Pink Saturday Thanksgiving

Here's one pink autumn post ... Miss Phoebe thought our Thanksgiving table should be PINK, and as many of you know ... the Johnson Brothers Majesty china pattern has plenty of pink/plum in the color palette.   I'm posting with Pink Saturday, so make sure you click through to see all the other posts!

We used quilted placemats, matching napkins and the table runner is gently pieced together.  The colors are soft pinks and beige tones and can be used with lots of dinnerware patterns!   The pink stained glass candle holders are perfect with this color scheme.    I don't do lots of fru fru on the Thanksgiving table because we enjoy having all the food on the table!

Here's a picture of the Persimmon Cornbread muffins that I made for my Pioneer Thanksgiving dinner.  If you missed that post, go to my home page and check it out.  These were also in one of my recent cooking columns.  I've posted the recipe below the picture!

Persimmon Corn Bread

1 cup cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons orange infused olive oil

1 egg

1 ½ cups diced persimmons

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

In a large bowl, sift together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, and egg. Pour into dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Stir in persimmons and thyme. Let the mixture stand for about 10 minutes until it swells. Stir it again and pour it into well-greased muffin cups or a 9-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Muffins may take a little less time to bake. Cool 10 minutes on a baking rack, before inverting the muffins or cake.

Read more: http://thesouthern.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/recipes/article_9d834e60-1015-11e1-8182-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1ejxVTK7j

Pioneer Thanksgiving Dinner

I hosted a special meeting for our Women's Club ... a Pioneer Thanksgiving Dinner.  I set three tables ... all different settings ... and made a meal based on the foods that American settlers in the mid 1800s might have had.  We had a great time!


Here's the dining room!

I used my Johnson Brothers Majesty ... Turkey china!  Topped the dinner plates with a sunflower plate ... then placed the covered soup bowl on the very top!  The soup bowls came from Crate & Barrel many years ago ... and the glassware is Fostoria.

The dining room table set for 8 ... love the long, lined up look.

The centerpiece is made of silk sunflowers and I placed the mercury pumpkins on each end for a little sparkle.



Here is the sunroom.

I only have a dozen turkey soup bowls, so I also used my chicken pot pie casseroles as soup bowls ... and mixed some blue glassware with these settings.   Remember, this was a pioneer theme, so we didn't want too much fru fru on the tables!

This dinnerware is Bordallo Pinheiro.   Tuesday Morning had an abundance of it this fall.  The milk glass plates are a part of a big collection of mine and I added the stemmed glasses to brighten up the table.

I used this centerpiece through the fall.  My husband bought me the beautiful bowl several years ago.  The inside is painted with sunflowers and it came from Italy.   The flameless candles ... which are about all I use these days ... are the perfect color of pale orange and I surrounded them with pinecones and tiny faux pumpkins.

This is a spare table set up in the living room.

More of the green Majolica with salad plates from my Johnson Brothers ... with Fostoria cobalt blue wine glasses.   

I love the green ceramic pumpkins and the flameless lantern.   

The chicken pot pie casseroles are Temptations from QVC ... had them for years!  I just love the edge of the dinnerware.

Make sure you take a look at the dinner party booklet at the top of the post!   The theme is real described and the menu and recipes are included.   Happy Thanksgiving!  


Food photos and recipes follow in another post!   I'm posting with Tablescape Thursday and you can click through the icon on the right to see the other posts!

Food from the Pioneer Thanksgiving Dinner

Here are some of the menu items from the 

Pioneer Thanksgiving Dinner.  

The recipes are in the booklet 

posted in the above turning page document.

We started the evening with frosty apple cider and these sweet, cold Apple Jack cocktails!  Apple Jack is probably the oldest liquor made in the United States.  Read all about it in the cook booklet!

Appetizers, using foods from the era, included raw turnip sticks to dip in artisan's salt and venison sausage.

The is dressed Colby cheese, which is the closest thing to the hard cheese that pioneers might have made.   Dressing the cheese simply means topping or coating it with fresh herbs and storing it ... wrapped well, so it can absorb those flavors.

This is cream of chestnut soup ... used canned chestnut puree ... and persimmon corn bread baked in muffin tins shaped like maple leaves and another shaped like acorns.   The soup was served in covered bowls, but a pretty garnish would have been crisp bacon crumbles with a drizzle of a little bacon grease ... yes, bacon grease!

And here are a few loaves of rustic friendship bread, baked from a yeast starter.   You can bake it in regular bread pans, but I love the unusual shapes.

Recipes are all in the booklet!

Enjoy!

Make sure you check out my recently published magazine article ... see the favicon at the top of the side bar on the right  ... beautiful pictures, recipes, menus and a perfect 'how-to' host great parties.   Click the picture to link back to the Southern Illinoisan Newspaper's Life and Style magazine.