Dream Dollhouse – Part I : The Kitchen

This is the first in a short series of posts where I will show you how my dream dollhouse would be decorated, if I were to have one.

It turns out that I have fairly expensive taste in dollhouse furnishings, and mostly go for the rare vintage pieces. So that is one of the reasons I won't actually be getting one in real-life. Another reason is that I don't have the space to display one, nor the propensity for dusting that one would require. So, I shall take advantage of my on-line life and enjoy decorating a virtual dollhouse.

Here are some choices for the perfect kitchen.

[Note: All photos were copied from ebay. I did not take any of them myself, although I did some cropping, brightening and formatting.]

I am going to begin with the piece that actually spurned the whole idea for this series. On my usual search for vintage Pyrex, this amazing set popped up. Yes, I had one of those 'If money were no object moments' and almost pushed the bid button, but in the end, good sense kicked in.

There were three bids submitted when I spotted it, with the highest being a steep $129 + s&h.

Isn't it amazing? Tiny pieces of Pyrex all still enclosed in their original packaging. I have the exact same little square dishes and the bowls in life-size, which we use all the time.

In the pursuit of full disclosure I should point out that this set is the only item that I will show in this series, that is actually not scaled to dollhouse size, but is rather slightly larger, meant to be used by Barbie Dolls. (Speaking of which, have you seen mine here?)

I had a couple of choices for the table and chairs, each coming in at about $65 at the time I saw them. The second set was very popular though, with 38 bids, so probably went for quite a bit more.

Out for Dinner with Friends and What I Wore

My friends Barb and Izzy and I went for dinner on Friday evening to a place called Pizzeria Libretto. I had tried to get in there once before was it was packed to the gills and there wouldn't be a table ready for a long time, so knowing this, we decided to aim for an early dinner and arrived at 6:30. And, it was packed, but we scored go booth table so the night was off to a very good start.

We shared a plate of calamari, followed by a couple of their pizza choices. We also had a nice bottle of Italian wine, (Sangiovese made by the Falesco vineyard). And since we were still full of things to talk about after we ate, we decided to have coffee, (cappuccino for Barb and me and espresso for Izzy). And after asking if any of us had a nut allergy, the friendly server also treated us to some delicious biscotti.

It was a great meal, enjoyed with great friends. These two often share the duty of sitting with Eddie our cat when we go away so they know him well, so there was more than just a little talk about him.

The ladies insisted I bring the left-over pizza home for Nick, who tucked right into it when I got home. Now he wants to go to Pizzeria Libretto too!

Eddie and His Water Bowl

There are few things in Eddie's life that elicit more chatter than water. Whenever the bathtub is being filled, you can find him in the bathroom, with lots to say about the water. He won't get in like some cats will, but he sure likes to look at it and discuss it at length.

He also takes much interest in his water bowls. Yes, plural. He has several around the house, because he really loves to have his very own 'secret' watering holes, that nobody else knows about or drinks out of. He hasn't quite grasped the concept that in order for such bowls to be kept brimming with a fresh supply, someone else does indeed know about his secret spot.

That said, his main water bowl, located right beside his feeding spot, gets its regular share of action. He likes the vintage Pyrex for sure.

Food Friday : Individual Pear Upside-Down Cakes

Last Sunday I felt like doing a spot of baking but I didn't feel like going out for supplies. So I looked through my bookmarked recipes for something I could do with what I had on hand.

These were made with Emma's recipe for Mini Pineapple Upside-Down Cakes, from one of my favourite blogs A Beautiful Mess, except that hers were made with canned pineapple slices and maraschino cherries. As delicious as the pineapple sounded, I had none. But what I did have were some nice ripe Bartlett pears, a bit of ginger syrup I had after making this Candied Ginger recently, and fresh raspberries.

But before I go on about my version of Emma's recipe you should really click over to see how hers turned out. They're so cute!

Here is a summary of the modifications I made to her recipe:

. I halved the recipe because we are only two here, and six small deserts was enough for us. Her recipe divides in two perfectly.
. I Switched canned pineapple with fresh Bartlett pear, but I bet plums, peaches or apples would work well too. One pear was enough for six cakes, with a bit left over.
. I Replaced the pineapple juice with ginger syrup, however I'd think that any juice would substitute well, or even just some water with a bit of sugar.
. I popped a fresh raspberry on for decoration after the cakes were baked, rather than baking a maraschino cherry into the cake as Emma did.

Tips:
. Emma's instructions are to butter or oil your muffin/cupcake pan, and I forgot to, so they were a bit tough to get out nicely. Next time I will butter right up the sides.
. These cakes are cooled with a heavy cutting board on them, so they have a flat surface to turn upside-down on. I put a piece of parchment paper between the cakes and the cutting board so they wouldn't stick.
. For the extras that I had stored in the fridge for later, I gently heated in the microwave oven before serving.


Oh, and did I mention that these cakes have a bit of Whiskey in them? I've never baked with Whiskey before but it added such a lovely smokey-ish flavour.

And the verdict from Nick after he sampled them? To quote, 'You can make these anytime you want'.

Here are some pictures to whet your appetite!

An Interesting Part of Toronto – Liberty Village

c="http://www.loulou.to/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/some-old-buildings-in-liber.jpg" alt="some-old-buildings-in-liberty village" width="640" height="478" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-16326">I mentioned back in March that Nick and I took a walk out to a part of Toronto called Liberty Village. Located to the west of the city core, this area is interesting because it is currently going through a massive transformation. For decades, it was deemed to be a 'brown area', because it was all closed down with minimal supply of electricity (hence its brown-ness.) But in the past few years, it has been developed in a major way. We have seen a huge number of condominium towers sprouting up as though they are concrete plants in a giant's garden.And the building continues today. (I personally think it is too much housing built too close together. Most of the towers are not occupied yet, but I can only imagine the crowds that will be milling about on these tight streets. But who am I to say, with my claustrophobic tendencies in crowded places!)