy dandy 'label' of 'blogiversary' below left for them to all file together for you!

Jubilee Jumbles

I love a display of cookies with various toppings such as these Jubilee Jumbles!

Here is the two page ad spread:

 

(image source)

The hiccup in this recipe is that the dough has to be refrigerated before using.  They say for a hour but that is a bold face lie.  This dough was a gooey sticky mess that I cursed to hell several times.  Put the dough in the freezer for several  hours and then only take out what you are working with as you need it.  The cookies tasted fair...nothing to have a jubilee over.  I think the real magic is in the burnt butter icing and the various toppings of coconut, candied cherries, and walnuts. Just throw that on some more low maintenance cookies and call it done. 

Get out your trifocals, here is the blurry recipe:

Lighted Pineapple Centerpieces

Today I have these neat plastic vintage pineapple lamps to show.  They originally belonged to my great grandmother who passed away in the 1980s. They measure 7 inches tall x 6.5 across the base.  I have always found them mesmerizing even though the light feature doesn't work anymore.  They take really weird little bulbs that probably haven't been made since 1972.  One of these days I am going to gut the old wiring and see about putting in a little battery powered tealight or maybe jam some fairy lights in them.    

We display them on the green rack with the rest of our tiki inspired thrift store dust collectors during the non-holiday time of the year (Jan-Aug).

I was excited to find a vintage 1971 ad for these exact lamps out in internetland!

I like to think about my great grandmother seeing this same ad, clipping it out, and eagerly awaiting these babies to arrive 4-8 weeks later.  

After 50 years the many luscious fruits and leaves have cracked off.  Actually I plucked the apples off because I didn't think the red worked in my living-room.  But I did use them in my Fall Apple display if you want to get a peek of what they look like.  They are the apples in the mini tub for bobbing!

Frankfurter Foldovers... Swank for the Frank!

"Swank For the Frank"  closing out today with 'Frankfurter Foldovers'.

 

I have gotten to where there are some recipes not worth my time.  I don't make anything that doesn't use the whole egg because I'm not wasting my time searching/making a recipe to use up an egg yolk.  I also don't make anything with buttermilk because it's a waste to buy for only 1 cup (I have seen there is powdered buttermilk but even then I will be storing it for longer than it's worth in shelf space.)  And another "off my list" recipe is anything that I have to roll out dough and cut into precise shapes.  I don't even like making cut out cookies.  I'm more of a drop dough kinda gal.  But I went ahead against my beliefs, values, ethics and creed to be 'Swank for the Frank" to make these foldovers.

To put it simply these foldovers are biscuits stuffed with chopped up wieners and white sauce.

I served the recommended mustard as a side dipping sauce.  I found these to be a bit on the bland side when they were warm but really good cold.  Go figure.  If I was to make these again I would serve them biscuits and gravy style with an extra dash of Tony's.  Drop biscuits and gravy style, that is.

Southern Frankfurter Dinner... Swank For the Frank!

 

Welcome back to the second edition of "Swank For The Frank!"

Today we are making 'Southern Frankfurter Dinner'.

I guess it's 'southern' because cornbread is involved.

My dish didn't turn out as lovely looking as the original because I followed their instructions.

Clearly looking at the original image they made that cornbread separate, even trimming up the edges and then spooned the topping on.  The original recipe calls for green bell pepper but we don't get along so I used jalapenos instead.  

This dish may look like homemade sin but it tasted amazing, kinda like a corndog with hoity-toity artisanal ketchup. 

Franks in Potato Blankets... Swank for the Frank!

This week we are going to be "Swank for the Frank" and making all of these wienerific recipes!

We begin with 'Franks in Potato Blankets".

This was quite the fiasco for these three franks.

The recipe calls for leftover mashed potatoes of which I didn't have.  I made up a quick batch of instant potatoes instead.  As I tried to apply the mashed muck to the wieners it wasn't sticking to anything but my hands.  And yes, I dried off the wieners beforehand.  I then figured they called for leftovers for a reason.  Cold mashed potatoes are generally not soo sticky.  So I put the spuds in the fridge for a while and had minorly better results blanketing the franks.  When I began to pan fry them the potatoes were then again attempting to escape from the potatoes by somewhat melting.  It was a mess.  I did the best I could to get these three franks to look somewhat like the recipe.  I recommend just pan frying the franks and serving with mashed potatoes scooped on top or making potato pancakes (which is what I did with the rest of the potatoes).   Or try using real leftover mashed potatoes made from scratch...I don't know.  I took so many liberties it's hard to say where things went south.

They tasted great though for what that is worth!

 

Here's to June...Dairy Month!

I did up a little display to celebrate National Dairy Month!

 

I came across a stack of these vintage paper placemats at an estate sale a few years ago and placed several of them in the case.  I figured since so much time had past since they were made, June certainty wasn't still Dairy month, but I looked it up and it is! 

I scoured my house for as many dairy themed items I could find and here is the result:

It's Dairytastic!