Lost in chair land

I'm still working on opening my porch for the summer and found that the furniture is in bad need of a fresh face.  I've started with the chairs for our outdoor table.  They belonged to my grandmother and spent many years in the barn of a cousin.  By the time I got them they were ready for the porch rather than the dining room.  There are eight of them and until today they were painted white. 

I've now painted them the lightest color of blue and although they look fresh and clean they also look boring and embarrassed.  I need some suggestions on what I can do to give them some life.  If you have an idea or suggestion please please help me, I'm at a loss.

The color just isn't going to show up well but hopefully this will give you some idea of what they look like.  The table is going to be painted an off white and possibly include some wide stripes of this blue on the top. 

 

This is what the table with chairs looked like last year, the table is currently black and a drop cloth tablecloth was covering it as it also needs a face lift.

Well, if you have an idea for my chairs please either reply here or email (chturner67@gmail.com) me and thanks so much for stopping by.

My New Best Kitchen Friend

I have to tell you that while channel surfing a couple of weeks ago I stopped by QVC to see what was up with In The Kitchen With David.  I don't often go to QVC because I have no control or filters for purchasing products on the internet, that evening was no exception.  I saw this great looking grater/slicer being demonstrated and thought "I must have that".  Of course I didn't expect it to work as well as the dude hawking it on TV was demonstrating.  I knew I'd be disappointed once again and not order on the internet for awhile as I decided whether to donate my latest acquisition to GW.

To my surprise it is a fabulous kitchen gadget, works just like it was advertised and isn't bulky to keep handy in the cupboard.  I love the fact that the slicing or grating is duel action.  As you run your veggies, cheeses, etc. across either of the blades it works as you push and pull back.  I could believe how quickly I had potatoes sliced for scalloped potatoes for dinner.  And onions...oh my they were sliced so thinly and uniformly I didn't even have time to cry.

Here is a link to QVC's listing for this grater/slicer: Kuhn Rikon Dual Slicer.  Oh and in case you are wondering if I was compensated for recommending this project the answer is NO.  I am a tiny little blog that absolutely no company has ever heard of.

So as I said I was making scalloped potatoes that evening.  I looked up a recipe on the internet as I didn't have one that I was happy with. This is the recipe I decided to try Southern Scalloped Potatoes and I'll definitely use it again, the only adjust I had to make as adding additional milk to the besamel to thin it out a bit.  I also added some very thinly sliced onions and chunks of ham.

I pulled out my handy dandy grater/slicer and sliced the potatoes in a ridiculously short time. Each and every slice was perfectly uniform which makes the baking time a breeze.

The end product was delicious and the besamel sauce held together 

very well.

 The potatoes were thinly sliced and perfect for this type of dish.

The onions were so thin that they baked down to nearly nothing,the slicer made easy work of this and I loved the uniformity of the slices.

 

I've come to the conclusion that I just don't have the Irish gene in me to do beautiful tablescapes like I see this time of year on so many blogs.  So once again I'm resurrecting my tablescape from a couple of years ago.  The sad note this year is that the main characters from my tablescape are gone. Ms. Binchy passed away last July, she was one of my favorite authors and of course we all know what happened to the Hostess company.  I guess if there is a bright side to this its that a recent announcement was made that the Hostess company has been purchased and maybe next year at this time I'll have my green snowballs back in the pantry.

Irish I'm not but today's table is my rendition of an simple Irish Tablescape with a little chuckle thrown in. May we all have the "luck of the Irish" at least for one day.

Yes I know the Irish don't eat Hostess Snowballs on St. Patrick's day but I just couldn't resist when I saw them in the store in all their green finery and they look so upscale on a sliver platter.  I am a lover of all things junk food and Snowballs are no exception.  They may not be served at an Irish meal but I plan to have one or maybe two sometime today. Also a tribute to one of my favorite Irish authors Maeve Binchy.

My under plate is Lenox Summer Greetings and was the only green plates that I have.  I picked up four place settings at a thrift shop in South Carolina for only $10. The serving plate is Bella Lux.

The stemware is from Pier 1 and the beautiful silver flatware is Maxfield Hotel from Pottery Barn. The table runner I found yesterday at Salvation Army for $1.99, its Liz Claiborne home style.