Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Dinner at Eight

I hosted a dinner party (coincidentally during that same Fall Break just mentioned in the last post).  Of course, I'm only now getting around to blogging about it.  What can I say---teaching 24 six year olds can be a bit time consuming!

I made the Barefoot Contessa's chicken with mushroom and madeira sauce and did not even skimp on the cream.  It also had creme fraiche in it!  Yum!  I also made rosemary polenta (another Barefoot Contessa recipe; I love her!) and a green salad.  For dessert, I poached pears in mulled red wine.  They were incredibly delicious and wonderful for my friends who have a gluten free diet and couldn't have eaten a dessert I might typically have made.

My Halloween decorations are out in these pictures.  I love Halloween!


I struggled over the color for my curtains.  My favorite color is green, followed by blue.  My natural inclination is to go with those colors.  For EVERYTHING.  In my old house, all the rooms were either blue or green.  In this tiny condo, I don't want to paint the walls.  I want it to look fresh and uncluttered, since I tend to have a clutter problem.  (I like stuff!)  So I wanted to get color through accessories like curtains, and I also wanted to add warmth.  Something about this room cried out for warmth.  A friend suggested terra cotta.  I saw these curtains and decided they were what I needed, though quite far from my usual norm.  You can't tell, but I have two wicker chair on either side of the TV (massive, ugly, horrific TV) and they have pillows the same color as the curtains.  I like the way the terra cotta goes with the robin's egg blue pillows (from Etsy).  Some days I still have an urge to get new curtains.  But in the autumn, these seem just right!


The weird things hanging at the top of the picture are my shabby vintage Halloween tags.  I hung them from my chandelier.  Of course, little pup had to make it into the photo.  He follows me everywhere.  I have my jadite plates on the wall.  I adore them.  I have to say it twice because I love them that much.  I ADORE them.  If I had my way, everything would be the color of jadite.  Which would be extreme and would probably make everyone sick of jadite.  But never me.  I can't get enough.

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