Cousins' Visit, Day 2

This is the second day of my cousins' visit last weekend. If you want to read about their first day, read here.

Our day started with breakfast and then we went to attend mass at St. Mary's Basilica.

The church is beautiful inside and out, built in 1842. If you are ever in this area, this is a must see!

Then we went to the Carriage House, which is behind the Stanton Hall and used to house the horse carriages in the olden times. It is now a restaurant and we had brunch there.

After brunch, we toured the grounds and inside Dunleith, one of the grandest antebellum houses here. It is now a Bed & Breakfast, in fact that is where the hospital placed John and me during his interview.

Do you see my head peeking through the rooster topiary?

I love their courtyard.

We were like little ants in front of this mansion.

3 Southern belle cousins and a gentleman on the front porch!

I love this wrap around porch!

 After brunch, we had about an hour to rest at home and then we headed out again to tour the working plantation, Frogmore. What is so unique about Frogmore is that it was a cotton plantation in the 1800's and is still being operated today and the way it used to be is all preserved. The slaves' quarters and its contents are still intact so that we can see and feel first hand how they used to live.

 They are normally close on Sundays but John contacted the owner and Lynette was kind enough to give us a private tour. She is so knowledgeable and we really enjoyed her giving us the tour.

 Claude gets so excited about old kitchen stuff.

 He collects vintage coke items too. I gave him my coca cola crate and a coke handled box, some bottles and glasses. I figured I can always find and buy them in the future since I am such an avid shopper. Their shopping time here was just so limited. I wish I could have brought them to antique shops in Natchez but they are close on Sundays.

On our way to the gin (short for engine), which is inside this building. Lynette showed us step by step, how the cotton was processed before all the modern machinery were used.

Lynette was showing us the primitive kitchen utensils that the slaves used during their time, while John attentively listened. Do you see the long wooden bowl on the floor? That's where the little children of the slaves shared their meals.

We drove by the Mississippi River just to show them. The other side of the river is Vidalia, LA.

I had made a reservation for dinner at the Magnolia Grill overlooking the MS River but when Claude found out that John's favorite dish is Paella, he told me to cancel the reservation and he would instead cook for us.

And so, we saved the best for last, a cooking lesson from Claude, the master chef and culinary artist. We enjoyed watching him cook and learning from him. It was quite a show and he showed us his technique of why his seafood paella turns out so tasty.

He  also told me to wipe my copper pots with acetone to get rid of the coating and then washing them before using them. He said they are coated with something that burns which has to be removed first before using them for the first time. I still have to do that.

It's cooked!.......the moment we have been waiting for.

Isn't that seafood paella looking so scrumptious? It's the best we have ever had and I assure you, we've had plenty, from all over the world, at different times.

And all Claude wanted was his steak, lol.

I also served crawfish because none of them have tried it before and they loved it. Maryann here is showing how much she ate, lol.

Mangoes for dessert. They are so good and sweet. I bought them from a Vietnamese store in Baton Rouge. They taste just like the ones we have back home in the Philippines. I bought 2 crates and John and I are still enjoying them.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing the excitement of my cousins' visit. We watched a DVD after dinner but we all fell asleep in front of the TV. It was a hectic, fun but exhausting day!

I am linking with

Scenic Sunday

http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com

The Tablescaper's Seasonal Sunday

http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/

Sarah's Homemaking Link Up Weekend http://bloggingwhilewaiting.blogspot.com/

Mellow Yellow Monday

http://mellowyellowmonday.blogspot.com/

Thank you ladies, for hosting!

For Mama, the Queen!

Happy Mother's Day, Mama!

Happy Mother's Day to all the other mothers too!

I just posted a tablescape but when I found out that Kathleen's "Let's Dish" today's theme is Mother's Day, I immediately created another one. I must have forgotten cause I have been very busy these past few days entertaining guests.

 Anyway, since my mom has always been the queen of our house, I decided to use crowns as my main accessories. Mama  wil be 94 in 2 months and she is still our queen.

I bought the lace runner from another booth where my booth is located, very cheap, if I am not mistaken, I think for $1. It is a heavy lace, not really a table runner but that's what I had in mind when I bought it.

 I added 2 Sevres urns from our collection. These are smaller than the others and unlike the others that are predominantly celeste blue in color, these have a lot of pink on them.

I moved a golden crown from the living room. Then I took 2 little boxes with women wearing hats on the lids from our bookcase, added them to the table, added a few tealights and a pot with dried roses and my centerpiece is created.

I took 2 Italian stems from my dish room and placed them on the table.

 I placed a narrower hot pink table runner in the center underneath the lace runner.

I used a white laced napkin with a smaller hot pink cocktail napkin and placed a silver plated ring around. The flatware are silver plated with medallions. Somehow, medallions remind me of crowns too.

I used white paisley dinner plates, white lace plate chargers from JC Penney's from years ago and hot pink smaller glass plate chargers from Homegoods.

The white crown salad plates were from 1 Kings Lane.

I hope you all have an enjoyable Mother's Day! Thank you all for your visits and don't forget to visit the other participants also. I know you will be inspired. I would like to link this with

Kathleen's Let's Dish at

http://www.cuisinekathleen.com/

and Susan's Tablescape Thurs at

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

Beverly's Pink Saturday at
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/
I had to add this picture, taken on my mom's 90th birthday 4 years ago with all her sons and daughters and she is still going strong today. People are amazed when I tell them she is not taking any meds except for vitamins and a very low dose cholesterol pill once a day. I hope she stays healthy. I love you, mama!

Polish Gone Mexican

This past weekend, my cousins visited us. Maryann and her hubby, Claude Tayag, came all the way from the Philippines and Bubut visited from Alexandria, VA to join in.

They arrived on May 5th so I decided to set the table with a Mexican theme for their breakfast. We had a light breakfast, mostly fruits, because we were scheduled to have brunch at the Carriage House, which used to be the home for horse carriages in one of the antebellum houses here, Stanton Hall.

I was going to use Mexican colorful dishes, but instead used Polish pottery because they were easily accessible. They were just stored in the hutch by the breakfast nook.

For my centerpiece, I borrowed my Mexican doll from the doll cabinet, brought a Mexican hacienda house to the table and used rooster S & P shakers, After all, Mexico has chickens roaming around all the time.

I bought this house when we were in Mexico. I think it is made out of clay.

Polish pottery fluted fruit bowl on pedestal and tea cup set.

Polish pottery goblets and mugs from my ever growing collection. We bought the goblets from the Polish Pottery outlet in Seattle Marketplace.

 The mugs are from TJ Maxx and the blue and white napkin rings were an Ebay find.

I used 2 different dinner plates to make it more colorful

I think this passes for a Mexican plate, doesn't it? It looks like fireworks during a fiesta. The ceramic blue and white plate chargers were another Ebay find from a long time ago.

 This is the other pattern. One thing I like about Polish pottery is being able to mix and match.

And here are our special guests. We had Natchez donuts, papayas, mangoes, tamales and soft boiled eggs. Their stay was too short so I packed lots of activities in 2 days. I miss them so much already. I wish they could have stayed longer but Claude, who is an author, painter and a culinary artist, was invited to cook for a fund raising in Memphis.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thanks also to our  gracious hostesses:

Susan for Tablescape Thurs

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

Sherry for Open House Party Thursday

http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/