Another Reason to Love Etsy

Have you been to Etsy? If not, you need to take some time to have a look. It's like a clearinghouse for all things retro-handmade-antique-quirky-fun. Make a cup of tea and find a relaxing chair first, because once you get started you'll be browsing for hours.

I admit to only buying 2 things from Etsy, but not for lack of wanting - more a lack of funds. The first thing I bought was an adorable Wonder Pets cape for Ian's Christmas a couple years ago. It was handmade with love by another mom and something I wasn't able to find anywhere else.

I also found something else wonderful and it came in the mail yesterday:

I spied this at Sassydoggs' shop and fell in love with it immediately. I have my own family cookbook that I write recipes in to save for my kids, but it had started to look rather pathetic and it wasn't quite what I'd been looking for anyway. Enter this little gem. The cover is an oilcloth of sorts and it's never been used even though it was made in 1964. I also appreciate that the seller and I have so much in common, both having fathers who sold antiques and both having a desire to reuse and recycle. A perfect match, really.

My next feat will be to find more filler paper in that size, which I know I can do at any local stationery store, but the real feat is to find old paper, slightly yellowed at the corners and ready to fit in with the retro feel of the book.

Georgia Cheesecake Pie

Georgia Cheesecake Pie

Somewhere about 20 years ago I had a bunch of very ripe peaches that needed to be used up and I wasn't sure what to do with them. Thinking along the lines of peaches and cream that my Grandma Foster served, I found them to be too ripe for that, but perfect to put into the bottom of a cheesecake.

I added a regular pie crust and dubbed it 'Georgia Cheesecake Pie'. We've loved it ever since. This recipe first appeared on my Family Favorites page and I've revamped it since then to use egg whites and more cream cheese. The egg whites make the cheesecake nice and fluffy. Please don't use canned peaches, part of the flavor of this comes from the fresh peaches cooking as the pie bakes and infusing the cheesecake layer with peachy goodness.


Georgia Cheesecake Pie
Serves 8
Printable Recipe

1 9-inch single crust pie crust-unbaked
5 large very-ripe peaches, pitted and sliced thinly - peeling is optional
1 pound cream cheese - softened
1 c granulated sugar
3 egg whites
1 t. vanilla
2 T. flour

Flour bottom of unbaked pie crust with 2T. flour.
Add peaches to crust.
Mix remaining ingredients and pour over peaches.
Bake at 350 degrees F until top is set and partially browned ~ about 35 min.
This is absolutely delicious served warm or cold.

Review: Perfect Salad Partners

Jennifer Chandler's Salad Niçoise

I was fortunate enough this month to have two products offered to me to review that just happened to be the perfect pairing: Simply Salads -a cookbook by Jennifer Chandler, and Tanimura and Antle Artisan Lettuces. What a great combo for this time of year!


I adore salads, so any cookbook that focuses solely on recipes for delicious salads is perfect for me. Add to it the fact that each of these salads is made using a base of any one of 26 bagged salad blends, and I jumped at the chance to read it. I love this book and it's going to be getting a lot of play in my kitchen this summer.

The book begins with Salad Blends 101, a chapter detailing each of the most common bagged salad blends available, with photos, so that you know just what you're looking for. It then goes on to the best-possible pantry for salad making and then offers up more than 100 different salad recipes listed by main ingredient. Jennifer Chandler has matched up ingredients with greens creating gourmet recipes that are simple enough to serve every day.

The Tanimura and Antle clamshell design protects these beauties and keeps them fresh.

I took these recipes and paired up one of them with the Tanimura and Antle lettuces that I received and the result was pure bliss. Tanimura and Antle have been selling the freshest of the fresh in produce since 1982. These new Artisan lettuces, Tango, Oak and Gem are petite and perfect. I received 8 lettuces total: 2 red Tango, 2 green Tango, 2 red Gem and 2 green Gem. The website and literature state that these have an extended shelf-life of 16 days, and they are 100% correct. I've never had lettuces hold up so well for so long and still taste good. Think about it, my samples were shipped from California, not purchased at the store, and they made their journey here in absolutely perfect condition and held up stored in the refrigerator until I had time to use them.

They were the perfect base for the salad recipes in Simply Salads and something I hope my own local stores begin carrying.

Copies of Simply Salads are available at Amazon.com.

Please see the Tanimura and Antle website for more information on Artisan lettuce and recipes for all of their wonderful produce.

Grandma's Confetti Cookies

Confetti Cookies dyed for 4th of July

When I was a child I spent part of nearly every summer at my grandparents' home in Tipton, Indiana. Grandma Sharp, my maternal grandmother, having only had one child of her own, spent her time herding my four brothers and me off to activities and church and cooking mountains of food for us - no small feat.

She had several specialties, one of which was Confetti Cookies, a recipe she had gotten from her cousin Juanita Searfoss. They are a delicate pink color filled with rainbow colored nonpareils, or confetti, and dusted with powdered sugar. My mother didn't make them so we always looked forward to having them at grandma's.

When I got older, I was given the recipe and started making them for myself and thoroughly enjoyed each batch. Just the aroma of them baking brought back happy childhood memories for me.

Just before the birth of my first child, a girl,  I was living with my in-laws. I had made several dozen Confetti Cookies just days before our daughter arrived. When my mother-in-law came to the hospital to visit with her new granddaughter, she brought along a container filled with those cookies and a note about "...pink cookies for your baby girl." As a first-time mom, and only 21 years-old, I was comforted greatly by that little bit of home she delivered to me.

Traditionally Colored Confetti Cookies

In the early 1990's when grandpa passed away, grandma was also ill and needed care. She came to Pennsylvania to live with my mom and step-father in their home. Part of grandma's illness caused her to not be able to eat many of the foods she loved. One of the few things she could tolerate, though, was Confetti Cookies. It was time for roles to reverse, and it was now my turn to make the cookies for her. I made them as needed over a 12-year period and was honored to bake and deliver them to grandma. The time visiting with her when I dropped them off was so special and she was so very appreciative; her face lit up each time I handed them to her.

Grandma is gone now, she passed in 2005 at the age of 97, but that recipe lives on. I make Confetti Cookies often for my 7 children, changing colors to suit the occasion, but they never taste exactly the same; they never taste just like the ones that grandma used to bake.

Confetti Drops
Mrs C.L. Searfoss
Printable Recipe

1 c spry (shortening)
2 c flour
6 T sugar
1/4 c milk
1 oz confetti candy (multi-colored non-pareils)
1 t vanilla or almond extract
1/4 t salt
red food coloring
powdered sugar

Mix shortening and sugar and salt. Add red food coloring to milk so it distributes well-ebough so the dough will be a pretty pink. Add extract to milk also. Add flour alternately with milk. Add confetti and mix well so it gets throughout the dough.

Roll into 1" balls and flatten slightly on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Do not let them brown!
The original recipe says to roll them in powdered sugar while warm but I always wind up with a sticky mess if I do this so I let them cool first.

Veggie Wednesday: Balasia is Back

Wendy Landiak, owner of Balasia, and Lehigh Valley's finest vegan chef is back at it every Wednesday at the Plaza Growers' Market in Allentown. Held each Wednesday - June through October - from 11:30 A.M. to 1:30 P.M. at PPL Plaza in Downtown Allentown, the market offers sustainable, local produce.

Wendy Landiak is there each week cooking up the best vegan food for take-away or to eat in at the plaza and is serving desserts from Vegan Treats - yum! This week, June 17, 2009 Wendy is grilling and menu items like sweet corn, baked potatoes, black bean chili and curry potato salad will be on the menu.

Stop by and check it out!