Last night was the bi-monthly meeting of my Mixing Bowls Cookbook Club. We shared a great meal of recipes by Bobby Flay. I'll be sharing with you what I made soon. But I realized I haven't shown you the tablesettings for when I hosted back in August!
Whoever is hosting gets to choose what chef/cookbook they want to feature. I have long been a fan of Ina Garten and her brand, "Barefoot Contessa". First, I love her simple elegance. I also love her yummy recipes. Mainly, I love her laugh! She seems like she would be so fun to be around.
Often, Ina will show how she sets her table. She always keeps it simple. Oversized flatwear, a pretty napkin and simple plates. Her floral arrangement is usually the focal piece. So, I tried to keep the tablesettings simple - a challenge for me!
I used my white linen tablecloths and woven runners I found on clearance at Dillards several years ago as a base on both the kitchen and dining room tables.
My simple white everyday dishes ("White Satin" by Nikko) were the picture of simplicity. I used these basket weave chargers at the kitchen table along with the flatware pattern "Margate" by Pfaltzgraff.
In the dining room, I used the Better Homes and Gardens chargers I snagged on clearance at Walmart after Christmas a couple of years ago. The flatware here is "Austen" by Yamazaki.
I made these napkins last March for St. Patrick's Day. I also used them last Easter, and several times since then!
Stemware is "Sweet Swirl" by Noritake.
I found these pretty votive holders at Dollar Tree last year when I was putting together several tablescapes with the theme "Life's a Journey" for an event at Faulkner. They also showed up again on my "Apples of Gold" Thanksgiving table last year.
Ina uses hydrangeas quite a bit. We had a really dry summer last year, and my mop-head hydrangeas were spent. Luckily, my limelight hydrangeas had a few blooms left. I stuck some in a Mason jar along with some camellia leaves and Voila! I stacked up some of my Barefoot Contessa cookbooks as a base to give a little height.
I finished off with Ina's signature saying, "How easy is that?!", on the little marquee sign I have in my kitchen. I had to turn the light off to photograph it. I have had so much fun changing the message on this from season to season!
We had a fun night with delicious food and great conversation! Here is our fearless leader, Kimberly Edwards, telling us about our next meeting and what we would be cooking.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into our cookbook club. This was such a great idea!
I'm so glad you stopped by my neck of the woods!
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I wouldn't want you to miss one crazy thing...
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