Beautiful foods to try

New Holiday Recipes

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Hello Friends,

We had a dumping of snow this week! Finally! It usually arrives right after Christmas for us, and it is as cold as can be!  Lauren is back on campus; my Christmas decor is neatly packed away and I am ready for a home refresh. As I begin my year, I begin to think about what goals I want to accomplish and things I would like to complete this year. I am already dreaming about how I am going to change rooms around when Lauren leaves the nest. Right now, my office is in the loft. If we stay in this house, I want to move my office into Lauren’s room and turn the loft into a study. I would love a study! A room with built in bookcases for my books and a giant table in the center for me to sit read, spread out, burn a candle, and have a cup of tea. I will be changing the boy’s old room into a guest room. I am on the hunt for a queen size bed. We will see. 

Anyway, the holidays are over, and I did try a few new things for my menu. I wanted to share those recipes. What worked and what didn’t. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

 

For Thanksgiving, I tried two new recipes. First was this appetizer called the French Quarter Cheese Spread.  My friend Angela made this at one of our evening Guild meetings and it stopped us in our tracks! I had never heard of it before and never tried it. It was so good. It had a beautiful combination of sweet and savory and the salty crackers gave it the perfect crunch! It’s lovely with a glass of wine. Now did my family love it? No, not really but I didn’t care. My husband and daughter don’t really have sophisticated food palates. 

 

 

The second new recipe that I tried for Thanksgiving was a pear salad. I had a craving for a salad for Thanksgiving so I “googled” fall salads and a list came up. This salad stuck out to me. I loved the idea of having pumpkin seeds, blue cheese, and roasted pears. I wanted something fresh and crisp. Something that was not so heavy on the stomach. Now my family (Lauren and my husband) don’t eat salads. Again, they don’t have great eating palates, but I wanted to add it any way. My stepsons’ wife and girlfriend took bites out of the pears and said, “those are good”, so hearing that made me happy. I loved them so much I ended up making a second batch of the pears. Soo good! Overall, I got a good response. 

 

 

 

My last new recipe was sweet potato casserole. Now I decided to make this for our Christmas Eve dinner because I host additional people at this dinner. I wanted to have more people who would be willing to try my dish. It was very simple to make, and I love sweet potatoes. The creaminess from the mixture and the crunch from the pecans was wonderful.  The one item that I will change will be using dark brown sugar instead of light. I love the taste of dark brown sugar! I believe that the molasses from the dark brown sugar would give it a more earthy taste.  I loved the dish and so did my other guests. We usually have the same items but this year I wanted to add a few new dishes to my list and I am glad that I tried. This upcoming holiday season I might add a few new things so we will see. 

Let me know in the comments below if you have tried any of these! Have a great week, stay warm! 

 

 

 

My First Signature Drink

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Good Morning Everyone!

Let my busy first week in December begin. Today is our office luncheon and I just hope that it all goes well. On Friday I will be attending the luncheon for the Guild and helping with set-up. I will try to take photos if I can. 

This past weekend I had a few packages arrive. Things that I have been on my wish list for quite some time were on sale for Cyber Monday and I was extremely excited. I will try to remember to share those in my December favorites. 

With Christmas closing in, I am trying to make sure that I have everything I need to cook and prepare. One thing that was a hit for Thanksgiving was my new signature drink!

 

 

A few weeks ago, one of our Guild members had a small party at her house and she gave us all this time. Well I loved it and wanted the recipe asap!

So it’s a glass of half Prosecco (white wine Moscato), half cranberry wine (of your choice), some fresh cranberries, and a cinnamon stick. So easy right? 

 

 

It was so delicious and was a hit with our family. I am so excited about this drink. I have never served a drink before so this was quite exciting to make and try. 

Let me know in the comments below what your signature drink is! 

Simple Elegant Foods I Am Enjoying

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Good Morning All,

I am a little excited about this weekend. I found a new Antique Mall! I hope to visit it tomorrow while our daughter is away on her little trip with her brother! My husband and I also plan on having dinner at a new restaurant. It’s called Cooper’s Hawk and it’s also a winery. I, of course, already have my dinner entree picked out. It should be a good weekend!

Speaking of food, I wanted to share some food items that I have been enjoying for the past few weeks.

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

For the last few weeks, I have been going to Trader Joes to buy different items. I feel like we have gotten into a bit of a food rut, and I wanted to get some different items for meals. I also love having some sort of pastry on the weekends to enjoy at home. I found these delicious apple blossoms deserts. They are so good! The apples are just sweet enough and the sprinkle of crunchy granola on top is just perfect. I add a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream and it is absolute bliss to me!

 

 

My second delicious find are these bags of mushroom risotto and asparagus risotto. These were perfect side dishes to my weekly roasted chicken meals. All you do is pour it into your skillet, add some water, let it simmer and voilà! It is creamy, tasty and very flavorful. 

 

 

My fourth food find is not from Trader Joes but a recent new tea bag find. I am such a fan of Harney & Sons tea and this vanilla comoro was quite exceptional. This is a delicious vanilla black tea. It has the perfect balance of vanilla. It also had a very creamy texture to it. It’s delicious and I need to order another tin! 

 

 

The last new food favorite are these vegetable spring rolls from Trader Joes. These are so good! I simply place them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes and they come out so crispy and tender. I normally pair them with some steam rice and viola another easy and delicious meal.

It’s amazing how having these simple dishes can change up a weekly dinner night rut. I loved trying these new items and Trader Joes has some of the best prices that I have ever seen! I don’t have one near my home so I can only go every other weekend, but I love going and really like the staff. Oh, and one more new favorite of mine is their dark chocolate peanut butter cups. Oh my word! The staff let me try these for free and oh my word! So good!

I hope you enjoyed my new food finds. Let me know in the comments section below if you have tried any of these items. I would love to know.

Easter Sunday & A New Recipe

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Good Morning!

Happy Friday Morning! We are headed to our daughter’s future college today! They are having a “welcome freshman” kind of day and we want to get a head start on events and deadlines to come. Wish us luck! I have a feeling it is going to be a busy day.

I am still thinking about my Easter dinner. It turned out to be such a great day with family. We really sat and enjoyed ourselves. I love sitting at the table and just enjoying a meal. Hearing how the boys are “adulting” now has been so interesting. Hearing them discuss marriage and families had been eye opening! I am always praying they God will lead them in their decisions. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

This year I added more rabbits to my decor. I purchased the gold rabbit from the At Home Store. He is actually on sale right now for only $10! Get it while you can! 

 

 

I really did experiment with my table setting this year. I brought in my blue and white of course and I wanted to use my lily plates from Pender and Peony but I didn’t have enough. They sure did look great on my table while it lasted. I matched them with my lily goblets from Pottery Barn. It looked so pretty!  

My family wanted turkey and dressing this year so that is what I made along with some mashed potatoes and green beans. We love dinner rolls so I baked some of those as well. Now for dessert I made Jennifer L. Scott’s black forest cake!

 

 

I was really nervous about making this cake because I have never made anything like this nor have I tried it. Baking the cakes was really easy. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

I think most of the trouble and time went into making the whipped cream frosting. I have never made this before, so I was quite nervous. It took about 10 minutes to finally get stiff but once it did, I felt relieved. 

 

 

I added the cherry pie filing right from the can and putting it together was so easy! I am so glad that I tried this!

 

 

I LOVED the way it looked! I thought it was so pretty! It was simple, tasted good, and was elegant. What more could you want for a beautiful celebration?  I hope you all try Jennifer’s cake and let me know in the comments section below if you have already made black forest cake? Let me know if there are different things that I could add. I would love to read your comments. Have a great weekend! 

 

Chicken Fetti & Spinach

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Good Morning,

I am taking today off! I have been looking forward to this day for a few weeks now! I have been so busy at work. Today I will be going to the vintage movie theater and watching Funny Face on the big screen! Yay! So excited! But before I go and see my show, I will be going to take a peek at the new antique that I found out about called FrenChic. After that I will stop by Vintage Whimsy as well. I am looking forward to having the down time today. It’s been really busy!

With being busy trying to find quick meals during the week has been a challenge as well. I came up with this dinner on the fly and it worked out!

 

 

So one day this past week I thought about making my normal chicken fettuccine dinner. I always have a box of shredded chicken and my fav seasonings. I always add some garlic powder, garlic salt, ranch seasoning, salt and pepper. 

 

 

I wanted to change it up a bit, so I added some spinach that I had in the refrigerator. I just sautéed everything together and added my seasonings. 

 

 

I added my favorite fetti sauce from Bertolli. It turned out so good and tasted good as well!

 

 

I love quiet dinners at home with my family. A fancy table setting is not always necessary. Just your favorite flowers, favorite dish and favorite people! Have a great weekend everyone! I will be sure to share my adventures next week!

 

 

It’s Friday, shop the boutique, my favorites page or Sarah Flint’s new arrivals. Don’t forget to use my code SARAHFLINT-BASMSSHOCKLEY for $50 off! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Simple Quick Bread for Breakfast

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Good Morning,

It’s been such a busy week! On Monday I made reservations for us to have lunch at the Ayres Tea Room, but we barely got in! They were booked for the entire month of December! I was told that you can start scheduling in October. Noted! I will be calling early next year. We will be going a day before Christmas Eve. Not ideal for me but I will take it. On Tuesday, I took the staff that I supervise to the Cake Bake Shop! We had such a great time. It was all their first time visiting so that was a treat for me to see them enjoy it!

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I got my favorite cake. The apple crumble cake is one of my favorites! So good!

 

 

On Wednesday I went to the boutique to go for my fitting for the Guild Fashion Show which is scheduled during our Christmas luncheon. They got me in pants! I am okay with it but the outfit is not something that I would wear but someone else may love it. That evening Lauren and I went to see the Nutcracker. I will linking a video below for you all to view it. 

 

 

We loved this version of Nutcracker! There are some things that we love about our local Nutcracker but it was nice to see this version. I am now getting ready for my work trip to San Diego! I have never been to the west coast so I will share how things go. 

In today’s post I wanted to share this quick and simple bread that I made during Thanksgiving. 

 

 

I found this Pillsbury Pumpkin Quick Bread at my local store, and I love it! It was so easy to make, moist and absolutely delightful with a warm cup of tea. I ended up purchasing a second box and a box of the banana bread. I will be making one of these during Christmas. 

I hope you enjoy this new recipe find and let me know in the comments below if you have use this. I would love to know. Have a great weekend! 

 

 

 

Dinner at the Vineyard

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Good Morning,

I am still finding peony bouquets! I can’t believe it! It is almost July, and we are still finding them. I found some at Whole Foods and then my husband found some yesterday at Costco! I am loving this! Speaking of Whole Foods, I am still taking my once-a-week trips there. I love their Sonoma Chicken salad! It is so good! I eat it with crackers for a wonderful cool lunch. 

I have been on this “new adventures” journey for a few weeks now. For Father’s Day I wanted to try something else new. I had heard of this vineyard called Daniel’s Vineyard and knew that I wanted to give it a try so we went there to celebrate Father’s Day!

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

It was a beautiful Father’s Day. The weather was perfect! 

 

 

This was our first time at a vineyard. It’s amazing what you find in your city if you are open to beauty. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

 

I wanted to keep things simple, so we ordered pizza, a charcuterie board and drinks. The pizzas we ordered were margherita and pepperoni.  They were brick oven pizza and were really good. The charcuterie board had smoked meats, fruits and nuts. My kind of board. I did not take pictures of the food. I wanted to enjoy the moment. 

 

 

We ate inside because we did not want to worry about bugs but afterwards, we came out to look at the vineyard. 

 

 

They were quite beautiful, and some sections were really lush. I did try a glass of wine. I had my favorite which is a white wine Moscato. 

 

 

Overall, we had a great dinner, and my husband really enjoyed his time. We just wanted to take it easy and to try something different. If you live in the area, I recommend giving it a try. It’s a great environment and family friendly! Have a great long weekend!

 

 

 

I quickly wanted to give Elaine from Urban Style Chic a big thank you for sharing the Daphne Flutter Dress! Doesn’t she look wonderful? You can use her discount code urbanstylechic10 for 10% off of anything in the boutique! Enjoy!