I have a "new" favorite thing.  This is not vintage, but it has made my life so much easier.  Yesterday I was out junking, and working at the store.  The store is open next weekend Jan 17-19, so I always get very busy working and getting the store ready, that I struggle with making dinner.  For christmas I got a NINJA 3 in 1 cooking system.  This roaster works like your stove top, or oven or slow cooker.    I made beef stew yesterday when I got home at 5pm and it was ready to eat by 6:30pm.  That was browning the meat, cutting up potatoes and carrots and the cooking.  Everything was cooked in the Ninja.  I browned the meat on the stove top setting and then cooked the stew on the oven setting.  My stew normally takes about 3 hrs simmering on the stovetop and this basically cooked for about 50 minutes.  It was so tender and thick.  My husband thought it was better than when I simmer it for 3 hrs.

Beef Stew
1 lb stew meat
4-5 potatoes cubed
4-5 carrots cubed ( use as much as you like)
1 medium onion sliced
1 8oz beef broth (or make your own) sometimes you need to add water to cover ingredients
1/2 c flour mixed with salt & pepper
1/4 c butter

Put flour in ziplock bag with salt & pepper, add stew meat and coat the meat.  Melt butter and brown meat with onions.  Add potatoes and carrots and stir.  Add beef broth, to cover the ingredients slightly.  Cook until tender.

I've decided to do a series on my favorite things, it might be things I have found for the store, or that I have kept.  It will be some of my favorite recipes, favorite shops, and anything else I might think is my favorite.  Hope you find this fun.  So I'm going to start my favorites with my 11ft harvest table that I bought almost a year ago.  We refinished our kitchen about 5 years ago, and I always said that I would find the perfect harvest table.  My husband wasn't so sure, he thought our other table was just fine.  About a year ago, one of my pickers called me and said he had some stuff for me to look at.  I went to his house, and looked at a lot of items, and there in the middle of the floor was a table that was in pieces.  I said I want that, and he thought I might be nuts, but he also saw the potential once we started talking, so I asked him if he could put it back together, he said yes, so I paid him and told him to call me.  A couple weeks later he called and said he was going to deliver the table, I said wonderful (I hadn't told my husband about this yet).  He arrived at my house and I looked outside and saw this huge long table and almost fainted.  It was unbeliveably gorgeous, but so long.  In the shed it didn't look that big, so I never asked for the length.  We put it in place and I feel instantly in love, but knew I was going to have to do a lot of talking to my husband.  My husband walked in the door and shook his head and said no way, and I told him to let me use it for my Mom's birthday brunch and our daughters baby shower and then I would get rid of it.  I knew it would grow on him and now we can't see our kitchen anyother way.  A couple months later I bought a original pie safe from one of my dealers at my store and the space is complete.   I will share a before picture of our old table and one of my beloved 11 ft harvest table.

Only 14 degrees here today, so thought it would be a good day for soup!  I love this Taco soup that I make, so I thought I would share it with you.

Taco Soup
1 lb hamburger ( I use ground turkey)
1 medium onion chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup taco seasoning (I usually just guess on this)
3 c beef broth
1 1/2 c picante sauce
1 (14 1/2 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 cup uncooked pasta ( I use farfalle)
1 small green pepper
cheddar cheese (for garnish)
tortilla chips (for garnish)
sour cream (for garnish)
In large saucepan brown ground beef with onions and garlic, drain.  Add taco seasoning stir.  Add other ingredients except cheese & chips.  Bring to boil stirring frequently.  Reduce heat, cover and simmer 10-15 minutes until pasta is done.  Ladle into bowls and top with cheese and crushed tortilla chips and also server with sour cream.  Then enjoy!

Well this is my first attempt at blogging!   I been having fun with Facebook and thought this would be my next step.  I have a store that I do a sale one weekend a month, and then we change the look of everything for the next sale.  I love everything about vintage, and home, so I thought this would be a good way to share all of my loves.  I will warn you that one of my loves is my eight month old granddaughter and you will see lots of her on here.  When people told me I would love being a grandmother and I thought  ya I know I will, but oh my how do I love being a grandma.  I love photography and take lots of pictures.  I hope to share my love of antiques, cooking and my love of home with you.