holidays – Page 2 – French Ethereal

It’s game time, football fans, and we have a whole field of Super Bowl Recipes for you time as we highlight this month’s Pinterest Challenge! Hosted by our fellow commentator Cindy of County Road 407, whose recipe I can’t wait to make, I am kicking off my post with a touch-down-winning recipe for a Heart Wintertime 7 Bean Soup…

If you are coming over to French Ethereal for the first time from Wendy’s blog at WM Design, welcome! Don’t Wendy’s tips for Super Bowl Nachos look and sound absolutely scrumptious?!! Bring on the guac!!! (I love these Pinterest Challenges for so many great ideas!)

It is a highlight here each month on my blog to gather with so many friends participating in each challenge. Cindy gives us a photograph or an idea as inspiration and we then run with that idea. Truly, this month’s idea of sharing favorite Super Bowl recipes is just another winner in a long line of goal-setting standards!

Play by play

To begin this soup, soak about 1 1/2 cups of a 7-bean soup mix overnight, covering the beans with water, plus an inch or so.

Drain in the morning, rinse, and check for any stones.*

***If this is your first time making a bean soup, beans have rounded edges so it is fairly easy to see the irregular shapes of little stones. 🙂

Dice some fresh onion and add this to the hamburger mixture to cook and soften the onions.

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Make a winning Warm & Hearty 7-Bean Super Bowl Soup

For this recipe, brown about 1/2 lb. ground beef on high in a crockpot. Next, add in the garlic and onion then begin adding some spices and herbs:

add 1-2 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed through a nutmeg press
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
ground pepper and salt to taste
Shake Mrs. Dash and Nature’s Seasoning into the pot
Add a pinch or two of garlic salt for added flavor

After a couple of hours, add a small can of crushed tomatoes or tomato soup, if desired. Let cook until the beans are soft, checking flavors and add more herbs as needed.

Bake some French bread or corn bread to go with your soup. It’s a winning combination!

For our Super Bowl party, I’ve brought out a football party tray we’ve had for twenty years or more. Here I’ve used it as a t.v. tray.

Often for Super Bowl, Mr. Ethereal and I will use this tray as our “charcuterie board” filled with crackers, cheese slices and various slices meats, fruit and veggies. It was perfect when our kids were growing up! 🙂

It’s fun to use it here highlighting our 7-bean Super Bowl soup! I hope you try this soup recipe soon…

Up next we have Kristen from White Arrows Home who has mixed up the most delicious nuts with a special recipe! (Not spoiling the surprise. 😉 ) So yummy… Check out all of this month’s participants’ posts to see what recipes you need to add to your recipe box. ;)’

Enjoy today’s Super Bowl recipe tour,

Christmas, crafts, Holidays, Home Decor, Tablescapes

Share Your Style #414

January 10, 2024January 11, 2024 French Ethereal

Good evening and Happy New Year, dear friends!!! Welcome to Share Your Style #414! I hope you’ve enjoyed a lovely holiday season with your family and got to celebrate some with friends, too. This week’s SYS will have a little Christmas recap and I’ll put in some NYE entries, also! 🙂

I sure enjoyed our two weeks of vacation but we are back in the saddle of school again. Last week, I spent a lot of time raking just a TON of leaves off the backyard lawn and getting them ground up into mulch (Hubby double mowed) for the flowerbeds, ahead of the deep freeze coming next week. I also tackled taking down all of the Christmas wreaths hung on our outside gates and all around our house and gardens shed doors. Shaking them out and stacking them inside to dry after the rains, then boxing them up until next year ~ always a fun chore! Ornaments are packed away and most everything from the holidays are back nestled into their storage bins.

I am still waiting for Mr. Ethereal to move some things around in the garage so I can bring down the Christmas tree box from our attic, but that’ll happen in good time. 😉 Regardless, we are moving into January by celebrating its ethereal snowy whites…

Here’s what I have posted lately and then let’s see what all you’ve shared!

I am Barbara Chapman and I’d love it if you’d follow me here on my blog and on any of my other social media sites, too. Thank you!💜

French Ethereal: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest

***Here’s what I shared this past week at* *French Ethereal…***

Picking the Garden Ahead of the Winter Weather + Potting Up Bulbs!

Winter Whites & Soft Pinks ~ A January Birthday Tea

And here are this week’s featured posts…

First up this week is this lovely Christmas eve tablescape by **Debbie from Debbie-Dabble Christmas Blog** ~ Christmas Recap 2023. So cheery and festive! Love it!!!

**Shelbee from Shelbee on the Edge** shares a sleigh-full of holiday photos from Christmas’ past in this post ~ Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings and Blessed New Year!

Sugar Plum Fairy Brunch Extravaganza with Recipes! — Wow! **Karin over at Karin’s Kottage** went all out with her decor this season. Check out what Karin shared. All this and more can be found in her post ~ Sugar Plum Fairy Brunch Extravaganza with Recipes.

2024 winter reading challenge virtual bingo card — **Nicolle from Our Tiny Nest** brings us a great winter idea in her post ~
2024 Winter Reading Challenge. For this library aide, it’s right up my alley. 😉

**Jeanie from The Marmelade Gypsy** rings in the New Year with friends at their annual tasting and dinner party ~ Cork Poppers: Italian Wines Rock! Wait ’til you read all the goodies they sampled!!!

new-years-tablesetting-ideas-celestial-table-moon-mask-place-setting — **Debbee from Debbee’s Buzz** brightens up our features with this post full of
New Year’s Eve Tablesetting Ideas. Always fun and sooo packed full of great inspiration!

Make an angel from an egg carton — I know most of our ornaments are put away, but surely this is one ornament which would be a fun wintertime craft to make now for next season! **Elsa from Seizoenenblog** (“Seasons blog,” in Dutch) shares this adorable DIY post here ~ Engeltje maken van een eierdoos
(Make an Angel from an Egg Carton).

Our final share for this week is from **Penny of Penny’s Treasures** who shares a little more winter in this post ~ Decorating for Winter. Love all the lace as snowflakes! <3

Thank You so much to everyone who linked up this past week. A special thank you to everyone for always promoting Share Your Style on your blog and on your social media channels! I do see it when I stop by and I appreciate the love. 💜

New Year’s Blessings to you,

Holidays, Tablescapes

Winter Whites & Soft Pinks – A January Birthday Tea

January 10, 2024January 10, 2024 French Ethereal

Happy January, dear friends! It is my birthday month and I thought I’d share some of the carrot cake picked up last week to have on the day. Also, as we drove back from visiting our daughter just after Christmas, we stopped by an HEB grocery store in Austin, Texas. I brought home some living herbs and two small bouquets of soft pink hydrangeas…

The hydrangeas were soooo pretty when I first bought them. I carefully set their cut ends down into the bag of ice and water I had cooling the previous night’s dinner for the ride home…

But, they all wilted! I recut the ends, smashed them like I’ve heard to do, and plunked them into fresh water in hopes of reviving them. Only the one came back, but it is just so pretty, even if only one bloom. 🙂

Come to a January birthday tea!

The light pouring in our western windows right after school a couple of days ago was just heavenly! It was perfect for setting the table and grabbing a few photographs for you. What remains of the carrot cake birthday cake I picked up late last week is shared with you here.

I wish you were here to help me eat it! It is really tasty with chopped walnuts mixed into the cake and patted into the frosted sides. I’ve gained six pounds since the holiday season began…

Ugh!

Now to work it all off again. ;)’

What was my inspiration?

This tea table began with finding some old favorite Shabby Chic napkins in my linen closet to grace our table. I used one napkin underneath our hydrangea centerpiece, then grabbed the other three for each placesetting. Now that my mother-in-law lives here, we get together once a week or so for dinner. While Mr. Ethereal was hanging her new t.v. on the wall at her house, Gini played a little of the “Happy Birthday” song on her keyboard for me. Then, before we went out for dinner, we each ate a piece of the carrot cake. (My idea!)

After getting the dessert plates, teacups and saucers, napkins and silverware all placed, I realized the centerpiece still looked rather bare. So, I went searching the cabinets for beautiful pieces to add to our birthday tea table.

Old Country Roses birdie s/p shakers chirped a happy song, while the addition of a sweet rose-strewn sugar bowl (and later a teapot) were just the additions needed to pull our table together!

Pulling out a few of my favorite white background pieces of china, plus a few rose-strewn china pieces with delicate soft pink roses in their transferware (okay, and some stronger pinks in there, too!), makes for a lovely January birthday fête…