It’s been a week since Easter and I realized that the only Easter thing I’ve posted since then has been the cocktail. Priorities!

It was a strange gathering in strange times. A few days prior, my dad decided he was not comfortable coming and that he’d rather stay home. He is alone, so this made me especially sad. My dad does not have internet, own a computer, and barely knows how to use his smartphone. Last year, his cellular carrier forced him to get rid of his flip phone and get a smartphone. He uses it strictly as a phone. He does not text, open a web browser, use the camera, etc. and does not want to learn how.

So early in the day, Connor and I took him plates of our Easter meal and I brought along my computer.

I set the laptop on boxes in his garage so that we would not need to go into his house. I used the hotspot on my phone to connect the laptop to WiFi and we were able to use Zoom so that he could see and talk to Marissa and Jeff in Austin. He was thrilled.

For our Easter meal, I set up three place settings using the 6-foot social distancing requirement. Connor was at one end of my 7-foot outdoor table and Dave was at the opposite end.

I had myself set up on a tray that was 6 feet from each of them since sitting in at the center area of the table would have positioned us too close together.

The guys were required to enter through the back gate into my backyard and were not permitted to go inside the house. We had a FaceTime call with Dave’s mom, brother, nieces, and nephew in Illinois. Then another Zoom call with Marissa and Jeff where we played games with the Jackbox.TV app.

I made a small Easter Harmony Board for the guys to share at the main table, the half with the yellow and green grass for Dave and the half with the pink and purple grass for Connor. Everyone had their own serving utensils, wine bottles, pitchers for the signature cocktail, etc. so that nothing was shared or touched by anyone else.

This means that I had a little Harmony Board of my own. All for me!

Before I get to today’s post, I want to give you a heads up about next week. My friend, Ronnie, had an ingenious idea for a new feature. On March 31st, she challenged me to help her create a dish with what she had on hand in her pantry and refrigerator. She gave me a list of four items and asked for a menu idea. She said, “… just use your experience and wealth of knowledge to come up with a plan.” She’s right, with all of us doing our best to STAY HOME, shop less and use what we have, this is the perfect time for such a challenge.

So yeah, challenge accepted!

On Monday I will share what Ronnie’s items were, what I suggested she make with them, and exactly how she could go about doing that. I’ll also share the photos of her process and her finished dish and exactly how she did go about doing it.

Between now and then, if you would like to send me a Pantry/Refrigerator Challenge – PLEASE DO!

Please shoot me an email at [email protected] with a list of what you have on hand and I will come up with a plan for using those items to make a dish/meal. Then you make the dish/meal and send me photos of the process and the finished dish to share here. This will be FUN!

NOTE: Please type Pantry/Refrigerator Challenge or something similar in the subject line so that if it goes into my spam folder, it will catch my eye and prevent me from tossing it in the trash.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming….

Ann asked me to show the colored and filled eggs from yesterday’s post. Ann, my pleasure!

There will only be three of us for this unusual and unprecedented Easter Sunday, so only three of the eggs were filled with egg salad.

The remaining six hold mini spring bouquets sitting in my collection of pretty egg cups.

Yesterday, I received an email from eagle-eyed reader, Jennifer, after she spotted something unusual in one of the photos from my New & Improved Zucchini Bread post.

Can you see what it is that she spotted and had a question about?

It’s official – I can no longer say, “I’m back,” as a heading to a post. I’ve used that a few times after a planned extended break from blogging. I said, “I’m back!” as recently as last spring. I meant it at the time. I wholeheartedly planned on getting back to blogging on a regular basis, but then life, in the form of a new business, got in the way.

It’s been more than a month since my last post. As soon as summer remotely felt as if it was over, Harmony Boards took off like a speeding bullet and I’ve been non-stop, often working 12-hour days, ever since. I am not complaining! I love it, but it makes finding the time or wrapping my head around doing anything else, very difficult.

That changed with a comment I received from a loyal blog follower, former Les Gourmettes student, repeat blog contest winner, and friend, Shirley G.

Shirley { 10.20.19 at 8:33 AM }

Hey Linda,
I haven’t seen a blog post from you in a while…is everything alright? Did I accidentally remove myself from your list??? You know I am not the most tech-savvy person around…lol.
Thanks and I miss your posts!
xo,
Shirley

Thank you, Shirley, for the love, for missing me, and for giving me the wake-up call I needed! Here’s a recipe with a tablescape that I’ve been wanting to post. It is from a dinner party I co-hosted on Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day. My co-host, Angela, is 100% Italian. So this 100% Irish girl and Angela taught a lovely group of women to make Gnocchi and I made up a big pot of Cacio e Pepe Pasta (literally cheese and pepper) and an even bigger bowl of Panzanella Salad and of course, an antipasto Harmony Board. We sat outside and it was a glorious night celebrating Italian food and the end of a long hot summer.

I loved this Thanksgiving. It was such a joy to cook a big meal for more than just our immediate family.

For years it’s just been the five of us; Dave, Marissa, Connor, my dad and me. Every few years, Dave’s mom would join us, which made the six of us. Still, that’s not many people to eat a meal that you go to so much work for.

Happily, in 2014, Jeff and his parents, Dean and Amy, joined us for the first time. Since my mother-in-law was here too, that took us all the way up to nine people, the most ever at our table!

Fast forward to this year. Steve and Tram are in a rental while their new home is being built. Steve’s parents are in town.

Add in the twins, Zak and Zoey and there are fourteen of us.

For the first time in… ever… I am actually cooking for a respectable number of people, thus making the huge Thanksgiving feast worthy of being called a feast. I am in my element!

I mean, it’s the same number of dishes I make every year, but this year it made sense to go to all that work. Love it!!

And, of course, having 2 ½-year-old twins join in the day, makes everything more fun! Zak and Zoey are so adorable and well-behaved. I’m in love with them and so are Connor, Marissa, and Jeff.

I posted a few photos on Instagram and my friend, Sheila, called them Bigs and Littles.

So sweet!

OK, how about some tablescaping?

Since we were at fourteen and my dining room table seats only eight comfortably, we had to eat outside. Not a problem in Arizona, even in November. But just in case it did rain, I flip-flopped the furniture arrangements. Moving all the seating that is under the long covered “fireplace patio” to the open patio area and moving the oblong table that is usually out in the open, to the covered area.

I also brought over the rustic 60-inch wood round table from the other covered patio to create one long table. The photo above is of the two tables under the covered patio and the beginnings of my table arranging. This all took place early on Wednesday morning.

At the same time that I was setting this up, I was also cooking; smoking a turkey breast, making bread dough, cranberry-pomegranate sauce, butternut soup, and prepping the sweet potatoes and stuffing. So by the time this photo was taken of the finished tables, it was late afternoon.

The oblong table was covered with a tablecloth since it’s a patio table and not attractive enough for placemats. Not to mention that I don’t have 12 matching Thanksgiving placemats and napkins anyhow.

The two tables were joined by two large green Jarrahdale pumpkins along with a large white pumpkin. Jarrahdale is my favorite pumpkin. I drove all the way Chino Valley to buy some a few years ago when I couldn’t find them locally. Now that they are available in a few places, I’ll drive to half a dozen different stores to find them.

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Today’s recipe was one of the two side dishes that accompanied the Pork Schnitzel at my German-Swiss Dinner Party.

It’s an extremely easy and quick recipe and a great side dish for just about any main course.

The other thing I’m sharing today is a few photos of a quick taping I did yesterday for Channel 12. I received a text message from one of Tram’s colleagues, Nico, at 7:45 in the morning asking if he could come by in a couple of hours to film a “how to set the table” segment. I told him sure, that I could be ready by 10:00.

I knew it wasn’t going to air until November, so I started pulling out the Thanksgiving stuff. Luckily, I’d just hauled the Halloween decor out of the shed over the weekend, so I knew exactly where the Thanksgiving tubs were located.

Next, I went out into the Miscellany Shed and pulled out the wood slabs to use as chargers and a handful of antlers.

Finally, I dug through the various china cabinets to round up the dishes, crystal and flatware.

One unfortunate thing happened though, I broke one of the wine glasses from my wedding crystal. I’d love to blame it on the cats (they were annoyingly underfoot) or on my rushing, but it was just general clumsiness. Even after sweeping twice, I kept finding glass, long after the shoot was over.

I didn’t get my Halloween decorations put out, which was my plan for the day before the text arrived, but I was ready when Nico arrived… and that’s saying something!

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Today and tomorrow will round out the posts from Easter. The problem is, I can’t decide which to do first, the dessert or the tablescape. So while I’m thinking about it – I’ll begin with this, the last entry from my Austin trip.

First, there was our boat cruise on Lady Bird Lake to watch the bats, then we got on the lake once again. This time on WaterBikes.

It’s an easy and fun way to cruise down the river and you’re just about guaranteed to stay dry. It would take some real effort to tip one of these over or fall off. I like staying dry! Plus, look at that gorgeous view of downtown Austin. Totally worth it!

We had a good variety of meals while I was there. I already told you about the Gospel Brunch at Stubb’s BBQ. We also enjoyed wonderful seafood at the very cute and quaint Clark’s Oyster Bar where we, of course, had oysters.

Our high-end night out was at Lenoir Restaurant, a farm-to-table – prix-fixe menu, sort of place.

What I enjoyed most about Lenoir was that they let you choose your three prix-fixe items from any part of the menu you wish. Generally, you must pick one dish from each category; let’s say one from Field, one from Sea, one from Land, and/or a dish from Dream. Here, you can have all three of your selections from Sea if that’s what you want to do. Nice!

Clockwise from the Top we had: Tuna Crudo, Cashew Ginger Soup, Braised Pork, Smoked Duck, Herb Stozzapreti, and Almond Crusted Snapper. I think this was Marissa’s favorite meal of the weekend.

My favorite was at a place much more casual, El Alma, which is within walking distance from the kids’ apartment. Marissa had the vegetarian Enchiladas Placeras, while Jeff and I had the Shrimp and Crab Relleno. The best Relleno I’ve had in a very long time! I’ll be dreaming about it until I get my fix the next time I visit!

That wraps up Austin. And posting that helped me decide that today it would be best to share the Easter tablescape with you. The dessert, a cake, has so many photos to go along with it, that I’ll save that for tomorrow when I have no more travel photos to share.

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You’ve seen my drink station…

… the crudités setup…

… which was cleared and turned into the brunch buffet.

Now it’s time for the Easter Tablescape 2013!

At the time, I didn’t realize that I had a theme going, but now I see that I did indeed.

“Eggs, Eggcups, Flowers, and Nests”

Eggs and Eggcups with flowers and succulents.

More of the same – with the addition of some nests.

More flowers, in tin buckets with nests on them… how original!

If you look closely, in the background you will spot my wind turbine turned hanging light fixture. Sweet!

Another hanging fixture that I love to highlight and use whenever I get the chance, is the chandelier vase that hangs over the sunken kitchen at the swim-up bar.

The pool was still much too cold to swim in, but I was grilling the pomegranate lamb chops down in the kitchen, so I wanted it to look pretty for the occasion.

Filled with stock and daffodils.

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Before I continue to tell you about the party planning for Peggy’s 50th – I first have to say…

Happy Birthday, Peggy!

Today is her actual birthday.

One of the wonderful party ideas I found on Pinterest was to take a bunch of photos of the honoree and create a huge “50” with them. I gathered photos of Peggy, scanned them onto my computer, edited each one into gray scale, and printed them out.

Next, I taped sheets of newspaper to my marble fireplace and taped the photos to the newspaper.

I then carefully took down the numbers and placed them on a flat surface to trim the newspaper backing.

The “5” was on the fragile side, so I reinforced the weak center area with a bit of cardboard on the backing.

This was all done about a week before the party, so into the garage staging area, the numbers went to stay out of harm’s way until party time.

I was able to buy two pink crinkle taffeta 117-inch round tablecloths, four pink crinkle taffeta 60×126-inch tablecloths, six gold organza runners, one embroidered chair slipcover, one fuchsia satin chair sash, 50 gold, pink, and fuchsia napkins, and one 90-inch gold organza overlay for only $107 – and that included the shipping! They all washed up perfectly too, no ironing was needed. I could not have been happier with the selection of table linen cloths I had. I’ve always thought that how you decorate your tables is the backbone of any event; it sets the theme and tone.

Here is what the preliminary “mock table” looked like in my staging area.

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This is the final tablescape of 2012.
Heck, it’s the final post of 2012!

It’s New Year’s Eve! TIME to Party!

We are going to a neighbor’s home for New Year’s Eve cocktails and dinner this evening.

Prior to my fall from the ladder, I was planning on having a little New Year’s Eve gathering of my own, but we were very grateful when we got the invite to another party. Especially one that we don’t have to drive to!

In all honestly, the main reason I wanted to host a celebration of my own, was so I could set a pretty table.

Crazy, I know!

I have seen clock face plates all over the web recently and have been so sad that I missed out before Pottery Barn and Ralph Lauren sold out of them, the past couple of years. If you ever see anything similar to any of these, please let me know! I’m dying to get my paws on some!

Back in October, I tried to make some knockoffs – using a clock patterned fabric and Mod Podge.

Umm, they didn’t turn out so great.

Then I saw a photo on Pinterest using a paper clock-face image, set between a large charger and a clear glass plate …

Bingo!

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