{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.
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!

{Crating The Other Miele Dishwasher}

The delivery was on the 18th of January and we had to unpack and save the box and start Crating The Other Miele Dishwasher...
Not an easy task!

But here it is, ready for being placed inside the box together by husband Pieter and me.

Pieter even had reinforced the side panels.

Using some plywood and drilling holes for fastening it with screws.

All things tied up...

Detail of the reinforced side parts...

Yay we managed together to get it inside this box!
Don't ask how...

By the end of the day on the 19th of January, the driver did stop by to pick up the 1st non-functioning Miele Dishwasher.
End of the Saga...

{Our 2nd New Miele Dishwasher Arrived}

Yep, January 18 of 2016 was the happy day that finally our replacement New Miele Dishwasher Arrived!

Same procedure as on December 28...
Pieter in our Toyota RAV4 functioned as the pilot car, guiding this 18-wheeler into our subdivision.

This truck did have at least a lift.

Here it comes!

We had already taken the non-working one out of its opening...

There is the non-functioning Miele Dishwasher, waiting to be crated into the box from the 2nd one.

Here is the 2nd New Miele Dishwasher; inside our kitchen!
Now the exciting time for getting it out, placing and connecting it and seeing if THIS will work!

Pieter working on the water connections.

Since Pieter did not fit into this drawer opening for guiding the drain hose, I had to get inside.

It is almost inside...
The tile baseboard needs still to be put back etc.

It got leveled and IT WORKS!
Cheering after so many months with problems.
And finally I can start doing some much needed thorough cleaning!

{Old Miele Dishwasher on Bike Rack}

Okay, on December 29, the day after our New Miele Dishwasher got delivered, husband Pieter did go ahead and strap our Old Miele Dishwasher on our Toyota RAV4's Bike Rack...
We both did haul it out of the front door, it sat in the hall way and over this brick path to the car.

We were lucky that it worked out this way since otherwise we would have no means of transportation for dropping it off at the Recycle Center.
Yes, we have to drop off ALL our garbage ourselves.
We live just outside of the City Limits so there is no City Garbage Collection...
You can hire a private company that does that weekly but we live on a very strict budget and we don't like to have ALL garbage put together.
We recycle as much as we can by separating things!

Looking rather trashy...
But this is how we transport all our things, week after week.

Yeah, this was the culprit of our old October 19, 1998 Miele Dishwasher giving up...
I bet that in the USA and maybe also in Canada, a lot of people do have to drop things off at a recycle center.

{Our New Miele Dishwasher Arrived}

Well, as in every household, appliances do quit working and we need to replace them.

Such was the case with our Miele USA  dishwasher that we installed on October 19, 1998 so it had held up for quite a while.

We did manage to keep it going, a cycle took hours longer to complete and finally it no longer did drain.

So on December 28, 2015 the delivery truck rolled in and we helped unload our new Miele Dishwasher.

Yes, husband Pieter was a pilot car in our little Toyota RAV4, to guide this 18-wheeler into our subdivision. 

But we were happy, after Christmas and now we finally would get our new Miele Dishwasher!

Here it is, out of the crated box and in front of the defect one.

You can see a tea towel hanging over the chair, finally we would get relief from hand washing everything.

All excited!

ENERGY GUIDE looking really good!

It is an Energy Star appliance.

BUT... this one did not work!

Poor husband Pieter took it out and in about three times and we video taped the water flow, because the Miele people in Boca Raton, Florida thought there is not enough pressure or water volume.
Once they received the video, they were convinced.

They promised to ship another one...

That was not a happy ending of 2015!

Will be continued; stay tuned.

{RICED CAULIFLOWER}

A blogger friend from the UK, Daphne from the blog: Ivy, Phyllis and Me! posted on September 10 of 2014: CAULIFLOWER RICE ←click on hyperlink so I had to try this.

What a surprise to find at Trader Joe's already Riced Cauliflower!

Easy for browning the onion with garlic in olive oil, adding the Riced Cauliflower and done!

Added here Quinoa from Costco Wholesale and Beef-less Ground Beef from Trader Joe's 
Quick and healthy supper!

Have you already tried Riced Cauliflower?

{Our 2016 Double Orange Daylily or Hemerocallis}

In 2013 I already did post about our Double Orange Daylily or Hemerocallis that suddenly appeared in our garden. 

A gift from a bird...?

Perfect for my Dutch Heritage, as a salute to The Kingdom of the House of Orange...

It is a stunner and beautifully double with ruffled edges.

Placed it in a round Baccarat crystal vase...

Love those stamens and the pollen already fell off...

Hope you enjoyed this happy color Daylily and thanks for your visit!

Related link:

{Our Double Orange Daylily or Hemerocallis} | my previous 2013 post showing it in the garden... very lush!

{Daylily Hemerocallis WHITE TUXEDO + SAD Feline & CanineLove Story} | previous post by me

{For Mom & Dad's Visit in 1996 We Tamed a Mockingbird}

Yes, for Mom & Dad's visit in 1996 we indeed did tame a Mockingbird!

Feeding it walnuts from a ramekin and luring it inside our veranda.

Step by step, literally up the steps, past the threshold (that was the scariest moment!) and into the veranda onto the tiles.

This was the sight from our bay window area in the kitchen on Thursday morning, March 21 in 1996!
Poor quality photo, but it still shows enough about the special bond.
Not only did a Mockingbird come inside, but also a Brown thrasher, a Carolina wren and a Squirrel!

Dad told us the first morning that he did not believe his eyes, he wanted to pinch himself for making sure he was not dreaming...

We were quite successful pulling this off with only a bit of practice for a couple of weeks.

Once we sat the door open and called them, they would come in.

Pieces of nut flying in all directions.

Since we have cats, of course we no longer could continue doing this!

For those in Europe that don't know a Mockingbird.
It is often also called the American Nightingale, as it has quite a repertoire, singing and mocking other song birds!
We love them, they're such happy singers.
Also love the Brown Thrashers, they're like gardeners and you can see specks of soil etc. literally flying when they search for worms and insects.

Hope you enjoyed this photo about one of our tamed Garden Critters!

Related link:

Carolina Wren on Pieter's Arm | to show you how tame they were!

{IT CAN BE DONE}

Former President Ronald Reagan's famous plaque 'IT CAN BE DONE' which he kept at his oval office desk...

I had kept The 1994 Neiman Marcus Christmas Book for quite some years and did actually scan this photo below:

Made in Italy, this Leather Office Plaque is so very special!

This gold lettering on cordovan leather plaque is still available at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute at their store, under office (click hyperlink in pink and than on shop by category...).

President Ronald Reagan meant a lot to me!

For 53 years we shared a birthday together and he died on my late husband's birthday in 2004.

When we came to this great country in 1983, it was Ronald Reagan who was President, till 1989.

We left for work in Italy soon after his 2nd term was over...

Love to share some of Ronald Reagan's quotes:

I know in my heart that man is good.

That what is right will always eventually triumph.

And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.

~  

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.

We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to taketh first step into a thousand years of darkness. 

If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here.

We did all that could be done.

Thanks for your visit!

{Our Bletilla Striata Alba Orchids now Happily in Pots}

Our Bletilla Striata Alba Orchids have been struggling from February 1996 on, in our wood garden.

Pieter managed to find them in the fall and dig them up, for transplanting them into pots.

They are quite happy!

This photo was taken by husband Pieter on March 20.
Inside the greenhouse, but looking quite happy and healthy!

The foliage is so much stronger looking too.
These beautiful orchids are native to Japan and China

Guess in our wood garden, the competition of all the roots from trees is too much.
So we're happy for having rescued them.

Thanks for your visit!

Related link:
{Our Bletilla Striata Alba Orchid native to Japan and China} | previous post by me

{My Laurèl Jeans Suit with Escada Booties}

Oh my, how I long for the cooler weather...

Again a throw back into February 24 of 2016 where I enjoyed wearing my Laurel (Escada group) Jeans Suit with my Escada Booties.

Of course together with my companion Spooky boy.

In front of our Magnolia Grandiflora Namnetensis Flore Pleno.

Happy with life, happy with the weather!

Thanks for your visit

Related link:
{Sisters Dressed Like Twins} | previous post by me showing this very Jeans Suit

{Yummy Cheesecake}

Okay, last post I showed you the Quark dessert which I often used for making my own Quark Torte, not as heavy as the American Cheesecake, more like a Mousse.

But here some photos from Whole Foods Market where they show different slices of Cheesecake at US $ 4.50 per slice or US $ 63 for the entire cake!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

at $ 4.50 per slice...

Looks yummy!

Strawberry Shortcake Slice and Tuxedo Cheesecake slice

Hope you enjoyed this window shopping; very low calorie!