Hi Everyone,
Sorry about the delay in entries. Sometimes life gets in the way!
Valentine’s Day is already upon us--- Do you have any plans? This is the time you can make friends and families think it is spring. I love all of the containers of spring bulbs in a price range from $6.99 to $99.99. (Personally I get a few different ones from Home Depot for $12.99.) Now watch how fast they bloom. Great gifts, even if it's just to you.
So Happy Valentine’s Day!
This is a good time to bring out the holiday dinnerware or your best china dishes. A brunch is a way of having a warm loving gathering of friends and family. It can be a formal table with informal food. Before you know it 2 hours of conversation, fun and laughter will pass so fast and everyone will be grateful for the holiday brunch.
Here’s a menu suggestion:
Start with a platter of fresh cut fruit, coffee, tea and orange juice (in a buffet style with small plates)
Remove the small plates and use large dinner plates for the main dish of your favorite breakfast casserole with warm biscuits.
Breakfast Casserole (Recommendation)
1 cup chopped bacon
2 cups mashed potatoes
1 ½ cups shredded cheese (your favorite cheese or cheeses)
¼ cup milk
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 pound ground pork sausage
8 eggs (large)
Combine mashed potatoes, milk and seasonings, egg yolk and baking powder and beat well with electric mixer. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold egg whites into potato mixture along with crumbled (fried and drained pork sausage) and onions fried with the pork sausage. Put into oiled cast iron skillet, sprinkle with bacon and cheese on top. Cook covered over low heat 8 minutes (or until mixture puffs up).
Preheat oven to 325 degrees and finish cooking for about 20-25 minutes uncovered.
Serve the casserole straight out of the cast iron skillet.
After the dinner plates are removed, serve hot beverages and a platter of your favorite breakfast pastries (such as doughnuts, sweetbreads and mini-cinnamon rolls)
Almost all of this can be put together ahead of time so you can enjoy the conversations around your breakfast table.
I have also enjoyed using festive Christmas paper plates & napkins for easy cleanup.
Hope everyone enjoys the brunch with a Christmas Breakfast Casserole!
How about a wonderfully moist turkey that gives perfect turkey and is still great for leftovers?
My family loves the Thanksgiving tradition of preparing the turkey as much as they like eating the turkey.
Here is the time tested family favorite recipe:
My husband uses non-latex gloves to spread the mayonnaise liberally all over the turkey. Then we put it in the Brown-n-Bag. Place the turkey in the large roasting pan. Be sure to pierce the bag several times for vent holes. Roast turkey 12 minutes for each pound. After baking remove from oven and let it rest for 20 – 25 minutes. This will let the flavor seal in and get it cool enough to handle. The bag will contain the juices that you can drain into the pan or your sink. Remove from the bag and transfer to the cutting board. It can be sliced and served on a platter or cut on your table. We have grown to prefer cutting and preparing the platter before serving. It’s much simpler and makes serving go faster, especially for large groups.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I came across a great Christmas gift idea while surfing the net.
Do you have those hard to buy for people on your Christmas list? How about aprons? Don’t laugh!
I gave my (single) best friend an apron and she was so touched because she didn’t even have one. I gave our eldest son an apron for backyard grilling because he loves to have friends over for backyard patio parties. I have given aprons to brides at bridal showers and they loved them, so why not give special aprons for all the special people on your Christmas list.
There are aprons for men, woman, children, cute ones, silly ones, beautiful ones, and really useful aprons. Go see a selection of “Aprons” at http://bit.ly/aqYyDq.
Happy Shopping!
Be sure to use your best tea service. This tea time will be worth the china tea pot. One of my favorite tea sets is Royal Albert Country Rose Buds By Royal Doulton. (See at http://bit.ly/aNON6s)
Steep a big pot of your favorite herbal tea or any tea of choice. Slice up some warm Cranberry–Pumpkin Bread and you won’t care what the weather is outside.
Cranberry–Pumpkin Bread Recipe
Combine eggs, sugar and oil. Add spices and flour, stirring all together then fold in cranberries. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans while preheating oven to 350 degrees.
Bake the loaves for 45 minutes or until done. (Toothpick test) Remove from the oven and enjoy.
Have another cup of tea with a fresh warm slice of Cranberry-Pumpkin bread!
If you have kids that have discovered being “health food conscious” but still want goodies, then this is for your family.
Our 5 year old heard cranberries are the “healthiest” fruit and could be put in everything from cereal to meatloaf. She also wants her cookies to be healthy. This healthy cookie recipe really made her happy. It has two fruits in it. Also it’s great to keep on hand from Halloween through New Years. So stock up the freezer with easy to slice rolls of healthy cookie dough and be ready to bake and eat healthy cookies in minutes.
Two Fruit Shortbread Cookies
1 cup softened butter
¾ cup powdered sugar
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
½ cup chopped cranberries
1 tablespoon orange zest
Beat butter with electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar. Stir in vanilla, cranberries, and orange zest. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat at low speed adding flour mixture until blended. Shape dough into two logs 7” long and wrap each in waxed paper. Chill for 4 hours (or freeze in zip lock bags). Slice and bake.
Preheat oven to 350 deg. and bake 10 – 12 minutes on cookie/baking sheet. Remove from oven and baking sheet and let cool.
Everyone will love your healthy cookies and they're healthier than chocolate chip cookies. Enjoy!
Get Out your serving bowls!
The beautiful fall veggies are ready for filling your tables. Fall veggies are so healthy for you and colorful to put on the dinner table. The fall veggies that are favorites in our family are green beans, corn on the cob, acorn squash, (and many other kinds of squash), broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, and spinach.
Here’s a family favorite fall veggie recipe:
Acorn Squash
• Cut squash in half (from the stem down)
• Scoop out the seeds
• Place in shallow pan (fill bottom with water)
• Place 1 pat of butter in bottom of squash
• Sprinkle a little cinnamon inside
• Add 1 tablespoon of dark brown sugar
• Add 1 teaspoon of milk
• Bake at 375 Deg. For 1 hour
Happy fall veggie eating!
Even if it's a special occasion you use the same china. Lack of room and not of lot of extra money keeps you from adding another set of dinnerware.
A few years ago my best friend gave me a great looking set of holiday dinnerware for Christmas. It was such a heartfelt gift. She said she wanted the holiday dinnerware for herself but is a single business professional and thought my family would get more use out of them, so she wanted our family to have them.
How our family looks forward to the time we bring out the holiday dinnerware! It's easy to store them in a plastic tub and dish packs that can be found in container stores, catalogs, or ordered online. I just remove the casual dinnerware in the cabinet and replace it with the holiday dinnerware. Then the casual dinnerware is boxed up and stored until the holidays are over. It goes fast and it's easy to bring on the holiday dinnerware.
Another real advantage to the holiday dinnerware is that I don't tire of my everyday casual dinnerware so often because the holiday dinnerware gives the family a break from the same year around table settings.
Add a little extra holiday spirit this year.
Whether you spend a lot or a little it will bring change and joy into your home to have holiday dinnerware.
Do you have a bowl of candy corn just sitting there?
Here's a quick and easy way to get your guests to empty that bowl.
Mix together, serve in your best Halloween bowl and watch that mix disappear.
Happy Halloween!
Cakes for my families special occasions have always been my responsibility. It was our son-in-laws 31st birthday. I decided on a wonderful pork main course that I could easily prepare in the afternoon. So I should be able to make the cake in the morning. The problem was I ran out of vegetable oil and didn’t want to go to the store. I remembered the recipe I used as a bride. It was used for chocolate cakes. Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family has.
(Whisk together in 2 cup measuring cup.)
Pour into bowl with cake mix in it.
Beat on medium high with mixer for 2 minutes.
Oil and flour 2 nine inch cake pans with waxed paper on the bottom.
Pour evenly into the cake pans.
Bake at 350 deg. For 30 minutes. The cake should drop out of the pans after cooling.
Beat 1 minute with mixer at high speed.
Place cooled layer of cake on plate (after removing waxed paper). Ice the top of the bottom layer and place the top layer on. Finish icing the cake. Decorate (or not) as desired.
The secret ingredient was replacing mayonnaise for the oil. The mayonnaise will make the cake lighter and smoother tasting. This makes a perfect dessert after a family or company dinner.
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