Full Frost Moon

Tomorrow night is the full Frost Moon or Beaver Moon if you are a hunter, time to set your traps before the lakes freeze over. :0) These photos are kind of grainy because my camera was on full zoom. I'm afraid I don't have the luxury of interchangeable lenses. *Sigh* maybe one day. :0) The rain clouds set the mood for some interesting photos even if the moon wasn't completely full.

 

Thanksgiving Day 2012

Hello everyone! I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving Day! I spent the actual holiday with friends because my mother planned our dinner on the following Saturday. That means I had three huge dinners last week. I never thought I would say this, but I'm tired of eating! For the dinner with friends I decide to make the dressing. This was my first time attempting it and I've heard all the horror stories about the dry or undercooked dressing so I was a nervous wreck. I called on the matriarchs in my family and I was tickled to death at the outcome. My dressing came out perfect!

 

We decided we wanted homemade cranberry sauce for the dinner, so I got online to see what I could discover. I found a recipe for Orange Ginger Cranberry sauce. It was so simple to make and so positively delicious. I made some more to take with me to my family dinner on Saturday. I grew up on the canned stuff that you slice, but I can promise you from this point forward I will be making my own.

 

There was a slight amount of stress involved with the Turducken. The directions said to cook it three and a half hours. Well it took seven. Nothing a little liquid sedative and flower picking couldn't handle. The Turducken came out just fine and everyone enjoyed each other's company while we waited. We still managed to sit down to eat at a little over an hour past the scheduled time. That's why you don't wait until the last minute to do things people.

 

And what a lovely table we had to sit down and enjoy our meal. I don't have public pictures to display of the food. I want to respect the privacy of the guests that attended. They were all seated around the table when the photo was taken. I had an absolutely incredible holiday and I hope all of you thoroughly enjoyed yours as well. And yaaaaaaaaaaa! Christmas is just around the corner!

Sunday Night Soup

I’m no tablescape designer by any stretch of the word, but when company comes over for a meal I try to make it a special experience for them no matter what the menu may be. I found a recipe for bean and ham soup on a blog I visited and I thought with the weather cooling down it would be an excellent time to have a few people over for some comfort food.

I love soup tureens and I think it’s such a shame people don’t use them anymore. They’re really pretty. I bought one several years ago and I use it to take my next door neighbors soup as a treat in the winter time. They’re elderly and hate getting out in the cold weather. I thought it was a nice idea, but she always says, “Oh, let me dump this in a pot so you can take your pretty bowl back I wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.” Well, my intentions were good anyway…

I have to admit last night the lazy side of me said, oh just leave it in the pot on the stove and dip it out of there. I’ve changed my mentality about that kind of stuff lately, when it comes to meals. I’ve decided to treat myself more often.

 

I surrounded the tureen with pink and white camellias, pink azaleas and Nandina foliage. I love the leathery green leaves of Nandina, it’s great to use in all sorts of arrangements. I really like the fan shape of the limbs.

I thought far enough ahead to sit the butter out to soften this time. I never seem to remember to do it. I knew I would be having cornbread with the soup so I wanted it to be easy to spread. I thought it would add a nice little bit of sparkle to the table in the candle light.



I have two sets of stainless steel flatware in my closet that I now, never use. The silverware that’s been in the closet for years and years I now use every day. I saved it to use for special occasions and guess what? It was never being used.  We fill our homes with this gorgeous stuff and say it’s for special occasions and we deprive ourselves of the pleasure of using it. Not me, not anymore I’m using mine. I have very, very fine Italian china that’s been boxed up for years in the closet. It’s in my cabinet now and I ate lasagna off of it Friday night. After all it is Italian and if I break a piece, I’ll get another one from Ebay or Replacements.com

The dishes I used last night are from the 40’s. The pattern is called ‘Sayonora” and it’s by Nasco. See the little people sitting on the bank watching the person in the boat leave? I’m sure there is a larger story to this pattern but I’ve never found it. I discovered most of these Asian patterns tell a story. I'm certain the majority of you are familiar with the legend of ‘Blue Willow’.

My guest list decreased from 6 down to three before the night was over, but I was okay with that. It actually freed up more room on my small table for the bread and a couple of candlesticks. Something about the dancing flames of a candles just completes the mood for any dinner. Don’t you think so?

The original recipe for the bean soup turned out to be extremely bland in my opinion. I thought it was some great recipe that had been circulating online and it turns out it’s just the one on the back of the bag of dried beans. Here’s the Ham and Bean recipe Randy style:

Sausage and Bean Soup

1- 1lb. bag of assorted dried soup beans
2 quarts of water
1lb. of smoked pork sausage links cut into 1 inch sections
1 large onion, diced
2 crushed cloves of garlic
1- 16oz. can of diced tomatoes
1 large can of tomato paste
The juice and pulp of 1 lemon
4 tbsp. of good Chili powder

Soak the beans in water overnight and cook on medium for several hours until done. I can’t give you an exact time because I started in a crock pot and ended up in a pot on the stove. But it took a loooooooooog time. Next time I’ll just find out what kind of beans are in that bag and buy them canned. I just knew for sure we were going to eat crunch soup, but they finally got fit to be eaten. I added ground red pepper to my bowl and it was really good.

 

AG's Garden and the Beach...

One of the highlights of my trip to Florida was meeting a gentleman that answers to the name A.G. We were invited to his house for cocktails, while we watched the sun set on the beach. He was such a gracious host and he has such a beautiful place. Immediately when you pull up to the front of his abode it’s very obvious that you are about to enter the home of an avid gardener. The outside wall that hides his secret garden is lush with tropical plants. He welcomed us into his fabulous home where we were greeted with the sound of New Age music and the smell of incense. I knew from that instant, I was going to enjoy my time spent in his company. I was later told the incense and music was intended as a joke. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know comedic intentions or not it was right up my alley.

 

We were only there long enough to freshen up our drinks before I asked permission to see his garden and to take a few photographs. He happily obliged and  led us into the first of two courtyards. His garden was filled with crinum, plumeria, climbing fig, thunbergia and trees of all kinds just laden with fruit. I thought to myself, how wonderful it would be to walk outside in the morning and pluck your breakfast from a tree. Ones that immediately caught my eye were the key limes, satsumas and Myers lemons.

 

The garden alleys and pathways were punctuated with awesome statuary like this one of Venus. Any of you that have seen my garden know I am a sucker for statues of goddesses. This is 'Venus De Milo'. He also has ‘Venus Italica’ by Canova and thought it would be really neat if he got ‘Birth of Venus’ to add to his collection. Some how the sea shell seems so appropriate since he's right on the beach.

 

Birds of Paradise and sun symbols were in plenty…

Different versions of Green Man A.K.A. Leaf Man dot the wall and decorate fountains around the garden. He’s the symbol of rebirth, resurrection and a guardian of nature.

After a tour of the garden it was time to trot across the street to the beach and watch the sunset. I think the pictures speak for themselves…

It was a wonderful eveing and I sincerely enjoyed A.G.'s company, I regret the time passed so fast. 

Eden Gardens

This stunning home was built in 1897 by William Henry Wesley. It’s located on the Tucker Bayou near Santa Rosa Beach. Mr. Wesley owned sawmills on the bayou where he cut and distributed pine all over the United States. He used the same pine to build this home. Cypress and juniper were also used in its construction. The photos you see now are post renovation in 1963.

Just look at this gorgeous entry to the property…

Who wouldn’t love to have a picnic under these spectacular old oaks? Some are over 600 years old. If they could only talk, imagine what they would have to say.

This is the way the house looked when it was originally built. Please excuse the glare on the glass. I found better photos online, but I wanted to use the one I took. The roofline was different and so were the columns and cupola. It started off with a more Victorian feel to it. Mr. Wesley was survived by his wife who lived here until she died in 1953. The house stayed empty for 10 years and fell into disrepair.

In 1963 Ms. Lois Genevieve Maxon found the house and couldn’t bear to see it in such shape. She purchased the house for $12,500.00 then turned around and spent an additional 1 million dollars to renovate it. People we are talking the 60’s that was an even bigger chunk of change than it is now. Ms. Maxon wanted a fitting place to display her families beautiful antiques.

When I entered the house I have to say I really expected something a little more on the staircase. These homes usually have such grand ones. When you consider the original style of the house I suppose it’s appropriate.

This house contains the second largest collection of original Louis the XVI furniture in the United States. The upholstery is fab-u-lous. I would never have anything like this in my house, but you have to admire the work that must have gone into making it. You know I take that back, I might would try to find a way to work it in…

This gas light was converted to use electricity… Just look at the gorgeous metal work.

I was lucky enough to get a private tour of the house and I want to say thanks very much to a friend for that. I believe I was told this was Ms. Maxon’s bedroom. Oddly enough she never married. You would think with all that money eligible bachelors would be beating down her doors, but then again that may be the very reason she never wed.

Ms. Maxon wanted everyone to enjoy her home, even when it was her private residence. She asked members of the local garden club to please give tours of her home 2 days of the week so others could enjoy the beauty it had to offer. She was a newspaper woman by trade, when people came for the tours she would take her typewriter and graciously scurry up the stairs to the landing of the cupola to work. She didn’t want to be in the way of the visitors. I went up there and I was positively dying to go out on the widows walk on the roof. Alas, it was not allowed… What a view that would have been!

The estate has a wonderful garden as well. I’m assuming Ms. Maxon was a big fan of camellias because she planted over 100 different species of them on the grounds. Along with the camellias there are also several beautiful sculptures.

Ms. Maxon only lived in her beloved house for 5 years. On Christmas Eve in 1968 she, in the grandest gesture of generosity I’ve ever heard of made a multi-million dollar donation to the people of Florida. She gave her home and all the antiques in it to the state. She lived another 15 years after that and died in April of 1983. Wow…

Next up, A. G.'s garden and the beach...