Champagne for every Season!

Champagne is a girl's best friend! And why not make it festive!

With a few drops of food coloring and a little creativity, turn a glass of heaven into a heavenly good time!

This week, I hosted our monthly Girls Game Night.

The theme for November - Fall Orange.

Here are the ladies enjoying the Fall Orange Bubbly!

Colored Bubbly

Number 33

By: Laura Fowell

Ingredients

Champagne

Champagne Glasses

Food Coloring

Garnish for the Glass

Directions

Set out the champagne glasses together. Garnish the glass.

With your color in mind, drop the food coloring into the glass, one drop at a time until you have reached your desired color.

Wait for the guests to arrive and pour!

Color Combinations

Reds, Yellows, Oranges

 Orange - 1 drop Red, 4drops Yellow

Peach - 1 drop Red, 2 drops Yellow

Salmon Pink - 3 drops Red, 2 drops Yellow

Blues, Greens

Dark Blue - 1 drop Red, 6 Drops Blue

Violet - 2 drops Red, 1 drop Blue

Orchid - 3 drops Red, 1 drop Blue

Turquoise - 4 drops Blue, 1 drop Green

Lime Green - 3 drops Yellow, 1 drop Green

Pistachio - 1 drop Yellow, 4 drops Green 

Others

Brown - 2 drops Red, 1 drop Green, 1 drop Yellow

Holiday Ideas for Champagne

Valentine's Day

Red champagne with a Strawberry as a garnish

St. Patrick's Day

Green Champagne with a spring of mint

Easter

Pastel Colored Champagne on a Silver Tray with Peeps perched on the tray

Mother's Day

Pink Champagne with edible rose petals

Father's Day

Green Champagne with decorations of Daddy's Favorite Sport (Football, Golf, Basketball)

4th of July

Red and Blue Champagne with Strawberries and Blueberries as garnish

October and November

Fall Colors of Brown and Orange Champagne

December

Red and Green alternating glasses of Champagne

Happy Bubbling!

Laura

Pumpkin Dip

Nothing says Fall like a Pumpkin candle, Pumpkin Pie or Pumpkin Dip!

My dear friend invited me over for a wonderful girls game night last week. We each brought a little munchie and a drink. The evening was a wonderful time of friends spending time together and meeting new friends.

One of the attendees brought a wonderful pumpkin dip made from a mix packet that she especially purchases for the Fall in  a tiny town in West Texas. All of the ladies sitting around chatting tried to figure out the recipe and low and behold, our hostess with the mostess had made it before and shared her recipe! The great thing is that she has two versions.

Fluffy Pumpkin Dip
Number 30

by Elizabeth Savoie Dronet

from Savoie Secrets: It's a Family Recipe

Our basic fruit dip is ready for fall! Serve along side apples, vanilla wafers or graham cracker sticks. It makes a nice addition to a Halloween or Thanksgiving buffet.

Ingredients

1 8oz pkg. cream cheese, softened

1 7oz jar marshmallow cream

1/2 cup canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Directions

In a mixer, beat cream cheese and marshmallow cream until well blended. Add pumpkin and spices and mix well. Chill. Serve with apples, vanilla wafers or graham cracker sticks.

Pumpkin Apple Dip

Number 31

by Elizabeth Savoie Dronet

from Savoie Secrets: It's a Family Recipe

Brown sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin make this dip ideal for fall celebrations like Halloween and Thanksgiving. I packed it in the kid’s lunch box this morning with apple slices and graham crackers.

Ingredients

1 8oz. pkg. cream cheese

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

sliced apples

Directions

In a mixer, beat all ingredients until smooth. Chill. Serve with apples.

Laura's Pumpkin Dip a la Elizabeth

Number 32

By: Laura Fowell

With Elizabeth's recipe in mind and my ingredients in the cupboard and refridgerator , I went to town...

Ingredients

1 8oz pkg. reduced 1/3 fat cream cheese, softened

1 jar marshmallow cream

1/2 of one 100% pure canned pumpkin

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

2 Tablespoons of brown sugar

Directions

In a mixer, beat on medium cream cheese, marshmallow cream, pumpkin and spices. Serve or Chill.

We served with apples and or graham crackers.

P.S. I am hosting a ladies Game Night this week and I am seriously considering making this - Julie's Pumpkin Bread - it looks delicious!

Happy Pumpkins!

Laura

Happy "2nd" Birthday- Trains & Tiaras

We made it another year! Two two year olds!

So, do the terrible twos come in droves of four when you have twins?

Regardless, I am choosing not to accept the terrible twos into our home. I have decided that we are going to skip the terrible twos and it seems to be working so far. I am convinced it is because we rang in the year with such success!

The theme of the "2nd" Birthday - TRAINS and TIARAS

It was a blast to plan... I took my time and started working WAY in advance.

I wanted to create as much as I could by hand.

Train Sign

I "borrowed" an idea from a favorite blog - It's the Little Things that Make a House a Home - and made it my own. I wanted a focal point of entry, an eye catcher! One afternoon I was catching up with Karla and I saw a sign that she made for a wedding. You can check out her original post here. We decided that we could adapt Karla's idea to a Railroad Crossing Sign.

The outcome was fantastic!

Take a look...

We now have the sign lovingly placed in our living room next to the twins birthday present - a train table!

The original post of how we made it can be found here.

Cupcake Toppers
Then on to the cupcake toppers...

I knew I wanted to try and make my own cupcake toppers.
Thank goodness for scrapbooking. I had a circle cutter and double sided picture tape.
So, I headed out to my local Michales (coupon in hand) and purchased some Popsicle sticks, paper and a tiara and train punch.

Viola!

Here they are in action...

Next... (For lack of a better word...)

Signage

This experience has made we want a die cutting machine. So many times, I contemplated just hitting Michael's or Hobby Lobby, throwing caution to the wind and getting one. But, I let the better part of me hold me back... and again Thank you Scrapbooking...

I made a few rudimentary signs. The idea was cute... identification and fun facts about trains and tiaras... the execution could have been better (if I had a die-cutting machine) but then again, they were child-like and this was s 2 year old's day!

Identification...

Grand "Chimney" Station was the place to play with the new train table!

Food

What's a party without food?

Her Royal Majesty

and

The Train

Choo! Choo!

Laura

No "wine"ing on your Birthday!

I am another year older, and wi"n"er, opps... I mean wiser!

For my birthday, my parent's presented me with a bottle of wine from the year I was born!

A bottle of 1978 Chateau La Grave

I did a little research and the vineyard it still around... Chateau La Grave

The website is in French and while I studied French for years, that in now more than half of my life ago and there is too much Spanish mingled into my memory to translate an entire website.

(Melissa and Danielle, I will be calling on your expertise!)

Back to the bottle of Chateau La Grave... we were worried that it would be a "Grave" mistake to open such a "classic" but with a twist of the corkscrew - we were celebrating a wonderful evening.

The experience was interesting and educational...

The wine was a white Bordeaux and it was fascinating to see it oxidize before our very eyes. Between the time that we opened the wine, decanted the wine, pour and enjoyed we witnessed an amazing change of color in the wine.

Have you ever enjoyed a "classic" wine?

Thank you Mom and Dad for the wine and for the experience!

Happy sipping!

Laura

Raspberry Pound Cake

What do you bring to a morning meeting of mothers?

Mmmmm... Well surely Giada has thought of something!

I turned to my trusty "Giada at Home" and

sure enough, she has!!

Raspberry pound cake hits the chart at Number 29!

This pound cake is a delightful taste of tart and sweet. The raspberries counter the sweet of the pound cake. I think it was a big hit! I did skip the Vin Santo cream for this meeting but i have included it here in case you would like to try it. While I am sure it is delicious with it, it is wonderful without!

Raspberry Pound Cake

NUMBER 29

By: Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients

Pound cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the loaf pan

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons orange zest (from 1 medium orange)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for greasing loaf pan

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 (10-ounce) bag sweetened, frozen raspberries, thawed and drained

Cream

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

3 tablespoons Vin Santo wine or Moscato wine

To make the Raspberry Pound Cake:

Set an oven rack in the lower 1/3 of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 by 5 by3-inch loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, orange zest, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, cream together the sugar and butter until blended, about 30 seconds. With the machine running, add the eggs 1 at a time. Add the vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients, a small amount at a time, until just incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold the drained raspberries evenly into the batter.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. (Cake may deflate in the center during cooling)

To make the Vin Santo Cream:

In a large bowl, beat the cream until it holds soft peaks.

Add the vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and Vin Santo. Continue to beat mixture until cream holds stiff peaks.

Transfer the pound cake to a serving platter. Slice and serve with the Vin Santo Cream.

***

Cook's Note: I also tried this recipe with blueberries one evening when I was out of raspberries and it was DELICIOUS!

Happy Cooking!

Laura

A Tribute to Mothers by Clayford T. Grimm

Aside from being a wife and mother of twins, I am an Attorney. I teach and practice law with my father. We are currently in the process of moving our offices and will now be officing with my husband's firm. (We like to keep in all in the family, as you can see!)

Yesterday,  I spent a greater part of the day, packing up my current office deciding what goodies I wanted to bring home to my home office. I packed up a lot of goodies, came home and thought to myself, "Self, where are you going to put all of this?" I didn't really say "Self" - I just like the sound of it. Of course, this line of thought ensued a "cleaning" of the awesome office closet my husband built out for me last Christmas which currently just stresses me out every time I open the door because of all of the stuff in it. In order to understand why it is an absolute disaster...let's go back a moment.

You may remember that my parents have also recently moved and I have been the lucky recipient of many "I don't know what to do with this so I am giving it to you" items - a lot of which I totally love and the other items that I don't know what to do with have ended up in the awesome office closet that my husband built out for me.

Fast forward to today, I am cleaning the awesome closet so that I can use it and I can deal with all of the goodies that I am bringing home.

If you have ever moved you will understand what happened to me. At first I was extremely diligent, tossing what I didn't need, swiftly moving through items, putting them in their place. Then, slowly I became enthralled with this one box in particular and now here I am telling you about it with the closet still not tidy and stuff all over my office. I felt,however, that this one particular item that I found warranted the time to share with you.

It is a poem written by my Grandfather, the namesake of my son, C.T. Grimm. Clayford Thomas Grimm was born in Buchanan, West Virginia and fought in WWII, namely the Battle of the Bulge. 

My Grandfather wrote this poem while at war. 

TRIBUTE TO MOTHERS

by

Clayford T. Grimm

(Written during the Battle of the Ardenses Forest)

From sky and cloud and even star

Come down to this degenerate place,

A deluge of rain, of snow and mire

To make even worse this war so bare.

But through it all and even beyond

The queen of our life gives light for dawn.

When the going is hard and this weather rough,

We think of her and we think of home.

We think of the Jerry who's plenty tough,

as o'er this field of death we roam.

The elements torture and all the threats,

 But the thought of home gives strength to vets.

Through peril of death and agony untold

We dream a thousand dreams of her.

Our life as kids begins to unfold,

And hidden emotions begin to stir.

But we bat an eye and clear a throat, 

And say, "Ah, hell," and think of the boat.

All of this and maybe more

Prohibits us and blocks our way

Oh, how we long to see that door

Again to be at home some day.

We pray that God will save our life

Bring us through this unholy strife. 

Another Savoie Secret - Lemon Parmesean Spaghetti

A few weeks ago we tried another Savoie Secret Recipe from

Savoie Secrets: It's a Family Recipe 

The recipe was easy to put together on a week night.

I split the recipe and put half of it in the freezer. Hopefully, it will be just a delicious.

The kids REALLY loved it!

Lemon Parmesan Spaghetti

Number 28

Lemon Parmesan Spaghetti Original Post

by Elizabeth Savoie Dronet

Ingredients

8 oz thin spaghetti

1/4 cup butter

8oz sour cream

1 tsp lemon zest

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

chopped parsley

Directions

Preheat oven to 400. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and place in a greased 1.5 quart casserole dish. In a small pot, melt butter. Turn off the heat and stir in sour cream, lemon zest, lemon juice, half the cheese and salt and pepper. Mix until smooth. Pour over spaghetti and gently mix. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and top with remaining Parmesan cheese and fresh parsley.

Happy Cooking!

Laura