Oh Country Auction, How I Love Thee!

"SOLD! to number 26."

Howard and I heard that a lot on Saturday, as we bid, and bid,
and bid some more at a wonderful auction in New Jersey's
Hunterdon County, where the horsey folk live.

The skies were threatening, and fewer than 50 people showed up.

Good news for the auction bidders.

Bad news for the auctioneer and the homeowner;

so many of her beautiful things went for far below their value.

For instance, that china in the above picture?

That's old Booth's china, made in England between

1912 and the '30s, in the Dragon Green pattern.

Service for 8.  $5 a place setting.  $40 for the whole shebang.

And it's mine, all mine.

Poor deluded Howard thought I'd bought it for the antiques booth.

Oh, ho, ho, ho.  The poor dear innocent.

See this cupboard, below?

It is tiger maple, and was custom made by a local

Hunterdon County cabinetmaker in the 1970s.  It is to die for.

And as soon as we can figure out how to transport it,

it's coming to live at That Old House.  Another surprise for Howard!

But

we did buy things -- lots of things -- for the booth.

Like this reproduction hunt board, or tall sideboard, below.

Each drawer locks and has its own key, and the drawers

are set up to house your valuable silverware.

We snagged a primitive blanket chest, 6-board,

with traces of old red paint.  Love it, but it's in the booth.

Other things we got include . . . a Queen Anne tea table, a Hickory wing chair in like-new shape, a perfect Federal settee upholstered in pink silk -- oh it is SO gorgeous -- Chinese porcelain fishbowl planters, brass trays, oil paintings, watercolors, needlepoints, a huge old stoneware crock, several beautiful lamps, a Majolica style luncheon set, another sideboard, mahogany, that because it was missing the bail on one handle sold for $15, and on and on and on.  OH, some gorgeous monogrammed and heavily laced old napkins, some tablecloths, an old handstitched quilt, a chamber pot, an ironstone soup tureen, a bit of carnival glass . . . . and some of these things set us back a whole dollar.

Howard and I had a blast.  After the auction we stuffed what we

could into the red minivan and headed off to empty things

into the booth, where we ran out of room!

So goodbye, my friends, we're heading back to Somerville to

price the new things, and re-jigger the booth.

I am an auction junkie now! -- Cass 

P.S.  The pictures in this post are from the auction listing by the auctioneer -- Robert Heller Auctions.  I hope they don't mind my using them!  I'll be checking out their other auctions in the future.

Foodie Friday, Hooked On Houses Party, and Last Chance for my Giveaway!

Click here for more Foodie Fun, thanks to Gollum!
************************And click here to link to Hooked On Houses Friday Blog Party,
hosted by the amazing Julia.

That Old House is a mixed bag today: Foodie Friday -- Hooked On Houses Blog Party -- Odds & Ends -- and a last chance for anyone to enter my Giveaway for a
Johnson Bros. gravy boat:

Click here!

Catching up on some Odds & Ends, down below, but first... for Foodie Friday, the recipe for Grandma Cake. You will thank me, yes you will, as this cake elevates the simple to the sublime. It is just pure goodness. And it's even better a teensy bit stale.

Grandma Cake... recipe and a little background!

My grandmother was born in Norway in 1875, and grew up in a house that dated back to Viking days. She lived until I was in college, and she was nearly 100. She'd wanted to make that century mark, but she didn't get her way on that one, although she did on nearly everything else in her life.

She raised 7 children in New York City, in a big house on the rich farmland where JFK Airport now stands. My father is her youngest, and he is nearly 89.

She was a remarkable woman,
Margrethe Olave Eskeland Lindtveit.

She could draw sewing patterns freehand, sewed all the clothes for her big family, including coats and men's shirts, knitted like a machine, crocheted, tatted, and, until they rotted apart from age and sunlight, a set of Hardanger curtains she made as a young bride hung in my family's dining room.

She had the greenest thumb this side of Eden, skipped lunch to afford fresh flowers, was barely 5-feet tall, opinionated, smart, determined, and she scared her family witless. Not one of your pushover grandmothers, my Grandma.

She walked barefoot in the morning dew 3 seasons of the year, had long glossy brilliant white hair that she washed in an enamel dishpan with a bar of coal tar soap and then dried outside, in the sunshine, the hair streaming down her back; to my sister and me she looked like an aging enchanted princess.

She loved boats and fishing and her husband Gunvald devotedly (and probably equally), could gut a fish and pan fry it to perfection, baked the flakiest piecrust, and made a bundt-style cake that is the best food, ever, anywhere on the planet.

She gave that recipe to my mother, least loathed of her daughters-in-law, and my mother promised to pass it on to me. She never did. When Mom sank into Alzheimer's, I figured the recipe for Grandma Cake was lost forever.

But recently my sister Peggy handed my mother's recipe box to me:

Lo and behold, there it was, right in front . . . the Holy Grail:

I love how my Mom wrote "Serves 12 - 15."
What family was she thinking of?
If you click on the picture, the recipe will greatly enlarge and you can easily read it. I love that it's in my Mom's distinctive handwriting. But, in case you have trouble deciphering it, here is the recipe:

GRANDMA CAKE
3 cups flour (unbleached)
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. mace
a pinch of salt
1 cup butter (no margarine; Grandma will rise up and smite you!)
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. pure vanilla

Mix all the above thoroughly and beat at high speed for 3 to 4 minutes. Bake at 350 for approx. 1 hour.

(It's not written down, as you are clearly just supposed to know that the cake batter goes into a greased bundt or tube pan before you put it in the oven!)

This is not a fine-grained pound cake; it has a rather coarse crumb, and the outside gets quite dark and caramelized looking and as the cake ages a day or two the "crust" gets a bit of a crunch to it. Oh my. I may have to bake this. I don't bake anymore because Howard and I aren't eating sugary things. I may have to make an exception. Please let me know if you try it!

*******************************************
Update... I made the Grandma Cake ... Yum
Pics and story here!
*******************************************

And now for those Odds & Ends...

You know that I am hooked on That Old House, and a bit obsessive about getting it "just right." If you remember my powder room metamorphosis, I asked for opinions on curtain fabric, and most of you thought "toile" and some even said, "black and white toile." Methinks you were right!

I just happened to have a sample of a cream and black toile, so up it went on the window frame with a piece of trusty blue tape. I liked it:

Then I remembered a toile I bought 2 years ago at WalMart for $1.00 a yard.
Yes, ladies and maybe a gent or two, that's $1.00 a yard.

(Pardon the wrinkles! It was stuffed in a drawer.)

This isn't your quality toile, no fancy name on the selvedge, but it is already mine, and there is enough for a nice full swag on the powder room window. Free is good.

And there it is, taped up, and dragging down the wall.
(When I find something nice for a buck a yard, I splurge. I bought a lot.)

So what do you think?

It's thin, but I'll line it. I think it will do just fine.
Stay tuned for the "after" pictures!

And speaking of befores & afters. . . I used a red and white tureen in yesterday's Tablescape Thursday post, and before I put it back on top of
Grandma's china cabinet . . .

...(yes, that very same Grandma)...

I thought it might look good on my nearly-nekkid sideboard:

Hey, it's a start.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone! I will announce the
winner of the gravy boat tomorrow morning (Saturday).
Not too early. . . .

Hang It All -- A Craigslist Pairing

A little late in the day, but I'm chiming in with a Metamorphosis Monday post. Thanks to Susan at Between Naps On The Porch for hosting. Visit her here for more transformations.


A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about ordering mirror hangers to hang a large mirror in our dining room. Turns out, we didn't need the hangers, just strong and long brass screws and good wire.

This isn't much of a metamorphosis, but it made me happy.

Here is our Before... below, a sad and lonely sideboard, waiting for love and a humongous mirror:And the other half of our Before: a humongous mirror, waiting to hang over a lonesome sideboard. Clearly, a match made in Heaven.

It was time to unite these two Craigslist bargains. . . . and here's the After:

The sideboard is happy, the mirror is happy, my husband is happy because I'm not saying, "When are you going to hang that mirror?" and I am happy.

Almost.

I am not sure what to put on that old marble top. Any suggestions for a "sideboard-scape?"