Masquerade Sleepover Party

Easy Sweet Cornbread Recipe

My sister gave me this recipe from her step daughter. Super fast and easy to put together. It's very sweet but so yummy:) you can cut down on the sugar to your liking. I have posted this recipe to Pinterest.

-Sweet Cornbread- 

2 Boxes of Jiffy Cornbread 

1 Stick of Butter (melted) 

2 Eggs 

1 Cup of Sour Cream 

1 Can of Cream Corn 

1 Cup of Sugar  

Pre-heat oven to 350°. Melt Butter. Mix all ingredients together. Pour into a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Bake 30-40 minutes.

Thanksgiving 2014 Menu

-Drinks-

Sparkling Apple Cider

Hot Tea

Coffee

Hot Pumpkin Cider

-Appetizers-

Carmel Apple Cream Cheese Dip

Marinated Cheese

Gorgonzola Artichoke Bites

Variety of Crackers

-Main Course-

Fried Turkey

Giblet Gravy

Cornbread Stuffing

-Salad-

Roquefort Pear Salad

-Side Dishes-

Green Beans and Shallots

Carrots and Bacon

Streusel Sweet Potatoes

Potato Shitake Gratin

Cranberry Orange Relish

-Breads-

Homemade Crescent Rolls

Pumpkin Bread

Creamy Honey Butter

Apple Butter

Pear Butter

-Desserts-

Apple Pear Crumble Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Candy Apple Pie

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Pumpkin Rolls

Pumpkin ooey gooey dessert

(We love pumpkin...can you tell?;)

"EAT" pennant framed chalkboard

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

Joanna Gaines inspired chalkboard coffee bar:

I outlined the banner in the chalk marker so it will be semi permenant and the "Thankful" I used regular chalk. I can easily erase the chalk and write in something else. For Christmas I am having a cookie exchange and would like to change it to "Cookies For" and Santa underneath the banner. 

Chalkboard Coffee Bar

I was so inspired by HGTV's Fixer Upper, Joanna Gaines, when she made this coffee bar for a client. 

Episode 2, The Gatecrest Story:

http://magnoliahomes.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMG_6962x.jpg

I LOVE her style and her creative spirit! I am always looking at our AWESOME local Milton Flea Market and our Habitat for Humanity re-store site to find items to fix up, repurpose or just enjoy just the way it is! I was visiting the re-store in Charleston, West Virginia and found a 6' x 4 1/2' whiteboard for $40! I threw it in the back of my truck and brought it home and fixed it up! This is what it looked like:

I sanded it all down and primed it with a spray on primer that adheres to plastic.

I did another light sanding and wiped it down to get ready for the chalkboard paint.

This is what it looked like when I was finished painting:

I hung the very heavy chalkboard with 2 OOK hanging bars from the Home depot. They were around $14.00 a piece. Just one of them holds 200 pounds. I just felt better having 2 to hold it up because of it's length. It made it very stable. I made some floating shelves from barnwood I had bought from Bob our gracious neighbor who was getting rid of it all. 

I attached them to the chalkboard.

The fun part:) I loved the way Joanna did her chalk art so I free handed the art with a chalk marker from Michael's craft store.  The chalk marker gives a much crisper, whiter line. Love it! 

I decided to change her banner though. I just thought for what I want to use it for the banner I'm using would be nice to just change out the words. This is the banner idea I chose from an ornament my BFF showed me she bought for Christmas: 

It will say "Coffee Bar" until December 1st when I will turn it Into a "Hot Cocoa Bar".

More pics will be posted soon:)

I made these to look like hers out of a large branch I had in my yard and some smaller twigs that I hot glued yellow/rust color balls to the ends. I didn't think the green Moss she had used on hers would go with the colors I was using so I went to my garden stash and found some sphagnum moss and it worked great.

Thankful Banner

Halloween 2014

Graffiti Room Hamper

Making this from Pinterest! It will look great in my sons Graffiti room. I purchased a 31 gallon steel trash can with lid on sale for $20 at Tractor Supply. I love a sale! Need to get the wheels next....

Hmmm...he already has his clothes in it!

Before & After Pictures

Before:

After:

Crown!

Just finished the crown molding over the wall & French door we put in!

Our New Year's Eve Dinner Menu

2013 New Year's Eve Menu

Drinks

Coronas

Triple-Citrus Mojitos

Appetizer

Gorgonzola Artichoke Crab Dip

With Assorted Crackers

Entree

Frogmore Stew

Bread

Golden Cornbread with

Creamy Honey Butter

Dessert

Key Lime Pie with Fresh Whipped Cream & Raspberry, Mango Sauces

Triple-Citrus Mojitos

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

1 pkg (.75oz) fresh mint leaves

1 orange

2 lemons, divided

2 limes, divided

1/2 cup white rum

5 cups chilled lemon-lime soda

Combine sugar and water in a small bowl. Tear six mint leaves in half and place into a pitcher. Set aside. Finely chop remaining leaves. Place into small bowl. Zest orange, one of the lemons and one of the limes. Add zest to mint mixture. Microwave on high 2-3 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Slice orange, both of the lemons and both of the limes in half crosswise. Reserve half of one lemon and half of one lime for garnish. Juice remaining lemon and lime halves. Add juices to pitcher. Juice orange and add juice to pitcher. Pour mint mixture through a strainer into pitcher.discard chopped mint. Add rum. Carefully add soda to avoid overflow. Slice reserved lemon and lime halves, place into pitcher. Serve over ice

To garnish the rims of glasses zest an additional orange. Combine zest and 1/2c sugar. Place on a plate. Rub rim of glass with orange wedge to moisten. Dip rim of glass into sugar mixture. 

8 servings

Gorgonzola Artichoke Crab Dip

5 Slices pre cooked thick bacon

1 (14 oz) can artichoke hearts well drained and Chopped

6oz lump crabmeat 

1 1/2 (12oz) packages cream cheese softened

2 oz (1/2c) Gorgonzola cheese crumbled  

2 oz (1/2c) Parmesan cheese shredded

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8 inch quiche dish or pie plate with cooking spray. Chop 3 slices of bacon. Place in a medium bowl. Reserve remaining bacon for garnish. To bacon in bowl add remaining ingredients mix well. Spread mixture in sprayed dish. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Stir dip. Bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until dip is bubbly around edges. Chop the reserved bacon. Sprinkle on top of dip. Serve warm dip with petite toasts, assorted crackers or baguette slices. Makes 2 cups. I like to use rosemary crackers or butter rounds. 

Frogmore Stew

Ingredients

6 quarts water

3/4 cup Old Bay Seasoning 

2 pounds new red potatoes

2 pounds hot smoked sausage links, cut into 2 inch pieces

12 ears corn - husked, cleaned and quartered

4 pounds large fresh shrimp, unpeeled

Directions

Bring water and Old Bay Seasoning to boil in a large stockpot.

Add potatoes and cook for 15 minutes. Add sausage and cook for 5 minutes more. Add corn and cook for another 5 minutes. Stir in the shrimp and cook until shrimp are pink, about 5 minutes. Drain immediately and serve. You can add king crab legs, mussels, scallops or whole crabs if you like. Add it towards the end of the cooking time. I cover our table with plastic then brown paper. When ready to serve, drain the water then dump out onto the center of the table right on the brown paper. Squeeze butter on top of seafood and add old bay seasoning. Set out extra squeeze butters, old bay seasoning, cocktail sauce, salt, pepper and napkins.

Golden Cornbread

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup of cornmeal

2 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups whole milk

1/4 cup shortening

1 egg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the dry ing. in a medium bowl. Add the wet ing. and mix only until well combined. Pour batter into a greased 8x8 pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.Yum!

Creamy Honey Butter

1 cup honey

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

In a medium pan, combine honey, cream and sugar. Bring to a boil; continue to boil for 1 minute. Place butter in blender. Pour honey mixture over butter. Pulse until thoroughly blended. Pour into jars and refrigerate.

Easy Key Lime Pie I

INGREDIENTS

5 egg yolks, beaten

1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup key lime juice

1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust (I like to make my own crust)

Whipped cream topping

(I like to make my own)

1 small key lime for garnish

Mango sauce:

2 11.5 oz can's Kern's mango juice

Bring the mango juice to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until sauce thickens.

Raspberry sauce:

1 1/2 cups of water

2 cups frozen raspberries 

1/2 c granulated sugar

Combine the water and raspberries in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer raspberries for 10 minutes. Use a potato masher to crush the raspberries as they boil. Strain raspberry seeds from water, then put the liquid back in the saucepan and add sugar. Bring mixture back to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until sauce thickens. Cover and cool sauce  until ready to serve pie.

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.

Combine the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and lime juice. Mix well. Pour into unbaked graham cracker shell.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool. Cover pie and put in freezer for a couple hours before serving. when ready to serve let sit for 10-15 minutes before slicing. Top with whipped topping, both sauces and garnish with lime slices if desired.

Ready in 2 hrs 35 min, Servings: 8

Happy Halloween 2013!!

Decorating for Fall!

I Started decorating for fall! I have a white front door and wanted to see some contrast and also wanted to tie in my black furniture with their rust colored cushions. I was seeing a lot of wreaths made from feather boas this year and loved the look of them. I got to looking around my house to see what I could make a wreath out of and found my "living wreath form" in the garage. I love the extra large size of the form.The site I got the form from is at the bottom of 

this page. It's from my favorite garden store!

I covered the empty wreath form with 5 black

feather boas that were each 72" long. I didn't 

wrap them around the wreath because it would 

have taken a lot more boas. I attached them

over the top In a zig zag fashion from the outside to the inside 

of the wreath and attached with small black zip ties 

at each point. I gathered the flowers in groups 

of two and attached them to the wire with the zip

ties. I took strips of the fabric and made loops and gathered

them in twos and attached them to the wreath.

 Too Easy!! 

http://www.kinsmangarden.com/product/Large_Living_Wreath