Sunday Favorites: Breakfast At Grandma's House

It's Sunday, which means it is time again for  Sunday Favorites over at Happy to Design.

Join in on the fun and post a link to a past favorite post from your blog.
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Orignally published September 23, 2009

The only things missing from this table that evokes memories of breakfast at Grandma's house for me are the waffle iron (how many times did I burn the underside of my forearm on that thing???) and the toaster with the two flip down sides.

The pantry fabric used to make the tablecloth is similar to the fabric that used to hang over all the canning jars filled with wonderful treats like spiced peaches, watermelon pickles, and some sort of cucumber pickles ...... makes me salivate just to remember.  In the intense heat of a Kansas summer the cellar was the place to be and more than once my cousins and I raided the spiced peaches, carefully washing the empty jar in the laundry tub and placing it on the shelf that held the "empties."  Do you think she ever knew?


Ivory, Scarlet and Black Post 86 Fiesta, an official Post 86 accessory napkin holder, vintage glassware, Cityscape flatware, contemporary napkins and napkin rings.  Also shown is the electric Hankscraft "Fiesta" egg cooker with ceramic poaching bowl and metal ring for making soft/medium/hard boiled eggs.  The amount of water poured in by the teaspoon determined how long the eggs cooked and when the steam stopped, the power turned off and it was time to eat!

Lid on for boiled eggs.

And here the lid is on with the metal ring removed and the ceramic poaching dish inserted.

Several pieces of Universal "Cattail" made for Sears Roebuck are also shown, a cake tray, pancake set with batter and syrup jugs, and a large bowl shown with fruit in it.

Bits and Pieces for Silver Sunday

It's another edition of  Silver Sunday over at Gypsy Fish Journal.

Join the party and show us your shiny or not so shiny silver.

Bits and pieces from various sets of silver boxes ..... pieces inherited and surprisingly a

little spoon engraved with my first born's name that I had even forgotten I had.

The jam pot with the silver lid came to me from my mother-in-law and the spoon in it is

from the set of American Directoire sterling that also came from her.  She had long ago

forgotten what the pattern name was and my father-in-law searched for years for

information on it without success.  A few months ago when I got it out to polish it up for

the holidays I ran across his clippings and notes about companies he had written to trying

to find out the name.  Literally 10 minutes on the internet yielded the pattern name ......

we take this kind of access for granted at times I believe.

I love mercury glass with silver, just so bright and shiny and pretty.

Saturday Rerun: Girly Girly Pink

On some weekends I'll be reposting some tablescapes from this past summer. Hopefully more visitors will have the opportunity to enjoy them on this second time around.

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 "The Dish Fairy" from the Collectible Medium Green message board visits collectors and delivers surprise dishes as a random act of kindness.  Join our community and you too could receive a visit from "The Dish Fairy."

I was lucky enough to receive a package from "The Dish Fairy" here in California today!  A perfect set of Metlox spiral candle holders in the most amazing dusty rose glossy glaze.  So here is the Saturday Night Special .....

The roses are Hybrid Tea 'Barbra Streisand'

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Girly Girly and Pink

Woodland Garden Tablescape and Chicken Piccata

Welcome to Foodie Friday hosted by Michael Lee over at Designs By Gollum!

The faux moss and lichen covered basket with just a few small flowers is about what we
have here in Northern California right now, after a couple of weeks of rain rain and more rain.
When we do get a few morning rays of sunshine peeking under the morning fog, the lichen
covered oak trees on our back property literally glow chartreuse in the morning light.

Vintage tablecloth with Post 86 Fiesta in Chocolate and Chartreuse, chargers are
Made In China. Hobnail glassware and napkins from Home Goods,
candle holders from Tuesday Morning.

Vintage Fiesta Amberstone marmalade jar and disc pitcher.

And a recipe for Chicken Piccata that's fast and easy.
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breats
ground pepper
zest and juice from 2 lemons
several tablespoons capers with 2 tablespoons of brine
2-3 cloves garlic minced
4 tablespoons butter
1+ Cup water
Cornstarch

Grind pepper over both sides of chicken, pound breasts flat, dredge in corn starch.
Add butter to hot skillet and immediately add pices of pounded chicken.  Fry on one
side and turn, add capers, garlic and lemon mixture to pan, cover with heat still on high,
cook until chicken is cooked through, approximately 4-5 minutes.  Remove chicken to
a hot plate, add water to pan loosening bits with whisk, add corn starch to a few tablespoons
water and stir into pan for sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste, add to chicken reserved on hot
plates.  Great with a small salad or rice, or a traditional bowl of rigatoni with red sauce.

Please stop by my Show and Tell Post for
Part 4 of Where Do You Store All Those Dishes?

Where Do You Store All Those Dishes? Part 4

It's time for Show and Tell Friday hosted by Cindy over at My Romantic Home.
Join all the participants as they show and tell about their lives.

It started with a post about my kitchen four weeks ago on Show and Tell Friday showing where my vintage Fiesta is now displayed. The vintage Fiesta was in a glass front display closet in the pantry hall, but that's all changed and other things are now on the move too.

Vintage Fiesta Post

Then I showed you where my "good dishes" now hang out.
Part 1 Post

And a corner cabinet that functions as a kind of transition solution,

when things are moving about. Part 2 Post

Last week I showed you the antique pine store fixture that holds a lot of

dinnerware and accessories in the Part 3 Post

Main Entry: store
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: collect and put aside
Synonyms: accumulate, amass, bank, cache, clear away, clear up, cumulate, keep, keep in reserve, lay away, lay up, lock away, lock up, mothball, pack away, put away, put by, put in order, reserve, salt away, save, save for rainy day, sock away, squirrel, stack away, stash, stash away, stockpile, store away, stow, stow away, tidy, tidy away, tidy up, warehouse

Some of the synonyms for "to store" sound a bit "obsessive" ...... well yeah, I'm guilty! There was a plan when we designed our retirement home out in the boonies of the San Francisco Bay Area. We bought the land in 2004, spent a year permitting the land and construction details, built in 2006 and moved in the last week of October 2006.

I had a plan for where everything would go and implemented said plan as we moved over several months time from our prior home about 40 miles away. Then about six months ago I started reconfiguring where things "lived" in the new house. It's a classic pattern for me. The actual living in a house for a couple of years, generally dictates where things should really be.

This is one of two closets that sit across from the large store fixture I showed you last week.  This closet is where I used to have all the vintage Fiesta that is now in the kitchen on display.  I had the builder leave the two closets finished, but empty of shelves and added Metropolitan wire racks.  One of the advantages to these racks is that the shelves can be reconfigured as needs change and additional shelves can also be purchased seperately if you want to add them.

I'll show you the other closet next week, but for now here's some of the overflow of current production Fiesta that I use for everyday dinnerware.  I keep about 2 dozen place settings in the kitchen cabinets, but rotate colors and combinations from this closet as the seasons change.  These colors have all been produced since the reintroduction of Fiesta in 1986, although some of them have been discontinued or were limited edition colors produced for only a short period of time.

For those of you who are ardent collectors there is one piece of vintage Fiesta that keeps watch over these new colors, the 12" Turquoise vintage vase to the far left of the top shelf.  Collectors may also notice the lack of any Peacock.  I have only 3 or 4 pieces of this color which is the only Post 86 color I do NOT like.  You can see a list of all the Fiesta colors in a timeline post from last fall. Fiesta® Dinnerware Color Chronology

The framed Fiesta ephemera above the top shelf is l. to r.: article in Country Collectibles on my collection and my remodelled kitchen in the old house, a photo produced for sale by the HLCCA, and a vintage Ensemble Ad.

Next week I'll show you the other built in closet to the left of this one ...... it's pretty disorganized with mostly odd pieces of other lines produced by the Homer Laughlin China Company over the years.  Maybe I'll get inspired and tidy it up a bit for its photo op!

Be sure to stop by my tablescape post for Foodie Friday, to see some of these dishes in action.

Woodland Garden and Chicken Piccata