Patina General

Summer Salads

Last summer I shared some of my favorite go-to salad recipes.  Well, there's always more where that came from! Today's recipe, I've been eating since high school days at the cabin.  It's quite simple and appeals to a lot of people-even pickier eaters.  It's such a pretty salad to bring to a potluck, but also works for my family to keep in the frig for several days.

Ham, Broccoli, Macaroni Salad

Ingredients:

7 oz. cooked Rotini pasta (the rainbow version looks pretty, too)

8 oz. bottle Green Goddess salad dressing (or some other version of cucumber, green pepper dressing)

4 cups torn romaine lettuce

4 cups fresh, torn spinich leaves

2 cups cherry tomatos, halved

3-4 cups cooked, bite-size ham

3-4 cups bite-size swiss cheese

1 bunch broccoli, cut up and blanched (placed into boiling water for 1 minute, and then ice water)

Directions:

Toss cooked and cooled pasta with 2 Tb dressing.  Arrange in a large salad bowl or 9 X 13 pan.  Place washed and dried salad greens over pasta.  Top greens with ham and swiss cheese.  Spread, or squirt rest of dressing over.  Place broccoli around edge and scatter tomato halves over top.  Cover and refrigerate several hours/overnight.

Can be served with additional dressing.  A little Italian dressing tastes zippy with it, and croutons or sunflower seeds could be offered, too.  Cauliflower or cucumbers could be added, although cukes can get mushy if left in the frig.

Where's the Beef?

This week has found me getting ready for the big weekend!  Memorial Weekend in Minnesota is the start of summer.  Yes, the kiddos have a couple more weeks of school, but it's time to head to the cabin, or the lake, or the beach for the first visit of the year!  For my family, we all converge on a little cabin and boathouse on a little lake, that my Dad built with his Dad and a couple friends, in high school!  It is anything but fancy, but it holds many family memories.  This year we have a new cousin that's visiting for the first time!

Our weekend will consist of garage saleing in town for the ladies and small children, while the guys head to the golf course.  We will fit in some fishing, some swimming, some game playing, and a lot of good food.  Memorial Day will be spent listening to some beautiful patriotic music, and appreciating the cost that many took, fighting for the freedoms that we enjoy.

Since I've been in food prep mode, I thought I'd share what I'm bringing to contribute. 

Cheryl is a hamburger-loving girl, but I am more of a hot dog girl.  My Dad worked at summer carnivals in high school and college, selling old-fashioned hot dogs, and sleeping under his trailer at night. The Shrimp spent a few summers selling foot longs at the Great Minnesota Get Together (the State Fair).  My family likes a good hot dog.  The other day I stopped into our new neighbor, around the corner from the store, Nortog Meats.

They have samples of their products all along their counter.  I tried one of the bits of their old-fashioned weiners, and wow!  That is a good hot dog! I decided to get some along with a few of their brats for the cabin weekend.

I love how the hot dogs are all connected, so old fasioned.  Reminds me of kids cartoons!

 

They had a couple different kinds of brats, I just chose the original, but I had to pick up some jerky for Mr. Freckles.  He loves gnawing on either the beef version, or the turkey.

Along with the hot dogs and brats for the weekend, I am also bringing some family favorites: Baked Oatmeal, Granola, Rhubarb Crunch Dessert, and a couple more recipes that I will share in my next posts.

If you're needing some great meat to grill, check out Nortog Meats!  When you're shopping on our Occasional weekends, check out their lunches.  I loved their BBQ pork sandwich. They will also be open on Sundays of Occasional weekend-Yeah!

 

Junking, Spring 2012: Strange and Unusual!

This spring junking season was strange and unusual in so many ways...

First of all, I didn't have my trusty sidekick, Cheryl, with me!  Gas prices just seemed too high for her to make the trek.  So, I told Mr. Fix-it to hook up the trailer, and I would head out solo!

Some of the inherent obstacles of this venture include the concept that I do not posess the skills to back the trailer, and if I also find something of utter coolness, that happens to be heavy and large...I am only 1 female!

In order to optimize my damsel-in-distress potential, I added make-up and some curls to my normal jeans-and-boots junking attire!

I really wasn't excited about venturing out alone, and actually prayed about it.  Yep...I prayed about junking and that my efforts would be worthwhile!

My first roadside stop let me know that God was listening!

Anything with old hardware just makes me smile!

Then I got a call from the Junk Pimp himself!  He said he was a few blocks away and was standing guard over a dresser that I would want!  I high-tailed it his way, just to get there in time as he was telling another junker," Sorry, it's already spoken for!"

I love Bakelite handles, and he had already found another dresser for me! His van was already full, so we jumped into my vehicle with the trailer to find more treasures!  This is when my finds got more strange and unusual...

Sitting next to a church, is their foyer welcome center!  I have no idea what I will EVER do with this item, but luckily the Junk Pimp was with me, so we could load it up!  Any ideas??

Once the Junk Pimp had found quite a few treasures for me, and quite a bit of scrap metal for himself, we parted ways.

Just then, Mr. Fix-it decided it was too nice of a day to sit at work, and came and joined me.  What a nice date we had! The sights and sounds of the day were very colorful!  Along with the Santa-decorated trailer that you saw above, we also ran into some other creative junkers!

This couple was having fun together, too!  At one of the yard's, Mr. Fix-it asked if I wanted this item...

As I took the cover off, I let out a little squeal of excitement!

Have you ever seen such a beautiful sewing machine?  It's as pretty as a classic car! Again, I have no idea what I will do with this, but it makes me think of a certain pink-loving blogger/ PG shopper/ treasure hunter that I know!

Along with the beautiful, pink sewing machine, and the lovely pink stuffed animal, we enjoyed the early spring gardens in the neighborhoods!

I love the mature trees and gardens of older neighborhoods, and I found my dream house...

Along with the bright and beautiful, I kept finding the strange and unusual.  Mr. Fix-it and I were loading up a classic-looking chest of drawers, when we realized the drawers were completely filled with shotgun shells!  A couple drawers of yellow, a couple drawers of red, and a target as a bonus!  We couldn't figure out where to dump them without making a huge mess (kind of a rule when junking), so some of them came home!  Again...any ideas?

I had a couple hours by myself, and found the most unusual find of the day!  I don't normally get out and dig through the cardboard boxes, unless some cool, vintage item catches my eye.  For some reason, as I was digging, I spotted some vintage labels on old bottles!

It was a treasure trove of hazardous chemicals!  I kept digging and found this old cardboard box:

Luckily Cheryl wasn't with me, because she would have screamed at what was inside!

A biologist's treasure trove of bugs!  And these were no normal Minnesota insects!

Big Boy said there were scorpions, black widow spiders, and scarabs, amongst others!  Who would have thought?  Once again...have no idea what I will do with these!

Well, my strange and unusual day ended with my Mom joining me!  Think she thought it was my birthday!  Remember my Very Junky Birthday last year?  Well, she has never experienced curb-side clean-up, and was thinking that she would hardly recognize me, for fear I'd have a dirt-smudged face!  Lucky I went to the trouble of make-up and curls!  She was pleasantly surprised at how fun it was to drive up and down neighborhood streets, and how many piles there were to look through!  I had to stop her from engaging in conversation with the homeowners! 

All in all, junking 2012 was a successful season, and I learned, once again, that I am Never Alone!  Maybe next year we will have a drawing for a Guest Junker to ride along with me!  Wouldn't it be fun to post about our experience? 

Kerosene lamp... or vase?

The days are gone that we use kerosene to light our homes in the evening.  These unique lamps known for their functionality are also quite beautiful.  They can be found in a variety of designs and sizes.

I've removed the wick component and replaced it with an adapter and a silicone bulb.  I have a few placed around our home.  The lamps give a cozy glow to a dark corner or serve as a pretty night light in the bathroom.

The latest function I've discovered for these lamps is a vase.  The pedestal brings the blooms to a new height.  I love the large head blooms like peonies and hydrangeas that can be cut from our yard and brought into our home to be enjoyed.  Can't you just picture three of these down the center of a table for celebrating that special occasion?

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Happy Mother's Day!  I hope all of you who are Mom's are getting to enjoy your day just as you would picture it!  Here in Minnesota, we are enjoying a beautiful spring day with sunshine, a cloudless sky, and a little breeze...Perfection!

To celebrate the day, I thought I would share one of my favorite gifts from my Mom with you.  It is a framed illustration that hangs in my back hall:

I  have a fondness for vintage illustration, especially those that depict chubby-cheeked little children, and doting parents.  I love the soft pastels-greens, blues, yellows, and pinks, and the definition of the black.  Even more, I love the meaning of why my mom chose this picture for me, and what it represents.

I had always dreamed of being a mother, and was thrilled to be in the child-bearing years.  I had an enthusiastic boy first, and loved noticing all the trucks on the roads and digging in the sandbox with him.  A couple years later, I got the privilege of having a rosy-cheeked little girl that was so happy from birth, that she would make one think..."I'm a pretty good parent!" Well, just as I was getting comfortable in the Motherhood role, I realized God had a sense of humor, and likes to push us out of our comfort zones sometimes!  As I was still nursing my sweet Happy Girl, I found out I was pregnant!  How could I be pregnant...I already have a baby?

Mr. Freckles came into our lives totally blue. I remember the nurse's letting me give him a kiss on the forehead, and him letting out a weak, little cry, before they whisked him away to see what was not right with his little body.  I wondered if I would ever see him again.

Over the next few days, my compassion grew for the mom's who were recovering from birth, and didn't have a baby at their bosom.  My compassion grew for the mom's who had spent weeks, months, even years in hospitals, being with thier sick children, and having children at home that needed loving arms, too.

We were able to bring baby Freckles home after 8 days, and tried to let the words of the heart surgeon sink in..."treat him like a regular baby."  He didn't wear much blue for awhile...

The caption on the bottom of this picture says "Rain, Rain, Go Away". The rosy cheeked, brown-eyed mother is holding her healthy-looking, toddler son on her lap.  She is protecting him from the rain by covering them both with an umbrella.

The cozy cottage in the background is welcoming, even though the wind is blowing, and the trees are bending all around it.

The faithful little doggy is standing watch.  I wanted a dog my entire life.  Every birthday, every Christmas...at the top of my list was "a puppy".  I have only gotten to enjoy the faithful love of a dog these last couple of years.  I wanted my kids to have that special relationship in their lives.

The mother hen in the corner is nestling her three little chicks by her side.

The birch tree standing behind them, reminds me of the huge birch tree in the backyard of my childhood home.  It represents the heritage my parents and grandparents gave to me.

The year after baby number three was a blur.  Taking care of three little people four years old and younger was challenging, and health isssues were quite time consuming.  Sometimes life brings showers, sometimes it's pelting rain for awhile.  Some of my mom's best advice was "life is more full of challenging days, than happy days." So true. My mom gave me this picture, knowing I had experienced a year or so of rain.  We mothers always want sunny days for our children, don't we?

I hope your rainy days are few, and the sun is coming out!  Happy Mother's Day!