Vintage Finds, Salad Recipe, Jelly Roll Quilting, Losing Samanatha, Garden Update

From Trudy's Cafe

Anyone have any idea what the metal "cabinet" is? Pie/bread safe, spice rack? We couldn't decide...

Vintage Finds-
I know, I'm such a hypocrite. Last time I wrote about Voluntary Simplicity and not having too much stuff. Then Dave and I went to Idaho City (an old mining town) yesterday for the afternoon. He's been on vacation this week, with my first week off for the summer. We had cleaned up from the wind storm, done a bunch of boring, mundane projects, so we decided to drive up to the old gold mining town for lunch. It's about an hour outside Boise. There's a nice little diner, Trudy's, with amazing huckleberry cheesecake (they were out!) and good lunches, reasonably priced. Here's some pics of her amazing collection of vintage kitchen ware, that is displayed ALL over the diner. It's like eating in a museum!

Before we had lunch we hit a few junk stores, with all of them closed but one. I found this really nice table runner (folded in half) for $3.00, in really nice shape, colors still nice and bright!

I had seen a garden and gifts store coming into town and thought I'd check out their tomato plants, since we needed more for the garden. We went inside too, to look around. Cute stuff, then Dave grabbed my arm, quietly steered me whispering "you have got to see this", as we came around a corner there was lots of this-

Vintage kitchen ware, circa 1920's with "french green" wooden handles. I didn't even know what the top right item was, until I got home. It's whipping whisk, which may be from the 1910's. I bought this batch for $15.00, a little less than the $1.99 each. Dave heard the owner say (I was so excited I missed it) "I guess Trudy will have to live with it"! Trudy is selling off some of her huge collection, what are the odds :) I just couldn't believe it! It's a real walk thru the history of American manufacturing. The "all in one" can opener is marked A & J, (which later sold out to Ecko), "tool tempered steel, Made in the U.S.A." No made in China here. I love the pastry cutter- it actually has a bolt where someone attached (by hand) the handle. Wow. Talk about handmade. I'm going to gently clean the items, a little rust here and there, and display them. I decided to paint my two other items to match, since I don't plan on ever selling them. They're displayed over my stove. These probably had red paint, but I found an exact match of the french green at a craft store today, whoopee!

Chopped Salad Recipe-
I posted this recipe last time, and made it tonite. Wow, it was great! I left out the avocado, used Romano cheese, added a little more lemon, and garlic powder, excellent. BUT I cut the recipe in 1/2, as that's a LOT of salad! 8 servings at least. Simple Chopped Salad  It's a keeper...

Jelly Roll Quilting-
I stumbled across this today, what a great idea! Jelly Roll Quilt Video Working full time, I just don't have time to quilt, but I could certainly try this over the summer, and maybe even make my own jelly rolls!

Losing Samantha-

I couldn't share this til now, but it's still tough. We had to put our beloved Sam to rest 2 weeks ago, due to severe pancreatitis, infection, and some other underlying problems. She was 13. She had never fully recovered from her spleen removal for cancer in Feb. We'd lost 2 other pets, elderly, in the last 3 years. It about killed me. We lost both dogs on Memorial Day weekend too, sad but true. This time was easier to decide, but still extremely painful, because Sam had always been what I jokingly called our "doggy triathlete". Never an illness and always really active. It was too painful to watch her decline so fast. She was such a trouper. She never had an accident in the house until her last day with us. Always healthy, and so smart. Aussies (Sam was 1/2) are renowned for being very loyal and devoted to their families. She sure was. We helped her leave at the Humane Society, Dave and I and one of our daughters, talking her all the way thru it. It was fast, thankfully. Coming home, it was the first time in our marriage when we came home to an empty house- no meowing or barking or tail wagging. That really hurt. Here's a photo of Sam a few days before she left us, watching for squirrels from the back deck. It was cold, so I gave her a blanket-

I really remember her like this, rolling on her back on a windy, warm spring day a few months back, she was really enjoying herself!

We know she went to be with her two friends, Angel our dog and Tinkerbell our cat, both adopted from the Humane Society-

I'm so glad all 3 of our furry friends were here with us...

Garden Update-

Dave and I got the fence all lined up with the coop door, and have more space to plant! Tomorrow's the day! There was snow in the hills today, and was 38 last night. What month is this??? Errr...