A Little Vintage Thanksgiving, Boston Baked Beans with a Twist, and Pumpkin Cornbread

Good evening, all! Hope this has been a fabulous day! I've had a good one...a little baking, lots of glitter, my family around me--doesn't get better than that!

Unless...it's an unexpected phone call from someone I've only "talked" to in forums and on blogs--my good friend from Splitcoast, Darlene Pavlick! She had my number, which I just included with my address months ago, and just felt like calling! It's so wonderful to match the voice with the picture and their wonderful, warm type-written words.

Darlene was my first "follower" on this blog, and a big cheerleader! She's so fun, creative, and friendly, and I enjoyed our conversation immensely! Thanks, Darlene, for making my day even better! Looking forward to our next chat! You can visit Darlene on her lovely blog Dar's Crafty Creations--tell her hello from me!

Well, on to a sweet little Thanksgiving image I used from Crafty Secrets' "Homemade" Images & Journal Notes booklet--I just love these! (I'm sure I've said it a thousand times!) I love this little chef, and this seemed like the right time to use him! I copied some recipes that are found at Recoverd Recipes (I talked about them in my post a couple of days ago), printed them out, and there's the background--easy peasy! I used a cute hounds tooth print from DCWV's "Mod-Retro" stack.

And look at this yummy new glitter I just got from Little Pink Studio--bronze glass glitter--oooooh!

I found this Shakespeare quote online, and it just seemed perfect, so I typed it up in an old-style font on cardstock.

How about a recipe? I've been planning to make this for a week or so now, and finally got the chance last night--Alton Brown's Boston Baked Beans. If you ever watch his show, which is fabulous, his new cookbook--"Good Eats, The Early Years"-- is based on the show and so much fun to read! I changed the recipe up a bit, but here's how he gives it:

Boston Baked Beans--Alton Brown Style!

1 pound bacon, chopped

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 small jalapenos, chopped

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 pound dry Great Northern beans, sorted and rinsed

1 quart vegetable broth

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tsp. black pepper

2 tsp. kosher salt

Heat the oven to 250 degrees. Place a dutch oven over medium heat and add the bacon, onion, and jalapenos, stirring until the fat has rendered from the bacon and the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, brown sugar, and molasses.

Add the beans to the dutch oven, along with the broth, and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the cayenne, black pepper and salt.

Give them a stir and cover the pot. Place the pot in the oven and bake for 5 to 7 hours or until the beans are tender.

I chose not to use jalapenos, and used a can of mild green chilis (chopped) instead. Very good. I also found the beans to be a bit on the salty side, so I would cut that down a bit.

These were absolutely delicious and worth the long baking time--a repeater in the Campbell house!

Now, to serve along with these, my sister Becky gave me the perfect recipe:

Pumpkin Cornbread

1/2 cup flour

1/2 whole wheat flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1 cup cornmeal

2 large eggs

1 cup pumpkin puree (canned)

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 Tbsp. molasses

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 9-inch square or pie pan. Sift flours, baking powder, salt and spices in a large mixing bowl. Whisk in cornmeal. In separate bowl, beat eggs lightly. Whisk in pumpkin, brown sugar, oil and molasses. Make a well in the dry mixture and add pumpkin mixture and blend batter with a few quick strokes--don't over mix! Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes, or until cornbread is browned and the surface has a slightly springy feel.

And what goes better with pumpkin cornbread than some amazing...

Fluffy Honey Butter!

1 stick butter, softened

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup marshmallow fluff

Now, to quote my sister, "and whip it....whip it good!" and serve at room temperature---DELICIOUS!!!

One more card for you tonight, then I'm heading off to bead--my eyes are half open right now!

This is an adorable free vintage image I found online and printed out on cardstock--I love this period in illustration--about the 1920's--just adorable! Look at that village in the background--just like a fairy tale! (Can't remember where I found it--I think I just typed in "Free Vintage Thanksgiving images").

I used the cute red polka dot patterned paper from Crafty Secrets' Radiant paper pack, some Bayou Blue, Close to Cocoa and PTI Vintage Cream. A little lace, gingham ribbon, some delicious velvet ribbon, and a real vintage button from my husband's grandmother's stash.

The little saying at the bottom says, "I wish it might granted be, you'd join the 'Turkey Line' with me! So vintagely sweet!

I'll see you all tomorrow...and as always, thank-you all so much for visiting me and for your very kind words! Sleep tight!

Compliments of the Season...and Vintage Recipes Found!

Good afternoon! Hope your day is going beautifully! Speaking of beautiful, I need to show you what autumn looks like today in my front yard...

Sorry to do that to those of you in cold and blustery places!

A couple of cards Christmas cards to share with you today. I had also done a Thanksgiving card yesterday, but I'm just really not happy with it, so I'll either redo it or scrap it--not sure which!

This first card uses a beautiful image from Crafty Secrets' new "Christmas" Creative Scraps--love this set of images!

Something scrumptious about a big, fat tartan ribbon! I bunched up some jingle bells and stitched them in place on the bow. Lots of German gold glass glitter around the image, and some Dazzling Diamonds on the flowers on the image--doesn't show up much, though!

My second card for the day uses some beautiful images from Graphic 45's new "Christmas Past" collection--such a beautiful grouping of images & designer papers! I'll be doing much more with this set! I just love the sentiment: COMPLIMENTS OF THE SEASON...no one says beautiful things like that anymore! (Hence my title--I needed a reason to use it!)

I added some beautiful creamy lace, more tartan ribbon (never too much tartan at holiday time!), buttons to mimic holly berries, glittered gold leaves, and some of my beautiful gold glass glitter again. Here's a closer look:

On to something deliciously decadent! I had a few over-ripe bananas this morning, and needed to find something besides banana bread to do with them...so I searched a bit on line, and Oh, my! Wait till you see what I found! Don't you just love finding something unexpected?!

A whole blog dedicated to vintage recipes, found in old recipe boxes, books, etc., at estate sales, flea markets, and so forth. There are some amazing recipes there, all for sharing, and some even have scanned images of the original hand-written recipe! What a find! The site is called "Recovered Recipes", and I can't wait to try more of them!

Here's what I made today--an old recipe for Banana Cake:

It looks small in this picture, but it's an 8 x 8 size cake on a large platter...

Look at all that caramelly frosting--I'll get to that in a minute!

Ahhhhhh! My daughter made very happy sounds with each bite she took (me, too!)

Here's the recipe:

BANANA CAKE

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 egg yolks

4 Tbsp. "sweet milk"***

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder, sifted

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)

Combine the two sugars, butter, egg yolks, milk and soda in bowl. Sift baking powder and flour into batter. Stir. Add mashed bananas and mix until blended. Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

(The recipe said this would fill 2 round cake pans--it won't! I tried...not enough batter. So I just put the batter in an 8" square pan and it was perfect. I would double the recipe for the 2 pans.

***Interesting note found on the recipe site: in old recipes, you'll see the reference to "sweet milk"--this simply means fresh milk. Before we had refrigerators in our kitchens, milk was delivered every day or so, and fresh milk was "sweet", older milk was "sour", and there was buttermilk. Interesting, huh?

I decided to find yummy recipe for frosting, and immediately thought of Gooseberry Patch--they never let me down! Looked in their fabulous cookbook "Christmas All Through the House" and found the perfect frosting recipe:

Quick Caramel Frosting

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Bring first 3 ingredients to a boil in a 3 1/2 quart saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly, about 2 minutes.

Stir in milk and bring to a boil; remove from heat. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, stirring with a wooden spoon until smooth. Use immediately. Makes 3 cups.

DELICIOUS!!!

Hope you enjoy this sweet, delicious discovery--I wonder what you might find there...?