Channeling My Inner Martha

I've never been a crafty one, until I found my new love of Pinterest . Now, my boards are flooded with decor, food, and fashion ideas. Lucky for my followers, they too now have some great recipes to try.. and now some crafts for Halloween!

Since living in the south, I've discovered that pumpkin carving doesn't last. Maybe for a day or two and then they are covered in mold and funk. SO, this year, we've taken pumpkin decor to a whole new level.


We got two pumpkins, just in case if one of my bright ideas didn't work. But, they both did!

Here's our first.

All you need is black puffy paint. I got metallic black so it would sparkle just a little bit.

Next pumpkin, my bling pumpkin.

We spray painted with Brass Metallic spray paint. Honestly, it was pretty fabulous on it's own, but I wanted to personalize with a "F" and a little more bling.

Totally cute, not messy and super easy! We used black buttons and rhinestones. We used a hot glue gun, but I'm sure other glue would work, it would just take longer to dry.

Happy Fall!

xoxox

Feeling Fall- Banana Pumpkin Bread

We've been lucky enough to feel a bit of fall down here in Chs. It's been cool enough to wear jeans and a tee, which is a nice change from the high 90s. I love this weather, but must admit, I really miss the leaves changing in PA. So, to compensate for my lack of "fall leaves" I've decided to cook to "feel fall".

Banana Pumpkin Bread {low cal version}

What You'll Need:
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Stevia {or Sugar for full cal. version}
1/4 Cup Butter, Softened
2 Large Eggs
3 Large Very Rip Bananas, Mashed
1/2 Can Pureed Pumpkin
2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
Cooking Spray

Preheat Oven to 400 Degrees

Combine flour, baking soda and salt with whisk.

Place sugar and butter in a large bowl, and beat with mixer on medium until blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add in mashed banana and vanilla, beat until smooth.

Add in pumpkin puree, beat until smooth.

Begin to spoon in flour mixture, a little at a time.

Continue until flour mixture is completely blended.

Spray loaf pan with cooking spray. Add in bread mixture.

Bake at 400 for 1 hour. Check with a wooden pick or knife to be sure it's cooked through {it may come out a little bit dirty, but it's because of the pumpkin} . Please note, since there is pumpkin and banana in this recipe, it's going to be super moist!

Enjoy!

DIY Butterfingers

Since it's almost October, I'm getting into fall cooking mode. You would think that it would entail using pumpkin and squash.. but no with this chef, it's all about the sweets! You know, for the kids at Halloween, or for me :)

I found this idea on my newest guilty pleasure Pinterest and hubby and I decided to make it our own way..

What you'll need:
1lb Candy Corn
Chocolate Coating {they come in little containers that you pop in the microwave}
1 Small Jar Peanut Butter {we use the organic kind- with only peanuts as the ingredients}

First, melt down candy corn in microwave. Put in for 1 minute, then take out and stir. Keep popping it back in for 15 second increments until melted. Make sure it doesn't bubble!

Next, mix in peanut butter into hot melted candy corn mixture. You may need to pop this back in the microwave if it starts to harden.

Next, take a small square baking pan and line with wax paper.

Pour mixture into pan and place in the refrigerator to set. Wait until cool to remove. Make sure the bottom of the pan is cold too!

Next, cut into squares or strips {for a more Butterfingers like effect"

Next, melt dipping chocolate and dip squares into it and place on a sheet pan with wax paper.

Place back into refrigerator until set. This should take about 20 minutes.

Take out and enjoy! Look at how eerily similar they look to the real deal.

They taste like the real deal too!

Enjoy!

Holistic DIY Remidies

First things first, I've had 4 weddings this week, and other numerous catering gigs, so pardon my lack of posts! We also have a house guest, my bff from HS Brooke! Brooke just moved in last week, and is waiting on closing her house and in the meantime is staying with us. It's like a sleep over every night.

It's exciting to have bff time all the time, we work and play together. Brooke is my new assistant at Newton Farms Catering and is working side-by-side with me to take over the operational end so I can focus on what I do best- sales & marketing.

Anyways.. I've always wanted to try to holistic home remedy of ear candling. I hear it works wonders!

For those of you that don't know a lot about it, here's a brief description of what it is and how it works {from Wikkipedia }

Ear candling, also called ear coning or thermal-auricular therapy, is an alternative medicine practice claimed to improve general health and well-being by lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the other end in the ear canal.

Your technically supposed to use a plastic or paper plate covered with foil, but we were all out- so here's what we came up with.

One end of a cylinder or cone of waxed cloth is lit, and the other placed into the subject's ear. The flame is cut back occasionally with scissors and extinguished between 5 and 10 centimeters from the subject.
The subject is lying on one side with the treated ear uppermost and the candle vertical. The candle can be stuck through a paper plate or aluminum pie tin to protect against any hot wax or ash falling onto the subject. Another way to perform ear candling involves the subject lying face up with the ear candle extending out to the side with a 45 degree upward slant. A dish of water is placed next to the subject under the ear candle- just in case :)

Seriously, amazing. I feel more balanced and can hear better out of both ears. It's worth the $3.99 per pack of ear candles and the laugh with your girlfriends!

xoxo

I Owe It To The Junior League..

This year I've finally decided to dedicate some of my extra time {the little that I have} to becoming a member of the Charleston Junior League. As a "provisional" your split up into groups with ladies in your local geographic area. Most groups do fun activities like cocktail parties and dinners, but ours didn't do much, until tonight. We had our first big cocktail outing {hosted by us!} where I learned some interesting points of conversation I thought I'd share:

1.  Gummy vitamins are like candy. Apparently when you get a sweet craving, popping one or four of these puppies give you a boost and satisfy your sweet tooth. Needless to say I think I'll be adding them to my cart the next go-around to Target and you should too.

2. People dumpster dive for coupons, seriously. Couponers are crazy! Apparently they are in 8 week cycles. I shall research this and give your the real details, but really how would the normal person know this? Well, it's a good thing I signed up for the speaker at our next General Membership Meeting so I can learn how. Too bad none of my friends will be joining me as this popular topic is no longer available for sign up. Don't worry girls, I'll make copies of my hand outs and we can all recap. I promise we'll never be dumpster diving. 

3. One of our girls didn't realize Jilllian Michaels is a bitch. Really. She's not a nice lady. Just do the shred and you'll understand- or watch the biggest loser.

4. Mousercize is real. From 1985. Just watch this clip, that's all.

 5. Lastly, by far the best Charleston Junior League Cookbook is and is available for purchase at Charleston Receipts Repeats or from me if your local. Old school southern cooking at it's finest. It's how I'm going to become a true Southern Lady. Stay tuned for recipes, and hopefully some blog posts on the official blog once I get my placement.

For now, here's a sampling of the d'lish southern finds from this book.. make it. You know you want to.

CHARLESTON RED RICE

Published in Charleston Receipts and credited to Wilmot Welsh Gibbs, Pargie and Cussie’s dear friend.

• 8 strips of bacon, crumbled
• 2 onions, chopped finely
• 1 small can tomato paste
• 2 cans water
• 3 tsp salt
• 2½ tsp sugar
• ¾ tsp pepper
• 2 cups raw rice
• Bacon grease

• Fry bacon. Remove bacon from pan.
• Saute onions in bacon grease.
• Add tomato paste, water, salt, sugar & pepper.
• Cook uncovered slowly (about 10 minutes) until it measures about 2 cups.
• Pour into the top of steamer with the raw rice.
• Add any extra bacon grease.
• Steam for 30 minutes, then add crumbled bacon & stir with a fork.
• Cook for 30-45 minutes longer.

this was found on Taste Book- Charleston Receipts Repeats

6. What the hell is an Estill? For those of you that don't know, the floor plan of our home is called the Estill. I never knew what it meant, but last night one of the neighbors said it may be the builder's last name. WRONG! While in conversation tonight I overheard one of the girls talking about Estill which I've never heard outside of our floorplan name. What is an Estill? It's a town in SC.

Fun night with fabulous girls!

xoxoxo

Entertaining 101

We finally felt comfortable enough to host a little Open House last weekend to show off our new home and entertain. It was more of a drop in type of thing, but we ended up having about 30 guests show up so it was a great turn out!

I had a wedding on Friday night and was pretty much a waste on Saturday so we hosted on Sunday. Keep in mind, we did have house guests, so I tried to make the prep and items very simple to put together the morning of. All of these are super easy recipes that you can throw together for hors d'oeuvres or a small gathering.

My nice, full table of snacks. And my fabulous red wall. I just needed a nice large view, because it all looked so fabulous!

Miniature Croissant BLT Sliders, super easy and huge crowd pleaser. If you live in Chs you can get these little guys from Newton Farms or Piggly Wiggly perfect for little sliders. You can do BLT's or even chicken or shrimp salad in them.

I totally cheated here, I can't get enough of the Palmetto Pimento Cheese w/ Jalapeno. Amazing. I won't even attempt to make it on my own because I know it will NEVER turn out that good. We also did the Sabre spinach artichoke hummus with Stacy's Naked Pita Chips.

I can't get enough of Presidente Brie. It's super creamy and comes in cute little round blocks. I topped with some blackberries and accented with strawberries.

Always a crowd pleaser and ridiculously easy to make: Chocolate Covered Strawberries. I used Semi Sweet Chocolate since the strawberries were already so sweet.

Caprese Skewers are probably on almost every single catering menu I do for work. If you get the fresh mozzarella balls and cherry tomatoes it makes it so much easier. Just slice the basil and fee through the skewer like a kabob. Once all set I drizzle with Balsamic Reduction or Balsamic Glaze if you have Wegmans near by.

We also did some miniature cheese burger sliders. They are easiest if you get the "homestyle" rolls made fresh from the grocery store. Use burger patties on the grill, then put your cheese on so they melt and cut into quarters. Add in your tomato, lettuce and onion if you'd like. I'd recommend putting the mustard, mayo and ketchup all on the side as some guests don't like condiments.

You'll probably also notice my few items from Williamsport popped in like : Middlesworth BBQ Chips, Funny Bones and Wegmans Lemon Garlic Marinade for my chicken skewers.

Easy, quick entertaining. Enjoy!

xoxoxo

I've Been Bad!

Yikes! It's been well over a week since my last post, I've been so bad. Be kind to me, it's been really busy with work. The next three weeks we'll just call hell weeks since in Charleston it's the biggest wedding time of the year until October hits.

I've been really good with household projects, well I take that back- my hubby has. I just pick out colors and give him ideas and let him roll with it. I've learned to never ask him to paint red walls again, but how awesome does it look in my dining area?!

I call this color Hooker Red, although it's really called Stolen Kiss from Sherwin Williams .

I promise I'll start posting frequently again, I have so much to catch up on with posting- the Philadelphia Trip, Brooke's visit, our Open House bash and other fabulous things! Stay tuned. xoxo

Let's Paint.

After much debate we've decided to purchase paint for the bathroom, and get a sample for the bedroom. We're actually going to take on this project ourselves, scary! Since hubby and I aren't the handiest it should be fun.

Here's the color we purchased for the bathroom. It's Purple Mauve. We actually got the paint from Sherwin Williams instead of Home Depot because the quality is better.

It's the perfect shade of purple for my shabby chic bathroom. I cannot wait to show you the progress after it's painted. It's going to kick ass! I honestly think it's my favorite room in the house.

We also purchased a color sample for our bedroom, it's a pretty light grey color based on the color "Beyond" 42D4 from True Value.

Other colors to be posted as we make progress :)

Holy Guacamole!

In honor of the Super Bowl this past Sunday I'm posting one of my favorite easy to make snacks!

What you'll need:
2 Medium Sized Ripe Avocados
1 Medium Sized Vine Ripened Tomato
1 Small Lime
1 Clove Minced Garlic

Cut and scoop out avocados into a small bowl. If you've never cut an avocado check out how to here- I'm serious! Cook Think . When you take out the pit, do it by puncturing the knife in the middle {like picture below} then slowly twist. If it's ripe it should come right out.

Smash avocado with fork in bowl. Next, dice up your tomato. Add to avocado in bowl. Let sit, add in minced garlic and juice from a small lime. Combine with fork & enjoy!

Enjoy!

I Have A Sweet Tooth

The more you follow this, the more you will realize I have the biggest sweet tooth ever. Occasionally I'll get the urge to make something spur of the moment. Lucky for you, I'll post these recipes and they are easy & unplanned, with items normally found in your kitchen {or mine}

Let's call this one Nutell-amazing

What you'll need:
Puff Pastry Shells {frozen}
Raspberry Jelly or Preserves {seedless}
Nutella

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Place Puff Pastry Shells on Baking Sheet and Bake for 20-25 Minutes {I baked for 22}
Remove from oven and let sit for 2 minutes

Remove "tops" of pastry shell.

Use one teaspoon raspberry jelly to fill in cup.

In the meantime, heat two tablespoons Nutella in sauce pan. Once smooth, spoon out and layer on top of Raspberry Jelly.

Place "top" back on Pastry & Drizzle with extra Nutella. Pour yourself a nice glass of bubbles too, you deserve it!

Enjoy. I'm Francesca: the daughter of a chef, I'm obsessed with Nutella & Champagne, & I rock at life.

New Year, New You!

 I'm on a roll with this blogging idea, let's see if I can keep it up. Here I am with my girls {you'll hear more about them later} Paris {left} & Ginger {right}

 I took some pictures I'd like to share with you from last night's dinner party. I'm quite impressed as to how great the dinner turned out and impressed with my table decor.

So, I decided to do a bow napkin fold. The bow reminds me of Gaga 2010. See comparision Below:

vs.

Close enough.

Gaga Napkin Bow Instructions can be found here

Here's the total tablescape. I even DIY'd my own centerpiece. We'll have a lesson on that later.

Happy Entertaining xoxo