A Little Green Tablescape

 

 

Dear Red Couch Readers, today I bring to you "a little bit of green" to brighten up your world as it brightened up my table today. 

 

I found these green chargers for a quarter at Wal-Mart after Christmas and thought:  "Ding, ding, ding, I will use them for St. Patrick's Day to give a pop to my table."

 

 

 

I tucked a bit of green checked fabric in my napkin bundle to add a little color.

 

 

I picked up these green plastic mugs at the Dollar Store.  Don't tell my children, but I am reusing these to put little gifties in for St. Patrick's Day.  Yes I am an awesome mom!

 

 

I have had these candlesticks for almost 20 years, and every once in awhile I remember to set them out for St. Paddy's Day.

 

 

Of course if you were here you would get a little treat -- Ande's Mints -- on your table.

 

 

The tablecloth is a new purchase from the Christmas Tree Store when I visited Virginia in February.

 

 

Here is a view of my bubbly glass.

 

 

I love this little Dollar Store sign, which I hang on my buffet -- it is my only St. Patrick's Day Decoration.

 

 

 

On the Homefront:  My daughter Tati's  end of the year swim banquet brought me doing table decorations.  Our school colors are blue -- our Mascot is a dinosaur -- so I did these yarn balls in turqoise and blue and placed them on the tables.  My daughter Talley and I made about 36 of these for the banquet.  Yes, we have no life!

 

 

And some good news.  My husband is coming home for about 5 days tomorrow.  Soooo good to see him.

 

Thanks for dropping by my couch!

 

Tablescape Thursday

 

Meyer Lemon Shortbread Squares and Christmas Tree Shop Finds

 

 

Dear Readers, pardon my absence from the blogging world.  For the past few weeks life just got the better of me.  Today I am sharing another shortbread recipe that  I made using some Meyer Lemons that needed to be used.  They are sweet little melt-a-way cookies.

 

I am also joing in Kathleen's party, Let's Dish, where you are invited to share your dish finds and tablescapes that you put together.  Before I share the recipe, I want to share some of my finds from a Christmas Tree Shop store in Virginia.  These little footed bowls went for twenty-nine cents.  I was able to buy six of them.

 

 

 

These little napkin rings sold for a quarter, and I picked up 12 of them.  I thought they would be perfect on a Santa table at Christmas as, to me, they look like Santa's belt.

 

 

 

 

Now to get back to the shortbread squares....

 

 

You can use Meyer Lemons if you have them; they have a short growing season, or just normal lemons.

 

 

I  used these cookie cutters; they are from World Market

 

 

Recipe for Meyer Lemon Shortbread Squares

 

 1 cup butter, no substitutes

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons lemon zest

4 teaspoons lemon juice

2-1/4 cups flour

Powdered sugar for dusting

 

 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In medium mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in the lemon juice and the lemon zest.  On low speed, gradually beat in the flour, beginning with 2 cups of flour, and adding more flour, if necessary. The dough should be able to be rolled out. Roll out cookies to about 1/3 inch and cut with a cookie cutter. I used a small square-shaped cutter. Bake at 325 for about 9 - 10 minutes. Let cookies sit on baking sheet a few minutes, and then remove and cool on rack.  Note:  If you want a really moist shortbread, which I like, under bake a little and allow to sit on baking sheet for about 30 minutes after you take it out of the oven.  The cookies will be fragile, but oh so moist and melt in your mouth!  The baking times will vary with the size and thickness of your cookie.  Yield 36 small cookies.

 

 

Just dusted cookies.

 

 

Please take one before you leave.

 

 

 

Just a bit on the home front.  This is our friend Danielle or "Wookie," as she is affectionately known as.   She came over for dinner on Valentine's Day.  We served asparagus with a little bit of butter.  Weirdly, all the butter on the  asparagus somehow got shaped into a heart shape!  She asked me if I shaped it, and I said "No, but it looks like a good sign for 2013!"  She is single and such a beautiful person inside and out.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping by my couch!! 

Maraschino Cherry Chocolate Drizzled Shortbread Cookies

 

 

Glad you dropped by Red Couch Recipes!

 

My mother made a maraschino heart-shaped cake for my father one year for Valentine's Day, and ever since I always associate maraschino cherries with Valentine's Day.  So I put together this recipe for my children, and they loved them.  These cookies are like chocolate covered cherries in shortbread form. Their lovely color is derived from the maraschino cherries and juice.   My daughter Tati also took them for her church class as a treat and they loved them also, and I hope you love them too.  Now that is a whole lot of love -- but it is Valentine's season, isn't it?

 

 

 

 

Recipe for Maraschino Cherry Chocolate Drizzled Shortbread Cookies

 

1  cup softened butter (do not use margarine)

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons almond extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice

2 cups, plus 2 -3 tablespoons flour, as needed (see note)

Maraschino cherries from a 10-ounce jar -- chopped very finely with the juice squeezed out of the cherries -- squeeze first, then chop

Small amount milk or semi-sweet chocolatechips for drizzling (about 1/2 cup for drizzling)  -- I used milk chocolate chips.

 

 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  In medium mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until light and fluffy.  Beat in the almond extract, then beat in the salt.  then add maraschino cherry juice.  On low speed, gradually beat in the flour, beginning with 2 cups of flour, and adding more flour, if necessary.  The dough should be able to be rolled out.  Roll out cookies to about 1/3 inch and cut with a cookie cutter. I used a small heart-shaped cookie cutter.   Bake at 325 for about 8 - 9 minutes.  Let cookies sit on baking sheet a few minutes, and then remove and cool on rack.  When cookies are cool, melt chocolate, and then drizzle on cookies. Let chocolate dry.  Yield:  2 dozen small cookies.   Now go on and serve them to a loved one.

 

Cookies waiting to be drizzled

 

 

 

Notse:  I live in a very dry, desert area; the amount of flour you use will vary.  For the drizzling of the chocolate, I just cut a small hole in the corner of a Zip-Loc bag.  I then put a small amount of chocolate in the bag and drizzled the chocolate over the cookies with a back and forth motion.

 

Cookie waiting for chocolate to dry

 

 

 

Hope you are baking something up special for your loved ones.

 

 

 

Just a little picture from the homefront....

This is the cat named Ruby that we rescued from the street a little less than a year ago.  He was sitting in the middle of the street.  I recently bought him a little house, AND HE LOVES IT!!  You know how you buy something for your pet, and they never use it...

 

 

 

 Thanks for dropping by the Couch.