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Showing posts from March 21, 2010

Potato & Pork Sausage Chowder

My family has a touch of carnivore in our genes and we love this traditional homemade potato soup with added crumbled pork sausage to satisfy our meat cravings!  It's easy to prepare and quite hearty, great with a salad, roll or served alone.  This soup is delicious without the sausage too.  Potato & Pork Sausage Chowder 4 cups peeled, cubed potatoes 1 cup celery, sliced 1 c. onion, coarsely chopped 2 cups water 2 tsp. salt or to taste 1 cup half and half 1 cup whipping cream 4 tablespoons butter 1 tbsp dried parsley (optional) 1/2-1 tsp caraway seeds (to taste) 1/2 tsp pepper 16 oz. pork sausage cooked and crumbled Combine potatoes, celery, onion, water and salt in large pan. Simmer about 20 minutes until potatoes are tender. While potatoes are cooking, cook, crumble and drain sausage. Set aside. Mash soup mixture several times, leaving some pieces whole. I have added left over mashed potatoes to make this even thicker and heartier and then not mashed the

'Dressing' the Table

Welcome to another Tablescape!  I chose to mix olive green and blue this week. I have been toying with the idea of using these colors together for a tablescape and when I saw Sherry's dining room at No Minimalist Here there was no question I would like this color combination.  After seeing Sherry's use of blue transferware on her green walls I was even more inspired to do this tablescape.   I like layering things so I first used this light blue and olive heavy chenille throw I found at Goodwill for a couple of dollars.  I don't know about you, but when I feel my table needs a little additional texture, dimension or color I turn to my closet!  That's right, my closet.  I didn't name this post "dressing the table" without a just cause.  I used two dresses in this tablescape! I really do not like the blue one at all (at least not on me).  I bought it only after trying on a few hundred or so (it seemed) and I was running out of time to find somethin

The Aesthetic Movement and Transferware

What is the Aesthetic Movement? The Aesthetic Movement refers to a period of time in the late 19 th century (1870-1900) which was a backlash to the formal Victorian years.  Artists and writers of the Aesthetic movement period maintained the belief that art should provide refined sensuous pleasure, rather than convey moral or sentimental messages.  They believed that art did not have any didactic purpose; it need only be beautiful.  Japanese art had a great influence on Aestheticism. Aesthetic interiors were often decorated with Japanese prints, screens, fans and other objects. An appreciation of the art of Japan is seen in the work of many Aesthetic artists and designers such as James McNeill Whistler and E.W. Godwin. photo credit Country Living The Aesthetes developed the cult of beauty, which they considered the basic factor in art. They ascertained that life should copy art and considered nature as crude and lacking in design