Food and Drink – Page 11 – Karla's Cottage

A festive season

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 22, 2014

I've been going full speed into Christmas this year. I always love the season, and this year even more. I've arranged one activity, party, or gathering one after another.

It has been glorious! (that word should always be spoken the way Will Farrell says it in "Old School")

Last weekend was Breakfast with Santa at Lion's Gate country club. They have the BEST Santy Claus.

Sadly, Dewdrop was ill and couldn't make it. So, we will be taking her to see the jolly old elf at the community pool for a Santa Swim party.

I've bought tickets to plays, gone to craft parties, thrown craft days, arranged luncheons, attended gatherings, hosted gatherings, and have had so much going on that there has been something exciting almost every single day.

If there wasn't a special activity going on, Sugarwings and I would make one up. We'd turn an ordinary day into an event. We'd dye trees (our Christmas version of doing eggs at Easter), set up a fancy table with good dishes in front of the Christmas tree and have a cocoa party, draw up a list of holiday lit homes in town and go on an adventure hunt to follow a map and find all the brightly lit up neighborhoods, or just snuggle up and watch some holiday specials on TV.

I've thrown a few parties this season. I like to have my friends over for an annual ornament making party with their kids, and this year, with my husband's travel schedule for work, it didn't look like we were going to be able to have our big bash.

So, instead of my usual weekend dinner party with a bonfire and beers for guys and crafting for anyone who wanted to hang out in the studio, I switched it to a luncheon for some of my friends and ornament making afterwards.

I wanted to try making these tarts, they are thinly sliced veggies, rolled into spirals and baked in a pie crust lined with ricotta cheese. And I also wanted my friends to know that they are special to me and I wanted to create a treat for them, so I set the table pretty and had them over.

But we didn't stop there. After school, their kids joined us for more crafting and a few other friends were able to come by to make ornaments too.

We turned it into a whole evening, ordered some pizzas, drank some wine, and had a cocoa party for the kiddos.

I set out thermoses of hot milk, a big bowl of marshmallows, organic candy canes, chocolate syrup, and some cocoa powder and let them serve themselves from the treat cabinet.

We also broke up candy canes and put those in the cotton candy maker and that was a hit too. Although, at times, the cotton candy maker was left on unattended, and big fluffs of spun sugar would float across the room.

I was ready to chase those puffs down and try to catch them with my tongue like snowflakes.

(and was glad that I'd covered up my vintage wallpaper with a curtain before setting the cotton candy maker next to it)

It is always fun to see what everyone comes up with, when presented with a table full of supplies and left on their own.

Lots of different styles of crafts get churned out.

But the best part is the laughing. It was a fun evening.

I've not finished my shopping or wrapped any gifts yet. I'll make that work out somehow. Gift cards for the big kids and a few toys under the tree for kids, probably. This year, I've tried to make the season about the people, not the presents.

And to have the holiday spirit of sharing and togetherness for the whole month.

And of course, soak up the joy every single day!

A Holiday Party for my Bookclub and some JOY

cottage, Food and Drink, holiday decor, Sugarwings, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 16, 2014

"Merry" used to be my favorite word this time of year.

But now, I kind of like "JOY."

It is this silly elf's middle name and that has made it my favorite seasonal word.

Plus, we could all use all the joy we can get.

I hadn't planned on Sugarwings being here for book club, but her daddy had a chance to go camping with his buddies. (Even though it was going to be EIGHTEEN DEGREES THAT NIGHT!!!!!!)

So, I picked her up after school, and we ran some errands, then came home to foof up the house for the party. She was glad to help, but I was worried about her being on her own all evening while I entertained.

She had no problem with it and was excited to dress up like an elf to greet the guests (she is all about the costume, no matter what the occasion is)

I set up a table of crafts in my bedroom in front of a TV full of holiday shows to watch on the DVR. First of all, she never gets to craft in the bedroom in front of the TV, and take food in there too. Double forbidden fun.

Of course, there was some hot cocoa spilled on the chair, but hey, why use slip covers if you don't plan on pulling them off to wash them?

I guess these photos are pretty similar to the previous post, showing the dining room all set up for a party. But since this is an evening gathering and that was a luncheon, maybe they are different enough to show?

I love to use lots of twinkly lights when I have a party. The ones on the table are wrapped on gold branches and are battery operated. (bought on clearance after Christmas last year, 75% off)

I've added lots of layers of table clothes, and some lights under the table too. This time, I have vintage curtains as a table skirt and the string of lights show more. Usually, I have a regular table cloth draped to the floor, and get a softer glow. But this look is kind of fun too.

I chose the wine for the pretty labels. And it was good, too, and very affordable. It's nice to find a tasty wine under ten bucks.

I kept the food simple, like brie sprinkled with rosemary and wrapped in puff pastry, with a side of fig jelly and crackers. That is one of the easiest things to ever make, but sure looks special.

Another trick I have for elevating an ordinary dish is to, well, elevate the dish.

Here, I've set a compote of chicken salad on a plate, and set that on a cake plate, making three levels.

This compote full of dip makes this veggie tray more interesting than it would've been if I'd had it served on an actual tray. And lining the bowl with ruffly kale made it prettier too.

The three vases of flowers (left over from my last party) are also on different levels. I turned a bowl upside down to set one vase on to lift it up.

The cheesecake is a regular cheesecake, but I added a hand full of chopped pecans to the graham cracker crust, and then mixed in some of Trader Joe's Pumpkin Carmel Sauce into the batter. When it was done baking, I drizzled a little more on top.

One thing I should have done was to take some leaves out of the table, but I can't do it by myself and my husband was out of town. There is too much space between the dishes. since it was a small gathering, I didn't have a ton of food out, and it was spread out a bit too much to look its best. But that is just nit picking, huh? I doubt if my friends were gossiping about how much space I'd left between bowls…

For party favors, I made tiny, glittered books out of vintage papers. I'll have a mini how-to coming up soon if you want to make some yourself.

A Fall Wedding in New Hampshire

celebrations, family, flowers, Food and Drink, guncles, holiday decor, Travel, vintage paper/collage art, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / November 8, 2014

What a perfect place for a wedding! The guncles have been together for a long time and had a commitment ceremony 17 years ago, but now that they can be legally married, we gathered in NH to celebrate with them.

We had a rehearsal dinner the night before the event at Ipswich Country Club. And oh my! It was something!

Great appetisers.

Exceptional food.

Wonderful company. (this is just some of us, I don't have a group shot)

And a serenade from Carol Swarbrick Dries (Aunt Carol). She sang a song that had tears in all of our eyes. We begged for an encore the next day at the wedding.

The air was crisp, the leaves were colorful, and the site for the wedding luncheon and ceremony was ideal for the occasion.

And did I mention that there was carrot cake? My fave! And so pretty with the fall colors. There wasn't a cake stand, but I slipped a couple of box lids from our centerpieces under it and that made a quick but cute, make shift stand.

I was so pleased that the boxes we worked on together to make centerpieces looked so festive in the room.

We also glittered and sponge painted some packages of tissue paper leaves from the dollar bin at Target to sprinkle around the table. And Randy framed a picture of each guest to create name cards for the seating.

17 years ago, we had to take apart two bride and groom cake toppers to get two grooms. Now, the guncles had plenty of toppers to choose from with two grooms. All this one needed was some highlights in one groom's hair and it was ready to adorn the carrot cake.

I was honored to be in the ceremony. The whole time I was up there, I watched Kevin's face and was moved by the emotions he showed.

That man is a treasure and we are lucky to have him in our family, and seeing the love and happiness in his eyes that day, moved me to my core.

I spent the entire day with red, weepy eyes, but a huge grin on my face at the same time.

Garden Love

Food and Drink, Garden, Nathan Family Fairy Food Forest

By Karla Nathan / October 4, 2014

I'm ready to fill the house with pumpkins from the local patch, the grand fairies and I love to hang out there and spend our time picking the world's best pumpkin out. I like the white or gray ones, Sugarwings likes the small orange ones, and Dewdrop always goes for the very first one she sees.

This little orange one is a drawing I did with the finger painting app on my iPad. I hope to do a few more paintings with the app on vacation soon with my sisses. Sitting on a balcony and watching the waves is a perfect time for sketching.

Our garden produced some winners recently. This heirloom tomato was a perfect heart. Which we thought was about as special as can be. Sugarwings isn't a big tomato fan, but she couldn't get enough heart shaped slices.

Then, what do you know, here comes an orange heart shaped tomato the next day!

Then, we find this. Our garden loves us as much as we love it.

Sugarwings helped me harvest the potatoes. But only one was heart shaped. After all of the special ones we'd found, we were spoiled and slightly disapointed with normal taters.

How can you go back to eating plain old garden produce after you've been treated to this?

So, Sugarwings asked me to cut out french fries with cookie cutter shapes. I was slightly busy that day and almost said no, then remembered that I'd been so busy that morning that I had accidentally sent a thermos of hot water in her school lunch instead of the roasted chicken I was warming up for her.

I always fill the thermos with hot water, swish it around and heat up the container while I wait for the food to get hot and then I am SUPPOSED to switch hot water for hot food. But this day, it slipped my mind.

So, I made time to fix her a special dinner with all of her favorite things to make up for it. (and her daddy delivered a replacement meal for her that morning, she didn't go hungry)

And really, those french fries didn't take much more time than cutting up regular fries, and were as she said, "The cutest french fries in the whole world."

Silly projects

Dew Drop, Food and Drink, Sugarwings

By Karla Nathan / July 7, 2014

Last week, the grand fairies and I made salt sculptures to paint. I really see no point whatsoever in making them… except that they were fun to do.

Basically, it is a bowl of salt, a ton of glitter, and enough water to moisten. Then, you press it in a mold to let it dry, supposedly rock hard so you can paint them and use them for blocks. Ours didn't get rock hard, they were a bit crumbly still. But fun to paint anyway.

Heck, anything you can smear paint around on, is good for a bit of entertainment.

Afterward, we played "dinner theater". I set their table up in front of the tv, which is a giant treat here. The TV is supposed to be off during meals and we sit together to eat.

But this is summer vacation, so everything is a treat!

And Dumbo was on, how could any of us be expected to turn that off to go have lunch????

After lunch was served, the littles had some tea, and were given menus featuring all the M&M colors I had to chose from. I figured I'd sneak in some learning during the fun. Reading for Sugarwings, and colors and counting for Dewdrop. Sugarwings read the menu to her little sis, and then they counted out their order as they sorted the colors together.

And of course, anything tastes better when served with antique silver tongs from a crystal dish.

ps- I'm having a Summer Clearance sale in the Boutique. I've neglected that poor little shoppette too long, I need to clean up, clear out, and refresh it all. You are welcome to soak up some summertime savings and help me get a fresh start, by using this link and getting 50% off everything in the store:

http://www.karlascottage.com/?code=Summersale

(You must use that address to get the special price. Going to the regular address does NOT take you to the 50% discount)

Meanwhile back at Birdsong- yep, here comes MORE

bird song art event, Food and Drink, jewelry

By Karla Nathan / June 25, 2014

Yes, I know, I'm still blathering on about our party. It is a huge deal for me, and I love every minute of it. Plus,( just ask my family), it takes over my world for quite a while, so it is hard to let it go when it ends.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend is the party night. We drink some wine, eat dinner, shop in the garage, and hang out. I try to keep it all pretty laid back, and fun for me too. So I cook ahead of time, making up huge pans of food in advance, to have frozen and waiting to go into the oven that night, and have the other vendors in charge of shopping.

This year was just a little more complicated when I started to set up the vendor space, because I forgot to use plastic on the walls when I hung a canvas up to paint a banner there this spring. (the wall was a tad bit, uhmm, colorful) I had to repaint before I could fix the garage up and turn it into a store.

I painted the wall a pretty sky blue (leftover from that banner), and wrote "peeps" in Xmas lights on it, then covered it all in a huge piece of lace. After carrying out typical garage junk, and bringing in some rugs, I set up tables with white cloths on them and we filled the room up with vintage goodness.

I'm afraid I didn't get any photos during the sale! These are from set up before the room is done.

But here is a picture of what I bought there. This is a necklace from Lori.

And here are the necklaces that Lori and Andrea gave to me. I've always adored cameos. And when Andrea told me to chose a necklace from her vendor table, I had to go for the one with the large bird that matched the bracelet kits she had.

I've been very inspired by both of them, and have been on a jewelry binge since they left. Here is a necklace I made from Andrea's kit.

She included some very nice pieces, and I had some beads that matched nicely, and was able to add a bit more chain and doo dads to make it longer.

Weeks before our weekend kicks off, I start baking and filling the freezer with treats. I try to be very prepped in advance, so I can have fun once the party starts.

Do you know how hard it is to live in a home that has a freezer full to the brim with treats???? Sometimes, when my husband would be out of town, and I'd still be up late in an empty home, watching TV or reading, I could hear the sound of those cookies calling my name from the freezer in the garage.

Cookies can be very loud after midnight. They never shut up, when they know you are home alone and it is late at night.

Believe it or not, there were still cookies left in the freezer when the guests arrived. I don't know how they survived, but some did.

These were made with alphabet stamps I found at TJ Max. I didn't notice till I was half done making them that I'd loaded "PEFPS" instead of "PEEPS" into the cookie cutters. I was able to transform that F into an E with a knife point for some cookies, but many were already baked, so got served as "pefps".

We ended up with way too much food. Besides the misspelled cookies, I made what Suzanne called a "bird bath full of apple deliciousness". I had kind of a huge bowl of it to serve. Part of the problem, was that there was a storm right before I went grocery shopping, and the power was out! I had to push an over loaded 500lb cart in the darkness and browse by the light of my cell phone flashlight ap.

I wasn't as careful of a shopper as I could have been. But I think it's better to have extra than not enough.

And boy did we have extra.

One thing that people seemed to like was the corn. I'd fixed chicken pasta, and needed a side dish. And I wanted something fresh, easy to make, and kind of Italian.

Here is what I did:

I cut the corn off of two dozen ears the day before, and stored it in ziplock bags in the fridge to save space. When you are feeding 35 plus people for multiple meals, fridge space is a big issue.

My son chopped a bag of carrots in the food processor while my sis sauteed 3 diced red peppers in olive oil. Then the carrots were sauteed. All of that went into a bag in the fridge too.

The next day, I emptied all the bags into a giant pot (I made way too much, thinking that 24 ears of corn for 35 people was okay, but I probably only needed half that much), added butter, sea salt, white pepper, and fresh thyme.

Then, I had anyone who walked through the kitchen taste it. We all kept thinking, more thyme, more thyme, more thyme, maybe more salt? By the time we all added thyme, it was pretty durn tasty.

And wasn't I lucky that making something up on the fly worked out? I'd never tried carrots with corn and thyme, but we all loved it. If it had sucked, I'd have been in trouble, since I had a vat of it and a bunch of hungry crafters!!

A fairy tea party for grandma

bird song art event, cottage, fairies, family, Food and Drink, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / June 21, 2014

The day after Birdsong ended, my week was just gearing up! We had family in town visiting, and a new kitten joined our family. His name is Terrance Snow Bell Song Bird Nathan. (Terrance was in the Tinkerbell movie)

The monsoons resumed, and the girls made use of the piles of umbrellas we'd had out on the porch earlier.

Guncle Randy, Karen Hillman, and Crafting Queen Regina were in charge of dinner, while my husband grilled chicken. He had rigged up multiple umbrellas and tarps to grill under, and didn't give up, no matter how soggy the day got.

After a quiet-ish day of hanging in the studio and running people to the airport, we had a big family feast. And the next morning, the grand fairies threw a tea party for Great Grandma Joan who had come to visit them.

They had been talking about her visit for months. And had big plans for the tea party. I'm so glad that I didn't listen to my tired body, and that I rallied for this. It meant a lot to the little ones and a person like Joan deserves being the guest of honor at a fairy feast.

She is a dear lady.

Karen and Randy had whipped up a baked squash dish and a pan of roasted potatoes for our dinner the night before. I remade the leftovers into an egg casserole, made home made cinnamon rolls, asparagus wrapped in ham, and fruit salad (left overs too). Just about everything was a reconfigured dish.

The cinnamon rolls were even topped with extra raspberry icing I'd made for the cake I served for dessert on Sunday.

Did I mention that I bought WAY too much food for Birdsong? Luckily, I had a hoard of hungry nephews drop by to visit me on their way to a white water rafting trip. I filled their cooler with cookies and picnic food.

The little girls set the table for me, tea parties are a great learning experience for tiny fairies. Between their enthusiasm (and the smell of fresh baking bread) we had a table full of guests for our party. At first, it was just going to be a handful of us, no one else could make it.

Festivity can be contaigious, and even my Handsome Husband got into the feel of the event. He went and put on a jacket and tie for the party.

With his cargo shorts.

Regina, Guncle Randy, and Karen all delayed thier trip to Kansas City to stay and toast Great Grandma Joan with herbal tea.

I think this photo is hilarious. The breezeway was pretty much trashed, from Birdsong, a big dinner the night before, and the box of empties from the parties hadn't gone out yet. But it just goes to show that you don't have to make everything perfect to have a good time.

If I'd had to completley clean up from the previous parties, I doubt if I'd been able to squeeze one more occasion out of my hospitality drained soul. So, I just ignored the remnants of it all and partied-on.

From the look on this little fairy's face, a bit of mess wasn't even noticeable to her.

Sugarwings took this photo of us saying goodbye.

It was a fun way to see eveyone off and say thanks to the family and friends who had helped me so much all weekend.

Rosemary Garlic dinner rolls

cottage, flowers, Food and Drink

By Karla Nathan / May 28, 2014

There has been a lot of entertaining going on around here lately. Three weeks in a row, my husband has had someone from his company in town, and we've had a dinner party for them.

Typical of my house, there is a Twister game on the floor to greet the guests. There is usually a toy or pile of toys of some kind around.

Luckily, it has been peony season, they have been in bloom for me to pick for all three little parties.

Peonies can be a lot of work to de-ant, but worth the trouble. I rinse, soak, whack, rinse each flower. If I accidently break one off while getting the little ants off of them, those big, fluffy, flower heads look every bit as pretty floating in a tea cup.

I think I got all of the ants off. None of the guests spoke up to say one was crawling around on the table. I wasn't too worried. Those flowers are so sweet, that if I did miss an ant, it would be soooo in love with the flower it was on, that it wouldn't want to leave it and bother us.

The dinners have been a great excuse for me to over indulge on rolls. I've been baking for each party. These are rosemary garlic.

Here is how I make them, please note that my measurements are guestimates, I don't actually use measuring cups or spoons, I eyeball the amounts.

Dump together in greased bread machine pan:

1-1/2 cups warm water

1-1/2 tsp. sea salt

2 Tbl olive oil

1 Tbl Guar Gum (helps in rising)

3 Tbl sugar

Add:

4 Tbl dried rosemary

1 Tbl minced garlic

3 cups bread flour

And last, 2-1/2 tsp of yeast on top.

Turn on the bread maker till all is mixed, then remove. Pinch off pieces, roll them into balls (with greased fingers) and line up in a greased cake pan. Oil the tops. I don't cover them because I let them raise in the closed microwave.

I set mine to rise for an hour or so. I've found that the perfect "Hot Box" for me to use for bread dough is the microwave. I boil a cup of water in it, turn on the light, and that light along with the hot water is enough to keep the temperature evenly warm for the dough to rise. Usually it takes 30-45 minutes to rise.

Bake at 350 til golden.

That is about how I make all of my bread, except not pinched into balls, divided up into bread pans to rise instead.

I use the same basic recipe so much that I never have to think about it. I just throw in different things for variety. Every loaf is the same amount of water, sugar, salt, guar gum, oil, flour, yeast.

Variations can be chia or sunflower seeds, or ground flax. I try to use chia and flax in almost all the loaves, but find that with the rosemary, it is better without those. I've also thrown in about 3/4 cup of whole multi-grain cereal and cut back on the flour a little. I'm surprised at just how simple and easy it is to bake bread. We rarely buy a loaf any more, and we have developed a bad habit of eating way too much bread.

I'd love to bake enough for Birdsong, but I'd have to make it ahead of time, and while that is good, it is not the same as standing by the oven with a stick of butter in your hand, waiting impatiently for it to finish baking.

Unless this hot weather turns the lettuce bitter before my Peeps arrive, I do plan on serving fresh greens from the food forest.

All this entertaining has me in good practice, I'm excited about all of my friends arriving soon for Birdsong!

My $3 a day habits, or maybe I need to try harder to find some blog topics instead of just rambling off the top of my head about things no one cares about

Food and Drink

By Karla Nathan / April 20, 2014

Recently I realized that I'd picked up a few habits. I don't know if I'm getting old and set in my ways, or if I'm just boring, or I just know what I like and go with it.

I've noticed that not a day goes by without these three things.

#1- a can of Mandarin Oranges. I eat fresh fruit too, but I've gotten in the habit of eating a whole can of these at least once a day. Sometimes I splurge and have a two cans day. When they are on sale for 99 cents, I buy a couple dozen cans at once.

#2 Peanut Butter Balance Bars. Oh my, I eat too many of them. My favorite snack, or meal replacement. If I lived alone, I'd probably eat bars and cans of fruit all day and have nothing else in my cabinets. Except maybe popcorn. But, if I lived all alone and didn't have other people to feed, I'll bet I'd go to the movies a couple nights a week and have popcorn for dinner there, so I wouldn't need popcorn in my cabinets.

Luckily, I have a houseful of people who require normal, regular, and balanced meals that don't come in a bar or a can, so I think I'll be okay nutrition-wise. I rarely get a chance to ignore mealtimes and most nights I'm busy chopping fresh veggies and cooking healthy meals.

My worst daily habit is #3- Toasty Toes. Now that Spring is coming, I can slowly wean myself off of these. But since my studio has a cement floor, my toes still get chilly and I have to force myself to stop wearing them even when the temp outside gets above 60.

. They are about a dollar a day for the warmest, happiest feet and worth every penny to me. The heat stays going for at least 6 hours, sometimes 8-9.

I've experimented with new Ugg boots, that I got on clearance at the end of the season, and the wool lining is helping to wean me off of the Toasty Toes a bit. Although I found out that wool socks, with Toasty Toes, down inside Uggs is pure heaven.

There is nothing better than sitting at my desk, with my feet warm and cozy, while snacking on a Peanut Butter Balance bar and a can of oranges.

A bookclub Christmas party

celebrations, family, Food and Drink, holiday decor, We're having a party

By Karla Nathan / December 22, 2013

Before I left for my quick, Florida trip, I hosted our book club's holiday gathering.

This year, I am throwing myself whole heartedly into every opportunity to celebrate the season.

Lots of baking, lots of parties, lots of fun!

I'm hosting 4 gatherings, plus our family get togethers, took the girls to a play, attended a few parties, went to the Festival of Trees, and have Christmas lights burning brightly from morning till night.

When I had to have my decorations up before Thanksgiving, I thought it might be too much, that I'd be tired of all of them by the time the main event rolled around.

But nope, I've revelled in them and hate to see it all come to a close soon. It will be hard to pack it up and say goodbye to all of my twinkle lights and sparkly pretties till next year.

So for now, I'm soaking up as much holiday cheer as I can cram into myself, and into these two. We've done cocoa parties by the light of the tree and read Christmas stories galore.

Of course, I've had to pay the price of all this gallivanting and fun.

My shopping isn't done yet!

Oh, I've made a few gifts, like these trees I sent to my sisses. But for the most part, I've tried to make the holiday more about precious time together instead of presents.

Although, as the big day approaches, I'm starting to worry about my lack of presents under the tree, and really do need to get a few wrapped for the children, of course. I'm doing gift cards for the adults in our family, so they don't feel left out, but for me this year, it's about the joy not the gifts.