Feta is one of my favorite cheeses! I thought I would share some delicious summer salads using this salty-soft cheese of choice. Here is my first one!!
A watermelon, basil, and feta salad!! This would be great to bring to a Memorial Day get-together!! Continue reading “Feta Fetish: Summer Salad One”
Memorial Day is right around the corner, and I was looking for a fun, patriotic outfit to wear without spending an arm and a leg. Target just had their BOGO dress sale, and I saw this and it screamed “Memorial Day!” Continue reading “Memorial Day Outfit”
Ok, cue the Diana Krall, light a candle, pour some wine, and let’s have a day at the spa in your own home….pedicure-style! Continue reading “At-Home Spa Pedicure”
Hayley is the reason I got into the blogging business in the first place. She actually had a blog of her own and also interned at several other fashion blogs during college. Continue reading “Hayley’s Vlog”
Who is ready for the beach???? (Hand up raised and waving wildly)ME, ME, ME!
I was scouring the world-wide web recently shopping for swimsuits and accessories for our beach trip. I thought I would share some fun options I stumbled upon. Continue reading “Beach-Ready Picks”
Blokes, call your Mums and let’s celebrate this marital union between a Yank and a Brit! You bloody-well, better believe, I will be!!
I have here some cheeky fixing’s for a royal party in the finest tradition.
First of all, everyone invited needs a crown of some kind. I like these, because they are gender-neutral.
Next, we must have red roses and champagne.
And, of course tea and all that make an English tea complete. Crumpets (aka English muffins), scones, tarts, and fancy sandwiches.
I printed out the little flags from Google images and taped them to toothpicks. I made the framed “Keep Calm” on Windows Word and placed in a frame.
I pulled out my Queen Anne tea set my mom gave to me a few years ago to make it proper.
And, I pulled out our Beatles coffee table books to add to the British theme.
I will be setting my DVR for 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning to record the entire pre-wedding, wedding ceremony and post-wedding festivities.
Here’s a few tea etiquette tips to remember:
Never blow on your tea to cool down. Never slurp. Never let your spoon touch the cup when stirring. Never cradle your cup with you non-dominant hand. Never let your pinky finger stick up in the air. And, always put your cup down in between sips. Bring your cup up to your mouth, holding the handle and avoiding leaning forward.
Recipes to follow…….
Lemon-blueberry Scones
Ingredients:
(makes 12-16)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
8 tablespoons cold butter, cut up into fourths
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus more for sprinkling afterwards
2/3 cup milk
1 cup Greek yogurt zest of 1 lemon
1 cup fresh blueberries
Directions:
Heat oven to 425 degrees.
In a mixer, add flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix and add butter, using whisk attachment. Mix until it eventually becomes fine crumbs.
Add sugar, milk and yogurt. Mix well.
Fold in lemon zest and blueberries gently.
Roll dough onto a floured surface. Knead and roll into a circle 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut into triangles.
Place wedges onto greased baking sheet. Bake for approximately 12 -15 minutes.
Drizzle glaze, more lemon zest (if desired), and sugar on top after cooled.
Glaze recipe:
In a saucepan on low heat, stir together 1 cup confectioner’s sugar, juice of 1 large lemon, and 1/2 tsp. vanilla.
Cucumber Tea Sandwiches:
(makes approximately 22 sandwich halves)
Ingredients:
1 loaf of white bread
1 8 ounce block of cream cheese (at room temperature)
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh dill
1 cucumber
salt to taste
Directions:
Grate the cucumber on the largest option on your grater, producing very thin circles. Place circles on a paper towel to dry.
Cut crusts off of the bread slices.
In a bowl. stir together the cream cheese, dill and salt.
Spread a healthy tablespoon of cream cheese mixture on 1 slice of bread. Top with around 4 slices of cucumber. Top with another bread slice and cut in half. Continue doing this until all sandwiches are made.
These can be made ahead and refrigerated for 2-3 days or frozen until ready to use. 
Lemon Tarts:
(makes 36 mini-tarts)
2 refrigerated pie crusts
2 cups of sugar, divided
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cups fresh lemon juice
2 cups whipping cream
fresh raspberries for garnish
Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Roll out pie crusts and spread 1/2 cup of sugar onto it, mashing the sugar into the dough. Using a 1/4 cup measuring cup, cut the dough into circles. Spread the dough out with fingers and press into a mini-muffin tin. Bake for 6 minutes. Allow to cool. Continue baking until all dough is used. Repeat on the second pie-crust.
In a double boiler or a bowl over saucepan of boiling water, whisk 1 cup sugar, lemon juice and egg yolks until creamy. Add flour and whisk until thickened. Remove from heat.
In a bowl or stand mixer, whisk whipping cream on high until thickened into stiff peaks.
Fold whipping cream into lemon mixture, eventually gently whisking to incorporate.
Spoon mixture into mini-tart crusts and top with a raspberry.
To make ahead: Make everything according to directions, stopping at the spooning mixture into tarts. Freeze or refrigerate the tart shells in zip bags until ready to use. Same goes for the lemon filling. Take out of freezer/refrigerator when ready to use and spoon mixture right before serving.
*A little confession….I made all of these recipes, messing up the kitchen more than I think I have ever done! It would make Oscar the Grouch proud! Anyway, I rushed to take pictures and tried to clean up as fast I could before we had to attend a party at a friend’s house. I went to load the pictures into the computer later on and realized that I did not have the disk in the camera that stores pictures!!!! Ugh!
So, the next day, I did the best I could recreating the table with the leftovers we had, which wasn’t very much. Rourke and I had been taste-testing quite a bit to tweak things. Thus, the lack of cooking pictures and the flattened sandwiches from being in the fridge.
I learned my lesson to always check to make sure the disk is IN THE CAMERA!!
God Save the Queen!
Cheers to the newest Royal couple of an epic kind!! And, cheers to Harry for marrying American!
Toodle-oo,
Melanie
So we decided to branch out and do our own thang and watch a movie and make a drink of our choice this time. Continue reading “Lavish Libations Series: Saturday Night Fever (and our version of 7and7)”
