Diet, what diet ?!, originally uploaded by gandh41.
This is not the proper way to eat a scone. This icky mess is an eye sore and will most likely end up all over your hands and face and up your nose!
To properly eat a scone; tear/break off a bite sized piece, spread a layer of jam first (from your plate, placed there by you instead of scooping it out every time you need jam) then add a layer of cream on top of the jam.Continue to eat your scone piece by piece and not bite by bite.
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I remember going to ladies’ homes with my mother when I was a child. These ladies seemed old to my child’s eyes. Most of them had a blue, Royal Dansk, tin filled with shortbread cookies/biscuits. Years later when I worked at a local drug store, from 18-20, whenever these cookies were on sale, ladies would come into the store in droves to buy them up. They no longer seem so old fashioned and silly but have taken on a feel of charming and homey.
Do you keep a biscuit tin/barrel or cookie jar on hand? I have a Mamie cookie jar that embarrasses my husband. It was painted by a friend of my mother’s years ago. It is in those 70’s orange colors but I love it, maybe because it was always full and ready to offer hospitality and comfort in an instant.
Well, I do not own any cute tea dresses, yet. So I will include a couple of links to sites that have cute tea dresses. In the mean time, let me tell you about my weekend. Went and watched my nephew play quarterback for the first time on Saturday. He did very well and was so excited and cute (and sweaty!) after the game.
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Then, mom and dad treated me to lunch at a local chain Italian restaurant. Then, I went home and made a batch of cookies and watched, Enchanted. The cookies I make are almost a meal in and of themselves. They have chocolate, peanut butter, rolled oats and wheatgerm in them, among other ingredients. They are nice and heavy. Very substantial. About half way through the movie, Tech Hubby comes into the bedroom and says, ‘let’s go have sushi!’ so I went. It was very good except for one thing, some of the rolls they made up ahead of time and stored in the fridge to cut down on prep time because they get so busy, well, they weren’t very good. The rice was of course cold and we thought, ‘why stay here and eat them, they are cold already’, so we packed up what was left and took it home.
On Sunday, we went to church. Sermon was good, it was about being content. One of the ladies came up to me and wants to get together and talk about teaching kids etiquette. Woohoo! Thank you, Lord for passing on Your wisdom on the matter to her. When I speak to her I will talk to her about including boys as they need to know this stuff too, it’s not just for girls. BTW, the nephew just went through cotillion and LOVED it!
Here are the dress links.
Here is a whole page of listings.
Have fun surfing!
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I had had a hope ‘chest’ for years. I started collecting things for it when I was in my senior year of high school. It was more of a collection of things to use when I loved out on my own, though, than things to be saved for my marriage. Good thing too because I didn’t get married until I was 37! lol When the big announcement was made or even while my husband and I were still dating, my mother made several things which I use, but cherish. Some embroidered pillow cases and ea towels, two of the tea towels I think someone helped themselves to as I can no longer find them. They may have walked off at a pot luck. This breaks my heart, not because of course of a monetary value, but because my mother now has arthritis in her fingers and can not make new ones to replace those which have been taken. I do still have one of the tea towels she made. It has a pretty blue teapot decoration and, yes, it does get used. I figure I may as well use my cute things as they probably would be sold at an estate sale when I die and someone else would use them for me later if I don’t use them now. Here it is.
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Here, not at all tea related, is a picture of some, ‘girls’ sunning themselves in a neighbor’s yard. I think it’s funny that two of them hopped the fence to lay in the grass (one was just out of camera range behind the building which is why you can’t see her).
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Winter is very determined this year to hang on until the end. I would not be surprised if it snowed in July this year. It’s happened before, you know.
Some one was surfing the net looking for attire etiquette for a garden tea party where gloves and hats will be worn. If you are going some place where hats and gloves will be worn, whether it is inside or out, wear a dress or skirt. If you are concerned with the heels of your shoes sinking into the ground, wear flat or low, wide heeled shoes.
Last but certainly not least, I used the word, whimsical, today. I was happy that I had the chance to use such a whimsical word as whimsical. That just doesn’t happen too often but perhaps it should. I like to imagine a world where such words as, whimsical, enchanting and delightful are used more than, recession, Jihad, and alternative lifestyle. How about you? What words would you like to see make a come back? Oh, here is a link to the site that delighted me enough to use the word whimsical. LINK
I love sci-fi. Not all of it, mind you, as it can get hokey if not done correctly, but I love, love LOVE! Stargate Atlantis. For me, it is THE BEST ever sci-fi show. I enjoy it even more than SG-1. I know that without SG-1, there may not have been an Atlantis, but I don’t care. I think Atlantis is funnier and better written than SG-1. I have lost more fingernails to Atlantis (nail biting-literally!) than I can count.
Here’s a LINK to the site.
My other confession? I am totally wrapped up in a Korean ’soap opera’ right now, titled; Dae Jang Geum. I have written about this one before on my blog. I don’t care that it’s in Korean and I have to read subtitles (for several days now, for hours on end, much to the dismay of my husband) the dvd set is a 14 day check out from my library and I finished it in three days. I would have been done sooner but I had to stop for home group. It is a three volume set with 54 episodes! Whew! Here’s the wiki LINK for that one. Why do I enjoy it so much? The ladies all look meticulous and wear lovely dresses in pretty colors. I have enjoyed allowing myself to be immersed in the lives of the characters. There are many, many fabulous scenes of palace cuisine being prepared. There is unrequited love, devotion, murder, betrayal, sacrifice, deep and loving friendships, and love. There are many scenes of people gathered around lavishly appointed tables of food and tea enjoying themselves and each other because food is not just something to keep your blood sugar up, oh no, it is an event!
This series emphasizes the effects food can have on your emotional and physical health. You even get to learn about how different foods and medicines can work together to heal or harm a person. If you haven’t already watched this show, run out and find it and make the time commitment to enjoy it. If you enjoy tea and cooking and great drama, you’ll love, Dae Jang Geum as much as I did.
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Uncle Tony is a republican, Aunt Betty, a democrat. This year’s election is hot, hot, hot! Do you really want the two of them seated together? At a meal with knives? While you want the conversation at the table to be lively, you want to make sure it doesn’t hedge on homicidal. Sit down with paper and pen in hand, or, if you really want to get fancy and technical, you can create a seating algorithm, but I’m an old fashioned paper and pen kinda gal so follow along with me on this, ‘k?
Take a stack of 3×5 index cards and write on each one, the name, occupation and general interests of a particular guest until you have a card for each guest. You may either take the cards to your table to help you visualize, or, just lay them out in front of you like playing cards. You are sort of playing a game. You are strategically placing all the ‘pieces’ on your ‘board game’ . The out come of this ‘game’ is to have a successfully, engaging evening without bloodshed. when you are finished, make a seating chart. Take a piece of paper and on it, draw your table and write in each guests name where they are to be seated. Either make them your self, or have place cards made up ahead of time and on the day of the event, after the table is set, place them at the head of each place setting at the op of the plate or in the center as a decoration, so that everyone knows where to sit. This is your dinner party, take charge of it and it will turn out better than you might think.
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It’s time to celebrate! Dig out your good stuff. You know, the things you tuck away and save for ’special occasions’. Personally, I think we should all use those things everyday that we tuck away and never use because we are always waiting for the special occasion that never comes telling ourselves we are too busy to entertain. I imagine entire neighborhoods filled with homes whose china hutches and linen closets are packed with items that are never used. Break out your good stuff people and let’s get to work.
If, however, you do not have closets and drawers full of unused items waiting to be put into service or your drawers and cabinets are full of mismatched items, and you are reluctant about inviting people over because you don’t have enough matching dishes, you can do several things to remedy the situation. The dollar store has clear glass dishes. You can either flesh out the dishes you already have with a few extra from the dollar store by mixing them in with the others to blend them together, or, you can buy an entire new set of clear glass dishes and use them for every occasion, changing out the table decorations to match the season in which you’re entertaining. You may also mix and match your present collection of dinnerware as I have done here in this photo. The dishes are a combination of my grandmother Hagemeir’s dishes(the small roses) and dishes I found at a local thrift store (the large roses). On the side, you can see a crystal sugar bowl and creamer. Neither set of dishes has a complete cream and sugar set so I used the crystal set (from Princess House I’ve had for years) to complete the table scape. Are you on good terms with one or more of your neighbors? You may try asking her if you could borrow some of what you need from her (only if you are in very good standing with her) some things to remember about borrowing; you must return the item/s the very next day, clean and in the same or better condition in which you received them. If the item is antique and irreplaceable and you are concerned it may become damaged, do not borrow it. If the item does become damaged whether you forgot and put it into the dish washer and the paint faded, you broke it into a million pieces, or it’s stained beyond redemption, you replace it. You don’t had her the money and say, ’sorry’, you go to the store, buy a new one and profusely apologize for your clumsiness. To say thank you to your neighbor for her gracious behavior in lending you what you needed to pull off your event, invite your neighbor over for a cup of tea and something good to eat on top of the thank you note you gave to her when you returned the item. A little token (gift) of your appreciation can’t hurt either. You could send home a plate of cookies with her that you baked for the rest of her family to enjoy.
If you’re new to the area and haven’t made such close neighborly connections, open up the phone book or go on-line and look for the nearest party planner rental place. These can be life savers if you don’t want to buy extra plates, napkins or certain decorations. A quick call later, and you can either pick up, or have delivered to you, what you need to complete your table scape.
Plan out how you want your table to look ahead of time. Do a practice run. Set everything up exactly how you want it to look, then take a picture of it for two reasons;1. The day of the event you will be focused on other things. You may not remember how the table looked and with the picture, you can delegate the job of setting the table to someone else. They will know exactly how you want everything to look and you don’t have to waste valuable time showing them what to do. 2. File it away to use for another event. You’ll not only have it as a guide but you will have a keepsake of how pretty your table looked.
Remember, no matter how you choose to decorate your table, entertaining is about people. All the little extras you do make it that much more enjoyable for everyone (and hopefully yourself) but don’t focus on what you do or don’t have on the table, focus on who is sitting around it. Tomorrow, I will discuss seating arrangements. Seating arrangements can make or break a dinner party.
Please use the comments or my email to ask me any questions you may have about entertaining. I’m happy to answer them for you.
Happy sipping!
Sis and I and Rocket went to the d.p. again yesterday. Why, WHY do people bring their aggressive lame-oid dogs to the d.p.? If your dog needs socialization skills, take it to a trainer first, THEN come to the d.p. when it’s over whatever issues it has OR put it on the necessary meds. You know, the ones that DON’T make it want to run full speed at other dogs which can hurt them. There was a Boston terrier there that did this. I was standing next to Rocket and another lady who had a 4 month old Boston terrier. Another lady with a full grown Boston T. came in. Her dog, big and heavier than our two, kept running at Rock and the puppy. Its owner just stood there looking (sorry but it’s true) dazed and confused. Finally I addressed the dog which made the owner wake up and leash her dog. I’ve seen this before, both with Rock and other people’s dogs. The owner of the offending dog just stands there watching their dog act aggressively, sometimes attacking, another dog without even calling off their dog. I’ve seen some dog owners laugh at this. This is not cool people. If your dog is aggressive, take it out of the d.p. and do not get an attitude if the owner of the dog your dog is trying to eat uses whatever means necessary to get your dog to stop its behavior if you’re not going to do anything about it. Okay, now that I’m done venting, let’s look at some cute picks. Btw the lady who owned the Boston was very nice about me telling her dog to stop.
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Sis, on the right, and I sitting at a picnic table at the dog park. Can you imagine trying to have a picnic with 10-15 little dogs all begging for scraps?
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Here she comes! (cue theme song from Bonanza!)
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Soon, everything will be in bloom. I can hardly wait, although, the starkness of the trees against the blue winter sky is quite lovely.
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