Chinese New Year - Just a Month Away!

We love to celebrate Chinese New Year and this year the date is February 3rd. Sometimes, we combine our Chinese New Year celeberation with part of our Valentine celebrations ... because of the beautiful story describing the Blue Willow china pattern. If you don't know that story, visit this site to read the romantic fable!

Here's a post from a girlfriends luncheon I had last year ... celebrating both events ... using my Blue Willow.  Then, the pictures and recipes became a part of my "Made at Home" newspaper cooking column.  I've shared the recipes for the beautiful composed salad and the yummy dessert! Enjoy!

Honey Walnut Chicken Salad

Ingredients:
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 ½ cups walnut pieces
One red bell pepper, sliced
2 cups pineapple chunks
1 cup sesame sticks
Salad greens
1 can cream of coconut
2 cups pineapple juice
Honey Pineapple Coconut Salad Dressing

To make six main course salads, sauté the chicken thighs in 2 tablespoons canola oil for four minutes on each side. Transfer to a baking dish and cover with pineapple juice. Bake them at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. Chill overnight, in the juice.

Glaze the walnuts by sautéing them in 2 tablespoons of the cream of coconut. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of onion powder and ½ teaspoon of chipotle powder. Transfer to a tray lined with waxed paper and let them cool.

Make the salad dressing by combining 1 cup of mayonnaise with ½ cup of pineapple juice, ¼ cup of Southern Illinois honey, ¼ cup of cream of coconut and a dash of rice vinegar.

Compose the salad by topping the greens with sliced chicken, red peppers, walnuts, pineapple and sesame sticks. Top with the dressing.

I patterned this salad after a favorite Chinese dish ... Honey Walnut Chicken ... and, of course, you don't have to use Southern Illinois honey!  

Almond Gooey Cake

A bite of this easy cake is just like a bite of a Chinese almond cookie, topped with cheesecake! Make the crust by blending one yellow cake mix (dry) with one stick of room temperature butter and one egg. Press the crust into the bottom of a prepared 13 x 9 inch baking dish. Make the topping by blending together 8 ounces of room temperature cream cheese, 2 eggs, 1 box of confectioner’s sugar and 1 ½ teaspoon of almond extract. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cool to room temperature before serving with fresh berries and whipped cream.  For valentines day, cut the pieces with a heart shaped cookie cutter!

Merry Christmas from Slice of Pie!

A few photos from our annual open house ... Bayou Style!

2010 Moore Christmas Open House

Menu

Jambalaya

Crawfish Pie

Great Boars Beef

Coke & Cherry Glazed Ham with Creole Cherry Mustard

Mixed Green Salad with Blueberry Hill Vinaigrette

Cajun Antipasto with Quail Eggs

Cajun Crab Salad & Vegetables

Genoa Cornucopias

Pickled Okra Bites

Pralines

Chocolate Mint Candy

Big Mama’s Fruit Cake

Persimmon Bread with Orange Cream

Sweet Potato Pie

Hurricanes & Chicory Coffee Punch

Shawnee Hills Wines

Big Boy Drinks

Holiday Decor Party! Front Porch Buddies

I'm linking to the Share the Decor Party, so make sure you click thru the icon on the left to visit the other posts ... and special thanks to our hostess. This is her first Linky party, so leave her a note to thank her! We sure love our parties.
Here's a quick view of what our friends and family see when they come to our front porch right now! I have a faux wreath on each shutter ... and a real one centered on the dining room windows ... that I bought from a Boy Scout ... Not just any Boy Scout ... my young friend, John, who works hard for his community.

My snow buddies, Billy and Bobby, have a little special meaning that I'll post about in January!  Right now their job is to say "Welcome" in snowman language!  Right after I set this up, we got a bit of snow in the Midwest!

 If you ever think that all our decorating and tablescaping efforts are unimportant ... think again!  Miss Phoebe is pictured here, spontaneously hosting a Christmas Tea Party with Pablo and Uniqua ... you might know the BackYardigan characters!  I'm sure there is a Splenda packet someplace on the scene ... because she won't take a sip of tea without it! ... even pretend tea.

Nativity Party

The best post or gift I can give my blogging friends for this Nativity Party is to share the chapter from my cookbook, Santa Suppers Revisited, that details a beautiful Nativity themed dinner party!   If you click thru to my website ... and click "Nativity" on the navigation bar ... you'll be lead to a page that lets you download the chapter.  The party chapter includes all the details you need to celebrate the Nativity through the creation of a beautiful dinner party for family and friends.  I hope you enjoy this chapter from my book!
Click here to start your journey to a special dinner party!

I've linked to the Nativity Party, so make sure you click thru the icon on the left to visit all the other party entries ... and special thanks to our hostess!  

Merry Christmas!

Blown Hot Water Heater Christmas!

At our house ... plumbing jobs always happen at the wrong time.   Last week when I was trying to decorate ... the hot water tank started leaking and flooded one of the bathrooms ... as usual!  So, I had an excuse to kind of redecorate ...  The bath is decorated in hunter green ... hunter wallpaper and hunt scene prints on the wall ... so it looks like Christmas most of the time!  Found great towels at Macy's ... that fit the theme ... then found a towel rack and two hunt horns at GW ... when I was supposed to be dropping stuff off and not buying more stuff!  I'm linking to Coastal Charm's Open House ... so make sure you click thru to see all the other posts!  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cloche times Three!

I've put a few of my miniatures under small cloche jars ... sitting on small mirrors.  The Santa is joined by little pigs ... they love Christmas, too!  The snowman is visiting some turtles ... and the wing wings are all together!  I dressed up the jars with some scrapbook embellishments by Martha Stewart!  Quick and cute!

I've linked to the cloche party ... so click thru to visit the other posts!

Merry Christmas!

Old World Speakers!

Just a quick post to prove that even giant screen televisions can be decorated for Christmas!  Ours is flanked by two stereo speakers on each side ... yes we still have quadriphonic sound ... It is hard to leave the 1960s when the music is so good!!  Anyway, enjoy the cute little trees and friends that I perched atop each speaker!  You may see the other speakers in a future post!  Who knows?!!

I'm linking with Tabletop Tuesdays ... so make sure you click thru the icon on he left to visit the party!

Happy Holidays!

My Wonderful Life ... Cookies!

I'm posting 3 cookie recipes ... the shortbread is especially good for folks who enjoy drinking hot tea;  the banana cookie is a wonderful cake-like keeper that gets better as the days go by ... good for packed lunches and would be good to ship.  It combines 3 favorite flavors ... chocolate, banana and peanut butter!  The last cookie is my testament to the perfection of a recipe posted on www.marthawhite.com.  You've probably seen the cookie in the Christmas magazines this season... Turtle Fudge Chocolate Chip Cookie.  I almost never like cookies made from any kind of mix ... but this little chocolate delight is incredible.  I've had to hide them from my husband ...

I'm linking to the Tuesday party at Red Couch  ... so make sure you click through the icon on the left to visit all the other posts.   Special thanks to our hostess.  I'll be posting lots of things this month and leaving several posts up at a time ... so come back and see me! 

Almond Basil Shortbread


2 sticks butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup ground almonds
2 Tablespoons, chopped
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon lemon zest

In a food processer, whip all the ingredients together until the dough forms a ball. Drop by teaspoonful on greased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes.


Banana Peanut Butter Choco Cookies

1 banana, peeled and mashed
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup raisins
12 ounce bag chocolate chips

In a food processer, whip the banana, peanut butter, sugars and eggs. Add the dry ingredients
and blend well. Stir in the raisins and chocolate chips. Drop on ungreased sheets and bake at 350 degrees
for 10 minutes. The cookies remain puffy and are soft and moist.



Chocolate Caramel Kiss Cookie

**This recipe is from the Martha White website and you’ve probably seen it in this season’s magazines.

They are wonderful!

In a microwave, melt half a stick of butter with 5 ounces of bittersweet chocolate. When melted

Stir in 1 can of sweetened condensed milk … until smooth. Add packages of Martha White

Chocolate Chip Muffin mix and stir well. Roll into 48 balls and dip one side in chopped nuts.

Bake at 350 degrees – nut side up – for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and place a caramel filled

Chocolate kiss on top of each cookie. When they soften, tap the kiss so the caramel ooze
out. How easy can this be?? So easy and so good.



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Deck the Halls Party -- A Sneak Peek at the Trees!

Here's a little look at the Christmas Trees at our house!  We always decorate for the dogs and wildlife in the Dining Room.  In addition to my Spode Woodland china ... and my Johnson Brothers Brookshire . .. I have 6 other sets of wildlife dinnerware!   Big hunting and fishing stories have been told at my dinner table for decades ... so it is only fitting that the room should shout "Mother Nature"!   You'll notice a "Pigeon Forge" sign ... one of our favorite vacation spots in Tennessee.  It is just far enough away to really get away ... but not so far that we can't visit a couple times a year!  Love you folks in the Great Smokey Mountains!

We always have a grape tree ... because we have a cute little room decorated in things grapey and winey!  In the middle picture on the left of this collage, you'll notice two clear ornaments filled with dried flowers.  My mother and daddy are both gone now ... and the lady who owns the mortunary our family uses makes these ornaments.  She visits the graves, dries some of the flowers left on the new grave and then fills the small ornaments.   She actually uses tweezers to get the petals inside without crushing them.  At first, I thought this was kind of a morbid thing to do ... but I have to tell you that the ornaments really do have meaning for me.  The mortunary has a special service right before Christmas each year ... and presents the ornaments to the families who have lost loved ones in the previous year.  It is not uncommon for her to make in excess of 100 ornaments.  My Southern Baptist Deacon Daddy might not like hanging on the wine room tree!  Oh, well.

Our sunroom turns red and white during Christmas.  I've collected a few  blown glass ornaments made by a friend of ours ... and lots of peppermint looking things to add.   It is actually easy to adjust this theme a little each year.   Black and white penguins ... the year Miss Phoebe was in love with "wing wings" ... a little green added last year for a "peppermint-spearmint" theme ... and this year, you'll see a little blue added for a new "snowman" theme!  Watch for future posts!

I've linked with Between Naps on the Porch for the Deck the Halls Party!  Make sure you click through the icon on the left to visit all the other posts.  As always, thanks to our hostess, Susan!

Merry Christmas!

Teal Poinsettias for Christmas Tablescape!

I love Teal Blue ... I used to be silly about only using silk flowers that were the colors of the real plant ... but who cares?  I have tons of sets of glasses, and my favorites are the teal blue Indiana Glass Parklane that you see on this tablescape ... and many of my tablescapes!  So, why not mix these shiny poinsettias with a few faux peacock feathers and have this great theme??!!  The dinnerware is also a favorite ... Mikassa English Countryside.

I've linked to the Poinsettia Party ... so make sure you click through the icon on the left and visit all the other posts!  Special thanks to our hostess.  Happy Holidays!

Poinsettia Party Tablescape!

Poinsettia Tablescape!

I'm linking with the Poinsettia Party ... and I placed a click thru icon on the left so you can visit the party site and see all the other neat posts!  Special thanks to our hostess ... and keep checking daily because this party goes on for a few days, so new posts will be added.

I'll set lots of tables during the month of December as we celebrate the season in many ways!  This dinner ware came from TJMaxx and the glassware is part of my collection ... the milk glass wines came from Good Will!  We set this table on the front porch, so we'd have good light for a recent photo shoot ... and we could easily have eaten outside on that November day.  It was about 65 degrees in Southern Illinois!  Temps have changed, now!  I'm posting almost daily in December ... so keep coming back for more!

Enjoy the party and have a great holiday season!

Tablescape Thursday - Autumn Leaves, One More Time!

It seemed a little appropriate to have coffee outside the day we raked leaves ... I'd like to say for the last time this season ... but that isn't true.  I'm getting ready to rake again ... and in February, the Oak tree will finally drop all its leaves ... so we'll rake again!

I wanted to share photographs of part of my Syracuse china in the Woodbine pattern ... Woodbine is a kind of Honeysuckle ... but it doesn't really look much like ours in Southern Illinois!

On Sunday, December 5th ... I'll start posting Christmas pictures ... so check back to see tablescapes and decorations. 

I'm linking with Tablescape Thursday ... so click through the icon on the left to visit Susan's party!   As always, special thanks to our hostess!