Category — Entertaining

This was my horoscope on Tuesday.

How perfect is that? Oh, here are the last few words you can’t see, “… nourishment and warm feelings.”

It’s perfect because I already had on my calendar two dinner parties this week.

Peggy and Anne were over last night and my dear friend, Karen, who was a bridesmaid in my wedding 27 years ago, and her husband Bob, are coming over for dinner tomorrow night. Got to Love It!

Are you ready for the onslaught of Meyer lemon recipes? I hope so, that is what I’ll be making for quite a while now!

Don’t have Meyer lemons? Not to worry. You can use regular lemons in any of my recipes that call for Meyer lemons.

I saw a photo of a version of this salad on Pinterest and was inspired by the use of a trifle bowl to serve it in. I created the recipe from scratch but stole the visuals and serving idea. If you don’t have, but have always wanted, a trifle bowl – Crate & Barrel always has them in stock.

It’s so pretty and springtime fresh and it turned out to be a delicious main course salad. I’m sure Peggy and Anne will attest to that. It would be lovely as a side salad on a buffet too.

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Being laid up this Christmas forced me to slow down, take it easy, and back off on the usual excess.

I’m sure you are now expecting me to say something along the lines of, “Man, slowing down and taking it easy sure did feel great! I’m going to try and do that next year and in all the years to come!”

Um, No!  In fact, it didn’t feel all that good. I love going crazy at Christmas! I thrive in the excess, the excitement, and the commotion. I am in my element in the hustle and the bustle.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still thoroughly enjoyed this Christmas.

How could I not? My injury is minor compared to what it could have been! Both of my kids are home, which is, and will always be, the best present of all! We still went to Christmas Eve mass and had my mom and sister over for Christmas Eve dinner.  We still relaxed and hung out on Christmas day with my dad.

But, I’d planned to do so much more. Create, grocery shop for, and execute two big meals. Decorate more! Be creative and make more crafty Pinterest-worthy homemade stuff.

That’s OK. Next year!

So, this year, instead of the usual crown pork roast on Christmas Eve, we had a HoneyBaked Ham. (Thank you, sweet Amy, for picking that up for me!) We served the ham on King’s Hawaiian rolls with my homemade mustards and horseradish.

Marissa and Connor worked together to make our favorite Brussels Sprout Salad plus a Haricot Verts Salad.

Sloane brought over a bread pudding and I made a simple rum sauce for it. We served that along with the Freezer Eggnog Pie for dessert.

All of it was simple, festive, easy, and delicious.

Sadly, we did not have our traditional potato rolls and they were sorely missed.  Thankfully, I did have enough of the dough leftover from Thanksgiving, that I had frozen, so we still had our traditional Cinnamon Rolls and Brown Sugar Bacon on Christmas morning.  The only difference – Marissa made the sweet rolls this year ~ and they were perfect!

Above you can see her mixing the cinnamon and sugar together before sprinkling it onto the dough she rolled out into the perfect 10-inch by 16-inch rectangle.  There on the island, in the background, is the bacon, ready for the oven.

And instead of the usual beef tenderloin for Christmas dinner, we had fondue! Blue Cheese Fondue, and it was delicious and fun! Marissa made the fondue and Connor helped with the dippers, the prep, and clean-up.

I have the best kids in the world!

Yes, I adore them, today and every day! They even posed, trying to reenact a portrait that they sat for some 19 years ago. At 21, Connor doesn’t quite have that 2-year-old pout down anymore, but they’re still cute!

OK, enough about how fabulous my kids are and what we ate!

Time to get down to business – the tablescapes!

Since I wasn’t able to help much with clean-up, I went low-key on that too. None of the usual hand-washing of dishes on Christmas Eve, everything was dishwasher-safe.

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These pinwheels are an adorable, festive, and savory appetizer fit for any holiday table. When I made them for the Christmas Craft Party, I wasn’t able to find the lovely green spinach tortillas. I hope you will search them out if you whip this up for Christmas, the mix of green and white tortillas makes for a lovely presentation.

Tomorrow and Saturday – are the last two days of my 12 days of Gifts from the Kitchen series. Hope you’re excited!

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Before I begin my recipe post for the day, I want to say thank you to all of you who have reached out to me here, through email, phone calls, texts, and Facebook.  Your care, concern, offers of help, and well wishes for my speedy recovery make me humble and grateful to my very core. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You really know how to make a girl feel very loved! For updates, check out the bottom of this post and those in the coming days. xoxo

Here is another quick, easy, and super tasty holiday appetizer for you.

Crab Rangoon Dip

16-ounces (2 packages) cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup diced green onions
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
1 pound crab meat; such as Phillips brand from Costco

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

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Maybe I should feel guilty about putting this up as a “recipe” – but honestly, I don’t.

I saw a photo of this on Pinterest several months ago and finally made it this past Saturday for our Christmas Crafts Class.

The tasty little picks disappeared right before my eyes. So yeah, I’m gonna write it up as a real recipe.

The original Pinterest post I saw used Serrano ham. I used prosciutto, salami, and other thinly sliced cured and smoked meats I had leftover from my Thanksgiving appetizer tray.

Any thinly sliced smoked or cured meat will work. Let’s see – Capocollo, Pancetta, Mortadella, Sopressata, Iberico Ham, Speck, or Calabrese … any and all would all be perfectly lovey.

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This salad was one of the easiest dishes I made for the Christmas Crafts Party and it seemed to be the most popular thing on the table… go figure!

It kinda looks like a hot mess, but I have to admit, it was pretty darn tasty. I adapted the recipe from one I found on the Hidden Valley® website.

Southwestern Cornbread Salad

12 homemade cornbread muffins, cooled completely and then coarsely crumbled, divided
2.25-ounce can sliced ripe olives, drained, and then set to dry on paper towels
16-ounce can pinto beans, rinsed, drained, and then set to dry on paper towels
11-ounce can whole kernel sweet corn, drained and then set to dry on paper towels
1 cup Hidden Valley® Spicy Ranch Dressing, divided
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded, and diced
1/2 cup diced red onion
1 cup tomatoes, diced and then drained on paper towels
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

In large salad bowl place, half of the cornbread crumbled muffins.

Next layer on the drained olives and pinto beans.

Follow that up with drained corn and 1/2 cup of the dressing.

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Since Marissa and Dave’s mom fly back home today and Connor heads back to school, Thanksgiving is officially over at the Hopkins’ home. Let’s take one last glance back before the Christmas holiday crush begins.

My 2012 Thanksgiving tablescape and buffets were a lovely mix of pumpkins, silver, and burlap, vintage and new.

To begin, I laid my burlap runner diagonally down the center of the table and placed a burlap placemat on the seat.

I hollowed out one of the blue-green Jarrahdale pumpkins and used it as the container for the central floral part of the centerpiece. Originally I planned to set it atop a Bordallo Pinheiro Cabbage Leaf pedestal plate, but it was too high and would have prevented guests from seeing each other.

It was the perfect height on an oval maroon Bordallo Pinheiro grape leaf platter.

A silver charger was set down at each place and then every other place setting received either this vintage Johnson Brothers Native American Wild Turkey dinner plate or…

… this is Johnson Brothers’ “Wild Turkeys” dinner plate.

More Johnson Brothers plates were added next – a Friendly Village bowl went atop the dinner plate and the Johnson Brothers Friendly Village square salad plate was placed at the top left as a bread plate. Mixed pattern flatware and a stag horn steak knife were set in their proper places.

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Yesterday I shared with you the details of my typical day of summer cooking school.  What I failed to mention is that I NEVER, and I mean NEVER, do anything in the evenings after classes.  I don’t go out with friends. I don’t have friends or family over. I don’t entertain or want to be entertained. I am basically a hermit crab, retreating into my shell and just trying to rejuvenate for the next day.  Sounds like a great life for 5 or 6 weeks, doesn’t it?  On the weekends in-between, I don’t plan or do much either. Maybe we’ll take in a Diamondbacks game or have my dad over on Sunday, but in general, I don’t like to have people over to the house because it’s a mess and honestly just way too much work and effort.

All that being said… last night… I broke my own unwritten self-imposed rule. And you know what? It wasn’t all that bad. After I finished cleaning up from class at about 2:30, I got busy setting up my tablescape and cooking. As you can see in the photos below, I had it pretty much under some semblance of control amid the chaos by 4:00 PM.

At 6:30 a handful of lovely ladies from my neighborhood arrived for our first-ever book club night. OK, it wasn’t just any book club night, we actually named it the “Dirty Book Club”.  With those three words, you may have already guessed the book we had read.  And, yes, you are on the money – the book in question is 50 Shades of Grey, by E. L. James.

No need for me to give you a “spoiler alert” if you haven’t read the book and plan to do so.  I will not be giving anything of importance away unless knowing that the book is set in the cities of Portland and Seattle would just ruin it for you.  Oops, now you know that. Honestly, nothing of plot significance will be revealed, so read on with confidence.

I had fun with the theme, and not for the reasons that just inadvertently popped into your own dirty mind. The book makes specific references to the food they ate; from the pancakes and bacon that Anastasia has for breakfast most mornings, to specific meals they have at fancy restaurants, to the many varietals of wine, almost always white wine, that they drink. In addition, Anastasia loves Twinings English breakfast tea and Christian is constantly telling her she needs to eat and to take Advil.  Along with the food and drink specifics, there are many references to music… making a playlist was a no-brainer.  Without further ado – here is your complete party plan.

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On Saturday, my friend and neighbor, Amy (that would the Amy – as in Amy’s Famous Taco Soup) hosted a French-themed baby shower for her girlfriend, Melissa.  It is true, I can’t mention Amy without referring to her soup.  Sorry, I simply cannot! I mean, I love soup and I love Amy, so it is just impossible.

Anyhow, back to the baby shower. Since I have a truckload of French stuff, Amy and Melissa asked if I’d help with buffet tablescapes. Yes, of course, I would love to!

Seriously, if I don’t use as much of my “stuff” as often and in as many ways as possible, how am I going to continue convincing Dave that I NEED and USE this stuff.  Matter of fact, I’ve loaned out my French “props” twice in the month of April alone.  First, decorate the stage at the Jacques Pepin taping and again for this adorable baby shower. Proof positive that my treasures are not junk to be easily disposed of.  See ladies, you were doing me the favor, not the other way around.  Thank you!

Back to the baby shower, again! At the time the invites went out, Melissa did not know the sex of the baby. So instead of the usual baby colors of pink or blue for the theme, she chose lavender. Reminiscent of the lavender fields throughout the French countryside.  So Pretty!

Amusez-vous s’il vous plaît ! (enjoy please!)

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For Easter, I rearranged the hanging basket, over the sunken swim-up kitchen… keeping the ivy and replacing the roses with purple iris, daisies, and lilies.

Then, I drew all the new drop-cloth drapes on the patio, to keep the sun and warmth out, turned on the ceiling fans, and we had a beautiful late-afternoon dinner outside.

The place settings consisted of my collection of pink and green Bordallo Pinheiro majolica plates. Here is how I built each setting.

The green salad plate varied from one seat to another.

The bunny plate on the bottom right is my favorite, I particularly love the edging on that one!

For holiday dinners, I usually plate each course, but since Connor’s roommate was joining us, I didn’t want to make any assumptions about what he might or might not eat.  So instead, I set up a buffet.

We dined on Brussels Sprout Salad, Challa, Fruit Skewers, Smashed and Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Roasted Leg of Lamb with Zinfandel Sauce, a glazed spiral ham from Costco, and Plum and Raspberry Upside-Down Cake.

The fruit skewers are self-explanatory – and just click on the names of any of the other dishes to get to the recipe. Below you will find the recipes for the lamb and the potatoes.

Even though Connor and his roommate, Patrick, are both nearly 21, they still enjoyed searching for, (above) and then playing with (below) the stuff in, their Easter baskets.

Oh, and turns out, I could have saved on the washing of a bunch of bowls and platters and just plated the meal after all. Patrick ate it up!

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