A Floral Table

Here are some photographs of a table I did a while back. Very floral! I used the cupcakes as a centrepiece and the arranged the flowers in glasses :) Enjoy!

A Table, a Main Course, and a Dessert

Ramadan Gathering

Three of my closest friends came over tonight for a Ramadan gathering. I decided to set the table in shades of white, gold, and cream.. but not overly so.. I made coconut ice cakes, fruity custard tarts (both first attempts!), tiramisu, and lemon jello! For savouries there were quesadillas, puff pastry, sambousa, & pasta. My friends brought some lovely hot chocolate, coffee, sandwiches, chocolate dipped strawberries, chocolate cupcakes with a lovely icing, lgaimat and knafa <3

The custard tarts were the most challenging of all to make. I think I may have processed the sugar, butter, flour, egg, and water a little too much so that instead of it just being crumbly and coming together, it was a full on dough. Anyways, the refrigeration really helped harden it up, as it usually does. But when I cut the rounds out to place them in the mini muffin tin they ended up squishing against one another and then I had to use my fingers to fix the shape.. that's why they look kind of funny.. and the custard was supposed to be refrigerated for an hour... I left it in for 45 minutes and when I removed it, it had.. solidified.. anyways I whisked it a lot for it to soften and then added some cream.

Pictures!

Somewhat Golden

Napkins!

Yes, this is a blog post about napkins. I personally prefer cloth napkins.. as in cotton and linen ones.. instead of paper napkins, but depending on the situation one might work better than the other! Here are some photographs I've taken of napkin rings and napkins. The first one is rotated on its head.. accidentally.. I'm not bothered to change it now so feel free to crane your neck.

Here's an interesting link about napkin etiquette to clear up any confusion you may have: http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/etiquette/manners/napkin-etiquette-10000000713965/index.html

Some people prefer not to use cloth napkins when serving dishes as it can be a headache to wash and clean. A friend recently suggested this: While you fold your cloth napkin, place a paper napkin of approximately the same size above it... Thus, when your guests unfold their CLOTH napkins, the PAPER napkins will reveal themselves and many people will automatically use the paper napkins as they are more convenient.. only... of course, pick a paper napkin in a plain or matching theme!

I've heard in some places that it's not polite to wipe your mouth with a cloth napkin and that although it's there for you to use, you're not supposed to do much with it except for placing it on your lap.. I'm not sure about this... either way, after the meal, all the napkins will be washed regardless of whether they're dirty or not, so you might as well use it! Only do so discreetly, please.

I kind of suck with paper folding and that sort of thing and I find that napkin folding comes under the same cateNapkins with a Twist: Fabulous Folds with Flair for Every Occasion" by David Stark. gory.. but it's a lot of fun to experiment with!

Here are some good books about napkin folding.

This is one I always use.. I personally favor the Prince of Wales and Throne folds.

http://www.amazon.com/Napkins-Twist-Fabulous-Folds-Occasion/dp/1579652964/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282322695&sr=1-3

This is another very resourceful book: http://www.amazon.com/Simple-Art-Napkin-Folding-Tabletop/dp/0060934891/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282322695&sr=1-1

Click the "Look Inside" option and see what I mean!

Two Table Themes: Summer Picnic and Beachy

For some reason gingham, this checkered pattern, reminds me of summer so much! The theme for this table was summer picnic. Red and gingham.. plain steel cutlery, simple glassware.

Close up shot of the napkin.. yes, it's from MYDRAP.com! <3

One of my table themes was beachy. The weaved straw layer at the bottom is a placemat! I combined lots and lots of them to form the "tablecloth" or base, if you will. I then took starched white napkins and ruffled them around the center for a "windswept" look.. and crisp white things are very beachy, don't you think? This was one of my little "accents" on the table. An IKEA candle holder filled with decorative pebbles and topped with water! Some people said it looks misleading in that people might take it for something to drink out of! Anyways I had a couple of these pebbled-and-watered glasses scattered around the table. With this beachy thing I could scatter just about anything.. Pebbles, rocks, turqouise beads, napkins, candles, water!! All beachy, empty glass bottles (nope, no message in it, sorry to disappoint you! but now I realized that would have been an interesting twist... maybe I could have placed the menu inside the glass bottle)! However, there weren't any shells here... I don't believe in buying shells when the sea is across the street! I can go scavenge for them!! Except that I don't have a shell collection and this table idea was very last minute so I didn't have a chance to go to the beach to get them! However, most shells are broken on our beaches... Anyways, knowing me I might just impulsively buy some... to keep it for when it's " needed ".. the excuses I give myself when I shop.. *sigh* :)

Colourful candles and fun paper napkins finished this look! You can see the centerpiece with the candle and pebbles around it! I poured some water over the pebbles in the centerpiece but I'm not quite sure whether they're clearly visible in this photograph!

Dinner Party

These pictures are from a dinner party that I hosted two weeks ago for some very good family friends who had come over to Dubai. Yes, the theme yet again is very feminine, but only because I was asked to! I had initially chosen a scarlet, ivory, and gold theme but switched after I was asked to! Feminine themes seem to be my speciality...

This is a close up shot of the crockery/cutlery/glassware. Since the table was predominantly pastel shades of pink, I placed white roses at each individual setting to break up the color. White roses are my favourite. I can use them everywhere.
Close up of the napkin fold. This was placed on top of the soup bowl! I'm always at a loss where to place the napkin. Big dilemma, I know. These gorgeous pearly napkin rings are from John Lewis. *advertises*
Yes, I like having the foreground in my photographs blurred.
Similar trick done with the chairs as I did for the tea party! These sashes have little cream- coloured pouches with potpourri in them strung to the knot.

Another closeup of the rose and glassware.

What this side of the table looked like.

The glasses. Those papers in them are the placecards!

What an individual setting looked like.

I would love to post pictures of the centerpiece which was a wickerbasket filled with flowers in a contrasting HALF and HALF theme.. half of the basket had an abundance of pink, white, and yellow roses, chrysanthemums, and carnations and the other half just had leaves and some baby's breath (breadth? sp?) There were also cream colored candles scattered around. The pictures of the centerpiece TURNED OUT CRAP. So I won't upload them :) Enjoy.

Entertainment Tidbits

Here are some photographs from random things I've done to dinner tables. This is more "dramatic".. i.e. not feminine as such.

The floral arrangement was one I made inspired by Paula Pryke, the renowned florist. This arrangement is called the "birthday cake" as the flowers are arranged in such way to resemble a cake and the candles look like candles on a birthday cake!

Friday Breakfast

These are pictures from a little breakfast 'do that I threw sometime last summer. Yes the theme again happens to be floral... I don't know why I tend to go for feminine/floral themes so much. Maybe because I feel there's a lot that I can do with it!

Tea Party entry with IMAGES!

These pictures are from the tea party that I threw for fashion-hermit's sister's birthday. (www.fashion-hermit.blogspot.com)

The theme was obviously very feminine and floral. I used candles and pink, yellow, and white flowers to accentuate the table. I also placed jellybeans and marshmallows in little gahwa (Arabic coffee) cups and scattered them around the table.

The cupcake with the crown was the birthday girl's! I placed one cupcake on every plate.

You can see what I've done to the chair there.. I gently tied some pastel coloured chiffon to it and placed a rose in the knot. I also gave each person one rose on their plate along with the cupcake.

Food as Serving Dishes

This is something that I've always found beautiful. Soup served in a bowl made of bread, or salad served in a bread box or tray. I recently threw a small dinner party for some friends visiting Dubai and made a lemon, mushroom, and chicken risotto as one of the entrées. I sliced the top part off the capsicum (so that the top part looks like a little hat) and a removed the seeds and membrane from inside the larger, hollow part of the capsicum. I then spooned risotto into the capsicum and then covered the top with the part I had cut away. One thing that I found a challenge was finding capsicums that would actually stand on their own. If I'm not mistaken, capsicums usually have four points at the bottom. However, not all capsicums you get at the supermarket are perfect like that. Most had three or three and a half "legs". I had to really search to find some that would stand on their own, and still, I only managed to find around two or three. I then had to improvise and make the risotto-filled capsicums lie down on the dinner plates.

Speaking of improvising, as one of the dishes for dessert, I intended to serve a brownie topped with ice cream and caramel sauce (recipe taken from 50 Fast Desserts- Australian Women's Weekly). I spooned my brownie batter into the rose shaped silicon cases and when they were done, I took them out of the oven. I waited a few minutes for them harden, otherwise the brownies would break. However, when I started removing them from the silicon pans, they broke! My rose shaped brownies were gone! I, being the person that I am, made no attempt to salvage the rest of the brownies and took them out of the pans in any way I could. On the spot, I decided to make a parfait. I layered the broken up pieces of brownies in wide crystal water goblets and placed them with icecream and the caramel sauce that I made. Tasted quite good, albeit better than the stiff-brownie-on-plate-with-icecream.

The menu for that dinner was: tomato soup, risotto, lamb and corn quesadillas, baby potatoes, strawberry jelly with blueberries, and the brownie parfait.

A Dinner Party

So my grandfather was visiting us here in Dubai for about two weeks and as is my tradition whenever he visits, I throw a small, intimate dinner party for him. Just for us and our closest family/friends. This time I had the dinner party the night before he left as I had just finished exams the day before that!

As I had been so busy with exams, I didn't have a chance to "pre-plan" the theme of the night. What the flowers would be like, what the table setting would be like, and what ambience I would create.

What I ended up doing the morning of the dinner was stand in front of the dinner table and visualize the crockery and cutlery we have and see how I can mix and match. What I ended up doing was more creative than any other table setting I have previously done. I decided to label the theme "outdoor bazaar" after I was done with it. Everything was mismatched. I used plain red dinner plates from IKEA and placed traditional turquoise ceramic bowls from Turkey as soup bowls. I then folded each cloth napkin in a different way. I also added turquoise coasters from Turkey and placed Moroccan tea glasses on them- these were the drinking glasses for juice. For water, I picked up a variety of different gold glasses and arranged them at each place setting. The placemat was thatched and bronze and the table cloth was ivory net with gold trimmings. I placed a red table runner through the middle and made the centerpiece a beautiful glass mosaic tray from Pakistan. I also placed outdoor IKEA lanterns on the table and arranged potted plants around the plates.

I found various knick knacks around the house, like old vintage perfume bottles and a waistcoat pocket and added them to create the ambience of antiques in a bazaar. The smell was represented by the variety in the food and the sound of the bazaar was more than reminiscent by the chatter on the table and the sounds of cutlery hitting crockery.

So here's the menu: my grandfather asked me to keep it simple so I tried to find some quick recipes to make.

Appetizers:

Fresh tomato and red onion salsa with Doritos!

Mozzarella and basil quesadilla wedges

(both from "500 appetisers" by PAGEONE)

Mini zucchini frittatas

(from "Party Food" by Australian Women's Weekly)

Soup:

Roasted vegetable soup

(from "Soups and Breads" by FamilyCircle)

Main Course:

Beef and eggplant bake with polenta crust

(from "Crumbles and Bakes" by Australian Women's Weekly)

Dessert:

Chocolate self saucing pudding- served with Vanilla Icecream!

(from "Old Fashioned Desserts" by Australian Women's Weekly)

The dessert is best served EXTREMELY hot!

And what I ended up doing with the fritattas was place them in a normal sized muffin tray. If you make them in mini tins you end up with 48. We didn't need that many as we were very few at dinner so I ended up making one batch of minis (so 12) and two batches of normal sized ones (so 24). The minis make for adorable hors d'oeuvres at parties as they are extremely bite-sized and delicious! Plus, they're very easy to make!

Unfortunately I do not have proper pictures of the food as I was rushing around to serve it and plate it and all that. But I DO have a picture of the table when it was halfway done.

-

Spontaneous Euphoria

xx