Olla-Podrida: red

Showing posts with label red. Show all posts

Thursday, June 10, 2021

Red, White, and Blue Salad with Candied Pecans

This salad is perfect for summer and its patriotic holidays, as well as being elegant, and super easy to assemble. Have your blueberries and strawberries washed and prepped ahead of time, as well as the baby spinach. Candied pecans are a breeze to make, you can find that recipe here, but don’t eat all of them before it’s time to serve your salad because they are quite tempting. Then, it’s nothing more than piling it up on a plate, and dressing it with the best balsamic vinaigrette ever. Or, you can serve the dressing on the side.

Red, White, and Blue Salad with Candied Pecans

1 bag fresh baby spinach
1 4-oz. container blueberries
1 small container strawberries

Feta
Candied pecans
Balsamic vinaigrette

Place ingredients, in order, on serving plates. Drizzle with vinaigrette, or serve it on the side.

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Nostalgic Valentine's Day Table

When I set out to create a Valentine’s Day table this year, I had no idea how emotional the experience would be.

In assembling the various components that I had set aside for my table, I came across an envelope that my dad had given to me years ago.

It contained a wide variety of things that my mother had saved from past Valentine’s Days, including all of the cards that we had sent her. We knew that she liked the old-fashioned kind, so that’s what we tended to buy and send.

She even saved a computer-generated one that my dad made from back in the 80’s when we did that sort of thing, as well as one featuring the Rugrats that my son had sent her back in 1996.

The red cardboard cupids (along with doilies and hearts that I did not use) graced her tables annually.

All of the ephemera on this table once belonged to my mother.

As I got out the fabric that I intended to use as a tablecloth, I realized that this had once belonged to her too, purchased, I assume, in 2002 as that was the date on the selvage.

Today marks the five-year anniversary of her passing, and that makes this all the more bittersweet.

I’ll provide no more commentary, just photos of the table, followed by a list of sources.

Miss you, mom!

Carved wooden chargers – Pier One Imports
Cranberry red dinner plates - Pier One Imports
Ikat heart napkins - Pottery Barn
Heart-shaped salad plates - wayfair.com
Eiffel tower wine glasses - La Rochere
Mugs – Maison Versailles “Amelie”
Flatware - Target
Red Pitcher - Fiestaware
Small heart dishes - Amazon

This post contains affiliate links.

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Tablescape

With my last table you were treated to the gorgeous leaf chargers sent to me by Marigene Purcell of the In the Middle of Nowhere blog.

I failed to mention that, in addition to sending me these amazing chargers, she also sent me some tablecloths.

Today's table features one of them, one, I might add, that she had used, I had admired, and the next thing I knew, it was mine!

I had a good time setting this table. This one, as the two previous, took me about three days to put together. I was so overwrought with Mr. O-P's care and imminent loss, that it was all I could do to just put one foot in front of the other.

Table settings were my therapy, I told myself, so, little by little, I would assemble them.

Initially this table was set without the bejeweled chargers. I kept looking at it and thought it needed a bit more color. This was when I remembered the chargers I’d bought a couple of Christmases ago. So I dug these out of my holiday bin and loved the look. (I love it when I can use something in more than one way.)

Then, I thought it needed just a tiny bit more red so, while Mr. O-P slept, I ran down to Walgreen's for a bag of Swedish fish. Perfect!

As a side note, the cobalt blue champagne flutes shown here had been one of our wedding gifts. Do you know that in the 21 years we were married we never once used them?

We are not fans of champagne, but beautiful glasses should be used no matter what, so I have remedied this situation and now use them with my morning orange juice. Celebrate life, people! Use those precious items.

Placemats – Pier One

Chargers – Pier One

Blue Fish Plates - eBay

Flatware – Crate & Barrel

Small White Fish Dishes – One Kings Road

Shorebirds – Fitz & Floyd

This post is linked to:

Silver Pennies Sunday

Amaze Me Monday

Busy Mondays

Inspiration Monday

Metamorphosis Monday

Make It Pretty Monday
Cooking & Crafting with J&J

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays At Our Home

Two Cup Tuesday
Tutorials and Tips Tuesday

Homemaking Party Tuesday

Wow Us Wednesday
Work It Wednesday

Wine’d Down Wednesday

Wake up Wednesday

Create It Thursday

The DIY Collective
Thursday Favorite Things

Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Red, White & Blue Salad with Fresh Strawberry Dressing

This salad is SO good and just perfect for the sultry days of summer, those patriotic holidays in particular because of the red, white, and blue. It is a snap to toss together using spinach, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, and a sprinkling of bleu cheese (or any crumbled white cheese of your choice, feta, for example). What knocks this out of the park is the fresh strawberry dressing. You'll need a small blender or processor in order to properly pulverize the strawberries, but the dressing, like the salad, goes together in a breeze. Make lots of this one. People are going to love it!

Fresh Strawberry Dressing

1/2 cup fresh strawberries, halved or quartered depending upon size
1/2 Tablespoon granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dry mustard

Place all ingredients into a bullet (or any similar) blender and whir for 30-45 seconds. Drizzle over salad and toss. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

This dressing is equally good on any type of salad that you enjoy, whether fruitful, or fruitless. :-)

PRINT RECIPE

This post is linked to: Art of Homemaking Monday, Cooking & Crafting with JJ, Wow Us Wednesdays, Wake up Wednesday, Full Plate Thursday, Simple and Sweet Fridays, Foodie Friday & Everything Else

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Valentine Breakfast Tablesetting

Yesterday I gave you six ideas for making some delicious breakfast or brunch dishes. Today I am showing you a simple but lovely table setting that you can effortlessly create to serve your delicious breakfast treats.

Not all tables have to be over-the-top fancy and loaded with eye candy. Those tables are fun, don't get me wrong, but when I have the first meal of the day, I like to enjoy it in peace and quiet, sipping espresso and nibbling a croissant, while watching the birds at the feeder and listening to the rustle of the morning paper behind which Mr. O-P is huddled and happily engrossed.

I chose a simple black and white color scheme with a shock or two of red, one in the Sur La Table Italian ceramic napkin holder (the napkins belonged to my mother), and the other in the Fiestaware pitcher full of white Alstromeria.

The white plates were bought years ago for 50 cents apiece at Old Time Pottery. That was one of the best investments that I ever made. The white cups and saucers are from Amazon. The white bowls and condiment set are from the Pottery Barn Great White Collection.

The whimsical plastic flatware is from a picnic basket set that we got as a wedding gift (20 years ago) from Crate & Barrel.

The little black polka dotted under plate is from 222 Fifth and yet another great investment as I seriously use these plates everywhere, here and here for example. No one has an inkling that they are Christmas plates.