Blue May Flowers

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For some time now I have wanted to do a tablescape using a blue and white flower cart patterned tablecloth I found.

It's such a cute design and it gave me a chance to use some of my favourite blue dishes.

April showers bring May flowers. How many times have we heard that line? We did get a good bit of rain in April and there are lots of flowers blooming now. I particularly love hydrangeas. And don't they look lovely in a vase next to the Harlequin candleholders?


I love all hydrangeas, but I am especially fond of the lace caps. My great-great aunt had huge bushes of lace cap hydrangeas in her backyard. When I was in high school, my Mom got a cutting and planted it outside my bedroom window. I used to love to look out and see that bush in full bloom. Now I have a lace cap hydrangea living in a pot on my balcony. It grew well last year and then survived the winter. This year it is doing even better. One thing I like to do is put little mini-vases at each place setting so everyone gets a flower or two of their own.





This is not a standard relish dish. It is combination of a cobalt Fiesta relish base and Harlequin blue Harlequin relish inserts.




This cobalt glassware is another of my favourites. It was made by the Louie Glass Company in 1936 as a tribute to the Marx Brothers. This particular style is Harpo and is somewhat easier to find than the other brothers.




I was lucky enough to find what I think are the perfect napkin rings for this tablecloth - ceramic watering cans.



The first one of these I ever saw was a dead ringer for persimmon P-86 Fiesta. I have since found them in other glazes that also match Fiesta colours (seamist, sunflower and sapphire), but I still haven't found out who made them.

I also like the blue plaid flatware with this table:


Gracing today's table:
Vintage blue and white flower cart tablecloth
Sapphire post-86 Fiesta plates and tabbed platter - Homer Laughlin China
Cobalt vintage Fiesta relish base - Homer Laughlin China
Harlequin blue Harlequin relish inserts and candleholders - Homer Laughlin China
Harpo pitcher and water glasses - Louis Glass Company
Contemporary wine goblets
Watering can napkin rings - unknown maker
Napkins - Pier 1
Flatware - bought on eBay
3 Vintage blue vases - unknown makers
Candles from TJ Maxx



This week I am joining ~
The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday,
Smiling Sally for Blue Monday,
Marty @ A Stroll Through Life for TableTop Tuesday,
Jenny @ off on my tanget for Alphabe-Thursday where this week's Letter is "G" - G is for Growing blue things,
Susan @ Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday,
Suzanne @ The Coloradolady for Vintage Thingy Thursday, and
Sandi & Bill @ Whistlestop Cafe Cooking for Friday's Favourites.



Thanks so much for stopping by today! Please also remember to register for my 5 Year Blog Anniversary Give-Away.

namasté,

Goat Cheese Drop Biscuits

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In keeping with this weekend's Biscuit Festival in Knoxville, let's talk about drop biscuits. Now I grew up with biscuits that were rolled and cut. One time when I was still in Junior High School, a friend and I made some drop biscuits and they did not turn out well enough to convince me I should switch from my grandmother's recipe. Well, about four years ago Art Smith was on Oprah's show and he made some of his famous Goat Cheese Drop Biscuits. "These biscuits give a warm welcome to diners at Art Smith's Chicago restaurant, Table Fifty-Two."

A friend on a food board posted the recipe and I thought they sounded so good. Art Smith is a Southern boy at heart, so I trusted he knew how to make biscuits!!! Then a week or so later, there was Art Smith on Iron Chef America where the secret ingredient was cheddar cheese. He made a version of these biscuits using cheddar. Those looked great, too! Do you ever feel as if the universe is speaking to you? LOL. Drop biscuits had dropped back into my life.

I promptly decided I needed to make these. At the time I first made them I had on hand a regular French chèvre and some Cypress Grove Purple Haze Goat Cheese. I elected to make two batches of the biscuits, one with each of the cheeses. They were both delicious! But I have to say that I really liked the ones with the Purple Haze the best. That is one of my most favourite cheeses (flavoured with lavender and fennel pollen), so I am sure that is the reason.

Nothing like doing two at once:


I used my cookie scoop to make the biscuits a uniform size:


And here is how they looked plated:


The friend who posted this recipe on the board also liked to make them with a smaller scoop and bake them in the individual cast iron skillets so that each person got their own. I love that idea, but haven't remembered to look for the mini skillets when I've stopped at the Lodge Store in South Pittsburgh, TN. Maybe next time!

Since that day I have made these biscuits quite a few times, but these days I use Belle Chèvre, our LOCAL award winning goat cheese. To simulate the Purple Haze from Cypress Grove, I add some fennel pollen and lavender flowers to the plain cheese from Belle Chèvre and I am happy.

Goat Cheese Drop Biscuits adapted from Art Smith Makes 12 biscuits 2 cups self-rising flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 4 Tbsp cold butter 4 Tbsp goat cheese 1 cup buttermilk Extra butter to grease pan and top biscuits 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese Preheat your oven to 425°F. Place a 10" cast iron pan into the oven while it is preheating. Mix flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder into a medium-sized bowl. Cut in the butter and goat cheese. Make a well in the middle of the ingredients and pour in the milk. Stir until the mixture is moistened, adding an extra tablespoon of milk if needed. Remove the hot skillet from the oven and add a tablespoon of butter. When the butter has melted, drop 1/4 cupfuls of batter into the pan. Brush the tops of the biscuits with melted butter. Bake from 14–16 minutes until browned on the top and bottom. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Enjoy warm! Notes: 1. I do not keep self-rising flour on hand. However when I took Food Prep 101 at college we learned several ways of making our own. This one is supposed to be optimum if the recipe called for buttermilk and is what I use to make these biscuits: 2 cups flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt Mix together and use as directed. 2. For recipes that don't use buttermilk, the substitution I use is 3 tsp baking powder and 1/4 tsp salt for every 2 cups flour.

I'm linking this to Michael Lee's Foodie Friday @ Designs By Gollum, Friday's Favourites by Sandi & Bill @ Whistlestop Cafe Cooking, and Kim's Recipes to Run On.

Thanks for stopping by today!

namasté,

Abbey & Donnie: THE WEDDING

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All the planning, all the shopping for attire, all the fittings, all the organizing, and all the details culminate tonight. And all of a sudden the last eighteen months seem to have flown by! At 5:00pm EDT there will be the most fabulous affair at Disney's Wedding Pavillion on the shores of the Seven Seas Lagoon. My firstborn daughter will marry the love of her life. The Guy and I couldn't be happier. We're happy for Abbey because she is so happy. And we are happy to be welcoming such a wonderful son-in-law into our family. Abbey and Donnie, we love you!



In honour of this most auspicious occasion, I set a wedding table using Abbey's colours of Ivory and Gold. All of my diva friends:
Elaine @ Dishing with Carafaye,
Daphne @ Tabletop Time,
Rebecca @ Mybecca's Vintage Tables, and
Candy @ The Little Round Table,
are also doing wedding tables to help us celebrate. I was so thrilled when they agreed to join me in this endeavour! Please check out their blogs for totally different, absolutely fabulous takes on a wedding table.

For favours, we chose to use Fiesta. Judi Noble, the art director at Homer Laughlin China, created this beautiful fairy tale castle design, which was put on both bud vases and tumblers.




The Bride was thrilled. The Maid of Honour was thrilled. Their mother was thrilled. By default the Groom and the Father of the Bride were thrilled. All the other wedding planning has been equally as fun and satisfying. The Disney wedding team is fabulous. Please join in our happiness and celebration today.

For the ivory and gold table, I used post-86 ivory Fiesta dishes along with my wedding crystal and flatware. This is the first time I've ever done such a monochromatic ivory table. Normally when I use Fiesta, it is an explosion of colours! And I don't normally dress it up so much with silver and crystal. But I love how it looks!



















And look! Although there is not a lot of sky showing in the summer from this angle, it's my first ever on-purpose blue hour photo:

Click here if you are interested in learning more about Blue Hour Photography, including the daily times when you can make these shots in your area.

On today's table:
Midcentury ivory rayon tablecloth and napkins
Specially made for us ivory post-86 fairy tale Fiesta tumblers and bud vases
Ivory post-86 Fiesta plates and pyramid candleholders
Ivory Century butter base decorated in gold
Silver napkin rings I've had forever
Lenox Eternal goblets and sherbets (my wedding crystal - the original Barclay shape, discontinued 1988)
Flatware - Golden Centennial silverplate by International (my wedding flatware - also discontinued 1988 - What was going on that year?)
Candles from TJMaxx
Roses from Fresh Market



This post is linking up with:
Jenny @ off on my tanget for Alphabe-Thursday where this week's Letter is "H" - H is for "Happily Ever After", which is the ending line of all fairy tale weddings. And no one does a fairy tale wedding as Disney does.
Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday, where I'm excited to share the wedding table,
Suzanne @ The Coloradolady for Vintage Thingy Thursday, because I'm afraid my crystal and flatware have become vintage ,
The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday, as June is the season for weddings, and
Marty @ A Stroll Through Life for TableTop Tuesday, in honour of Abbey and Donnie beginning their Together Stroll Through Life.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Love and magical best wishes to all!

namasté,

Mamah's Potato Salad

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The majority of my family recipes are from my Mom's side of the family, but this one came to me from my Papa's mother. And she got it from her mother. I really didn't have a lot of her recipes written down, so when I was first married and lived in Dallas, I would drive over to Fort Worth several days a week to spend time with Mamah and Aunt Jean. We went through lots and lots of family recipes and as I would write them down, I'd get her to actually measure. Because she would say things like, "Oh put in about half a handful." Everybody's hands are different, n'est pas? So she would measure into her hand and then we'd put it in a measuring cup. Sometimes we'd actually make the recipes with me watching and if she said, "Put in enough until it looks/feels right", I could measure that amount also. I am so glad I spent the time doing this, otherwise many of her recipes would be lost to us now.

A funny story. A few years ago I was making one of those recipes and my Aunt Sissy (Mamah's youngest daughter) was over here visiting. She said, "Mama never made the scalloped potatoes like that." And I said she must've changed how she did it, because I wrote it down as we made it. And we agreed that most of us will change up recipes as the mood or ingredients change.



From the first time I made it for him, this became The Guy's favourite potato salad. We have it often when we are barbequing during the summer. And always for the 4th of July. I never get out the recipe and measure anything when making this, I just use enough of the ingredients until it looks right. LOL. But in the recipe I listed the amounts my grandmother told me and the way we made it one long ago day in Fort Worth. Really you can adjust any of the ingredient amounts to suit your own taste.

Collected ingredients:


Potatoes cooking:


Put everything in a large bowl:

Look at the bright orange gold of the organically-grown free-range egg yolks.

This potato masher belonged to Mamah's mother. It is one of the few kitchen utensils I inherited from my Papa's family, and in my opinion is the best potato masher design ever. I'm guessing it has been mashing potato salad for somewhere around 100 years.


Mashed, stirred and served in a marigold Fiesta nappy:

Mamah's Potato Salad Make early in the day or the day before you want to serve to give the flavours time to meld. 2½ quarts peeled, cubed potatoes salt 4 hard cooked eggs 2 Tbsp chopped pimientos ½ cup chopped sweet pickle 2 Tbsp or so dill pickle juice or vinegar 1 cup good mayonnaise, approximately Put potatoes in 3 qt. pot, salt and cover with water. Boil till tender, but not mushy. Chop eggs. Mash the potatoes slightly, leaving some lumps. Stir together the potatoes, eggs, pimiento, sweet pickle and some pickle juice. Fold in the mayonnaise. Adjust salt, mayonnaise and pickle juice to desired seasoning and consistency. Notes: 1. Mamah always said that if you made this ahead of time you could bury a quarter of an onion in the middle of the salad and take it out before serving or you could stir in some chopped green onions. That's what her mother always did. 2. Sometimes I vary the recipe by adding mustard. The Guy's current favourite is a jalapeño flavoured one. 3. Adding fresh chopped dill is good, too.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

namasté,

Newest Pattern Release: Mousey Howsee

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About a month ago, I dropped a few teasers on Facebook to show off my latest design -- well, my Mousey Howsee pattern is finally ready for prime time!

Let me introduce you to this sweet little gal...

When Mousye Howsee's creater, Lithuanian children's book author Jurga Sakalauskaite, first approached me with the idea of creating an amigurumi character after her herione, I fell in love instantly!

You see, Mousey Howsee has adventure in her blood, plain and simple. This little mouse wants to try all sorts of new things -- and even when her adventues don't turn out the way she planned, she keeps pushing to make everything work out all right.

Her latest story, Mousey Howsee And The Rescuers, is the #1 downloaded eBook in Lithuania and the English translation has been a hit with my own daughter. If you'd like to learn more about that, you can check out Mousey Howsee's own web site, here.

My pattern is suitable for intermediates and would make a great holiday gift -- whether you know Mousey Howsee's story or not (but for those of you who are tech saavy, the doll bundled with an iTunes gift card would make for a sweet treat!)

The pattern is available in my Etsy shop ($5.)) or you can download through Ravelry ($4.00).

Last but not least, I've provided you with a purchase button here -- in case you prefer not to become a member of Etsy or Ravelry.

$4.00 USD

New & Improved Cupcake Pattern!

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It's been a while (AGAIN!). The holidays kept me super busy this year and I feel like my hook has been going non-stop for the past two months... just not on anything new!

But finally, finally -- I have something to share. Do you remember that cupcake pattern I made up so long ago? -- When I was first cutting my teeth on pattern design? Well, it has been born anew -- as a free pattern download for the Knit Picks IDP (independent design program).

I have been using yarn from Knit Picks here and there for years now. Much of it is high-quality natural fibers at a fraction of the price you'd expect to pay. Unfortunately, as many of you know, natural fibers aren't always the best for amigurumi projects....

Brava Sport drool-worthy color palette

But then Knit Picks introduced their latest line: Brava. Brava is a beautiful acrylic yarn that has a super soft texture. As if that wasn't enough to love, Brava comes in worsted, bulky, and -- wait for it -- SPORT!

Those of you who have used my patterns know how I love sport weight yarns and many of my blog followers will remember my dismay when Red Heart toned back their distribution of Designer Sport. Well, Red Heart... your sport weight yarn is dead to me. At only $2.99 a ball ($.50 - $.75 less than Red Heart) and with a quality that Designer Sport could not hope to match, I am a Brava girl from here on out!

So, back to the pattern -- you can find my new cupcake design on the Knit Picks site (along with hundreds of great IDP patterns), or if you love having everything together on Ravelry, I just loaded the pattern there too! Those who prefer Etsy will also still be able to get the pattern emailed directly to them for the nominal cost of $2.00 (to cover Etsy fees and processing time).

So, now that you know where to get your hands on the patterns, I have only to ask... what colors will you choose?