Comfort Food - Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

Here I am blogging two days in a row, but I just had to share this delicious recipe, a recipe that was so perfect for the cold day we had yesterday and the leftovers are going to taste even better today.  This recipe is for Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup, I have never been much of a soup maker, but my list of soups that I make and that do turn out is growing and this one will be added to the list.  

This recipe came from Laura's blog, live. love. scrap. - I pinned it back in December, it didn't take me long to give it a try.

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup

5 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp flour

1/4 c. diced mushrooms ( I thought I was all set with fresh mushrooms but apparently they had been in the fridge too long, lucky I had a can of sliced mushrooms)

1 1/4 cup diced onions ( I didn't use quite that much)

1 cup diced celery

1 cup diced carrots

2 cups cooked and chopped chicken ( I fried about 8 skinless boneless chicken thighs)

5 cups chicken broth

1 cup milk

1 tsp. poultry seasoning

1/4 tsp. thyme

5 oz. egg noodles (I used a bit more - chicken noodle soup just needs lots of noodles)

1 1/2 cups half and half

Salt & Pepper to taste

In a medium pan, melt 3 Tbsp butter and add flour to make a roux.  Whisk in 1 cup chicken broth and milk.  Add 1/4 cup onions and mushrooms and bring to a boil.  Whisk often until it thickens.

In a large pot, melt the remaining 2 Tbsp butter.  Add 1 cup of onions, the celery and carrots.  Cook for a few minutes until the veggies soften.  Add the mushroom mixture, the chicken, the remaining 4 cups of chicken broth and the thyme and poultry seasoning.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat.  Simmer for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile, cook and drain the noodles.

Stir in cooked noodles and half and half.  Allow to heat through.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

SO GOOD!!

Books on Collectibles

If you love collectibles, there's a very good chance you're interested in the coffee table type of book that depicts just about anything vintage that you'd want to collect.  

This is my stack - I probably could have taken a better picture, but their home is downstairs on the book shelf and I wasn't carrying all those up the stairs.  I love this type of book!  They're just fun to look at and great for quick reference. 

This is my newest one to add to the collection - it was under the tree!  I haven't gone through the whole book yet, but I see lots of really neat pictures!

This book is just chock full of wonderful collectibles.

I wouldn't mind to come upon these spreaders - how cute are they?

While I'm on the topic of these books - how about the ones that are entirely Christmas?  I have a stack of those too.

Santa was real good to me this year - he brought me some new Christmas books..  I really wanted the Kitschmasland one, there's just so much vintage Christmas in there - I even saw some things that I have and a whole that that I want!!

Here's a couple of Christmas facts from "Christmas Memories" - popular toys of 1900 included sleds(98 cents), dolls (89 cents), doll cradles (10 cents) and ice skates (49 cents). In 1946, Noma's Bubble Lites were introduced - becoming the world's best selling Christmas tree decorations!   The aluminum Christmas tree was introduced in 1950 and we know those are collector's items now!  This is a great little book - full of facts and pictures.  

I want that Santa, I want that mail bag and I wouldn't mind having a couple of those angels.  That's the trouble with these books, I always want stuff but I know there's not a  hope of me ever finding much of it, it's still fun to look and dream though!!  Do you like this type of book?

First Share of 2014

Things are getting back to normal and I really needed to photograph these goodies so I can put them away - I've been working on putting Christmas away for three days now, at least pretty much all of it has moved to the basement to be packed away until next year.  

My husband gave me this beauty for Christmas - what could be prettier than a Pyrex turquoise chip and dip set?

I found this fridgie over the holiday, I had to buy it - it was turquoise and it was 30 cents.

I received some nice packages over the holidays, you know who you are, I'm so appreciative, thank you very much!

I thrifted a couple of Vera's, the rest were gifts - lucky me!!  I also received a couple of beautiful Vera Christmas tea towels - and both different, they're packed away already for next year, or they'd be on here too!  I found a Vera table runner at Winners this year and that was a shock!  There were tablecloths, napkins, oven mitts(got one of those) - what's the chance they will ever have Vera again??

There are so many ways to tie a scarf - this is a cute booklet!

Christmas still in the package - I couldn't bring myself to open them, maybe next year...  

I thrifted some great Christmas books too - but, why didn't Value Village have their books marked down after Christmas, I even asked, she said 'no" 

This is the sweetest book - it's by Ideals - I love the illustrations..

This isn't an old book but it is Charlie Brown and it is Christmas.  This book was a gift to some children in 2005 - they sure didn't hang on to it long.  It looks like it was never opened!

 

Remember Fraggle Rock?  Everytime we mention Fraggle Rock, we remember my grandmother, who one day said she didn't like those Fraggles, she had dreamt that they were on the end of her bed!!  I thought this might be a good one to sell!

My husband gave me a portable photo studio and lighting kit and now you get to see my first pictures taken with it - I really like the way they turned out.

How's this for a piece of kitschy Christmas?  All Christmas at this shop was priced at 25 cents - that's the kind of clearance that I like.

This Santa must have been a bell, cute, isn't he?

I had to buy this pixie planter, even though the paint is missing on his face and arm - after all, he was only 25 cents!!!

This is my second little rubber Santa like this - were they light covers?  They have a hole on the bottom.  I don't remember these, do you?

And, that's it, my first sharing post of 2014 - I'm linking up with Junkin Joe and Thrifty Things Friday

My Favourite Posts from the Year

My favorite posts from the year are not necessarily my most popular ones but just ones that I like - it's amazing when you go back and check the stats and see what really was your most popular one for the year - for me it was Everything Cookies are so Good that I wrote about in October - I think I owe Pinterest on that one!!

So, here we go - starting off with January - we had just started making homemade egg rolls, it was worthy of a post, in February I joined in on the SMASHing craze with Do You SMASH? and in March it was all about Vera - Scarves were Everywhere -oh, that was a grand day, finding all those scarves!!!  

In April I found some beautiful Red Haired Mermaids - Lefton ones to be exact.  I found the best brownie recipe in May - it's the only one I make now - you should try it too - right here.  In June, I blogged about my old Barbie and her clothes - Loved Barbie!

We went "home" at the end of June so I blogged about The Place I Come From when I got back in July.  It was hard to pick one post from August, but I chose $1 Spent Here, $1 Spent There - Pyrex was involved!  In September I wrote about Mom's Depression Glass - looking for help on identifying patterns and I got it!!

Carla came home for the weekend in October to SMASH - that was definitely my favourite post.  In November I highlighted my 1966 Woman's Day Magazine - that was a very popular post, it was a fun one to do too!  It wasn't easy making my December selection but I settled on This is Really Christmas Kitsch - I didn't like having to pack that beautiful piece away today!

It's been another great year of blogging for me - thrifty finds are not as plentiful as they used to be - but if there isn't anything to be found, there is always something in the wings waiting to be written about.  Thank you so much to all my followers - I know there are a lot of blogs out there to read, I appreciate that you stop by here to see what I've been up too and maybe leave a comment - comments make my day!!  

Happy New Year - from 1935

Postcard Post

I can't believe I haven't blogged since the 19th of December, it sure has been busy, no time for blogging and even less time for blog reading!  Hopefully, Santa found all of you with no problem and left a few goodies under your tree - maybe a vintage item or two...

Today we are heading out for a couple of days, but I didn't want to let another day go by without posting something.  Here are two more cards from my small postcard collection, both are beautiful Ellen Clappsaddle postcards and are very old.

This card was postmarked 1907 from Ithaca, New York and sent to an address in Alpine, NY - this person was short on words, they didn't write anything.

The message was written on the front of this card, the writing is very hard to make out though.  This card is an undivided back one, also postmarked in 1907, it was sent to Mr. S.C. Vandrame in Galveston, Texas.

These old cards are so pretty, I'm going to look for a couple of New Year's cards, they sure won't look anything like these....

Thrifting Before Christmas

There's still lots of Christmas in the thrifts, just not much vintage Christmas. Yesterday was 50% at Value Village, I didn't see not one item I wanted to buy, that's sad!!  I also shopped at my local collectible shop and came home with a nice sized Santa

It's the happy Santa in the front - I don't have one that big.

I bought the two ornaments on the right there too - the other one was a in a bag of junk that yielded two items, the other one is....

The little guy sitting in the middle!!  I spotted him in the bag, I had to buy it - the bag was only 50 cents and gave me this cutie and the bell ornament.  I found the other pixies last year, I know they're not old, but they're pretty cute!

Might as well keep picking up ornaments for the next wreath project!!

Another box of lights - for my light shelf..

I'm listening to this record right now - it's a Peter Pan 33 1/3 Little LP - I paid 25 cents - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth - nothing sounds like a record!!

I don't think there will be much more thrifting now before Christmas, I was happy to find anything at all this week, have you had any luck?

I'm linking with Share Your Cup Thursday and Vintage Thingie Thursday

My Vintage Christmas Postcards

It was exactly one  year ago today that I did a post on my vintage Christmas postcards, if you care to go back and look at those cards, click right here.  I collected these cards for a few years, they really are so pretty and every so often I just like to take them out and have a look.

The postcards with artwork by Ellen Clapsaddle were always my favorite - the children are always so sweet.

This card has no postmark but it is written on - it was written to Mary in Kokomo, Indiana from her "bro and sis" - Jack and Pearl.  It has a one cent stamp.

Another Clapsaddle card that was exchanged between friends, from Herbert to Miss Nellie Otto.

This Clapsaddle has the cutest message, I had to scan it too..

I wonder how long it took this card to travel all the way from Ontario to Florida back in 1922..

If you check out my post from last year, there's a card there from the same series as this one.  This card was written from Willa to Eleanor Blanchard.

This card was postmarked in 1916 from Gramma to Mr. Le Mallett

This card is probably the newest one out of this lot, it is postmarked 1924 and sent to an address in Clarksville, Iowa.

I think this one is so cute - looks at his little toolbox, he really wants Santa to know where he is.  This card was postmarked 1913 and sent from Uncle Axel to Master Gordon Wrigel in St. Paul, Minnesota

This one is what you call an undivided card - there are no divisions on the back for the message and address - it was postmarked 1906 from Bellows Falls, VT and sent to Winchendon, MA - from Aunt E to Master Dexter Whittermore.

This card is really cute too - it's a Whitney card.

This card was never postmarked, it must have been hand delivered from Aunt Lillian to Russel.

Don't you wish you could look in your mailbox tomorrow and find a card or two like any of these? 

I'm linking this post over at Dawn's party that has a new name this week -We Call it Junkin