Feb 8, 2010

Picture (and antique book ) overload!

Of course we ran out of cookies again (and I wonder why I am not losing weight), so I made some Drop Sugar Cookies from my Light Cooking book (pg 447). Instead of actually doing the drop cookie, I refrigerated the dough for about 30 minutes, then rolled the dough into little balls, and finally flattened them slightly before baking:
 
As you may notice, I use parchment paper a lot (even if the recipe calls for an un-greased baking sheet). It gives such a wonderful bottom to my cookies:
 
Plus it makes clean up a cinch. Now you might be thinking "You make a ton of cookies! You have to go through a roll of parchment paper a week! And I thought you were trying to save money!". You are right about the money aspect, but let me assure you I always use coupons (since there in one in every box!) and I actually reuse a sheet about 5 times before I throw it away (when it starts to get too brittle and cracks).  Alright, enough about paper. The cookies came out very chewy:
 
Though they do have a slightly funny taste. I think it's due to the fact that the fat is vegetable oil. That's part of the "light" aspect of the cookbook. I think next time I will stick to my butter sugar cookie recipes. But until then, I need (well Mike and I) need to eat all of these:
 
 
 
Remember how I mentioned our trip to Sarasota? Let me share with you some of our finds from the Habitat for Humanity Restore! First is this ottoman on wheels that appears to be from an old hotel (we found a matching couch and were very tempted to buy it since Mike and I really liked the pattern!):
 
Pattern up close:
 
Right now we are torn. We just covered all the pillows with that awesome new fabric. Oh! Here are all the finished pillows:
 
We were planning on covering the ottoman to match the couch (a dark gray, jean type fabric), but for some reason we are both really in love with it. Maybe it's our new found love for all things antique, intricate, and ornate. Speaking of antique, check out some of excellent book finds too! First is a book called Currier & Ives Printmakers to the American People from 1942:
The book is in decent condition. The binding is still holding on, the pages are all there, and nothing is torn. The cover is just slightly warped and has a lot of water spotting. It is actually quite a lovely book with some really pretty pictures:
 
It pretty much tells the whole story of the famous printmakers Currier and Ives and shows some of their best work in both color and black an white. The average price I saw online for this book was about $25 on average and some places even had it listed at $150....we got it for $0.99!

Next we found this little gem:

 
 It's about 3x4 inches total and is titled "Ejercicios Piadsos" roughly meaning Religious (or pious) Exercises in Spanish. It was printed in 1961 in Bareclona, Spain and is all in Spanish:
 
It's not quite a bible but more like a daily devotions supplement. It is actually quite pretty. Now I couldn't find anything online about this, so I have no clue how much it's worth or if there are other copies out there. Here are some more close ups:
 
 

And the best find of the day:
 
 This is the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction collection from 1917. Unfortunately it is not the complete 20 volume set. We are missing book 3, 5, and 17 (so if you are looking to get a present for Mike and I....hint hint). The complete set runs about $200 on average in good condition. This set is in marvelous condition. The covers aren't worn or torn. Very few of the pages have tears (I mean like 10 in the whole set). The inside binding of the first volume dose have a little wear, but it's not falling apart. I actually want to read some of these (but I am afraid I might tear the pages!). Here are some more pictures of the first volume:

 
 
  

And that's it...for now! I will be attending an estate sale next Monday with my Aunts and Grandma, so there may be some more exciting new finds! Until next time, please enjoy this hilarious picture of me on my first backpacking trip (which only lasted 2 days cause I wussed out) in the allegheny mountains back in July of 2007:

 





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