Well, our little family has just returned from an exciting week and a half on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast. For those not in the know, the Sunshine Coast is a little area just north of Vancouver. While it's on the mainland, it's separated from the city by an inlet and the mountains, so you have to take a ferry to get there, which gives the whole area an isolated island kind of feel. We were there to hang with Aaron's aunt and uncle and their two young daughters, who visit every two years from the U.K. It was actually pretty amazing -- Aaron's mother has two younger sisters and a much younger brother and they're all incredibly interesting and articulate people. Ruby got to hang with her (second) cousins and it was amazing to see all these blonde kids playing together. Physically Ruby seems to have snagged a lot of Leena's Finnish genes, so it was pretty cool to see her romping with family members who actually look like her.
Here, in no particular order, are some of the things I did on my summer vacation: played on the beach, paddled a canoe, tasted blue cheese ice cream (not good), found a knitting store and didn't even buy anything, visited a place called Ruby Lake, collected stones, watched the sun set, ate too much, drank Pimms almost every evening, read a book, realized that straight stockinette knitting is pretty boring when you don't have the TV, listened to music, had great conversations with a 13-year-old, played cards, drew with crayons, went on a hike, drank coffee, wrote a mini-novel about the family in my head...
Aaron uploaded the vacation pictures onto his laptop, so all I have for you here is a peek at some of the fantastic books we found at the various coast thrift shops. In addition to the 18 volumes of Creative Hands (circa 1968) that Leena found and purchased at a place called the Bargain Barn (neither of us had room to bring them back, so they're currently living with Aaron's sister in Vancouver), I found some old Family Circle Illustrated Library Of Cooking books, plus a Scandinavian cooking book that's part of some ethnic culinary encyclopedia set. My fave recipe in the Family Circle editions is the hot dog tiara -- a ring of wieners surrounding some stove-top stuffing jazzed up with orange juice and green olives. I want to make some of these gooey old recipes, sort of as an homage to the always entertaining My House Is Cuter Than Yours.
4 comments:
Ok, so what's holding all those hot dogs together? Glad you had a nice vacation.
Nowhere in the recipe does it ever even mention tying them together. Weird. In the picture it looks like they used corn husks though.
Oh my word!
I got a Recipe box filled with things like this. I think it was a mailout thing, with the happy homemaker buying the box and a subscription to monthly recipe cards. Some of the recipes are really horrific.
And those craft books that Leena got? I collect them, but they are called "Golden Hands". I may have the Commonwealth version and maybe the US version is called Creative Hands - but they're identical in content. I find them an excellent resource for unexpected inspiration or tips (currently using the "small picot edging" in crochet from Chapter 10 for a blanket edge.
Hello! I came across your site a while ago and pop in time to time. I had to comment because I bought the whole sixteen volume set of those cook books at a garage sale a few months ago. My son loves to look at the pictures and pretend he is eating them. Some of the recipes are pretty good, but others (the jellied meats and such) are a bit scary!
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