A Mother's Day Tea Party

I'm an adult.
So giving my mom a construction paper card or something with my handprint on it is not appreciated as much anymore. Not even on Mother's Day. And I was trying to figure out what in the world to get my mom. She gets lots of flowers from her husband. And she doesn't need anymore 'stuff'. In fact she is currently in a season of life where she is trying to down-size the amount of 'stuff' in her house and life. So I decided it would be much better to give my mom an 'experience' instead of another 'stuff'. I decided to throw a tea party.
It was the right choice. A tea party with some of our best girlfriends was exactly what we all needed in our life and yet had previously been unaware of.
Here are the details:

I tried to keep things simple and elegant... this was a tea party, not a luncheon. So I reigned myself in and tried not to go overboard on the food. I am finding simplicity is valuable in many areas of my life... including entertaining. Less definitely can mean more... but that's a topic for another day. I found these lovely Strawberry Meringue Roses and they were not only pretty on my pink table, but a sweet crispy complement along side our tea. Perfect.
Also used this photo as inspiration to make tea cookies using this cream cheese sugar cookie recipe, then dipped them in dark chocolate. They were pretty heavenly. :) The tags on the 'teabags' served as place cards, with each guest's initials. There were also dark chocolate dipped strawberries... because... yum.
I served two kinds of tea, a White Ayurvedic Chai blend and an Herbal Citrus Lavender Sage, both from Teavana. Both lovely and delicious! Tea was served from a teapot that belonged to my grandma, and another that I found at a thrift store. I spent a few weeks collecting tea cups from thrift stores, yard sales, and HomeGoods. As well as borrowing from mine and my mother's (which was my grandmother's) china set. I had seven unique and beautiful teacups to set a beautifully eclectic table for tea.

As for the guest list, I invited 6 ladies, all of them mothers and good friends of both my Mom and I. I sent out formal invites about a week in advance. They were very simple, white with a pink rose (the rose was a picture I took two years ago on Memorial day touring a rose garden with my mom! So I had fond 'Mama Memories' even in the detail of designing a simple invite. I don't know if my Mama even knew that... I should tell her.) And the invite set the tone for the rest of the 'decor' which I kept very simple... white linens, white china, pink flowers. Oh... and some pearls and a cow.
I don't have a sugar bowl and creamer in my china set, but I do have a white sugar bowl, and this little white cow. My mom told me I couldn't put a cow on the table for formal tea, but I thought he was quirky and fun... I dressed him up with a little ribbon, and thought he looked quite dashing for formal tea. :) Everyone else agreed... or kept their opinions to themselves. One of the two!

The day before the party I ran by walmart and grabbed $30 worth of lousy bouquets. You know the kind they have smashed in mass into bins that are stupid cheap and not very appealing? But all you have to work with if you are on a small budget like me... 2 dozen roses and a dozen tulips. I came home and snipped boxwood, hosta leaves, and purple salvia from my landscaping... and put together tiny little bouquets for teacups for a centerpiece, and a corsage for each lady at the party.
The corsages were an extra fun touch-- and a special surprise that especially the older ladies enjoyed-- it was very nostalgic. (Why are corsages for mothers a thing of nostalgia? We need to bring that back! Lets all make a pact to dress up for our moms for mother's day, and get her a corsage, yes?) Most of the ladies held onto the corsage and wore it to church the next day as well... which is kind of what I was hoping would happen!
It turned out to be a simple, beautiful, relaxed morning of chatting with ladies, sipping tea, and feeling fancy! (And, you know, taking a million pictures of ourselves doing so!) Which is just what a mom needs, am I right? It was a great "experience" gift for my mama, and judging from the response... one that will hopefully become an annual event!
Happy Mother's Day, Mama. I hope you enjoyed your tea party and felt relaxed, loved, and celebrated! I love you so very much!
And Happy (late) Mother's day to each of you reading this! It is a day to celebrate Mamas, Moms to be, step moms, mother figures, want to be moms, foster moms, God-mothers, grandmas, aunts, daughters, new mamas, empty nest mamas, fill-in moms, dog moms, and anyone who has ever had a mom. Love to each of you on this special day of counting your blessings!

The Only One You Need

***Did you know... You can follow One Sassy Housewife on facebook and twitter now?!?! So if you find yourself wondering what I'm doing (probably taking pictures of my son) or thinking (probably something about marshmallows) at any given moment, you can stalk me in one or both of those places and find out. Hooray!

You know what I love about cookies? They are a bakery item I can't seem to mess up! Cakes, breads, brownies... all seem to go wrong for me... but cookies are simple and versatile. Especially when you find the right recipe. The right basic recipe can be tweaked for a different cookie and success every time... which is awesome!

This basic chocolate chip cookie recipe came from the America Cooks cookbook (yeah you read that price right-- no longer in print but highly sought after cookbook, it has the basic recipe for everything your grandma used to make...) which is another family heirloom kind of thing... that my parents stalked Ebay to find for me when I started cooking. (Similar story to the magnalite!)

 This particular recipe makes a small-ish size batch (about 16-20 cookies, depending on how big you like 'em.) of perfect crispy, chewy cookies. We like crispy chewy. But if you are a cake-y kind of cookie person, it's easy to tweak. Then when you are ready, through in your yummy bits of choice: Chocolate chips, M&Ms, nuts, crushed peppermints, dried fruit (craisins!)... so many yummy options.
The cookies pictured have white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.

Another thing I love about this recipe, is it makes a smaller batch, so you don't have 4 dozen cookies when you just wanted 2 cookies for a snack... but it also doubles easily if you need cookies for a crowd. OR it freezes well if you want to make a double batch and freeze half for a rainy day. I recommend using your cookie scoop to make the individual balls, then throwing them in the freezer for about 15 minutes to flash freeze them, before throwing them in a ziploc bag (or other airtight container) for storage. You can keep them in your freezer for up to a month that way. When you are ready to bake (maybe just 1 or 2... or 8 or 12 at a time) just pull them out of the freezer and line them up on your tray while the oven is preheating, then bake and enjoy as normal.
(another thing... I like to bake my cookies on parchment paper... because, well you can see what my cookie sheet looks like. Is everyone's cookie sheet grubby looking? I kinda feel like that's a universal thing. Anyway... parchment paper! Cookies don't stick, don't burn as easily, and clean up is as simple as throwing away a piece of paper. Awesome.)

So are you ready for it? My secret cookie recipe... the only cookie recipe you need:

Chocolate Chippers

1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup presifted flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease baking sheets (or line with parchment).
Cream shortening, sugars, egg, and vanilla in a mixing bowl.
Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda. Stir into creamed mixture, blending well. Add chocolate/nuts/candy.
Drop dough by tablespoons (I use a cookie scoop), two inches apart on baking sheet.
Bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove from heat at once.

*For cake-y chewy cookies, replace half the shortening with butter. For soft cake-y cookies replace all the shortening with butter.
*Use white, milk, dark, or mini-chocolate chips (or a combination!) in place of semi sweet chips! Also try M&M's, Reeces Pieces, or other crushed candies/candybars.
*If adding nuts, use only 6 oz chocolate, and 1/2 cup of nuts
*baking time does vary slightly based on what you added, just keep an eye on your oven for that first batch...

Now make yourself some hot cocoa and a batch of yummy cookies and share with your family this holiday! Enjoy!

Rainy Day Grandma Cookies

I've recently been going through a bunch of my Grandma's old recipes. (there may or may not be a secret project involved there... but shhhh...) One thing we used to always give Grandma a hard time about was how impossible her handwriting was to read, but since she is gone that's one of the things I find I miss most. We always lived in different states so we saw each other only a few times a year, but grandma was great about sending letters and cards regularly... and I miss getting those envelopes with her uneven cursive scratched accross the front, and then giggling trying to decipher the text inside.

Anyway, it makes me happy sorting through and trying to decipher the writing on her recipe cards. So special remembering her and the yummy food she loved to serve her family.One of the things I loved and found so compelling about this one was the little note she scribbled in the corner that says "Good we like them" Well with that review, how could I say no?
Today was a rainy day. The pleasantly gloomy, growling kind. The kind that needs cold milk, warm cookies, and pleasant reminiscing. So I grabbed one of those recipes and got to work.

In classic Valerie form, I selected my recipe and dove right in before doing an ingredient check... only to get halfway through and discover I was going to have to stray from the plan. I only had about half the coconut the recipe called for... so I threw in some chocolate chips to fill the space. But the resulting edited cookie was so yummy I kinda think it was serendipitous.

 I also used half and half butter and shortening, instead of just shortening as the recipe calls for. I love the texture shortening gives, but you can't beat the flavor of butter in a cookie, amIright?

Anyway, these went together pretty fast, and we soon had cookie smell in our house as they were baking up beautifully. And Sam and I got some singing and dancing out of the way while waiting for them to bake.

 These turned out magnificently! Can you see the crispness of the outside and the chewy in the middle? Sigh. Yum. Thank you shortening/butter combo! They are just way tasty too! Grandma's assessment was solid. I never really doubted her judgement though.
Anyway... here's the recipe, in case you can't decipher Grandma's writing (and I won't judge you if you can't!) and in case you want my changes.

Rainy Day Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/4 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup flake coconut

1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

Cream shortening, sugars, and egg. Sift in flour, salt, and soda. Stir in oats, coconut, and chips.

Scoop onto ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes (until barely golden on top)

Serve warm with a glass of milk. Share cookies and stories about Granny with your munchkin.

*Sam approved. Every last crumb.

Oh hey, Pinterest! Whats for dinner?

I like Pinterest. It's a really helpful creative tool for me.
I don't like people who bemoan pinterest saying it takes away creative originality, or is a huge meaningless time suck. Like most things in life, pinterest (or all kinds of social media, really) is about what you do with the resource. If you get on pinterest and start pinning stuff thats meaningless for hours that you should be doing something else-- yeah, it's going to start to seem like a giant meaningless time suck. I try not to do that. I like to use it for inpiration when I am working on a specific project or need some ideas. Sometimes I get around to using the ideas, sometimes I don't, but I rarely feel as though I have wasted my time, or that pinterest has in some way cheated me out of creativity or time. Anyway, use your time and resources wisely and stop blaming social media when you don't. End of rant.
And moving on.
I pin a lot of recipes on pinterest trying to find something-- or a version of something-- that I can make for my family. When I get bored with our 10 meal rotation of stuff Z will actually eat, I sit down at my computer and ask Pinterest-- what should I make for dinner tonight?
And I have recently come across a few winners I thought I would share. 

Source: shine.yahoo.com via Valerie on Pinterest

The Perfect Meaty Balls! My Dad loves meatballs more than any other food, so I am always on the lookout for a great meatball-- this recipe was fantastic. Really tasty, and a lovely, firm texture without being hamburger-y. (You know what I mean???)  ...these meatballs were also the first meat my son ever tried, and he quickly devoured his. It made my meatball-loving-heart so happy.
*I added a little italian sausage to my beef, because thats the way daddy likes it.
*I used my stand mixer to mix it, even though it says to do it by hand, it was easier and I thought gave the whole thing a nicer, even texture.
*You can use a cookie scoop to get uniform size meatballs.

Source: thepioneerwoman.com via Valerie on Pinterest

This Chicken Bacon Ranch Panini is a new favorite for dinner at our house.  What's not to love?
*I often will use leftover grilled chicken from a previous night's dinner. Be good to yourself, make it easy.
*Z likes to use chipotle cheddar on his... adds another layer of flavor.
*I often serve it with oven fries-- seasoned with smoked sea salt. It's a great accompaniment.

Source: melskitchencafe.com via Valerie on Pinterest

Cheesy Basil Stuffed Chicken. You had me at Cheesy. But then there is basil, garlic, and crispy crunchyness and roasted tomatoes! OMG, the roasted tomatoes! I promise you this will be a crowd pleaser.
*I used panko breadcrumbs to coat my chicken-- because it's what I had-- but it made it extra lovely and crispy.
* Sam went nuts over the roasted tomatoes. Seriously. He thought it was the best dinner ever.
*I served it with pasta and made a simple alfredo sauce for my tomato-fearing husband. It worked well with the alfredo too... as long as you are not prone to cheese overload.

Source: cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com via Valerie on Pinterest

Z was never happier than the day I started making bread for us. This Easy Bread recipe makes a lovely crusty, chewy round loaf.
*You can add any manner of herbs, cheeses, dried fruits, etc. to this bread. I will share my recipe for Z's fav, Asiago Peppercorn, soon.
*I usually serve it torn into chunks with pesto dipping oil, and everyone loves it.

Source: ittybittykitchen.com via Valerie on Pinterest

These Lemon Meltaway cookies are amazing. A slightly lemon-y shortbread with lemon buttercream? Yes, PLEASE!
*You'll want to make your cookies smaller than you think. And no more than about 1/4 inch thick-- otherwise the sandwhich gets difficult to eat.
*When making the frosting, start with about half the lemon juice and add a little more if needed, I had too much lemon juice, so I had to use twice as much sugar to make the butter cream.
*Also please use fresh lemon juice-- none of that bottled stuff that tastes like acid-y water. blehck. Thank you for your cooperation.


So thats whats been on the table at our house... maybe you should try a few new recipes this week? These are a great place to start! If you want to know what other junk I am pinning you can follow my food board here and my bakery board here.
Happy pinning and have fun making yummi-ness for your fam! :)

MAKE THIS: Christmas cookies!

Hey everyone! One week from today is Christmas eve, can you believe it has approached us so quickly?!?! Do you have your holiday menu pulled together? I am still working on mine.
Have you decided what kind of cookies you are leaving for Santa? Well, if not, here's some help:
Remember the Online Holiday Cookie Exchange we were going to do, and it was going to be a lot of fun? Well, I only had ONE participant. Sooo... even though yooooou chose not to participate, you still get the benefit of one dear participant's labor and secret cookie recipe. You are lucky, because you really don't deserve it, do you?
And I am sharing my favorite cookie recipe too... and I was thinking about actually sharing the secret ingredient this time that I usually leave out when sharing (I'm a selfish hag like that), but I don't know... I haven't decided if you really, REALLY deserve it. I might have to consult with Santa about offenses and lists and get back with you... but while I'm doing that, Enjoy this cookie recipe from my dear friend ERIN and her so-lovably-ornery-it-hurts son, Dawson:


Aunt Debbie's Almond Sugar Cookies


My son Dawson and I getting the ingredients ready.

 Almond Sugar Cookie Dough
1 cup butter (softened)
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
3/4 tsp. vanilla
3/4 tsp. almond flavoring
2 TBSP milk

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg, milk, vanilla, and almond flavoring. Gradually add dry ingredients. (Add an extra splash of milk if dough seems too crumbly after all dry ingredients are added.)

Chill overnight. Roll out dough between 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out cookie shapes with your favorite cookie cutters.

Bake at 350 degrees for 5-8 minutes for thinner cookies, 10 minutes for thicker cookies.

Almond Frosting

2 cups powdered sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

2 TBSP. Milk

1/4 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. almond flavoring

2 1/2 TBSP. softened butter

Mix all ingredients together until creamy and smooth. Pipe with frosting tips onto cookies with plain icing and sugar with colored sprinkles.

NOTES:

Yields 4 dozen 2 inch cookies.

Small cookie cutters are great for this recipe. Little bite sized tastes of the almond flavored goodness seem to be just right. :)

Thank you so much, Erin for sharing your cookie recipe! :)

While you were reading that I was chatting with Santa, we have that kind of relationship (You like how I am keeping this going?) And I guess you landed on his NICE list. Some of you BARELY squeaked by. I'm just sayin'...

Soooo... here's my favorite Christmas Cookie EVER. (If you read my old Recipe Blog, you've seen these before. But they are worth the repeat, I promise.) And because I love you, (and because Santa pleaded on your behalf -- though I cannot say his motives we purple selfless, he may or may not be expecting these left for him on Christmas Eve. I'm just sayin'...) I added my additions and secret ingredients this time... You're Welcome.

BEST CHRISTMAS COOKIES EVER

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup butter, cubed at room temperature

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 tblsp honey*

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups rolled oats

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup white chocolate chips**

1/2 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips**

1/2 cup milk chocolate chips**

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the dry goods together into a large bowl. Set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugars, and honey, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla.

Add the dry goods to the wet works a small amount at the time until well combined. Fold in the rolled oats until thoroughly combined. Add in the dried cranberries and chocolate chips.

Use a 1/3 measuring cup*** to transfer the dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Use the floured bottom of a drinking glass to smash the cookies flat. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until lightly brown.

When they have slightly cooled, but are still warm, transfer the cookies onto a cooling rack. Enjoy with a big glass of milk

 

*The Honey is my secret ingredient. You can leave it out and use 1/2 cup of granulated sugar if you want... but you just don't get the same depth of flavor, and the honey is so nice with the crunchy oats... Yum. PLEASE use a good quality honey... I personally like a local wildflower honey I stock up on at the farmers market. Raw honey is the best... but lets not lie when it's just us-- I will put that stuff on/in anything!

**You can play with different variations of chips, keep the basic amounts the same... but if you don't have minis on hand, don't worry about it... If you are not into white (I can't imagine why you wouldn't be, but if you're not...) double up your milk chocolate. This is my FAVORITE combo though.

***You are gonna look at that and go... Huh-uh. That can't be right, that's a huge cookie. But the bulkiness of the cookie batter means it holds up well to it's size. And once you take your first bite of the big cookie... you will be glad it is extra big!

 

So There you go, kids! Now go put on your aprons and get to work! And next time we have a recipe exchange, consider participating... it makes it more fun for all! :)

DO THIS: ...Because you never make me cookies.

My husband and I have this joke... because I love cookies of any kind and always always want them, and he is not a bag fan. I'll have a cookie craving and start begging for cookies, and he will shake his head no, and then I say... "Z, You NEVER make me co-oo-okies!!!!" In the whiniest voice ever.
And it's true, he doesn't. But he always laughs at me when I say that to him. The only kind of cookies he will make are slice and bake from the store... which, despite Pillsbury's best efforts, still taste like the plastic tube they came in. (To those of you out there who think you are passing those things off as homemade... drop the charade. We all know. Most of us don't care and will eat plastic flavored cookies when the other option is no cookies, but please stop lying trying to say they are from scratch, so we can stop lying pretending to believe you.)
This is by no means a new or earth shattering idea... but was a small, AHA! moment for me the other day. While you are already in the mess of making cookies... double batch that thing! Then use your cookie scoop (or rolls balls of dough) to make a pan of cookies (unbaked) to pop into the freezer for a few mins to set up, then you can throw those things in a bag and store in the freezer for your next cookie craving.
Last night when Z got home, I showed him the bag of frozen, unbaked 'cookies' in the freezer, so the next time I whine, "...You NE-EH-VER make me cookies!" he can prove me wrong. Yay.

While we are on the topic of bags in the freezer, and the like... I may be behind the time here, but the ZIPLOC vacuum freezer bag has pretty much changed our life (and our food storage).

This thing is a freezer bag with a small valve built into the upper corner... and it comes with a hand pump. So you can basically vacuum pack ANYTHING you can fit in the bag. We have used it to store and freeze uncooked bacon and meats. Blocks of cheese (NO MORE MOLDY CHEESE! Which I know is... kind of a contradiction.). Coffee beans. Fruits and veggies. Leftovers. All kinds of stuff! 

It's a little bit pricier than our normal off-brand zipper bags, but we have already saved $$ from food that has not spoiled, so that makes it worth it. It's pretty great. And my husband gets a kick out of using it too, which means he occasionally helps put food away after a meal... so it's pretty much worth it's weight in gold.

MAKE THIS: Cinderella Cookies

All dressed up and being silly with one of my best friends!

Last night, I went to a Cinderella Party. No, it was not a 6 yr old's birthday. Actually, there were was not a single 6 yr old in attendance. There was, however, about six grown ladies 'playing dress-up', wearing tiaras, sipping champagne, and watching the 1957 Rogers and Hammerstein version of Cinderella (Staring my girlfriend, Julie Andrews! eeks!). I know as you are scoffing at the utter silliness of a dress up party for grown women you are secretly intrigued and jealous at the delicious indulgence of it all... jealous you weren't invited and jealous you didn't come up with the idea yourself! Because I don't care how old you are, you never outgrow the desire to put on a 'princess dress' and sit around giggling with your friends. You just don't.
So I put on my 'costume' (this horrid er, interesting blue dress I purchased several years ago at the good old salvation army. It has become a costume for many parties...), packed up my cookies and a crystal platter and hopped into my Honda-- I mean, Pumpkin-- and away I went to a magical evening with friends. Okay, I know we are super corny and a little crazy, but it was truly SO much fun.
My contribution to the party tonight was Cinderella cookies, starting with a yummy Cream Cheese Sugar Cookie recipe I got from my (favorite!) former music professor's wife, and topped off with my first experience with royal icing... which for the most part went well, except for I learned last night that royal icing takes approx 24 hrs to fully set, not the hour I assumed, so other than slightly mooshed frosting once they arrived... everything turned out... well...
Like this:

Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
1 c. Sugar
1 c. Butter
3 oz cream cheese
1/2 t. Almond extract
1/2 t. vanilla
1 egg yolk
1/2 t. Salt
2 1/4 c. Flour

Cream together until fluffy: sugar, butter, cream cheese, almond and vanilla extracts and egg yolk. Mix salt and flour together; add to creamed mixture. Blend well, cover and chill for at least 30 min.
Roll out 1/3 if dough at a time on lightly floured surface to about 1/8th
H inch thick. Cut out in desired shapes. Bake 7-10 min. on ungreased baking sheet. Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies.

I cut out high heels (glass slippers) and pumpkins.

Royal icing
(I know there are lots and lots of recipes for royal icing out there... this is the most ridiculously simple one I have ever seen, and it worked great, and got nice and hard and sugar-y which... is what we were going for.)

4 egg whites

4 cups confectioners sugar

Beat egg whites until stiff, add sugar a little at a time until fully incorporated. Tint with food coloring. Use a piping bag/tips to pipe onto cookies and allow to dry for at least 12 hours. (or you could do what i did, because I don't have piping bags, but in retrospect, kind of considering investing in some... at least the disposable kind!, and just use sandwich bags all twisted up at the end... I know... I just made a whole bunch of cake and cookie decorators cry. But I use what I have.)
I piped white bows on the tops first and dusted them with sanding sugar 'glitter', then piped an outline in pale blue and 'flooded' the large area. For my pumpkins I piped an outline, stem, and leaf in white and dusted the whole thing with sanding sugar. (I had plans and icing to flood the pumpkins in a pale orange... but ran out of time, so I just dusted the whole thing with sanding sugar, and they actually looked pretty cute and 'magical'. I didn't get a great presentation/finished product picture because my camera died before I could... here's the best I have, not tooooooooo bad for my first shot ever at royal icing.

Okay, this was seriously so much fun. I highly recommend BOTH a themed dress up party with grown-up girlfriends and making cookies to coordinate with the theme... fun fun! Enjoy!