A 1959 Smorgasbord

Have you ever? I mean do you ever, er, um...how shall I put this...Smorgasbord? I've always been curious about the traditional Swedish buffet spread. It's a word I toss around pretty frequently to describe any assortment of vittles, though I've never been quite sure exactly what a Smorgasbord consisted of besides probable mass quantities of pickled fishes. Not too long ago, I was flipping through some of my old magazines when I came across an article on the traditional Scandinavian meal in the December 1959 issue of Better Homes and Gardens.



Turns out there's more to it than just a wintry all-you-can-eat free for all. There are actually three different courses requiring three separate trips to the buffet table. I totally called the pickled fish thing though. And this being the 1950's, you just knew there was going to be some tomato aspic thrown in there.



And now I know! I've actually become quite interested in Swedish traditions as of late. My heritage is Swedish on my father's side of the family, (hence my fair skin and blue eyes) but I've never known a thing about the culture past the aforementioned pickled fish and dala horses.

My good friend Heather of Audrey Eclectic has fallen in love with Scandinavian culture and through her excitement I've learned so much about my family's heritage. Today's post is part of her St. Lucia Blog Procession so if you're interested in Swedish or Scandinavian culture in general, head over there today (or use the doohickey below) for a joyride through Blogland in honor of St. Lucia. Heather has even started a new blog devoted entirely to Scandinavian goodness called Scandinavian Folk. Check it out!

And hello to any new friends who have visited me by way of the St. Lucia Procession. Nice to meet you!

DIY Chocolate Syrup

Think Hershey's has the market on chocolate milk fixin's cornered? Think again, Sugar Lips! Can you wield a whisk? Then it couldn't be easier to whip up your own chocolate syrup! Once you've tried it, you can't go back to that high-fructose nastiness. You'll need:

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup unsweetened cocoa
a pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Dump everything but the vanilla into a medium saucepan and commence to cookin' over medium heat. You'll want to stir the mixture constantly with a whisk as it slowly begins to come to a boil. Put your patient pants on, because this can take a good 10 minutes or more. Just keep whisking gently until it begins to bubble and simmer. The longer you cook, the thicker it will be. Let it simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, and you'll have thinner, easier to pour syrup. Let it go another couple of minutes (don't stop whisking!) and it will be closer to hot fudge sauce once it cools. You'll want to keep in mind that it will thicken a bit in the refrigerator. When it's nicely thickened, remove the syrup from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Now you can serve it warm over brownies or ice cream, or store it in the fridge to add to milk and coffee. Hot dog!

Homemade Equals Healthy, Right?

Seriously, where are these days going? I looked up from my busyness, and realized it's been over two weeks since my last post. We're still hiding from the record-shattering heat. Turns out that July was not only the hottest July ever on record for Oklahoma, but the hottest one ever recorded for any state. Ever. In history. Since time began. Did I convey to you that it's been sweltering here? Anyway, I've been trying to keep the oven off to keep the house cooler, but my sweet tooth just wouldn't let me rest until I'd whipped up a batch of these homemade oreos. Only, I used butter for the filling instead of shortening. They ended up huge, and also delicious, but next time I think I'd cut back a bit on the sugar because, hot damn!, these things made your teeth ache they were so sweet. Also, because it's hotter than Beelzebub's buttcheeks here, they were kind of melty and too oozy until we put them in the fridge for a few hours.

In other news, there are so many little babies being birthed around here this summer, the latest being Beth's little girly pie this afternoon. My own little chunk is already weighing in at over 14 pounds, and we haven't even reached the three month mark! I think I must make heavy cream instead of milk.



I'm trying some new and exciting (non digital) things with my art this week, which I will share here if they aren't complete flops.

St. Margaret, Patron Saint of Baking

Introducing the newest DIY saint in the Sweetheartville canon, Saint Margaret, Patron Saint of Baking.



Ain't she sweet? This was my most favorite saint to dream up yet. If it's possible to gain weight via Photoshoppery, I must have gained twelve pounds today. Fun times! I'm having such a blast designing these pretend saints I don't ever want to quit.

So tell me, what DIY pursuit or career would YOU most like to see a patron saint of? I have a few ideas in the pipeline, but I'd love your feedback. I'm all ears!

I'd also like to thank everyone who offered encouragement and votes of confidence after my last post. It means so much to me to have so many wonderful, creative, kindhearted people in my life cheering me on. I feel like big, exciting things are just around the corner for my art, Sweetheartville, the Welcome Little Stranger project, and of course, my sweet little family. I'm full up to burstin' with ideas and plans, and I can't wait to see what each new day brings.

Mr. Waffle

We like to keep breakfast fun around here.

*Tape strips from this post and yesterday's courtesy of Photoshop genius Pugly Pixel.

Salad and Shiner

I'm still here! I've been working on home improvement projects and enjoying Summer's bounty along with a few delicious Shiner 101's. It's all we can do to keep cool these last couple of weeks with temps in the triple digits. I will return shortly with a dramatic bathroom before and after!

Kitschmas in Sweetheartville

So today I went around snapping shots of a lot of my Christmas decorations, for you Dollfaces, and for posterity, I suppose. Sugar Pea and I have been sick for three weeks between us, so this Christmas was a bit of a bust. I did force myself to make three varieties of cookie and two types of candy, sick as I was, but was then too miserable and exhausted to take any shots of how dang pretty they all looked laid out on a big aqua platter. You'll have to take my word for it.
Now, if you'd please, come this way for a little tour of my home at Christmas time. Please remember that it's a work in progress. I'm afraid one year later we haven't made as much progress as I would have liked.


In the entryway, I displayed my growing tree collection. I'm still searching for the perfect pair of shades for those awesome chartreuse lamps.


About a month ago, I found a real life Nylon Net Novelty tree! The old men running the charity junk shop just couldn't get behind my enthusiasm, even when I explained that it was a real life Net Novelty. They took my fifty cents with nary a hint of excitement for me.


Just ignore the half stripped wallpaper behind the giant styrofoam Santa head as you behold the tree.



After an email from Christie with a picture of some nesting doll ornaments, I had the idea to give Sugar Pea her own little tree to decorate and redecorate to her heart's content. Plus, I figured it would take some of the heat off of my tree. So, I set about making six little felt "open babies", and she helped me string a garland of pink pom poms. I also gave her a dozen shiny, unbreakable ornaments.


Well, imagine our surprise when, a few days before Christmas, a lovely package of cookies and these precious handmade Open Baby ornaments arrived for Sugar Pea from the oh-so-generous Ms. Christie. She is just about twelve kinds of awesome, as evidenced by the spectacular octopus chandelier she just made.


I overloaded a little tree with my vintage angel ornaments on the dining room buffet.


My favorite part of the Christmas story has always been the part about the Bug People who followed the star, riding reindeer for three days and nights to bring the Baby Jesus peanut brittle.


This summer, my Mom found me a box of six of these Shiny Brite angels. I want to hug them, and squeeze them, and call them "George", but I don't because they're very fragile.


Here's the pantry, all decked out. Really, with a pantry like this, it would be a sin not to decorate it for Christmas. Possibly, it would be illegal. I'm not taking any chances.


Here's where our tour ends. If you'd like to see more, have a look at my Kitschmas Set on Flickr. Happy Holidays!

Birthday Season

Our family packs about seven birthdays into the fall, so it's always a busy time in Sweetheartville. For Sugar Pea's second, I made spider cupcakes for her nursery school classmates, which were a huge hit. Each toddler also got a mini pumpkin with a little gift tag as a party favor.


Since my sister and my niece live in Texas and can't make trips home all that frequently, we had one big birthday blowout bash for Sugar Pea, my mom, my niece, and my sister. My four year old niece had a "Hontana" (Hannah Montana) cake from the bakery, and I made Sugar Pea a "Open Baby" cake that was strawberry on the inside, covered with homemade cream cheese icing.


I used a few different tips to pipe designs with pink icing, some decorator sugar for color, and two chocolate chips to form her eyes.


The birthday girl wore vintage.


Would you get a load of these girls?

Fela Kuti Cupcakes

For Mr. Sweetheart's 34th birthday a few weeks ago, I surprised him by sneaking to his place of work before he got there, and decorating up the back room with streamers and a "Happy Birthday" banner I made. Since Fela Kuti is is number one favorite, I decided to make he and his coworkers Fela Kuti cupcakes. They were white cake topped with homemade buttercream icing and jumbo rainbow sprinkles. I made toppers with 1.5" circles punched from lime green paper to which I glued Mr. Kuti's smiling face. They were a big hit, but somewhat puzzling to his New Country and Top 40-lovin' coworkers.


I made him this silly card too.


I am so in love with my new circle punch and corner rounder punches! I tell ya, it ain't natural how much I love them.


Here's a video of Fela in action.



Look for another birthday themed post soon, since Sugar Pea was born two years ago today.

Getting More Vintage By The Day

Today Sweetheartville turns one year old. To celebrate, I think I'll put on some Getz/Gilberto, dim the lights, tie on a frilly little cocktail apron, and spend the evening with a Naked Lady or two.

No, not that kind. This kind:

Naked Lady

1 part light rum
1 part sweet vermouth
4 dashes apricot brandy
2 dashes grenadine
4 dashes lemon juice

Shake well with ice. Strain into cocktail glass.

Care to join me?

(Photo from Harold Lloyd's Hollywood Nudes in 3-D!)

Sugar Pea's Birthday Suit

My little Sugar Pea turned a year old on Monday, so last weekend we had a party for her and her cousin, who turns three this month. I decided on a vintage cowgirl themed cookout in the park for the birthday girls. Naturally, the cake had to go along with the western theme. I briefly considered purchasing Wilton's horseshoe pan, but my thriftiness prevailed and I ended up creating my own "Cut-Up", slicing, dicing, and rearranging a 13" x 9" cake I baked from a mix until it resembled a cowboy boot. I frosted it with my homemade cream cheese icing, and, making it up as I went along, piped some simple designs in red and blue.


Well, of course each girl had to have their own cake, and I wanted to offer a couple of choices to our guests, so I made a chocolate boot too. I made it easy on myself and used store bought icing on this one. Now, my Mom's birthday is sandwiched between her two granddaughters', so I had to throw in her favorite, German chocolate, on the foot of the boot. The designs on this one were piped with more of the cream cheese icing used for the white cake.


The day of the party was absolutely gorgeous, but there were major gusts of wind and swarms of flies to contend with, so I thought I'd be super smart and leave the cakes in the truck where they'd be safe until their big reveal, forgetting that the temperature inside the vehicle would be several million degrees higher than outside. My homemade icing fared much better than Betty Crocker's did. Take that, Betty.


Now every girl ought to have a special outfit for her birthday, especially when it's her first, and most especially when there's a party held in her honor. No ordinary outfit would do for my baby. No, whatever Sugar Pea wore for her first birthday would have to be special, memorable, dare I say chart-toppin'? Dollfaces, I present to you my creation, Sugar Pea's Birthday Nudie Suit.


You may already know of my love of vintage western wear, especially Nudie Cohn and his magnificent, spangled suits. After the ever so sweet Christie sent me Nudie the Rodeo Tailor a while back, I was inspired to craft my own tiny knockoff with some discount fabric, thrifted sequined star appliques, and a lot of glued-on rhinestones. Unfortunately, I have no industrial chain embroidery machine, nor the time to hand embroider intricate designs, so the small embroidered applique stars on the front of the vest and the horse's head were purchased from the fabric store. Nudie's signature gold leather fringe was not in the budget, so I substituted some gold vinyl-coated fabric I cut into fringe after stitching it onto the vest and skirt.


Since Nudie was fond of lining his creations with wildly printed fabrics, both the vest and skirt are fully lined in this delicious Dia de los Muertos themed fabric. I was going for something that would sharply contrast with the red fabric and be a little unexpected, considering the suit was intended for a baby.


The whole glitzy number would never have been possible without some clever pattern drafting and mishap fixin' on my Mama's part. The best part of all is that my Punkin's special first birthday outfit cost less than fifteen dollars to make. Here's my sweet baby impressing her anything western-lovin' great grandpa with her one of a kind ensemble.


Happy birthday, my Sugar Pea. Mama loves you.

"Cut-Ups!!"

The next two months are chock full of birthdays in our family, and since I once read that, statistically, more babies are born in September than in any other month, there's a good chance maybe some of you Dollfaces are thinking about birthday parties and cakes, like I am. Here are some clever ideas for making specially shaped cakes without expensive pans from "Cut-Ups!!", a small cookbooklet from Baker's Coconut, copyright 1970. Click on any image to enlarge.
This lion could be sweet for a child's circus themed party.

I've never been a big Raggedy Ann fan, but this a neat idea for making a doll or person-shaped cake, whatever the decoration used. How about a scarecrow for a fall party or a baby in booties for a shower? You could even adapt this one to represent a child's favorite cartoon character.

The umbrella cake would be just darling for a baby shower or spring birthday. Or maybe decorated in rainbow colors for an "It's Raining Men" themed coming out party?


"The Racer" could be perfect for birthdays or a congratulations cake for a teen just getting his or her license. Concerned parents could mangle the car a little and use globs of blood red icing to illustrate the importance of road safety and the dangers of drinking and driving.

This puppy cake is too cute for words and could easily be decorated to resemble any breed.

Here's one for the choo choo lovers.

The space ship has to be one of my favorites, but let your mind wander a bit, and with a few simple adaptations, one could create a bachelorette party cake that they'll be talking about for years!


"Up, up and away, in my beautiful, my beautiful, creepy doll-filled, balloon!"

Now for some helpful hints and icing recipes.


I've saved a few choice holiday cakes to share with you later, Dollfaces. If anyone makes any of these, please share the results. There might even be a prize in it!

Easy Blender Quiche

Here in Sweetheartville we're all about good food that's easy. Now don't get me wrong, I love a day spent in the kitchen baking cookies, breads, cakes or making candy, but when it comes to everyday meals, especially lazy Sunday late breakfasts, I much prefer the simple, (no chi-chi-poo-poo gourmet ingredients or an instruction list a mile long) one dish/skillet/pan variety. I ran across a 1950s recipe for easy quiche, so this morning I took it, made a lot of changes and ran. Boy howdy, was it ever delicious. The Bisquick makes the lightest, most delicate golden crust on top. Even the anti-quiche Mr. Sweetheart gave it his seal of approval by going back for seconds.

Easy Blender Quiche

3 eggs

1/3 cup melted butter or oleo

1/2 cup Bisquick (I use Jiffy Mix.)

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 tsp. salt

pepper

1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used cheddar, but swiss would be delicious.)

3/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 to 1/2 lb. sausage (I prefer turkey sausage.)

Cook and crumble sausage in a skillet. When it is nearly browned, add bell pepper and onion and cook until they are softened. In a blender or food processor, combine the other ingredients and blend. Pour the mixture into a greased pie plate or 9 x 9" square casserole dish, then add the sausage, peppers and onions, distributing them evenly throughout the pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool a few minutes before cutting.

Feel free to use any veggies you like or those you have on hand. Some fresh spinach or even corn would be quite tasty. Also, you could easily substitute ham or bacon for the sausage, or leave the meat out altogether. The inspiration recipe called for a half cup of butter, but I decreased it to only 1/3 cup to save some calories, and honestly, probably could have gotten away with even less, especially with the fat added by the sausage.


While you've got the blender out, here's a great way to use up a batch of fruit before it goes bad: blend up a mess of bananas, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, cantaloupe-anything that will blend, really- pour the puree into ice cube trays, cover with plastic wrap and freeze. When frozen, transfer the cubes to freezer storage bags and mark with the name of the fruit and the date it was frozen. You can either make cubes of just one fruit or a blend of two or more, adding fruit juice to thin, if necessary. I recently "put up" a big ol' bunch of brown bananas I got for 35 cents this way, along with some strawberries, and even a large jar of applesauce that we couldn't possibly use up before it spoiled. Now I can just pop a few cubes in a dish, zap them in the microwave, and Sugar Pea has fresh, healthful homemade baby food. By mixing and matching various fruit cubes, you can custom blend flavors like strawberry banana apple, or peach and blueberry added to some rice cereal. Even if you don't have babies, these cubes are great for tossing into the blender with a little juice and/or yogurt to make a quick, frosty smoothie. This would also be a great way to save bananas for later use in banana nut bread. Speaking of bananas, the Bananas in the Modern Manor cook booklet from 1930 was one of many vintage cooking and sewing books I got at a great church rummage sale this weekend for next to nothing. It was pure heaven. I'll share more of my finds with you later, Dollfaces.

Pink Lemonade Pie

Here's a cool, creamy, pretty dessert just right for the kind of gray, stormy day it's been. I got the recipe for Lemonade Pie from my mom, and decided to add my own twist, turning it pink. The recipe couldn't be simpler, so I think this will be a pretty regular feature around our house.

Pink Lemonade Pie

1 6 oz. can frozen pink lemonade concentrate (or half a 12 oz. can)

1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

1 8 oz. tub whipped topping

1 ready made graham cracker pie crust

In a bowl, mix lemonade concentrate and sweetened condensed milk. Gently fold in whipped topping until thoroughly combined. Pour into crust, cover and freeze several hours or overnight. Store in the freezer.

Mom sprinkled the top of hers with a few graham cracker crumbs. I added some pink decorator sugar I had in the cupboard. I also mixed just a drop of red food coloring in before the whipped topping to make mine a little pinker. Next, I think I'll try it with frozen limeade-- sort of an easy version of Key Lime Pie. Yummy.

This Is What It Sounds Like When Baby Chicks Cry

So, a month or so ago I was at my local drugstore when I noticed the most charming little Easter product. It was an egg that would sprout a small flowering plant seedling that you could then re pot. "How lovely," I exclaimed, as I forked over a hard earned $2.99 for the Snapdragon variety. Upon my return home, I noticed that it was manufactured by a company with the rather ominous name of "CobraCo." "Curious," I thought, as I tore open the shrink wrapped egg to get to the instruction sheet inside, which read, "Before opening shrink wrap, gently crack open top of egg." "What a silly mistake," I said to no one in particular as I began to decorate the boring white egg with carefully placed polka dots, the whole time imagining how darling it would look with a tiny snapdragon sprouting from the top. It would be as if a dainty fairy had cultivated her garden in an Easter egg shell that had been discarded by a sweet little boy in a sailor suit as he played in the meadow. In just 7-10 days the tiny green tendrils would begin to poke their curious heads through the soil, stretching to find the life-giving sun, a true miracle of Nature and a symbol of new life...
LIES!
Curse you CobraCo! You have made tiny chicks cry. One month to the day later, and still no Snapdragon. After all that gluing back together and daily watering, too.

It was Sugar Pea's first Easter, and here is what was in the basket the Easter Bunny brought her: a sippy cup, a pair of tights, a vintage Bambi book (that was in good shape until the used bookstore put a big, black X on it to mark it for a $.25 sale, dang it), a thrifted French vintage sunhat and bloomers for our upcoming trip to the Floribama coast, and a rubber duckie that lights up with different colors and flashes when you put it in water. She can now have bath time raves in the kitchen sink. I made an Easter Bunny cake based on this recipe, but instead of carrot cake, his yummy bunny insides were strawberry and he was covered in homemade cream cheese icing and pink coconut. I also took creative license and made his tail with, what else, a snowball. Since the recipe only calls for half of the cake batter, I used the rest to make cupcakes. I colored the icing green and put green coconut grass on top of each one. Then I perched Peeps on top, along with some Whopper eggs they laid.
Please pardon the bad photos as I took them late at night in my kitchen, just in case Bunny and the Peeps didn't survive the hour drive to my mama's. Fortunately everyone lived, and here they are, ready to be devoured.