Christine's Home and Travel Adventures

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

I was Invited the Day I Returned from 2 Back to Back Trips

Whew! I am finally home, only for a few days as I have to fly to FL on Saturday again for a family reunion. My mom is turning 95 next week and we decided to celebrate it by all of us siblings and their respective families from all over the states flying there to join her. She is in Illinois with my sister so she is flying there too.

I had just returned from a back to back trip from Utah and Canada when I received a text from my friend here. She said we are invited to a swimming party the next day....at our house, lol. How can I say "NO" to that? Besides, I love challenges. I know they miss me since I have been gone and I miss them too. I told her I might not have time to cook because I was still unpacking and cleaning, after all, I left John here by himself and you know what that does to our home.

They decided to bring all the entrees and I cooked rice and "palitaw", a Filipino delilcacy and I made Boba tea drinks.

Then, I got busy setting the table outside. I decided on mostly white plates to make it easy for me, anchored by green and white placemats printed with palm tree leaves.

I did not even change the centerpiece. It's what has been there on the table.

I used 2 sets of white plates. Here is a close up of the design of one of them, a paisley. The other one has a basket weave edging.

Boba tea I made with coconut flavor and large tapioca pearls. I like to order this whenever we eat at Vietnamese restaurants and then I saw the bubble tea powder mix in Canada so I bought and tried it. Yum! I emailed my College classmate from there to buy me some more to ship to FL so we can use them at our reunion. My kids and grandkids love that drink and I know my mom and sisters will too.

You will see the palitaw (cooked white rice flour sprinkled with sugar and coconut) and the brownies my friend baked, here.

Brenda gave me a set of 3 in various sizes of this basket. I think they are actually candle holders but I decided to repurpose one to serve my napkins.

We had more then enough food: pancit, venison adobo (did not try it, I still have to be exposed more to deer meat), green beans casserole, pasta salad, chicken pot pie, cucumber salad, fried chicken steak, pinakbet (another Filipino dish), blueberry cheesecake, etc.

We sure had a lot of fun. Everybody was texting me afterwards, thanking me and saying how much fun they had.

Now, I am back to packing for my next trip. 3 trips to different places in July is a little bit too tiring but I love it! I am also excited to see all my brothers and sisters and their families and all my kids and grandkids. We are all staying in our 2nd home in FL, my daughter's home next door and the German's home next to hers who are in Germany right now and my brother and his family rented another 4 bedroom house nearby for them to stay in.

It's been a while since I posted so I hope you enjoyed viewing this. Thanks for your visit, always appreciate them and I appreciate all the hostesses. A BIG "thank you" to you all!

If you have time, please visit my College group's blog. I have a new post there. Thanks!
http://foreverspooks.blogspot.com/

Centerpiece Wed

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com

Paula's What's It Wed

http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/

Kathleen's Let's Dish

http://www.cuisinekathleen.com

Outdoor Wed.

http://asoutherndaydreamer.blogspot.com

Watery Wed

http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

Susan's Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday

http://www.adelightsomelife.com/

Sarah's Homemaking Weekend Link Up party

http://bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/

Foodie Friday

http://www.designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Happy 2013 Independence Day!

Happy Independence to you all!

We are spending the 4th of July in Park City, Utah, but I set the breakfast nook table for the sake of our friends watching the house while we are gone and took pictures before we left.

I used mostly Polish Pottery with stars on them.

The octagonal pewter like charger plates is from Pottery Barn on clearance.

I used vintage pewter flatwares to blend.

Stars and stripes votive candle holders.

I bought the stars and stripes cart from a yard sale for 10 cents.

Polish pottery wine glasses and the blue taller stems are from Mikasa.

I added the flag in honor of our brave soldiers.

Thank you so much for coming by. I hope you all have an enjoyable Independence Day. Thank you to our brave and fallen soldiers who protects and protected us and our country.Thanks also to our hostesses.

Kathleen's Let's Dish

http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

Tablescape Thursday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

American Heritage Millenium Collection by Churchill Used to Dine

We had a small dinner party for 7 tonight and since I am still on a patriotic mode, I decided to use our American Heritage Millenium Collection by Churchill.

The plates are mostly blue and yellow. I used a table runner that I bought from William Sonoma during one of our past Pensacola trips. It is reversible and the other side is all blue and white, same material as the piping.

These plates are very historical as you can see from the pictures.

This is a plate charger. I only have 1 which I found on Ebay. I should look for more. I wonder if this was the signing of the Independence Day docs.

On the dinner plates, I think I see the St. Louis Arch, San Francisco's Golden Gate and not sure which tower is that, in Chicago maybe?

The salad bowls has the Statue of Liberty and I think one of them is the Capitol. I can't make out the rest. I should look at the plates instead of the pictures but I am so tired. I have been cooking, baking and cleaning all day.

For the serving pieces, I used Italian dishes from my Deruta collection.

Napkin rings says "Bon" on one side and "Apetit" on the other. They are also from WS. That does not sound very American, does it? But they match the dishes. LOL!

Yellow birds S&P shakers.

I also mixed in some Polish pottery S & P shakers.

We served grilled salmon, sinigang (a Filipino food), both of which my friend Brenda brought. I made crab omelet and Caesar salad and made brownies and a coconut dessert, the recipe I picked up from Facebook. It was so good!

I served the dessert in the kitchen dining table.

I made tea and coffee and served them in Polish pottery pots.

The salad plates are my favorites because they feature the Natchez steam boat and I live in Natchez. We used bowls for the salad so I used the salad plates for dessert.

We did not serve any sauce so I used the sauce server to hold the teaspoons instead. Is that Martin Luther King?

I hope you enjoyed this post. I am posting a little late cause everybody just left and there was no time to post before the party. Thank you so much for coming over and I would like to thank all the hostesses too.

Kathy's A Return To Loveliness

http://adelightsomelife.com

Sandi's Teatime Tues

http://sandimyyellowdoor.blogspot.com/

Friends Sharing Tea

http://bernideensteatimeblog.blogspot.com

Martha and Terri's Teacup Tues

http://artfulaffirmations.blogspot.fr/

Centerpiece Wednesday

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Kathleen's Let's Dish

http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/