Cranberry Chutney

Cranberry Chutney!

What is Chutney?  Chutney is a relish originating in India made with fruits and spices.  The Chutney preserved the fruit itself so that it could be eaten out of season and it also acted as a cooling condiment to tone down the hot and spicy flavor of Indian curries.

Taste of Gourmet's Cranberry Chutney is a sweet flavorful condiment filled with whole cranberries and spices to serve with roast turkey, chicken, or pork.  You can mix a little of the Chutney into chicken salad or spread it on sliced turkey/ham sandwiches.

A great party food treat:  Cover the top of a Brie cheese with the Cranberry Chutney, wrap it in pastry, and bake until brown.

It is wonderful mixed with cream cheese as a bagel spread.  Just add 2-3 tblsp Cranberry Chutney to 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature.  Spread on warm bagels and enjoy!

This Cranberry Chutney is my Taste of Gourmet "Product of the Month" during November.  TOG has a "Product of the Month" each month...a fundraising project to benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Purchasing the Cranberry Chutney during the month of November will generate a $1 donation to St. Jude Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.  The hospital is devoted to research and treatment toward eliminating chronic childhood diseases like leukemia and is the only childhood cancer research center designated by the National Cancer Institute. 

It's time to start thinking about hostess gifts for the holidays.  Food is a gift of love.  We all have to eat y'all!  Stock your entertaining pantry and gift closet while making a donation to St. Jude.  A 12 oz jar of the Cranberry Chutney is only $8.95.  This is delish y'all and will make a great hostess gift during the holidays.  Just take your hostess a jar of Chutney and some bagels that she can enjoy the next morning.  You can order the Chutney from me HERE.  

Thank you so much for stopping by to visit with me.

Soup Etiquette

Tonight I'm in the kitchen preparing a pot of Creamy Delta Shrimp Bisque.

  The soup mix is from my Taste of Gourmet products...The Creamy Delta Bisque.  After adding 5 cups of milk and 1 stick of butter {I know...it's a treat} to the base, I also added some fresh peeled shrimp.

The shrimp with the creamy bisque...decadent!  This the reason I eat veges and brown rice with some fish most nights of the week!

Taste of Gourmet Creamy Delta Bisque is packaged 2 mixes per box for $9.95/box.  You can order this soup or other great soup mixes from me HERE.  The bisque is great with catfish, crab, ham, or chicken.  The bisque can be thickened with cheese to make a hot seafood dip.

Social Graces 101 tip:  

There is of course proper etiquette to be followed when eating soup:

At an informal meal you may serve soup in a soup plate on top of an underplate and provide an oval soup spoon.  You will spoon the soup away from you and place the soup spoon on the underplate between sips or when finished.

Informal soup plate and oval soup spoon presentation

Resting and finished position--soup plate

At a formal dinner, soup must be served in a soup bowl with an underplate and a round/cream soup spoon provided.  Again place the soup spoon on the underplate between sips or when finished.

Formal soup bowl presentation with cream soup spoon.

Resting and finished position--soup bowl

Since we are having cream soup tonight, the soup will be eaten with a medium round/soup spoon.  Hold the spoon just like a pencil between your index and middle fingers with the thumb up.  Spoon the soup away from you toward the center of the bowl.  Don't fill the soup spoon completely full.  Place the soup spoon on the plate in the 10:20 "I am finished" position in between sips and when you have finished.  Never leave a soup spoon in a soup bowl.

Also, do not blow on your soup to cool it down and do not slurp your soup.

I hope y'all are enjoying the soup season!

Styleboards

Today I'm featuring a couple of styleboards that I have hanging on the walls of my bedroom.  These were custom made for me by Dana Henderson.  Dana just opened a store in Warner Robins, Georgia--The Vintage Junktion.  Stop over and visit her on Facebook.

I'm using the styleboard above to display my Hermes Knotting Cards.  I believe there are at least 5 volumes of the cards and mine are from volume 2.  These are not available at Hermes for sale, but you can purchase them on eBay.  You can also download the app Hermes Silk Knots onto your iPhone!

There are 21 cards in each box with the photo of the scarf style on the front of the card and a diagram of how-to-knot the scarf on the back.

This is the front and back of the Bras Casse style...ala Grace Kelly!

This is the petit papillon style

This is the cow-boy style...one of my favorites!

Echarpe style...

Taille De Guepe style

Twilly style...The Twilly scarf is fast becoming my favorite and now twillies are available in a maxi size!

I want to purchase the Hermes scarf ring...it's on my "Wish List."

Miss Dana also made this styleboard which I'm using to display my Chanel notecards and flower pins...

I love the feminine touch that displaying the cards and pins brings to the room.  It is hung on the wall near my vanity table and looks real prissy!

Thank you for visiting with me today!

Leopard Print Love

Ten years ago, I was crazy about leopard print.  Of course, I used it everywhere and eventually a few years later I got burned out with it.  Little by little all the leopard throws, pillows, and fashion accessories that I owned were either given to charities or sold in a garage sale.

And now...I'm back loving leopard print again!  Here are a few ways I have added it to my outfits, et cetera:

I mixed tortoise with a leopard print Tory Burch phone case to accessorize an outfit...the ballet flats, tee, and wrist cuff are J Crew Factory  and the wristlet is Tory Burch.

I wore poppy J Crew Factory denim pants and a camel cardi with my leopard print scarf {the scarf is from Belk's}.  The poppy ballet flats with bling are from Target.

Leopard print loafers are popular now and I chose to buy the Target loafers for about $20.  The camel denim pants and black gingham blouse are from Ralph Lauren.  The denim jacket is from The Gap {15+ years ago}.  The tortoise necklace is from The Snappy Turtle and the rhinestone necklace is from Target.  The Louis Vuitton purse is the "Eva Clutch."

Love these loafers and they will probably be my fall go-to shoes!  Tee - J Crew Factory.  Bling necklace - Brina Box.  Bling earrings - Belk's.  IPhone case - Kate Spade.  Nail polish "Holiday" - Chanel.  "Eva Clutch" - Louis Vuitton.

Of course, I have a leopard print apron...love hot pink and leopard print together!

I found this cute leopard print cardi in the girl's department at Target.  I liked this pattern more than the one they offer in the women's department and the xlarge was a good fit for me {on sale $15}.  Pink denim pants - Old Navy.  Sunglasses - Chanel.  Black belt - Celine.  Ballet flats - Chanel.

There are several very cute {and pricey} leopard print clutches around, but I chose this cute clutch from The Gap.  I think I paid about $30 for it and it's too cute!  Necklace - Brina Box.

Of course I have a leopard print cosmetic case...from Forever 21 {under $10}.  All makeup - Chanel.

I added a Brina Box bling necklace to this cute blouse from Forever 21.

Today I wore a skinny leopard print belt {from J Crew} with a white oxford cloth button down and jeans.  Again, I paired the print with pink...Tory Burch {fuchsia} ballet flats, a Lilly Pulitzer cardi, and a Tory Burch wrist cuff.

A couple of weeks ago, I used a leopard print take-out box to hold a thank-you gift.

Okay, so I'm gonna stop with the leopard binge...no more leopard print in my shopping bags!  

Halloween Decor

Now that our house is yellow with turquoise and hot pink accents on the front porch, I decided to go with the colors turquoise and orange for Halloween.  The wreaths and tree were spray painted to match the color of my cushions on the porch and I added orange mesh ribbon bows...take a peek.

This is my tree this year...minus the black and orange and all the spooky witches from previous years.  Parents always take photos of their children in front of my spooky Halloween tree every year.  I'm guessing they might not be so taken with this tree...but I am!

Today I served lunch on the porch and wore a turquoise polka dot apron {from my Prissy Apron Collection}, monogrammed in orange...with an orange gingham blouse, leggings, and orange Revas.

For the table setting, I used orange plates with turquoise linen napkins, orange pumpkin napkin rings, and turquoise monogrammed goblets.

Kinda coastal...

We are expecting 1,000+ trick-or-treaters again this year and are seriously considering putting Halloween candy on layaway at Walmart!

Thanks for stopping by to visit today.  

Gravity

In anticipation of seeing the movie 'Gravity' I spent the morning reading up on one of my favorite movie stars Sandra Bullock.  This is a photo I posted to Instagram, styling the magazine with my Chanel "Cinema" nail colour and "Star Red" lip colour...perfect shades for Miss Bullock!

'Gravity' is a 90-minute breath-taking, thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.  Mr. Clooney {Matt Kowalski} is a veteran astronaut in the space adventure and Sandra Bullock {Ryan Stone} is a medical engineer who is taking her first voyage into space.  They are on a routine mission when they receive a message from Houston Control that a Russian satellite has exploded, thus causing a shower of debris to come flying right at them.  Now they are both adrift in space...

The special effects and 3-D made me feel like I was right up there in space with them.  Lord have mercy, this is an intense movie y'all!

I enjoyed the movie and now see online that it is getting good reviews...so check it out!

I never tire of seeing Sandra Bullock.  She seems so real in every part she plays.  The 49-year-old actress lives a paparazzi-free life in Houston, Texas, where she is raising her 3-year-old son Louis.  Isn't he precious?!

Vogue magazine did a fabulous job capturing her in the photos of this month's issue...
 
In a gown by Michael Kors...

Dressed in a stunning Calvin Klein dress...

Looking fabulous in Donna Karan...

She still has the look...in this leather Prada dress.  Even though her hair is short in the photos and also in the film, I do believe she's wearing a wig as I have seen recent photos of her with long hair.

My Friend Joy's New House

A couple of weeks ago I passed through Savannah on the way home to Mama's house and stopped off to spend some time with my friend Joy.  She recently just purchased this darling beach cottage on Tybee Island.  This is the "After" photo...

Here's the "Before" photo...before Joy put her colorful touch on it!

Joy owns Tybee Joy Vacation Rentals just outside of Savannah, Georgia on Tybee Island and scoots around the island in her colorful outfits...in style, driving this adorable cart!

Joy leads a team of cleaners, reservationists, customer service reps, and repairmen from inside her colorful office-at-home.

The chandelier lights up her kitchen table...

This view is looking into her kitchen from the office area...

This is her "Coastal dining area," using an old door with a glass top as the tabletop and supports from Ikea.

The centerpiece on the dining table...

A pretty little turquoise china cabinet/secretary...

This is an area of her living room...

Of course the hot tub is...turquoise!

I hope y'all have enjoyed the tour of Miss Joy's colorful beach cottage!