Cooking: My Easter Menu

Oh my goodness, I love holiday menus. The tried and true dishes that mark the year. Easter has to be my second favorite food holiday only trumped by Thanksgiving. But this year, I am shaking things up only a little… my family could not take anything too drastic.

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel at A Southern Fairytale posted this Bourbon Brown Sugar Ham recipe and I thought it sounded delicious. She is a fantastic cook and has wonderful recipes. 

Bourbon Brown Sugar Ham

• 3/4 to 1 1/2 C Bourbon Whiskey
• 2 C Brown Sugar (I think Dark would be best, I only had light)
• 1 Tbsp ground mustard

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
2. Place your ham fat side up on a rack in a roasting pan and score in a diamond pattern.. pour 3/4 C bourbon whiskey over ham and pour 1 C water in the bottom of the roasting pan.
3. Cover roasting pan tightly with foil or a roasting pan lid.
4. Bake your ham as directed.
5. Mix brown sugar, mustard and remaining bourbon whiskey in a bowl to create a paste.  When you have 40 minutes left for your ham, pull the ham out of the oven and remove the foil/lid.  Slather the paste onto the ham, use a spoon or basting tool and drizzle the juices from the roasting pan over the ham.  Re-cover the ham and place it back into the oven for the remaining amount of time.
6. Pull the ham out of the oven, allow it to cool and then slice.

 

Scalloped Potatoes

3 Tbsp butter
2 lbs (about 4 medium sized) Russet potatoes, peeled, sliced 1/8-inch thick
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 Tbsp chopped fresh chives (optional)
2 1/2 cups grated Swiss or Gruyere cheese (about 8 ounces)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
2 1/2 cups to 3 cups of half-and-half (half milk, half cream)
Salt and pepper

Roasted Asparagus

 

Deviled Eggs

Strawberry Salad

Sugar Cookies

Strawberry Pie

Plus fun Easter Candy, Easter Egg hunts, Church, Easter outfits, Pink ties on my hubby and son, Easter baskets and time with my beautiful family.

Housekeeping: Polishing Silver

With Easter coming, it is time to get the silver out and check if it needs a quick polish. Twice a year, I polish all the silver in the house; prior to Easter and Thanksgiving. My silver is stored in soft muslin to limit the amount of tarnish during the year… AIR = TARNISH.

Once I open up the muslin

The silver only requires a quick swipe of silver with a wet sponge and a little Wright’s Silver Cream.

Oh my goodness, look at my little mint julip cup and vase. I want to use them for Easter sooo they really need a good cleaning. You all think I am a good housekeeper…. Now I sharing my dirty silver.

 

A little elbow grease and they look much better.

All the silver polished and ready for Easter took less than 30 minutes. This silver should be good for another six months.

I think I will start getting the table ready for Easter.

A Beautiful Thing: The Art of Puttering

One of my favorite things to do is to putter around the home. I think that is a “woman” thing… though, comparable to men’s “tinkering”. Samuel Johnson said that “women have a great advantage that they may take up with little things without disgracing themselves….”

In order to putter, I put on a pretty apron, some music that fits my mood and open the doors and windows if possible.

Puttering to me is similar to putting order in the home but with a different twist. While I stack piles, water plants, dust with an ostrich feather and sweep, I also allow myself to rearrange objects, sort through drawers, pictures, etc. Puttering is the ability to look at my home with a fresh light… able to edit items, think of new solutions to problems and just the ability to enjoy my home without the pressure of rushing out the door.

My home and my spirit are better when I allow myself time to putter, to free my mind of the thoughts of the day and like Samuel Johnson “take up with little things”.

Again, I want to highlight how you make your life more beautiful for you and your family.

Do you putter? If not, you should!

Gardening: Gearing up for spring

As March is coming to a close and April rolls in, I am working in the garden just a little every day to get ready for planting… with the knee, I have to pace myself.

• Weeding
• Rot tilling in compost
• New mulch on walkways through the garden
• This weekend, planting cabbage and broccoli plants.
• Arugula is up and needs to be cut
• Lettuce seeds getting planted.
• Small garden fence getting set around the beds.

I love looking at my garden last year, it motivates me!!! Soon it will look like this again, I can’t wait. What garden chores are you doing?

P.S. Today is my birthday so I am not doing a thing today but having lunch with friends and dinner with the family

Decorating: An Easter Vignette

When I painted the kitchen, I knew the bay window would be a wonderful area to decorate for holidays or just to add pretty things to make the kitchen so lovely.

Combining all the decorations make for a pretty vignette .

Egg plates are so sweet and this egg plate is the sweetest. Plastic speckled eggs look real.

I love this cake plate and the bunny plate. Plus, who doesn’t love glitter?

The apothecary jars filled with eggs add height and interest. The eggs on the left were a wonderful yard sale find for $1.

I hope you enjoy my little Easter decorations and hope it inspires you to pull all your decorations together.

Who is training who?

We are training the dogs to eat without their kennel doors closed but last week, when we saw this picture… I laughed so hard but you also need an explanation…..

We put them inside their kennels, give them their bowls and then close the door but don’t lock it. In order to have this picture, the dogs had to open their doors and turn around to eat.

Again, who is training whom? We are attempting to train them but it looks like they will be training us.

A Beautiful Thing: Handwritten Notes

We are all busy and live in a wonderful era that we can tweet, IM, facebook, text, or email friends and families from our laptops, computers, smart phones or cell phones at the drop of a hat. However, I am a huge fan of hand written notes from friends and family.

Nothing is sweeter than opening the mailbox and seeing and envelop that you know is a note from a friend. It is a special feeling that someone took time out of their day to send me a note.

Loving handwritten notes are the nicest gift you can give your friends or your family. Here are a sample of the sweet cards I got over my surgery.

A note conveys that you took the time and thought of them.

Personalized stationary makes not only a sweet note but it is a wonderful gift. My children had personalized stationary from the time they could write their name. Vista Printing has some wonderful, inexpensive choices. Or you can make some note cards for your friends, remember my Christmas gifts!

Also, a thank you note is not only the gracious thing you can do to thank someone but also it is the appropriate response to a gesture to show your appreciation for their kindness.

As an Accomplished Woman, I love making life more beautiful and letting the people around me know how important they are to me. This year, I have decided to write one note to a family member or friend every month.

Sweetie Berry was kind enough to make us a button for the party. She is the kindest person and has the best heart.

So join the linky party. I want to be inspired by you!!! What do you do to make life more beautiful.

Gardening: Grass Seed

Here in the south, we work hard to maintain a soft, luscious lawn. March is a key time to aerate and supplement the lawn with grass seed.

The first step is to know what type of grass you already have in your yard. We have Kentucky Fescue 31 but if you are unsure, take a picture, and a small patch of sod from your yard, a quarter size to your local nursery to ask them what type of grass seed you will need.

The next step to this process is to aerate the yard. I use a plug aerator, like this one and attach it to the back of my riding lawn mower.

Source

Now, I know that I need to aerate because I have clay soil, but if you have sandy soil, you may not need to aerate. Also, if you are going to aerate, doing it at this time of year allows you to expose the soil without hurting your lawn through high heat. Spring is also a wonderful time to aerate because the soil is damp and soft.

Next, I spread the grass seed with a spreader according to the setting on the back of the bag.

Source

Next, I ride back and forth, spreading the grass seed as evenly as possible across the lawn. I do stop and fill in any holes in the yard with additional seed.

Over the next ten days, I will keep an eye on the yard. As long as it either rains or the grass has morning dew, the seed will germinate. However, if we have several dry days, I will need to wet down the seed but that is rarely necessary.

In the next three weeks, the seed will germinate and fill in the lawn, making it lush and full.

Progress Report: Week #4

Four weeks after my knee replacement;

1. I have started riding a stationary bike at rehab.. only for five minutes but at least I am riding.
2. Able to get around the house without the cane.
3. Today, I went to the garden and dig around a little…. very little but at least I am out there.
4. I am making meals.. yeah, finally.
5. I baked cookies for my physical rehab peeps.. I have abused them a little, okay, a lot and feel bad, so I will ply them with food.
6. My hair, my nails and toes all got done last week, so I am back to looking human again.

I am so happy to be getting back to normal and not looking forward to going through this again in 8 weeks but you cannot imagine the hope of being fully functional and able to walk without pain is worth all this effort.

Cooking: Roasted Asparagus

During the winter, I try very hard to infuse summer flavor in every dish. Roasting asparagus is an easy dish that pumps up the flavor.

Clean and cut the asparagus to remove the woody part.

Put on baking dish, sprinkle with salt, pepper and olive oil.

 

Roast at 450 degrees for 25 minutes.

 

Sprinkle with lemons and you will have an easy and fantastic side dish. 

A Beautiful Thing

I should have written a warning that every Friday I am going to have a linky party to highlight the things we all do to make life beautiful for ourselves and our family.

I am working on creating a button but have not had such luck, yet... I may have to contact Joanna to create one for me.

So get ready for Friday to share your inspirations!!!

A Beautiful Thing: A Water Bottle

When I wrote this post about making your home a refuge for you and your family, the idea was to take the every day to the extra special.

So when I made a New Year's Resolution to drink more water, I wanted a special way to remind myself to drink my water.

I found this water bottle:

It is cute, holds 12 ounces of water and reminds me to drink my water.

As an Accomplished Woman, I love making this home more beautiful and letting the people around me know how important they are to me.

So here is my first linky party. I want to be inspired by you!!! What do you do to make life more beautiful.

Accomplished Woman: Planning a Bridal Shower

People always ask me how I get so much done in a day... My response: PLANNING!!!!

So when my friend's beautiful daughter got engaged, I wanted to give her a bridal shower. And more importantly, I wanted to make it very special for the mother and the daughter.

Here is my plan:

1. Start with inspiration. I always save pictures for inspiration, as you all know. This picture is the jumping off point for the shower. I am unsure of the source but love the ideas.



2. Sit with the bride to find out her colors, flowers and the date for the shower. If the bride wants a theme, discuss that at the time. In addition, the bride really wanted a candy bar for her wedding but they decided not to do it given space limitations, so I thought it would be a special addition to her shower.

3. Get the invitation list for the shower. Order invitations. I am having a difficult time finding an invitation I like so this step has been very time consuming.

4. Pick a venue.. restaurant or at your home. We are having the shower in our back entertainment area. It is a wonderful place to host a party, remember my daughter's birthday party? Although I must have a back up plan given weather fluctuations in Tennessee.




5. Develop a menu. Buffet or sit-down luncheon. Since this shower is approximately 20 people, I opted for a sit-down luncheon. Also, girl food is so fun...

6. Decide on decorations, centerpieces, favors and any special touches you want to add.

7. Make a calender plan. This step is the most important step after the bridal meeting. Start with your date and back date from there. For Example:

• Shower is May 8th
• Flowers ordered, April 30th
• Invitations in the mail, April 8th
• Decorations, favors, and items purchased, such as table cloths, etc by April 15th
• Menu planned, March 31st
• Decide the look, table layout and what elements you need by March 15th
• Meet with the bride, March 13th

This calender gives me plenty of time to calmly plan the shower and add the details that hopefully, will make the shower special for the special bride.

Progress Report Week #3

Yesterday, it has been three weeks since I had my a total knee replacement on my left knee, as many of you know.

As of today;

1. I have given up my walker and walking with a cane. Who would have thought walking with a cane would be a blessing but it is.
   
2. All 38 of my staples have been removed, despite the mean nurse who kept telling me to suck it up...
3. I am able to do laundry, fix meals, clean up the kitchen and go to the grocery store. I am not able to do them for long but just being able to move around and perform normal tasks is such a blessing.
   
4. I learned how to go up and down a flight of steps with my cane and have been up and down the stairs, twice.
5. I drove to the store... with my daughter as my adult supervisor.
   
6. I scheduled my right knee replacement for May 11th.
7. I go to rehab three times a week and walk as much as I can.
   

I have not posted as much because I have not accomplished much... doing laundry is a huge accomplishment for me at this point.. but really how inspiring is that for you?

After 8 years of excruciating knee pain, I now know that life may return to what it was like before 2002. Prior to my osteoarthritis of the knees, I walked religiously every day for nearly three miles. And Lord knows, if I get back to normal.... watch out!!!

My new best friend

Twenty-six years ago, when I first was married, I embarked on the long journey of furnishing a home. And while my husband gave me free reign within reason.. but he did gently tell me he liked recliners.

Urggg, I wrinkled up my face in horror and said, “no way, not in my home.”

Well, after sleeping in a recliner in the hospital during the last three nights there, I decided we needed a recliner.

Not only did we need a recliner, we needed it ASAP.

So after my husband and daughter brought me home from the hospital, they wisked off to the La-Z-Boy store and purchased this chair.

It is where I spend my days for the last two weeks. If I had thought about it  earlier, I would have ordered it in a stylish fabric but was desperate to find a comfortable chair.

But for now, I am hugging my new best friend every day and appreciating a recliner like I never thought I would…. Sorry honey, 26 years later, I am now on the same page. 

Accomplished Woman – Inspirational Photos

When planning my garden or decorating my home, I look to a file of beautiful pictures that I have collected over the years. Pulled out of magazines or saved on the computer, every time I need to find inspiration, these pictures provide me the exact boost to lift me out of my funk and get busy.

Last year in a Country Living Magazine, this garden picture knocked my socks off.

A gorgeous vegetable garden that has interest. Height with trees and trellis. Vegetable beds dotted with flowers.

I spent hours this winter, looking at ways to incorporate some of the same elements into my vegetable garden.

In addition, I have this picture saved as my computer screensaver. By making it always in front of me, I will constantly be reminded what I am trying to achieve in the garden; reminding me to weed, plant, and tend my garden.

I did the same thing with my inspiration photo for the garage last summer when we were in the middle of my garage remodel.

And look what we accomplished when we used this photo!!

Inspirational photos can motivate us to raise the bar, reach a new level and achieve new goals.

Pull out your inspirational photo of a project you want to accomplish and put it front and center in your daily life. I guarantee you will meet your goal.

Decorating: My $500 French Country Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of our home. We entertain, cook, bake, eat, talk and gather in our kitchen. And 8 years ago, when I painted it red, I loved it.



In three years, we will have saved enough to drastically remodel the kitchen but I needed to do something now.. as I could not take another day of the dark red kitchen. So the goal was to Freshen and lighten without spending a large amount of cash!!!

So here it is...



Two coats of paint on the cabinets, baseboards, windows and crown molding. $65.


Two coats of wall paint. A gorgeous pewter blue. $65.




All the handles were scrubbed clean, primed and painted with a Krylon metallic paint. $6.



New Curtains and Tablecloths , $220.


Budget for Accessories: $144 for pictures, placemats, etc. I am changing the lighting with can lights for over the sink. Also, I want to change out the fan with either more can lighting or a new light fixture.


I also have two cans of a soft green to paint the kitchen island and stools.




Overall, the look is exactly what I wanted, a soft, light, pretty kitchen that will keep me inspired to cook, bake and entertain until I can afford my remodeled kitchen.

Sewing: Kitchen Curtains

I love making curtains. Why? I can get a custom look in my home with some wonderful designer fabric and most of the sewing is straight lines. Seriously, I am not adding darts, collars, etc. just sew straight.
However, my kitchen has seven, yes, seven windows. So I need seven valances
So we started with this beautiful fabric.

Carefully cut out 7 valances. I say careful because each valance has to match the other 6 valances. So we have to take into consideration, the repeat of the fabric.

On the side of the fabric, there is a marker that identifies the repeat. This fabric repeats every 24 inches.

Also, the fabric tells you which way is up.. sometimes, it is hard to tell.

The finished valance will be 17 1/2 inches. So I add 10 inches to cover both the bottom hem and top of the curtain.

Next I cut 7 pieces of lining, 27 1/2 inch long. Laying the lining and the fabric together, wrong sides together.

First I fold in both the side of the valances.

Next, fold the hem, up one inch

Then another 3 1/2 inches.
Repeat on the top, folding up 1 inch and then another 4 inches.
Next, on the top of the valance, I sew two seams, two 1/2 inches from the top and 3 1/2 inches from the top. The channel is for the curtain rod.

Look how pretty!!



In this set of windows, notice the same repeat is on the same valances.


Tomorrow, I will show you my remodeled kitchen.
P.S. I am feeling better but slow to get back to blogging...