The Ways of Her Home

Embracing the homeward call

Good Morning and Good Monday!

The ladies are coming tonight and that makes me so happy! I have a full list to accomplish today. I enjoy having company and I equally enjoy being productive and marking off a to-do list! I headed outside early to get my outdoor stuff done before the heat sets in for the day. I wanted to get my front porch looking freshened up, so I swept and brushed out the chairs, watered the plants, and pulled out any dead leaves. All of my beds need weeding, but I just focused on getting this front bed freshened up for today so my guests would have a nicer entrance. No need to kill myself before company comes! I'll work on weeding the side beds another day this week, but this was enough for today. ... Read more

“Let’s Be Friends” Teatime

I enjoy preparing tea parties for different occasions with pretty table settings, several courses, and an abundance of hot tea. My friend Missy throws her share of full-spread tea parties as well. However, in an effort to simply experiment with tea blends and expand our scone-baking skills, Missy and I decided to get together on a regular basis without the fancy themes and elaborate spread for the purpose of trying one new scone recipe and one or two new tea blends, so we have fresh ideas for when there are bigger tea parties to throw with groups. We take turns trying out new recipes for these simple afternoon teatimes. Our daughters join us too. And sometimes our sons will pop in to sit and ... Read more

Mother’s Day Fancy

I'm continuing to catch up on my spring posts and today I'm covering Mother's Day. We hosted my husband's side of the family this year and while my sweet husband insisted that I not work too much on Mother's Day, I assured him that getting to set a feminine table for the ladies would not be work at all but, on the contrary, would bring me great pleasure! I set up the dining room for the ladies so we could have a frilly table and the men had the kitchen table set just for them so they wouldn't have to endure the pink and fluff, haha! I've had this April Cornell tablecloth for so many years and I've always called it my "Mother's Day tablecloth" because the floral pattern and soft ... Read more

Monday Morning Reset

Good morning, friends! Monday mornings offer a fresh week with opportunity to reset in a few areas. Here are a few things I'm refreshing this week! Bible Reading I'm trying a new way of studying the Bible where you read a book of the Bible 20 times through without stopping to study deeper or research along the way. Ordinarily, I really like to camp out in a passage, look things up in my concordance, and take notes, but I think this will be a nice new approach for me, just for a change. The idea is that by the time you've read through a book that many times you are quite familiar with the book (obviously) and with what is in each chapter and have a clearer understanding of the details ... Read more

Irish Tea Party

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Two years ago, I gifted my oldest daughter a subscription to Tea Time magazine and the first issue she received included recipes for an Irish tea. This magazine along with some newly thrifted green and gold teacups inspired her to host a St. Patrick's Day tea for our family and her then boyfriend, now husband (nothing like some good cooking to seal the deal, right!) As you'll see from the photos, she put on the loveliest tea time complete with a delightful menu served at a beautiful table! She cooked all afternoon and then set the table, pulling anything green from around the house. Each teacup held an Irish Breakfast teabag (except for my son's since he ... Read more

Easy Irish Supper

St. Patty's Day is tomorrow! We don't go all out around here but I do try and cook a meal with an Irish theme. Here's a quick meal idea for St. Patrick's Day that I prepared last year and will do again this year. Since my daughter has an out-of-town game tomorrow night, I'm going to go ahead and serve this meal tonight. Irish sausage, cabbage steaks, and potato stacks! I didn't take any fancy plating photos last year, but boy this meal was so tasty, and I can't wait to eat it tonight! I roast the sausage and cabbage steaks on one pan. For the cabbage, I slice 1 or 2 cabbage heads (depending on how many I'm serving) into 1" slices and lay flat on a sheet pan that's either greased ... Read more

Cook by the Book: Chocolate Chip Cookies from Magnolia Table

I know just about everyone has their own favorite recipe for chocolate chip cookies. There are a million versions out there, right? So, when I saw the chocolate chip cookie recipe in Joanna Gaines's Magnolia Table cookbook, I have to admit I passed it by, assuming it wouldn't be anything new or special and focused on her other recipes that were new to me. But then my friend Missy mentioned that another friend had brought her some amazing chocolate chip cookies after a surgery, and they were the very best she'd ever tasted! So, she asked her friend for the recipe and her friend told her they came from this very cookbook! When Missy shared this with me, I knew I needed to revisit the recipe ... Read more

Cook by the Book: Vichyssoise

Hello! I know my purpose with these "Cook by the Book" posts is to try new recipes from my cookbooks but today I'm sharing an old recipe from a cookbook we've had many years. I served this back at our Winter Wonderland Tea as a warm start to our meal. It's a soup recipe pronounced /vi~shee~swaaz/ but sounds way more complicated and fancy-schmancy than it really is. Not convinced? Ok, here's my secret. This recipe comes from a children's cookbook! When our girls were little, we took them to see the Ratatouille movie and we all enjoyed it so much we purchased the Ratatouille What's Cooking? cookbook, and this was one of our favorite recipes. So, if a kid can make it, anyone can make it no ... Read more