Tablescape Thursday

Tablescape Thursday is one of my favorite blogging posts! Thanks to Susan for hosting, click on her name for lots more inspirational tablescapes.
Inspiration for this fruit themed tablescape comes from these pretty plates that were given to me recently by a friend!

They are Limoges china dessert plates!

They were even in the original box!

They were her 95-year-old mother's plates and she is now in a nursing home. I am so happy to be the lucky recipient of these beautiful plates!

My friend, Donna, knows how much I enjoy creating tablescapes, that's why she gave them to me!

Each plate is different! At first I thought they were all the same as the top plate and I didn't even look at all of them until today!

Pears and grapes:

Apricots:

Apples:

Plums:

Which is your favorite?

I found the perfect napkins at TJ Maxx for only $4.99 for four! They are black with pretty fruit on them.
The flatware is from Tuesday Morning, above is closer to the real color. The green plates are from Dollar Tree!

The lace tablecloth is the one I bought at an estate sale recently, for only $5.00!

The centerpiece:

The centerpiece evolved to this above. I had originally planned to use a cornucopia and dark chargers under the plates. As I was putting it together it seemed to have a "mind of it's own!" LOL! I used the mercury glass bowl with the fruit, and the two tall mercury glass candle sticks that I bought last week at Michael's on sale at 40% off. The shorter one was $6.99, the tall one $8.99! Can't resist bargains like that!!

The gold chargers go nicely with the gold mercury glass.

I waited too late to take the pictures and had to use the flash on some, so some of the colors aren't true.

Confession: I was watching Oprah and planned to do the tablescape when her show was over, I forgot it gets dark earlier now that Daylight Savings time is over!

Choose your favorite plate and join us!

Maybe I'll take the place with the yellow pears, unless you want it!

I hope you enjoyed this inexpensive tablescape! It was a labor of love!

Have a happy day!

God Bless.

Katherine

Summer Salads

I had planned to continue on with sharing salad recipes on Saturdays, but Felicia invited me to join her Christmas in July Saturday (next post below) so I'm sharing two of our favorite salads today.

Apple Broccoli Slaw

Tomato and Tuna Salad

First I'll share the broccoli slaw. I have about five broccoli salad recipes and this is one of our favorite. It is made with a bag of broccoli slaw. I forgot to take a picture of the bag, but you get it at the bagged lettuce, etc. counter. To this bag of broccoli slaw you add chopped apples, cranberries, etc. (Recipe below.)

Here are a few of the ingredients to add to the broccoli slaw.
We really like dried cranberries and the apples together.
I always keep toasted sunflower seed kernels and almonds to use in lots of recipes.
The tuna salad also has sunflower seeds in it. (Recipe at the bottom.)

Apple Broccoli Slaw

1 bag broccoli slaw

2 cups shredded, chopped red cabbage

1 Granny Smith green apple, peeled, cored, and chopped

1 finely chopped red onion, or Vidalia onion

¼ cup finely chopped green pepper

2 cups shredded and chopped red cabbage

1 cup dried cranberries

½ cup toasted sliced almonds (watch carefully when toasting seeds and almonds (only takes about 3 minutes, I set the timer!)

1/2 cup toasted sunflower seeds

1 or 2 packages Stevia powder (or Splenda)

About ½ cup balsamic vinegar

Mix all together and refrigerate. You may need to add more balsamic when serving. I just love the combination flavors of the broccoli, apple, nuts, seeds, and balsamic!

I don't "love" tuna salad, but my husband does so I add a lot to it to make it really good. I like to serve it with crackers instead of making a sandwich, to save on the calories of the bread. If I make a sandwich (to take in a bag lunch, I use pocket bread.

Crunchy Tuna Salad

2 cans tuna, drained

1 or 2 ribs celery, chopped

2 tablespoons Mayo

2 tablespoons Miracle whip

1/2 teaspoon Mustard

1 tablespoon Pickle relish

2 tablespoons Minced onion

1/4 cup Toasted sunflower seeds

1/4 cup Toasted slivered almonds (watch closely while toasting!)

Lettuce leaves

Mix mayo and Miracle Whip with mustard and

Pickle relish. Mix with tuna, celery, onion, relish, then add nuts and seeds.

Mix well and chill. (If needed add more ingredients to make it

more moist.

Another secret ingredient of my tuna salad

is to add a little 1000 Island dressing to it, about a tablespoon.

(I didn't have it this time.)

Sometimes I also chop up an apple and mix it into the tuna salad mixture, it's very good with the nuts.

This tuna salad is very quick and easy to put together quickly when expecting friends for lunch.



I posted the Broccoli Orange Salad shown below a few weeks ago. Click here for the recipe.


Let me know if you try these salads!
Have a happy day!
God Bless.

Katherine

Everything is just peachy!

While on vacation in SC a few weeks ago we bought some fresh peaches. They were sooo good! We don’t often get good peaches here in Florida, I don’t know if they grow in FL.

Peaches don’t last very long, so I had to get creative to use them up. First I used the fresh peaches to make peach short cake. I bought a sugar-free angel food cake at the grocery store, along with sugar-free Cool Whip. This was delicious! We bought a few white peaches so I mixed them with the regular peaches. Yum!

Next I made some things I could freeze. These peach muffins are very good with the peach jam we also bought at the fruit stand in SC. I like peach preserves and had never seen peach jam or jelly, so I bought some!


I made a small peach cobbler just for the two of us. I added a little Splenda Brown Sugar and butter. The crust was made with Crescent Rolls, cut into strips and woven into a lattice. It was really good!


I like it hot, without ice cream so I can get the full taste of the peaches!

A favorite was this peach bread below, I ended up making two loaves of this. I served some at my Creative Memories workshop and it was a hit.

This is our idea of a relaxing cocktail!

So cold and refreshing!

We also bought this delicious peach cider in SC!
I also served this at my CM workshop, they loved it!

(Sorry the pictures didn't turn out so well at night.)

If you would like any of these recipes I will be happy to share them with you.

Now are you hungry for fresh peaches?

Have a peachy day!!


God Bless.

Katherine