Spring | Good Dinner Mrs Mellen

Tag: Spring
- Dreaming of Spring
  
  Posted at 7:55 am by Good Dinner Mrs Mellen
  
  Jan 24th
  Every January I long for spring and my garden. As I put away my Christmas decorations my mind shifts to garden plans including new plant acquisitions to enhance my already large perennial beds. I curl up at night with a cup of tea searching through all my favorite gardening sites dreaming of spring while visualizing all these beautiful plants gracing my garden. On cold and long New England winter nights my garden blooms in my mind with my most beautiful ideas being conceived with the wind blowing and the snow blanking my grounds. I can hardly contain my excitement as our long winter show signs of turning to spring, brimming with all my new exciting plans for my garden. I go through this ritual every year filling my soul with visions of things to come in the spring. It never fails to transport away from winter towards spring a new beginning.
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  Posted in Gardening, Gardens | Tagged dreaming, Gardening, long winter night, Spring, wisteria
- Mini Lemon Thyme Pound Cake recipe for Spring!
  
  Posted at 3:46 am by Good Dinner Mrs Mellen
  
  Mar 30th
  Spring is synonymous with cooking and baking with lemons, especially in desserts. This pound cake recipe is unique, creating mini lemon pound cakes with thyme on top for an elegant and delicious treat.
  
  Mini pound cakes are perfect with tea or coffee, and the lemon and thyme make it both refreshing and sweet.
  
  Enjoy at morning brunch or as an afternoon snack.
  
  This recipe has been featured on BlogHer.com
  
  Mini Lemon Thyme Pound Cakes
  
  Lemon Glaze
  
  Ingredients:
  
  5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  
  2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
  
  Directions:
  
  In a small bowl, whisk together juice and confectioner’s sugar until smooth.
  
  For a thicker glaze, add more sugar. For a thinner glaze, add more lemon juice.
  
  Pound Cake
  
  Ingredients:
  
  3/4 cup flour
  
  3/4 cup cake flour (I like King Arthur brand)
  
  1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  
  1/8 teaspoon salt
  
  1/2 cup whole butter milk
  
  2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest
  
  1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  
  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
  1 cup unsalted butter, softened (I use Cabot butter)
  
  1 cup sugar
  
  2 large eggs
  
  2 tablespoons minced fresh thyme
  
  Lemon glaze (as made above)
  
  Fresh thyme sprigs for garnish
  
  Directions:
  
  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  
  Grease and flour an 8-well mini loaf pan.
  
  In a medium bowl, combine flour, cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift three times and set aside.
  
  In a small bowl, combine buttermilk, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Set aside.
  
  In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer at high-speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and continue beating until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down sides of bowl.
  
  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl.
  
  Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour alternately with buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with flour. Fold in fresh thyme.
  
  Divide batter between loaf wells, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  
  Transfer pan to a wire rack and cool for ten minutes. Remove mini loafs from pan and cool completely.
  
  Drizzle with Lemon Glaze.
  
  Decorate with fresh thyme. Can be stored in air tight container for up to five days.
  
  Enjoy!
  
  More from the chef: buzzchomp.com – gooddinnermrsmellen@blogspot.com
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  Posted in Baking, Cake, Dessert, entertaining, Good Dinner Mrs Mellen | Tagged lemon, Spring, thyme
- Simply adorable and easy Spring Place Cards
  
  Posted at 10:03 am by Good Dinner Mrs Mellen
  
  Mar 28th
  I enjoy setting a holiday table including making decorator Place Cards. These spring themed place cards are perfect for Easter or any other spring dinner party. This Easter I had an egg them so I wanted to make place cards to match. So easy to make!
  
  Supplies Needed:
  
  12 colored place cards, I used mint green from Paper Source, my go-to paper store.
  
  12 mini nest from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Store
  
  dried moss from any craft store
  
  12 mini robin eggs from Pottery Barn
  
  hot glue gun
  
  1. Print name on place cards. Paper Source has a template online for all your printing needs. I used brown to print on the mint green.
  
  2. Attach a just a few strands of the moss on robin’s nest with glue. Put a little more glue on top of the moss and attach robin egg. Press and hold for a few seconds to secure.
  
  3. Cut to slits on the top of the place card, the slits should be an inch in from each side. Fold slits down to create a ledge for the robin’s nest.
  
  4. Cover ledge with glue securing the nest to the top of the place card.
  
  You are done! Simple easy beautiful place cards!
  
  Enjoy!
  
  gooddinnermrsmellen.blogspot.com
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  Posted in Crafts, decorating | Tagged Crafts, Easter, Place cards, Spring
- Dreaming of Spring and Summer Gardens
  
  Posted at 8:54 am by Good Dinner Mrs Mellen
  
  Feb 22nd
  We are deep in the winter doldrums in New England with temperatures dropping to minus 20 last night! Record cold temperatures, record snowfalls in one month, cities and towns buried under snow with more snow on the way. All around me complaints can be heard about our harsh and miserable winter of 2015. Enough I say, I’m over this winter instead I am transporting myself to a beautiful spring by shipping a cup of tea while I look over last year’s garden photos to plan this year’s additions to my already overflowing flower beds. I choose not to be miserable lamenting about record cold temperatures and snowfalls: My beautiful garden photos are lifting me and my spirit to a different time when the air is sweet with new buds pushing past the just warming soil signaling the start of spring.
  
  Gardening is in my blood; I come from a long list of passionate green thumbs who can spend all day laboring in their gardens, a labor of love. My particular passion is flowers, building beautiful flower beds. I approach my garden beds as if I was decorating a room. I visualize the theme, color, textures, shapes, designs before I buy a plant. Also paying close attention to when the plants bloom as my desire is to have continues bloom from spring to fall. My obsessive/compulsiveness comes out when choosing the color for my garden, for me a strict color them is very important to my eye. My themes include only white, pinks, blues, and purple, once in a while, I make an exception for yellow.
  
  For me looking at the total picture when I am designing a garden is the first step. Then I choose my color theme, design plan, finally the plants. I hear from so many people they don’t know which plants to choose and how to place them. If you just remember that you need to vary bloom time, size and color when planning your garden is easy. One rule that I follow is always plant in odd numbers, threes, fives, etc. Visually that creates a beautifully balanced view that catches the eye. Start with ordinary varieties of plants that are reasonably priced and easy to grow. Success breeds confidence when you garden. After your initial accomplishments then you can move to try other plants. I approach gardening as I live life embracing all without fear.
  
  The tip that I can give you that will make gardening easy and stress less is that if you are not happy or filled with joy about the outcome of your plantings you can easily redo for a different look and feel. Since I love the change that is one of the best features of gardening being able to change, taking away and adding new all the time. I remember my first gardening attempts when I planted spring bulbs in groupings of one. How dejected and disappointed I was after I waited all winter to see my beautiful bulbs bloom. What I found come spring was one little daffodil here with another single tulip there. I learned quickly that spring bulbs need to be massed in groups starting with a minimum of three, again planting an odd number. Don’t plant too far apart either, bulbs look lonely spread too far apart. Check out all the wonderful resources online at a site such as White Flower Farms, Dutch Gardens, Gardening magazines and many more. You can find garden plans at these sites down to specific plants for all different types of gardens, sun, shade, small, large, all designed for you! What could be more simple?
  
  I invite you to enter the world of the passionate gardener, a privileged group of obsessed people that live for their gardens and gardening; to be transported to a beautiful world that soothes the soul-filling life with bliss!
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  Posted in Gardening, Gardens, Good Dinner Mrs Mellen | Tagged Flowers, Gardening, Spring
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