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Showing posts from February, 2013

Downton Abbey - Encore Date

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We have had such an overwhelming response to our Downton Abbey Tea that our dates just keep getting sold out!! We have good news for those who have yet to attend...  we have another Encore Date available!  Sunday, March 10th at 1 p.m.  Tickets: $28 ($29.68 with tax)  Reservations are Required - Call 641-342-1547 to reserve your seat! 

Goodbye Uncle Lloyd

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This week, we laid to rest my mother's dear Uncle Lloyd. To many, he was just an ordinary guy, a really nice guy in fact, but to my mother (Donna), he was much more. Uncle Lloyd and his wife never had any children, and through the years, he came to adopt her family and all the kids as his. Even for myself, my brothers and I adopted Uncle Lloyd as “Grandpa Lloyd.” For about 3 years, we lived in the same neighborhood as Uncle Lloyd and my brothers and I would ride our bikes over there to surprise them. There was always ice cold Pepsi, (which Aunt Phyllis filled to the rim, a scary prospect for a young child as we sure didn’t want to spill any! Ha) and cookies.  Uncle Lloyd was a very kind soul, who believed in my mom and our little tea endeavors. He was very generous to us when we were getting ready to remodel our existing area and surprised us with a check to help accomplish this goal. For that, we are forever grateful. We in fact, have a picture of him in our prep k

Happy Valentine's Day

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Happy Mardi Gras! King Cake Recipe

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Mardi Gras King Cake 1 Stick of Butter, melted 2/3 C Evaporated Milk ¾ C, plus 1 tsp. Sugar 1 tsp. salt 2 Envelopes of Active Dry Yeast, Regular or Rapid Rise 3 Eggs Grated Zest of 1 Lemon 6 C Flour 4 TBSP Butter, melted 1 Egg White, for glazing Cinnamon-Sugar Filling: ½ C Sugar 1 tsp. Cinnamon White Icing : 2 C Powder Sugar 2 TBSP Whole Milk Colored Sugars – ¼ Cup Each of yellow, green, red and blue Combine 1 stick of melted butter, evaporated milk, ¾ C Sugar and salt. Stir so that the sugar dissolves, allow to cool. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ C lukewarm water along with the teaspoon of sugar. Cover and allow to stand for up to 10 minutes or until foamy. (If the yeast does not foam up, it is no good, you will have to start over with yeast and sugar…be sure your water temp is lukewarm, not hot.) Add yeast mixture to the butter/milk mixture. Next add eggs and lemon zest; whisk together vigorously until well blended. Add one cup of flour at a time until you hav

Laughter is Good Medicine...

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They say a laughter is good medicine...  so here's something to get you laughing!  *Read in your best British Accent*  Oh Mrs. Middtleton, you're too funny!! 

Cute Cottage

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A friend shared this picture on Facebook. I thought it was so darling that I just had to share it with all of you!  Isn't it sweet!? Don't know about you, but I could certainly live in a cottage like this one!!! 

A True Romantic - English Farmer plants Heart Shaped Meadow

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This morning I came across this heartwarming story of an Englishman's love for his late wife! According to Marianne Dashwood from Sense and Sensibility, "He's a true Romantic!" Check it out: "A devoted farmer painstakingly planted a tribute to his late wife, Janet, using 6,000 oak trees to etch out a giant heart in the middle of his field in South Gloucestershire, England. Howes, 70, and a gardener spent weeks planning and setting out each oak after his wife died suddenly 15 years ago. He planted the fledgling trees across a six-acre field after carefully marking out a heart shape in one half of the grass, with the heart pointing in the direction of her childhood home. The stunning crop was captured in its full beauty after a balloonist sailed over the farmhouse and photographed the field from the air."  ~ From YahooNews