island tablescape

I just spent several days in Punta Cana for my daughter's destination wedding.  We stayed at an all inclusive resort with several restaurants.  This tablescape for two was set up outside the entrance to one of the restaurants.  It featured a beautifully folded napkin, three forks, three knives, a soup spoon and a butter plate and knife.  The glasses were arranged in a diagonal line.  Each day this table was set differently.

Multiple knives was typical for most settings.  Sometimes the knives were identical.  Sometimes the knives were the same pattern with one slightly larger or slightly more elaborate.

These knives had an interesting curve.

This blurry picture shows the two different knives.  The outside knife was a bit longer with a slightly wider handle.  White tablecloths were typical in the restaurants.  The tables near the buffet generally had a placemat.  
 
                                   

This was the place setting for the wedding supper.  This was the only meal we had where a charger was used.. 

 

Linking up with Tablescape Thursday at BNOTP

a thrifty table

I recently became a thrift store addict.  My youngest daughter took me along when she was checking out the thrift stores looking for new pieces for her collections.  She is starting a decor rental business as a sideline to her regular job.  Something to do in her mostly non-existent spare time.  We hit both of the local shops--our small town has two--and an estate sale which was basically a garage sale.  Then she headed back to the city and our thrifting together only happened sporadically.  But my sister and/or my mom and I started going without her and now my sister is hooked too.  We have a great time digging through the local shops but also the shops in the neighboring town and even a little more distant bigger towns when we have been there.  We have even bought a few things on K-bid.

In the picture above the 'tablecloth' is a length of fabric that I brought home from Goodwill.  I spread it out on the table to see if it was a long enough piece to sew into a tablecloth.  All spread out it appears to be about 4 yards, plenty long to cover my table with some overhang on all sides, but it could also be made into placemats or even cloth napkins.It is a thin stripe, kind of a brass color and cream.  I added some dishes to see the effect. 

The glasses and silverware are pieces that I already had but the china, napkin and napkin ring are all thrifted.  The china came from Goodwill.  It is without cups and saucers, but there are 9 dinner plates, 9 salad plates, 8 bread plates and 9 fruit dishes.  It is white with silver.bands.

The napkins came from the same Goodwill.  They look to have never been used.  There is  pretty embroidery in one corner.  There were eight that matched.

The napkin rings appear to be a cut glass or crystal.  They came from one of the local stores that receives much of their stock from estate sales.  They were in what seems to be their original boxes.  Four to a box, there were three boxes, two boxes were complete but one box was missing one of the napkin rings.  The fun part of this purchase was that I happened into the store on a day when they had all of their crystal half price.

When setting up the dishes for the above picture I neglected to add a crystal salt cellar.  It was my very first purchase at that first estate/garage sale.  It was a bag of 12 and I have not used them yet since they are not the same style as my normal dishes but they will work nicely with china.

Update:

This is a second tablecloth that I bought and when I hung the two fabrics together on a hanger I noticed that the colors seem similar.  I am not one to know what patterns mix well.  Hmm.  Something to think about.

I will be linking up with the following:

Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday 

a healthy homecoming

A couple of weeks ago my mom spent some time in a hospital that was a distance from her home.  Both she and my dad have had health issues and hospitalizations recently that has inspired a healthier diet not only for them but also for some of the rest of the family.  When it looked like she was going to be going home later that day, and because of the long ride, my daughter Nikole, went ahead and stopped and got some groceries and had a healthy supper waiting for us when we got home.  She prepared a healthy version of stir fry that used a peanut sauce to replace the soy sauce that we usually use.  She also had a couple of soups on the stove that could be warmed up over the next couple days to provide more healthy meals without a lot of fuss as my folks recuperated at home.  Nikole has shared the recipes so I can post them as well.  I did not get any pictures of our supper that evening but it was great and the peanut sauce added a nice flavor to the vegetables and chicken.  No one missed the higher sodium soy sauce.  Although generally more spicy she left the heat out of the peanut sauce in deference to those who like less heat and it was great.

The two soups were full of healthy vegetables and very flavorful.  A serving of each made it home with me and so I was able to catch a photo of those before eating them.  Both were really good.  Our family did not grow up eating lemon in anything that was not a dessert so I was curious about how the lemon would be in the lemon chicken orzo soup and it was wonderful.


We also didn't grow up eating stuffed peppers so that was a fun soup as well.  In my opinion all of these recipes are keepers.

The recipe for Lemon Chicken Orzo soup is here.

The recipe for Stuffed Pepper Soup is here.

The recipe for Healthier Stir Fry with Thai Peanut Sauce is here.

Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup

Stuffed Pepper Soup

mother's day and a supper meeting

This past weekend was mother's day and we had lunch in town to celebrate with my mom.  Then a couple days later on Tuesday it was my turn to serve for a group that I belong to.  We meet once a month, 10 months of the year.  We are a small group, usually only nine or ten people and we take turns providing a meal.  This year I made an old favorite for my meeting lunch.  I have had this recipe for over 30 years.  It is sweet and sour meatballs and it is served over rice.  I have made the meatballs before and placed them in a slow cooker and cooked the rice separately.  Usually I place the rice on a large platter and top it with the meatballs but this time I borrowed my mom's new slow cooker which is shaped like a cake plan which allowed me to place the cooked rice in the bottom of the heated slow cooker and top it with the cooked meatballs/sauce and keep it warm until it is time to eat.  These meatballs are pretty easy.  The meatballs are formed and then baked in the oven and when cooked through are added to the sauce which is cooked on top of the stove in a saucepan.  The meatballs and sauce are then baked in the oven or cooked in the slow cooker to marry the flavors.  This recipe is here,

I found a colorful salad on facebook and served it along with the meatballs.  I decided to try it first on the weekend as a practice run before my meeting.  The salad is a cabbage slaw with an Asian dressing and dry roasted peanuts.  The recipe post is here.

For dessert I decided to make an assortment of homemade candy bars.  On facebook I came across this recipe for a homemade Twix bar.  I knew that there were other recipes for homemade candy bars that I had pinned previously and I decided to make homemade Payday and the homemade Butterfinger to make a trio of sweets.  I made them on the weekend and served them for both events.  The homemade twix candy bar cookies can be found here.  The recipe for the homemade butterfinger candy bars can be found here.

The recipe for the homemade payday bars is here.

Norsk baking day

For several years now my sister Lisa; her kids, Kaylee and Chase; her friend, Perry;  and I have joined my Mom and Dad at their house to make Lefse before the holidays.  My daughter, Nikole, makes lefse across the state but I don't think that we have ever made it together.  This year we decided to try a baking day that included more of our Norwegian goodies and invited all of our family members. In addition to getting some of the baking done it was also my intention to give the next generation of our family an opportunity to experience how some of our traditional goodies are made.

When we first started making lefse we did not have Grandma's recipe and we used a recipe from Caroline, a friend of my parents.  It was a recipe that used boxed mashed potatoes and it worked well.  The potatoes were cooked and mashed and then chilled overnight.  They were rolled and cooked the next day.  Last year, or maybe the year before, another friend of my parents, Ruth, shared her recipe for lefse.  It is made using warm potatoes, cooked a few at a time in multiple batches.  While warm, the potatoes are mashed and the remaining ingredients are added and hen the still warm potato dough is rolled and cooked.  We like this recipe as well but it does not lend itself to a large group lefse day.  It is the best recipe for spur of the moment lefse making as it does not require any chilling.  For our lefse day we used a recipe that is favored by my daughter Nikole.  She also prepares her dough the day before and chills it overnight.  We like this recipe too.  It was a nice dough to work with and produced a tasty lefse. Dad said that today the conversation at the truck stop that he frequents was about lefse and it seems that other lefse makers are using the warm dough recipe and method.

Lefse requires a substantial investment in equipment.  The lefse grill is a round electric griddle.  When we make lefse we use my parents grill and my sister's grill at the same time.  It takes longer to grill a lefse than to roll a lefse so one person rolling can keep up with more than one grill.  We started out with one grill and that worked great.  Adding a second grill allows us to get our lefse done in a shorter amount of time.  Nikole also owns two grills.

Rolling lefse is done on a cloth covered board.  We all own round boards with fitted cloth covers.  They work for more than just lefse so are a good investment.  I use mine all the time for rolling out cookies and the rare pie or quiche crust.  A dough that must be shaped into a rope, like kringla works well on this surface.  The lefse rolling pin is a short, large diameter wood pin with narrow grooves encircling the pin.  It is covered with a stockinette to keep the flour from collecting in the groove.  It is the perfect tool for getting a paper thin finished product.  Flat wooden lefse turners are used to transfer the rolled uncooked lefse to the grill and then to turn it over while cooking and to transfer the finished lefse to the stack.  A potato ricer is nearly essential for getting a lump free potato mixture. Ruth's recipe is here.  Caroline's recipe is here. 

Lefse is not the only traditional Norwegian goodie that requires special equipment.  We use a special iron to deep fry rosettes and a special cooker to make krumkake.  I have previously shared those recipes and they can be found here for the rosettes and here for the krumkake.

Lisa sent me her recipe for kringla and it can be found here.  She also sent Grandma Alma's recipe for peppernuts which can be found here. 

My mom and dad make donuts.  They have a restaurant fryer with a donut attachment.  Dad does the frying and mom mixes up the batter.  It is a process they have down to a science and their donuts turn out great.  The recipe is here.

the birthday party

My daughter Nikole turned 30 in May and her guy, Brad, and her sister, Caitlin, hosted a birthday party in her honor.  It was a fun party lots of food and drink on their beautiful deck and patio.  To say that their was tons of food would be an understatement.  Caitlin and Brad arranged for lots of food and then everyone that came brought a dish to share as well.  I will share as many recipes as I can collect.

But first a couple of pictures of her birthday flowers.

 Flowers and cupcakes...

 The birthday cupcake...

Caitlin made the cupcakes, complete with homemade lemon curd and fresh raspberries.

A few pictures of guests...

Honey, Nikole and Brad's dog

Mars, Brad's parents, Bobbi and Jeff's dog

Greta, Nathan and Michelle's foster dog. 

 Nathan and Michelle's other dog, Reese did not make the photos.  Nikole and Brad's friends all have dogs and usually when there is a gathering they all come along.  Their back yard is fenced and all of the dogs are off leash and all get along.  It adds a fun aspect to a party.

Nikole's lilacs from the yard.

Some of the food...

One of Nikole's favorite appetizer is a pickle, spread with softened cream cheese and wrapped with dried beef and cut into slices.  This dip, made by Caitlin has the same combination of flavors but is a dip for crackers.  It was very good. 

 We made these Sausage Feta Skewers.  These were one of the recipes I trialed for this party at the appetizers only buffet.  They are quick and easy, the sausage that we chose was fully cooked so there was no cooking necessary.  Slicing the cheese and the sausages was the only prep work and then it was just to put them together on a skewer.

 These were skewers of cantaloupe wrapped in prosciutto.  It is a common menu item in Italy.  There is just something about the combination of flavors that is so good. There is not a separate recipe for these, just two ingredients. 

 This was the marinated cheese, another recipe from the appetizer only party earlier in the month.  Can be done early in the day.  The Italian dressing adds an added dimension to the cheese. 

 Robb brought Cowboy Caviar.  It was made my Traci, Robb's mom and she shared her recipe.  It was really good, lots of fresh ingredients.

Colleen and Tom brought a broccoli salad that was very good.  I didn't get a picture but I did get the recipe from Colleen after the party.

We made Lisa's sweet corn mac and cheese that had been a hit at the grad party for Kaylee and it went over well here as well.  

All but the last photo were taken by Caitlin and shared with me for this post.  Thank you Cait.

Links to the recipes are here:

Cowboy Caviar 

Broccoli Salad

Marinated Cheeses 

Sausage Feta Skewers 

Sweet Corn Mac and Cheese

the grad party

My sister Lisa has a daughter who graduated from high school this spring so a grad party was in order.  In preparing  for the upcoming party Lisa wanted the food choices to be Kaylee's favorite foods.  They selected a color theme early.  Kaylee wanted to have colors other than the school colors so Lisa started amassing a collection of things that she found in the chosen colors of orange and teal.  They spent a good part of the winter trialing macaroni and cheese recipes and hamburger recipes and green bean recipes until they found (or perfected) the ones that would be served.

Lisa did some things that were pretty unique and were very successful and I will try to share them here.


Lisa served the food in her garage.  In addition to the tables on which the food was served she had two long tables and a pub table for guests to sit at in the garage and had overflow seating on the patio that was in the backyard.  For those that might be wondering about serving guests in a garage, it is not that unusual in our Midwestern area  and Lisa's garage is not your ordinary garage.  She has been hard at work remodeling.  She has sheetrocked the walls and installed beadboard topped with a narrow ledge made from layered moldings.  The ledge holds her collection of metal signs.  She has fun light fixtures and a sophisticated paint color scheme. 

Serving in the garage freed up the kitchen for food preparation and provided a place for her kitchen helpers, her two best friends, and assorted family members to refill the trays and provide the freshly cooked food items on her menu.  One of her friends, Trudy, was the designated panini maker.  Another friend, Judy, baked the batches of beans, assembled the macaroni and cheese ingredients in the crock pots, and made the punches.  The rest of us, my girls and I and other helpers that popped in to help, assembled the vegetable shooters, placed the cupcakes in the decorative wrappers  and made trips from the kitchen to the garage replenishing serving dishes that were in need of refilling.

The decorations

Lisa and Kaylee chose orange and teal for their color scheme.  Lisa picked up orange and teal paper plates and plastic flatware.  She chose burlap in varying widths and colors and vases and other containers and silk flowers.  She handed the girls a box and the they were able to choose from her collection to decorate the tables.  In the last minute chaos excitement that goes along with a party I did not take any photos.  I am sharing those taken by others (thank you, Cait).

White tablecloth, wide burlap runner topped with narrow orange chevron striped runner, blue vase and orange flowers

 White tablecloth, wide burlap runner topped with narrow teal runner and orange candle.  Lisa tied orange and teal jute around the salt and pepper shakers that were on the tables.  Kaylee's name and graduation year were cut with the cricut from the excess paper used to make the cupcake wrappers and were scattered on the runners. 

This was the tail end of the serving table.  Orange glazed flower pots hold the flatware.  Placing the flatware at the end of the line allows guests to not have to hold on to the flatware while assembling their plate.  Another narrow burlap runner in blue and orange is on this serving table.  Kaylee's artwork was displayed throughout the room.  The colored pencil drawing in the above photo was drawn by Kaylee from a photo of Kaylee with her camera taken by a friend.  The photo was inspiration for this self-portrait.   The square teal plates in the photo above and below hold coated Oreo cookies.  Lisa purchased molds made for this purpose.  The mold holds a layer of the melted almond bark coating, the cookie is placed in the mold and more coating is placed on top.  Once the coating sets the cookies are popped out of the mold.

 Here is another angle of this serving table.  One of Lisa's teal serving trays holds the cupcakes with their paper wrappers and orange and blue decorated tops.  Kaylee wanted cupcakes instead of a decorated sheet cake and Lisa served a combination of purchased cupcakes and those that she baked and decorated.  These were the purchased cupcakes.  

 These were the some of the cupcakes that Lisa baked and decorated, topped with miniature candies and nuts on their frosting.  I shared a picture of Manny watching the cricut in action as I made the cupcake wrappers here.


The serving table

Lisa used a buffet server that belongs to our mother.  It plugs in and has three covered pans that keep food warm.  My mom purchased two of them several years ago and we used the pans from the second one to swap out with the first ones and it worked great.  Refilling the empty pans was as easy as removing one and replacing it with another.  It was quick and provided little interruption for the people line filling their plates.  She served the beans and the panini sandwiches from the buffet server.  She also used crock pots for the macaroni and cheese, the soup, and the sliders.  

She served relishes in disposable shot glasses that were purchased at the same party place as the paper plates and flatware.  

 She served the fruit salad in clear drink cups.  Having these two food items already dished into individual servings made it simple for guests to grab a cup and go.  Trays held the cups and were easily refilled or swapped out.  Having a limited supply on the table meant we did not have to find a way to keep these dishes chilled over the course of the open house.  New cups were filled with chilled ingredients from her refrigerator as needed.

Lisa had a small chalkboard menu at the beginning of her serving table.  It gave guests a list of what foods they would find as they moved through the line.

Near each item on the serving table was a small chalkboard easel identifying each item.

We were able to purchase a chalk marker in a bright orange to match her color theme. 

The food

Lisa served foods that were Kaylee's favorites.  The hot foods included a wonderful macaroni and cheese that contained both whole kernel and cream style corn.  She roasted fresh green beans in a Tuscan basil infused olive oil and topped them with freshly grated Parmesan cheese which were delicious.  She served terrific small grilled cheese sandwiches that were made on the panini press and served with a San Marzano tomato sauce for dipping.  The other sandwich, also very tasty, was a small hamburger slider, nicknamed hambies, in the same San Marzano sauce.  I contributed a crock pot of a savory butternut squash soup which was served with croutons.  The cold foods were a mixed fruit salad in strawberry yogurt and the veggie shooters.  The sweets were the cupcakes and the Oreo cookies. 

Beverages included coffee and three punches.  Lisa has three glass dispensers with spigots that she used for her punches and each held a different punch.  The dispensers could be carried to the kitchen for refilling leaving the other two in place so there was always  at least two choices available for guests with no waiting and the guest served themselves so there was no need for someone tasked with filling the punch cups as guests moved through the line.  Our party store sells small children's toys to fill gift bags and while moving through that aisle we noticed two sized of mini frisbees in her exact orange color.  We purchased several of both sizes and the larger ones when placed upside down near each food item were used as spoon rests to hold the serving spoon.  The smaller ones were used in a similar fashion to catch drips under the beverage spigots. 

A funny story about the punch

Lisa had three different punch recipes planned and all of the ingredients were stacked together.  At the time of the start of the party the actual recipes were not with the ingredients.  Lisa's friend, Judy, mixed and matched the assembled ingredients in various combinations.  Each batch was different.  All were good but there are no recipes to share. 

A funny story about the green beans

Mom and Dad helped with prepping the fruit, relishes and green beans.  Life goes on even though you have a grad party to pull together. I know that at least some of the beans were prepped while sitting in their vehicle at a baseball game watching Kaylee's brother, Chase, play baseball.

 The menu

Clicking on each item will take you to the recipe.

Menu

Sweet Corn Mac and Cheese

Savory Butternut Squash Soup 

Roasted Parmesan Green Beans

Hambies with Red Sauce

Panini Grilled Cheese with Red Dipping Sauce

Veggie Shooters 

Fruit and Yogurt Salad