Sunday, May 4, 2008

Patriotic Celebration

I know that Mothers Day is just around the corner, but saw a wonderful idea for decorating and celebrating Memorial Day/4th of July/Veteran's Day.

A Fabulous Picnic

A Fabulous Picnic

A picnic decked out in America’s favorite colors makes the Fourth of July fun. Set a grand old table with red, white and blue paper plates, paired with rolled-up napkins in red and blue picnic plaids. Use plastic knives, forks and spoons, and you can ditch the dishwashing!

Summer’s all about simplicity, so keep the decorating low-key. Tape small paper flags around the edges of a white paper tablecloth with hook-and-loop tape. If someone spills, no worries – it’ll all be pitched after the party, anyway.  Make the A Fabulous Picnicpunchbowl your centerpiece. Fill it with sea blue party punch, crowned with a silver-blue waterfall “sparkler,” a sure way to start the day off with a bang. Attach mini “sparklers” to drink straws to reinforce the theme. Ice soft drinks in red metal tubs, heat up the grill and let the fireworks begin.

Three cheers for the red, white and blue – and a quick cleanup, too! Making a tablescape pop is a snap with these timesaving tips:

  • Keep it casual with paper plates in mix and match colors. To dress things up, serve drinks in plastic goblets. It feels festive, but they’re all throwaway.
  • A Fabulous Picnic If the party's outside - or even inside - try plastic silverware. It comes in all colors and makes cleanup a breeze.
  • Mix your punch to match your colors. (It's easy with food coloring.) Here, the blue hue is refreshingly patriotic.
  • Place a glass punchbowl in the middle of your table for a showy centerpiece. If you don't have a punchbowl, borrow one, or buy an inexpensive acrylic one from a party warehouse.
  • Show off your creativity. Add silver and blue "sparklers" to the punchbowl and glasses to give your table extra sizzle. Spray paint small terra cotta pots white and fill with red candies for an outdoorsy treat.

Contents of this post taken from Semi-Homemade

Pin It

Old Cookbooks are like old friends

I love old books and cookbooks are a favorite and I found several.  One I found was the Better Homes and Garden  New Cookbook printed in 1953. bhg_cookbook53  It has some really wonderful vintage pages, I can just sit and thumb through these books for hours.  This one was really great because it has notes in the margins of some of the recipes and some old handwritten recipes on cards and loose leaf paper. The ones on the loose leaf paper are all tattered and torn, which implies to me was used quite a bit over the years.  Might have to try it myself. 

I also ran across another book that I picked up and looks like I will enjoy it immensely.  Etiquette_EP_1940 It was published in the 1940's by Emily Post.  I am sure I have been doing everything all wrong.   This is what the excerpt had to say "Post was born into a wealthy family and began her literary career as a novelist. Her best-known book Etiquette, first published in 1922, is a practical guide to proper social behavior written in a lively style. Post viewed etiquette not as a collection of details, but as a way of living: "Manners are made up of trivialities of deportment which can be easily learned if one does not happen to know them; manner is personality-the outward manifestation of one's innate character and attitude toward life."

 

I also grabbed another book I have been watching for awhile but didn't want to pay full price for it.  I ended up getting it for $4 and I was thrilled. MS_Homekeeping Handbook  

How to Use This Book: An Excerpt
When the first issue of Martha Stewart Living was published in 1990, I could not have begun to anticipate how wide-ranging our readers' homekeeping concerns would be. Since then, we have discovered new solutions to age-old problems, brought in experts to advise us on very specific questions about very specific?c concerns, and experimented with all the new (and not so new) home-care products. Over the years, I've brought these lessons home with me, too, which has made me more organized and made my homes better cared for and maintained.
Households are busy places, works in progress where there is always something needing immediate attention and always something more that can be done. With that in mind, I have organized this book to address the tasks at hand and also to address the "more that can be done" for when you have the time and the inclination go beyond the essentials.
It starts with the big picture--an examination of every room and everything you will find within each. The eleven chapters in the "Room by Room" section take you on a tour through the house, focusing on the surfaces and furnishings you might find in any room, and offering strategies for their care and maintenance. Starting with the kitchen, the central staging area in any home, these chapters open with practical space-planning advice, followed by the golden rules of organizing. This information is intended to help contain your belongings and make each room clutter-free and functional. Relevant homekeeping concerns particular to each room are explored in depth--so stain-removal basics appear in "Laundry Room," the best way to clean grout in "Bathroom," and easy sewing repairs in "Utility Spaces." The equipment essential to each room is also addressed, so if you are considering what kind of bathtub to install during a bathroom renovation or whether a gas or electric range would best suit your style of cooking, you will have the information necessary to make such an investment with confidence.

Do you have any wonderful old cookbooks you'd like to share? Let me know!

Happy cooking!

Pin It

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Romans 12:13



Welcome to my little cooking blog ladies, I hope you will enjoy your visit. Spend some time looking around at some of the links that I have provided, and enjoy. This little blog will not be updated daily or even weekly, but I wanted a place to keep track of all the things that I run across of the internet that is helpful to me or is within easy reach. I enjoy gathering tips, and things that will help me in the kitchen. Over the years I have booked marked many wonderful sites and wanted to share some of that with you. Believe me this isn't even a fraction of what I would like to do here, but it's a start. You have to start someplace, huh?

I don't know about you , but for me, sharing from my kitchen is a great gift to others. I love sharing a home cooked meal with family and friends. My kitchen is the gathering place when everyone comes to my house ( I love it). Michael and I both enjoy cooking and having family and friends over for a warm, fulfilling meal. So my hope that this site eventually will encourage you to share your love of cooking and baking with others.

Eventually I would like to share some of my favorite cookbooks, and magazines with you as well as some old country recipes that were pasted down from my grandmother and mom to me. Some of my kids favorites, and some wonderful simple easy meals for nights on the go.

Please take a moment and let me know you stopped in and I will return your visit. Thanks for stopping by and I will hopefully get more added as time allows. Although you can keep up with me through my everyday blog here.

Thanks and God Bless! Pin It
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...