If I Ever Own A Castle...

It was a lovely day in Belgium to go out Antique shopping with friends, so of course, who am I to refuse such an opportunity? Off we went. I love this place. Each time I go, they have new and wonderful items to examine, as well as some old friends who are simply biding their time until they find their new home. This table falls into the second category. It's been there since my first visit. It's quite possible that there isn't much call for a dining room table that seats 22 people. I have no idea why. This is #1 on my "If I Ever Own A Castle" shopping list. The first thing I'll do is pick this baby up. Just think of the dinner parties! (I imagine that if I can afford the castle, surely I can afford a cook as well. If not, I'll just bug Erika until she folds and bakes me all sorts of her Pampered Chef goodies.) This beauty is on the list, too. I love all of the intricate carvings on it. I didn't even glance at the price tag. After all, if you own a castle, you don't have to ask. I'm just saying...I don't know where these beauties will fit in the castle, but I'll take them just the same. Again, the attention to detail is amazing. Oh, well. Until I get my castle, I will just get items that fit in here. I've been on the prowl for a coat rack for the entry way since I moved in, and today...score! It's wooden, so it doesn't weight nearly as much as the metal ones, and it's in excellent shape.
This item is one that I've been eyeing since I first started going to this store. It's an old tiered bread board stand. I can't believe it was still there! We'll call it fate. Thanks to my enablers (Erika, Melissa and Denise), it found it's way into my van today and is now relaxing in a quiet corner of the dining room. I'm sure it will be very happy there.

In case you were wondering about the trog that I picked up the last time, here it is in all of it's Christmas finery. Russ calls it the holiday trough. I had pumpkins in it for Thanksgiving, and now it is all decked out for Christmas. We'll call it a new tradition. I'm sure the animals won't mind.

Speculoos Cookie Molds And Mooooore

I have been bad once again. I haven't blogged anything for about a week. In my defense, the hubby was away on a TDY and I just didn't get out and take pictures of things like I normally do. Well, I did take pictures of a few things, but The Teenager doesn't want pictures of her playing volleyball and sweating making the rounds on the Internet, so I was banned from blogging about that. (Now the picture that created in your mind was SOOOO much worse than the actual pictures I took, and that will be my revenge against The Teenager! I'm just saying.) To make up for my bad blogging behavior, I forced myself to get out today and go to the antique shop. I didn't want to, mind you, but I knew that you wouldn't be happy unless I had something to blog about. I drug Denise with me this time (I'm sure her husband will thank me for that) and we found lots of lovely goodies to entertain ourselves with. I did have something specific that I wanted to buy, though, and I am very proud to say that I stuck with it. I picked up three Speculoos cookie molds.

Speculoos cookies have been referred to as either spice cookies or ginger biscuits. They taste kind of like graham crackers, with a hint of gingerbread thrown in for good measure. You can buy them at the local bakeries and grocery stores, and they are delicious. They are traditionally made around Christmas time, and the dough is pressed into cookies in these hand carved wooden forms. They also have a Speculoos paste that is really yummy! It looks like peanut butter, but is much sweeter. It tastes more like caramel, and spread on the Speculoos cookies...mmmmmmm! For another treat, follow Brandon's advice and try the Speculoos ice cream. That's the only type of ice cream he wants to eat now, and they serve it up at freshly made at Leonidas in Peer. Anyway, back to the important business of shopping. These molds were on my wish list, and they will look quite nice hanging on my kitchen wall. As I was checking out the molds, this beauty caught my eye. I'd seen them before and always loved them, so today I decided that this one was coming home with me. It's a beautiful, hand carved wood bowl called a trog. I had some ideas about what it was used for, and my number one guess was something that they put bread dough in to rise. Baked goods are very popular in this country. Google translator was soon to send this idea crashing to the ground.

Farm animals are also very popular in Belgium. The word trog is Dutch for trough. So now, I will be decorating my house with something that was once used to slop the hogs or feed the cows. Somehow, it seems to work. This way, when someone asks my kids if they were raised in a barn, they can say with all confidence, "My Mom is working on it!"

Note to hubby: If you happen to read this entry, they had this pair of lovely chairs at the shop as well. If you were to happen to drive by there in some large vehicle, and they happened to find themselves in the back of said vehicle, I wouldn't have a problem with that. I'm just saying.