Happy 2009!

Right now I should be cleaning up from my dinner party, but due to the weather..we postponed it till tomorrow. Hope everyone will be able to make it...

The table......I usually do little Cmas trees down the middle, but Pottery Barn had this neat pine cone garland 75% off, so I layered fresh greens, baby's breath, mums, gold beads and ribbon for a New Years look. The gold bread basket have stars too...from Pier One//
The plates are Lenox eternal Christmas, gold leaves with a burgundy berry











It will be hard to get a pic of the food..ummm....excuse me while I take a pic of your plate and your food gets cold! :)

We are having soup, filet mignon, shrimp in lemon and wine sauce over rice, spinach casserole carrots, etc..

This is the table I did with the plates from Cmas tree Shop...We had stuffed shells and meatballs, memo to self, doesn't look good on a red plate! So you won't be seeing a pic of dinner...





My very best wishes for a healthy and happy 2009!

Resolutions???

So Where Have I Been?

I know good bloggers post more often, and I will try to do that in the New Year!

This is the time of year to spend some time with family, and I have been doing that...so the cuisine at Kathleen's has been little far between...

I did make some hearty Beef and Barley Soup...



And I used these Santa plates for a recreated dinner we had Sat.
I had a big piece of eye round roast left, and it became Chinese Beef and Snow Peas over rice...







Last night we had stuffed manicotti and meatballs that Mike made. My ds and dil and 4 gkids were here, so tater tots and brats were also served...they don't like Nana's cooking...prefer chips ahoy to my choc chip cookies!

I was helping my 3 y o grandson put on his shoes and I guess I wasn't fast enough...he said, "Nana, you aren't very good at this!" Add it to my list of things I need to improve...speed shoe tying...

We celebrate Christmas till the Epiphany, so I will get to do some more holiday tables...seems like I just brought all the holiday things out, so I sure don't want to put them away just yet...

Good night...

Tablescape Tuesday...

This is my first entry to Tablescape Tuesday...



Jain sent me to this great blog, so go there to see some links to tablescapes. Thank you, Susan!

My friend from a cooking forum, Marigene, gifted me with these beautiful lavender toile plates from Neiman Marcus, Toile de Maison is the name...













The tablecloth is Martha's, 90 % off after Cmas 2 yrs ago, never used it. I thought it would be a good way to use these lovely dishes at Cmas...

The star mirrors are from PBarn, 75 off, as well as the sparkle wreath in the middle, 75% off. I added fresh greens and baby's breath, and silver pine cones .
The little indiv butter domes from WSonoma outlet...

This table is full of my bargains from PB and WMSonoma too...







Everything was 75% off, so I had a great time shopping! Not so much fun finding room for all this cwaptacular stuff...:)

I bought some more goodies, and I will do a "show and don't tell my husband" post soon!

Thanks for visiting....I do appreciate it!

Snowed In Saturday...

The weather outside IS frightful...My bargains are frozen in my car...can't get the door open! I did some serious damage shopping at WSonoma and Pottery Barn Outlet...75 off all holiday, and PB at least 5o off everything in the store. I also helped out at Home Goods...they were only 25 off...but such cute things..
I try to do what I can to help the economy...:)

Some of the bags I brought in, so I tried out the Abelskiver pan I got yesterday..

I usually am a guest at breakfast, dh makes it every morning, but today I was anxious to try the pan, and I took a recipe off the net...I added chopped apples, and I put apples cooked in a bit of butter and cinnamon over the top.. They were good, and I hope to experiment with them and other uses for the pan..maybe something savory..





The pan I got at WmSonoma outlet...it makes little round ball shaped pancakes, and I guess you can fill them...I didn't get that far yet...
Place mat, reversible Christmas Tree PB..they came to 1.25 each.
I am sure at some point in the next week you will see the other side, but I like checks!

And yes, that is whipped cream on top, not a healthy bfast, well the apples are, but I had whipped cream left from the cake I made the other night to bring to a dinner party...





It was a triple layer devils food, iced with choc, then whipped cream in between each layer, and whipped cream icing...the pics on top I ordered on the net....only had to buy a gross... :) ..so I will have them a while, eternity and beyond...

Hope all of you are enjoying this holiday season..Christmas, Hanukkah, Festivus for the rest of us, or whatever you celebrate...but do celebrate!

A few scenes of the season here...

My Irish Nativity...from Galway?, Dublin? no...TJMAXX but I love the shamrocks on it..



Silent Night Music Box..



More tomorrow...good night~

Tuesday 's Table...

Another day of decorating. The dining room tree, which I said I wasn't going to put up this year, but I did ....gave me trouble.
The whole thing lit when I tested it, but when I got it up, the top was less than dazzling! So off it came and over an hour later, problem solved. It's times like that when you feel like opening the door and giving it a pitch! Pre lit...sometimes!

That meant less time to fuss with the table, but I did a simple one for our dinner.





Tonight we had chicken cutlets stuffed with some feta, chopped onion, a pat of butter, chopped spinach. Mix it all together and put it in a pounded flat cutlet, roll, dip in egg wash, then bread crumbs. Either bake or fry...I brown it in the pan and then finish in the oven..
Served it with wild rice and snow peas..





Tomorrow we are having dinner at a friend's, so the kitchen will be closed...
Maybe some baking to bring to dinner..

Hope all of you are making better progress on your holiday preps than I am!

We got a blanket of snow tonight, looks pretty with the lights...But I say NO to SNOW!

Mike's Rugelach

Every Christmas, sometimes Easter too, my husband makes a few big batches of rugelach. Rolls the dough into discs, wraps in saran, and refrigerates till the next day.
He assembles all his ingredients in little bowls, nuts, raisins, chips. cinnamon sugar, apricot, prune butter, raspberry preserves.

Each disc is rolled into a rectangle on a cutting board, approx 6"x 24" and the filling is placed all over the top,sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, then rolled.

Chill again, and then cut into about 1 1/4 " pieces. Place on baking pan and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar..
.
Bake at 350 for abt 20 min till they get a little color..don't over bake.
When cool, sprinkle with conf sugar...

He does such a good job, I will let him make them any time. I don't want to learn how! :)















If you have only had store bought, you must try these...A world of difference..

Dough
2 Cups flour
8 0z cream cheese
8 Oz butter (if you use salted, omit the salt)
pinch of salt
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon
grated lemon rind optional
Mix all ingredients in a stand mixer. Separate into discs, wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Roll out each disc place filling, and follow directions and pics above.

Wipe off all tell tale signs of conf sugar while tasting each variety...:)

Over the weekend, WFD&more had a Darling Baker event. My contribution was Butter Spritz...



And meat pies, Tourtiere, a traditional food served on Christmas Eve in Canada.



My friend at http://latabledenana.blogspot.com/, gave us her recipe...go check it out at her beautiful blog...

Dinner is Ready!

Tonight we had something I haven't made in ages ..Potato Pancakes delicious when they are hot and crisp! Belly bombers cold and soggy!
Served with roast pork, apples sauteed in apricot brandy, and broccoli...

Here they are frying...



I like them with sour cream, or apples, so we had both!







1 sm. onion.. 2 eggs.. 2 tbsp.flour 1.. tsp. salt.. 1/2 tsp. pepper.. Oil. Applesauce and/or sour cream

Peel the potatoes and grate them into a bowl..
Squeeze out the extra liquid into the sink.
Peel and grate the onion and add to potatoes.
Add the eggs,flour,salt, and pepper to the above mixture and mix very well.

Heat the oil in a skillet or electric frying pan on medium heat until it sizzles. Carefully drop the batter into the hot oil with a large cooking spoon, I used a small scoop I use for cookies..
flatten each latkes with the spoon.
When the latkes are golden brown, carefully turn them over. Fry on the other side until brown and crispy. Place latkes on plate covered with paper towels.

Try not to eat them while they drain, or you will have to grate more potatoes and start all over again...not that it would ever happen..:)

About the dishes...
They are made in France ....ooh la la...

They are called NOEL by the House of Salem...

I think I got them in 1988...my Aunt died in Nov. and she had 6 kids, the youngest being just a year older than my son. I thought it would be good for them to have Christmas dinner with us, and they agreed..
.
So there would be about 28 of us ..

I had service for 12 of my good china, so I needed to get dishes for the crowd.

I had seen this set in a store called THE COUNTY DUMP..I kid you not..

It was like an ODD LOT only odder...you never knew what you would find..
I stayed away from the dented can section, but sometimes they had some very good things.
You just had to keep looking, and when the parking lot had a lot of BMW's instead of old Chevy's like mine, you knew a new shipment of good stuff came in..once they had beautiful bedspreads etc. from the Spiegal catalog..

But I digress...

After work I went to the closest one and scooped up a few sets, then traveled another 25 mi and scored a few more...still short, went another 25 mi to get what I needed...YKW ( you know who) wasn't happy when I finally rolled in, car brimming with boxes of dishes...

So I have service for 28 minus 1 cake plate, which someone took home with cake and never returned..
So if any of my relatives are reading this, please bring it back..no questions asked...:)
Last year on a whim, I looked on ebay, and someone was selling a set still in the box...but my days of serving that many are over...so I passed..

Little Old Santa Suit...

Made with love, for her 2nd grade grandson, my mil fashioned this little suit from a pj pattern, over 25 years ago.

Being the tallest in the class ds was to be Santa is the school play..and of course, each mom was expected to sew the costume..
A shepherd I could do, some cloth sewn together and a rope, and a head cover......but a Santa???...

How was I going to do that, working , Christmas preparations...oh brother...
Grandma to the rescue!

And she came through wonderfully, plenty big enough to stuff with pillows, the 7 yr old made a stylin' Santa with his front teeth missing! She even stitched a B in the back so he would know which way to put it on!

Now he has a child in 2nd grade,
and 3 younger, so maybe they will need this costume for a school play ...

Grandma lived only 2 more years after that, but I am sure she would be pleased to see it live on...

So for all the Nanas and Grandmas out there, you are appreciated...thank you for all you do..
And for those waiting for the gkids...they are worth the wait...

BABY, IT'S COLD OUT THERE!!!

Yesterday was a frigid day, so a Pot Roast with mashed potatoes, gravy, red cabbage, carrots and corn seemed appropriate... So that's WFD..

Make Mine....a cookie...

This week was the week of the MARSHMALLOW on a wonderful blog.

As part of the Darling Bakers event, the assignment, should you decide to accept it... lol. Make Marshmallows..

To be honest, I was less than thrilled, but it's a great group of cheerleaders over there, and "everyone was doing it"! How could I not? It wasn't as bad as fish.. or liver, or heaven forbid, green bean casserole! ( and you know I am going to get some heat for not waxing ecstatic over marshmallows...)

So I rolled up my sleeves after being gone all day...(baby shower, and a quick stop at the Dollar Tree and Cmas Tree Shop on the way home) When you are driving an hour to get somewhere, you have to break it up on the way home stopping at stores you don't often get to visit!

Read over everyone's tips and experiences, dug out the candy thermometer, which I have NEVER used, and made the durn sticky, mushy globs..

Can you tell I was never excited when it became Mallomar season at the grocery? I never knew they only made them certain months...sort of like only months ending in er having oysters...I guess..

FYI from Wikipedia..

Because Mallomars melt easily in summer temperatures, they can become difficult to find during the summer: they are generally available from early October through April. [19]Devoted eaters of the cookie have been known to stock up during winter months and keep them refrigerated over the summer. Seventy percent of all Mallomars sold are sold in metropolitan New York.

According to the box, Mallomars are made in Canada by Kraft Foods. In Canada, these are known as "Dream Puffs."



Open the envelopes...(I used Martha Stewart's recipe) why doesn't it say how many Tbs are in it? Measure it, let it rest for 30 min...but no rest for me..

On to the hard boil eggs, I mean stage...get down close so I can read the temp on the thermometer, and man the sugar liquid nearly attacks me..quick pull it off...yep, it is turned down, but it is a commercial gas stove and heats up mighty quickly...the molten lava almost escaped my 38 yr old Farberware sauce pot..



Poured it into the waiting gelatin, and whipped the cwap out of them...



Fluf, fluff, fluff...is this how it should look..dh turning the TV up as 10 min of the Delongi doing it's thing is not music to his ears ...



Poured the instant sugar shock cocktail into the pan...



And waited for the messmallows to air dry...at least 12 hours or till you die, which ever comes first..:)

Dipped some in chocolate, rolled some in cocoa,





DH tried it in hot chocolate...he didn't like the snowman mug, so he dumped it in a more manly mug...Mickey Mouse, I think.. :)


Wrapped them all up in wax paper, and tomorrow they will find a new home...



Cause if I am having sugar...make mine a cookie, please??