Archives for February 2014

~ Vintage Camera Love ~

February 24, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

My collection of vintage cameras has been growing. I finally have them all in one place, thanks to the Beekeeper.

This is actually a lighter I found at an antique store. I don’t smoke, but it looks cute in my collection.

My beloved Nephew, James, my Nikon man.

My newest camera.

This is my vintage film Nikon. It came with a great 50 mm lens, which works on my DSLR. This photo was taken with the vintage lens on my Nikon D90. Of course it means manual focus, but I can deal with that for a great lens.

So now my little collection is over my desk, in the living room, where I can look at them whenever I want. The only problem…I have already filled all the old wooden boxes the Beekeeper used, and the “hunt” is the fun part. What’s a girl to do!?!

Linking up with Sunday Snapshot.

Filed Under: Antiques, Vintage Tagged With: cameras

~ Birthday Snow ~

February 6, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

Yesterday was the Beekeeper’s birthday. I had been planning a surprise two day trip, with an overnight stay at a lovey B&B. There is a little restaurant that we like in Saratoga Springs NY, called Hattie’s, that is one of Bobby Flay’s Throwdown restaurants. So a fun road trip, good food, antiquing, and checking out a new B&B (I have a Bed and Breakfast fetish…I not so secretly want to have my own). But, alas, the weather did not cooperate with my plan at all! This is what the Hubs spent the entire morning doing….

And although everything looks beautiful with this fresh covering of snow, it continued all day and messed up my plans.

So when life gives you lemons….well, I wouldn’t exactly call this pretty new snow lemons and I didn’t try to make lemonade, but I did make the Beekeeper’s favorite cookies (he prefers these to birthday cake) and I did take him out for dinner (which in thinking about it was a gift to myself since it meant I didn’t have to cook). Although, I did pay so, maybe that wasn’t the best plan!

Anyway, I thought I would share the cookie recipe with you.

Spiced Crackle Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1 tablespoon crystallized ginger, chopped

3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1. In large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and molasses on medium speed until blended. Beat in egg until blended, scraping down side of bowl.

2. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon and white pepper into clean bowl. Add to butter mixture; beat on low speed until blended. Stir in crystallized ginger. Cover; refrigerate 1 hour.

3. Heat oven to 350. Lightly coat 2 baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.

4. Roll dough into 1 inch ball, then roll in confectioners’ sugar to coat completely. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets.

5. Bake for 12 minutes or until they have expanded and flattened; the tops will be covered with cracks. Let cool on baking sheets 2 minutes. Transfer to cooling rack.

(This recipe was found in Family Circle Magazine years ago)

Enjoy!

Filed Under: In the kitchen, The Catskills Tagged With: cookies

~ All Aboard ~

February 4, 2014 by Patricia Fisher

The Beekeeper is also “The Conductor”, at least of his vintage HO scale Marklin train set. His Dad bought this train set in the early 60’s, and now the Beekeeper has begun to add to the original set. Of course, with only vintage pieces! I’ll take some pictures of our set for a future post. A couple weeks ago we took a field trip to this train shop. They have quite a train display set up, but mainly Lionel. The first pictures are of the smaller HO scale train which was on a shelf under the big set up so it was a little dark for pictures, still fun though.

It amazes me how much thought, time and effort (not to mention money) that train collectors put into these displays. They really are quite impressive up close. So, on to the larger scale Lionel.