A little supper for six

I absolutely love entertaining.  It’s one of my favorite things to do! I love prepping for days ahead of time, setting the table and dressing it and cooking fun new recipes.

Last night, I had Rhende, Paige, Jen and Jessica over for a little supper of pork roast, red potato and sweet onion gratin, butter beans, biscuits and chocolate pie. It was my first ever attempt at meringue (the thought had always terrified me!) and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the looks of it.  The taste however… I shouldn’t have tried to make my own instructions for the chocolate filling portion of the pie. Hindsight’s 20/20.

I like to set the table a day or two ahead of time to make sure I’m not rushed the evening of my event.  While I’m no Eddie Ross, I do like to dress a table with a mix of new and old and play with fabrics, accessories and linens.

Pardon the wrinkled tablecloth. I put it down and got carried away dressing the table… it never got ironed.

Almost all of my dishes, etc are hand-me-downs.  The plates, silverware and glasses are all cast-offs from Mama’s collection. Unfortunately, I don’t have six wine glasses so we all drank our wine from champagne glasses.  I don’t think anybody minded too much. The wooden salad bowls were from my great-grandmother’s collection.  The brown embroidered napkins were a steal from Williams-Sonoma after Christmas one year and the white linen napkins are hand-me-downs from my paternal grandmother.  They’re embroidered with a “B” for her maiden name. The tablecloth, table runner and placemats are all from Target.  I love their Waverly Linen Hemstitch stuff. I buy whatever colors they happen to have on clearance. The nest-shaped napkin rings and bird salt and pepper shakers are also Target. The bird napkin rings are Z Gallerie.  The candlesticks were a hand-me-down from a friend.

 Have I ever mentioned how much I love my percolator? I believe it was a gift to my great-grandmother.  She already had a coffee pot so she just put this one away for later.  When we moved her out of her house (at age 10o!) I got to keep the percolator.  It makes delicious coffee and it’s so pretty to look at!

We had a fantastic time and I was so glad to be cooking for more than one person. Would you like that pie recipe? I’ll post it when I get home this afternoon. It’s super easy and super pretty.  You just have to follow the instructions instead of making up your own.

Photos by Rachel.

Pacifica Perfume

You may have seen the little blurb about Pacifica Perfume in the February BH&G. They featured their Tuscan Blood Orange spray and solid perfume.  I’m a sucker for citrus so I had to check out the website.

With scents like Brazilian Mango Grapefruit, Hawaiian Ruby Guava, Malibu Lemon Blossom, Nerola Orange Blossom, Madagascar Spice and Mexican Cocoa, I was practically drooling all over my screen.  Each fragrance and candle is crafted from all natural ingredients.  Here’s what they have to say,

“Brook personally develops all of our fragrances using the highest quality ingredients including essential and natural oils from all over the world to create Pacifica’s proprietary perfume blends.  Pacifica does not support the use of naturals that are threatened or where the harvesting of the plant endangers biodiversity or causes other environmental issues. 

Pacifica’s fragrances are free of petro-chemicals, phthalates, propylene glycol, nitro-musks, and benzene.  Pacifica adheres to strict IFRA standards, a self-governing organization that sets safety standards for all natural and non-natural aroma compounds.”

 Founder Brook Harvey-Taylor is one of those cool people who manages to look effortless and together while running a company and mothering her children. Check out her blog here.

I was pleased as punch to discover that their sprays are only $22 and the solid perfumes are only $9! With prices like that, you could afford to buy several fragrances and layer them. I’m expecting my Tuscan Blood Orange spray and Madagascar Spice soap at my door any day now. I think they’ll smell lovely together!

I’m in love! I’m in love! And I don’t care who knows it!

I’m in love. With a man. Too bad he doesn’t reciprocate my feelings. Too bad he doesn’t even know who I am. Who is he? Why Eddie Ross, of course.

When we were in New York, we stopped in Bloomingdale’s.  I was hoping to see the fabulous Eddie and Jaithan at work on their window display.  They hadn’t yet begun and most of the windows were covered in paper but I did snap a quick picture of Apartment Therapy’s window in progress.

You may know Eddie from his run on Bravo’s Top Design.  He’s brilliant at what he does and has the resume to prove it. He’s been a stylist at the Food Network, House Beautiful and Martha Stewart Living. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s an accomplished chef and he runs his own Etsy store full of gorgeous finds from flea markets and antique stores, all happily priced below $100.  I LOVE him.  We’re friends on Facebook now so I fully expect to be invited over for a fabulous party any day now. Ha!

Now, if you wouldn’t mind too much, could you vote for dear Eddie’s gorgeous window display? (View more pictures here.)

Etsy Overload

I need to stop looking at Etsy! I just get overwhelmed and I want to buy it all.  Well, not all of it.

I will take one of these and a couple of these though.

Can you tell I like birds?

Quickie

NY post is coming.  In the meantime, I sure would love a pair of these…

And I’d also like one of these.

We’re back!

Full post with pictures tomorrow.  I’m going to prop my foot up with some ice.

Until then, I’ll leave you with a picture of the closest thing to a celebrity we saw.

I guess all the good celebrities were at the Golden Globes.

Start spreadin’ the news…

I’m leavin’ today!

It’s New York day!! Ah!!! Thus far, my unofficial 2010 resolution to travel more is shaping up quite nicely.

While we’re having a fabulous time in the city that doesn’t sleep, I’ll leave you with a candid picture of me and my friends from the last time we went to “the city.”

Concrete Jungle where dreams are made of*

* The grammatical incorrectness of that phrase really bothers me.

I board a plane tomorrow afternoon for NYC!! While we haven’t come up with a solid itinerary, here are a few of the things topping my list of  to-dos.

1. Visit Carrie Bradshaw’s apartment (just the outside of it)
2. Eat at Katz’s deli (the “I’ll have what she’s having” deli from When Harry Met Sally)
3. Eat a cupcake from Magnolia Bakery (only if there isn’t a line this long)
4. Eat some legit Italian food in Little Italy
5. Go to Serendipity – I sure have a lot of food-related things on my list.
6. See the Shoe Floor at Saks (it has its own zip code!)
7. Visit Central Park
8. Buy fake stuff in China Town
9. Visit Rockefeller Center
10. Go to the Library

But most of all, I plan to pay attention, take pictures and remember as much as possible.  The last time I was in NY, I was too busy trying to keep an eye out for Joey Fatone in Little Italy and any errant Backstreet Boys roaming the streets that I didn’t pay attention to half of the things we did and saw.

Is there anything else I have to eat, see or do? I’m still taking suggestions.

I apologize for the lack of links and picture credits. For some reason, I can’t get copy and paste to work on the internet so it would take me a month to type all the links to everything.

I wanna be a part of it…

I’m going with three friends to New York next weekend!!! We’ll be there from the evening of the 15th to the morning of the 18th.  I’m so excited I can hardly stand it! Speaking of standing, I went back to the doctor yesterday and he said I can start wearing good supporting shoes with a back.  I can also start driving again! Woohoo!! I think I’m going to run by the shoe store on my lunch break and pick up a pair of these bad boys:

Ha! But seriously, I’m in the market for some great athletic shoes to wear for the next month or so that cushion my foot and also make good exercise shoes. Any suggestions?

Speaking of good suggestions, what should we do while in New York?

My current goals are:

1. Meet Jimmy Fallon and/or Owen Biddle from The Roots (we’re already Facebook friends so it’s practically like we know each other.)

2. Ride in the Cash Cab and win some $.

3. Get my picture taken with a famous person, a legit one. Right now, my collection consists entirely of bluegrass singers who’ve come to Augusta (But they’re still ones I consider legit: Del McCoury, Rhonda Vincent, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs) and Johnny Cash’s sister Joan (who hardly qualifies as a famous person.)

Lofty goals? Perhaps. Ridiculously touristy goals? Oh, definitely.