What We Found Today (and a Recipe)

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We've started on "the room".

"The room" is an addition to our garage, about 15 by 15, packed wall to wall, floor to ceiling with stuff. The room shouldn't be confused with the garage (which is now only about 1/3 full), or the attic (which is still full) or the house itself, which is still about 2/3 full.

Are you getting the picture? It's not pretty, but it is kind of interesting. Sort of like going to a huge flea market, where you see things you half remember.

Like this.

Regular readers have probably figured out that, over the years, we've tried a lot of different things. These include blanket weaving, jewelry making, cooking, book selling, Disney collecting, framing and matting, and many more I can't even remember. We also made a couple of lampshades, which I had completely forgotten about. Then today we found this in the room. A bit the worse for wear, now it's off to the auction.

Then there was this little book, which I thought was very cool. I couldn't find a date on it, but it talks about the original Kodak and announces the new Kodak 2. Great illustrations and photographs.


I also found a stack of Life magazines, which always derail me for a time while I look through them. What a time trip these things are. In honor of Liz, whose passing I seriously mourn, I thought I'd include this.

Great artwork,
they really don't do posters like this anymore.

We're beginning to feel like we're making a but of progress.

I've been hoping to find a movie projector, but so far, no luck. Then, I was looking on Freecycle (which we're using to get rid of some of the "stuff") and I saw that someone was offering an 8mm projector. I wrote them, told them I would be using it for a while then re-Freecycling it. That was fine with them, so in the next couple of days, we'll be able to look at some of the old family home movies. I'm kind of looking forward to that.

While I was making dinner, the hinge on our flip up counter broke. Lazy Daze puts a small flip up counter in all their rigs. A good idea, but we improved it by removing the original and replacing it with a regular cutting board. This gives us a much larger working area, but I never realized how much we use this space till I couldn't access it anymore! We use it all the time. This is a modification we recommend to all new Lazy Daze owners, and now I know why. We went and looked for a new hinge, but none of our local hardware stores had one large enough, so we'll have to order it direct from Lazy Daze.

Back to dinner . . .

Some friends gave us a huge bunch of fresh spinach, and usually Terry's not too fond of spinach (but I love it). Then I remembered a salad we used to make at Ghost Ranch, using spinach, strawberries and nuts. I found several recipes online, but of course I was missing a couple of ingredients, so I just winged it. It came out really well, and Terry even ate two helpings, so it must be good. Here's the recipe in case you might want to try it.

Ingredients

Salad
Spinach (a couple of bunches)
Strawberries (a couple of cups, sliced)
nuts (I used sliced almonds, walnuts also work)
Most recipes call for candied nuts, but I used plain
Dressing
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
pinch of salt
squeeze of lemon
sugar (I used Splenda, works fine)
poppy or sesame seeds (or both)
a bit of paprika
a bit of dry mustard

Basically, you toss the cleaned greens
and the strawberries,
then add the nuts.
Then, just mix all the dressing ingredients
and toss it with the salad.

This is really quick and easy, and sure to be a hit with just about anyone. The spinach is nice and sturdy and holds up well to the spicy dressing. If you have candied nuts, they do add an extra kick, but they're not really necessary.

That's it for today. We have a car full of auction items, and they aren't open tomorrow, so we may go on a little ride, weather permitting.