Fanny Farmer and Her Egg Salad Recipe

Most Americans who cook have probably heard of the classic Fanny Farmer Cookbook but like me, most of you might not know anything about this fascinating woman's life . Fanny was born in 1857 in Boston. She was a bright girl and her parents had high hopes for her and her education but soon after her high school graduation, Fanny suffered a debilitating stroke which left her paralyzed. Fannie remained an invalid for years but eventually learned to walk again, albeit with a limp.

It wasn't until she was 31 that Fanny enrolled in the Boston Cooking School where her performance was considered by the faculty to be excellent. Upon her graduation in 1889 Fanny was asked to be assistant director of the school and eventually became its director. It was during this time that Miss Farmer published he first cookbook, the Boston Cooking School Cookbook.

Fanny Farmer eventually wrote six cookbooks and opened her own cooking school and named it Miss Farmers School of Cookery. The school was also noted for developing cooking supplies for the sick and disabled and focusing on teaching housewives how to prepare healthy and nutritious meals.

Well, we have 18 chickens now and  are collecting an awful lot of eggs. After experimenting with different recipes I have found Miss Farmers classic old time recipe to be the tastiest of all I have tried . Having fresh eggs doesn't hurt either. The combination of dill, lemon, and mayonnaise is unbeatable!

Fanny Farmers Egg Salad Recipe:

1. Eight hard boiled eggs peeled and chopped. Hard boiled eggs are much easier to peel when they are cold. Also note that all the following ingredients should be cold.
2. 2 tablespoons lemon juice
3. 2 teaspoons white vinegar
4. 1 tablespoon chopped chives
5. 1 tablespoon chopped dill, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried dill weed
6. a pinch of ground pepper.
1/3 cup mayonnaise
7. 1/3 cup chopped green pepper. I never have this around when I make the recipe but it sounds like a good addition, adding a bit of crunch.

Directions:

1. Combine mayo, lemon juice, vinegar, chives, dill, and pepper. Mix until well blended and add salt to taste.
2. Add the green pepper and chopped eggs. Toss gently.

Yum!


It also passes the toddler taste test.

 Fannie Farmer Biography - life, family, parents, death, school, young, information, born, college, house http://www.notablebiographies.com/Du-Fi/Farmer-Fannie.html#ixzz1JbZ4nzfD

Rose Bowl Flea Market :Shopping for Vintage Sewing Supplies

You might think that a flea market in a major metropolitan area like Los Angeles would be overpriced but I can assure you the Rose Bowl Flea market still has many diamonds in the rough that can still be found. That's because prices for stalls range from about 250 dollars for the best situated stalls to only about forty dollars in the farthest reaches. So this flea market runs the gamut of professional dealers selling at retail prices to people just cleaning out their garages and wanting a venue where they will get a lot of traffic. I have sold there myself, and there are a LOT of people so you want to get there early to get the pick of the day and also  because the Pasadena area gets very hot in the late spring and summer months. The Flea Market is huge, taking place in the perimeter and parking lots of the famous Rose Bowl Stadium, where college teams play on New Years Day after the Rose Parade ends.

 If you sew and should ever find yourself in the Los Angeles vicinity on the second Sunday of every month, you should plan on attending. It hasn't been named one of the top ten flea markets in the world by various publications for nothing! I attended this past Sunday with some friends from Chile who will be returning home soon and wanted to see it and my trusty side kick, my eight year old daughter who is a vintage toy aficionado and chronicles her finds on her own blog here.

Here are some of the bargains we found:

A variety of vintage crochet trims and laces.

Hard to find vintage mens patterns. 

Vintage kids patterns from two to five dollars each.

A dressmaking guide from 1948 for only four dollars. I've already learned to do some pattern alterations from it so it has already paid for itself.

A cute 70's pattern I've already started sewing. This one was only one dollar!

Gorgeous matching silk chiffon and silk charmeuse which I bought for only two dollars a yard.

vintage patches.

A rare small portable Singer sewing machine.

Cashmere sweaters for you upcyclers for five dollars each.

And here is what my shopping partner found. She examined a variety of vintage dolls and Breyer horses which she collects but ended up going home with two Madame Alexander Sound of Music Dolls from 1962 which she found at the bottom of a box under a table and bargained for. She convinced the seller to lower his price from thirty dollars for both to twenty! That depleted her funds for the day so she went home happy.

L: My Day at the Flea Market

If you like vintage dolls check out this blog by a super cool eight year old!

L: My Day at the Flea Market: "I went to the flea market with my mom. We bought lots of things. This one man was really nice he gave me some doll house furniture for free!..."

Spring Around Here

 I've been trying to figure out Photoshop Elements . I have been using i-photo up until now and  I could spend all day doing this.. if I didn't have  a baby running around, a sick child home, a class to teach, and a house to clean! Any online tutorials you might know of that teach how to make photo collages would be appreciated very much!

Meet our new baby chick !

Vivienne Westwood: Happy (Belated) Birthday to The First Lady of Punk Fashion – Sewing Blog | BurdaStyle.com

Hi readers. Below is a link to an article that I wrote featured on Burdastyle.com today! Check it out!
Vivienne Westwood: Happy (Belated) Birthday to The First Lady of Punk Fashion – Sewing Blog | BurdaStyle.com

A 1$ Huipil for Gigi!

Growing up in California I have always loved going to Mexico. Sometimes we would drive the three hours south to Baja or we would often catch a cheap flight there. When I was pregnant with Gigi I took a trip with Richard down to the Yucatan, an area between Belize and Cancun. We took a side trip into the interior where we visited an old colonial town called Vallodolid. We were the only tourists there probably and that suited me just fine. The 16th century town square was magical and at night boys and girls  met there for ice cream after  attending the Ash Wednesday Mass at the old Cathedral on the square. During the day Mayan women from nearby villages occupied the storefronts along the square selling their Huipil blouses and dresses.

The huipil is a garment worn as a blouse by Mayan women since ancient times.  It is generally embroidered around the neck, in the shape of a cross. The garment is then folded in half and the sides stitched up. The stitching stops on the sides to allow for armholes. The huipil is worn over a skirt which is tied with a woven belt.

The neck is elaborately embroidered with designs representing the cosmos, the gods and their helpers.

So when I was at the thrift shop the other day and I found this sweet little baby huipil for only a dollar I had to buy it to remind me of my trip.

Wedding Dress link up Party!

Hi everyone and welcome to the wedding dress link up party! For the last couple of months I was making a wedding gown and thought it would be a fun way to wrap up the whole project with a photo party of readers' dresses through the decades. Let's start  from the newest to the oldest photos..
READ MORE AND SEE THE PHOTOS..

From Christine who was just married last month 

" I used Vogue 2717 as a starting-off point for my pattern.  Yes, we were just married last month, March 12, 2011."

Congratulations Christine! Your dress turned out lovely and so are you! Christine's blog was invaluable when I was making my dress as she really had some great photos and descriptions of her dress. Find her at featherpetalsilk.blogspot.com

Christine's dress had fully functioning buttons and loops with no zipper. Let's hope she didn't have any popped buttons!She also added some pretty little petals near the hem of her dress. 

From Ashley at  Refurl.blogspot.com

I love the lace train Ashley and these photos are gorgeous. Ashley got this dress at David's Bridal but it looks like a million dollars on her!

From Abigail who blogs at Farmhousegarden.blogspot.com

"This is a fun idea! I was married 3 1/2 years ago, and we had our reception at a great 20s dance hall on the Florida gulf coast. My dress was handmade for me, and I felt so wonderful in it! The inspiration photos I showed the sewist were of 50s party dresses. Sadly, because we had a photographer friend take photos (he is not a wedding photographer) and though he did take tons of great photos, there aren't many straight on of my dress without flowers or something in the way. Attached is one of my father walking me down the aisle. Because the whole experience of having the dress sewed for me was amazing, and because it led to my love of (obsession with?) sewing, I will probably do a full post on this one of these days, including Bob's original sketches."

I love the organza  Abigail.You were adorable !

 

These two above photos were from my best friends wedding in the late 90's This was a gorgeous silk gown and it was so lovely on her. The setting was the historical Adamson house on the beach in Malibu.There I am on your right.

Here is my own wedding 17 years ago. I had an empire waist but never really got any nice shots of my dress. I got married at a vegetarian restaurant called "the Inn Of The Seventh Ray" in LA's Topanga Canyon.

These puffy sleeves were really in in the early nineties when I got married.

From reader Beth

"My wedding was on December 16, 1989.  The dress was sewn from a Butterick pattern, unfortunately not by me as I was busy with stupid law school finals until 4 days before the wedding. Anyway, I'm still married to the same guy and we have two kids."

Beth, you don't look old enough to be married here!

These are Christine's parents. This is so sweet and so seventies! My own parents got married at City Hall and my mom was wearing a minidress and they didn't take any photos. How dare they!

This is a photo of my husband's parents who were married in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1950. I'm really starting to like tea length dresses again.

These are Christines maternal grandparents above. It looks like her Grandfather may have been a World War Two soldier here. 

Christine's paternal Grandparents. Thanks for all these photos Christine. They are really great!

And last but not least this is my Italian Grandmother,from New York City on her wedding Day in the 1930's.