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Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

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The rose is my beautiful birthday rose from my Dad. I’m a very bratty daughter and wouldn’t let him stop sending them even after I got married and got old. 🙂 I literally send him flower store information and where I will be on my birthday about a week before. 🙂

He started the tradition when I was seven, sick with the flu, and couldn’t be close to my new baby brother. Even though it was Easter, it was a terrible birthday, but the flower helped. So obviously, it can’t stop. I enjoy getting them and my work ladies were very impressed. It’s stayed good for a long time. This was yesterday and my birthday was over a week ago!

This post isn’t all a birthday recap though, it’s about food! For familiar recipes this week we had spaghetti and the Husband had Asian marinated pork. I’m making lasagna for tonight with fresh parm and fresh mozzarella.

A new recipe was English Muffin Bread from The New Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. 

It makes very good toast. I’ve made rye bread for the Husband before too. He likes toast in the morning. He liked this one, but I’ll have to make more rye for him to compare. It’s been a while.

I also made yogurt again. Last time, it was a terrible failure and I have no idea why. I used part half and half, but that should have made it thicker. This time, I followed the recipe and it turned out just fine.

This is it with cherries and granola at work. Mmmm…

I also made a really good chicken stir fry from the Food Network Magazine, March 2018, V 11, N 2. It was Stir-fried Udon with Chicken and Vegetables.

I don’t know if I’ve had udon noodles before. They are a thicker wheat based noodle. They soaked up the sauce nicely though and tasted delicious. The Husband was very impressed and said we could have it anytime. I subbed pretty much all the veggies. We had broccoli, mushrooms, garlic, onions, bok choy, and carrots. It  was tasty.

We finally had a movie night again and watched “Coco” with some of our friends. It was a terrific movie, making me cry, as Pixar does. We had pizza with the movie and made out own personal pizzas.

I made a white sauce from this recipe from Bon Appetite: https://www.bonappetit.com/story/white-pizza-sauce-recipe-joe-beddia

I didn’t listen and tried to cook it and it eventually worked itself out, but do yourself a solid and actually follow this recipe… Then you won’t panic in front of guests because your sauce isn’t working. 🙄

I didn’t get a picture of the topping buffet, but we had mushrooms, ham, pepperoni, onions, garlic, sautéed Swiss chard, red and yellow peppers, and chicken sausage. We also had the traditional red sauce. I made my pizza with the chard, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and sausage. It was delicious!

It worked out perfectly. We had six people and three pans are all that can fit in the oven. Kayla brought a birthday chocolate cheesecake and it was delicious as usual. Also, as usual, everyone laughed at me when I started cataloging additional foods in case the pizza wasn’t enough…

I used The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for the pizza dough, but tripled it, as the one that came up was for one pizza. We had one portion of dough left over that I made into a pizza the next day.

In other news, Fancy is being a terrible brat at the moment. I know many of you won’t believe that, but it’s true.

She really wants the lasagna and someone to play with her. She seems to like it best when we are both in the same room so she can keep an eye on both of us. She also gets concerned when I do yoga. I think she thinks I might be dying when I’m laying down. Then when I do child’s pose, she gets all excited thinking I’m play bowing. She also tries to lick my face and sit on my head. Here’s a cute picture of her guarding me while I stretched.

I’d better go give her some attention and spare the Husband. Silly goof.

I hope your weekend is full of fun and goofy moments!

Scandinavian Support Groups
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Scandinavian Support Groups

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This was how my weekend went. On Friday I had a conference which took all day, followed by a Trader Joe’s trip (No, Dad, I didn’t see the chili lime spice.) Then frantic cleaning, because I have been sick all week and the last thing I wanted to do was tidy the house.

Saturday, I had my monthly staff meeting, followed by more frantic cleaning to get ready for the fondue party. The Husband and I had the following conversation as I was staring at my list of fondue dippers, 2 hours before the ladies were due to arrive.

Me: “I have strawberries, pretzels, apples, graham crackers, and croissants for the chocolate. Do you think I need a pound cake? I could make a pound cake.”

The Husband: Laughs hysterically before saying “I don’t think you need a pound cake.” 🙂

This then led to a discussion of whether or not a support group for Scandinavian people attempting to rein in the concern for having enough food at gatherings would be productive or not. We decided it would probably just devolve into the members just trying to outdo each other in baking skills. 😄

I called my Mom to check on the group idea and got my Dad, as my Mom had just gone off to her church lady meeting, carrying no less than four items for the potluck. I think I’m probably doomed…. Later she called me back to suggest I was remiss in my hosting duties for having no pickle tray and no pound cake. I love my family… 

The fondue party was fun and I completely forgot to take pictures. We watched a couple of chick flicks and ate just about all of the fondue. We had cheese and chocolate fondue. I’ll give you the recipes for both.

Chocolate Fondue– by Linnea Sieh

Ingredients: cream, semi-sweet chocolate chips, bittersweet chocolate, chocolate/orange/kalhua liquor. (I used Godiva chocolate liquor.)

Heat your fondue pot, add 3/4 cup cream and let it bubble. Add about a cup of the semi sweet chocolate and a cup of the bittersweet chocolate. Let it melt and stir it in. Add more cream or chocolate until it is dippable consistency.

Wisconsin Trio Fondue – from Dip Into Something Different from The Melting Pot. (I based mine on this, I didn’t really follow it.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups shredded Butterkase

1 1/2 cups Fontina

3 T flour

3/4 cup white wine

1/4 cup dry sherry

2 tsp chopped shallots

1 tsp ground pepper

1/4 cup Blue cheese

2 T chopped scallions

Directions:

Toss the Butterkase and Fontina cheeses with the flour. Using a double boiler (or bowl and pan) bring water to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and pour in wine and sherry. Stir in shallots using a fork. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring consistently. Add half of cheese blend and cook until cheese is melted, stirring constantly. Add remaining cheese slowly, stirring in a circular motion after each addition until cheese is melted. Fold in pepper and Blue cheese. Pou into a fondue pot and keep warm. Garnish with scallions.

Modifications: Subbed a chedder/Gruyere blend for the butterkase. Subbed more Fontina for Blue cheese. Used onions instead of shallots. Omitted scallions by accident.

It turned out very good. I apologize for the lack of pictures. We were too busy eating it.

We ate less fancy foods during the week. The Husband and I were still a sick at the beginning of the week, so we had a couple of soups and a crockpot beef meal. I received my Pampered Chef order, so two of the recipes involved things from the box.

We had Scotch Broth, from my recipe.

It was delicious, as usual.

I had bought a Carnitas spice rub blend from Pampered Chef, so I threw that on a flank steak along with some peppers, onions, and about a half cup chicken broth in the crockpot and let it cook for 10 hours. We had it in tortillas.

It was delicious! We might have the rest of the meat as nachos.

I’m trying to be better about repurposing leftovers instead of wasting them, so I used some of the jerk chicken to make this soup, Chicken ‘N Gnocchi Soup from 29 Minutes to Dinner- The Pampered Chef. 

I left out the sage, as I thought it might not play well with the seasonings, but it was definitely tasty. I couldn’t stop sneaking crispy gnocchi out of the skillet though while the soup was cooking.

The Husband really liked it and kept telling me that we could definitely have it again.  You’ll be seeing this cookbook a bit more too. It has delicious sounding recipes like Oven-Fried Chicken with Waffle Sticks, Asian BBQ Chicken Drumsticks, Savory Shrimp Rolls, Middle Eastern Beef Pops, and Japanese Steakhouse Pork Chops. 

I’m going to write my monthly review post early, as we will be on vacation during the normal time. I need to get some more sewing done too. I have a bag that I want to finish for the trip and a dress to make for the wedding that we are attending. Hopefully you’ll see some updates on Tuesday’s sewing post!

Chinese New Year Party Post
Party Posts

Chinese New Year Party Post

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We had a lovely smaller Chinese New Year party this year. This party we tend to keep to around 6-8 people. It gets too crazy otherwise. I’m still occasionally weird about asking people to make or bring foods.

Fancy even got into the spirit, since it’s the Year of the Dog. I made her a little bow for her party harness. This picture was taken after the party. She was so sleepy!

Fancy got some beef scraps and a large amount of carrots. She my have even gotten her pets and belly rubs quota filled, although she would tell you otherwise.

I made a pretty table runner for us, but forgot to take a picture of the table. It currently is waiting to be washed, as it got some cheesecake on it. Whoops! You can see a little of it in the featured picture.

We completely forgot to give out red packets! Traditionally they contain money, but we filled them with other things as well. I may mail them out, or just use it as an excuse to go see people again. 🙂

Now, on to the food!

We had a beef hotpot for the main. We had a bunch of veggies out and then cooked the meat in the broth. I added keffir lime leaves, lemon grass, garlic powder, white pepper, and soy sauce to chicken broth. The meat was marinated with sesame oil, soy sauce, and sherry.

I was told by a reliable source that cheesecake is a perfectly acceptable dessert, if you don’t want to make traditional dishes, so I ran with it. I made a blood orange cheesecake with a blood orange caramel sauce. I also attempted to candy blood orange slices, but it didn’t go as well as planned. I think my water/sugar ratio was off. The recipe is from New River Groves. http://newrivergroves.com/orange-cheesecake-recipe

I have one bone to pick with this recipe. It had me cook it in a water bath and then immediately put it in the fridge to cool. It wasn’t supposed to crack, but take a look….

This was maybe an hour after putting it in the fridge! I was incredibly upset and annoyed. The Husband was probably shocked at the unladylike language that was issuing from the kitchen. I covered up the crack with orange slices and poured caramel over it and it still tasted good. I would recommend leaving it to cool in the oven for at least an hour before pulling it. That’s what I’ve done in the past.

I used the Chicken and Shrimp Jaozi from the Dumplings book from the kit we got for Christmas. We ate the dumplings too fast for me to remember a picture. Here is a picture of when you forget that the flames from a gas stove may, in fact, catch things on fire…

We’ll stick to using our rice cooker as a steamer thank you! The dumplings were delicious though and we have a bunch of them in the freezer. I was originally concerned that they wouldn’t be as flavorful as I would want them to be, but it turned out the recipe was right!

I was brave and made spring rolls! We made them veggie, as the recipe called for pork, but I wanted to be able to eat them. They were  little dark, but were still good. These were from The Food Of China by Deh-Ta Hsiung and Nina Simonds. 

We also used the same book to make char sui bao, or barbecued steamed buns. We had pork and chicken. These are the chicken buns.

I had help putting them together and we marked the pork ones with red food coloring. Technically, that would mean they were sweet in a restaurant, bur my other choice was blue and that would be weird…The pork ones were gone in a flash! I ate the rest of the chicken buns yesterday. They were delicious!

To make the pork for it, I combined soy sauce, char sui bbq sauce, white pepper, and garlic powder. I poured it over 4 pork loin chops and turned them until they were coated and then baked them at 350 for maybe half an hour? Then I chopped them up very small and stuck the pieces back in the cooking dish.

I used this recipe for the chicken buns: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/steamed-chinese-five-spice-chicken-buns/0a40c00f-7750-4e31-935a-c5bd156f44b7

Mmm… they were good!

So I had a request to share the steamed bun dough recipe as well. It’s kind of a weird dough. It raises for 3 hours and you knead baking powder into it right before you form them, which activates and make it very fluffy. I used The Food of China’s basic yeast dough. I will write it out, as I’m not sure where to find the book. No copyright infringement intended.

“Ingredients:

3 T sugar

1 C warm water

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

3 1/4 C flour

2 T oil- I used half canola/ half sesame

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

“Makes 1 quantity” – roughly 24 small, 12 large

Method:

Dissolve the sugar in the water, then add the yeast. Stir lightly, then set aside for 10 minutes, or until foamy.

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the yeast mixture and the oil. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients into a rough dough. Turn the mixture out unto a lightly floured surface, and knead for 8-10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it is very sticky, knead in a little more flour-the dough should be soft. Lightly grease a bowl with the oil. Place dough in the bowl and turn it so that all the sides of the dough are coated. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside to rise in a draft-free place for 3 hours.

Uncover the dough, punch it down, and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. If you are not using the dough right away, cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

When you are ready to use the dough, flatten it and make a well in the center. Place the baking powder in the well and gather up the edges to enclose the baking powder. Pinch the edges together to seal. Lightly knead the dough for several minutes to evenly incorporate the baking powder, which will activate immediately.

Use the prepared dough as directed.”

So if you follow it, you too can have delicious fresh bao! Let me know how it works if you try it! Happy Lunar New Year!

Party Post and Recipe Catch Up
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Party Post and Recipe Catch Up

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I realized I never shared the party post! And I have a lot of recipe catching up to do! I’ll start with the Epiphany party, because that’s much more fun. 🙂

I made way too much food as usual, and people kept getting th cold or flu that was running around, so it was a smaller party this year. The Husband’s Grandma and some of the other family came though, so that was fun. Fancy got to see her favorite uncle who buys her fun toys. 🙂

Fancy did very well at the Epiphany party. We kept her on leash and in her party harness, so she seemed to be a bit calmer. We had several friends who were comfortable holding the leash for us too, so we could actually talk to people. She had one incident of guarding/biting a box, but she did give it up when the Husband got out a beef chew for her. She was very sleepy that night and the next day.

New recipes included two gluten free/dairy free cookies, one of which was Keto friendly. We also had pigs in blankets with homemade crescent dough, because I couldn’t help myself.

I mean, I could have used the crescent roll dough in a tube, but that doesn’t taste nearly as good.

The smaller ones are gluten free almond flour chocolate chip cookies from off of the Trader Joe’s almond flour bag. The butter was switched out for margarine.

The other ones are Keto friendly snickerdoodles from I Breathe, I’m Hungry. https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/low-carb-snickerdoodles-keto-gluten-free/

They were both pretty good. They ended up being soft, due to the almond flour. I’m not the biggest fan of artificial sugar, so I borrowed some from my friend Kayla.

She was lovely enough to come help the Husband and I food prep for the party and it worked out well to have help. Something hilarious happened though that kind of made the kitchen look like the Mayhem commercials happened…

This would be what happens when you hit the mixer switch to the highest setting by accident and have just put about a pound of powdered sugar in the mixer… After the initial shock, Kayla laughed too and I’m pretty sure she was the one to remind me to take a picture for the blog. 🙂 I had removed a few things from the counter  before taking the picture, I think, the spatula and a measuring cup. It was a mess. We got it all sorted though.

I made peppermint bark from the December Food Network Peppermint Insert, but completely forgot to serve it! We had plenty of other sweets. 

I had frozen the other honey sugar cookie dough, so those were made into sweater bears. The Husband likes bears in sweaters, ever since I bought a tin with a bear in a sweater holding a tree a few years ago.

We also had regular chocolate chip cookies, Berliner Kranzer, peanut butter balls, and the peppermint sugar cookies.

Other savory options were crab dip, a cheese and sausage tray, chicken salad, and the traditional rulle.

Also, a veggie tray and pickle tray. The Husband brought home some fancy popcorn and sugar cookies, so we had those too. It was lovely. We have been happily munching on the leftovers.

So that’s the party part of the post. On to the regular recipes!

I think I mentioned we got an Instant Pot and maybe the fact that I was a little terrified of using it…

It wasn’t as scary after I let the steam out the first time. I made a tomato, hamburger, and pasta soup.

https://www.skinnytaste.com/beef-tomato-and-acini-di-pepe-soup/

It needed more seasoning and I already added more than what the recipe called for. It was good enough to add to the recipe bank though.

I also tried two recipes from the Gordon Ramsey’s In The Heat Of The Kitchen cookbook. Homemade pasta and Tagliatelle with Mushrooms, with the homemade pasta. Technically this is fettuccini, but it worked.

We had the mushroom dish with steaks on New Year’s Day.

The pasta was delicious. I thought it was one of the better batches that I’ve made. It was silky and smooth. The dough was drier than previous dough and I think it made it less prone to sticking together.

Fancy was very determined to share our dinner.

I have made two recipes from the 2018 January/February Food Network Magazine already.

It has 12 muffin recipes! I used the Lemon Zucchini muffin one, but switched out the lemon to orange. I had the latter, but not the former.

Mmmm… they were delicious! I will happily make them again.

We had the Chili Shrimp from the stir-fry insert tonight and it was also good.

The last couple weeks have been a blur, so I’m sure there are ones I’m missing. I’ll post them when I remember them.

Have a wonderful weekend! My back is acting up again, so I may not be able to do much, but can maybe get some meal planning done. There are more Instant Pot recipes to be explored!

“What about Second Breakfast?!”- Elevensies Party Post
Party Posts

“What about Second Breakfast?!”- Elevensies Party Post

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Whew! I need a nap. We had our Elevensies party yesterday and it went well. We need a few more comfy chairs though when we do movie parties.

I used a bunch of new recipes and had almost everything made by Saturday. We started at 11 AM and the last movie finished at around 9:30 or so. By that time, it was just the Husband and I, which was fine. Fancy was absolutely exhausted and kept whining at me until I let her have her round chair again. It was in front of the fireplace, which is very hobbit looking. Here is her at the end of the night.

Yes, that is her foot in her mouth. What a doll! She did pretty well, although we still had to leash her to keep her off the table.

I made sure to take a picture of all the different meals. The only one I don’t have a picture of is Supper at 8. No one was hungry! I can’t imagine why! 🙂

Here is Elenvensies.

We had brunch type foods. The chocolate banana muffins were a hit. We also had the Quiche Lorraine again, nissu, jams, and berries with cream.

Luncheon was at 1 pm.

We had sandwiches, salad, pickles, and chocolate chip cookies, and lemonade. Kayla brought the salad and fixings and a peanut butter cheesecake, which I have no pictures of. It was all delicious.

Afternoon tea was at 3:30.

We had tea sandwiches, which Kayla helped me make, cream and berries, cinnamon sugar scones, lemon bread, madeleines, Lembas shortbread, and jams. Tea, of course, was served as well.

This meal was where I used the most new recipes. I would eat afternoon tea all the time, if I could.

I used two of my tea cookbooks and a Pioneer Woman recipe for the scones. http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/sweet-cinnamon-scones/

I didn’t add cinnamon chips because I don’t like them, or have them on hand. I also just sprinkled the top with cinnamon and sugar, not the called for topping. They were so yummy!

We had no lemon curd for the tea. I had a momentary panic on Saturday night, but decided it would be okay and it was. 🙂

I used a cookbook called The Charms of Tea by Hearst Books, for the tea sandwiches, madeleines, and lemon bread. The lemon bread is on the left, nissu on the right.

We had ham and watercress and cucumber sandwiches.

Taking Tea by Andrea Israel with recipes by Pamela Mitchell provided the recipes for the shortbread and seed cake.

These two cookbooks are cool because they have information on all sorts of teas and tea ceremonies around the world.  It’s really fun just to read all the information.

Dinner (6 pm) was not a large affair. We had potato chowder with bacon and cheese for toppings. I served from the kitchen, so no elaborate table. This recipe was from Taste of Home: The New Slow Cooker. 

Supper (8 pm) was going to be leftovers and seed cake, but no one was hungry. I have a whole seed cake for craft night tomorrow. 🙂 I have it wrapped up, so no pictures.

We all decided that we couldn’t eat like hobbits all the time! We were all stuffed. It was a ton of fun.

Next year we might have a Harry Potter marathon. There’s a lot of food in those movies too.

Now though, I have to go back to reality and head out to work. Have a wonderfully cozy day!

Recipe Roundup and Party Preview
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup and Party Preview

LSiehLeave a comment

Mom sent me these tiny spoons and forks because they “looked hobbit sized.”  I think they are adorable and of course, we will use them tomorrow. 🙂 She also sent us Halloween candy that was dressed as a Chinese takeout box. I love her! It’s also very clear where I get my sense of whimsy from. 🙂

I made lots of new recipes for the party, but will post them on Monday, after we’ve eaten them all. Luckily, my cold is pretty much all gone, except for some residual congestion and a wicked cough that sets off asthma attacks. We didn’t have to cancel though, which I was concerned about. The Husband made this Ferris wheel for our centerpiece. Also, it won’t fit anywhere else…

I did make three new recipes for this week’s recipe review. One was from the Sweeney freezer book , one was a made up recipe, and one was from Our Best Bites.

The first one, a banana muffin recipe was for my staff meeting today. We were celebrating birthdays and I volunteered to bake. I had four bananas needing to be used up, so it was perfect.

1- Skinny Chocolate Fudge Banana Muffins from Our Best Bites. https://ourbestbites.com/2016/01/skinny-banana-fudge-muffins/

These may be the absolute best chocolate muffins I have ever had. No joke, these are so unbelievably delicious. The recipe calls for applesauce instead of oil and a sugar substitute. I used real sugar and homemade applesauce. They are so soft and moist. The chocolate is a very deep chocolate flavor and they tasted ridiculously decadent. I will be making these whenever I have bananas. The Husband doesn’t like bananas, so I got to eat them myself.  They were a bonus recipe for the party too!

2- Stir Fried Noodles with Ginger Scallion Chicken Sausage ( Adele brand maybe?), recipe by me!

So I glanced at the recipe on the package for sesame noodles, but the sauce was sherry, soy sauce and extra salt and that’s just not right. I used a little bit of hoisin, soy sauce, sesame oil, sweet chili sauce, sherry, and a tiny bit of sugar to balance it. The sausage was extremely flavorful. We had broccoli, red pepper, carrots, mushrooms, onions, and bok choy for the veggies. The Husband actually suggested bok choy! He likes it in things, but we think not just by itself.

It turned out very good. Sometimes I have trouble with stir fry sauces, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.  I did actually use chopsticks until my hand started cramping. I have to practice for when we see the other side of the Husband’s family. 🙂

3- Carrot Beef Barley Stew from Freezer Meals by Juliana Sweeney. 

This worked out well. I was sick, so I just threw everything in the crockpot and let it go. The beef was so tender and delicious! I halved the amount of barley, as the Husband doesn’t like the texture and it got soft enough that he didn’t mind it at all. I forgot to take a picture of it until I was halfway through my last bowl of it.

We’ll have this again. It was a quick one to prep and froze well.

Fancy is very excited currently, she knows something is up, but not what yet. She saw me put together a frozen Kong toy for during the party and we cleaned everything! With it changing to colder weather, so has been liking walks, but then wanting to cuddle in her blankie when we get home.

Here’s her at the park. There were multiple squirrels!

And here’s a picture of her about 20 minutes after getting home.

She hasn’t figured out how to wrap herself up yet, so she’ll curl up on the blanket in the smallest ball possible and then burrow in if you put the edges over her.

Speaking of curling up, I should go finish up the last of the things before going to bed. If you have a minute between 11 am and 9 pm tomorrow, feel free to join the Husband and I (even just in spirit) in being a hobbit! Tea’s at 3!

A Ladies’ Tea
Party Posts

A Ladies’ Tea

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The Husband doesn’t go on trips by himself often, so when he does, I try to do something fun and girly. This weekend, I had a few friends over to make our own tea blends.

We had green and black teas as a base and I went crazy on the mix ins, so we had a ton of things to try. I have a lot left over, so I think my tea drinker friends will be getting some homemade tea blends in Christmas boxes.

Oddly, I found a lot of the fancy mixers at Marshalls. I had gone in on a whim and came out with dried hibiscus flowers, dried apricots, cacao nibs, and organic unsweetened shredded coconut.

I also found more dog treats than Fancy could ever eat, but was restrained and only came out with two bags. I have a problem wanting to spoil her to make her forget about her life as a rescue dog. I tend to open all of her treats at once. Drives the Husband nuts, but I just can’t resist her little face. Can you really blame me?

Anyway, back to tea… I had the privilege to use a teapot and tea cups that were from my Grandma Shirley, my Dad’s mom. The teapot plays music when you lift it up to pour and it charmed my friends. I have fantastic memories of having tea parties with my Grandma and feeling so grown up.

My lovely friend, Kim sent me the cute tea mat, it has a pink teapot on it as well and matches perfectly with my teapot and my tablecloth.

It looks quite intimidating to piece, but we may have to try to figure it out. I also used adorable napkins that I got from my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas. They have tea mugs and cups on them. I have been saving them for just the right occasion!

I have never made my own teas before. I intended on drying some herbs from my containers, but they weren’t quite what I needed them to be yet, so I think the Christmas blends will have them instead.

I used a few different recipes for the basis for the blends, but really, we just picked our own things to try and then put them in an infuser. I have quite a collection of silly tea infusers and had to narrow it down to the ones that would fit in the tea cups. I also had bag filters, as one of the black tea blends was a little small.

This is the “deep T diver” infuser. He is one of my favorites.

Not pictured are the “T-tanic” ship, the T-rex, the Tardis from Dr. Who, and the rubber ducky.

Here are two of the sites I used for tea blend ideas. I looked at a bunch more, which are saved to the blog’s Pinterest page under Not So 50’s Housewife.

Make Your Own Looseleaf Tea – all natural!

http://snip.ly/uq4tr?utm_content=buffer8de02&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer#http://adelightfulhome.com/diy-tea-recipes/

I tried some new food recipes too.

We had cucumber sandwiches, deviled eggs- made by Crystal, lemon bars, strawberries and cream, baba gannouj with carrots, and rosemary shortbread cookies. We also had an orange and fennel salad.

The full mix in list was dried strawberries, apricots, and apples, cacao nibs, coconut, and hibiscus flowers. Spices/herbs were lavender, cloves, allspice, orange peel, cinnamon sticks, and star anise. My house smelled amazing!

Here are the recipes I used.

1- Sunshine Bars from Retro Beach Bash by Linda Everett. 

These were very good. Perfectly gooey and delicious. I will keep these in mind when I want something lemony.

2- Rosemary Shortbread Cookies from Celtic Teas With Friends by Elizabeth Knight. Section: November/Housewarming Tea

Although delicate in terms of handling, these were in no way delicate in flavor. The rosemary is a surprising touch, but one that worked out very well. I want to try them with a little bit of lemon too. My rosemary is growing really well, so it’s fun to go out and snip a few sprigs of it when I need it.

3- Orange and Fennel Picnic Jars from The Vintage Tea Party Year by Angel Adoree. Section: Picnic Tea Party

I liked it. I don’t know if the Husband would, so I may not make it again. It’s nice and refreshing though.

I am trying to make myself realize that smaller parties are fun too and that I don’t have to go crazy with the food. It may take a while, but I think I’ll get there eventually. This party was lovely and I’m glad I was able to have it.

Now, sadly, it’s off to the real world for me, but I am going to try to have a cup of tea at the office and remember to relax. I hope your week goes smoothly!

Party Post and Recipes!
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup · Simple Sundays

Party Post and Recipes!

LSiehLeave a comment

We had a lovely party! Some friends who hadn’t been to our house before came and we got to show off our lovely flamingo kitchen. The previous owner was an artist and we have a flamingo mural in the kitchen, a vineyard scene in the hallway, and the guest room  has fish everywhere.

We love them all, but my favorite are the flamingos, of course. My love of flamingos is pretty well-known. We got two flamingo themed cards and several flamingo items as gifts. The Husband has accepted his fate of living in a mildly flamingo themed house well so far. He’s even bought me a few himself. Granted, I tend to like the less cheesy flamingos better, so that probably helps.  Our house isn’t the subject of the post though, the party foods are!

I had a few recipes from the week too, although not that many. We had a lot of late nights and leftovers. I did make a crockpot pot roast, beef fajitas, and a mushroom/squash/onion goat cheese tart.

1- Crockpot Pot Roast with Gravy from No. 2 Pencil. http://www.number-2-pencil.com/2012/07/16/easy-crock-pot-pot-roast-with-gravy/

Modifications: I used one can of soup and added potatoes and carrots under the roast. I also threw in half a can of water. I was concerned that the veggies wouldn’t cook. The Husband liked this more than me, but I dislike the cream soups in general. No pictures.

2- Beef Fajitas from Freezer Meals by Julianna Sweeney. 

Modifications: I think I added more spices than it called for. This was very good and we have two bags of  the mix in the freezer for later dinners.

3- Veggie Goat Cheese Tart, recipe by me.

I used puff pastry for the base and sautéed mushrooms, zucchini, and red onion over goat cheese and Asiago cheese pieces. It was delicious.

Now, on to the party recipes!

1- Rosemary Bundt Cake from Cooking From the Gourmet’s Garden by Coralie Castle and Robert Kourik. Section: Rosemary

Modifications: I didn’t have rosewater, so left it out. I also made the cake the same day, not realizing it recommended making it the day before. It tasted delicious and held up well for slicing. I made it in my dragon bundt pan. I’ve had it for about 2 years and been too afraid to use it. I decided our 5th Anniversary was enough of a big deal though and it turned out really well. I used way too much flour in the pan being nervous about it sticking. I know for next time now.

The back of the cake:

The front of the cake:

We’re going to have an Elevensies party again this year and I’ll be making another dragon cake for that too.

2- Raspberry Chocolate Cake from A Quilter’s Christmas Cookbook by  Louise Stoltzfus and Dawn Ranck. Section: Cakes

Modifications: I used a regular buttercream recipe, as I didn’t have a pan or the time to melt everything for the frosting in the book. I think I had less puree than called for and it kind of sunk right into the cake, but it still tastes good. I used a Love Bar with dark chocolate and freeze-dried rasberries for the cake. It was a tiny bit over-baked, so it’s not as moist as I would like.

3- Goat Cheese Truffles from The Vintage Tea Party Year by Angel Adoree. Section: Coming of Age Tea Party.

Modifications: None. These were just goat cheese balls dipped in various toppings. I used toasted sesame seeds, paprika, poppy seeds, and dried parsley. They look very elegant, but were the easiest thing to make.

4- Crab Dip. I originally used a recipe online, I think from Our Best Bites, but I can’t remember. For this batch, I used a block of cream cheese, 8 oz of real crab meat, about 1/4-1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 c. Mayo, garlic powder, onion powder, a pinch of cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, 4 chopped scallions, and about half a bag of a shredded 5 cheese Italian blend.

Mix it all together, top with more shredded cheese and bake at 350 for about half an hour or until the edges are brown and bubbly. I normally use greek yogurt in place of the sour cream, but didn’t have any. The Husband decided he likes it better with fake crab. 🙂 He always requests it for parties.

We also had an ice cream bar with all sorts of toppings, homemade chocolate ganache and Saunder’s caramel sauce. We have so much ice cream left over.

Pico and chips and a veggie and pickle tray rounded out our table.

I sent this picture to my Mom, since she was making snarky remarks about how many pickles made up a pickle tray. According to her, there had to be more than one pickle at the party…

Rest assured, there were actually 3 types of pickles. These are the sweet and spicy pickles and there were mini dill gherkins, and my homemade pickle chips.

The homemade ones were a surprising hit. My in-laws and two of our friends with Polish heritage hoarded the pickle chips and polished off the entire jar. 🙂 I had two cloves of garlic in that jar and it was a very good idea. They do need a little more dill, but I think I’ll keep that recipe in my back pocket.

Some friends also brought treats. We had Bailey’s mousse, which was delicious, but could possibly be contributing to my headache today. We also had delicious lemon bars with a pomegranate glaze. Fancy licked an entire row of these before we could get to her… Terrible dog.

Fancy always has fun at parties. She has had an exciting couple of days. She met a new possible friend, a Malamute named Blaze, on Friday and then got to see so many people at the party. By the end of the night she was zonked out on the couch. She and I may need many naps today to recover. Here’s a picture of her last night.

My friend came wearing a dress she had made with flamingos on it and it has motivated me to try to make some more dresses. I did not mug her for her dress, even though I could have given her something else to wear. I wore my strawberry dress to the party and got lots of compliments, so if I can figure out which pattern it is, I will have to make some more.

Hopefully after some more water and dog snuggles, I can go play in my craft space and come up with something to post about tomorrow!

I’ll leave you with a quote that we got on a picture frame from friend yesterday.

“It’s not where you go or what you do, it’s who is beside you that counts.”

Recipe Roundup Birthday Party Edition
Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup Birthday Party Edition

LSiehLeave a comment

I thought the party post might get long, since I am my mother’s daughter and constantly worry I might run out of food, so I made it its own post. I made too much food, but it worked out well for everyone, I guess. I didn’t get a picture of the table, but several people walked in and said “whoa!” 🙂

Having a dessert party was the perfect excuse to try out some baking recipes. I did have a few savory options as well, homemade pico de gallo, some lentil bean chips, and a small cheese tray. I didn’t have a pickle tray because it was a dessert party, but my Dd got my Mom to call and offer pickle recipes, just in case I needed one. The pickle tray has become a running family joke and comes up for every party, so I’ll give you the back story for when it comes up again.

A year or two ago, I was preparing for our annual Epiphany party and was struck by the sudden, uncontrollable feeling that I needed a pickle tray, despite never having wanted one before. My Mom always made sure to have one on the table at parties and it must be a Midwest thing, because I don’t know that it’s a thing elsewhere.

So, I posted about it on Facebook and tagged my Mom, blaming her for my late night pickle run. All sorts of people chimed in, including my cousin reminiscing about the pickle trays at family parties. My Mom jumped in, shocked that I was not holding up the family tradition of a lovely pickle tray. A lovely family friend, Pauline, tried to reassure me that it would be fine and that the family parties were always so nice, and suggested I take a rest. My loving, though sometimes sarcastic, Mother then commented “She can rest when she has a pickle tray.” Of course, I laughed hysterically and made the darn pickle tray.

Have I mentioned that I love my family? Truly, I do. (The way you know they like you is if you get teased.) So now, whenever we have parties, one of my parents will call to find out if I have the pickle tray ready. Last year, I bought my Mom a couple of different kinds of pickles just so she would have to serve them.

Anyway, random family history aside, I did use six new recipes and I made pico de gallo, which is one of the only ways the Husband will eat tomatoes. I think at some point I had a recipe for the pico, but I have no idea where I got it from, so now it’s something I just make. I’ll try to get approximate measurements the next time I make it.

1- Giant Easter Egg Cookies from M&M’s Fun Stuff Cookbook. Section: Party Time

Modifications: I didn’t decorate them and I made them a bit smaller. They were a sugar cookie dough and were pretty good. The Husband liked the second recipe better. I would make these again. The Husband got me this cookbook for our first anniversary for a paper present. No pictures, they went to work too fast.

2- Kid’s Favorite Chocolate Chippers from the above cookbook.

Modifications: None! I actually made these for the Husband to take to work, as his coworkers had been requesting treats. They were well liked, the tin came back empty. I’m not a fan of plain chocolate chip cookies, but these were pretty good. They are the Husband’s favorite kind of cookies though and I sometimes make someone else make them for him. No pics of these either.

3- Tempting Truffles from The Lady Had Seconds. This cookbook doesn’t have sections. There are about five more recipes at least that I want to make.

Modifications: No mods, but I accidentally made toffee bits with the caramel. It has you melt down the sugar until golden and then add the cream and butter. The sugar seized up and made hard caramel when I added the cream and butter. I managed to melt most of it down though, so they just had crunchy bits in some of them. I rolled them in blue sanding sugar, gold and silver sugar, and gold edible glitter. They were so pretty!  And they tasted good too.

4- Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes from Food Network Magazine. Jan/Feb 2017, v. 10, n. 1

Modifications: My strawberries went bad, so these didn’t have the chocolate dipped strawberries on the top. Also, I’m not a fan of white chocolate, couldn’t find my piping bag nozzle, and was running out of time, so only made dark chocolate frosting. I also used homemade chocolate strawberry jam for the regular preserves. They were divine! The frosting had melted chocolate and was a buttercream. It is so smooth and delicious. The cupcake also turned out very fluffy and light. I would make these again in a heartbeat.

5- Carrot-Walnut Cupcakes from the same Food Network. This issue has a year of cupcakes, one for each month and I want to try them all.

Modifications: I used pecans instead of walnuts. These were also delicious. Fancy was extremely excited that I was working with carrots. She kept inching closer and closer to me. I finally peeled a carrot so the peels fell directly on her head and she thought it was the best game ever! It was pretty cute.

These had a cream cheese frosting and really, I think they may qualify as breakfast food… I read somewhere that cupcakes are just “muffins with hats” and I’m pretty sure this means I can eat them for breakfast. 🙂

6- Blood Orange Bars off of a Pinterest find. https://www.bakedbyanintrovert.com/blood-orange-bars-recipe/

Modifications: I omitted the food coloring, so they aren’t as vibrant as the picture. They have been on my list since last winter, but I keep missing the blood oranges. These were good. Just like lemon bars except a little more pudding like, I would say. Lighter flavor than I was expecting too, but my oranges were maybe not all as juicy as they could have been.

My friend Kayla brought a delicious chocolate cheesecake and if we are very lucky, maybe she’ll share the recipe. I just had a piece for dessert tonight and it made me very happy.

The tablecloth under everything is one my Grandma Shirley made for me for my 16th birthday, I believe. I had a tea party that year, so it is all tea party foods and menus. I was excited to use it again. It’s so pretty and springy that it seemed to be the perfect fit.

My serving dishes are a mix of old fancy serving plates and new ones. We use Fiesta-ware every day, so the party table should be colorful and fun as well. Mom gave me the flamingo tray for Christmas and the Rose plate is from my Grandma Shirley. It’s fun to be in a place in my life where we need fancy serving plates.

So those were my party recipes. Some people were surprised that I chose to bake my own birthday treats, but for me baking is stress relief and a way to connect with people. It brings me great joy, so why wouldn’t I share it?