A girls Halloween Pumpkin

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Here´s to lots of candy, scary costums and a good time had by all!

Hamburgers on the Grill-even in Fall

Hello Everyone!

I do not know how you all do it, but this family does not let the changing of the seasons stop us from grilling hamburgers outside on the grill! When I have time, I even make the hamburger buns from scratch---yes I know even here in germany you can buy hamburger buns, but, while traditional german food is very good---the hamburger buns are not!

Enjoy and perhaps this year for Halloween-you too will fire up the grill!

Hamburger Buns

4 1/2- 5 cups flour

2 pkgs. dry yeast

1 cup milk

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup sugar

1 T. Salt

Stir together 2 cups flour and yeast. Heat milk, water, oil, sugar and salt until very warm. Add liquid all at once to flour mixture. Beat until smooth(3 minutes) with electric mixer. Add enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Let rest 10 min. Roll out to desired thickness. Cut with round cutters and place on greased baking sheet. Let rise in warm place for 30 min. Bake 12 to 15 min. at 425° F or until lightly browned. Makes about 1o

http://www.designsbygollum.blogspot.com/

Be sure to make a stop at some of the other wonderful entries this foodie friday

Cookies!!!

Just a sampling of tonights work---wish i had had better tissue paper---o well next time!

Happy Halloween

Here´s wishing you all a Happy Halloween!

Cupcake for Christmas

Thinking Pink today?

Every year I buy a new ornament for the tree, either from some trip we took, from a christmas market or even from the grocery store!!! On thursday I was downtown with my son and I came accross this mini cupcake ornament---simply perfect!

Fall in Berlin

Not sure why, but for some reason this year, the fall colors seems so much more vibrant than in the past. I can not stop taking pictures of all the trees!! And although I have gotten some good shots, my camera can not capture the true beauty of Fall 2010! These fotos show how fall has come to my very own back yard.

The Main Course!

Rib Eye Steaks

Creamy Green Bean Bake

Mushrooms and Onions

Last week, my foodie friday entry was about desert, this week I would like to share with all of you the main course. Not only was this event my first catering gig, but also one of the few times that I have been responsible for the grill! OH OH!! So, since everything turned out well, I would like to share with you the recipes!

I must admit though I did have a little help: youtube and ehow showed me how to handle those rib eyes! What would we ever do without the Internet?

Creamy Green Bean Bake

french-style green beans

semicondensed cream of mushroom soup

sour cream

french-fried onions

Drain green beans. In a casserole combine soup and sour cream. Stir in beans. Bake in a 350° F oven 20 to 25 minutes or till bubbly. Sprinkle with onions. Bake 5 minutes more.

Mushrooms and Onions

fresh mushrooms

onions

Slice mushrooms and onions and saute´ in butter and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper

Rib Eye Steak

steaks should be at room temperature-best to take them 2 hours before grilling out of the fridge. Season with sea salt and pepper. The grill should be at app. 500°. Brush the grill with some olive oil and place the steaks on the grid. Cover. After app. 5 minutes flip the steaks for 4-5 minutes more. The grilling time will vary, depending on the thickness of the steaks. When the steaks are done, remove from the grill, cover with foil and let rest for 5 minutes.

ENJOY!

I am getting hungry just typing this!!!

Be sure to stop by Designs by Gollum-perhaps you will find the perfect desert to go along with a Rib Eye Steak! http://www.designsbygollum.blogspot.com.

I found my weekend desert at: http://dunnntoperfection.blogspot.com/2010/10/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-pound-cake.html -

My Catering Debüt

Hey Hey, I did it! I had my first in home catering job last week at the home of Mary and John. Oh boy was I nervous-but it was a good, healthy nervous. I throughly enjoyed the whole process and am looking forward to building a business. So, it is with great pride and pleasure that I feature Mary and her beautiful table this Tablescape Thursday.

I think this picture belongs on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens!!!!

Thanks to nature-we had the perfect place cards....

The charger plates as well as the candle sticks were found at Southern Living






The napkin rings were found at Karstadt(a german dept store)

The dishes and the bread basket come from Longaberger

The tablecloth from IKEA and the napkins from the PX

Well, what do you think? When all was said and done, we were all pretty happy with ourselves and are now ready to take on the world!!!

Happy Tablescape Thursday Everyone--please make sure and stop by the other lovey entries this week.

PS Mary and her husband were wonderful hosts and everyone had a wonderful evening.

A halloween hello to friends on this Pink Saturday

Beverly mentioned in her weekly email, that we could post something orange too, so I thought I would share with all of you a picture of my 3 Witches! This is just not a holiday decoration, no much more. Back home in Pontiac Illinois, I have two friends from high school days that I have kept in touch with since I left Illinois(21 years ago). When I do make it back to Pontiac, the three of us always go out for margaritas at the local mexican place. Stories are told, jokes are laughed at and good times remembered. Lisa and Kathy are always try to make as much time for me as possible and help out when they can. The "3 witches" was a gift from Lisa-representing the three of us! So, every Halloween Season I display "the girls" where I am sure to see them everyday--where else but the kitchen window sill.

3 Cheers for our girlfriends-where ever they may be!

Grab that second cup of coffee and visit some other wonderful blogs this pink saturday!
http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/10/pink-saturday-october-16-2010.html
http://marieardenpinkliving.blogspot.com/2010/10/rubba-dub-dub.html
http://decolady-randommusings.blogspot.com/2010/10/pink-saturday-macarons.html

Hold on to your spoon-the best is yet to come!

Hold on to your spoon, the best is yet to come!

Michele, a friend of mine told me about that saying and I love it! It is soo true-desert is always the best. As some of you know, last night I had my first in home catering event. Thanks to everyone for the good thoughts and votes of confindence-the eveing was 99.99999% a success! In the coming weeks I will be posting more about this event and to start you off I will be sharing with you desert! So grab a spoon and enjoy!

Nicki´s Lava Cake Supreme

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cupcakes--recipe of your choice(I used my sisters Devils Food Cake)

Hot Fudge Sauce--again your choice--either homemade as I did, or store bought)

Vanilla Ice Cream--homemade or store bought

Hard Shell

Game Plan:

A week in advance I baked the chocolate cupcakes in a jumbo muffin pan and made the hot fudge sauce. I found a great, simple recipe on allrecipes.com . Once the cupcakes cooled off, I turned them upside down, dug a well and filled with sauce. I froze them right up to desert time.

The fudge-filled, frozen cupcakes are "nuked" for 45 seconds in the microwave. Of course this time can vary depending on your microwave. Then I top it off with one scoop of vanilla ice cream and the Hard Shell. Add a side of fresh strawberries-and you have yourself a great desert.

I have served this desert to various groups, and it has always, always been a sucess. I wonder how it would taste if it was a cappaciouno cupcake with coffee ice cream?

Be sure to stop and visit other Foodies featureed at: www.designsbygollum.blogspot.com

tidymom.net has some great halloween cookies to share this week

redcouchrecipes has the coolest cupcakes for us to enjoy

Have a happy weekend everyone and if you are looking for that java pick me up, please check out my post from last week about turkisch coffee

Good Morning

Greetings Everyone!
yea---my catering job was a sucess!! SO HAPPY and so relieved. I have a few pictures and promise to post more about the whole expierence later today-now after only 5 hours of sleep, a dentist appointment, I am off to the kitchen to decorate a cake for a little boys birthday this weekend. See you all in a little while for FOODIE FRIDAY!!!

Happy 15th Birthday

Good Morning Everyone!

I hope your Thursday is turning out to be everything you hoped for. As I wrote yesterday my day is going to be just a touch nerve-wracking as I am doing my first catering job! I am nervous and excited all at the same time!!

Yesterday my son turned 15 and instead of cake(which is ironic as I decorate cakes!!!) he asked for an oreo cookie pie---for breakfast!







please forgive me the pictures are not in the order that I want and for some reason I am not able to change it...

I hope you get a chance to check out some of the other great tablescapes this week.

Here are some that I enjoyed!

http://sailingsimply.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-catch-witch.html

http://mid-atlanticmartha.blogspot.com/2010/10/tablescape-thursday-little-halloween.html

http://tableescapes.blogspot.com/2010/10/pumpkin-patch-fairies.html