Christmas at Frog Hollow Farm

My goodness, it has been a busy few weeks here at Frog Hollow Farm - but definitely in a good way!

FHFB and I have hosted several Christmas parties over the last few weeks; FHFB's office staff  for a holiday cocktail party - 26 people in all, our annual Christmas House Dinner and Christmas Eve. 

Let me tell you, a room full of meteorologists is definitely very interesting and also a ton of fun!  Most of these guys are young - under 30 - and they are adorable to watch with their wives and girlfriends.  Every so often a different couple was snuggled up in our cuddle chair with a glass of wine or one of our delicious specialty cocktails of the night, the Blizzard (if you like bourbon)! 

I decided to cater this party from a local little restaurant called Stella G's.  This was definitely the way to go!  FHFB wanted something a little more elegant - and the appetizer selection from Stella G's was just perfect. 

Lobster salad in puff pastry cups...

I did some research and found that if a cocktail party is replacing a meal (like ours did), each guest would need 2-3 appetizer pieces, from 8-10 selections.  We also had to consider our vegetarian guest and a guest who is allergic to shellfish.  

Sesame Ahi Tuna on Wonton Crisps
 Parma Prosciutto with Asparagus...

In all, the menu included 5 cold appetizers and 7 hot appetizers.  

Cold

Sesame Ahi Tuna on Wonton Crisps

Parma Prosciutto with Asparagus

Hummus Selection with Herbed Pita

Lobster Salad Tartlets

Vegetable Crudites

Hot

Crab Cakes with Jicama 

Baby Rack of Lamb Lollipops

Individual Mushroom Quiche

Sesame Chicken Skewers with Teriyaki

Mini Beef Wellington

Coconut Shrimp

Filet Mignon with Horseradish Chutney

The cold selections were available when the guests first arrived, placed on silver serving pieces on our breadboard dining room table, the pine server and small round drop leaf table covered with a soft moss green jacquard tablecloth.  The hot appetizers were served to the guests on small antique silver platters throughout the evening.

Our invitation listed the hours from 6pm-9pm, just so people could drop by at any time and not worry about any formal time frame.  As it was, everyone arrived around 6pm and the last guests didn't leave until 11:30pm!!!  LOL - I was exhausted but so happy to see that everyone was having a great time.  

FHFB is so lucky to have such a wonderful staff - he's worked hard at putting together a great group of people.

Here are a few more pics of the food and tables...

We also hosted our annual Christmas House party for a small group of friends that we often travel with.

Our menu included:

Christmas Blessing cocktail
Clementine Cosmos
(Double the amount of clementines, reduce the sugar by half, and use citron vodka instead of vanilla vodka.)

Roasted Shrimp Cocktail
Parmesan-Thyme Crackers
Tellegio Cheese with Frog Hollow Farm Marmalade on Flatbread
Buttered Nuts

Lasagna Bolognese
Frog Hollow Farm Stuffed Artichokes
Arugula, Cranberry and Roasted Pecan Salad

Desserts were provided by our guests - there was a delicious cheesecake, a wonderful pecan layer cake, a yummy pumpkin pie and fantastic platter of Italian pastries!!

Here are a few photos of the table:

The tablecloth was purchased recently at a little store called La Petite Provence in Bethlehem, PA.

The chargers are from Home Goods.

The white dinner plate is rimmed with gold and was purchased in Macy's years ago, along with the gold flatware.

The salad plate is from a pattern called 'Winter Greetings' from Lenox and was purchased at Macy's this year. 

The napkins are from April Cornell.

The napkin rings were made from a soft white gold rimmed wire ribbon, with gold leaves tucked into the tied ribbon.

The water glasses were purchased at Williams-Sonoma years ago.

The two-tiered cake stand in the middle of the table was a recent purchase from Pottery Barn.

Our two spectacular helpers for the night:

Sara... 





and our daughter Katie below.

Thank you so very much for taking the time to stop by Frog Hollow Farm to see what's been happening lately. 

I'm taking part in Tablescape Thursday at Between Naps on the Porch - please stop by to see all of the wonderful ideas for your seasonal table!

Ciao, bella!
Happy New Year!!

Google Image

Home of the Month

Hello everyone!  Today's post is short but so much fun for us to share with you!  As you all know, FHFB and I have been working with two wonderful designers, Susan and Pam, through their business, Design Works, for the past couple of years.  

They've helped us in so many ways - 

• reorganizing our conservatory with all of our own things to make it look cozy and comfy
• guiding us with the bedroom and bathroom choices of wall and floor colors (we painted the wood floors upstairs), curtains and bedding
• helping our dining and living rooms 'grow up' with elegant functionality, yet keeping many of our own antique and furniture pieces!  

I've posted the changes for all of the rooms in various blog posts since March, but now you can see even more of our farmhouse by linking over to the Design Works website.

Here's the link to their website 

(still under construction in many parts).  

Our home comes up immediately as their first Home of the Month!    

Happy New Year to everyone!

Ciao, bella!

Frog Hollow Farm Has a Winner!

After a full day of decorating the outside of our little farmhouse FHFB finally came inside to sit in front of our fire with a glass of wine.  He never used to drink wine (can you imagine, an Italian who doesn't drink wine) but has started enjoying a glass with me every once is a while - I'm sure I drink enough wine for both of us anyway - LOL!  

Everything outside 

 looks so nice - FHFB does such a great job and loves to use fresh cut greens from our property to decorate the flower boxes and porch railings!  We were so tired yesterday that I didn't get a photo (I was inside decorating our tree and designing the tablescape for next weekend's cocktail party for all of the weathermen and their wives/girlfriends.  Yes, FHFB is a meteorologist!

After pouring two glasses of a delicious Sicilian white wine (Grillo) that we discovered in Burlington Vermont, we both relaxed in front of our Christmas tree and as promised,  FHFB chose the winning name of the Christmas dish give-away....Lynn over at Happier Than a Pig in Mud!  So, Lynn, I hope this little win does make you happier than a pig in mud today!  Lynn has the cutest little blog and is always posting something interesting and fun - and she has a great sense of humor!

Thanks to all of you who participated in my very first give-away!  I loved reading your recipes and ideas for filling up that cute little dish!

PS - Lynn, please email me your address so that I can get this cute little dish out in the mail for you!

Ciao, bella!

100 Followers, a Give-Away and a Recipe!

This morning I woke up to find my 100th follower listed on my dashboard!  

I can't believe that so many people have found this little blog out there in blogland, and in honor of all of you I'd like to have my very first give-away!

This lovely little dish is perfect to use on your own holiday table for cookies or candy - or you could fill it with some of your own home-baked cookies for a holiday hostess gift.

It measures 6 1/2" square.

To win this sweet little plate please leave a comment on this post telling me what kind of homemade treat you would fill it with.

If you leave a link to a favorite cookie or candy recipe, or include your recipe in a second comment, you double your chances to win!

The winner will be chosen by FHFB on Sunday evening, December 5th and posted on Monday. 

Here's a recipe for a favorite cookie of ours here at Frog Hollow Farm.  My mother-in-law Maria made these often, not only during the holidays.  Maria was a phenomenal cook and introduced me to so many traditional Italian foods!  

These cookies are FHFB's favorite cookie, he calls them "Rolled Cookies"and once you take your first bite you will understand why he loves them.

Maria's Rolled Cookies

2 cups sifted flour

1 cup butter

3/4 cup sour cream

1 egg yolk - slightly beaten

Mix flour and butter until crumbly, then add sour cream and egg yolk, mix well with your hands.  Divide the dough into 3 balls and refrigerate over night.

Roll out each ball of dough like a pizza. Use a little flour on the counter to keep the dough from sticking and cut each circle into 16 pieces.  Brush the top of each circle with the remaining beaten egg white then sprinkle the filling (below) over the entire circle.  Roll each triangle into a crescent shape, starting with the widest end, and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Use parchment paper for an easy clean-up.

Filling

1 cup of ground walnuts (or pecans, hazelnuts)

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

If you get to try this recipe I'd love to know about it!

Ciao, bella!

 I'm participating in Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper!  

My Irish Christmas Tree at Frog Hollow Farm

I call this little tree my Irish Christmas tree.  It was originally copied from the front cover of one of Martha Stewart's December Living issues - I think!  Her tree was all gold, as was mine when it started out.  The first Christmas after my mom died I decided to add green to the ornament collection on this tree, in memory of her. She grew up in Ireland and trained as a midwife in Belfast before immigrating to the United States in the early 1950's.

Many of the ornaments first came from a little shop here in northwest New Jersey, called Harley's Garden or Rocking Horse Antiques - it went by both names and was owned and run by two wonderful guys, Harley and Joe.  They had the most wonderful Christmas open house parties at their store every December, it was truly a magical little store that held something beautiful in every nook and cranny.  Sadly, Joe and Harley decided they would close the shop, but they are still around and I see them at antique shows once in a while.  They are delightful; however, I truly miss seeing them and visiting their store.  This little tree reminds me of them as well as of my mom!!

The sprays of white pearls was also an idea that I saw on one of the many decorated trees in Harley and Joe's Christmas Barn.  They have long wire stems and can just be placed inside the branches of the tree - they rest on the branches and soften the whole look.

Every ornament reflects light either by small pieces of mirrored glass or the overall finish on the outside of the ornament.  At night is when this tree looks most magical!

This red bow compliments the green and gold in the tree, but also hides the extension cord plug that sits on the table behind the pottery piece that holds the little tree.

We love this tree so much that we've decided to get another one to decorate in our family room.  That will make four decorated trees at Frog Hollow Farm this Christmas!  They just make every room look so special!

I'm linked over at Seasonal Sunday at The Tablescaper.  Please drop by to check out all of the delightful seasonal ideas that are linked to this party!

Ciao, bella!

The Day After

 

I've decided to sit down and take a short break from cleaning and re-organizing after our delicious Thanksgiving dinner spent with family. 

It was snowing here during the morning - and raining for most of the remainder of the day.

My Aunt Sheila brought us this pretty turkey flower centerpiece - it's so cute and is feeling pretty special right now sitting on our pumpkin pine table in the kitchen with a tray of fresh fruit and a cake plate full of leftover (not for long) homemade cookies.

Okay, back to work, and then a nap!

Ciao, bella!

Preparing for Thanksgiving

Like all of you, I'm in the midst of preparing for Thanksgiving, but I needed an excuse to sit down for a few minutes, so I thought I'd show you what I've been doing all day.

You need to know that there are two very large closeups of a photo of some cookies that I just can't remove from this post.  I don't know how they got there and hope you'll just ignore them.  And I see that some text is mixed up.  Yikes, I am really sorry but Blogger is just not cooperating with me and I don't have the time to start over.

Preparing some appetizers. 

These are Parmesan Cheese Sticks from the Barefoot Contessa's recipes.  I started cutting the dough up in small squares because I was losing so much cheese when I was twisting the long strips of dough.

These are the ingredients for the Stilton Tart with the Cranberry Chutney.  The tart was easy to make and turned out so delicious looking, but my cat Olive jumped up on the counter while it was cooling and while I was out of the kitchen and began eating it.  I am really bummed about that.

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Some temporary storage in our unfinished pantry.

A vintage dishtowel found in Lambertville, NJ last Sunday.

And some photos of the Thanksgiving table, lit up with all of the candles I love to use in the dining room.  No food yet though!  I'm taking photos today because I know I'll forget as soon as I have my first glass of wine tomorrow. 

I'm using some vintage dishes that I picked up in Vermont a few years ago.

Here's another close up of the vintage china.  I'm using an orange pottery charger from Positano, Italy as a contrasting color, picking up the orange of the flowers on the plate. I also have green pottery chargers, also from Positano Italy, that are used alternately on the table.  The large white plates were in the clearance aisle in TJ Maxx. 

Our green turkey from William Sonoma - he'll be filled with homemade cranberry sauce!

Wishing all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!  Thank you all for stopping by and taking a look - I know how busy you all are today! 

I also snuck in late at Tablescape Thursday - there are so many, many wonderful table setting ideas - and I was number 100!

Ciao, bella!

Frog Hollow Farm's Dining Room Makeover

The Frog Hollow Farm dining room and living room have always been challenging for me to furnish and decorate in so many ways. 

First of all there ar 5 doors/doorways in the room - the original double Dutch door which now leads to the outside front wine garden, another Dutch door leading to the family room, the doorway to the kitchen, the door to the conservatory and the door to the basement.  With all of these doors, pathways need to remain open in order to be able to move around without banging into things.  Also, we have a large walk-in fireplace with an old Vermont castings stove that throws off a lot of delightful but strong heat - so furniture can't be too close to that area in the fall, winter and early spring - the times when we are most likely burning wood in the woodstove. 

This large room is really the original stone farmhouse - so it is truly the centerpiece of our home.

Over the years I must have moved furniture over 100 times, really, over 100 times.  I was driven.  Ask any of our friends, it was always something that they would comment on because every time they came over something was different - and it became sort of a joke with our friends - in a good way :) !

 One time FHFB was away on business for a few days and arrived home late at night.  The furniture had all been changed and he almost walked right into the couch and end table.  Yikes! 

Over the years, with each of my attempts to work with the room, I was content for awhile, but always felt that something was missing - we really never bought too much new furniture - so I worked with interesting pieces found at garage sales and antiques shows and stores. 

I was going for a more primitive setting because of the walk-in fireplace. 

But recently I felt that the room needed a major renovation with a new color scheme and more elegance! 

Today I'll share our dining room makeover, and next time I'll put up more dining room close-ups as well as some photos of the living room.

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We started by covering the two corner dining room walls with sheetrock so we could use wallpaper to delineate one space from another. This is what it looked like in the midst of that process:

Here's a photo taken of the dining room in February 2010, set up for a dinner party with our friends Liz and Steve. You can see how harsh everything looked, and it was exactly that harshness seen in these photos and many others that made me want to redo the room and bring in some softness. The interesting thing was that the room never looked stark - everyone always commented on how cozy the room was. 

Our son's unframed painting is hanging on the back wall.



FHFB and I have been working on this room since mid August - deciding on colors, fabrics, design and determined to have it all done for the holidays.  We were so very lucky to work with two talented ladies from Design Works, a local design company.  Susan and Pam have become fast friends, and we just loved working with them as they helped organize the project. 

Here's a photo of the renovated dining room corner from the living room:

Really, it's the same room!  The old glass paned door to the conservatory in on the right.

I don't have photos of the process of putting this all together. FHFB did all of the wallpapering - he does a fantastic job - and he's very patient!

The framed painting of the front of the Frog Hollow Farm House on the wall was seen in the earlier photo and was painted by our son Frank while he was in college.  I had it framed locally and think the colors work well with the new room colors.

 Susan and Pam worked with most of the furniture and rugs that we already had - so we were able to work within a more manageable budget.  The rug under the dining room table was in one of our bedrooms - we just traded rugs.  And the hutch hanging on the wall was the top part of a step back cupboard we purchased in Burlington Vermont several years ago.  Susan and Pam suggested that we use the bottom portion of the hutch as a sideboard and hang the top part on the wall.  I've filled the space underneath with an old bench and a set-up of after dinner drinks and liqueurs - I'll include closeups in my next post. 

We chose 'Straw' wallpaper from Thibault and paint from Benjamin Moore in 'Straw' and 'Filtered Sunlight' for the walls and 'Vanilla Cream' for the trim. 

Here are some other views of the dining room:



The chandelier is electric with five holders to include real candles. I wasn't sure about adding electricity and will still use candles for entertaining.  The electricity comes in handy when I'm working on a project and need a large workspace - the dining room table is a great place to work.  We have always eaten by candlelight in the dining room using two antique forged iron chandleliers found on a vacation to Cape Cod, as well as many table candles.  You can see the forged pieces hanging over the table in one of the earlier photos of the table set for dinner with our friends.  These two iron chandeliers are favorites of FHFB and we're planning on relocating them over a farm sink in the new pantry area right off the kitchen, a more primitive and functional space.  But that's a whole other post!

You can see the top part of the hutch hanging on the wall - filled with my mom's Wedgewood china and Waterford Crystal.  I'll take more close-up photos on my next post. 

This post is longer than I planned but there really is a lot going on in the room.  Thank you for stopping by and please check in next time for some close-ups of the dining room fabrics, wallpaper, etc.

I'm linked in to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.  Please stop by to see all of the very interesting posts.

Decisions! Decisions!

Last night I had dinner with two wonderful friends, both teachers from Tewksbury and both very special in their own rights.  Carol and Becky, that was a delicious bottle of wine, wasn't it?  :)  Here's to many more!

I've been looking through all of my cookbooks and my back issues of the Thanksgiving themed Bon Appetit,  Martha Stewart Living and Gourmet magazines to find appetizers for our holiday parties.  My most favorite issue is a 1979 copy of Bon Appetit - the subscription was a gift from my mom and the recipes were used for the very first Thanksgiving dinner that FHFB and I hosted in our first home in Rockway Township, lovingly called "Little House on the Highway".  We still make the cornbread stuffing and Italian Roasted Turkey recipes from this issue!

You can see that it's definitely been used!  The cover is detached and the edges are frayed.

More magazines saved from prior Thanksgivings...

My collection of Thanksgiving recipes and decorating ideas also includes several little pamphlets from Whole Foods and Williams-Sonoma. 

So far I've come up with my first draft of appetizer recipes for Thanksgiving.  I know, why am I serving so many appetizers in addition to the traditional turkey dinner?  Well, my family has a tradition, at every gathering, to sit and chat for a 2-3 hours before the meal while eating delicious appetizers and drinking whatever special cocktail we have prepared for the day.  For Thanksgiving we're thinking of serving a light but delicious white sangria, with slices of apples and pears.

Can I call this list of appetizers a transformation of sorts, from an empty piece of paper to a list of 9 appetizers, most of them making it to the final cut?

Here's what we have so far:

Alton's Salty Sweet Pecans
Cheese Straws
Parmesan and Thyme Crackers
Cheese Tray with Many Varieties of Olives
Veggie Tray

Crostini with Sun Dried Tomato Jam
Olive-Garlic Soft Cheese Spread served with Whole Grain Baguette
Prosciutto Cups With White Beans
Stilton Toast and Cranberry Chutney

I haven't linked to each of the recipes because many of them are from a fantastic link I found on Epicurious.com called Cocktail Party Menus - it's just full of delicious cocktail party menus with all of the recipes linked in as well - a very easy site to work your way through.
I'm linked in to Transformation Thursday with Gina at Shabby Chic Cottage- stop by to see all of the ideas and links!

(from Google Images)


Ciao, bella!

No Pictures Today

Hi everyone!  I'm so happy to be back on my blog - the last few weeks had been invaded by hours of studying and meeting with a study group in preparation for an exam.   With a passing grade, this exam provides credentials documenting expertise in special education assessment, along with many other benefits.  I'm glad that I prepared for the exam and have it completed, but am also extremely happy and relieved that it's off my radar - I much prefer decorating, cooking, shopping, entertaining, reading, enjoying the seasonal changes, planning parties and dinners and relaxing to studying these days. 

My list of things to do this week include:

•  create menus for the remainder of the week - I'm trying out the South Beach diet and have been pretty happy with the results so far
• order a turkey from Ashley Farms here in Northwest New Jersey
• plan Thanksgiving menu and recipes - we're providing the appetizers, turkey, stuffing, gravy here at Frog Hollow Farm - my sisters are bringing the side dishes and desserts - how lucky am I?
• plan menu for the Frog Hollow Farm Christmas party
• design a menu for Christmas Eve - celebrated for so many years with our long time dear friends the MacPeeks (hope you can make it Liz!)
• create a menu for Christmas morning breakfast
• figure out which take-along dish we're bringing to Christmas dinner in New Brunswick - FHFB's brother and wife always host this very festive and wonderful day

I'd rather organize and plan for dinner parties and create a cozy and comfortable home than study any day!

On Friday some new furniture will be arriving here at the Frog Hollow Farmhouse so I'll be able to show you the results of our dining room and living room makeover that we've been working on since the end of the summer - just in time for the holidays. 

Ciao, bella!

Sunday Afternoon at Eataly

Eataly - Flatiron District - NYC

Last Sunday afternoon FHFB and I took a drive over to the city to visit Eataly in Manhattan.  Our daughter Katie was home from Brooklyn and was able to join us - she had already been to Eataly twice so she was a great guide. 

Eataly opened its first North American branch in conjunction with Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. The multi-floor, multi-restaurant culinary behemoth includes separate mini-restaurants devoted to meat, fish, vegetables, pasta and pizza, panini, espresso, gelato, salumi, cheeses — plus a rooftop brewpub.

 This post is really a photo diary of the trip, without too many words.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did - it was a great afternoon.  Some advice, pick up a shopping cart as soon as you get in the store.  We found ours at the produce entrance.  Here's a small map of the inside of the store from Google:

Granted, it's not too easy to see. And after I posted the rest of the photos I realized that the quality of my Blackberry phone is not so great. So, please forgive the very blurry photos - believe me, the store is just fabulous.  I also had some great photos of the fresh mozzarella section and some other areas that were sideways, and I just couldn't get them to post right-side-up for some reason. 

Okay, let's begin the visit!

The Bread !

The Butcher!

Cheese!

The Bakery !

FHFB's Macchiato!

Pasta!   Eataly also has a huge fresh pasta section with delicious looking ravioli, linguini, fettucine, you name it!

Olive Oil!

Salami!

Pre-Made Sandwiches and Foccacia!

No picture of the pizza, but Katie loved it!  We ate it while we walked around shopping!

Frito Misto Lunch! 

We had a delicious bottle of proseco with our lunch.  Everything was delicious, but be prepared for crowds.  We were in the store for about 3 hours, shopping, eating, shopping and eating. 

Oh, and there is also a wine store that is accessed from the outside.

What more could you ask for? 

I'm so disappointed at the quality of the photos - I need to remember my camera from now on - LOL!

 

Ciao, bella!