Vintage Love

This is a picture of a pearl choker that belonged to my paternal grandma. She was obsessed with finding the perfect pearl necklace, and despite the numerous gifts of pearls from my Pap-Pap, Grammy was never completely satisfied with any of the necklaces. This choker is of uncultured pearls and it broke one day; I don't remember how. My grandpa took on the tedious task of re-stringing it. I always loved this necklace and luckily inherited it. The clasp is really cool, unfortunately it's missing some stones. I have plans on taking it to a jeweler to get it fixed. I have another one of her pearl necklaces, one a little longer of cultured pearls.


It was Grammy who sparked my love of vintage jewelry. She was always decked out in necklaces, rings (more than 1 ring on each hand), sometimes braceletes. My sister and I loved to play dressup with her jewelry and put on her makeup when we were young. Before she passed away, Grammy started giving away her jewelry to the grandkids. I was the lucky recipient of some cool vintage costume jewelry. I thought I would share a few of my favorite pieces.



Below is one of my favorite necklaces:


I love the backs of these earrings. I have yet to wear them though.




I also have my great-grandmother's engagement ring c.1917. I love it, there is so much detail put into the band and setting. They just don't make rings like this anymore.




Now, moving onto my maternal grandmother. She was a model back in the 1940s. Mostly pinup photos for calendars like the kind found in garages and gas stations. I have, so far, found only one of her modeling photos among the boxes of her things I have.


This is what she actually looked like:


I never knew her, she died of uterine cancer in 1959 when she was 37. So we don't have a lot of her jewelry. Just a few necklaces and a mink coat. I don't know much about her, all everyone says is that she was a great beauty. And going through pictures of her I can see why, she was stunning.

I did find a necklace with matching (clip-on) earrings of hers. Interestingly, I found a similar necklace on clearance at Target a few weeks ago.


But the Target necklace doesn't have the clasp detail that the vintage necklace does.



I mentioned the mink coat. I remember when I was about 5 or 6 my sister and I pulled it out of the box. It both scared and repulsed me. The thought of having a dead animal wrapped around me made my skin crawl (and still does). I let my sister have that coat.


my grandma in her mink

Sorry this isn't a post on food. I have really been feeling horrible the past couple weeks and I'm on a liquid diet, which eases my symptoms. But this phase will pass and I will, hopefully soon, be able to get some real food posts up. Thanks for being patient with me.

Shamrock Shake

Who doesn't love a Shamrock shake? It's basically a St.Paddy's Day, month of March staple, thanks to McDonald's. When I moved down south 6 years ago, once March came around I went to McDonald's to get my annual Shamrock shake. When I ordered one, the employee is like,"A shamrock, what? What is a shamrock shake?" They had no idea what I was talking about. I was incredulous, how could this (and every other nearby McDonalds)not know what a Shamrock shake was? Determined to find one, I went to every McDonald's I could find, but none of them knew what I was talking about. I even called McDonald's headquarters to find out why the south didn't have shamrock shakes. They didn't give me a very satisfactory answer.

Imagine my surprise (and delight), when 2 weeks ago Mr.Surly calls me and tells me that he is enjoying a shamrock shake. I was so jealous. But then, a few days later, I was able to order one of my own while out on my weekly Target trip. It was a delicious as I remembered them. So, thank you McDonald's, for finally bringing the Shamrock shake to the south! *kisses* (Even though it ripped up my stomach later, it was worth it).

Having recently tasted an authentic shamrock shake, I went about recreating it myself. Looking around at other recipes, I noticed they use peppermint extract. But a Shamrock shake is mint flavored, not peppermint flavored. Don't be fooled by imitators.

Paddy Wagon

Here's yet another Irish Cocktail. This is also called an Irish Manhattan and Paddy Cocktail, but I feel Paddy Wagon is the best title.


Paddy Wagon
aka Irish Manhattan
Printer-friendly recipe

2 oz Irish Whiskey
¾ oz dry vermouth
2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
Lemon twist

Stir the liquid ingredients in mixing glass with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Run lemon peel around the rim of the glass, twist, and drop in.


Need more cocktails that use bitters? Try these:
Blarney Stone
Death in the Gulf Stream Cocktail
Champagne Cocktails
Sufferin' Bastard
Phoenix Rising

Source:Ultimate Bar Book: The Comprehensive Guide by Mittie Hellmich

Irish Buck

I'm finally getting over my ear infection, so a bit of my energy is coming back. Not enough for me to come up with any Irish food, or any food for that matter. So, again, I'm taking the easy way out by posting another St. Paddy's Day Cocktail.

I liked this because it had few ingredients; the simplicity of it allowed our Jameson 12 year special reserve whiskey to come through. Mr.Surly really liked this drink, though he still prefers his whiskey neat.


Irish Buck
Printer-friendly recipe

Lemon wedge
2 oz Irish Whiskey
3-5 oz chilled ginger ale

Squeeze lemon wedge in ice filled glass. Add whiskey, top with ginger ale, stir gently.



Source:Ultimate Bar Book: The Comprehensive Guide by Mittie Hellmich

Blarney Stone

I've been busy experimenting with different Irish drinks to serve on St. Patrick's Day. Here is one of the contenders. I thought it tasted great, but Mr.Surly didn't like it. He said he doesn't like Cointreau unless it's in a margarita.

That's okay, I'm working on other drinks for him to sample and for me to post.

Blarney Stone
Printer-friendly recipe

2 oz Irish Whiskey (I used Jameson that had been aged 12 yrs)
¼ oz Cointreau
Dash Angorstura bitters
Lemon twist

Stir together liquid ingredients in mixing glass with ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Run lemon twist around the rim of the glass, twist, and drop in.



Need more cocktails that use bitters? Try these:
Death in the Gulf Stream Cocktail
Champagne Cocktails
Sufferin' Bastard
Paddy Wagon
Phoenix Rising

Coconut Lime Cupcakes

I can't believe St.Patrick's Day is this Saturday! This week I'm slowly easing into to the Irish theme. I have been suffering from a horrible ear infection that is just wiping out my already low energy level. I feel like all have been posting is cupcakes and cocktails. I just don't have any energy to make dinner right now. So for the time being, maybe I should rename my blog "cocktails and cupcakes."

I have wanted to make these cupcakes for a long time, but Mr.Surly doesn't like coconut, so I knew I'd be stuck eating them. I decided to make them for this week since limes are green, even though they aren't Irish.

Death in the Gulf Stream Cocktail

I love to read: novels, plays, short stories, fiction, non-fiction. Books played a big role in my life as I grew up. It started before I could read, my dad would read 3 books to each of us kids at bedtime. We visited my grandparents often and each month Grammy would buy my sister and me a book. My sister and I loved the summer book mobile, and I remember some summer reading program we did where we would choose to receive 2-3 books in the mail (they were sent in a bag that zipped, I remember) then send them back after we read them, and they sent the next books on the list.

In high school we had to choose an author to research and write about. Without hesitation, I chose Ernest Hemingway. He lived such a full, rich life and wrote about it in books and short stories. He was such an interesting individual. My favorite short story by him is The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber. If you haven’t read it you should. It’s a great short story. You can find the entire text (23 pgs) here.

Many of you are probably wondering why I’m off on a tangent; after all, this post is about a drink, not one of my favorite short stories. Chalk it up to medication saturating my brain, but stay with me, I do have a point. Ernest Hemingway is responsible for this cocktail. Mr.Surly came across this cocktail while browsing through a bar book we have. Mr.Surly discovered Hemingway concocted this cocktail, his hangover remedy. Hemingway’s description of this cocktail is, “ it’s tart and bitter—reviving and refreshing.” I couldn’t describe it better myself.

2012 Spring Shoe Pick

It's finally almost spring! Not that our winter down here was very cold, but the mornings were cold, and I did need to pull out my Uggs often. Now that the temps are warming up, I decided I needed a new pair of shoes. I can't keep wearing these everyday:


I wear the shoes above about 99% of the time. They are so comfortable, it feels like I'm walking around in my slippers. But, I find it's getting a bit too warm for these to be everyday wear shoes. And it's definitely to warm for these guys:



I guess I should explain my obsession with comfortable shoes.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

I have really been slacking in the kitchen lately. Poor Mr.Surly, I'm barely able to scrape together enough food to feed him; I just don't have the energy. I'm going through a "rough patch" medically, waiting for it to pass so I can get back in the kitchen. I have a long list of recipes bookmarked I need to get started on.

I forced myself to make these cupcakes because I have been craving chocolate and peanut butter. Maybe because Target is in Easter mode and I saw my favorite treat; Reese peanut butter eggs. But since my stomach can't handle them right now, I thought I'd try to incorporate these flavors in cupcake, not candy, form.

The result was phenomenal. The cupcakes are moist and spongy, and the frosting tastes just like bakery icing--extremely sugary sweet, which complemented the cupcake perfectly. I even left out some of the sugar the recipe called for in the icing. I'm glad I did that, otherwise, to me, the frosting would have been too sweet and sugary.