A Prelude to Thanksgiving!

This week I've decided to create a tablescape and make-believe dinner for two using

all the gorgeous golds and ambers of Autumn and Thanksgiving with a

favorite cranberry accent thrown in! I think the centerpiece is stunning

and was taken off a nearby sofa table...

along with this lovely brass candlestick.

The color theme centered around this beautiful April Cornell

tablecloth I purchased at TJ Maxx.  The amber plates were a Marshall's find.

The drinking glasses were a gift from my mom which she purchased

from a current home party - sorry, the name of which I just can't remember!

At each place setting, I included a shiny gold pumpkin that I had

gotten at Michael's and included in a previous post HERE.

I added another less-shiny but glittery pumpkin on a gold

pedestal, as an addition to the centerpiece.

Tucked inside each cranberry napkin ring is a sweet-smelling gardenia blossom.

Along with some sexy lighted votives, this would clearly be a romantic dinner for two!

Don't you think?

 

The menu suggestion I have made tonight would be:

 

Bacon-Wrapped Beef Appetizer with a Horseradish-Chive Dipping Sauce

Spinach and Mushroom Pastry

Slow-Roasted Pork Roast with Cherry Sauce

Carrots Vichy

Molasses Walnut Tart

 

(Menu compiled from Southern Living Sept/Oct Issue,

Cook's Illustrated Fall Entertaining, and

Le Cordon Bleu Vegetable Practical)


This week I will be joining:
 

   

 

Thank you for visiting!

 

Fondly,

~Karen

 

 

 

It's All About Chocolate!

A friend and I went to The NAT - San Diego's Natural History

Museum in Balboa Park for it's exhibit Chocolate.The Exhibition.

This exhibit is the story of chocolate and will be there until March.

The cost is $17 to get in, but all the museums in Balboa Park are free

to San Diego residents the first Tuesday of every month.

How enticing is this entrance? We couldn't get in fast enough!

It began with the story of the Cocao Tree.  Cocao is pronounced "Ka-kow".

Growing in the rain forests, it told how the monkeys, rodents,

and birds feast on the cocao pulp but spit out the seeds.

This spreads the seeds around and increases the chance of a

new tree emerging - and responsible for the many cocao trees.

It told of the ancient Mayans and how our sweet candy started out
as a spicy, frothy drink...

and was usually made in a large earthenware vessel.

Chocolate became the food of Gods and Kings
and began being traded to foreign countries.

The Spaniards developed this Chocolate Stirrer to
help with making the drink extra frothy!
We can buy these chocolate stirrers even today.

North America and Europe were responsible for new inventions
using chocolate.  This included the Chocolate Bar.

With the help of advertising, chocolate inventions,
which now included the sweetened varieties, were born.

These are some older metal molds used by chocolate companies
to make their chocolate bars.  The ones on the left were
used to make Ghiradelli chocolate bars.  Ghiradelli Chocolate
is located in San Francisco and provides a great tour, if
you ever are lucky enough to find yourself in San Francisco!

In the early 1800's a chemist invented the cocoa press which extracted the
cocoa butter from the chooclate, leaving the powder we call cocoa.  The
powder was sold in tins as they are today.

The exhibit was self-paced and was quite thorough.  It included the European
influence on chocolate and the specialty serving pieces for serving
chocolate. Unfortunately, the pictures contained a nasty glare from the
glass so I have not included them here.

Check out this huge life-size sampler!
Imagine it real chocolate? Dreaming...

I found the chocolate candy cushion seats scattered throughout
the exhibit to be especially cute and soft!

The exhibit concluded in a gift store with all things chocolate,
naturally.

How cute are these chocolate desserts made out of terry cloth towels?
After a taste of chocolate, I managed to get out with only purchasing
a tin of Chuao Chocolatier's Spicy Mayan Hot Chocolate.  Chuao makes
some wonderful chocolate products, if you haven't heard of them.

I wanted to bring this original spicy hot chocolate (sweetened thankfully!)
home and imagine myself back in the Mayan days... with the pyramids...
they would have loved the whipped cream!

Thank you for stopping by.

Fondly,
~ Karen

Ready, Set Your Tables!

We have gotten past Halloween and it is now November.
(Can you believe it?)

Time to start thinking about our Thanksgiving tables!

Pottery Barn gives mini-siminars and I recently

went to one on setting Thanksgiving and Holiday tables.

They began with a tablesetting for Thanksgiving showcasing
Mr. Tom Turkey proudly accompanied with artificial and mercury
glass pumpkins, using traditional autumn colors.

A close up of the tablesetting shows a beautiful linen
napkin along with a jar which can be used for possibly a
delicious butternut soup or an autumn brussels sprout slaw, or how
about spooning in pumpkin bread pudding for dessert?

They suggested using a transitional tablescape they felt

would work for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.  They teamed

the red tartan napkins with the leaf garland and kept the

mercury glass pumpkins and candlesticks.

Here is it from a different angle showing the matching

festive red tartan table runner on top a cream burlap-like

table runner. I love to see the mixing of gold and silver

as we can see a gold charger is included along with

the silver mercury glass and silver napkin rings.

I was loving these two extra-tall mercury glass candlesticks.

Items in the centerpiece should be either below eye level

or way above eye level in order for the guests to be able

to see each other while visiting and eating their meal. 

Candles (also votives) become a softscape that break up

the hardscape of the garlands.  It was nice to see

that mercury glass never goes out of style.  Pottery

Barn's mercury glass is applied on the inside so it can't flake

off on the outside like some less expensive ones.

 

The mini-seminar was held prior to the store opening

and included party planning and after-seminar

shopping with a discount for all attendees.

They offer many other mini-seminars so be

sure to check them out! 

 

Thank you for visiting...

 

This week, I will be joining the following parties:

 

The Style Sisters Centerpiece Wednesday


Fondly,

~ Karen

 



Happy Halloween!

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Safe Halloween...

and Boo!

~ Karen

A Night of Champagne and Serenity

A recent night out with my sorority sisters found us

drinking wine and champagne - something we enjoy -
and, painting... Serenity.
Sounds like we went to a relaxing spa but Serenity is the
name of the painting we were to create that night,
with a lot of help thank goodness!

There are drink-wine-as-you-paint venues popping up all over
where persons can bring their own wine and paint a 
painting with the assistance of an artist.

On our night, our painting was called Serenity.

We were at Paint n Vineyard.

We began by putting on a smock.

And along with about 40 other persons in the room we began.
Beginning with blank canvases as you can see,
the night continued with our closely following directions from
our artist (while listening to Michael Jackson songs!!) for each
step, as we sipped on champagne.  With only the primary
colors on our plastic plate "palette", we mixed colors to
achieve the colors we were asked to use.

And.... Voila! Our masterpieces!
I'd like to say the alcohol hindered my painting ability, but the

painting speaks for itself.  Alcohol or no alcohol.

What a fun evening!

Thank you for stopping by!

Fondly,

~ Karen

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere!

This time of the year, we see pumpkins everywhere!

On tables...

And more tables...

I found these pewter and gold pumpkins half-priced at Michael's.

I like the way they coordinate with the neutral fireplace and gold mirror.

The pewter-colored ones are my favorite!

Here is another gold one! 

We still have lovely roses here in Southern California!

And here they are all lined up, as if they are watching outdoors!

Where do you have your pumpkins?

I will be linking up with

Fondly,

~ Karen

It's Autumn and a Vegetarian Chili

It's Fall Y'all!

We seem to start a little later here in Southern California but

I'm beginning to feel it in the air and mornings have been crisp!

Fall to me screams warm soups and making bread!

I was looking through a local newspaper insert

and found this delicious (and healthy) vegetarian chili recipe.

Tomato Lentil Chili

served from my ever-faithful Le Crueset pot (stove to table!)

and served in lion head bowls from Sur Le Table.

Pick up a bowl (and spoon!) and enjoy!

This recipe includes bulgur along with the lentils for

a quick-cooking, high-fiber vegetarian chili that is perfect for fall!

I used Schilling's Mexican-Style Chili Powder which has a

respectable punch of heat, but I like it hot! so I added a bottle

of El Pato hotsauce on the side to add additional heat!

So let's bring out our Fall decorations and enjoy a great bowl of chili!

Do you have a favorite soup or chili recipe for Fall?

Tomato Lentil Chili

Source: Recipe by Serena Ball for Relish.com

Serves 6

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup dry lentils (red or brown)

1/2 cup quick-cooking bulgur

2 (14 1/2 oz) cans fat-free, reduced-sodium vegetable broth

1 1/2 cups water

1 (14 1/2 oz) can petite diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Yogurt, chopped red onion and hot sauce (optional)

Heat oil in large saucepan.  Add onion, bell pepper and garlic; cook 7 minutes.  Add remaining ingredients except toppings.  Simmer 30 minutes.  Serve with yogurt, onion and hot sauce.  

Please join me this week at

   

Have a great and delicious week!

Fondly,

~ Karen