Family Outfit post: Western Wear!

Yesterday was one of those rare days where the kids and I all dressed vintage- with a theme. My daughter started it off with choosing a darling 1950s vintage western-themed dress. She is almost three and chooses her own outfits. No matter what I can get her to put on, it *has* to include a dress. The end result is often a mix of several patterns, several layers and pink and purple. Plus a dress over top of everything! But this outfit was pretty simple- at least until she put a Halloween costume over top later in the afternoon (no pix, sorry! ;).

Since she chose this dress, in a blue oxford cloth with red bandana-like yoke and belt, I remembered that I had a matching shirt for my son. Alas, that did not fit him- it's headed off to the Etsy store, I guess- so we got out a different western shirt, this one with an embroidered Mexican scene on the yoke. It's a little big for him...

To finish the familial ensemble, I got out a 1970s-vintage western shirt for myself, a Montana Silversmiths belt, cuffed jeans and some of the shoes I got on my birthday thrift crawl. They are deadstock caramel-colored leather mocs, in the style of the classic 1930s  LL Bean moc . I didn't realize it until I was wearing them around the other day that they are also steel-toed! Seems a little strange to put steel toes in this style shoe, but at least I don't have to worry about dropping anything!  I have been looking for a vintage lace-up outdoors shoe for a while, and this is the closest thing I have found.

I'm looking to re-create this outfit from a photo published in a 1950 issue of Sports Afield.

I haven't yet found the exact shoes I want; I think those in the photo are like these vintage Buster Brown shoes of my daughter's:

I can't find any in a women's size 7, but I'll keep looking- I know they're out there!

Make-it-from-scratch Monday: Roast Wild Duck with Cherry-Juniper gravy

This week's recipe is cribbed from this one at epicurious.com, but modified to use the ingredients I had on hand. It uses one of my favorite ingredients in wild game cooking, juniper berries, so I had to try it. If you can't find juniper berries, try a specialty store or bulk foods retailer online- they are worth seeking out!  

Instead of a 5 lb. domestic duck, I used a 2 1/2 lb wild duck (so I had to cut the cooking time in half), and used dried cherries instead of the prunes, which I probably would have done anyway, even had I had prunes. I also always read the reviews attached to an online recipe (some good advice from real people there!), and one of the reviewers mentioned that it would be a waste to stick the giblets, heart and liver in the cavity of the bird to roast and then simply discard- why not use them for gravy? And I always make it a point to use every usable bit of an animal that we hunt, so I wanted to incorporate those parts into the gravy

Ingredients:

1 whole duck; gizzard, heart, liver reserved

2 cups water

20 juniper berries, slightly crushed

1-2 oz dried cherries or prunes

1 lemon or orange, quartered

3 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried

1 oz dry sherry

1 oz brandy (I used some plum brandy)

salt and pepper to taste

First, macerate the dried fruit in the brandy to soften.

Then make the juniper broth by boiling 15 of the juniper berries in 2 c. water.

Prepare the duck.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Season inside and out with salt, pepper, thyme. Place about 5 juniper berries in cavity of duck, and all but one of the lemon slices.

Put duck in oven for 30 mins.

Add one lemon slice and macerated fruit to broth and steep. Reserve brandy for later!

Place giblets and heart (I cooked the liver separately- a special treat just fo me) in the broth and boil. When cooked through, remove and dice finely.

After 30 mins, remove duck from oven and pour half of the broth over top. Try to reserve as much fruit as possible.

Turn duck over so breast side is down.

Bake for another 30 mins, then remove and pour remaining liquid broth over top (still reserving fruit).

Turn duck again so breast side is up.

Lower heat to 350.

Bake for 30 mins until done.

Remove duck from oven to rest and pour off pan juices (separate as much duck fat as possible- keep that for some other use!).  Combine juices with reserved fruit, brandy, and diced giblets. Add water if necessary. Bring to a boil and add sherry. Turn heat to medium-low.

Make a slurry with a couple tablespoons of flour and water in a separate dish. Add slowly to juices to thicken. Keep stirring or your gravy will burn or get lumpy.

Meanwhile, summon the house butcher to carve the bird.

Plate and serve with gravy. I added herb-roasted redskin potatoes and broccoli. Roasted brussel sprouts would be great with this also.



Thrifted Thursday: Birthday Thrift Crawl Haul, Pt. 1!

As promised, here are some of the goodies I brought home last weekend. I hit four thrift stores in one day of shopping- it's my annual birthday present to myself. The first three items are all from a vintage clothing store/secondhand shop that is so large it takes hours to go through it all. I forgot to take my camera, but you all would die just to see how crammed it is. And on many of the items, the prices are really good. I was totally in heaven.

This is a 60s polka dot dress. There is a zipper on the left side and a shawl collar- it's hard to make out the details with all the dots, but it's really cute and fits perfectly. There are a couple of spots that need mending, and I may need to replace the zipper, but not a bad buy for $2 (the red belt was $1). I now have three navy/white polka dot dresses, but can you really ever have too many? :)

I also bought this boucle beach cover-up for $4. I could use it as a lightweight cardigan as well, but I really needed a beach cover-up, and this fits the bill nicely.

I was on the hunt for vintage blouses in particular. This one will be nice with a gray or brown pencil skirt.

This was one of my bigger scores. I stopped at a brand new Sally Ann outpost that wasn't on my original itinerary, and boy, am I glad I did! It's a Lilli Ann two-piece knit set from the 60s. It has a nice 1940s collegiate look to it, though. It's probably headed to the Etsy store, unless I feel like breaking out the saddle shoes and keeping it for myself.

Most of all, I was looking for cardigans. Red ones in particular. This is a nice beaded cardi with a scoop neckline, that I can wear with all those polka dot dresses! It's modern, but classic. I did find a beautiful vintage beaded ivory cardi at the same shop as the Lilli Ann suit, but that will be in part II.... ;)

Trash-picked Tuesday: A third vintage suitcase

Longtime readers may recall that I have a set of mint green Samsonite suitcases, the larger of which I trash picked about 10 years ago.

This weekend, on my annual birthday thrift store crawl, the trash-picking gods (if there could possibly be such a thing, LOL) smiled on me once again and I found a third green suitcase in the set!

At my favorite vintage clothing store this was parked outside, marked "FREE"! 

Well, I love me some bargains on vintage clothes (more about that Thursday ;), but I cannot pass up free stuff, especially something that is part of a set I already have.

I'm not sure what is the proper name for this style, but I believe it is something like a hard-sided garment bag. The two halves are not hinged, but rather come apart. There are clasps along the other three sides to hold it together, and on the inside there are collapsible rods to hang your suits.

It wasn't in the greatest of shape- the lock had been drilled out and it had some mildew inside. But after a throrough cleaning and a good airing, it's definitely usable.

Maybe over a couple more years I can finish my curbside set of suitcases with the hatbox and matching Bermuda green traincase!

(And after a quick cruise around eBay and etsy, I'm gonna have to score them for free, because I sure can't afford what they're asking for these anymore! Yikes!  And double yikes!)

Make-it-from-scratch Monday: A Little Help from our Friends

Hi all! This week's MIFSM is a little bit of a departure from our "home cooked" theme. In fact, it's probably the complete opposite, but hey, I'm not a stickler for rules around here anyway.

I know most of you are into eating better (that's why you're here on Mondays, right :) and what could be better for you than minimally processed raw foods? Better yet, what if those foods were chips? Vegan, raw, locally sourced, sustainable chips?

No way!

Yes Way! (OK, my 4th grade self got in the way there, but I am so stoked about these things!)

You all know by now that here at Chez QT we eat as much home-grown or locally sourced vegetables as possible. And we hunt and fish for our meat. We are not vegetarian, vegan or raw (though I do enjoy me some sushi) by any menas, but I would describe our eating philosophy as "whole foods" and sustainable. Of paramount imnportance to our family is knowing where our food comes from.


We eat very little processed food, and one thing we cannot do ourselves is make a good tasting, healthy snack chip (though I have a pretzel recipe I'm dying to try). The option for us is to eat crappy Frito-Lay products and feel really yucky afterwards or go without. And homemade granola bars only go so far (that's an upcoming Monday post.)

So I was delighted to learn from a friend about Brad's Raw Chips, a start-up operation just a few miles away from home base here at the PIT.  And they were gracious enough to send me a sample of their products to review. (Obligatory disclaimer: I was in no way compensated for this review- except for some delicious free snacks, LOL- and my opinion is strictly my own!)

Brad's Raw Chips are the product of one man's (that would be "Brad's") quest to develop a truly raw chip to fit into his raw diet. All the products are vegan, gluten free and truly raw- dehydrated to become crunchy, not fried or baked. And while you and I may not be on a raw diet, we can still enjoy the benefits of eating healthy with this tasty chip.

I sampled two different types of snacks- two kinds of dried leafy kale, and two kinds of more traditional "chips".

 The dried leafy kale came with vegan raw cheese (which is made from a blend of spices, raw nuts and nutritional yeast) in the "Naked" form, and added garlic in the "Vampire Killer" variety.

It is melt-in-your-mouth tasty, with a very light nutty crunch, lighter than popcorn. The "cheese" is very good- I don't know how they do it, but it really does taste like cheese! Before I knew it, I had eaten half the carton.

It's important to note that while the product is much healthier than your average potato chip, there is a large proportion of cashews in the "cheese" and it does add up in calories eventually. But the nuts do add a lot of protein (6 grams per serving!) to the snack, and that is definitely a good thing. They are also incredibly high in vitamins A and C- over 100% per serving.

And best of all, it looks like leafy, green kale- no mystery about what it is!

As you can see in the package above, since the kale is so delicate it tends to disintegrate a bit. If you're creative like me, this can be a plus. I mixed the remaining kale bits into some plain yogurt (sour cream would also work) for a great-tasting dip. They would also be great stirred into mashed potatoes (not raw, I know...) or as a topping for steamed broccoli or cauliflower. In fact, maybe Brad's could market them this way, like a Hidden Valley Ranch-type dip packet.

The other products were more traditional "chips" made from whole vegetables and seeds with a dash of olive oil and salt. Again, they are dehydrated, not baked, so all the ingrediants are still totally "raw". I tried the Red Bell Pepper and Sun Dried Tomato varieties. They had the texture of Sun Chips, but all the flavor of the vegetables they are made from. The Red Bell Pepper was my favorite- it had the sweetness of a ripe bell pepper with a bit of nutty crunch from the flax seeds you can see ground into the chip.

The tomato variety really reminded me of sun-dried tomatoes, but in a crunchy chip. I could totally see myself serving this at a party with some homemade salsa or guacamole, or with a yogurt dip made with the kale bits!

The texture is light and crunchy and not at all greasy, heavy or salty.

One of the best aspects of the company, and one that we here at the PIT share, is that Brad's Raw Chips supports local farmers by buying their produce nearby when in season. And all the waste product is composted and returned to the fields, just like it is here at Chez QT.

Brad's Raw Chips are available mostly on the East Coast, in Wegmans and Whole Foods markets. But you can buy them online at http://www.bradsrawchips.com/collections/all . And if you follow them on facebook, and subscribe to their newsletter, you are entered their giveaway to win three free bags: http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1425698061342&sk=messages#!/bradsrawchips?sk=app_7146470109

Hey Mikey, you'll like them!

Mr. Rogers: Vintage Style Icon!

My two-year old daughter is in the process of potty training. She was sitting on the potty today and asked me, ever so sweetly, if she could fall down the drain. Of course, I told her no, but it brought to mind immediately the Mister Rogers song "You Can Never Go Down the Drain".

It may seem silly and corny to us, but as a child I remember singing that song to myself, and how reassuring it was. That was the appeal of Mister Rogers- he spoke directly to children in a language they understood.

I know a lot of adults like to poke fun at him for that, because the language and themes are so innocently simplistic. But children really responded to that approach and they always have. It's a very refreshing style now, with so much audio and visual bombardment on contemporary kids' TV (and believe me, I've seen a lot of that!) I wish there were reruns still on TV, but the best we can do is YouTube, and there are probably more parodies on there than the real thing.

Plus, Mr. Rogers always wore cardigans and keds. His set had a great vintage look to it, with that antique fridge and that traffic light. The music is piano jazz. Who wouldn't want their kids to absorb some of that goodness!

Here are a couple of YouTube clips- go get your kids and make them watch! They can watch iCarly later OnDemand.

Mister Rogers shows how a voting machine works.

This is one of my favorites- featuring Wynton Marsalis, the jazz trumpeter.

And did you know that March 20th is Mister Rogers Sweater Day? In honor of everyone's favorite neighbor, wear your favorite cardigan on what would have been his 83rd birthday!

Happy Birthday Glenn Miller!

In honor of Glenn Miller's birthday today (b. 1904) and mine (b. 1975, LOL) I thought I'd share with you my favorite Glenn Miller tunes. If you've never heard some of them before, they're well worth the download- follow the links to the iTunes file.

Glenn Miller was, by all accounts, a decent but unspectacular trombonist (I can sympathize). After playing for years as a sideman alongside some of jazz's greatest talents he formed his own orchestra in 1937 but was unsuccessful until 1938-39 when he developed his famous "Miller sound" by adding a lead clarinet to the more traditional saxophone section of his big band. By the early 1940s, Miller's band was the hottest in the country with a string of hits including "Tuxedo Junction", "In the Mood" and "Moonlight Serenade". He and his band were featured in the films Sun Valley Serenade (1941) and Orchestra Wives (1942).

When WWII broke out, Miller longed to be of service to his country. But at the time the armed forces employed only more formal concert bands; there was no place for modern swing music. From late 1942 until 1944, he led a relatively undistinguished group of musicians in the traditional marching band style. Finally, he was able to persuade the Army Air Force brass to permit him to form a swing band and a full string orchestra to boost morale of the soldiers abroad and the homefront. He made hundreds of recordings in England, many of which were also recorded in German and broadcast across the continent to listeners behind enemy lines.

In late 1944, after the Allies had stormed into France, Miller wanted to take his band directly to the troops in Paris. In preparation for the move, he boarded a single engine transport to fly across the English Channel. On December 15th, 1944, in the fog over the Channel, his plane disappeared and no trace of the aircraft or its passengers has ever been found. Major Glenn Miller is still officially listed as "missing in action".

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Glenn Miller's music was probably my jumping off point into vintage culture. I've been listening to it since I was 13, and boy, that makes me feel real old today when I say that has been 23 years! Most of these are on the "hot" side, and totally disprove the notion that Glenn Miller was strictly a "sweet" band.

1) "Peggy the Pin-up Girl" (also in honor of yesterday's passing of Jane Russell)
2) "American Patrol"
3) "Caribbean Clipper"
4) "Mission to Moscow"
5) "Song of the Volga Boatmen"
6) "Johnson Rag"
7) "Serenade in Blue"
8) "Jeep Jockey Jump"
9) "Moonlight Cocktail"
10) "Stealin' Apples"

I could probably keep going forever. What are your favorites?