Slice of Pie Cookbooks & Entertaining: Cinco de Mayo!

This weekend was all about the girls! Son-in-law was out of town, and that left the three of us to do whatever we wanted to do! So, Miss P and I had a slumber party on Friday night in front of the television at my house (and my bad knee keeps telling me I need to stick to sleeping in the bed) ... then the three of us went junkin' on Saturday and visited one of our favorite little foodie shops, too! Saturday night was a little Cinco de Mayo celebration

on my back deck ... easy and fun!

Nicole recently made some really good Chipotle Chicken in her electric pressure cooker. We both love our pressure cookers! She froze it in meal size portions, so we started our food preparations with that. I made a stacked casserole with the meat, cream cheese, half and half, corn tortillas and lots of Jack cheese on top! We added corn on the cob, a nice green salad ... and Miss Phoebe had a couple crunchy tacos, too! It was all delicious ... and quick to prepare. If you'd like the recipe for Nicole's chicken, check out her blog post at Rooted in Foods!

My daughter has a really interesting blog.
She has combined her love for genealogy with food heritage.
You'll enjoy it!

Sometimes we tablescape in huge, very detailed ways ... and other times we just throw the table together! I had done a little preparation for this table
and want to show you how it started!

I really love using burlap. I like the wreaths and I have enjoyed adding different burlap elements to my very casual home decor. The tablescape began with a recent purchase at our favorite museum shop ... the napkins!

Don't you love the little colored beads on each corner of the napkin? After purchasing the napkins, I went to the fabric store to purchase a bag of colored wooden beads, so I could make matching napkin rings ... and they didn't have any. I ventured into another shop next door and found the cute burlap napkin rings ... so, I went back to the fabric store to purchase matching burlap ribbon or fabric! I had a couple big burlap flowers from another project!

I used my burlap to make a wreath that can be used as a ring around a candle hurricane ... or around the patio umbrella pole! I added my flowers and twisted their stems around the pole. I just matched the colors to the napkin rings! Easy!

All of the table decor matched my Pfaltzgraff Sedona everyday dinnerware!

I found plenty of other things that matched the theme ...

I was working in my storage unit the other day and found this cute basket! I don't know how long I've had it ... and

I didn't remember having what I found tucked inside!

I opened the lid and found this cute set of miniature rattan furniture!

I have several cute ceramic pots filled with faux succulents! I bought the Sedona pattern a couple years ago ... just to add bright colors to my everyday kitchen life! I've found that it is a

perfect dinnerware for several themes ... and can

be easily changed because of the variety of colors.

I'm crazy about the painted glass salad bowls!

The Cambridge flatware is perfect with this pattern!

Our busy fun-filled day ended with a pretty table and good food!

Our casserole was delicious and our dessert of cantaloupe and grapes was perfect! We sampled two of the cheeses we had purchased ... one was Gouda steeped in dry red wine ... and the other was a yellow

farmer's cheese with studs of

dried apricots and candied ginger in it.

A fantastic combination with our fresh fruit!