Impromptu Easter Buffet

What a great day for sitting on the porch enjoying a light meal! Today reminded me of a ladies' group I was a part of for several years, and I thought that this setting would be perfect for a casual get-together this time of year. Because my tables on the porch are small, I think it is more conducive to set up a buffet in the kitchen. And today, my guests are my children!


I considered a long line of Easter themes: candies like jelly beans and Peeps, bunnies, chicks, lilies, palms, eggs, and baskets. I finally decided that some plates I have were bright enough on their own, and I really didn't want to waste a ton of candy. I would never let my children keep it, and it is not something I really wanted to emphasize to them as my guests. I have other Easter items that I have used with them in the past, such as Lenox Easter votives, cake plates with bunnies, various sculptural items like salt and pepper shakers, bunny flower pots, etc. And I usually choose a more Victorian look. But today was too bright and sunny, and those neat plates were begging to be used.

I found these great plates and glasses on eBay. The water goblets are Independence Crystal in the orange Sculptural pattern. (The mint juleps were a Tuesday Morning find.) The dinner plates are Fitz and Floyd Rondelet orange, and the luncheon plates are by Mesa Home Productions. I have no idea of the pattern name. You know how some people sleepwalk? I saw these plates online and thought they were too much only to find that I had bought them in the middle of the night. The iPhone eBay app makes it tooooo easy. So, I guess I sleepshop now...


Needless to say, green and orange would be the theme of this year's pre-Easter luncheon buffet. I decided to pull all the avocado green items I have, which consisted of: the plates, my place mats, a large fruit-motif ceramic platter, a milk glass mixing bowl with an avocado dip, two large flower vases, and my carnival glass. The carnival glass was quickly discarded in favor of the orange stemware. I separated it between what was going on the porch and what would coordinate in the kitchen on the buffet.


The buffet in the kitchen was simple, dressed in orange and green food:

And the porch was decked out in the bright orange and green.

I made chicken salad sandwiches and cut the bread with a rabbit cookie cutter. I used food coloring to paint eyes and noses.

I painted our initials on boiled eggs and served them in ramekins lined with lettuce and baby carrots.

I made egg-shaped tea cakes and frosted them with orange and green.

I made some lemonade and set it on the porch on a plant stand for a lack of room on the table.

For a centerpiece, I used one of the green vases, surrounding it with potpourri and placing a small topiary inside.

Once the guests (my children) added their plates, it was sufficiently Easter-y for them! And the best part is that I didn't even have to run to the store for anything; I had everything I needed already. And isn't that what Easter is about?


-Andrea

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Sweet Thirteen

 

I am not sure how many times you have visited our blog, but I am the one in middle school, Emma. I have just gotten into tablescaping with my mom and grandmother this year, though I have played in the china since I was little.  I have been thinking that I can design my own table for my 13th birthday. Today is the first of many  ideas I am considering. I also want to do all of the food if I can, so everything you will see today is something most 12-year-olds can do.

I decided to do a beautiful buffet. Snack plates that I just adore sit at one end next to the silver. My mom's silver is Sir Christopher by Wallace. My silver is Francis the 1st by Reed and Barton, but I don't have 12 salad forks yet. I wanted to use her cocktail forks, but she only has 8 of those I think.

My mother loves snack plate and cup sets. These snack plates are Johnson Brothers Rose Chintz pattern.  I like how they have a place for the cup. They have blue, brown, and green in the pattern, too, so they would match different kinds of rooms.

My mom actually bought these plates to go with the punch bowl set. She bought the punch bowl set from a woman in New York off eBay. The 24 cups, the bowl, the stand, and the ladle were less than $40 including shipping, she said. After she bought the set, she wanted 24 plates to go with them. She doesn't have the actual cups in the pattern, but she said she doesn't need them because the punch cups fit. She found 24 of these great plates on Replacements.com. I am only using 12 of everything on this table.  I really adore these plates. They look white here, but they are actually cream. I still wanted to use the white tablecloth, though. I think they look fine on white.

For the food, I decided to use anything we had that didn't require cooking. 

I used fresh vegetables and ranch dip.

And I had crackers and cheese.

We have bought a lot of Girl Scout cookies lately, so I included those and some of the Valentine's candy we still have.

The grapes were pretty on the table. My mom bought this bowl and the matching chip and dip at an Oneida outlet store many years ago.

I think you can tell from this angle and some of the other pictures, I had peanuts on the table. My little sister and I love peanuts and peanut butter. As a baby, she called it teeny butter, and we still call it that in our house.

We also always have several kinds of juice. This is a punch I made with CranGrape juice. I found the recipe on the internet, and I have copied it at the bottom.

I added potpourri in a crystal basket and rose petals in a crystal bowl. They are the rose petals from my mother's earlier post about making frosted potpourri. Those were just for decoration, not eating, of course! I also had topiaries and a vase of flowers. My grandmother bought the vase in Ireland, and it was a gift to my mother. The pattern is Lismore by Waterford. 

The napkins are some my grandmother gave to my mother before I was born.

I like this look for a thirteenth birthday party. I would want to add a meat if it were close to a meal time.  The best part about this tablescape is that after my mom helped me take pictures, we ate this for lunch. Not all of it of course, but it was fun to make a buffet for ourselves!

Thank you for visiting me and trying the recipe!

Emma

CranGrape Punch

2 quarts of cranberry-grape juice, chilled

1-6oz can of frozen pink lemonade concentrate, thawed

1-32oz bottle of sparkling water, chilled

Mix the juice and lemonade concentrate in a punch bowl. Stir in the sparkling water just before serving.


From: http://www.freecookingrecipes.net/beverages/sparkling-cran-grape-punch

We used lemon juice and water to substitute for the pink lemonade concentrate and Sprite for the sparkling water. It was really good!


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