Dish Lovers Should Never Move Cross Country

Hello and welcome to Red Couch Recipes.

Some of my followers may have noticed that I have been absent from the blogging world.  I have been absent because we have been in the process of making job decisions, preparing our home to sell, and putting our home up for sale.   We live in a small rural area in Southeastern Utah, and we are moving to Northern Virginia.  That will be quite a change for our family!  Wanting a better, more stable employment situation, my husband applied for jobs this year.  He received five job interviews, went to four of them, and received three job offers.  We picked the job that seemed to be the best and decided to move.

No, I have not given up on blogging but with the packing, painting, and cleaning, I just haven't had the time.  We also put in new solid surface (Tyvarian) countertops in our kitchen, and remodeled a bathroom.  I will show you the before and after pictures in a future post.  The housing market is very slow in our area, we pray to be able to leave for Virginia in August as a family.

Many of our things are packed up and in storage, but I still have a lot of dishes to pack.  Like my title said, dish lovers should never move cross country.

I hope you have been having a great summer.

Cookie Graduation Cake

Hello Friends and welcome to Red Couch Recipes.  My son graduated from High School last Thursday.  Of course we held a party in in his honor and the girls and I made this cookie cake.  It is a chocolate whole wheat cake, my favorite chocolate cake, adorned with No-Fail Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing.

The dinosaur is our mascot, and we are known as the "Dinos."  There are several dinosaur statues that adorn the high school.

This little guy was donated last year by a group of alumni.

As for the cake, it is a chocolate whole wheat cake, my favorite chocolate cake, adorned with No-Fail Sugar Cookies and Royal Icing.  This was the first time my little one helped with decorating the cookies.

It was a graduating class of 182.  Both my high schoolers have loved going to this small school.  The boys wore blue gowns and the girls wore white gowns.  When I graduated we all wore black gowns and the boys and the girls were not seated separately.  I loved it when the Class President led them in flinging their graduating hats.  My son is the one who has his hand on his face.

The girls and I hand-cut the C's and the Dinosaurs.  I took apart a balloon weight from the Dollar Store for the centerpiece of the cake.

If you have an occasion you are celebrating, a cookie cake just might fit the bill.  I did bake my cookies a bit longer than usual so that they would be firmer, however, most of the time I love my cookies soft and white on the bottom.  If I did this again, I might make a three-layer cake, instead of a two-layer cake. 

I hope you are having a great summer!  Thanks for dropping by!

Prom Tablescape

Welcome to Red Couch Recipes.  I have posted the pictures of the tablesetting of the Prom dinner I put together for my son and his date and another couple.  The theme of the Prom was "City Lights," but I decided to use the elephant plates my son had given me to make a "manly statement ;). 

I love the elephant plates, they are fun.  He bought them at Ross for my birthday two years ago.

I set the square elephant plates on my brown reactive ware. 

I used the wonderful beaded napkin rings that I won in a giveaway from Kathleen, at Cuisine Kathleen.

If you know me, you know I always include a shot of looking throught the glasses.  These yellow glasses were a gift from my sisters.  They are so bright and cheery.

Our forsythia was still in bloom, and as an afterthought I brought some in to put in the center of the table.

It is just a simple little arrangement that went along with my "screaming yellow" glasses.

Since there were only four at the table I put together an endscape with some luggage, candles, bananas, and pineapple to go along with the elephant theme.  I didn't want a huge centerpiece that might get in the way of conversation....not to worry, my son was there and he is a gabber.

The menu for the evening included three recipes from my blog.  My son was very particular about the menu.  He chose Creamy Fennel Pork, which is a family favorite for the main course.  For dessert we plated Grand Wailea Ice Cream balls with Pots Au Chocolat drizzled with raspberry sauce.  I loved it that these young couples had room to eat most of the dessert!  My son and two daughters all helped with the cleaning of the home, and with the cooking.  It was a fun time.

On another note....

On another note....my sister Jacqueline, at Purple Chocolat Home, may be the only one who has noticed my lack of blogging.  I told her that I may quit because my life has become so busy, and she quickly said "Well, if you quit, then I quit!"  I don't  really believe she will quit because blogging fits her lifestyle to a "T."  She has always been creating and doing wonderful things.  I have enjoyed the fun we have shared together as "Blogging Sisters."  So for now I have decided to stay with blogging.  One of the things I have enjoyed about blogging is visiting your blogs!  Honestly, you fellow bloggers are some of the most creative, kind, and funny people.  I apologize that I have not been visiting as much as I would like to, and sometimes I don't post because I feel that I don't have time to visit all your wonderful blogs, but I will do what I can.

Our Red Couch Family wishes you a wonderful day!

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Let's Dish, Tablescape Thursday