Gracious Gifts: Tea Lovers

  Yesterday, I had coffee with a dear friend. The one who loves themes picnics like me (French, Mexican, etc.) Sadly, she is leaving me for two months to go work a festival in NYC. While I am terribly excited for her, I am going to miss our picnics! We finally got around to exchanging Christmas gifts ( I know so terribly late). She loves tea so I gather some fun tea supplies for her. First off, a great loose leaf chocolate tea. A box of tea cookies and last but not least, a tea magazine! These three things made the perfect little gift. Since the three things all fit one theme, it made them seem like adorable gift set. She got me the most adorable cheese knife set and a wheel of good French cheese!

Mini Caramel Pecan Pie

Fall is finally here, right? All the hubbaloo of Halloween has gone (not that I don’t love Halloween, but orange is not my best color), and temperatures are dropping. Though currently, it has dropped from 90 to 85, but I will take what I can get. Anyways, fall seemed like the perfect time to break out pies, but not just any pies. Mini pies. Because everything is better in miniature form, right? I am a sucker for mini anything, I saw mini eggplants the other day and almost died with excitement. But for the moment, I am content with my mini pies. Mini caramel pecan pies = love. Because no one can eat a whole pecan pie, but four minis, bring it on.

Ingredients:

1 ready to roll piecrust

1/3 cup Caramel sundae topping

2 tbsp. milk

2 1/2 tbsp. butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/8 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup pecans (chopped/ diced)

Directions:

1) Spray a mini muffin tray with non-stick spray (cause I’m paranoid). Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2) Use the top of a mason jar (or other circular glass or cookie cutter) to cut pie crust. Smush (yes, that is a word) the circles into the greased mini muffin pan. It will not be perfect. And your fingers will leave marks in the crust.

2) On the stove over medium heat, combine milk, butter and caramel topping until mixed and heated through.

3) In a  heatproof bowl, mix sugar, egg and vanilla. Then add caramel mix. Once combined, add pecans.

4) Pour mixture into crusts until 2/3s full. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

5) Enjoy!

Easy Mason Jar Margaritas

So Hurricane/ Tropical Storm Isaac is supposed to be upon us today in Florida,  the aptly Sunshine State. This past weekend, I tried to get in the most of the sunshine while I could. My friend (of the French picnic theme fame) and I had another picnic but this one was themed Mexican. She made delicious tacos, I was in charge of drinks. So Margaritas seemed like the best idea. However, I had a few constraints: I had about a 30 minute drive to the place so they needed to stay cool and not spill. My solution: Mason Jars and Popsicles! Well it worked! They were delicious!!!!!

Ingredients:
Tequila
Whole Fruit Lime and Strawberry Popsicles


Directions:
1) In a mason jar, pour 1 oz of tequila. Cut one lime and one strawberry popsicle  and place in jar.

2) Shake. Once before you pack and once when at your location!


I hope you enjoy these easy Margaritas for your next outing!

Weekly Wonders: August 15th, 2012

A friend of mine had a marvelous idea the other day, we should have a picnic! Not just any picnic, but a grand picnic! We could not just pick French themed for our picnic, we had to take it  a step further and select French Provençale themed. So Saturday evening, we went to a park on the water and had our grand picnic. It was a rousing success, we spent three hours relaxing by the water slowly savoring the delicious food.  We had vegetable tian, cheese and then dessert (and yes, we ate it in the proper French order). Plus to drink, I muddled 12 basil leaves with one navel orange. Then mixed the muddle with 18 ounces of Dubonnet Rouge (or other sweet fortified red wine that is chilled) and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then top each glass with 2 oz. of seltzer water. It was AMAZING. Seriously, Martha Stewart did not let me down on this one. Don’t forget crepes for dessert!

P.S. Check out my adorable plastic ware, it made everything seem classier. Next week we are trying for British themed, anyone have any recipe suggestions?