Eats: Remember When Cafe At Home Cookbook (And A Recipe)

Hello! Purchased this at a recent garage sale:

The Remember When Cafe At Home cookbook. Remember When Cafe was a local restaurant, now closed. I never ate there, but their cookbook recipes, especially those in the sandwich chapter, made my mouth water! I do love a good sandwich, so I thought it'd be fun to try some of those recipes.

The breakfast chapter is solid too, and I was charmed by the mention every so often that a particular omelet or pancake recipe was Officer So-and-So's favorite. I told a friend who's a local about the cookbook and she said she had it too. Unlike me, she and her family had frequented Remember When Cafe and indeed, police officers were often seen dining there.

But back to that sandwich chapter - which of the many recipes should I try first? It just so happened that I had leftover steamed broccoli in the refrigerator, plus roasted red bell peppers (from last fall) and sliced ham (from Easter) in the freezer. With these ingredients needing to be used up, I turned to a sandwich recipe that called for them, the "Virginia Reel".

This wasn't my first choice from the sandwich chapter, as I wasn't sure if I'd like the combination of ham, broccoli and red bell pepper together. But it turned out pretty tasty:

As written in the cookbook, the ingredients made four sandwiches. I made one sandwich, so here's the scaled-down recipe, followed by my notes:

Virginia Reel Sandwich (adapted from Remember When Cafe At Home cookbook)

1/2 c. broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces, steamed
2 T. roasted red bell pepper, diced
1/2 t. vegetable oil
3 oz. thinly sliced ham
2 slices Swiss cheese
2 slices bread, buttered on one side

Combine broccoli and red bell pepper; heat in oil on 350 griddle. While warming, grill bread on griddle, buttered sides down. Heat ham on griddle. When bread is grilled to a light golden brown and vegetables and ham are warmed through, place 1 slice of cheese on bottom half of bread. Top with ham, vegetable mixture and second slice of cheese. Close with second slice of bread. Serves one. 

Notes: the recipe calls for fresh, not roasted, red bell pepper, but I used roasted since that's what I had on hand. My ham had been spiral-sliced and not thinly sliced, but it was fine. The recipe allows for a 4 oz. portion of the ham, but I thought 3 oz. was plenty. And lastly, the recipe actually calls for a bagel to be used, but I had some homemade Sourdough-Whole Wheat bread around, so I made my sandwich with it. 

And frankly, I think sandwich bread is a better choice for this recipe than a bagel. The sandwich was a little messy as it was, what with those bits of chopped vegetables wanting to pop out. A bagel half has even less surface area than a bread slice does, so I think the Virginia Reel would be even messier if made with a bagel. 

But what do I know? Like I said, I never went to Remember When Cafe, so I don't know if the cooks there had some tricks up their sleeves when making their sandwiches. But I do know that I'm looking forward to trying more recipes from the cookbook!

Made It: From Drab To Fab

Hello! I wanted to find a way to corral my collection of magazines and it looked like I found it earlier this week at the MSU Surplus Store - bought five cardboard magazine files for $4.00. 

They  seemed sturdier than the ones typically found at the office supply aisle; heavier cardboard had been used. The exteriors were a little beat up, but I figured I could cover them in some fashion to disguise their appearance. 

Here's a before photo:

The paper label says "Nematology Literature List", but  unfortunately none of my magazines pertain to that subject. So off that label went. 

A quick Internet search revealed several tutorials on covering magazine files and I decided this one looked good. However, I soon realized that all magazines files apparently aren't created equal. My 12"x12" scrapbook paper (a recent garage sale find) wasn't large enough to cover the angled sides of my files. They're obviously a little larger than those from the office supply aisles. 

I'd seen some online tutorials for covering magazine files with wrapping paper, but my on-hand supply of that material is low at the moment. Then I came across a can of white spray paint and decided to use that (I likely could have used acrylic craft paint, but spray paint would be quicker to apply.)

Even though I did it outside, the spray paint was smelly, but covered the sides of the file just fine. I let the paint dry overnight, then covered the tall straight side with a piece of scrapbook paper. I used decoupage for the glue. I had a hard time getting the paper to stick well, however, so either I didn't use enough decoupage or it's not strong enough for this project. 

Here's how it turned out:

All traces of the magazine file's previous life as an organizer of nematology literature have been obliterated. I'll be able to store my issues of Flea Market Style in it instead! 

Get Carded: Birthday Card For A Boy

Hello! Due to a miscommunication, I didn't have a birthday gift or card to give to my nephew at the family birthday party last week. But once I found out what was on his gift list, I was able to make amends and send something his way. 

Boys' birthday cards tend to stymie me a bit, probably because I don't have sons. And in the case of my nephew's birthday card, he had turned 12 - was that too old an age to refer to on a card? You know, like the birthday cards for littler kids that say cheery things like "Now you're two!" and stuff like that. 

Decided to look through my collection of playing cards - many of them have interesting designs on the back that I like to use in crafting my greeting cards. Happened to come across a playing card that had the number 12 on it. It didn't look babyish in any way, so decided to include it in my design.

Take a look:

Materials used:

• white card stock
• art paper scrap
• scrap of page from vintage house plans book, hand-painted by me
• part of a Mexican playing card, used because 12 is the birthday boy's age
• Happy Birthday stamped in blue ink on white card stock scrap

Close-up of that regal figure:

Not at all like the superhero figures my nephew would recognize, but I still thought this king was pretty cool. Wasn't sure what he's supposed to be holding in his hand, so looked up some info online:

The four latin suits are swords, batons, cups and coins. In each suit there are normally three picture cards - a king, a horseman and a jack or maid - and some numeral cards. Cards with latin suits are commonly used in Spain and in parts of Italy, North Africa and South America, and are also found in several other places. There latin suits cards in common use can be divided into two main types: Spanish suited and Italian suited.

In the Spanish suited type, the batons are knobly clubs or cudgels and the swords and batons are drawn separately on the pip cards.

So, it's a "knobly club" that the king is holding. Glad I found that out - otherwise I might have thought it was an overgrown zucchini.

Other than that confusion, I liked the artwork on the playing card. And I hope my nephew likes his birthday card!

Get Carded: Happy 19th Birthday

Hello! Another birthday today as our daughter turned 19. So, the big decision: what birthday card would I make for her this year?

Over the past few years I've often used vintage images of young women (cut from magazines or catalogs) for her cards, but decided upon a different look this year:

Materials used:

• white card stock
• 1880's ledger paper scrap
• "19" cut from page of a 1974 catalog (catalog was an estate sale find)
•  "U" and "R" stamped with black ink on card stock scrap
• Happy Birthday stamped with black ink on card stock scrap
• red card stock scraps on two corners of card

I liked the juxtaposition of the really old papers (and I'm sure even the 1974-era paper is "really old" to our daughter) with the text message-style letters (but even those were stamped with letters from a printer's set that's at least 65 years old) 

If you look at the upper right-hand corner of the card, you can see the number 19 - that's the page number from the ledger book. And barely visible near the red paper bit on the left-hand corner is the word July, referring to the month in which that page had been used. I had taken the page out of the ledger book without noticing that the month and page number fit in perfectly with the month of our daughter's birthday and the age she was turning. Talk about a happy coincidence! 

I don't think she noticed these tidbits, as the excitement of cake, ice cream, present and a friend took over. But overall she did seem to like her card.
  

Made It: A Pretty Simple Painting Project

Hello! I'll admit it: although I use a variety of craft techniques, painting is not my strong suit. However, when I had to take down a collasped wooden lattice a previous owner had put up (an overgrown trumpet vine had gotten out of hand), I set aside some of the lattice pieces to decorate with paint at some point down the road. 

I had envisioned finding a pleasant garden-themed quote to inscribe onto one of the lattice strips, but hadn't gotten around to this yet. So instead, recently I decided to use some simple stencil designs to decorate a couple of the strips. 

I already had the "Fiesta" set of Deco Art's Patio Paints (leftover from a rock-painting project a few years back), so I was set to go. 
But would my lattice strips end up looking folksy-cute or crappy (as in, why did I even bother?)

First, an overviews:

On top, I made a tulip stencil and on the bottom, I used a circle stencil I already had. 

Some close-ups:

Considering I'm not much of a painter, I think they turned out pretty well. The colors of the "Fiesta" set are cheerful, which helps. In the case of the lattice strip with the circles, I just used the colors in the order they appeared in the set, repeating as necessary until I ran out of room.(the dab of black paint in between each circle came from a separate bottle of Patio Paint.)

For now, I stuck these two decorated strips on the back exterior wall of our garage, to give our neighbors something more pleasant to look at than just that decrepit structure. But as I still have more lattice strips stashed in the garage, I really ought to try finding that just-right garden quote to paint on one of them too. That is, if I think I'm up that painting challenge! 
 

Get Carded: Many Happy Birthdays

Hello! Tomorrow's a big family birthday celebration - my dad's 92nd, plus the honoring of some nieces' birthdays as well. My family is too big to celebrate birthdays as them come, so we just lump them together in one big bash every so often.

The first two cards are for youngsters, a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old:

Materials used:

• white card stock
• scrap of vintage sheet music, painted
• art paper scrap
• game piece from vintage children's game
• happy birthday stamped in black ink

In a similar vein:

Materials used:

• white card stock
• scrap of vintage book page, painted
• piece from vintage children's game
• circle, flower and letter A cut from art paper scrap
• happy birthday stamped in black ink

Yes, I used very similar materials for both cards. Once you have a bunch of supplies out, it's easier to use them for more than one card rather than having to start all over with other supplies. 

The 2-year-old's big sister is part of the birthday gathering as well. She's several years older than her little sister, so her card looks different:

Materials used:

• white card stock 
• cake shape cut from scrap of vintage atlas, painted
• frosting, flame and letter Z cut from art paper scraps
• happy birthday stamped in black ink

Now for the oldest of the birthday relatives, my dad - as I'd said, he turns 92 tomorrow. Here's his card:

Materials used:

• White card stock
• scrap from vintage ledger book page,  painted
• art paper scrap
• DAD cut from 1943 booklet on money-saving tips during WWII
• Happy Birthday stamped in blue ink on white card stock scrap, then affixed to card

I got a special kick out of using that WWII-era booklet, since my dad is a veteran of that war. 

But I also got a kick out of crafting with that vintage ledger book. A Milwaukee teacher had kept his records with it over 130 years ago. Every time I use some paper from his ledger book, I wonder what he'd think about that. 
 


 


 

Made It: ICAD Project - June

Hello! On June 1st I blogged about the 61 Day (June and July) ICAD (index-card-a-day) project. I managed to alter one index per day in June, so now it's time for a bit of show and tell. 

Some cards were designed with the help of books:

Fingerprint animals, based on designs shown in Klutz Press' Fingerprint Fabulous (thrift store find). 

Funny faces, drawn with the help of Ed Emberley's Drawing Book Of Faces. 

Some designs were my own though, like:

This design started with an off-center X, then each quadrant within the X was filled in with another X. And so on and so on, filling in X's with more X's. If you have a very fine-tipped marker, like the Pigma Micron 005 I used, then even something as small as an index card can take awhile to fill! When I first started out, the design looked a little like stained glass (minus the colors) - but ended up looking more like broken glass!

Above, a series of circles (traced from stencils) have been colored in where they overlap. Looks kind of like bubbles, I think. 

In honor of Flag Day (June 14th), red lines were made with a rubber stamp and red ink, while the blue rectangle with white stars was painted by me. I then added random lyrics from patriotic songs. 

I wanted to use ephemera on some of the index cards, and ended up adding various scraps of vintage stuff to several cards, such as:

Above, I cut a vintage postcard into strips, wove them together and glued them to part of the index card. The words "blessed", "flower" and "gardens" were on the postcard as well (the word "love" came from a magazine), for it was a scene from a shrine in southwestern Wisconsin. Much to my surprise, I learned that my husband had been to that same shrine as part of a class trip in the early 1970's. 

This turned out okay, but then I started doing more collage-style cards. I think these turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.

An index card was painted and stamped, then a figure of St. Paul was glued on. I recall that I picked up the St. Paul prayer card (not too long after it had been issued in June 2009) while on vacation somewhere, thinking at the time that it'd be good to use in a collage. (the cut-out words on the index card came from the same prayer card). Finally found a use for it, five years later. 

Another figure from long ago:

Don't recall now who the man was supposed to be, but he shares index card space with a paper company sample, a scrap of art paper, and the phrase "Silas had prominent, short-sighted, dark eyes" (cut from a 1930's grammar book). So "Silas" it is!

A themed collage:

Every bit you see - printed waffle recipe, the female figure (from a story about apron patterns) and the phrase "How in the world she managed to make the waffles so crisp" came from either the 1930's or 1940's (yep, the phrase is from the 1930's grammar book again). I like this one a lot!

No real theme to the next card, just a bunch of odds and ends glued down:

In this case, the odds and ends included a scrap of 1880's ledger paper (garage sale find), piece from a Loteria game (the rooster image), a fabric scrap, two paper scraps from a 1943 booklet on money-saving tips during WWII, the name from an ad in a vintage cookbook (Art's) and last but not least, paint dabbed onto part of a page from a 1950's home builder's pamphlet. 

Some of my cards were based on the written word - a short story snippet, a copied recipe, and a to-do list. These fit the bill for doing an index card a day, but aren't all that exciting to view, so I'm not showing them here. 

And I'm vain enough, I admit, to not show off the duds - the hand-carved stamp that didn't turn out so great, the attempt to weave silk ribbon into a design, the spiral that doesn't look all that spiral-y, and a few others. Other cards really aren't duds, just didn't turn out so great.You win some, you lose some, but overall I enjoyed working on this project in June.

July will be a busier month than June was, so I'd better get going and work on ICAD Day 31!