Happy Halloween!!

Croque-Madame

I have been under the weather since Sunday afternoon and this afternoon was the first time I felt like getting out of bed. Not only did I feel like getting out of bed but I HAD to make Croque-Madames for dinner. Have you had this? Oh my goodness, it's SOOOO good!!

I found this great recipe:

5 T butter
2 T flour
1 c milk
6 oz thinly sliced Gruyere {swiss cheese}
1 tsp dijon mustard
Sliced sweet french bread
Thinly sliced ham
Eggs

To make the Mornay sauce I started by making a roux. This is simply melting 2 T butter in a saucepan, adding 2T of flour to that until smooth and bubbly and then adding 1 c milk until boiling. To that mixture you add the dijon and 1/2 c of Gruyere. Once this is smooth it's done.

Begin assembling sandwiches for grilling by spreading 1 T of the Mornay sauce on one slice of bread and ham and Gruyere on the opposite side. Invert the Mornay sauce slice on top of the ham and cheese and butter both sides of the sandwich. Grill as normal. Once all of the sandwiches are grilled spread one more tablespoon of Mornay on the top of the sandwiches and broil for 3 minutes. Add a fried egg on top of each one {normally this is a sunny side up egg but I prefer fried} and serve.

I had had this sandwich before but nobody else in my family had. They all loved it, suprisingly, my 4 and 5 year old ate every bit of theirs.

On a different note, stay well, there are sick people everywhere!!

Have A Great Weekend!

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

I promised those of you who attended Saturday's workshop that I would post the recipe for the chicken pot pie we had for lunch. Here it tis...

• 2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast
• 1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups instant biscuit mix
• 1 cup milk
• 1 stick melted butter
• salt, pepper & dill

In a greased 2-quart casserole layer the chicken and mixed vegetables. Mix the soup and chicken broth and and pour over the layers. Stir together the biscuit mix and milk and pour over the casserole. Drizzle butter over the topping and season with salt, pepper and dill. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes until the topping is golden brown.

Itty Bitty Book

I absolutely love it when little things like this tiny velvet book are waiting for me inside my mailbox. This one came all the way from PA, it was from a Mennonite family.

It's so itty bitty it just fits in the palm of your hand. Isn't it a shame that we have so much these days that we don't use something or adore it as much as the person who obviously owned this little treasure?

I wonder what they kept inside of it?

Fab Flea Market Finds - Part 2

This gaggle of millinery flowers was an exciting find. I'm just thrilled with the super big reddish/pink one.

This old tin is sweet and could only be used for 100 different things. Not sure what I'll store inside but it was too nice to pass up given my love of pretty storage.


Out of the hundreds of ornaments that I ran across and perused these are the ones that made it into my bag...{that made it sound like I five finger discounted them - I did pay for them first of course}...

I've been wanting one of these calendars for a long time. How cute is this? I could have sworn that I spun it to October 31st before adding it to a Halloween vignette in my studio. Tiny hands, that's probably what happened here...

A whimsical find, didn't really need it truth be told but look at the buttons I put in the drawer. Cute huh?

Totally not sure what this was for but you know how I love velvet worn items. This orange, collar holder?, had the faintest bit of velvet tufts left on it. It got some serious use people...

There were several other small finds but these were the highlights. I've got two projects in the works, soon I will post sneak peeks of both of them. I'm taking requests for the February classes that I listed last week so if you have something in mind that you'd like to do be sure and let me know!

Fab Flea Market Finds - Part 1

Well I've been threatening to share pics of my flea market finds for the past week. Instead of one long post I thought I'd share a couple of things a day. I don't know what this metal catch-all was originally for but I scooped it up without any debate. Each tier has a mesh bottom. Does anyone know what it's intended use was?

I found this pretty print at the Addison Endpapers booth. Love the little bit of red and pink together. More fab stuff tomorrow!