Teacup Tuesday

Pansy Cup and Saucer

     Welcome to Teacup Tuesday! This is one of my Pansy teacups. I actually have an entire set of dishes in this pattern that I absolutely adore. I had found several pieces of this USA pattern here and there, but found a huge set with lots of pieces including dinner plates, berry bowls, vegetable bowls, platters in two sizes, a gravy boat, creamer, lidded sugar and of course teacups and saucers. I got lucky since it was half off and quite a great bargain at a local resale shop. I've been collecting pansy dishes for years and have other individual pansy items, but this set of dishes is one of my favorites. I like to pair these dishes with the green block optic depression glass dishes I have, they look beautiful together on the table. Not all, but some of the pieces have USA impressed into the back, so I assume they are all made in the USA, but not sure about their history, though I have googled it and tried to find out when they were made and where. If you have any idea, I love to know more about them.
    Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a most lovely and charming day! If you click on the Teacup Tuesday link in my sidebar, it will take you to the master list of participants this week.

Feeling Better, Baking and Journaling

Orange Pecan Muffins

     So far so good. I keep feeling better each day and thanks to my Mom and family, I think I'll be in great shape by next weekend for my daughter's graduation party. The morning seems to be the roughest time for me, the incisions ache then, but after some motrin and moving around, they feel much better by noon. Since I have to spend time upright, but can't go far, I spent some time baking today. Orange Pecan Muffins and a "cherry" version of Carrot Raisin Bread, both recipes featured in the October 1998 issue of "Cooking Light" magazine. Although both recipes are low in fat, I think the Carrot Raisin Cherry bread came out much better than the muffins. I replaced the raisins in the bread with dried cherries from Benjamin Twiggs

Cherry Carrot Quick Bread

and used Eggbeaters in place of the one egg in both recipes. The bread tasted a lot like carrot cake, my hubby loved it! The muffins were just ok, kind of on the dry side and not very flavorful, maybe they needed the fat from that one yolk. Still, I made an orange glaze for the muffins and that did make them better. It tired me out though, I had to go lay down after all that baking!
     I pulled out my visual journal train case full of art supplies for a while today. I worked on some of my pages in the journal I created in Teesha Moore's class. It felt good to play again. I hope to start using it daily now that I'm feeling up to it. So many things I want to do, this surgery stuff is so very inconvenient! Also need to get ready for the Wine, Food and Art show on the 21st this month. Right after my daugher's party I'll be in jewerly fabrication mode. So short post today, off to work on the "Honey-Pecan Crusted Chicken" with my mom...hope it tastes as good as it looks...