Burford Designs

Impressive Thanksgiving Desserts

This was originally posted in November 2009.  Since it's that time of year again I thought I'd bring it back for another go.

While not all of these will necessarily be super impressive desserts they really don’t need to be as long as they are yummy.  In addition to, or instead of, traditional fares such as pumpkin pie and apple pie here are some other holiday inspired desserts.

 

First up is Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle

(photo courtesy of Food Network)

I love multi layered desserts and have found trifles to be simply beautiful.  This one is S-I-M-P-L-E!  If you can follow directions on a box and make things like packaged pudding, then you can easily whip up this tasty little treat.

 

Another play on a layered trifle dessert is Country Living’s Pumpkin Mousse.  There is a bit more measuring and mixing in this recipe but you are making the mousse from scratch.  Of course to cut down on time and energy you could always use whipped topping, however, if I am going to the trouble of making all of this from scratch, then I would probably make the whipped cream myself because most things don’t taste as good as homemade.

(photo courtesy of Country Living)

I am smitten with Smitten Kitchen.  Other than the clever name, they have fabulous recipes and amazing photos of the dishes along with some of the step by step pics along the way.  From that site I wanted to share this delectable Cranberry, Caramel and Almond Tart.

(photo courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)

While reading the comments I noticed that several people had trouble with the crust of the tart.  One commenter suggested using páte brisée (that I wrote about the other day when I linked the various desserts from the Martha Stewart special).  As I wrote there, páte brisée is my go to recipe, it is what I used for the fruit tartlets I made for Hannah's Tea Party.

Rum Balls Revisited

Since it is the holiday season I decided that I would share, or rather re-share, another favorite holiday cookie recipe.  It is also another pretty simple recipe but eat at your own risk.  I originally shared this recipe May of 2008 for a Swashbuckling Pirate Blog Party because I thought it was fitting since it was for Rum Balls and it dealt with pirates.

You do have to be careful though, since they are made with alcohol, they can affect you.  I remember the first time Mommy had them; she took them to work and shared them with a co-worker.  They were both florists and spent the entire shift laughing and carrying on and having a grand old time making arrangements and eating rum balls.  Later in the day, after she was home, Mommy was recalling how great her day was and how the shift just flew by and they both had so much fun. 

 

Baby Boy and I both remarked how that was because they were both tipsy.  Mommy adamantly denied being sloshed; she NEVER drank so how could she have been even the slightest bit buzzed.  I asked her what she had while she was at work and she remarked that the only thing they had been the cookies.  So I further questioned “and what kind of cookies were they?”

 

She responded that they were Rum Balls as if it were commonplace.  I pressed on and asked her what she thought was in the cookie.  She said that she didn’t know.  I then asked if she thought that maybe, quite possibly, one of the ingredients would be rum, since that is not only in the name of the cookie but she was the one who actually purchase the bottle of rum.  Needless to say she never took Rum Balls to work again and decided to limit how many she had during any one time.

Rum Balls - makes 4 dozen

Ingredients:

• 2 (12 ounce) packages vanilla wafers, crushed
• 3 cups chopped nuts (walnuts & pecans work well and almonds are great too)
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1 cup light rum
• 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Instructions:

• In a large bowl, combine vanilla wafer crumbs, chopped nuts, 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar, and cocoa. Mix in rum and corn syrup. Shape dough into 1 inch balls; roll in confectioners' sugar or cocoa.

Store rum balls in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days to develop flavor. Roll them again in confectioners' sugar, cocoa, or crushed nuts before serving.

Surprise Sugar Cookies

A couple of year’s ago I shared about a party that Mommy and I catered.  It was for her friend Marilyn and was our first catering job and a large event at that.  Today I wanted to share one of the cookie recipes we had at that party that was a huge hit.  They are called Surprise Sugar cookies.  The surprise is a chocolate mint embedded between two sugar cookies so you think that you are just getting a massive sugar cookie but when you bite into it, surprise, there’s a chocolate mint center.  They are wonderfully yummy and great whether you make them from scratch or go the super easy route with ready made items, I’ll share both ways with you.

Surprise Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate mints (I like Andes)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a small bowl mix flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

 

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.

 

Roll rounded teaspoonfuls of dough into balls, slightly flatten the ball, place a mint (or part of a mint depending on the size of your cookie, then put another slightly flattened piece of dough on top.  Make sure the edges are sealed (pressed together) then place the cookie “sandwich” onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  I like to bake on parchment paper because I don’t have a silicone baking sheet yet.

 

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

 

Super Easy Surprise Sugar Cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Purchase your favorite sugar cookie dough, typically an 18 ounce roll, slice into ¼ inch disks. 

Package of chocolate mint wafers.

 

Sandwich a chocolate mint between two slices of cut sugar cookie dough.  Make sure all edges are sealed and place on cookie sheet.

 

Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.

 

Enjoy!

Super Busy Saturday

Tomorrow is officially the start of the holiday season in my neck of the woods.  This little town, along with a few of the neighboring border towns, is hosting several holiday themed shopping experiences. 

 

In town one of the local charity/ thrift shops is holding their annual Christmas sale in the town's high school cafeteria.  All year long the ladies that run the God’s Provision Thrift store sort through donations and gather goods, mostly holiday related, to sell at this event and to promote their little shop.  What is particularly funny is that they get some good business at this show from people who didn’t know the business existed, even though the shop is actually in front of the high school... you have to pass the business to get to the high school.

 

Then at the local junior high in the gym the Lioness Club is hosting their annual holiday craft fair.  There is generally a pretty good turnout for this event and Mommy and I like to go and occasionally buy from local crafters.

 

In a little town south of us there is another annual event happening, the Blanchard Community Center Holiday Bazaar featuring arts and crafts, holiday decorations and refreshments.  Mommy and I haven't been to this one before and we will see if we make it tomorrow.

 

All three of these events run from 9 AM to 4 PM.

 

Another large event happening tomorrow is in the neighboring towns of Oldtown, Idaho and Newport, Washington.  It is the 3^rd installment of Who Let The Girls Out (WLTGO ), a compendium of seven woman owned stores in the area.  It all began a year ago when these women got together and decided to host an event that would get people, especially women out to visit these great local stores, to gather with girlfriends, have a good time and maybe shop a little too.  It was such a huge hit that they decided that they couldn’t wait an entire year to hold another event so they held another WLTGO in May.  It was a great event. 

Each shop had specials along with yummy snacks and drinks and a passport to get stamped at each shop so that you could enter to win one of several fabulous prizes.  Along with the passport there were also specials from other local businesses.  This year, along with the other specials, the local movie theater The Roxy is showing a chick flick (they did this last year as well) for a special price for those participating in WLTGO. This year’s feature is the romantic drama Love Happens starring Jennifer Aniston and Aaron Eckhart.

WLTGO runs from 9 AM to 6 PM and the movie starts at 7:30 PM.

It's sure to be a busy (and fun) Saturday!  I’ll try and take pictures to post and share all of these businesses and events with all of you.

Halloween Party Ideas

I’m back, at least with some Halloween party information.  There are some pretty amazing sites out there for party ideas, insights and recipes, in addition to those I wrote about in my previous post.

 

I want to begin this post with a fun download offered by Brooklyn Limestone.  She has a large and a small version of these wonderful toe tags.

Although it’s a little late to send them as invites they could still be useful in your holiday preparations.  I figured that they could be used as labels for your party food or even used for a rousing game of pin the toe tag on the dead guy, their use is limitless. 

Have you been introduced to Brooklyn Limestone before?  It is an amazing blog with a very inventive and creative hostess.  Just look at how Mr. and Mrs. Limestone’s home is decorated for Halloween here and here.  And I could go on for days about their party invitations… this is what was sent for this Halloween and here is one of my favorite invites ever, for a bachelor party and she even generously shares the how-to’s.  Simply A-mazing.

 

Now on to:

 

The Good, the Bad and the Disgusting

 

Divine Dinner Party, which is a great source of inspiration for just about any type of party you might want to host, has an entire page devoted to Halloween titled Dead Dinner party.  I really like that they have pictures to go along with the recipes, okay maybe not always happy, some of the recipes can be pretty disgusting to look at but can be very fitting depending on they type of party you’re throwing. 

 

Britta, self proclaimed Webmistress of the Dark, has a great site full of eerie Halloween food and recipes.  She even has a book for sale Eerie Elegance: How To Host A Haunt And Other Fabulous Frights.  Also, on her site she shows how she has laid everything out for previous Halloween parties.

 

No party prep is complete without checking out Martha and of course, Food Network.

(Photos courtesy of foodnetwork.com)

All of this blogging makes me want to throw a party now.

Be safe and have fun!

Hauntingly Humungous Halloween

The amazingly talented and wonderful Vanessa Valencia of A Fanciful Twist fame is hosting another Halloween party this year, A Hauntingly Magical Celebration.  I enjoyed writing my post for last year’s soiree as did Matilda (the witch in the woods). 

 

There is quite a bit of time to get in on the fun since the party isn’t until October 17^th.  There are four things she would like all participants to do in order to involve themselves in the Halloween gathering.  Here they are:

“If you are signing up to participate in the Halloween Celebration, all you have to do are 4 things.

1)  Share the flyer and/or the button on your blog as soon as possible and link to me.  I will then add your name to the "Halloween Partiers" list in my LEFT hand side bar, and link back to you.  (This list will replace my regular blog roll up to a week after the party)

2)  On the day of the party, October 17th 2009, please make sure to post a Halloween Party post of your own, on your blog, linking to me.  Other partiers will be visiting you on that date. 

3)  IMPORTANT - On the day of the party, after you have your own Halloween blog post up and running, please leave a comment at my Halloween party post including your "Actual Party Link."  I will use this information to create an archive list of everyone's actual parties.

4)  Blog hop with the other partiers on the day of the event and have a hauntingly ghoulish blast!!”

Your first hop should be to check out her super cute shoes and shoe storage cabinet on this particular post (whether or not you decide to sign up and participate in the party).

 

What fun!

Wizard of Oz Gala

Welcome to The Wizard of Oz Gala. 

The mother and daughter duo of Twyla and Lindsey from Two Crazy Crafters decided to put together this little soiree in honor of 70^th anniversary of the movie The Wizard of Oz.

 

Just a little FYI for all of us who love this movie…  to celebrate the 70^th anniversary, the folks at NCM Fathom, Warner Home Video and Turner Classic Movies have decided to feature the first ever HD presentation of the movie.  It is going to happen nationwide on September 23^rd at 7pm (your local time).  If you go to the site you can check out if one is in your area… I found one playing 50 miles away (which isn’t so bad seeing that I live in the sticks).

 

The Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies (and stories).  That’s why last year I participated in a Wizard of Oz swap.  Well, I wasn’t the only one who partook, Mommy did as well, and here are some of the treasures we gave and received.

 

This is a house ornament complete with the witch's legs

Here are a few of the Madame Alexander Happy Meal toys from 2007 and 2008.  I still really want the complete 2008 line especially the flying monkey and the munchkins.

Mommy received this Oz bracelet

and I received this great package including the bag (with Oz buttons), the optical art, “O” and “Z” cards and great tags.

I love the flying monkey tag… there’s a little bakery/ coffee place that I go in a neighboring town and they have a carved monkey that reminds me of the flying monkeys.

One Oz inspired item that I made was this ruby slipper pin cushion

(stay tuned for a quick tutorial on how I made this cutie (to post later today).

 

From what I can tell, there are almost 50 participants!  Don’t forget to check them all out.

 

Thanks for stopping by…

 

Happy Saturday!

Wizard of Oz Gala

Mark your calendars for August 22, 2009 because Twyla and Lindsey, the mother and daughter duo behind Two Crazy Crafters, are hosting a Wizard of Oz Gala to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of the release of the movie.

 

You can choose how you want to celebrate this momentous occasion and share it on your blog.

 

Are you creative and crafty?  Then you could do something creative to commemorate the film.  That’s the wonderful thing about this movie; it translates very well into so many different mediums:

 

·        Sewn projects – quilts, pillows, aprons, costumes, etc

·        Scrapbook pages

·        Mixed media – collages, paintings, ATC’s

·        And so much more

 

This is what Twyla and Lindsey had to write about the gala:

Use your imagination. Join in the fun!

You could throw a party!!

Share a memory of your first time watching the movie!!!!

Alter an OZ book!!!

Sew an apron!!!

Make an ATC!!!

Design a pair of ruby slippers!!!

Share your collection of Oz memorabilia!!

Create a piece in whatever medium you love to work in and share it with others!!

Have you ever known someone, or dressed up as Dorothy yourself for Halloween? Share your photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please come join us in commemorating the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Hurry on over to Two Crazy Crafters if you’d like to sign up and join in on the fun. 

Here We Come A-Caroling

Marilyn was so excited with the Christmas decorations she decided that she wanted to have a little holiday soiree.  At first it was going to be a small intimate party but it turned into a large gathering.  Marilyn decided that she wanted the party to coincide with her church's Christmas program (a couple of weeks before Christmas).  She came into the store to talk about the party and wanted to know if we (Mommy or I) knew someone who could/would cater the party.  I told her that I could do it and that was that.

She wanted a buffet style dinner with appetizers and desserts for fifty.  For the appetizers we decided to go hot and cold…There were crackers, pretzels with gourmet mustards.  We also put together a fruit and cheese tray and a veggie and dip tray.  

The hot hors d’eourves included mini quiches and seasoned chicken wrapped in phyllo dough.   I also made two different cheese balls (delish!), and a Pesto Torta with a decorative poinsettia (basil and sun-dried tomatoes) topper.  Recipe follows photos.

Recipe for Pesto Torta

·         1/4 cup pesto (fresh or already prepared, I prefer to make my own, but it's just as good with a good store bought version, I like the one sold at Costco)

·         1/4 cup sun-dried tomato tapenade (again can be homemade or purchased)

·         18 oz flavored soft cheese (garlic and herb is good from Alouette)

·         sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil leaves for the top of the torta

Line a shallow bowl (like a small cereal bowl) with plastic wrap and coat with vegetable spray (it makes it easier to release the torta).  Arrange the extra sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil leaves in a pattern in the bottom of the bowl.  Add half of the soft cheese and smooth to make a flat surface, then add a layer of the sun-dried tomato tapenade and a layer of pesto, then add the remainder of the soft cheese.  Let it set up in the refrigerator for a bit (usually until it's about time to set up for the party).  Then place the serving plate over the top of the bowl, flip the bowl over and carefully remove the plastic wrap. 

Serve with vegetables, crackers, sliced bread, etc.

Marilyn wanted lasagna for the entrée (with a green salad) so I also made an antipasto tray with peppers, tomatoes, olives, mozzarella and salami.

For drinks there was coffee, champagne, bottles of water, and a sherbet punch (2 liters ginger ale, 1 can frozen orange juice, sherbet- your choice, I used rainbow because it’s pretty: just mix orange juice with ginger ale in a punch bowl (or whatever you have on hand) and then add dollops of sherbet just before the party – it creates a beautiful and yummy frothiness)

There were bowls of nuts and Hershey kisses throughout the rooms to nosh on while people chatted and soft Christmas music played in the background.   While I prepped and made the meal Mommy was put on dessert duty.  As you can see by this table there were a lot of desserts.

There was a rum cake and rum balls, peppermint sugar cookies (my contribution), brownie bites, chocolate chip cookies, and some cookies someone bought and brought with them.  We had the table decorated with most of the goodies but we also had a couple of trays sitting about as well. 

One reason we made so many desserts was because we wanted people to go home with some, as a goodie bag.  When the party began to wind down I had prepared cello bags with some peppermint bark in them and the guest were given the instructions to fill up their bags with some cookies.  It was a big hit.

It was a lot of work but I really enjoyed the process from planning to creating to serving to cleaning...it was a blast.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

With just a few days left until Christmas I thought I'd put together a more comprehensive list of Holiday Home Tours that I've signed up for, where you can visit hundreds of blogs and see countless things having to so with Christmas.  It is an enormous source of Christmas inspiration. 

BooMama held a Christmas Tour of Homes where there are almost 900 participants.  That'll take a lot of computer time.  But you have to check out the one-armed monkey that had a run in with a two-year old (score one for the two-year old).

Then there's Hooked On Houses Holiday House Tours where you can show your home or any home (be it from a movie, tv show, your neighbors (please get permission first, wouldn't want you just walking in and snapping shots)).

Char at The Pickled Pepper Patch is hosting a slideshow of people's favorite Christmas Gatherings...groupings of your items brought together.  I'm sending her my silver Santa grouping I blogged about here.  She also has some great tutorials.  The slideshow will be held on Sunday December 21st.

And there are the three that I already blogged about here and here.

Heather's A Pretty Little Christmas.

Whispering Poppies Home Sweet Home

And the Junk Drawers Show Me Your Holiday House Party.