Womens night at church

When I planned the weekly menus, I forgot about the womens dinner at church. So I postponed the ham and potato dish I first planned. Jeff had some chili from the freezer and Nina and I went to women's night.

I knew the decorations would be beautiful because they always are! The meal was baked potatoes with all the toppings and field greens salad in a buffet line. Dessert was fresh fruit and Texas Sheet Cake.
We sat at round tables covered with brown tablecloths. Each table had the same decorations, either orange, green or purple.
The centerpieces were large flower pots with brown polka dots and glitter around the top rim. The topiary part was just a brown cone. The pots were filled with matching tulle.

oops, this one is upside down!

The shoes were our name tags.
Party favors were tiny pots filled with mints. Each pot has 2 layers of tulle, one of brown tulle and one of the same color as the pot.

Menus for Sept 15-22

I am still trying to use up that 20 pound bag of potatoes, FYI - unless you have a bigger family than I do to cook for, don't buy 20 pounds of potatoes at once.

Monday
Scalloped Potatoes and Ham
Ingredients:
6 cups raw potatoes, cut into small cubes
1 medium onion, minced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 lb. cooked ham, cubed
4 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I will use Velveeta because I don't like how cheddar gets grainy in sauces)

Directions:
1. Layer potatoes, onion, 1 tsp. salt and ham into slow cooker.
2. Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour and 1 tsp. salt. Cook until
bubbly. Gradually add milk. Cook until smooth and thickened. Add
cheese and stir until melted. Pour over potato-ham mixture, stirring
lightly.
3. Cover. Cook on Low 5-7 hours, or High 3-4 hours. ( I will probably bake it in the oven at 350 for an hour or so)

Tuesday
SouthWest Taco Pie - a Pampered Chef Recipe
Crust:
1/4 c. + 1 tbsp cornmeal
3/4 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c milk
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Filling:
1 lb lean ground beef (I will use ground turkey that I got on sale last week)
1 c. chunky salsa
1 c shredded co-jack cheese
1 c. shredded lettuce
1/2 c. chopped tomato
1/4 c. sliced black olives (optional!)
sour cream, for garnish

Preheat oven to 450. Lightly spray 9" stoneware pie plate with vegetable oil. Sprinkle 1 tbsp cornmeal evenly on bottom and sides on pie plate. Combine the remaining cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add milk and oil, stir with fork until mixture forms a ball. Roll out to create crust, shape into pie plate.

For filling, brown ground beef, drain. Stir in salsa. Spoon beef mixture into pie crust; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 12-15 minutes or until crust is golden brown & cheese is melted. Top pie with lettuce, tomato and olives. Garnish with sour cream & additional salsa, if you'd like.

Wednesday
Pillsbury's Smothered Chicken - served on mashed potatos

Thursday
Pinto Beans and Cornbread

Friday
Spaghetti with homemade sauce from the freezer

From what I am writing down, it looks like I will be doing nothing but cooking this weekend. I planned plenty of desserts and meals because my in-laws will be in town for the weekend. But I don't know which meals they will be here for so I planned something big for every meal but will only cook a lot when I am sure they will be here. And we will probably eat out some but I just want to be ready for whatever.

Weekend desserts
Key Lime Pie tarts
chewy chocolate chip cookies This is a recipe for Meredith @ Like Merchant Ships
Pound cake with lemon glaze

Saturday
Breakfast
bacon, eggs, and toast

lunch
Taco Ring - another Pampered Chef recipe

Supper
Barbecued chicken with baked potatoes


Sunday
breakfast
bacon, eggs, biscuits

lunch
Roast beef with carrots and potatoes

supper
Chicken and Black bean chili

Garage Sales finds

We went to a few garage sales this morning, I am little sad because I think garage sale season is just about over. There might be a few more in September but I don't expect there will be very many more until spring.
We went to 4 different sales today. I only bought things at one of them though.

Decorative plates $1 each

7 fabric remnants, 25 cents each - the 2 black and white pieces are several yards each.
Valentines scarf and a fall scarf 10 cents each

Bragging about my daughter

I have not done much today worth blogging about so I thought would show off what my daughter, Nina, has been up too. She took a session of cake decorating classes last fall and learned the basics. Now she is branching out and doing much cooler stuff than just frosting roses.


She made this cake yesterday for the 20th birthday of the student worker at her office.

Cupcakes


Nina and Hannah,
Hannah in one of Nina's sisters-in-law and she had a pool party for her 10th birthday.


Nina makes bon-bons out of the cake scraps.
Close up of the USMC she made a few weeks ago for her daddy.

Nina is the best daughter and she is just as sweet and pretty as her cakes, too!

Before and after

Before
Jeff and I went to several rummage sales Saturday morning. One of my finds was this set of 3 glass candle pedestals for just 75 cents. I recently saw a similar set, but with a nice finish, at Hobby Lobby for $20. This rummage sale set was clear glass with a gold splatter design on the inside, not very pretty at all.
Since I had nothing to lose, I looked through my spray paint box and found a can of almond paint. After a few coats of paint, I am really happy with the results.
After
I even had the brand new candles, bought a few months as a gift set, on clearance at Wal-mart for $2. The brown ribbon was tied around the box of candles.
The candles are Cedar - Oakmoss, a very different scent than I usually buy. It smells kind of like my son's aftershave and that is a good thing.
My mom, the Crochet Queen, made the doily.