lunch box snack

These are good!

Chewy Oatmeal Snack Bars

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup maple syrup (use the real stuff if you can, even if you have to put a spigot in a maple tree… 40 gallons of sap make one gallon of syrup so plan accordingly)

2/3 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups quick cooking oats (I use steel cut oats and pulse them a bit in the food chopper)

1 cup wheat germ

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 cup dried cherries or cranberries

Grease the bottom of a 13x 9 pan.

Melt butter in a 2 quart saucepan over med heat. Stir in brown sugar and maple syrup; heat to boiling. Boil 1 minute, stirring frequently; remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla until mixture is smooth.

Stir remaining ingredients into peanut butter mixture, mixing well. Press evenly in pan.  Cover and refrigerate about 2 hours, cut into bars.  Store covered in refrigerator.

I keep them wrapped in wax paper in the fridge as I’m willing to admit certain older kids in this house consider it work to have to wrap a granola bar.   They would rather go with their friends to the corner store at lunch and buy a cinnamon roll.  Remember those days? 

Please come in

Welcome to our dining room.  This is its busiest time of year when five out of seven people here at freckled hen incorporated have birthdays.  It’s nearly fall and a lovely time of year to entertain.  No more sweaty barbeques.  Bring the people in the house and eat at the table.   I like a crowded table with lots of noise and food. 

Lucky for us the dining room is a wee bit small and having a crowded table is no problem.  Actually our family fits comfortably and when we invite anyone over we have to spread tables and chairs elsewhere and it turns into quite a cacophony  with kids that have to overtalk each other and adults that have been sampling the spirits, if you know what I mean.

Our house was built in 1920.  It has an old western feel to it, it makes you want to speak with a drawl and wear chaps (nothing else at all-just the chaps).

 

This room is a happy room, it’s kind of a menagerie of items that kind of match and many good memories. There’s plenty of hand me downs from our relatives.

 

And reminders of days gone by.

 

I actually remember falling in love with toile.  It made me dizzy and I couldn’t think straight. 

It was like a mad love affair. 

Designers are probably done with toile and moved on to white pleather and glass.  I am destined to be one of those women who just can’t let go. 

Thanks for coming by!  I hope you are fixin to have a great weekend.

on the sewing table

My mind has been spinning lately with ideas, sewing ideas.  I dream of making things all the time, but yet I hardly ever have enough time to sit and sew.  Enough time would be about 12 hour stretches of not having to drive someone somewhere or cook something.  I would sit and only get up to eat things like a whole jar of pickled herring and a get a can of Dr Pepper (the real sugar kind in the vintage looking can-have you seen those?).  And as far as the jarred fish/soda diet don’t knock it if you haven’t (buuuuurrrrp) tried it.

Anyway my sewing surfaces (various portions of flat surfaces located somewhat near my machine) are full of my jumbled ideas in various stages of production.  Like most of my life.

A baby girl dress from an old pattern with many revisions, considering they were so modest back then why did they make little girl dresses so short?

Bib stitching, we have had a lot of squadron babies lately.  This justifies me looking through my box of Aunt Martha’s transfers for 4.5 days.

Sept is usually pajama making time for me.  I like to make 3-4 pairs for the three younger kids.  But I’m getting kind of jammied out.  I made these really big so maybe they will fit next year, too?

I tried a fleece sleeper recently. It looks cozy and warm but it will still be a while before Henry wears it—today was still in the upper 90’s.  I’m tired of warm weather.  If Mother Nature could only throw us a cool day once in a while to remind me the heat isn’t so bad.  But no such luck, darn you Mother Nature!

My sewing list has taken on the nervous energy of a running race.  My husband has been coming home with rumblings of our next move.  The thought of moving quickly drains my creative energy, instead I become the queen of all things we need to be rid of before the moving van is here. This includes months of me dumping closets and drawers out yelling things at my kids that have to do with we don’t need it, you didn’t even know we had it and when’s the last time you played with it type stuff.  But for now until the boss walks in with orders in hand I pretend like we will live here  a long time and look at my fabric with dreamy eyes…

 

Before I go I need to apologize to Mother Nature.  I heard some thunder and went out to see how far away the dark clouds were and look what she gave me:

Thank you very much!

happiness is boiled cabbage

Hadley went through logistical chaos to get home this past weekend.  And Hadley, dear, even though you only really spent 1 day here it made me very, very happy. 

PS H is pretty, the cake is sliding off the plate and there are no handles on the highboy.

Today is her 18th birthday.

  

Her birthday meal was our version of a  New England boiled dinner.  Instead of corned beef I use turkey kielbasa…my Irish mother in law is surely laughing, but corned beef is so fatty and it’s hard to find a decent cut around here. 

PS my Irish mother in law is very nice, I tell ya. Éirinn go Brách.

I boil it all in chicken broth…potatoes, parsnips, carrots, onion, cabbage and add the kielbasa the last half an hour of cooking.

PS You need a really big pot. And a lot of mustard.

Can you tell I’m a gourmet?

H loves boiled cabbage and it must be hard to eat in college as even if she had a hot plate boiling a head of cabbage in her room would be like, totally uncool. 

What are your kids favorite meals?

Happy Birthday to you my dear, sweet daughter. I miss you! 

PS Are you wondering why there are no handles on the highboy? Because we had it made while living in Turkey and once we were stateside I realized the brass handles cost 3x as much as having the highboy  made. We will get handles when pigs fly. Okay?

A tweed hat

A condensed version of why I made a tweed hat: 

I read a book (which was kind of depressing fyi).

I loved the tweed hat on the cover.

I made a boy version for my own boy with soft fleece lining because we all know how long an itchy wool hat would last on a small boy of three.

I had to revise it many times because his head is huge.  Like really big.  So big that each time he has a physical they measure it and measure it again.  

So in conclusion:  I made a hat for a boy with a melon head.

The End

Saturday morning odd jobs

Red loves me.  It’s a nice feeling for a horse to love you.  Especially when you are an awkward shy person like myself.  And I love Red right back, in fact I love this dern horse so much it hurts my heart. 

 

I love everything about him.  He listens to everything I say…really he does.  I blab away to him about all the trivial things in my human life and he kind of gets a humble stance, not a bored humble stance, nor one that says okay when you are done telling me all this mundane junk can I have an apple biscuit? 

 

 

Red was given to us by a neighbor who had received him from a friend of a friend.  He wasn’t well taken care of and truthfully he was kind of a punk.  He wasn’t sure what to make of all the kids and instead of accepting our love he became rebellious and like a crotchety old man.  But now nearly three years later he is my lovey bear of a horse.

I kiss his velvety nose  and love the sounds he makes as he munches on his morning grain.  He trusts me and I trust him. 

 

I am certain he trusts me because he willingly let me give him a haircut-which is unheard of in this house.  He has bangs now.  And he looks ridiculous.  In fact I can’t even look at him without laughing. 

If giving your horse bangs isn’t an odd job, I am not sure what is.

outdated lovies

If you wish you can check out my etsy shop.

I’m not sure how much demand there is for baby things with a vintage flare but I have always loved buying them.  With five kiddos I have always had a reason, though I would love another wee babe or two I am not certain it’s in the cards. (Someone is getting o-l-d-e-r)  And really it doesn’t make sense to haul around enough layette for a dozen babies. You know?

I’ll be adding pieces throughout the next couple months..all with a hint of 60’s and 70’s baby coolness.  So if you need something for little baby Gary or newborn Phyllis you know just where to look!