Making a Charcuterie Board, #1

Need help making a charcuterie board? Check out this blog to begin your journey.

I love to make charcuterie boards! Today, I have made a simple appetizer charcuterie board for our dinner . Our daughter, husband and son are coming for dinner. We’re having sausage/cream cheese/Rotel crescent sandwiches and white chicken chili. There is usually a request for appetizers. What better way to have those, than have a charcuterie board!

If you’ve never made one, and don’t know where to start, just follow my process. I like to have several sizes of boards and little condiment dishes. I also ordered some white paper containers that resemble french fry containers. Too, I ordered a couple of kinds of picks. A place like Goodwill is a great place to find baskets, boards and containers.

my supplies

For this board, I’m using one of my cutting boards. I covered it with parchment paper, taping it on the back. I also used a small cutting board. I arranged a couple of small ramekins at each end, for green and black olives. Another small container holds Roasted Pine Nut Hummus. Then I positioned the paper holder at the other end, to try it all out.

A temporary layout

At this point, you can have fun playing with different ingredients. Because the hummus is at one end, I arranged carrots and wheat thins close by. Next came cheese, pepperoni and pretzels. I put a pepperoni rose in the center, and a fresh carnation flower at the end.

On the small board, I arranged pick fruit kabobs, made with strawberries and blueberries. They are easy to make, look cute and are easy to pick up and eat.

I ended up not using the paper holder. I almost put the kabobs in one, but decided to put them on the other board. If I had used my larger charcuterie board, I would have used the paper holder .

There are so many options for a charcuterie board. Grapes are always good, plus cheese cubes. Try fruits, nuts , chocolates, little cookies, crackers, etc. I’ll be making different kinds of boards in future posts. I think one of the keys to making charcuterie boards is to buy ahead and keep items like olives, crackers, little cookies, etc. on hand. They can be rather expensive, if you are making a large board, and need to buy things all at once.

Have fun and let your creative juices flow! Now….I just have to keep my hubby out of the food until my company arrives.

Let me know if you liked this recipe. Hit the like button on this page. What kind of charcuterie boards do you like to make?

Hugs,

Grandma Ruddell

TEXAS WEATHER IS CRAAAAZZZYY!

The Sleet Storm

There’s nothing like Texas weather in February!!! Is it winter? Is it Spring? Is it Summer? Sheesh! Today, it feels like early Spring. The rest of the week is going to be in the 70’s.

If we ever get snow, it’s usually around Valentine’s Day. This year, the bad weather arrived two weeks early. It came in the form of a sleet storm, in Ft. Worth, with very frigid weather. My son, and sister-in-law , live in the Austin area. They had a severe ice storm that brought down trees and wires, all over Austin. My sister-in-law and hubby just had their electricity turned back on, this past week. They were without electricity for about 10 days, and ended up being at a hotel for five or six of those days. They are still cleaning up debris. All of the streets in their area are lined with piles of tree branches. Austin and Ft. Worth, and surrounding areas had multiple wrecks. It was all quite the mess.

And then……we had a beautiful sunset ! Don’t like the weather in Texas? Stick around!

A beautiful sunset.

Two years ago, we rented a condo for Valentine’s week. We were at a lake, southwest of Austin. Our anniversary is on Valentine’s Day, so we like to celebrate in some fashion. As were at the condo unit, we had a major ice storm. We were iced in, and there was hardly anyone at the resort. During the week, two gentlemen had had their unit flood from burst pipes. They asked if they could come in and get warm. They ended up staying with us for that week. It was an interesting experience, with no water, and roving electricity. We played a lot of cards.

Before
Old door mat
Pansies in the flower pots, and new door mat. My dad made the head.

So here we are in the middle of February. It’s starting to feel Springy. I decided to rip out the dead plants from my front porch planters…it’s about time!….and plant some pansies. I also bought a new door mat for the porch. So far, that’s all I have done, but oh, I feel so much better! Now, I need to get my back flower pots done, and get the garden areas cleaned out. Truthfully, I love Spring! That is one reason I’m glad we moved to Texas. Spring comes earlier here.

How is the weather in your part of the world? Are you still having winter, or is it Spring weather? Leave me a comment .

Hugs,

Grandma Ruddell

A GIRL’S WEEKEND IN HOUSTON

Houston is a lot more than big skyscrapers. Check out all of the fun things to see and do.

A couple of weekends ago, my daughter and I took a girl’s trip to visit my sister, who lives in Houston. She recently moved there, and she’s still discovering the city. Her name is Toni, and she treated us royally, taking us to so many wonderful places. Jessi and I had sent her a list of odd things that we wanted to see, and Toni had her own things to show us. Plus she had a nice, new apartment that we were thrilled to see.

We drove there on Friday and spent the night. On Saturday, we packed it all in. Toni started our day by going to Tiny’s for Brunch. I felt so elegant! I rarely go to brunch. This was a nice place with great food. It sure beat my usual cheerios and diet coke!

Next, we went to The Beer Can House. (This, of course, was on my list.) The whole outside of the house was covered in Beer Cans that had been smashed and adhered to the house. The couple had drank 50,000 cans of beer to help their art. The man had also made wind chimes out of the cans, and he had a cement sidewalk, with designs in it of marbles and cans. It all started because he didn’t like to do outside work. So he covered it all in Beer Cans. Pretty fun…you should definitely go see this!

Next on our list of quirky attractions, was the fenced lot of Giant President Heads. The artist, David Adickes, is known for his heroic scale sculptures of historic figures. If you’ve ever driven on highway 45, from Dallas to Houston, you probably passed the giant statue of Sam Houston. That is by the same artist. We saw one of the heads in Branson, last year, of President Kennedy. This was really fun to see all of the President heads in Houston. Just wished we could have been able to go inside the fence.

Toni had a great place for us to explore. It was a huge park and grounds of Ima Hogg’s beautiful house. Bayou Bend is gorgeous, and we took a tour of the house and her grounds. Ima was a great benefactor to Houston, and her father was Governor Hogg. Ima was a society lady and collected art. The park and house are now owned by the Houston Museum of Arts.

And from there, we toured the Houston Museum of Arts. We didn’t have a lot of time before they closed, but my sister is the Marketing Director there, so she took us to lots of cool places and things to see. The Museum has 3 or 4 buildings at this site, and they are connected by tunnels that are artsy in themselves. This is one of the best museums I’ve seen in a long time. My favorite thing was laying down on a building, and it is projected up on the wall to look like we were hanging from the building. There was a really neat exhibit when you first come in, that is interactive. I need to go back when I have more time, and explore the rest of the museum.

Our Sunday finale , before driving back to Ft. Worth, was going to Joel Osteen’s church. My word!! It was like a huge theater, with several layers of balconies. We sat pretty close to the front. The first thirty minutes were praise music, with lights and singers. It was kind of like going to a concert. Then Joel came out and preached an uplifting sermon. Don’t know your feelings about this church, but it was something we wanted to experience. Pretty cool!

We had such a good time! Hope this gives you some ideas for when you go to Houston. It’s not just big buildings downtown. But then, again, I like to look for kooky things that are a little different. What do you like to do in Houston? Leave me a comment.

Hugs,

Grandma Ruddell

A BUNDT CAKE FOR FALL

I am always looking for new recipes to add to my collection, and tantalize the taste buds of my friends and family. I recently saw one of my favorite vloggers, Dawn Madsen from the Minimal Mom, make this cake, and knew I needed to try it. It fit the bill, and I took it to a dinner at my kids’ house. We all agreed it was tasty and fun. Part of the appeal was the surprise inside. Here’s the recipe.:

CANDY CORN BUNDT CAKE

–1 white cake mix, 9 X 13

–4 egg whites

–1/2 c. oil

–1/2 c. warm water

–1 1/2 c. sour cream

–1 pkg. cheesecake pudding mix

Preheat oven to 325 F.Blend everything together in a medium bowl. Divide batter into three bowls. Add food coloring to make one bowl orange, one bowl yellow, and leave the other bowl white. Put batter into greased bundt pan in layers of white, orange and yellow. Bake at 325 for 47 – 53 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes, and then remove from pan. Cool until room temperature.

FROSTING

–1 can of Cream Cheese Frosting

–Candy Corn

When the cake has cooled, put the can of cream cheese frosting in a gallon zip lock bag, with a small hole in the corner. Pipe the frosting onto the cake, as shown in the photo. Or if you prefer, just frost the cake with the frosting.

Place candy corn pieces around the top of the cake. Cut, serve. Delicious with ice cream!

I hope you enjoy this recipe. It’s a fun addition to your Fall meals!

Hugs,

Grandma Ruddell

My Garden Update

How does your garden grow???

My husband’s banana plants grow to the top of the windows.

How are you doing with your gardening? Is it your thing, or are you not a gardener? I do a few herbs, but mainly flowers. This week we’ve been weeding the flower beds, and planting new things. It’s starting to get really hot, so we’re working in late mornings or early evenings.

In March, I was just starting to dream about things…OK…I’d been dreaming about my garden since January! I wasn’t even sure that half of my perennials had made it through the winter. I started thinking about what flowers I would plant. I use some seeds, such as zinnias, and some starter plants. In the fall, I had ordered some bulbs and plants from Gilbert and Son Nursery. I hadn’t planted most of them. (Story of my life! I get excited and buy lots and don’t get them all planted!)

Oh I have dreams of a beautiful garden!

In April, the nurseries were full of plants and I went a bit crazy. Oh, the prices of plants have gone WAY up! I decided to plant things in the front flower beds first. I planted petunias in the pots, on the front porch. Then I added a pot of petunias on one flower bed. The other side has shade. So I planted begonias in the bed, and more begonias around the tree. These photos are recently taken. We’ve decided to use black mulch this year. The last photo is how my mums look in the fall.

To the right of the petunia pot, in front, are my phlox. They are beautiful.

My mums in the fall.

The shady side of my flower garden.

On the west side of my house, I have some giant elephant ears. They get humongous. I used to have a couple of little girls who took piano lessons from me. They would go out and sit under the leaves of the elephant ears. Elephant ears remind me of my Daddy. He had some great ones.

My elephant ears on the west side of my house. They have come back every year for 18 years. They’ll get twice as big as this.

Here are some photos from April and now, on areas of my back yard. We just planted a day lily /iris/elephant ear garden. It’s new. Hope it all comes up and does well.

Before I weeded my perennials.
After adding some annuals.
The germ of an idea.

The new day lily bed

Ready to grow!

My hubby built my “casket” several years ago. I have two pepper plants and several herbs that need hair cuts.

I will update my garden , later in May. It should have filled out nicely by then. I also have a huge Rose of Sharon bush, that has a ton of buds on it. Can’t wait until it blooms!

So cheers to gardening! I get so excited in the Spring. But when it gets hot, I kind of poop out. I’m not a very patient gardener . I want quick results.

How many of you have a gardening folder, for ideas? I make a map of my garden. I also belong to a Facebook group, Addicted to Gardening. It shows a lot of gardens in progress, answers questions and is a great site. My favorite YouTube site, in relation to gardening, is Garden Answer. Check them out.

Happy Gardening! Leave me a comment about your Spring activities.

Love,

Grandma Ruddell