Jane Austen Month, Day 15: "We dine with four and twenty families . . ."

I'm not sure what it would be like to dine with four and twenty families.  All I know is that dining with my own family can be a feat in and of itself.  For example, last Wednesday I decided that our dinner table had degenerated into something akin to a barnyard buffet.  I knew I wouldn't make my children into dignified diners overnight, so I decided to start small.  I made a special effort to provide napkins (yes, I know I'm aiming high here) under the forks so that the kids wouldn't be tempted to use the table, their pants, or the curtains for wiping purposes.  When my 7-year-old saw the napkins he said, "Wow! What's with the fancy dinner?"  Napkins = fancy.  Reason 104,689 why I will never be mother of the year---or a close friend of Miss Manners. 

Tonight was the real test of our family's etiquette metal.  Not only was it our annual family Valentine's dinner, but we invited Great Grandma along for the ride.  Because I doubted my children's decorum once the food was served,  I decided to at least start the meal out right with a polished place setting.

For the place cards, I purchased each of my children a cheap little box of chocolates and wrote their names on the box in metallic marker.  When they came to the table you would have thought that Santa Claus himself had delivered the post-dated goodies from his sack of treasures.  Who knew Russell Stover could create such happiness with chocolates that taste like candle wax?

I then served a salad on real salad plates, followed by real chicken that wasn't pureed and shaped into dinosaur nuggets. 

All in all, I would say the evening was a success:  the boys kept their napkins in their laps for at least the first 3 minutes of the meal, I only had to tell my 4 year-old once to quit dancing on his chair, and no one attempted any magic tricks with their forks.

I'm not sure if we will ever reach the level of "refined" dining in our home.  However, if we ever have the distinction to dine with "four and twenty families," they are sure to remember our dinner table as memorable one.


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Jane Austen Month, Day 14: The Look of Love

"I have never yet known what it was to separate esteem from love . . ."  

Sense and Sensibility, chapter 3

Valentine's Day always gets the decorating shaft at our house, second only to Arbor Day.  I guess I run out of steam after Christmas.  And cash.  But when February dawned on the calendar this year, I decided to put at least a little (and affordable) effort into Cupid's big day. 

Today I created a vignette in the kitchen by scouring the house for glass jars.  I then stuffed them with the least tempting pink and red candies I could find.  (Heaven knows I'd eat them all if they were even close to appealing.  Just ask the bag of Dove chocolates that used to be in the cupboard.)  Luckily, I'm not a huge fan of taffy or Smarties because they are a super inexpensive jar filler.  And when you find that you don't have enough candy corn for your deceptively big apothecary jar, granulated sugar makes a nice base.

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Now, while I can pass by a Swedish fish without the least bit of longing, my kids can't.  That is why I made the love synonym labels on each jar.  If the kids want a candy, then they have to exhibit at least a smidgen of the "lovely" behavior listed on the jar of their choice.  That, or they have to wait until Mom and Dad aren't looking.

Come to think of it, I should have labeled the jars with behaviors like "clean toilets" and "say your mom looks skinny" if I really wanted this to pay off.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll just have to save those labels for Arbor Day.

Linked up to Dear  Lillie's Valentine Party :)

Jane Austen Month, Day 13: Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Torte

Strawberries, and only strawberries could now be thought or spoken of. "The best fruit in England- everybody's favourite- always wholesome. These the finest beds and finest sorts, delightful to gather for one's self- the only way of really enjoying them."

-Jane Austen, Emma

I haven't the luxury of picking my own strawberries, but my local grocery store fills that void as best they can, and thank goodness! Without them, I couldn't bring you one of BeBookBound's best sweetheart recipes:

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Our Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Torte is A perfect dessert for Valentine's Day, or any other day of year for that matter. I love this recipe for summertime as well because you don't even turn on an oven. Believe me when I say that this one fools foodies into thinking it took all day to make. But it is E-A-S-Y! Erika has a version of this that also involves a chocolate ginger cake layer (drool....) But this is SO much easier. Here it is:

Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Torte
BeBookBound

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs
• 4 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 pints fresh strawberries, halved
• 2 cups Bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix crumbs and butter to blend thoroughly. Press evenly onto bottom of 9 inch springform pan. Stand strawberry halves about pan, touching, side-by-side, pointed ends up, with cut sides against the side of pan; set aside.

2. Microwave water and corn syrup until it comes to a boil. Mix in the chocolate chips and stir until all melted. This should be reasonably cool at this point. If it's still hot, cool before next step.

See that chocolate starting to melt...

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat 1 1/2 c of the cream to form stiff peaks. With a rubber spatula, fold cooled chocolate into whipped cream to blend thoroughly. Pour into prepared pan. Level top. Points of strawberries might extend about the chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate for 4 to 24 hours. 

Starting to fold...

 

All folded in...

Start pressing down to fill in holes by strawberries

Oh no! Some of the strawberries are too tall! DON'T FREAK OUT! The whipped cream will cover this :)

4. Up to 2 hours before serving, in a medium mixing bowl, beat remaining 1 c cream to form soft peaks. Add sugar and almond extract. Beat to form stiff peaks. Remove side of pan. Place cake on serving plate. Spread whipped cream onto top of cake. Arrange remaining halved strawberries on whipped cream. To serve, cut into wedges with thin knife, wiping blade between cuts.

I used lime leaves to add some color to the platter.

Now let your camera go blurry as you try to save the torte from grabby little fingers. And fail. Luckily, my Valentine won't care that the strawberries are missing from the top :)

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Jane Austen Month, Day 11: Love Letter Napkins

The art of napkin folding is pretty much lost on me. I remember when I was dating my future hubby, and my Mother in Law asked me to fold napkins for a dinner at her house, and I hadn't done anything like that since I took an etiquette class at the age of ten. She ended up making something fantastic, like a dancing snowflake on each plate. 

Via Martha Stewart

 
As for me... well you know those paper fortune tellers we all used to play with as kids?

Via

Well, I accidentally made something kinda cute yesterday :)
 


I was folding a napkin for my cute little silhouette cookie tea party, 

and it started to look like an envelope...

And I thought, "Hey, what's more Austen than a love letter?" 

And no, my napkin was not ironed.

So I tucked one inside.


And if you need the play by play, here it is. Fold a napkin into a triangle (I had to cheat because mine wasn't a square.)

And no, my tablecloth isn't ironed either. Stop judging.

 
fold over
 


 
fold over, 

Fold up, and place love note inside

and close the top.

 
Now make sure you put your cookie placecards in the right places. That could be awkward...

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Jane Austen Month, Day 10: Silhouette Cookies

"If my children are silly, I must hope to be always sensible of it... "

-Mr. Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

My kids have certainly been silly these last couple of days, and I am very sensible of it. Therefore, this is not the most perfect batch of decorated cookies, but I defy you to produce something better with these little munchkins wreaking havoc all around you :)

I took a cookie decorating class from this amazing lady a couple of years ago. Mind you, it was like an hour long, so she couldn't teach us enough to make us pros or anything, but I did pick this little gem up from her, and what is more Austen-esque than a silhouette?

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Royal Icing!

From "The Good Apple"

1/2 lb Powdered Sugar (WEIGH THIS, or you can double the recipe and use a 1 lb. box instead.)

2.5 TBSP Meringue Powder

1/4 C water

Beat this for about 5 minutes with hand beaters.

 

It will get fluffy and gorgeous like this:

 

Add water a teaspoon at a time until it is just on the cusp of softness but still basically holds its shape. Take some out. This will be your stiff icing, and you will use it for outlining. Now add a little more water to the rest until you can see that it doesn't hold it's shape. You will use this to "Flood" the cookie once it is outlined. Add food coloring gel as desired. You can use regular old food color drops, but I recommend incorporating them with the water, because you don't want to get the perfect texture and then have it ruined by adding too much coloring fluid. Just a pointer.

 

Now for the silhouettes (Or whatever shape you are doing), print them out to a size that will fit on the cookie you are making. Now place that paper underneath a silpat or parchment paper, and trace with the stiff icing.

Fill it in...

and DRY! Overnight. Don't try to pull them up too early- they will break. Just ask the 8 that I broke and therefore *Had* to eat. :)

The next day...

Make your favorite cookie dough (I like the super soft kind for this kind of cookie), make rectangle shapes, bake, and cool according to your recipe.

 

Okay see the outlined cookie?

See how it's been flooded with the softer frosting now? And if you need to move some around a bit with a toothpick, feel free. 

Now pick up your pretty little silhouette and drop it into the wet frosting. It will just kind of sink in and the whole thing turns into this hard cookie. 

Then, if you are me, you go and ruin it by piping letters onto them that look weird. Oh well, you win some, you lose some :)

And I still think it is the cutest little placecard I have ever seen :) 

  Linking up:Dear Lillie's Valentine's Linky Common GroundStuff and NonsenseAt The Picket FenceWhipperberryShabby NestFingerprints on the FridgeOne Artsy MommaFamily Ever AfterTatertots and JelloLollyJane BoutiqueFunky Junk InteriorsI Heart Naptime
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Day 7: Pride and Prejudice Printable

Oh, Super Bowl Sunday... Why do you have to take up so much of my time? I don't even watch the game because I am not a sports person. And yet, I feel the need to participate. Isn't it un-American to shun it? So instead of something fabulous, here is a printable. Luckily, the words our Jane put into Mr. Darcy's mouth make a ho-hum printable pretty fabulous in and of itself. :)

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Day 5: Quilling Your Heart Out

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Today I channeled 19th century England to create a dainty spot of time-period handiwork.  When it came to picking an appealing historic craft, the choices were slim.  I could stand over a vat of wax all day and dip candles ad nauseum, I could embroider a cushion until my hands seized with Carpal Tunnel syndrome, or I could try my hand at quilling paper.  Given my options, I chose the latter.  

Quilling (or rolling paper to create decorative designs) has been around since the Renaissance.  During Jane Austen's era, it was considered an acceptable form of diversion for women of leisure and their "gentle dispositions."  My disposition is far from "gentle," but being a "lady of leisure" sounds dreamy.  However, with a houseful of kids, pets, and neighbor kids and their pets, it is unlikely to happen anytime soon.  I guess quilling paper is as close as I will ever come to ladylike diversion (unless you consider folding laundry while watching "Downton Abbey" as a ladylike diversion . . . )  

With Valentine's just around the corner, I decided to combine the art of quilling with my love of books to create a wreath of "written" roses.

Here is what I did:

1.  I rounded up my glue gun, a foam heart wreath from the craft store, some pink glitter spray paint, and several pages from an old book.  (Don't worry.  No good novels were harmed in this experiment.  However, a theory book from college that cost way too much and got read way too little met its end in this project . . .)

2.  I traced a lid onto the pages and cut out the circles.

3.  Starting at the outside edge of the circle, I cut it into a 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch spiral.

4.  I then wrapped the outside end of the spiral around a skewer and continued to twist the paper into a tight roll.  Make sure you keep the bottom of the paper lined up as you roll so that the top will begin to flare out like a rose petal.

5.  When I was done rolling the papers, I set them on table and let them relax (unfold) a bit so they looked more natural.  I then glued the base of the flowers to the foam heart.  And repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat until the heart is covered.  (I only did the front of the heart so I could hang it flat against my door.)

6.  I lightly sprayed the wreath with some glitter paint, tied a ribbon to it, put it on the door, and voila!  "Ladies of leisure," here I come!

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