Vintage Fiesta Relish Tray

You may have noticed that we have Fiesta dishes around here.  You would have seen them in the many photos I take of the recipes we're eating.  What you may not have known is that we have a combination of vintage and modern pieces.

Our daily dishes came from our wedding registry and are white.  We have dinner plates, salad plates, cereal bowls and tea cups/saucers.  However, my love of Fiesta started way before we got married.  It started in my maternal Grandmother's kitchen, because her dishes were Fiesta from the 30's and 40's.  I inherited her pieces and so I have a lovely mix of sunny yellows (her favorite color), cobalt blue and turquoise.  We have added a few of our own modern and vintage pieces so you'll see orange and even one red one up in the cupboard or on the counter.

Now that you have the background I must show you my most recent addition.  Just yesterday a dear friend gave me her vintage relish tray.  Now if you know anything about Fiesta you know what a gift this was!  The relish tray was only produced from 1935-1946 and they were produced in all one color (red, yellow, green, ivory, blue or turquoise) .  However, the retailers mixed up the pieces to make colorful assortments.

I saw my friend's relish tray about 5 years ago and commented on how rare it was and how beautiful.  She'd received it as a gift but wasn't using it because it didn't match her all white (modern) fiesta dishes.  Fast forward to this month and she said I should take it since she still doesn't use it.

Isn't it a beauty?  I love the color!  However, the fact that it sells on ebay for an average of $200-$400 makes me afraid to do much more than admire it.  Ha!  But, if you come to my house for dinner I'll pull it out with veggies and dip in it.  :)

The inserts are removable and have fiesta fired on the bottom.  The middle dish is referred to as a coaster.

The bottom of the large dish (referred to as a pie plate) also has the fiesta stamp.  The color in this photo is the most accurate, as the tray is a turquoise color.  

This relish tray looks brand new.  Hard to believe that it is actually 75'ish years old!  Ah the relish it must have seen back in the day.  

Perhaps I'll show more of my Fiesta on another wednesday.  We could call it Fiesta ware Wednesday . :)

Baby Led Weaning

Baby food, say what?

My baby doesn't want to eat.  At least not baby food.  Well, not my homemade baby food.  I planned on feeding her homemade organic baby foods well before she was born.  I found a Beaba baby food maker on craigslist (new in box!!) when I was barely half way thru my pregnancy.  Then a month before I planned on feeding her solids I got together with my BFF (who also has a Beaba maker) and we cooked up a whole slue of lovely pureed organic fruits and veggies.

Then at almost 7 months she showed an interest in eating so I pulled out my wholesome foods.  She seemed somewhat interested that first night but then refused (stuck out tongue, gagged and even threw up) when I tried in the days and weeks after that.

The only thing she would "eat" (aka suck on) were the homemade teething biscuits I made out of bananas, pears, rice cereal and rice flour.  That was some consolation but as time went on I couldn't figure out why she wouldn't eat my baby food.  I gave up and just let her eat (aka-chew on) slices of apple, pear, chunks of chicken or pieces of whatever we were eating for that meal.

Then I discovered that we were unintentionally doing Baby Led Weaning, which is basically letting your child feed themselves from the very beginning.  Not introducing pureed food but instead letting the child eat pieces of whatever you are eating.  Hmm.  This baby sure does have a mind of her own!

It sounded fine to me, especially since the first few months of "eating" are really just practice and not for their primary nutrition.  Also since my 8 month old already has 8 teeth it appears that she is capable of chewing just fine thank-you-very-much.  However, I did grieve the loss of those lovely homemade organic baby foods and the maker I bought!

Then one day on a whim I gave her a Happy Baby pouch that we got from our favorite HappyBaby foods lady.  Turns out she has no problems with purees, she just wants to feed herself.  So if I give her a pouch that she can hold she'll suck it down.  Literally.  I can already hear her saying "do it myself" a year from now.  Sigh.  Now I love HappyBaby foods and pouches, especially for on-the-go or travel but what about my homemade foods?

I found a solution.  It's called the Beaba babypote and it's basically a reusable pouch.  Pretty expensive at $15 but at least I have a way to get my baby food in her now.  I do need to supervise her closely b/c it can get quite messy if she puts it upside down and hits it against the high-chair.  You don't want to know. ;)

So for now we're doing a combo about 1/2 baby-led-weaning and 1/2 purees (purchased and homemade).  

Gotta love a baby who knows her own mind. :)

Wheat berry and Bean Salad

This week's CSA introduced a new food for me, wheat berry.  After searching I discovered that wheat berries are not so unfamiliar.  They're actually whole, unprocessed wheat in their most natural form.  All wheat products such as wheat flour are made from wheat berries.  They have all the nutrients of a whole grain as they contain the germ, endosperm and bran.  Who knew?  Wheat berries looked a lot like barley to us, although they had a nuttier taste.  Ours are from the Pima Reservation, Ramona Farms right here in Arizona.  Local and healthy, a perfect match.

Once I figured out what wheat berries were I found a few recipes.  The most common were wheat berry salads so we started there.  I made a wheat berry and bean salad based off a few of these different salads after using what we had in the kitchen.  I was able to use the wheat berries, last week's parsley (stayed fresh by doing this) and green onions from the CSA box. :)

Wheat Berry and Bean Salad
Ingredients
1 cup dry wheat berries, cooked and drained
2 cups navy beans (I used a combo of navy and black beans)
1/2 english cucumber, diced
1 red pepper, diced
1/3 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered
1/3 cup parsley, diced with stems removed
4 green onions, diced
sea salt and pepper to taste

Dressing Ingredients
Honestly you could use whatever vinaigrette works for you.  We aren't huge on vinaigrette around here and so although I mixed up a version of this one I ended up going with a plain old simple:
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil

Directions
1. In a medium bowl soak the wheat berries overnight in cold water.  The next day drain the wheat berries and place in a medium sized pot covered with 2-3 inches of water.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium and simmer for 1 hour.
2. While the berries are cooking dice up and prepare all of the veggies and put them in a large bowl.  When the berries are finished drain and set aside until cool.
4. Add the cooked and drained navy beans to the diced vegetables (cucumber, red pepper, tomatoes, parsley and green onions) and stir gently.  Add the wheat berries and stir again.
5. In a small bowl whisk together the dressing ingredients of your choice.  Set aside.
6. Add the dressing just before serving and serve well.  We prefer to have each person add their own dressing (or none at all like my 4 year old).  Season with salt and pepper.

Matchy Matchy

I am a sucker for matching or coordinating outfits.  I found these cute big and little sister outfits at Carters this week.  How adorable are my little jailbirds?  And yes, I'm a bit nutty to consider putting my girls in white pants but that's another story.  My love of matching or coordinating outfits goes way back.  When I was a kid my sister and I sometimes had matching dresses or outfits that our grandmother would make us.  I loved it.

This isn't exactly matching, but here's a coordinating outfit that we probably got from our cousins.  My sister is the one on the left and is almost two years older than me.  And yes, we are looking very 70's here.  Now you can see where my older daughter's blond-blond hair comes from. :)

I'm so thankful that I have two little girls of my own.  That I can occasionally dress up in matching outfits and take photos of.  Even if it is almost impossible to get them both to look at the camera at the same time.  Ha!

Now she's looking!

Happy Easter everyone!  

Fisher Price Fridays - Little Riders and Play Family Nursery

This week on Fisher Price Fridays I'd like to share two of the smaller playsets.  Fisher Price Little People (FPLP) playsets are not just houses or buildings, but sets can also be people, vehicles or furniture.  Today I'll show you the Play Family Little Riders and the Little People Nursery set.

First up the Play Family Little Riders #656.  The original set came with an airplane, riding horse, tricycle, wagon and train as well as two little children (a boy and a girl).  The set was produced from 1976 to 1990.  All of the pieces have moving wheels and the wagon has a handle that moves up and down.

I learned from This Old Toy that the early versions of the vehicles had "Made In USA" imprinted on the underside of them.  The imprint was soon removed and replaced with just F-P TOYS.  The little riders with "Made In USA" are harder to find as a result.  I have four of the early versions. :)

Gotta love the angry boys.

And of course the boy with the pan on his head.  This little guy originally came with the school bus set #192.  He has a wood body but a plastic head.  

The nursery set #761 was designed to be an accessory set for the Play Family House #952.  There were other accessory sets but this one was the most popular and it was produced for 16 years from 1973-1990.  The original set came with a mom, dad, sister and baby figures.  The furniture was a changing table, cradle, high chair, rocking horse, playpen and stroller.  You know, all the gear you need for a baby. ;)  Unfortunately there isn't enough room in the Play Family House for all that furniture, but I guess that wasn't important.

There are three different types of babies.  Ones with hats, ones with little bald heads and the hospital baby which is bald and doesn't have a bib.  I've observed that the bald babies seem to be rarer and sell for more online.  I prefer the bald babies myself, but they're both cute.  I did read that certain nursery furniture pieces are more rare than others for example the orange high chair I have pictured is "very rare".  In fact all orange nursery pieces are rare.  I had more orange pieces but I sold and/or gave them away.  Oh well, as I've said before we don't collect to be collectors, but to play with the toys. :)

See you next friday!