A Frog Hollow Farm Windowscape!

Hello everyone.  I know that I promised to post the final recipe from our cooking class in Florence,

Crema di Ricotta con Salsa Caramello all'Arancia e Mandorle Tostada

(Ricotta Cream with Orange Caramel Sauce and Toasted Almonds)

but if you don't mind, I wanted to share a little windowscape that I created with flowers from our gardens and fields. 

I placed them in a row of 6 mismatched antique milk bottles

on the windowsill over my sink looking out over the porch and fields.

From left to right are 2 bottles of little white field daisies, a bunch of spearmint, a stem of tiny red field flowers (you can't really see the flowers though, sorry), some yellow yarrow, a pretty salmon poppy from FHFB's garden and a spring of sage flowers.

What do you think?  I love these little milk bottles!

Linking in to Tablescape Thursday!

Recipe for the delicious dessert will be posted later today, I promise!!!!!

Mini Counter-Scape

Even though it's April Frog Hollow Farm has been burning wood in the wood stove to keep things comfy and cozy. 

This little corner of my kitchen counter has some jars filled with cookies and granola bars and nuts along with a little covered cake stand filled with Anytime Oatmeal Cookies. There's some really cute clip art that you can use to cover a small oatmeal carton with to house the cookies.  I just couldn't get it to print true to size.  The large platter standing in the corner is an Italian ceramic and that little Farberware coffee pot is just right for FHFB and I.  When we have a crowd over for dinner we need to use our much larger coffee pot.

 These photos make it look like wintertime more than spring - but that's the kind of weather we've been having. 

Looking forward to sunnier skies and warm breezes. 

Our tiny little daffodils have bloomed down in FHFB's vegetable garden. 

Aren't they adorable?

Ciao, bella!!!!

I'm joining the following wonderful memes:

Tablescape Thursday

Foodie Friday

Seasonal Sundays

Brunch at Frog Hollow Farm

A few weekends ago FHFB and I served our first brunch - can you believe it?  We're not big breakfast eaters here - something simple - maybe a poached egg with whole grain toast and coffee or a simple bowl of oatmeal - and we're good to go. 

Although we set the table in the dining room for the main part of the meal...

it was a gloomy day...

We actually started out in the kitchen with the banana muffins, Irish Soda bread and hot coffee....

then we moved into the dining room.

Here's the menu with the recipes:

March Brunch Menu

Lilly’s Irish Soda Bread

Banana Muffins (Ina Garten)

Mini BLT’s (Breakfast at Nine, Tea at Four)

Potato Galette with Smoked Salmon (Martha Stewart.com)

Canadian Bacon Strata (Martha Stewart.com)

Fresh Organic Strawberries and Blueberries

Chocolate Flourless Torte (Ina Garten via Judy Marino)

Bellinis

Mimosas

Coffee/Tea

 

I'll be over at Tablescape Thursdays and Foodie Friday!  

Ciao, bella!!!
xxoo

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

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!

Ladies Luncheon in Pinks and Robin's Egg Blue

For the past 5 and a half months I've been inspired and awed by the beautiful tablescapes in so many of your blogs.  When  "The Tablescaper" posted a few weeks ago and asked 'Where Do You Keep It All', it got me thinking that I need to put out a little effort, like so many of you do each and every week, and try to design a tablescape with dishes and colors from my rather small (but always growing) collection.

After perusing my two shelves and one cupboard full of dishes and glassware, and being inspired by the pinks and blues of spring, I decided to see if I could put a tablescape together using pink and blue (mostly pinks)without it looking like a baby shower. Forgive my photos please, they are not the best - still need to learn about using a digital camera indoors.