Amish Butterprint Delights!

So, a month and a half ago or so, I was at Matt's parents' lake house, sitting on the couch reading my interwebs.  I was reading Caitie's blog, and she was writing about how she'd celebrated Bastille Day.  Caitie was making truffles (How fun is that?), but it wasn't the truffles that grabbed my attention: it was her bowl.  She was using this old-timey white bowl with a rooster on it.

Upon seeing the bowl, I blurted out--Veruca Salt style--that I wanted that bowl. 

Later that week Matt's mom and I went to a few antique shops, and I kept my eye out for the bowls, but had no luck.  But she told me that she was headed to Bouckville, an antique festival in New York, later on in the summer, and she'd look for them there.

I wish I could be all, "And then I completely forgot about them," but I can't.  I can't because I obsessed over the bowls.  I thought about them and fantasized about the beautiful roosters and imagined how beautiful they would look in my kitchen.  So when my [out of control wonderful] mother-in-law called me in the middle of the afternoon to tell me that she'd found an entire set of them, alternating in blue and white, asking if it was okay that some of them were blue.  Um, yes!  Yes, that's okay.  I squealed a little.  Okay, I squealed a lot. 

And when they arrived at our house on Friday afternoon I squealed some more.  I rushed to open the package--that contained not only the set of four, but also two additional mixing bowls--and just held the bowls and stared them.  And I pet them and ran my finger around the rims.  And I'd smile some more.  And then I'd squeal some more.  And then I'd call my friends to brag about what a great mother-in-law I have. 

(Note:  She's wonderful even when she isn't buying me incredible gifts.  She's kind and understanding and wise and reasonable and tells me when she disagrees with me.  She's a great shopping buddy and an enthusiastic listener and she raised a pretty great boy that I got to marry.  I love her.)

So here are the bowls. Their official name is Amish Butterprint, and they were made by Pyrex in the '50s. It's actually kind of ironic that I would be so in love with these bowls, considering how much I detest the Amish. (Cheaters. If you're reading this and you're Amish, you're just proving my theory that you're all dirty cheaters with bad haircuts and no buttons.)

Aren't they so pretty?  And just wait until you see how they go in the kitchen post facelift!

Does This Mean That I'm a Cannibal?

Every time I watch this part of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I start to crave blueberries. . .



. . .which may mean that I don't understand what I'm watching.  Or maybe it means that I love to eat fruit, and that I'm also a cannibal?  I'm sure we can extrapolate plenty from my desire to eat blueberries after witnessing human suffering (or from the fact that I still, as an adult, watch and enjoy Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and then have bad dreams about it), but I don't care. 

Because today I made blueberry frozen yogurt, and it was delicious. 

It also afforded me the opportunity to use the ice cream maker for the third time in a week. 

And it's also pretty.

Blueberry frozen yogurt, stolen from this recipe on Tasty Kitchen. 

It tastes like it's bad for you when it's not, and hopefully it'll keep me from having to eat children (a la "A Modest Proposal"). 

Here's the recipe, adapted from Tasty Kitchen's:

Ingredients

Two cups of Greek yogurt
Two cups of blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

Add yogurt, sugar and blueberries to your blender and blend until smooth. If you’re using frozen berries, it may take a little coaxing to get them all blended. If it doesn’t “want” to blend, shut off the blender and move the contents around a little with a wooden spoon or spatula. Remove the spoon, pour in the vanilla, replace the lid and blend again.
If a smooth product is desired, pour and force the yogurt base through a stainless steel, fine mesh strainer. It will take a while, so be prepared! If you like a more rustic yogurt with bits of blueberry and seeds throughout, skip the straining. Either way, you need to refrigerate the base for 2-4 hours prior to freezing.


Pour the yogurt base into your ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. (In my Cuisinart ice cream maker, it took 25 minutes and was ready to serve immediately.) Transfer to a freezer-safe container with a lid. This makes about two quarts.


If you have any yogurt left over, store it tightly packed in the freezer with a piece of plastic wrap laid directly on the surface of the frozen yogurt.

Enjoy!  And don't take chewing gum from strange men. 

Where are the Oompa Loompas when you need them?

I feel like this is a case of life imitating art, tragic though it is.

I prefer to think of it like this, even though Willy Wonka gives me bad dreams.