Monday, July 4, 2011

Giveaway! Vintage French Recipe Cards, a book, and beads.

I am cleaning, sorting and donating clothes that I no longer love to charity.
Simplifying my choices and streamlining my closet.

The washing machine is going full tilt and the sun is pouring in through the window
the birds are singing and the roses are radiating their loveliness...
Gratitude and Joy are evident in this simple routine.


So I thought why not host a giveaway!
I am in the mood for fun.

You might win these circa 1969 Vintage French Recipe Cards...


Cook like a French Mademoiselle



The recipes are French but do not worry if you cannot read French
as they are written in English!


While you are cooking French cuisine
you can read all about French Chic mademoiselles in
"All you need to be Impossibly French" 



and I'll toss in these beads...



The giveaway is very simple
Leave a comment telling me what topics that you enjoy most here on
The Humble Bungalow Blog 
become a follower or remind me that you are following...

If you post a link to The Hostess of the Humble Bungalow on your blog 
I will be so grateful that you will have 2 chances to win!
Please let me know when you comment.


Good Luck!
Thank you for stopping by!

Please check back next Monday July 11th when I make the draw.


Bread pudding!

What do you do with leftover bread?
Make croutons, slice and grind into crumbs or feed it to the birds?

I had half a loaf of brioche which was quickly on it's way to stale.

So I decided to try my hand at making a bread pudding.
I went through a few of my favourite recipe books and was surprised to see not even one listed in the index.
Bread pudding sounds like comfort food to me and is the kind of thing my Grandmother would make.
She was very thrifty and did not waste wantonly.

So I did what any modern cook would do I "googled" bread pudding.
here's the recipe I chose to use.

It went together in a jiffy and I had all the ingredients on hand.





it made enough to feed a crowd!


I would suggest serving it with 
some Greek yogurt, 
whipped cream or
 a scoop of French Vanilla ice cream

and now...
invite the neighbours over for a cup of tea 
and enjoy some friendly chit chat.

Happy 4th of July 
to our American neighbours!



Sunday, July 3, 2011

Poppies, foxgloves...and a book of fairies.

Poppies...

I planted one poppy plant a few years ago
and now I have a family of poppies.
They are crowded together and fighting for space.

I have pulled out the volunteers that are encroaching on 
or 
invading on the territory of plants
that are in the vicinity.

While they are blooming they are beautiful and make quite a nice display.
after the blooms fade and the petals drop 
the greenery turns a sad shade of brown
and I yank them out
still 
year after year 
they come back and announce their resilience
Mother Nature has her own ideas about what grows and where
and I have learned not to fight with her!


Foxgloves are another example of volunteers
they come back yearly with vigor
and the fact that they are considered to be biennials
this is somewhat amusing!
They stand tall like decorated soldiers for several months
until they flop over and decay
rather than see their wilted stems slumbering on the soil
I shake the seeds out of the pods and scatter them
wherever I want a new forest of foxgloves.

Have you seen an flower fairies in your garden?

when I was young I had a book about flower fairies...
illustrated in colour by Cicely Mary Barker
of fairies wearing flowers!

the book was one of my favourites 


the spine shows it's age
well loved



Meet the Poppy Fairy


It was a gift from my grandmother
a woman of great importance in my life

 a wonderful role model
a woman of high moral standards
whose life was rich and full
she had her share of sadness 
she was a busy gal on the domestic scene

bread making
jams
preserving
cooking
dish washing
laundry
ironing
sweeping
marketing
parenting
and 
when I stayed with her she wrapped an apron around me 
and I "helped" with her daily chores
she made me feel very grown up
and never minded about any mess that I made!

I have so many sweet memories of my grandmother that I hold close to my heart.
I miss her and think of her often.

There is a foxglove fairy too but she is not in my book...

Fairies and Grannies added much richness to my childhood
what or whom do you remember that made an impact on shaping the person that you are today?

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Parades...and Pike Place...

Do you love parades?
We have a few  parades where we live, one is large, the others are small.
Our family attended parades every year when I was young and then we took our children.
Since our offspring have grown and flown the nest we do not attend....

We found ourselves in the middle of a parade in Seattle.


we could watch from our hotel window
which we did for awhile





we were hoping to go to Pike Place Market for another visit
(where there's a will there's a way)
we did manage to cross the parade route 
through the barricades
running quickly across the street 
dodging floats and marching bands




Seafood stall


I didn't know that halibut had cheeks! 


the seafood looks delicious...


flower bouquets 
are plentiful
and their prices are so reasonable
Customs does not allow these to cross the border
so I lingered a little longer and took photos of my favourites.



"stuck on you!"


many people gathered...


cameras flashed


people chewed big wads of gum and then...
you might find this hard to believe but they stuck it on the brick wall!

The Gum Wall
 is very popular
and has made the "to do list" on some travel advisor sites!


as the light grows dim
we dine...

We are at Cutter's 
which is a large restaurant with a fabulous view of Seattle's waterfront


Mr. HB has crab


The Hostess has salmon
and
after some more walking...


this wee balloon flower lay abandoned on the street until I rescued it 
and gave it to the next child we saw
she was thrilled!

weary by all the fresh air and walking 
we leisurely strolled back to our Hotel 
for a night of restful slumber.

I do love weekends away.



Thursday, June 30, 2011

Kate Spade quotes...and snippets of Seattle

I found this card inside my new Kate Spade bag...


love this shade of green


For the record
 we used to have a blue Fiat Sport Spider convertible 
and it was a fun car...
I rarely drove it as I needed to sit on top of two pillows 
to see over the steering wheel and to stretch to reach the pedals...
Italians are obviously tall or at least a good bit taller than me!

it was a persnickety car
a lot of money went to the mechanic to keep it running!
Fix It Again Tony!

Seattle buys continued...


Brown and white striped linen trousers
wider legs cool for summer
Jones of NY
purchased at Macy's

I have seen a lot of stripes appearing in the fashion mags and in stores.
I like the stripes as they are vertical, they given the illusion of height
I can just imagine if they were horizontal...
Yikes!
I do not need to look wider than I already am!

 I remembered that I have a perfect partner in my jewelry chest back home
Debra K woven brown and burnished sterling necklace.


I want to wear these soon
I plan to team them up with a simple white tank and a sweater or a white shirt worn as a jacket


these crystals might work too
what do you think?


Exploring the shops near Pike Place Market we found ourselves in Sur la Table
their selection of cooking gadgets and gear was overwhelming
decisions are difficult when too many choices are available.

I was tempted to buy the pasta roller for my Kitchen Aid
but they were out of stock.

I found some basic napkins
I can always use more
as we use only cloth 
avoiding the toss away paper ones in an attempt to be more mindful
and Green.


and they were on sale...

So that about sums up the shopping 
I hope that I have not bored you to bits!

Dining downtown was varied and never once did we need a reservation
which as spontaneous tourists we really appreciated
I managed to eat only half of every serving 
as I found the portions large.

I have been very inspired by some of the unusual salads
and plan to recreate them here in The Humble Bungalow.

When we got thirsty we rehydrated 
at Starbucks
the first Starbucks in Pike Place had a line up out the door
 cameras were snapping madly capturing the images
of smiling tourists
in front of the sign
YES
there is a Starbucks on every corner in Seattle!

Please stay tuned there's one more....