TACO TIME with recipe

When the weather is colder it is great for having a bite that comes hot from the oven!

Hot and spicy and served with baby arugula...

Placemat is from Le Jacquard Français with Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet knife and fork.

Using the special Taco Holders and shells from Trader Joe's, I've filled them with grass fed ground beef 93% lean from Whole Foods Market.

Topped with some cheese (for us the lowest sodium content available...)

After 15 minutes in the oven... on 375℉ they're ready to eat!

Ready to enjoy!

For recipe and also spice mix see below post.

Related post:

Easy Oven Baked Taco Recipe | previous post with recipe and separate seasoning recipe

Dinner with Friends before Driving to 7th North American Mushroom Conference in New Orleans

 

On March 4, 1988 we had dinner at our home for our closest friends, informing them that Campbell Soup forced us to move to Pennsylvania. 

Such a SAD tiding! 

We loved Dublin, Georgia and our friends and home and garden...

Since we would be leaving next day for a long drive to New Orleans, I used French paper lace placemats.

Delft white picture frames for each place setting with our spring flowers.

Setting in our dining room...

Using my Dutch Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet cutlery.

You also see my Delft white swan, as a napkin holder...

Related posts:

Caring for our Squirrels while at 7th North American Mushroom Conference in New Orleans | previous post

7th North American Mushroom Conference at The Roosevelt in New Orleans | previous post by me

Review Quotation: Pieter J.C. Vedder; One of the Best Teachers in Mushroom Growing in the World | previous post by me where Pieter's boss compliments him at the 7th North American Mushroom Conference we went to...

7th North American Mushroom Conference Pieter J.C. Vedder CO₂ and Temperature Management | previous post with lecture that Pieter gave

Espresso with French Macarons

Still winter, even if we don't have the extreme cold here in the South...

What picks us up better than a cup of Espresso?

Got these Espresso cups years ago from dear Friend Engracia...

So here they are being used for some Espresso and French Macarons!

It is already a bonus when there is light and even better, some sunshine!

Found just enough fragrant daffodils in our garden for filling a tiny silver vase...

On a lacquered tray, a gift received while I was in Japan.

My tiny Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet demitasse spoons are the right size for these espresso cups - IF sugar is needed.

Found these yummy French Macarons at Costco and they were excellent!

Have not yet made my own...

Also gathered some of our special pink Camellias while I was in the garden.

A close up of their special vase with just 3 pipes that hold each flower.
It is the Camellia Japonica Debutante

My perfect lacquered tray from Japan.

with the reflection of the kitchen lamp in it and my hands...

These Espresso cups are YAMASEN JAPAN, gift from a dear friend Engracia.

Wishing you stay cozy during these winter days!

For the southern hemisphere, enjoy your summer.

Thanks for your visit and comment.

HAPPY EASTER 2018

Already for quite a while I had the photos...

So, here I will use them for wishing all my readers a HAPPY EASTER 2018!

Yes, one of my sewing creations, quilted and padded place mats with matching napkins.

Photo got made on Sunday, March 20 of 2005

Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet silverware and for dessert the Bridal Rose by Alvin in sterling silver.
Fragrant daffodils...

Used here in a table setting for a dear friend on her birthday in 2007

Same as the 1st photo but now with flash light.

Those picture frames are always lovely for individual use at table.

Round silver napkin rings we had made in Indonesia.

Wishing you a HAPPY EASTER WEEKEND!

Table Setting With Picture Frame Vases and Place Cards

Still regret for not having kept more than 6 of those Delft White Picture Frame Vases... They sold like hot cakes! BUT, I sure love to use them with my Table Setting, together with our silver Place Cards.

It was once again Pieter's turn for hosting a 3–course dinner at our home for his Monday Night Club.

We happened to have still some of our white azaleas and together with a sprig of Rosemary, they worked perfect.

Also my French Christofle silver knife rests were put to use.

I've almost sold out on my Spectrenoir... (click the hyperlink).

My extra long French Le Jacquard damask tablecloth with napkins work fine with the additional small oak table added on in the back.

Chargers are French Pillivuyt Sancerre, also available at Replacements.

Our dining room set is solid French oak and also the floor is solid oak planks.

But instead of the Delft White Picture Frame Vase I used a little perfume bottle with silver embellishment, a dear gift from our boss in Italy.

The soup spoons, as well as the dessert spoon are Alvin Bridal Rose (Sterling, 1903) and by now you all know that I love ROSES. Clicking the link you find more pieces by Replacements Ltd.

Our solid silver napkin rings we had made in Indonesia while we lived and worked there.

This Picture Frame Vase is holding 2 Ice Wing Narcissus.

Hope you enjoyed my Table Setting and thanks for your visit.

Related links:
{Large Delft White Picture Frame Vase} | previous post by me
{Delft White Picture Frame Vase} | previous post by me
{Cooking Dinner for Twelve at Our Home} | previous post by me
{Tuesday May 4, dinner with friends} | previous post by me
{Table Setting for Friends} | previous post by me
{Mother-in-law's 1930s Société Céramique Blue Boerenhoeve Transferware} | previous post by me

{Cooking Dinner for Twelve at Our Home}

Only one week after we got our new Miele Dishwasher installed I had to prepare a dinner for 12 at our home.

For Pieter's Monday Night Club as we were to host the 3–course dinner...
Imagine, cleaning all that mess and having a neat home, shopping for the ingredients and cooking...
Shopping means a 2 ½ hour drive to Atlanta, one way!
This is one table setting, in our dining room for 9.
Tabecloth is French Le Jacquard Français.

And 3 more in our bay window section in the kitchen.
Tablecloth is French Yves Delorme.
Monday, January 25...

At Costco Wholesale we did buy this great and very healthy salad.
It comes with dressing, variety of nuts and seeds!
That helps for making things easier...

These delicious wheat rolls are from Whole Foods Market

Snow Flake Rolls they are called...

(Added this photo later)

Tira-mi-su I made the evening before... A favorite dessert at our home.

I would prepare a German style dinner and as meat choice I had Pork Tenderloin, baked in the oven.

Red potatoes, just pre-boiled and then pan fried.
I did keep them warm in my 30" Miele Convection Food Warming Drawer with dual heating system. drawer in the staircase area.
It is great, getting things out of the way and ready to clean up the cook top and kitchen counter.

From Cost Plus World Market I did have this Red Cabbage Salad from Lowell foods.

And yes, I did for once cover the Le Jacquard Français tablecloth with a soft plastic that I have... This is a HUGE tablecloth, I've added a small table at the end, from the Rose Suite downstairs.
Not easy for ironing such size so this saved me from doing that.
My Pillivuyt Sancerre serving plates combined with Cream Colour on Cream Colour by Wedgwood for salad and later also the bigger round dinner plates for the main course. I kept those in my Miele plate warming drawer...

Cups & saucers from the same Wedgwood Cream Colour on Cream Colour and dessert plates for the Tira-mi-su.

Table setting for 3 in the kitchen.
Often I use the round teak table from the balcony for ourselves, set also in the kitchen.
Here no Wedgwood china is used but instead the Pillivuyt Sancerre dinner plates.

Those Pillivuyt dinner plates also went inside the plate warming drawer for the main course.
   Seltmann Weiden Mirabell White plates for the salad.
I've also learned not to use my French Baccarat crystal but instead a cheaper crystal for glasses...

Hard to capture such a longer table from above...

Flatware is Gero Zilmeta 528 Menuet and for dessert spoons silver Alvin Bridal Rose.
Sorry there are no further photos as it was only Team Vedder that did wait on these guests and no time for snapping any pictures from main course and such.

My French trolley from La Redoute, France that Pieter used in the veranda for creating a little bar...
The Baccarat crystal ice bucket with thong always comes in handy.
So that's my duty for Pieter's Monday Night Club as it is our turn to host the dinner.
The maximum I've done is cooking for 15.

I was sure glad when all was done and I also enjoyed the compliments about the food.
Next day I had severe back pain. That was mainly because that entire week, since our Miele dishwasher got finally installed and working, I had done the cleaning etc.
It is as I said above, for our home and garden, only Team Vedder!

{Crocheted Table Topper}

Crocheted Table Topper for layering with linen table cloth...

Yes, that is one more item I did hand crochet. My Mom had used to have a stash of Dutch, Durable cotton and I did purchase quite some skeins from her.

You see it right; there is a PEACH in that fruit bowl with some Bosc pears... even in mid-winter!

A nice table setting for three.

Crocheted from an Aarlan magazine, with obviously nicer thread that had a pretty sheen...

Funny that I could almost copy-cat everything in the above photo...

My white octagonal Seltmann Weiden Mirabell china from Germany.

French Baccarat Piccadilly, narrow and somewhat wider champagne flutes.

Dutch Gero Zilmeta Menuet 528 flatware.

Creamware Fluted Salad bowl made in Leeds, England by Hartley Greens & Co., famous since 1770.

Available at: Williamsburg Marketplace

The Evil Eye from Turkey is adding some blue...

Just a simple star pattern...

Added the  crochet pattern for those that would like to copy it...