Fall Decorating 2016

I love to decorate for the holidays, but decorating can get expensive. I love to get inspired by pins on Pinterest or beautiful photos in magazines and then try to find ways to decorate on a dime. I love to shop at thrift stores, garage sales and dollar stores to hunt for decorating treasures. I don't mind being on a budget because it's so much fun to find items here and there and be able to transform these seemingly unrelated items into something that looks like it was planned out from the beginning.
So much like last year's tablescapes, this year's place settings were purchased at The 99cents Only Store. The total cost of decorating was $22. 

It started with these turquoise soup bowls. The trick to shopping at The 99 is to go there often. They get fun unique items all the time but they sell quickly. By the time I saw these beauties, there were only 6 remaining...so I snatched them up. I wasn't sure what I'd do with them, but I just had to have them. (Cost $6) 

A few months later, they had these gorgeous turquoise plates.(Cost $6) I wasn't even sure the plates would match the soup bowls but when got home and put them together, they were a perfect match! Yay!
I pulled out the dark brown woven chargers, I purchased from The 99 last year and that's when my color scheme took shape.

And then two months ago, I found these super cute resin owls ($6) at The 99 and knew they would be a part of my fall table because they echoed the bronze of the chargers. Super cute!

Add in my existing wine glasses, napkins, silverware, grapevine and ceramic pumpkins, candles, and floral accents...and voila! Fall table on a budget! Only $22.

These two little blue birds ($2) and the oval platter ($2) were also from The 99.  These bronze ceramic pumpkins were from Tuesday Morning from my years of collecting ceramic pumpkins and I purchased the shapely vase 10+ years ago from Southern Living. :)

Below, I added some berries to this rustic blue box for a simple fall floral arrangement. 

Odds and Ends...
I used a bunch of my old silk flowers and pumpkins to make this arrangement for my entryway. And I re-purposed some foam fruit and pumpkins, that used be a part of a cornucopia centerpiece, to make this fall inspired Thanksgiving tree. I think I'll keep it up in my kitchen for Christmas. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More Decorating Ideas:

Fall Decorating 2013
Fall Decorating 2014
Fall Decorating 2015

 Southern California fall leaves...

Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows

These little fluffers were so simple to make that I'm wondering why I never tried to make these before. These marshmallows are a lot softer than store brands and have a light airy texture and sweet vanilla flavor. I added orange food coloring and cut them into mini pumpkin shapes, and finished them with some cinnamon sugar as a festive variation for fall. They are amazing in hot chocolate with their hint of cinnamon. Imagine the endless variations, like adding peppermint extract and cutting into to Christmas shapes. Dip them into chocolate for ready made s'more or as an easy chocolate candy. This recipe makes a lot of marshmallows especially if you cut them with scissors into squares as the original recipe instructs. Instead, I made them into festive little pumpkins and still ended up with over three dozen. Enjoy!

My youngest son has quite the sweet tooth and pretty much single-handedly ate all of these over this last week. :)

Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows 

(slightly adapted recipe from My Baking Addiction)
Makes ~3-5 dozen

3/4 c. water, divided
1/8 tsp. orange gel food coloring
3- 0.25oz. powdered gelatin, unflavored
2/3 cup corn syrup
2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Prepare sheet pan with plastic wrap coated with cooking spray. Spray another piece of plastic wrap for the top. Set aside.
In a shallow container, add powdered sugar, corn starch and cinnamon and mix. Set aside. 

Add 1/2 cup water and gel food coloring into stand mixer and mix until food coloring is dissolved. Then add gelatin to bloom.

In a medium saucepan, add 1/4 cup water, corn syrup, and sugar and bring it to a hard boil over medium heat. Let boil for 1 minute. Turn off heat.

Carefully, add hot sugar mixture to stand mixer with gelatin. Beat on medium high for about 12 minutes until stiff peaks are formed.  

Add vanilla extract and beat until just combined. Pour marshmallow batter into prepared sheet pan. Smooth out with a cooking spray coated spatula. Cover top of marshmallows with second sheet of plastic wrap and let set for 4 hours or overnight. 

Peel plastic wrap back and cut marshmallows to desired shape using oiled cutters or scissors. Drop cut marshmallows into powdered sugar mixture to coat. Place in an airtight container.

Other recipes to try:
Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream     Sugar Skulls              Gingerbread Biscotti

Short Rib and Bok Choy Soup

I've seen the words 'lazy day' and 'Cozy Sunday' a lot in blogs and magazine articles lately. It is fall afterall, and I can honestly say I'm in desperate need of a lazy cozy weekend!  I feel like there's always something that has to be done, people to see, events to attend. Since weekends are our only time to spend together as a family, I'm feeling the pinch, along with my family, because I'm taking a 13 week Pro Chef Series which meets every Saturday and Sunday from 8:30am-12:30 but usually I don't get home until after 1pm. I get home and I'm hot, tired, and smelling of each week's culinary ingredient. Last Sunday, was pork class. I got home and my oldest son said, "What sinks like horrible food?" 

Yes...he's been a real shit lately. He not happy that I'm gone every weekend until the afternoon. I get it. And it is true, I do smell like chicken, beef, garlic, onions, grilling, oil, pork...you name it! Just wait until Fish and Shellfish class. But seriously after 4 hours of cooking, my clothes, my hair, skin, and even my bra stinks like food and dare I admit, a hint of sweat. It's a ton of work and A LOT of fun and most importantly, I LOVE IT! I'm learning so much and the food has been out-of-this-world delicious! Don't worry, I'll blog some of Chef Teri's amazing recipes and share some cool techniques I've learned along the way. :)

But that brings me back to Lazy. Cozy. Sunday. I need one and my family needs one. I have no class the weekend after Thanksgiving so I'm scheduling my Lazy Cozy Weekend with my family. Just me, my husband and my boys. Nothing to do. Nowhere to be. 

I'll turn off my phone, wear PJ's all day, make a big pot of soup, watch old movies, nerf guns, and play twister with the kids. Hey...who knows, maybe we'll go for a long walk or a bike ride...or maybe not...we're supposed to be LAZY right? Of course, the cozy part is completely dependent on SoCal weather. :)

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a delicious soup for your next lazy weekend!

Short Rib and Bok Choy Soup

Recipe slightly adapted from Three Beans on a String

Serves 8

2 pound short ribs, with or without bones

6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 medium yellow onion, sliced
1 Roma tomato, quartered
1 t. Chinese Five Spice
1 Habanero chile, halved and seeded
1/2 cup rice wine or sherry
1/2 cup soy sauce
12 cups chicken broth
1 lb. baby bok choy, sliced in 1-inch strips
10 baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/4 cup green onions, chopped

In a large stockpot, cover the short ribs with water and bring to a boil. Immediately turn off the heat and remove the beef and set aside. Discard water and wash the stock pot. This helps make a clearer broth. Return the par-boiled short ribs to the clean stockpot and add garlic, ginger, onion, tomato, five spice, Habanero chile, rice wine, soy sauce and chicken broth. Bring the pot to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 3 hours or until meat is tender. Remove from heat and allow the soup to sit for an additional hour. Next, remove the beef from the pot and pour the broth through a sieve to strain out the vegetables while collecting the broth in another clean stock pot. Add beef back to the strained broth.
Skim any fat from the surface of the broth. (I refrigerated the soup overnight and removed the hardened fat from the surface)

Bring the soup back up to a boil and then add the mushrooms and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the Bok Choy and blanch for another 2 minutes.
Ladle into bowls and top soup with bean sprouts, green onions and cilantro.

Other Soup recipes to try:
   Rustic Minestrone                  Chicken Pot Pie Soup              Spicy Beef Stew

Roasted Asian Slaw with Creamy Sesame Dressing

Every once in a while, I'll have an idea for a Halloween dish and after I make it, it ends up being so beautiful and so delicious that I am hard pressed to give it a festive Halloween name. This deconstructed Asian slaw is one of those dishes. It started solidly as a Halloween Salad featuring shaved broccoli stems as the main component of the salad which I intended to name, Shaved Vertebrae Salad. However, as I played around with the idea of a deconstructed Asian-inspired coleslaw, my Shaved Vertebrae Salad became this Roasted Asian Slaw with Creamy Sesame Dressing. 

Instead of having all raw veggies like most slaws, I decided to roast the cabbage and red bell peppers. Lightly roasting cabbage adds sweetness and yet it still maintains the crunchiness expected with a slaw. I kept the broccoli stems crunchy which added a wonderful flavor and texture all on their own. Roasted Red peppers top the salad along with a sweet almond and ramen noodle brittle and an incredible Creamy Sesame Dressing...Yum-O! I could totally do shots of this dressing, it's so good!  So looking at this fancy pants salad...I know what you're thinking... How do I eat it?  Answer: With a knife and fork. Use a knife to cut cabbage into quarters and mix with dressing. Add lots and lots of brittle and dig in...Enjoy!

WANT TO MAKE IT FOR HALLOWEEN?
This salad can be made into a most impressive Blood Clot Salad for Halloween.  The vivid blood-red roasted peppers mimic arteries that make up a monstrous blood clot...yuck! The broccoli stems are sliced at an angle so that they look like cross-sections of vertebrae. And the showstopper of course is the red cabbage when roasted, turns a gorgeously sinister mix of deep purple which makes me think of zombie brains. Top the whole thing off with dried worms and a yummy dressing this salad is perfect for Halloween. What's not to love...Blood clots, Brain cross-sections, vertebrae and worms! Have fun with it and Happy Halloween!  

Try it with my Midnight Sushi with Wasabi Skulls.

Roasted Asian Slaw with Creamy Sesame Dressing (Blood Clot Salad)

Serves 6


1 large Red Cabbage, sliced into six ~1/4" slices, core removed
1 T canola oil + 1 T Toasted Sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper (to taste)
3-4 broccoli stems, peeled and sliced very thin (~3 cups)
1/2 cup roasted red pepper, cut into thin strips 
Creamy Sesame Dressing (below)
Candied Almond Ramen Noodles (below)
toasted black sesame seeds (garnish)
cilantro leaves (garnish)



Creamy Sesame Dressing (recipe from Cuisine at Home)

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cilantro leaves
2 T seasoned rice wine vinegar
1 T toasted sesame oil
1 T soy sauce
1/2 T sugar
2 T fresh ginger, grated
Pinch of cayenne (optional)

Combine ingredients in a mini food processor and emulsify. Refrigerate until ready to use. 

Roast Cabbage
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place slices of red cabbage on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. In a small bowl, mix oil and minced garlic and brush mixture over cabbage slices. Salt and pepper to taste and roast in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Prepare broccoli stems:
Cut off the small broccoli leaves from the stem and set aside for use in your salad. Using a vegetable peeler, peel rough outer stem. Using a mandoline or a sharp knife, cut very thin slices of broccoli stem. Tip: I found it easier when using the mandoline, to not cut off the florets from the broccoli crown. Instead, hold the crown of florets as you shave the broccoli stems. It makes for easily handling without the chance of slicing your fingers. Especially, since my mandoline blade was not very sharp.

Candied Almond Ramen Noodles
1-2 packages of ramen noodles, dried and broken up
1 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

In a small skillet, melt butter on medium heat. Add sliced almonds and cook until lightly browned (~2 minutes). Add sugar and stir until melted and combined. Add ramen noodles and mix until coated. Set aside to cool. 

Assemble Salad:
Spoon about 2-3 T of Creamy Sesame Dressing onto plate. Lay roasted cabbage round in center of dressing using a spatula to keep the cabbage together. Add about 1/2 cup of shaved broccoli stems and leaves to top of cabbage. Top broccoli stems with about 1-2 T roasted red peppers. Add a generous amount of Candied Almond Ramen Noodles. Garnish with black sesame seeds and cilantro leaves.

Halloween Trunk or Treat Trophies

I volunteered to make the trophies for my son's Trunk or Treat event at his elementary school this year and I can honestly say these were really hard to give away. I think they turned out so adorable and they were so much fun to make, that I really miss them! Luckily, I took these pictures so I can remember them always! ;)
All kidding aside, Pinterest has tons of cute trophy ideas using these mini dollar store skeletons so I wanted to try to make some of my own. The event being a Trunk or Treat, I wanted the skeletons to be in cars of some kind. I went looking for small toys that I could use but all of which were the wrong scale and too expensive. That's when I turned to my crafting stash. I rummaged through and found two wooden coffins from many years ago and that's when it hit me to make little coffin cars. I bought two new coffins that were both different and added wooden wheels, spray painted the whole thing silver and added some rhinestone headlights.  From there, I added accents which created the themes of each coffin car using odds and ends that I had lying around. I broke out my scrapbook paper, stickers, buttons and other supplies to make the rosettes, and added the cute brads to the labels.
The jack-o-lantern is an eraser I bought from a Book Fair last year. The mini skull and crossbones were part of a bracelet that I cut up and spray painted silver...Anyway, take a look around and I hope these inspire you to make your own! Happy Halloween!

SCARIEST TRUNK

ALL-AROUND FAVORITE TRUNK

KID'S CHOICE TRUNK

More Halloween Craft Ideas:

Halloween Angels

Haunted Halloween Village with light-up Pumpkins

 Halloween-inspired Artwork Using Old Dictionary Pages