Sweet Mothers Kitchen

You are here: Home / Archives for Char

Char

Mimi’s Old Fashioned Homemade Fudge

by

homemade old fashioned fudge

This recipe was given to me by a co-worker’s Mimi (grandmother) when I lived in Atlanta and worked at the Blue Rooster Cafe in Lilburn, GA.  Fudge was not sold at the cafe, I just made it in the back for the staff. On one such occassion, I had a faccident (fudge making accident) and burned my arm really bad and I still have the scars to prove it! Regardless, this is some of the best fudge I’ve ever had. It’s the real deal. Thank you, Mimi!

Mimi’s Fudge
Recipe Type: Candy
Author: Sweet Mother
If you love real old fashioned fudge like Grandma used to make, check this recipe out!
Ingredients:
  • 3 Sticks butter
  • 4 C granulated sugar
  • 1/4 C cocoa (heaping)
  • 1 C evaporated milk
  • dash of salt
Instructions:

Stir butter, sugar, cocoa & salt in a saucepan over medium high heat. Add milk and stir with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved. Cook stirring constantly until candy forms a soft ball stage when a small amount is dropped into cold water. Once soft ball stage is reached, set pot into an ice water bath and beat until thick. Add 1/4 C of corn starch and nuts and beat well. Spread into a parchment lined pan to cool. When completely cooled, cut into squares and enjoy.

Brownies You’ll Be Famous For!

by

I love brownies and I always have! I’m pretty sure it’s because of this lifelong love affair that I’ve had with chocolate. I have eaten many a tasty brownie but I had to find my own recipe. I searched high and low and found one that I labled, “the bomb brownies” after I made and tasted them. I then promptly lost the recipe! I searched high and low for it, in the house, online, in my recipes stashes but to no avail. So what to do?! Try to find the recipe again of course and of course I couldn’t find it! At least I couldn’t find the recipe I thought I’d used so, time to come up with my own. This is it folks, you’re welcome, for real, for real!

Brownies You’ll Be Famous For
Recipe Type: Dessert
Author: Sweet Mother
This is the result of my search for the perfect brownie! I’m satisfied with this recipe but I can’t promise not to change it. I’m constantly developing recipes to find a better end result. Don’t get me wrong, this brownie recipe is all that! Wait till you try them. I’d love to know what you think!
Ingredients
  • 1/2 C + 2 Tbs oil
  • 1/2 C AP flour
  • 1/2 C cocoa powder (unsweetened)
  • 1 C granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs (beaten)
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 C brewed black coffee
  • 1/2 C each of semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips and chopped walnuts
Instructions
  1. Add everything (except chips & nuts) to a bowl and stir to combine. Add chips & nuts and pour into a parchment lined pan. Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool and ice or eat plain. Enjoy!

Note: Parchment lined pan is in bold for a reason! Don’t forget to line your pan with parchment paper or your brownies will become brownie spoonbread! Still good but a little harder to get out of the pan! 🙂

Easy Cranberry Sauce

by

The Jellied Stuff In the Can!

First of all, let me just say that easy cranberry sauce is the way to go! Homemade is so much better than the canned stuff! Because, like most people, I grew up eating canned cranberry sauce. Yes, the jellied stuff that came out of the can in the shape of the can and was served on a plate sliced, like ham! As a result, we always ate jellied, out the can, cranberry sauce with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner! Because it was what my mom served as part of our holiday dinners, when I grew up and started fixing my own holiday dinners, I always had that can of cranberry sauce in my shopping cart. Tradition is a wonderful and interesting thing!

Not My Mom’s Cranberry Sauce!

A few years ago, probably while watching the food network, I saw someone make cranberry sauce from scratch or I found a recipe for homemade cranberry sauce. So, I decided to take a walk on the wide side and make my own cranberry sauce! We haven’t gone back to the canned stuff since! First of all, this stuff is bomb! My whole family loves it and it’s so easy to make! Very little work, very big benefits! Yes! 

Easy Cranberry Sauce
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 1/2 – 2 pints
 
Tart, sweet and goes great with your holiday meal. If you love cranberries, you’ll find yourself making an excuse to serve and eat this cranberry sauce year round. Delicious!
Ingredients:
1 bag of fresh cranberries, washed and drained
1 orange, zested and cut in half
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 C toasted walnuts (optional)
Instructions:
  1. Put sugar, zest, ginger and cinnamon in a saucepan with the juice from the orange you zested and cut in half. Bring to a simmer over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.
  2. When sugar dissolves, add cranberries and continue to cook until cranberries begin to pop (about 5 minutes).
  3. Turn heat off and let ingredients cool slightly.
  4. Pour into a container and refrigerate cranberry sauce to continue the thickening process and to chill completely (about 3 hours). Serve
 

You’re Gonna Love This Stuff!

Pigs Feet, Lasagna and Neck Bones – Oh My!

by

I was watching the February 22, 2018 episode of Top Chef, where the four remaining competitors get a surprise visitor from home! For a couple of the chef contestants it’s their moms, for one it’s his grandmother and for the fourth it’s his dad. 

The best part is that the visiting family member had each cooked a “dish from home” and everyone gets to sit down and break bread together. Little do the contestants know that their next cooking challenge is to recreate an elevated version of their family dish! One mom cooked gumbo, the grandmother made rigatoni with meat balls, another mom made beef stroganoff. My favorite dish hands down was cooked by the only dad that came. He cooked pigs feet, neck bones in gravy (red sauce) with lasagna! Oh, by the way, forgot to tell you, the dad and son are Italian! Talk about soul food recipes from around the world!

The son, Joe,  said lasagna and pigs feet gravy will always remind him of his mom! For holidays and special occasions, it was always on the table. Joe said it would be hard (emotionally) to recreate the dish because his mom had passed away, seven years earlier from cancer. He hesitated to cook the dish because he didn’t want to fail and dishonor the memory of his mother. It was a very emotional show! 

The more I expose myself to other cultures and what they eat, the more I understand that every culture has their own version of soul food! It may be called a different name – peasant food, country food, stick-to-your-ribs comfort food. No matter what it’s called, it’s still the food that cultures were and still are built upon!  The food  our childhood food memories are made of! It’s food that when you eat it, you can taste the love and care that went into it’s preparation! 

As many times as I’ve eaten pigs feet and neck bones, I have never had them cooked in red gravy and served with a side of lasagna! I guess like they say, we are more alike than we are different! We all have food that we love to cook and share with family, friends and loved ones, making memories that we cherish and pass on! 

I feel that this Top Chef episode resonates with the real idea behind my recipe blog, Sweet Mother’s Kitchen. I have always intended it to be a place to share our heritage, culture, stories, photos and recipes! My blog’s tagline is… Cook. Share. Remember. , which now should be self explanatory. What may not be quite as obvious is my Logo, but it is also a part of the same idea. My logo is a Sankofa, a mythical bird from West African folklore. The origin of the lore hails from the Akan tribe of Ghana, West Africa. 

The meaning of the word Sankofa is 

  • SAN (return) 

  • KO (go)

  • FA (look, seek and take)

and the literal translation of the word and symbol is, “it is not wrong to return and go get the good thing in danger of being left behind”*.

The Sankofa is depicted as a large bird with it’s body facing and/or flying forward, with it’s head turned backward. It holds an egg in it’s mouth that it is lovingly placing on it’s back in preparation of the trip into the future! The egg represents the good thing it went back and got that it’s taking with it – heritage, values and memories!

I used the Sankofa bird meaning for my logo for my soul food recipe web site. My Sankofa is flying forward into the future and taking all of it’s culture, recipes and memories in the form of a heart with it. Oh, and my Sankofa has a chef’s hat on! 🙂

We must never forget where we’ve come from and we should in fact celebrate it. Food that caused our forefathers to thrive and survive shouldn’t embarrass us or cause us to feel ashamed! You should be proud that not only did that food feed generations of people, nourishing and keeping them alive, it also gave them comfort when they needed it the most! 

Like the Sankofa we must learn from our past but we must also not be afraid to take the good part of it with us into our future! Like the adage says, you can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re coming from! It seems that the same people who encourage you to shun your past and your heritage are the same ones you’ll find serving it back up to you like they invented it! (Things that make you go, hummm???)

To be memorable, food must be more than fuel. To be memorable, food must connect you to something – a person, a place, a thought, an event! Soul food, southern food, country food, comfort food, Italian food, Polish food, Jamaican food, African food, Cuban food, Irish food, German food, French food – whatever the culinary heritage, it has to have soul!  

The old school recipes that Grandma used to make. The special dish that only your family knows how to make that is proudly served at every special event! Granddad’s special soup, Aunt Bea’s homemade rolls, food that’s as much a part of who you are as where you were born and raised! Don’t lose your food culture, go back and get it, treasure it and keep it with you!  Remember it, recreate it and share it with people you love! It’s what makes you who you are! 

 

* https://berea.edu/cgwc/the-power-of-sankofa/

Cooking With Cast Iron

by

The links below are affiliate links which means if you click on any of them and buy an item, I’ll make a small commission for referring you but you won’t pay one penny more! Thanks in advance, I appreciate your support!

One of the first dishes that I learned to make was cornbread in a cast iron skillet. I’m thinking cornbread because I loved it and the cast iron skillet was because that’s the only thing we used to make cornbread in! We made tons of other food in mom’s cast iron skillets which were the only kind of skillets that we had.

When Teflon came along, I remember us all choosing to use Teflon over cast iron but I don’t know why, other than it was “the new kid on the block”! I started learning how to cook when I was young. I don’t know how old I was when I started learning to cook but I wasn’t a teenager yet and I’ve been cooking ever since!

My Mom is the best cook I’ve ever known which is saying a lot because I have eaten at some epic restaurants and I went to culinary school and got to eat the food of a lot of great chef instructors. When it comes to everyday home cooking, my Mom has no equal in my mind! I’m sure you feel the same way about your Mom, Aunt, Grandmother, Dad or somebody, right? I learned a lot from my Mom and my Dad and both of them taught me how to cook dishes using cast iron. There’s something about cast iron that makes the flavor more intense. It fries food golden brown and beautiful! It bakes up cornbread, biscuits and whatever you want to bake in it picture perfect!

My Mom passed away in 2007 and for the life of me, I don’t know what happened to all of her cast iron skillets, dutch ovens, lids – etc. I hadn’t lived at home for years but I did notice that they were all gone when I moved back home a few years ago. The sad part is that pots, pans, skillets and things like that, can and should be handed down in a family.

Cooking in your Mom’s pots & pans brings back the best memories of her cooking for you and the rest of the family using those same pots & pans. Since I couldn’t have that experience, I decided to start my own collection of cast iron cookware. Of course, I have to have a small skillet 5 to 6 inches, a medium sized one 8 to 10 inches and a big chicken fryer 15 inches or more! I also want at least one  3 to 5 quart Dutch oven.

One day I was in Walmart when I saw a set of 3 pieces of cast iron cookware by Ozark Trail! I didn’t know who Ozark Trail was, in fact, the only brand name I knew about for cast iron was Lodge. The Ozark Trail collection was 2 skillets, one 5″ and one 8″ and a two-sided griddle for $19.99. Even though I didn’t know the company name, the display was in the camping section on an end cap, so I decided to take a change and give it a go! I couldn’t believe the great price! 

Even though the box said the cookware was pre-seasoned, I decided to pre-season them again anyway. I found some instructions online and followed them somewhat. I say somewhat because the instructions said to wash with soapy water, rinse and dry thoroughly. Next, you add a little oil to the pan and wipe it (inside & outside) with canola oil, remove the oil with a towel and then put it in the oven on 400 – 500 for 1 hour. Then it says to repeat the oil, wipe, oven bakes part SIX times – yes six times. Yes, it would take a whole day to season your cast iron that way. I decided since mine was already pre-seasoned I’d do it twice, see how it looked and decide if I should do any more “rounds”.

If you have cast iron I’m sure you’re using it but if you’re not, please do! If you don’t have any please get some, you’ll love what it does for your dishes!

Stay tuned for an update in this post about how my cast iron seasoning (seasoned twice) went. I’ll let you know tomorrow. Of course, that means I’ll be forced to go buy some chops or something similar to fry and I guess I’ll have to bake something too. Maybe a pan of cornbread too! Yippee!

UPDATE!!! I took my new pre-seasoned cast iron cookware and following instructions I found on a blog, I reseasoned them again – twice. I seasoned and fried pork chops and I baked cornbread in the bigger 8″ skillet. It performed flawlessly! No sticking, no burning, no problems! My pork chops were golden brown and juicy and the cornbread was simply delicious!

I included some pictures so you could see the results for yourself! The way I was standing when I took the pics caused a shadow on the cornbread making it look like it didn’t cook properly. Sorry about that folks! It cooked perfectly and looked and tasted delicious. I just need to take some food photo classes! 🙂

I’m happy with Ozark Trails and I recommend them highly. Anytime you can find cast iron that’s reasonably priced and that cooks like a charm, I’m in! I’m in love with Ozark Trails and like I told my sister, I will be buying more of it very soon! I was looking online and they have a 5-quart Dutch oven for under $20 at Walmart! That’s the best price I’ve seen on a 5 quart cast iron Dutch oven – EVER! I’m definitely getting one. I don’t want one with feet which is perfect for cooking outside/campfire cooking. For home cooking, a flat bottom will be perfect!

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

by

Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups crushed pretzels or pretzel crackers (I use Flipside pretzel crackers)

3 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup butter or margarine

1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 16-ounce Cool Whip (divided – 8oz for filling/8oz for garnish)

1 6-ounce package Strawberry Jello

2 cups boiling water

1 -16 ounce bag frozen sliced strawberries

Cool Whip for garnishing

 

Directions:

Crust: Melt butter; add sugar. Crush pretzels with rolling pin and add to butter mixture. Press into bottom of greased 9X13 inch baking pan. Bake 10 minutes at 350 degrees; cool well.

1st Layer: Combine cream cheese and 1 cup sugar; beat well. Add Cool Whip; spread over cooled crust. Pour or spoon thickened jello mixture over cream cheese mixture and set until firm.

2nd Layer: Add 2 cups boiling water to Jello; mix well, cool. Add frozen strawberries to jello. Cool Jello mixture to egg white consistency. Pour over cream cheese layer.

Spread additional Cool Whip over the top, cover with foil & refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Thanksgiving Dinner – Working Smarter Not Harder!

by

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This post isn’t about recipes, it’s about work flow. This year we’re working smarter not harder!

This year for Thanksgiving I’ve decided to work smarter, not harder! The reasons for this are two-fold.

  1. I want to be able to enjoy my holiday and my family (some coming from out of town), instead of spending the 2 or 3 days before Thanksgiving stuck in the kitchen, knee deep in entrees, sides and desserts.
  2. If I cook Thanksgiving dinner the way I usually do (over a 2 to 3 day period) I won’t be able to enjoy my holiday, my family or anything else because by the time I’m done with everything, stick a fork in ME, I’m done! It just takes too much out of me!

Besides, who wants to work harder and not smarter! Not this girl! Not this year my friends, not this year!

To accomplish my goal of smarter not harder, I had to figure out what could be made ahead and frozen without affecting the quality of my dish. After all, we’re talking Thanksgiving here! This is the time when everything you put on the table is supposed to be epic!

There are certain dishes that work well for this type of meal planning like stuffing and mac & cheese. I will also prepare certain dishes up to a point where all I have to do is complete them. For example with my cornbread, I can measure out all of my dry ingredients and put them in a zip lock bag and just add the eggs, oil & milk on Thanksgiving Day, mix it, pan it up and throw it in the oven!

I will also prepare my pie filling (peach cobbler) and make my pie dough a day or two in advance. I can keep the dough & filling in the fridge or I can make the pie and put it in the freezer, ready to bake. Freezing breaks down fruit a bit more but allows me to make the pie further in advance.

I will also prepare my mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes and freeze them. I’ll take them out of the freezer the day before and refresh them when heating them, Thanksgiving Day! For the mashed potatoes, that will mean adding some extra butter, half & half and heavy whipping cream. For the sweet potatoes that will mean tasting them to see if they need any more butter, sugar or spices. I’ll add my topping (brown sugar & walnut streusel) during the last 20 minutes or so of baking.

My cousin is making the pound cakes and the sweet potato pies so that frees me up to make another dessert or two. I’m thinking about a 3 layer chocolate cake that my family loves, a banana pudding cheese cake that my niece has been asking for, and a strawberry pretzel salad, a dessert that always a winner with my family! The cake can be baked a couple of days in advance and put in the freezer and iced/frosted the day before. The other two desserts can both be make a day in advance.

The other main dish I’m making is a baked ham, which is no problem. I’ll dress it and put it in the over and it can bake on low all night, the night before.

This year we’re having two (2) turkeys because we have a lot of family coming to dinner so I need to brine them late Tuedsay and let them brine overnight. I want them to brine at least 8 hours. After brining, I will season them, stuff them, wrap them in aluminum foil and bake them in electric roasters on low all night Thanksgiving eve, like the ham.

I will also make the cranberry sauce the day before to give it a day to sit in the fridge to let the flavors marry and allow it to thicken and chill.

I’ll make the turkey gravy the night before and let it simmer on low overnight while the turkeys are cooking.

On Thanksgiving Day early in the morning, I will put the mac & cheese and the sweet potatoes in the oven to bake about 1 ½  hours. After they come out, I’ll pop the peach cobbler in and the stuffing in for an hour. While they’re baking I can heat and refresh the mashed potatoes. Last but not least, I’ll pop the corn bread into the oven.

This is the basic idea of what I plan to do. Of course, I may end up having to move one or two things around and I may even totally change something but at least I have a plan!

I am transferring my plan to a flow chart that I came up with that I can put on my fridge or the counter, somewhere that I can use it as a reference as I go along and check off things as they’re done!

My sister Becky is making the items that I didn’t mention so basically the green vegetables (collard greens and green beans & potatoes), rolls, potato salad, punch and whatever I’m forgetting will be on her watch! Thanks Sisterrrrr!!! In fact thanks Sisterrrrsss because my youngest sister Phyllis who is coming in from Oklahoma has volunteered to take over all things dining room! She’ll oversee getting the tables & chairs positioned, set and decorate, including setting up the buffet tables etc! That will be such a HUGH help knowing I don’t have to worry about the dining room!

I’m posting my plan today but not my flow chart because it’s not done yet. I plan to have it online by Monday November 13, 2017! (Update: Flow chart list is attached!)

I almost forgot to remind you of something that for me is the most important kitchen tool of all – MUSIC! I use my Google Home because I love it! Hands free jamming and such a wonderful time because you get to hear what you want, when you want! Check out my post/review about my Google Home as part of my kitchen toolkit! Believe me, it’s a must have in my kitchen! I sing, dance, cry, laugh – having your music when you’re cooking is the best –  Click this link NOW!

Tell me what you’re doing to make your Thanksgiving easier on those doing most of the cooking and the work, you might give us all some good ideas!

Speaking of good ideas, I almost forgot, you know how after the food is in the belly, people relax and then get up, give you a kiss on the cheek and start to leave? Not this year my friends! This year I’m putting together a set up/clean up crew. They’ll help get tables and chairs in place, haul food from home stoves, fridges & ovens to the hall location where we are serving dinner. They will also help with clean up, filling and removing garbage bags, putting tables & chairs back and taking the food back to where we want it to go.

I hope you’ll all take this as a word to the wise, get some help with set up, clean up and tear down or you’ll find yourself and 1 or 2 other loyal family members doing all the work yourself! Get your teams/s set up in advance so everyone will know their role. Don’t wait until the day of the event or you’re team members will claim to forget their obligation and walk away – when you’re not looking!

I hope this helps to get the juices flowing, just gets things organized in your head helps a little. Follow through and commit it to paper and put it on the fridge. You’ll be amazed at how much more efficient you are!

Ok – the following list may not look like the standard flow chart but it’s my idea of a flow chart. I guess it’s really a flow list!!! 🙂

 

WSNH Work Flow Chart for Thanksgiving 2017

One Week Prior:

Monday – Wednesday                                                  Take turkeys out of freezer (Wednesday 11/15)

Make & Freeze:

Chocolate cake layers     I love this recipe from The Stay At Home Chef, she calls it –  The Most Amazing Chocolate Cake Recipe – and it is!

Mashed potatoes           (SMK – Best Ever Mashed Potatoes)                 \             (How to freeze and reheat mashed potatoes)

Mashed sweet potatoes

Macaroni & cheese sauce  (SMK – Best Ever Mac & Cheese)

Stuffing  (SMK – Sausage cornbread stuffing)

 

Week of Thanksgiving:

Monday:

Make sure everything is in place – ingredients, pan, containers, tools etc

 

Tuesday:

Brine turkeys   (SMK – How to brine anything)

Make and bag dry ingredients for cornbread – don’t forget you need enough for stuffing and for serving for dinner!

Take mashed white and mashed sweet potatoes out of freezer

 

Wednesday – All day:

Make 2 cream cheese desserts & refrigerate  (strawberry pretzel salad)

Ice cake & refrigerate

Make & pan mac & cheese

Make & refrig cranberry sauce

Make & pan sweet potato soufflé

Make SPS streusel topping

Pan stuffing

 

Thursday : 12 AM – 8 AM

Stuff & bake turkeys (overnight)

Dress & bake ham (overnight)

 

8AM – 2 PM

Make turkey gravy

Bake mac & cheese

Bake sweet potato soufflé

Bake stuffing

Make & bake corned bread

Finish mashed potatoes

Package and wrap all items for transport

 

2 PM – Turn over to the “committee” for transport to venue!

Every Great Meal Starts With An Organized Kitchen!

by

The links in this post are affiliate links and if you click on them and make a purchase, I will be paid a small percentage for referring you but it won’t cost you one penny more! Thanks!

Organization is important in many areas of our lives and some say in every area of our lives! One place that I’m most familiar with that screams for organization is the heart of the home, the kitchen! A disorganized kitchen can literally lead to disaster! Not finding a utensil, container, tool or gadget that you need when you need it can lead to lost recipes, burned dishes and disappoinment!

Sweet Mother’s Kitchen will scour the internet to find the best kitchen tools, gadgets and storage solutions that we can find to help you get and stay organized in your special space! Check our pinterest board and of Sweet Mother’s Kitchen for the latest and greatest kitchen organization finds from the world to you!

https://www.westelm.com/products/mrk-utility-kitchen-oil-vinegar-set-d2539/?pkey=cmixing-measuring-utensils&irgwc=1&cm_cat=ShopStyle%20Inc.&cm_ven=AfShopPromo&bnrid=3917500&cm_ite=Std

https://www.westelm.com/products/mrk-utility-kitchen-oil-vinegar-set-d2539/?pkey=cmixing-measuring-utensils&irgwc=1&cm_cat=ShopStyle%20Inc.&cm_ven=AfShopPromo&bnrid=3917500&cm_ite=Std

Too Cute To Cook Aprons!

by

The links in this post are affiliate links and if you click on them and make a purchase, I will be paid a small percentage for referring you. Thanks!

 

 

 

You know you’ll be too cute to cook when you’re wearing one of these adorable aprons in the kitchen during the holidays, or any other day! How fabu will you be on Christmas day in your red, white and black Christmas colors apron! Looking like Mrs Claus wishes she could!!!  Ruffles, bows and polka dots, oh my! These are some of the cutest aprons I’ve seen at a price this low! So, so adorable, I want one in every color and at $6.29 each – why not!??? You better slay! — and I ain’t talkin bout the one Santa rides around delivering toys in!

 

 

Aspire Kitchen Apron For Women Retro Polka Dots Cooking Aprons Cafe Working Aprons

 

Mini Chalkboard Easels – Perfect For The Holidays, Church Dinners and Catering

by

The links in this post are affiliate links and if you click on them and make a purchase, I will be paid a small percentage for referring you. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of years ago, I did an event at my church in honor of our First Lady. I made cards to put beside each dish that I thought might need to be identified. It’s a nice touch and really elevates a simple buffet to a more elegant affair. The cards turned out quite nice (see below)and the table looked great! I used my best serving ware, candles and color coordinated table cloths, napkins, plates and cups! Doing little things can bring big rewards and I think it’s always worth it to go the extra mile. People actually remember how beautiful everything looked as much as they remember how good everything tasted! It did take a bit of time to print out cards for the food items. You have to shop for the card stock, find the right template, have a printer, ink and have everything aligned correctly. I think the chalk board easels will be the best bet for saving time and money. All you need is some chalk and you’re good to go!

These little chalk boards (place cards) are perfect for your holiday buffet. I’m using them to write the name of the dish and place it in front or beside it.  These are especially helpful when you’re having a large affair with lots of food and people (Thanksgiving??? :)) On a buffet table, dessert table or any event where it’s helpful!

The best thing about these cute little blackboards on easels is they are on sale and priced right just in time for the holidays!!! I ordered 40 of them and I’m only paying $20.40 – can you say BARGAIN!!!! Some web sites are selling these cuties for $3.99 for one!!! I have found them for different prices depending on how many you buy, but my affiliate link will take you to the place that I found them for the best price. If you buy less than 40 they are .77 cents each but if you buy 40 the price drops to .51 cents each – SCORE!!! I think they are adorable and I’ll use them for Thanksgiving in a couple of weeks as well as a Christmas potluck at church!

One quick tip for serving pieces to make your table or buffet more beautiful, scout out your local used/second hand goods store. I have found some beautiful serving dishes and bought them for pennies on the dollar of what they are worth! I love thrift shops!

By the way, I ordered them a couple of days ago and they’ll be here tomorrow via Fedex. It’s more than I would usually pay but with the holidays a couple of weeks away, it’s worth it – this time! I always keep my eye on shipping costs because if you don’t, it’s a good way to get ripped off! You might pay a cheaper price but if you’re paying an arm and a leg for shipping, it affects the price you pay overall!

 

Ivy Lane Design Mini Frameless Fanciest Chalkboard Easel - 5 Pcs – On sale NOW – $7.15 regularly $11.00

 

 

 

 

 

FashionCraft 8376 Natural Wood Easel And Blackboard Placecard Holder – 77 cents each 1-39