Japanese Tea Party

A couple months ago, I showed off my new Japanese tea set that Miss Sue Flay sent me in a Tea Cup Trade.  For a reminder of that post you can go here.  Today I'm using it to complement another great Japanese item:  the beautiful painting I won from the talented Mrs. Amy Van Gaasbeck in the Japan relief auction she held shortly after the earthquake. 

Amy has several of these great geisha girl paintings, as well as notecards, in her Etsy shop!

Here's that adorable tea set again from Miss Sue Flay.  The cups are teeny tiny---just big enough to hold about 2 Tb. of tea!  I love this whole vignette and love that it came just about the time that we all began praying for the earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan.  This set and painting will always serve as a reminder to me to pray for the dear people of that country.

Join me today at Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday!

Blueberry Scones, Chili and What We Did Today

I've just tucked my kids into bed and am ready for a little quiet blogging time before my husband, Jamie, gets home from work.  The kids and I are all feeling very accomplished today as we got a lot done and each had an enjoyable day.  I'm hoping that Jamie will have had a happy day as well!

First thing this morning, I cut up two cantaloupes and served them in my new cabbage bowl.  I found this at a yard sale in Pendleton, Oregon Friday when I was visiting my mom.  I saw one similar on a blog a couple weeks ago and loved it!  (In case you're wondering:  one cantaloupe fits in the bowl.  I served everyone and then cut up the other one for the fridge! :)

Then I cut up a bunch of fruit and vegetables so we will actually EAT them while some of the kids played a fun game they made up.

They made paper pizzas and opened their own pizza shop. 

The living room was trashed but they had a lot of fun!

After I finished my produce-cutting adventure, I made 3 batches of blueberry scones.  Two batches will be eaten at breakfast tomorrow while one went into the freezer.  Recipe at the end of the post...

Avalon said, "Take a picture of me, Mom."  After I took it she said, "Me see Avi."

Then, because the kitchen wasn't quite hot enough, I decided to make 5 loaves of banana bread!  Recipe is Betty Crocker's...just a basic one.  All of these went in the freezer.

While the bread was baking, I made the rounds with my camera again.  Here Avalon is feeding her baby some cereal in her high chair.

Cainan is making more messes pizza...

Elisha's got his pizza baking on books from the kids' bookshelf.

A Ha!  Here's Miss Lynzie Mae, the dedicated artist, busy copying a painting from an encyclopedia.  She spent the afternoon in the kitchen working on her paintings.

I believe Michael said this was a Papa Murphy's Cowboy Pizza....

More by Lynzie...

Oh!  More by me too!  I made chili and cornbread for dinner.  Cornbread recipe came from the side of the box but I'll put my chili recipe at the bottom of the post too.

Avalon said, "I just LOVE tornbed!" (That would be "cornbread")

Because we had some strawberries in the freezer, I decided we needed a quick batch of strawberry jam to go with our cornbread!  You can make this delicious freezer jam in 15 minutes!  You can find my easy tutorial here. 

After I got all the other little ones to bed, I had a chance to go in and look at the paintings Lynzie did today.  This is her favorite of her hero, George Washington.  Looking good, Lynzie!

I love being a homemaker and am so thankful for the opportunity to be home with my kids and care for my family.  This beautiful day in the life of our family was made possible by the selfless sacrifices of:

and ultimately, the Lord Jesus.  Thank you, God, for this blessed life!

Blueberry Scones

(makes 8 scones)

1 cup blueberries or other fruit
1/3 c. + 2 Tb. sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, in cubes, slightly softened
2/3 cup half-and-half or cream or cold buttermilk **TIP: (I mix a couple TB. of bottled lemon juice with regular milk and let it sit about 10 min. for easy cheater buttermilk)

Topping:
1 tablespoon sugar (I used coarse decorator sugar)

Preheat oven to 400.
Sprinkle bite-sized fruit with 2 TB sugar; set aside.

Mix the rest of the  sugar with the flour, baking powder and salt. Using a pastry blender, mix in the butter until it looks crumby...(not CRUMMY...there's a difference!! :)  Stir in fruit and then buttermilk.
 
When it's all mixed together, set it in a big blob on a cookie sheet and form it into some semblance of a circle about 3/4 inch thick or so.  Cut into 8 wedges and either space them out on the sheet or bake them in the cut circle and recut on the lines after they're baked.  Sprinkle with coarse or regular sugar.  Bake 15 minutes or until golden in places and no longer doughy.


Chili


(makes about 10 servings...you can half this or freeze the remaining if you don't need this much)


6 cans beans (We like to use black beans)
2 cans refried beans
1-2 pkg. taco seasoning
1/2 c. bbq sauce
1/4 c. dijon or spicy mustard


Rinse 6 cans beans in strainer.  Place them in a pot with the refried beans and all other ingredients.  Add 2-4 c. water.  You want to start out with the chili quite a bit runnier than you like it.  Cook and stir often until it has reached your desired thickness.  This could be anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half...depending on how much water you add.  The more water you add, the longer you have to cook it and the more flavorful it will be as the beans absorb the flavors from the other ingredients.  If you're in a hurry, just add a couple cups of water so there's a buffer there to keep it from sticking to the pan while it's heating up and dissolving the seasoning and you'll be good to go in about a half hour.

I Won!!!

One of the really fun things about blogging is participating in others' giveaway parties!  I've held several giveaways of my own and have entered in many more!  I'm so excited to announce that I finally won one!!

Jacqueline at Purple Chocolat Home hosted a great giveaway for a gorgeous headband---handmade by her daughter, Audra, of Me Oh My Couture, an awesome Etsy store!  Lucky me, I've got four gorgeous daughters to share our treasure!

Avalon has been wearing it a lot since it first arrived in the mail a few days ago!  She calls it her "Pitty Fower".

I like it best in her ponytail!

Thank you so much, Jacqueline and Audra, for your generous gift!  We really love our new headband and love it that it's big enough for Mom to wear too!