Happy Easter!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter! I am happy my dad and Lynn will be joining us for Easter and Les is off of work and able to celebrate with us. Last year dad and Lynn were out of town, and Les had to work, so the kids and I had to celebrate on our own. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Lynn is bringing her delicious scalloped potatoes, and I am serving Balsamic Berry Salad, ham, and green beans. We will have veggies and dip before and assorted treats for dessert. With so many sweets around on Easter, I like to keep dessert simple. Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake is a perfect dessert when you want to keep things simple. The cake is a homey simple cake. It reminds me of a coffee cake, but it is a little sweeter. My daughter and I are making our way through the Cake Keeper Cakes recipes, and this is one of them.  I'm not a huge fan of cake with frosting, so these cakes are exactly what I like in a cake.  Simple cakes with just a dusting of powdered sugar a glaze.

Here is a sneak peak at my Easter table.

I used my Pier One white wooden charges and the green plates I picked up on the clearance shelf at Marshalls. I was eyeing some flower plates at Pier One, but I found these at Marshalls for half the cost, so I went with them. I also found these pretty green paisley Ralph Lauren napkins at Marshalls. I love Marshalls and Home Goods!

I don’t have many Easter decorations, but I found some really sweet bunnies at Marshalls this year to add to my table.

After trying my hand at my burlap and toile table runners I am really enjoying making my own. The fabric stores have such beautiful home décor fabrics. I have a few sewing projects I need to start (now that I’m finished with a gold lame jumpsuit. Don’t ask…Just know I’m not going to wear it!)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cake
Adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes
Printable Recipe

1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
¾ cups boiling water
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour an 8-inch square baking pan.

Place rolled oats in a heatproof bowl, and pour the boiling water over the oats. Let the oats stand until cool.

Combine all purpose flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. Cream the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a medium mixing bowl until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla and beat until smooth. Stir in the oats. Slowly add the flour mixture (½ cup at a time) until combined, and stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Add the batter to the prepared pan smoothing the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is golden and a toothpick comes out of the center clean, about 50 to 55 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Invert the cake onto a wire rack, and then turn it over so it is right side up. Cool the cake completely and cut into 9 squares.

Thanks for visiting!  I will be participating in the party over at Between Naps on The Porch on Thursday, so be sure to check out the beautiful table decorations over there!

Burlap and Toile Table

I’m happy to be joining the party over at Between Naps on the Porch again! I love to scroll through everyone’s links to see beautiful dishes and creative table decorations.

I am posting a table I created last week for my prayer group dinner. Every couple of months, I host some of my friends for an evening of fellowship, food and prayer (okay and a glass or two of wine too). I love hosting this dinner. We have such a wonderful time together, so I like to make our dinner special by cooking a delicious meal and setting a beautiful table (even if I do say so myself!). For dinner, I served lemon pineapple chicken, roasted asparagus, quinoa and a green salad. We ate a light dinner so we could enjoy the cheesecake Tammy brought over for dessert!

For my table, I found these travel salad plates at Marshalls (I’m still looking for the Eiffel Tower pattern which were gone by the time I found the other six plates).

I knew I wanted to highlight the travel plates with red dinner plates I bought on clearance at Marshalls.

That was all I had in my head, until I saw some burlap pillows and table runners online. I dragged my daughter to Joanne Fabrics for some burlap. We waited in a forever long line to have the burlap cut, but I’m glad we did, because Hannah used the time to find the black and cream toile. She thought it would look cute with the burlap, and I thought she was brilliant. I made the burlap table runners and the toile table runners, and everything fell together after that.

I gathered up candle sticks from the living room.  Bought the black fruit basket (Marshalls) and black napkin rings (Cost Plus), and used my bird candle holders with platters and pitchers (all from Home Goods at different times) to finish my table. 

Well, the table wasn’t quite finished. The wine glasses didn’t make it in time for their web debut, but they did make it to the table in time for dinner!

Thanks for stopping by. Please check out more table setting at Between Naps on the Porch.