Thanksgiving Tablescapes Through the Years

 

The big day is finally here! As you read this, I am frantically preparing for company. I’m having a small crowd this year, minuscule, in fact, but the stress level is always high no matter how many I serve. For those of you who are relaxing and enjoying the day, you may find an interest in looking at the Thanksgiving tables that I have done in the past. Some items show themselves repeatedly, others occasionally, and some only once. It was a nice walk down memory lane for me, a bit bittersweet if I’m honest. Still, it’s always important to celebrate if you can, be grateful for what you have, and keep moving forward. Click on the title beneath each picture to get to the tablescape.

Setting Your Thanksgiving Table

Giving Thanks Tablescape

 

Turkey's Delight Tablescape

 

Mr. Tom Turkey Tablescape

 

Giving Thanks, a Thanksgiving Tablescape

"Soup to Nuts" Thanksgiving Tablescape Thanksgiving 2020-Style

Neutral Thanksgiving Tablescape

My First Thanksgiving Tablescape

 

 Happy Thanksgiving!

The Fruitcake Bowl

 

Long before we got together, the late Mr. O-P was making fruitcake. It was as much of a tradition for him as was putting up a tree. I had never made a fruitcake before, so this tradition was new to my experience. It is an arduous task, I can tell you. It’s also an expensive one. Over the years as I watched him make this, I had suggested he get a larger bowl. He was a bit of a messy cook under normal circumstances, but this generally made for a kitchen disaster.One spring I was out shopping with my mother, and spotted what I thought would be the perfect fruitcake-making bowl. I made the purchase, lugged the stoneware behemoth to the car, sneaked it into the house, and waited to present it to him at my parents’ annual brunch on Easter Sunday, filled with Easter grass and goodies. It wasn’t the right season, I know, but when you find special things, you need to buy them.

His reaction was a bit different than I had expected. For one thing, it’s heavy. I mean really heavy. When I put it on his lap, I thought the weight was going to send it right onto the floor. The bowl is 14” wide by 9” tall, and weighs 15 pounds. It’s also a real booger to store. He mentioned all of this on the way home in the car. I tend not to think about such things in the throes of shopping passion.

I won’t say that I regretted this purchase, although I did, but because I had bought it, and designated it as the official fruitcake bowl, it became so. Every November it had to be hoisted up from the basement, washed, and pressed into service. I still have that bowl, and let me tell you bringing it up from the basement at my advanced age is not easy. Combine that with the mixing of the fruitcake ingredients, and you’ve got quite the cardio workout.

This is my first year making fruitcake on my own. The year after Jim passed away number two son, Andrew, came to make it with me. After that, I thought I would probably never make a fruitcake again, because the process made me a bit melancholy. This year I cast that aside, dug in, and I’m rather proud of myself. I used this fruitcake as the cover picture for my Christmas card the first year I celebrated as a widow. The recipe was inside. You can also find it here.

As I write this, the bowl is safely stored away on a shelf in the basement, and I’m ready to collapse in a heap. My family likes fruitcake, so they’re eager for their portions come Christmas. Do you have any similar baking equipment that means something special to you? Tell me about it.

Not My Grandmother's Fruit Cookies

Do you have a special recipe in your family that you are hesitant to share? We do in our family. (I have sworn to take my leek and potato soup recipe with me to my grave; I won’t, but don’t tell my kids that.) In my family it is a cookie recipe that dates back to my great, possibly great-great grandmother. Initially it was just a list of ingredients on a rather yellowed piece of paper. It was later written up in a more workable form. The original recipe called for black walnuts and currants, but over the years as black walnuts became increasingly less available, and people started substituting raisins for currants, the recipe changed. I am not going to give you that recipe, but I am going to give you one that is equally as good, perhaps better, and based on one that has been in my family for generations.

Not My Grandmother's Fruit Cookies

1 c. granulated sugar
½ c. dark brown sugar
1 c. butter, room temperature
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. ground cloves
1 t. ground mace
1 t. ground allspice
2¼ c. flour
1 t. baking soda dissolved in ¼ c. buttermilk
1 c. raisins
½ c. golden raisins
1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375° F. Spray cookie sheets with PAM; set aside.

Cream butter, sugar, and spices together until fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Add dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk mixture. Fold in raisins and pecans. Scoop cookies into balls and bake until lightly browned, 13-15 minutes. Let cool a couple of minutes on the cookie sheet before removing to cool on a rack.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

 

Winter in the Woods Tablescape

I was remiss in posting tablescapes last year, but I have a good reason for it...I didn’t do many. I have a good reason for that too; I’d decided to use the dining table as my worktable. It was centrally located in the house, comfortable, was ideally placed as to have both a great view of the TV and the outdoors. What can I tell you? That was that.

This year it will be different, and I’m not just saying that. You may remember little more than three years ago I had a rather pitiful deck removed from the back of the house and replaced with a large one that included a 10’ x 16’ open area and a 16’ x 16’ screened in area henceforth known as the lanai. You can read about that here and here.

At the beginning of next week, the lanai will be transformed into a conservatory. OK, OK, it is actually a four-season room, but the word “Conservatory” sound so delightfully CLUE game to me, that I decided to embrace it. It is going to be my own special space, my Jungalow as it were. A pair of windows and a door in the bay in the dining area are going to be removed so that the traverse from the main part of the house into what I hope will be a tropical paradise will be an easy one. I plan to move my worktable out there, pile all of my favorite throws and bohemian pillows on the existing furniture, and fill it with plants. Frankly, Joe can’t work fast enough to get it done.

 

As a consequence, knowing this is coming, I have been enjoying my dining table and created my first tablescape of 2021 that I call “ Winter in the Woods.” I’m always hesitant to take down Christmas decorations that aren’t specifically Christmassy, and by this I mean greenery, pine trees, pine rope, candles, and other such items that can do double duty. When people say “Seasons Greetings” it should not refer to a holiday, it should refer to the entire winter season. With that in mind, I decided to make use of some plates normally considered Christmas-only because of the text, and intend to use into February.

The tablecloth is one you have seen me use again and again. I believe I got it from Decor Steals, and it is the most versatile tablecloth I own. It is topped with a nubby runner from Pottery Barn.

The pinecone plates, also from Pottery Barn, are among my favorites. They are on top of wooden chargers (that are actually trivets) that I found last year at Target. 

The salad plates that read “Seasons Greetings” and feature a moose/elk/reindeer, remind me of the quiet woods of Maine.

The green plaid napkins were my mother’s as were the solid green napkins. Honestly, I couldn’t figure out which ones I liked the best so I used both; pinecone napkin rings I bought a couple of years ago at Pier 1.

The pinecone flatware came from Cabela’s. Never underestimate the tableware cuteness they have at Cabela’s.

The elk salt and pepper shakers came from Ballard Designs three years ago.

I am a fan of having salt and pepper shakers at either end of the table, so chose this pinecone set as well.

 The brown stemware was my mother’s. 

 

The wooden tree candlesticks were made by my dad and painted by my mother, so very special.

 

The trees I picked up at a local shop. I love them so much.
 

The truck, this adorable truck, used to be in my mother’s “Northwoods” bedroom. Now that I look at this table I really should’ve covered it with a quilt that she used in that bedroom. I may just do that next time.

 

 The metal houses I’ve had for a while and honestly can’t remember where I got them. The little reindeer candle holders I’ve had for years.

My mother had a large collection of Wilton Armetale. The sugar and creamer set, and pitcher are both WA.

I may be dining alone these days, but it does my heart good to dine in such fine fashion. More tablescapes to come!

This post is linked to:

Tablescape Thursday

 

Wearing 'o the Green Tablescape

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up on Saturday, and my table is wearing ‘o the green in celebration.

I am a big fan of green and white, and, as a consequence, I thoroughly enjoyed putting this table together.

The Fitz & Floyd pitcher centerpiece belonged to my mother. When, a dozen or so years ago, I started having the St. Patrick’s Day dinner, she passed it on to me. It has become as much of a tradition as the corned beef!

I decided to fill it with flowers this year, instead of my usual pot of shamrocks. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake. This pitcher is huge!

It has a very wide opening, and the sad bunch of flowers that I had picked up at the market needed some serious help, so I filled in with some artificial flowers. I think I pulled it off.

I topped it with a vintage St. Patrick’s Day card from the collection of St. Patrick’s cards that I started a while ago. Isn’t it sweet?

This year, I’m happy to say, I was finally able to locate a pair of leprechaun salt and pepper shakers to match the pitcher! This Fitz and Floyd pattern goes back to the 80s, so they’re not all that easy to find. I’m happy to have this whimsical addition to my table.

The wine glasses are new this year and from Pier 1. I thought they added a bit of sparkle and whimsy to the table, plus they hold a lot of wine!

The napkins with the shamrocks are new as well. I found these, believe it or not, on Amazon. They are nice, large, and quite colorful, not to mention low in price. You can find them here.

The chargers, a gift from a blogger friend, are used more often than any others in my collection. The white plates, “Blanc Amelie” from Versailles, are also among my favorites, because they blend with everything. The raised border gives them a rather elegant look; the mugs are this pattern as well. 

 Lotus bowls that I generally use for serving Asian food, worked well here as vessels for shamrock cookies.

The lidded soup bowls I have had for about 40 years. They are handy for a variety of foods and make a very special presentation. 

If you are celebrating this year with a dinner or gathering, tell me about it, I love to hear what others do!

This post contains affiliate links.

Successes, Mistakes, and Salmon Cakes

People who read this blog, or come to the house for a nice lunch or dinner, ask if we eat like this all of the time. No. We probably do most of the time, and by most, I mean about 75%. The other 25% is made up of BLTs, scrambled eggs, fruit and cheese plates, or carryout from the local barbecue joint.

Another thing I'm asked is if I have any failures. Oh, yeah! I just don't tell you about those. (Here is one exception that eventually worked out favorably.) Last week, in fact, when I made a recipe for jambalaya, but mistakenly halved the first part of the recipe without halving the second part, it resulted in a sticky, gloppy, rice-filled disaster. Hello peanut butter and saltines!

I've also had successes that turned into failures, which brings to mind this article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that ran a few years back, and that I happened upon recently in my files. (It was actually in the file that holds the owner's manuals for small kitchen appliances; don't ask me how it got there.)

I have no idea how the food editor of the Post got my name, or learned of my blog, but when the offer came to be a featured cook in the Food Section of the paper, I reluctantly accepted. I say reluctantly because, largely, well, entirely, I am not a seeker of publicity; I am the queen of the low profile, and I like it that way.

Choosing a recipe for the feature was no easy task (and I still regret taking my own picture for this, which resulted in my looking like a stern science teacher). I wanted something simple, make ahead, that would plate attractively, and have a wide appeal, so chose my salmon cakes. I had made these so many times that absolutely nothing go possibly go wrong. Nothing! By the time the photographer arrived to photograph the food (and, really, I think I could have taken the picture myself), I had them ready, cooled, plated, and waiting for their photography session. I'd made the sauce ahead of time and, as I do, had poured it into an icing bottle for easy and even dispersal on top of the cakes. What I did not realize, in my rather jittery state, was that I had put the wrong top on the icing bottle. Instead of the top with the wide opening, used to accommodate thicker sauces, I used the pointed top that is used for icings and glazes.

As the photographer stood by, I pulled out the bottle to dress the salmon cakes. I squeezed gently, ready to drizzle the sauce back and forth with great aplomb. Nothing happened. So I squeezed again. Nothing. Once more, and kaPOW! The lid blew off, sprayed glops of sauce onto the salmon cakes, spattering both the photographer and me in the going. I can still see bits of it hanging from her hair. Needless to say, I was mortified. I had to rinse and dry the salmon cakes, re-plate them, and scrape up what remained of the sauce to then apply with a small spoon.

I don't think the photographer, a young woman half my age, was at all amused, but we thought it was screamingly funny, still laughing after her departure while removing bits of sauce from the walls.

The lesson here of course, is to not let little upsets deter you. Embrace your uniqueness and press on!

This post is linked to:

You're Gonna Love it Tuesday

Wow Us Wednesday
Work It Wednesday

What’s It Wednesday

Share Your Style

Keeping it Simple

Creative Ways

Show and Share

Share Your Style on Thursday