A Big Blue Measuring Cup…

A few weeks ago my family attempted to go apple picking. But it was pouring rain so we chose to enjoy the country store at the Orchard instead. They’ve got their apples in bags, local made jams and syrups, penny candy and kitchen tools…but on another side they have a little “antique” area. Most of it is just junk, really. But sometimes you find a little treasure like we did.

This blue 4 cup Pyrex measuring cup! Our first and probably only blue cup to be found. After not having much luck looking around the internet for clues as to its age I asked Linda-the Queen-if she knew anything. And of course, she did. She told me that when people would visit the Pyrex factory they would be given these cups as a gift for going on the tour. As far as she told me, they were never meant to be sold at all! A sweet little find to be sure. We only paid about three dollars for it as well. I’ve still been unsuccessful in finding other information on it so if someone reads this and has anymore I would love some feed back!

We are currently on a spending lock down here in Wonderland…so except most posts to be about recipes.

Molasses Bread

How many of you have gone to the Cheesecake Factory and had that amazing dark wheat bread they give you? Oh man do we love it…especially my picky husband. He asked me the other day, do you think you could find a recipe for that? Well, I did thanks to Rea Gun Ramblings! Mine didn’t come out nearly as yummy looking as hers did but it was my first time making it, after all. I’ve had friends chomping at the bit to get the recipe so let’s just get started!
In a large mixing bowl combine 3/4 cups warm water and 1 teaspoon of instant coffee. Once the coffee is dissolved, add half a packet (1 1/8 teaspoons) of yeast.

When the yeast bubbles, add in the following: 1/2 TBS sugar, 1/2 TBS coca, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 TBS oil. Gently combine then add in 1 1/8 cups of flour and 1/4 cup of molasses.


Begin to knead gently. The girl over at Rea Gun was right-this dough is so soft and fluffy! It was a joy to knead. She suggests only putting in half the flour with the molasses but I didn’t find an issue doing it all at once-my phone froze so I didn’t have the recipe in sight. Allow the dough to rise/double in size. You can either roll them into rolls or prepare it into a loaf as I did. After 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees you get…

This! Only…I’m sure yours won’t be missing two slices. I will say that the bread tasted much better warm than cool. Once it was cooled it tasted much sweeter. Not sure why, maybe I flubbed something somewhere. Who knows! Either way, bread is always better warm.

Respect

This post is only half about some pieces I recently bought at the last Brimfield of the year. I want to get something out of the way first though.
It has to do with respect for the people you buy from. At last months Brimfield we met a dealer-a woman, a wife, and a mother-who seemed to be losing the magic of selling at big markets. When we first walked up to her tent she wasn’t even there…just her husband. Joe spotted some separated plates as well as Flamewear handles. He asked the husband if he would be willing to do 25 for 4 dishes and one Flamewear with handle (originally, she wanted 5 a piece of the dishes and 12 for the Flamewear)…To quote what came across the walkie-talkie, “Absolutely not! I will be RIGHT there!” So we waited…And when she showed up she saw, I believe, that we were not “pickers,” or people looking to rip her off. I pleaded our case to her. Expressing that I did not want to buy them to resell but to give them a home and put them to use once again. After a moment of thought she agreed and wrapped them up. I stayed to talk with her a while and listened to her lament about the people-the pickers-who turn her tables nearly upside down to see what she hasn’t put out and don’t respect the fact she has spent time setting up what is out already. Also, that people are treating Brimfield and other big markets like a rummage sale, only wanting to pay pennies for what cost them a few dollars to buy and even more to get to this show. She told me they drive six hours with a large box truck then have to unpack, sort, price, clean and really spend most of their time just trying to break even by weeks end. My heart was breaking the longer we talked and I finally said to her, “I really need to hug you, I think you need it.” She did, it seemed.
The conversation after that became a little more light-hearted. We chatted about Pyrex murder-a term of mine she loved and then used to describe several dishes that were picked up for her. She pulled out a small yellow 300 bowl and said, “See this? Someone left it next to something metal and it is in terrible shape. I don’t have time to clean this…If you do, its yours.” I asked if she was sure and she said, “yep, take it.” And I did…



And so the little dish came home and completed my Yellow 300 set. But this post isn’t about Pyrex really…It is about the people you are buying it from. Yes, we got some amazing pieces. According to our Pyrex book, the plates retail for 15-18 each. The Flamewear skillet goes for 20-25 and they’re so pricey because of the handles. The dishes are a dime a dozen at thrift stores but the handles were never as mass-produced. You got a set of dishes and one handle for the set…Anyway, amazing deals, yes. But to be honest it matters so little to me right now how much we “scored.” I really want to drive home with all of you that these are people with lives and need to make a living selling at these shows.
They travel for YOU.
They clean things for YOU.
They provide YOU with the things you want.
Respect them.
End rant.

Movin’ Ain’t Easy…

Moving isn’t easy for anyone and it is especially not easy when you have two collectors, their huge collections and a nearly-two-year-old…oh..and a cat. We were recently told by our landlord we could hop apartments for a bigger upstairs one that had just been emptied. To us, we thought, “Oh simple…we can be out of here in a week-week and a half tops.” So that afternoon I started to pack up things like dish towels, pictures and of course…my Pyrex.

Sorry it is so dark…the lighting was horrible in that old apartment

If that over-stuffed shelf doesn’t look a little ominous to you then maybe you need your eyes checked. The more I packed and put away then more I realized just how much I actually have. I thought I had taken pictures of the boxes I packed but apparently, I dreamed that. There were oh say…9 or 10 boxes full. In retrospect, not nearly as bad as some of the stories I’ve heard from sellers at Brimfield. One said, “When I found I could fill a 10 x 10 box truck it was time to start selling.” I don’t think I will ever get to that point though.
So, shall we have a tour of where everyone lives now?

Sort of like my personal portal into Wonderland…

Inside. Please note Joe’s Moxie bottles as well

 
First we have our built-in shelf. We had something similar to this in the old apartment but without the glass panes to see through. I decided to put the real “show” pieces in this case. My decorative pie dishes, serving dishes, saucers, plates and that likeness.

And here is the shelf. Much less cluttered and so much more organized. My dishes along with Joe’s Moxie bottles were the first things to be moved over and set up-because they seemed to be the most time-consuming. Little did we know that wasn’t the case by far…It took us nearly a full two weeks to finish moving in.
Needless to say we are still in recovery and won’t be moving again any time soon. But I am ever so thankful to have room not only for my Pyrex but for my little Niko to grow up. He alone was quickly out growing the old apartment…ah, well, maybe some day we will own a house.

Joe, Joe, The Muffin Man!

My husband doesn’t bake…In fact, I told him once that if he ever tried to move in on my baking territory I would divorce him. But I changed my tune a little when he said he wanted to try baking something for the Spencer Fair. He picked something simple: Strawberry Muffins. Well…those little muffins came home with a blue ribbon! A shock and happy surprise for all of us-but especially him!
Preheat your oven to 375 and grease or place muffin cups in your muffin tin.

In a small bowl (he used the tan Rainbow Stripe bowl) mix together 1/4 cup canola oil, 1/2 cup milk, and one egg. Blend well then add in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Set aside.

In a separate bowl you’ll blend together your dry ingredients. 2 tablespoons baking powder, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 3/4 cups flour, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Go over to your handy-dandy cutting board and chop about a cup and half of strawberries.

Drop them into the dry mixture.
Add your wet to the dry and stir until well combined.

Then bake for about 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes clean form the center. Then, in our case, put them on a plate and in a baggie and send them to the judges table!
Wait 48 hours…and…

Photo Credit to my mama

Shazam! Winning muffins! As I believe I said before I am happy to have won my red ribbon for the apple pie…but I am over the moon happy for my hubby taking first place.He really is one of those people who can look at something and think “I bet I can do that,” and does it near perfect the first time. A side example of that is that he is currently outside sanding down the top of an old sewing machine cabinet to make it into a butcher’s block.

What a man I’ve got.

Red Ribbon Apple Pie

I can officially call myself a baker now as I have recently won a red ribbon (second place) for my Apple Pie! Seeing as I wasn’t even expecting to place this was a huge surprise and not to sound mushy…but kind of a blessing. I am always questioning if I am really as good as I think I am and now I have a little bit of validation. Today, I will be sharing with you my official award-winning pie recipe!
Start with the crust-I think I’ve said it before but make your own! It’s so easy and takes only minutes.

In a large yellow Pyrex mixing bowl put 2 1/2 cups of flour 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon sugar. Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Then add 1 cup of solid vegetable shortening and mix with a pastry blender. Keep on hand 1/3 cups of ice-cold water (add in 1 or 2 tablespoons of extra water) because as you blend the dough you will add in water. This will start to bind everything together and using your best judgement stop using the pastry blender and begin to knead lightly with your hands.

Pack into a ball and place in a plastic bag or wrap in plastic wrap. Let it chill at least an hour but for this pie I let it sit an entire day.
Now…onto the pie.

Peel and core 5-6 Paula Red apples. Yes, Paula Red apples. Most people will tell you that these are not good for pies but I just think they’re wrong. When I use these the pies always come out amazing.

Next, add in 3 tablespoons of flour, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 3/4 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon all spice and a 1/2 teaspoon salt.
I’m sure some of you are thinking “Wait! You didn’t put any lemon juice in!” Well…

Squeeze half a lemon into your mixture-but not the entire lemon. If you are using lemon juice from a bottle then use about half a teaspoon.
Toss the apples with your hands and allow them to soak up all those spices and yummieness for about 5-7 minutes. While they rest start to roll out your dough. I took more time with this dough than ever because I knew it would be judged on its appearance.

She looks ready but not yet! I like to add a little something special to the top crust.

Sprinkle the top with cinnamon and sugar then coat with melted butter. Oh yeah, I did that. Now she is ready for the oven.
For 30 minutes bake at 425 then reduce to 350. You’ll want to slip a baking sheet under the pie pan so that when the juices begin to bubble out and over they don’t make a huge mess in your oven. Bake at 350 for another half an hour until the juices are just over flowing with amazingness.

There she is…My little winner. I’m so proud. But oddly…not as proud as I am of my husband…but that is another story!

Savers Is The Devil

I’ve written a few posts about how my once beloved Savers has been jacking their prices but today I come to you with some photo evidence. Some of these aren’t bad, I will admit…but some of them just made me itchy. The bad kind of itchy not the “I’m itching to get that,” kind of itchy.
I think I also mentioned once before how I finally confronted the manager of our closest Savers about their prices. Pointing out that certain things should be sold as sets-not just in the housewares section. As an example I used a kids table and chairs…they wanted 10 for the table and then priced each bench seat separately for 5 dollars a piece. What sort of insanity is that for a second-hand shop? Especially one that is in such a poor neighborhood as this one is. The Pyrex Queen I met at Brimfield agreed. To quote her, “Its friggin Webster Square in Worcester…how do they expect people to pay these prices?”
I should probably stop ranting before you all stop reading…Oh…wait…this whole post is a mini rant. Stick it out, folks!

Looks pretty nice, huh? Large dish with cover…but the cover is scratched and faded. There was also a chip in one of the handles. What did they ask for this dented dish? 9 dollars. Again, not the most outrageous of prices but still high for a store that has built its reputation on having low prices for a good cause.

This dish actually goes with the  Friendship collection and I have to say…I really wanted it. Unlike the first dish it wasn’t faded or chipped-but they wanted 8 dollars for something that should cost about 4. It hurt to pass on.

These two yellow dishes were clearly donated as a result of not being sold at a yard sale. The little tag on the inside said 2 for 2.50…What did Savers price them at? 3.99 EACH! Not sold as a set.

And this…well, this is just murder. Pyrex Murder. People, please for the love of all things Kitcheny DO NOT PUT YOUR OLD PYREX IN THE DISHWASHER!!! Despite being a total loss to whoever buys this, Savers still wanted 3 dollars. Sorry, but I wouldn’t even pay 50 cents for it.

This large green dish I believe is a match to the Spring Blossom collection…but 10 dollars? Maybe 6.

6 dollars for a small Autumn Harvest Cinderella dish…Nope. See that basic Corning dish next to it? Roughly the same size but half the price! If only Corn Flower was interesting enough to collect…

Now this is a shinning example of the way things should be sold as set of 4 cups. Why doesn’t Savers sell all things as sets? Because they’re lame and have clearly lost touch with their fair pricing system.
As it was explained to me their new system goes by a scale of 1-5. If something comes in and is a lower number on “the scale” it gets a lower price..but if something on the higher end comes up then the price will reflect that. Now, that makes sense…except that who is back there making this call? ONE PERSON! One person is in charge of all the pricing. How does that make sense at all? It doesn’t…
I need to stop before I get too worked up. I think its time to stick to flea markets and yard sales…

Bacon Brownies

Last month our friends band, Severants, went on a pretty big tour and we hosted them before they left for a going away cook out. Joe said to me, “You should make them a special and super manly dessert.” So I thought bacon. And then…brownies. It was a hit and soon even my own mother was asking for the recipe. So I’m here today to bring it to you-with Pyrex, of course!
First, get out your beloved Pyrex bowl of choice. I picked my Blue Horizon bowl because I felt that it needed a little more air time. Also, set your oven to 350 for preheating.

In it you’ll want to combine 1 2/3 cups of sugar, 3/4 cups of MELTED butter, and 2 tablespoons of water.

I used my shallow Amish Butterprint Cinderella dish to melt the butter. Felt like she needed the props.

Next add in 2 large eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Mix well.

In another bowl combine 3/4 cups cocoa powder, 1 1/3 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Once well mixed, stir into the sugar mixture.

Yummy right? But not ready for baking yet!

Cook up some bacon! The first time I made this I used a thick cut maple wood smoked bacon and the difference was pretty clear this time around. I suggest finding the best cuts you can. These did the trick. Cook them until they’re pretty crispy and chop accordingly…I say accordingly because you know the people you’re baking for. If they only want little nibbles of bacon with each bite then make sure they’re finally chopped..if they’re like my neighbor and want nice chunks of bacon then leave them big.

Now…I don’t have a picture for this next step..and feel free to pass…but, I put two tablespoons of the bacon fat in the batter. It was a spur of the moment idea inspired by a bread recipe I plan to make around Christmas time.

Pour your batter into your greased 9 x 13 pan and bake!
I somehow managed to miss getting a picture of the finished brownies. But like any other baked good you’ll know they’re ready when you can stick a tooth pick in the center and they come up clean.
I have to say they’re great brownies and especially if you’ve got a bacon addict in the family. You may notice that I didn’t use a 9x 13 Pyrex dish to bake them in and I should explain..Every time I’ve made brownies in the Pyrex dishes the edges don’t come out right. I know that baking glass is much different from metal and with brownies it shows. I don’t want anyone to break a tooth on something I bake so I just went ahead and used the metal dish.
I hope the Pyrex Gods don’t punish me…

Chicken Loaf

How many people out there have or had picky children at some point? Everyone? Pretty much everyone? I thought so. Niko is going through a phase where he doesn’t want to much meat. Especially any sort of ground beef (steaks are fine, for some reason) so when a neighbor called me over to “shop” her apartment I was happy to find a pound of ground chicken! This neighbor is being kicked out so she didn’t want a bunch of frozen food hanging around with no place to go. Thats another story…Anyway, I thought to myself “Chicken Loaf! Maybe he’ll eat that…”
It is pretty easy to make with the right timing and of course…Pyrex! Let’s go!

First you’ll want your fresh stuff. I went to the store and let Niko pick out which peppers he would like. We ended up with a yellow and green, which are great because I LOVE yellow peppers. You’ll also want to use about half of an onion and a clove of garlic.

Chop them all and toss them together in your chosen Pyrex dish. For this recipe I went to my always lovely Yellow 300 Bowl. She’s just perfect for summer meals.

Throw in your pound of ground chicken. Then you’re going to add in your bread crumbs-about a cup. I used Itilian style because its what we had and I figured..hey, why not? flavor is flavor! Add in one egg WHITE-not the whole egg. Not sure why, but a recipe I found that I loosely based this off said to. Probably has a health reason. Next is a teaspooon of Worcestershire sauce followed by 1/4 cup of ketchup.
Then…the fun. Get yo hands in there and mash it all together! When everything is well combined move your loaf to your prepared loaf pan. I chose my Spring Blossom 9 x 13.

Yummy, huh? Put it in the oven at 350 for about an hour and a half. Some say to cover it with foil for the first hour and let it bake another 15/30 without the foil. I don’t use foil and it came out pretty dang nice.

But would it pass the baby test?

It did! Well, some bites did. He lost interest pretty quick…I however loved it and would recomend trying it if you’re looking for a low cal dinner that you can cram tons of veggies into!

July Brimfield

Are you ready? I mean really, really ready for this? It was a doozey of a trip to Brimfield so lets just jump right in!

We got an early start this month because it was just us and we have a child who likes waking up before 6. We were on the road (coffee in hand) before 6:30 and were parked and walking the ground by 6:45. We found the fabled END of the market! For the two years I’ve been going I have never seen the end-neither had Joe. We started by parking in them middle so that we could see his Moxie guy first thing. Our plan was to leave by 10…which didn’t exactly happen.

When Moxie-Guy opened up we found that he had something super special…not Moxie soda related.

Did your jaw drop? Mine did. We didn’t know that the care booklet was in there until today, too! When I asked the mans wife what she wanted for it she said 20…I told her we would keep poking around and I would let her know. The guy remembered Joe and gave him an old Moxie bottle for free and after finding a few more Moxie items Joe asked if he would do 20 for everything-Pyrex included. They took it! I love these folks. I get the feeling they know we really love what we buy from them.

Next we found some pie dishes. But not your normal “oh look, another Pie dish,” dish. Ready?

SEE?! A label! A tag! Whatever you call it-its gold. And on the same table…

A colored pie dish! AHHHH! Are your hearts beating? Mine stopped a little. Each were marked at five but Joe asked 8 for both and she agreed. She seemed to just sort of “have” them seeing as the rest of her table were plants and herbs.

We went a little pie crazy this time…but they were all worth the few dollars we spent. This one, especially, to me…

An engraved Pyrex Pie Dish. The woman running the stall was adorable, sweet, and I promised to stop back by her way in September. She had this marked as from the 1940s, which I think is about right. Maybe the 1930s…Either way, she had it marked at 15 but we asked for 12 (we also bought a really cute apron for 8 dollars).

The last place we bought any Pyrex from was this older gentlemen who seemed to have it just pouring out of himself. He said it was his wives and that, “all of the old cameras are mine.” I get the feeling he wasn’t too ready to part with some of those cameras. We found something that rounded out a small set.

A Cookie Jar! To go with our Cracker Barrel! I love this! We spent 3 dollars on this…a jar that normally goes for 15-18. We round out that set spending less than 10 dollars for both. I’m amazed at how lucky we got.

The last big Pyrex booth we stopped in was a woman from Worcester. She told me she had started to collect in the 70s and selling in the 90s and according to her card her company is called, “Oh, my Mom had that!” though to my generation its, “Hey, my grandma has that!” We got to talking and she gave us some great tips for buying and we did share our distaste for the current direction that SAVERS is going with their prices. Overhearing our conversation, her next door booth-neighbor said, “She is the queen of Pyrex…That makes you the Princess.”

I was tickled…It was so sweet and a title I very much want to earn. Even if I’m only the Pyrex Princess of Western Worcester County.