The other morning I was watching the news and one of the segments was telling everyone that young women and girls ARE RETURNING to a more classic way of entertaining. Yippee! Returning to good china, crystal glasses, etc.
If you have been a follower of this site for the last three years, you would know from the recipes to the signature drinks to the table settings, we do not simply “throw the food on the table” and hope for the best.
Setting a pretty table may take nothing more than cloth napkins with a napkin ring. It should always have candles, perhaps some fresh flowers. Of course it will have a clean and IRONED TABLE CLOTH.
You can go to the Super Store, Costco or Walmart (or any other big box store) and purchase Charger plates. They don’t have to be expensive but they add another dimension to the table appearance. Try this a few times and then add one more thing for a Sunday dinner or company coming for the evening dinner.
It could be individual salt and pepper shakers for each plate. These are small, inexpensive and they really do have a wow factor. Many, many times at our dinners people will comment on them.
What I have been trying to say is, tell your family or friends what you are doing or they may just notice on their own. I have a fabulous “step-daughter” who is always adding to my collection. I have individual tiny gravy boats and now I have some individual sauce boats. Wow! Again, these are from Suzanne.
My daughter, Kelly, gave me white professional grade napkins (12). They wash up like a dream and iron even better. Ha Ha! You may have to dust off the iron here. She also, is always adding things to be used.
Each time, these astute daughters add on, it makes the table show to those seated around it that they matter. My husband’s niece gave me beautiful, individual place card holders at Christmas. They were black and gold…so was my table setting this year. Perfect! It is great. I have been adding to and have collected now for about 16 years.
Our one-time friends also added…material for table cloths, and many other items. You can ‘t do it all at once, but just take a good long look at the table settings on this site and you can see. I still pick up ‘stuff’ to make a table look beautiful. It only” takes five”. Stand back and take a real good look at the table and in five minutes I will bet you can add something to enhance it.
Go ahead and try it. I am thrilled to see the trend returning.
Pumpkin Turtle Pie
Even with a few packaged foods, it is still from scratch.( If you made it, it’s from scratch) A great NEW pie for Thanksgiving Dinner. Try it!
- 1 graham pie crust (ready made)
- 1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. caramel ice cream topping
- very generous 1/2 cup pecan pieces, divided
- 1 cup cold milk
- 2 pgs. each (3.4 oz) vanilla instant pudding
- 1 cup pure pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
- 2 cups sweetened whipped cream
- Shaved chocolate (optional)
Pour 1/2 cup of caramel topping on the pie crust bottom and sprinkle 1/2 cup chopped pecans on top.
Beat milk, pudding mixes and spices with mixer on low just until well blended. Gently fold in one cup of whipped cream and spread into crust. Refrigerate at least one hour.
Just before serving, top with remaining whipped cream, sprinkle with remaining pecans (this time chopped fine) and drizzle remaining caramel topping across the top. Now you can add the shaved chocolate.
Note: If you stand just before serving all the calories will disappear!