Recipe by Libbie Summers from The Whole Hog Cookbook (Rizzoli)
Linen Napkins:Shiitake Linen Napkin Set available at Libbie Summers label
Linen Apron Dress: Atelier Apron Dress in black linen available at Libbie Summers label

Creamy, organic, salty and just a little sweet. It’s everything you will ever want in a side dish. Substitute this bread pudding for your usual holiday stuffing recipe and you’ll probably never make the other again.
Pro Tip: Up the bacon if you are feeling so inspired. Omit it to keep it vegetarian…but why?

Savory Mushroom and Bacon Bread Pudding
serves 6

What you need:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound thick-cut bacon, chopped
1/2 cup white wine (can substitute chicken stock)
1 1/2 pounds fresh mushrooms, roughly chopped (I use a mixture)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots, finely diced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon rubbed dried sage
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
5 large eggs
3 cups half-and-half
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
8 cups day-old challah bread, crusts on, torn into cubes
Warm Sage Butter (recipe to follow)

What to do:
1. Preheat the oven to 350º F. Grease an 8-inch square baking dish with the butter and set aside.

2. Cook Bacon: In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, cook the bacon until it is crisp. Remove the bacon to a bowl and set aside.

3. Cook Mushroom Mixture: To the same skillet over medium-high heat, add the wine or stock to deglaze the pan, scraping up all the brown bits as you stir. Stir in the mushrooms, garlic, shallots, basil, parsley, sage, and thyme. Sauté for 15 minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender and browned. Remove from the heat and stir in the bacon. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Finish Bread Pudding Mixture: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, 3/4 cup of the cheese, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Add the bread cubes and toss to coat. Let the mixture stand for 15 minutes.  Stir in the mushroom mixture and transfer the pudding to the prepared baking dish.

5. Bake Bread Pudding: Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cheese over the top and bake for 40 to 60 minutes, until the pudding is browned and the center has puffed up.

To Serve: Serve warm drizzled with Warm Sage Butter.

Warm Sage Butter
Yields 3/4 cup

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
6 fresh sage leaves, chopped

Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Add the sage and simmer for 3 minutes.

Let your food inspire your table decor.

Shiitake Linen Napkin Set available at Libbie Summers label. 

And always feel beautiful while you create beautiful and delicious things…always

Atelier Apron Dress in black linen available at Libbie Summers label.

By Libbie Summers
Assisted by David Dempsey

At the end of Summer, long after all the fancy flowers fade away, the zinnia holds court. She wears a ruffled collar of rich hues and a crown jewel of  yellow that makes her sassy and playful. What she lacks in fragrance…she makes up in fabulousness. This easy entertaining dessert course of zinnia decorated sugar cookies and fun linen napkins is a tribute to her. 

What I used:
Zinnias: The model (Aeriel) is wearing the Tiered A-line Midi Skirt from my line and carrying an enamel pail of just-picked zinnias liberated from my friend Pamela’s yard (2 hours before she woke to see they were missing).

Napkins: French Picnic Linen Napkin Set Trimmed in Orange Gingham

Food: Zinnia Decorated Sugar Cookies!

Zinnia Sugar Cookies
makes 3 dozen (depending on cookie cutter size)

What you need: 
3 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for bench flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (can sub vanilla extract)
1/2 teaspoon almond extract (can sub and extract you would like)
Crusting Buttercream Frosting (recipe to follow)

What to do: 
1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Mix Wet Ingredients: In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in egg, paste and extract.
4. Finish Mixing the Cookies: Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. The dough should be stiff.
5. Cut and Bake: Do not chill the dough…just get right into it!! Lightly flour a work surface and cut off enough dough to be workable. Roll dough out to 1/4-inch thickness and use a 3-inch round cookie cutter to cut out cookies. Place on the prepared baking trays and bake for 6-8 minutes.
6. Decorate: Allow cookies to cool completely. Decorate the cookies using  Crusting Buttercream Frosting. Using a #103 or #104 tip and brightly colored (orange or pink) frosting, hold your pastry bag with the largest part of the tip opening at the outer edge of the cookie and work around the cookie in a ruffle type pattern. Do a second layer to fill in the middle. Switching to a pastry bag filled with yellow frosting and fitted with a #2 tip, fill the center of the flower with a round of yellow and then make small dots over the top of the round and dotted just around it. Allow to dry.

Crusting Buttercream Frosting
(But why a crusting buttercream frosting? Crusting buttercream is a frosting that lightly sets and is perfect if you need your frosting to keep its shape. It works great on cookies where you don’t want to use a Royal Icing to decorate.)

What you need: 
1 1/4 cups butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cups vegetable shortening, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla paste
1 (2 pound) bag of confectioners sugar, sifted
4-5 tablespoons of whole milk
Food coloring (i prefer a gel coloring)

What to do: 
1. Cream Butter and Shortening: In a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter and shortening and mix until well incorporated. Mix in vanilla.

2. Finish Frosting: Slowly add the powdered sugar to the creamed mixture. Once fully incorporated (it will be slightly thick) add your milk (a tablespoon at a time).

3. Color Frosting: Now’s the fun part. Color frosting for your application with food coloring (I prefer gel). (For the zinnia cookies, I needed three colors, so I divide the frosting among 3 bowls and colored one pink, another orange and the final yellow.)

Here’s a BONUS easy entertaining idea using the same napkins!
An orange-inspired table setting.

By Libbie Summers in partnership with Cosmic Crisp Apples
Assisted by David Dempsey
Apron: Cuisine Apron in White Linen 
Napkins: French Picnic Linen Napkin Set in Yellow Gingham

Gatherings are made of two meals, the menu and the memories. My goal is to always serve up both…even if it’s a simple lunch for four in the backyard. I know that all of us don’t have outdoor spaces to entertain or the weather may not be permitting, but wouldn’t this Spring table be adorable set in your kitchen, or porch or kid’s treehouse? I took my inspiration as I often do from the menu which features the @thecosmiccrisp apples available in grocery stores nationwide. Beautifully red in color and a delicious combination of sweet and tart, my first course is a Radish and Apple Salad so I decorated the setting to match! 

On this day, under a backyard camellia tree where umbrellas are filled with blooms and apples. I set a special lunch table for my family.

When we make even the smallest gatherings special, the message it sends to the guests is, “YOU are special to me.”

I believe it’s always the details that stay with us longest.
In a room, in a meal, in a gathering…it’s the details that honor and inspire us the most. Let that be the leftovers your guests take home.

Here are a few of the details:
1. Surprise and Delight: Think outside the dining room. It’s true, people love a moveable feast, so for a special meal try setting your table anywhere that isn’t your usual dining spot. If you don’t have access to a beautiful outdoor space or weather isn’t permitting, set your table in the living room, kitchen or garage! Anyplace unexpected is a big surprise and delight. Here, I tucked a table in the backyard under a camellia tree heavy with blossoms.

2. Let Your Menu Inspire the Decor: With this Spring table, my main course used Cosmic Crisp apples, so I wanted to use them to help decorate my table. They mixed perfectly with the red and pink camellias growing in the yard. And were beautiful at each place setting with a handmade paper apple blossom on top. Learn how to make the Paper Apple Blossom HERE.

3. Mix and Match: Never worry about not having enough matching china for each place setting. Mixing and matching china, flatware, glassware and napkins gives a homespun chic feel. Mixing old and new pieces will help keep the table fresh. On this table I mixed some of my grandmother’s china with odds and ends I picked up over the years and new gingham-trimmed French Picnic Napkins from my line, Libbie Summers. One of the plates on this lunch table has served two US Presidents! Proof that every piece has a story and there’s always a conversation starter on the table when you mix and match.

4. Multiples: Multiples of the same design element make the biggest impact. Trying to do too many little things for a table can be tedious and your guests can sometimes be confused on where to look. My solution is a dramatic multiple moment of something unexpected and inspiring –an idea that inspires your guests to do in their own homes. With this Spring table, I took a few children’s umbrellas (April Showers right!) and spray painted them in tones of yellows –the color informed by the striae on a Cosmic Crisp apples and camellias. It was an expensive craft and made a HUGE impact. I added flowers and apples to the upturned umbrellas that dotted the pathway to and set the mood for the setting. Other flower and apple-filled umbrellas were placed on the ground around the lunch table. And, one umbrella was used as the “floral arrangement” for the table. No worries if you don’t have a backyard filled with blooming flowers like I did here. Moss or wheatgrass would also have been beautiful inside the up-turned umbrellas with the apples sitting on top of it. Handmade paper flowers or grocery store flowers would also be amazing. Use what you have available.

I hope my take on a Spring Celebration gives you inspiration to create something a little different -a table layered with stories and surrounded by love.
Happy Spring! -Libbie

Other Tabletop Inspirations:
• Inspired by Goldenrod 

• Inspired by Frida Kahlo

• Inspired by Cherry Blossoms

• Inspired by Strawberries

By Libbie Summers
Assisted by David Dempsey
In Partnership with Cosmic Crisp Apples
Apron: Café Apron in floral linen from Libbie Summers

I’m having my family over for a simple luncheon to celebrate Spring! A Spring Radish and Apple Salad will be the star of the menu so I wanted something equally delicious and “springy” to decorate the sun porch where we’ll be eating. This homespun-chic Paper Apple Blossom Wreath with apple blossom flowers cut from paper scraps and dusted with pink chalk centers along with DELISH Cosmic Crisp apples decorate a grapevine wreath that was purchased at a craft store. Beautiful, made in 30 minutes, and ready for Spring! 

Paper Apple Blossom Wreath
makes 1 (18-inch) wreath

What you need:

5 (8”x10”) sheets of light-weight white card stock paper (slightly heavier than copy paper)
2 (8-inch x10-inch) sheets of light-weight green card stock paper (slightly heavier than copy paper)
1 piece bright pink chalk, smashed to a fine dust (To Do: put chalk into a small zip-top bag and crush with a hammer until fine)
6 feet of natural vine wrapped floral wire (available at most craft stores), can substitute small branches from your yard
1 (18-inch) grapevine wreath (available at most craft stores)
9-15 (3-inch) Floral picks with wire (available at most craft stores), can substitute bamboo skewers cut into 3-inch pieces
3-5 Cosmic Crisp® Apples
Gingham Fabric or Ribbon for hanging (optional)

Equipment:
Pencil, scissors, craft paint brush, glue gun and glue sticks

What to do:
Step 1.  Start Paper Flowers, Buds and Leave: Using your white paper make a template for your flower and flower bud. To make the flower, draw a basic five petal flower about 3-inches in width (you can do it). Cut out. To make the bud template, draw a circle (about the size of a penny) and then draw 12 thin “petals” coming from it that are about 2-inches in length. Cut out. Using your green paper, make a template for your leaf. Draw a simple 2-inch long leaf (about 1-inch wide at its widest part). Cut out. Using your cut templates, trace your flower (about 12-15) and buds (3-5) onto your white paper and cut out. Trace your leaf (20-25) onto the green paper and cut out.

Step 2. Chalk the Center of Your Flowers: Using the craft paint brush (or your finger) brush your crushed chalk into the center and a few of the edges of the flowers (you can also add more chalk later). The buds you will chalk later.

Step 3. Curl the Flowers and Leaves: Using your scissors GENTLY pull them across each petal from the center to the end (like you were curling a curling ribbon) so the petals curl INTO the direction of the pink center of the flower. Do the same to curl the ends of the leaves.

Step 4. Make Branches: Cut two (3-foot) lengths of the natural floral wire and bend each length into a branch with three twigs. They do not need to look alike. Have fun!

Step 5. Glue Flowers, Buds and Leaves to Branches: Make the buds by bringing the opposite petals of the bud cut outs to the center and gluing. Continue around the cut outs until all the petals have been glued to the center. Brush the entire bud with the pink chalk. Buds will grow at the tips of the branch twigs so glue a leaf to the tip of one or two of the branch twigs. Glue a bud on top of the leaves. Now, use the flowers and leaves and glue onto the branches (save a few of each to glue directly onto the wreath).

Step 6. Add Branches and Flowers to the Wreath: Decide where the top (NORTH) of your wreath will be (where you will hang it) and push the bottom of the flowering branches into the wreath on either side (EAST AND WEST). Bend however you like and glue down as needed where the branch meets the wreath to keep in place. Allow the branch to come out toward you. Keep it three dimensional and not just flat against the wreath. You got this!

Step 7. Add Cosmic Crisp® Apples: What’s an apple blossom wreath without apples?! Decide where you would like to place your apples on your wreath (I did three Cosmic Crisp® apples in a cluster in the bottom left corner) and push your floral pics or skewers into the wreath. Glue or wire as necessary so they are secure. You’ll need about three pics to keep each apple in place securely. Push apple into the pics or skewers. Add more pics or skewers as needed to hold. Continue decorating wreath with the remaining flowers and leaves. Brush center of flowers and outside of buds as needed with chalk if some has worn off during handling.

Step 8. Finish Wreath and Hang:Use your piece of gingham fabric or a long piece of ribbon and wrap it around the top (NORTH) of your wreath to make a hanger. Pick a perfect spot to hang a removable hook or nail and hang your wreath. I used extra fabric to make a gingham bow! NOTE: The grapevine wreath will hang fine on its own on a nail.

Have fun doing this? Here are a few more homespun chic wreaths to decorate your space.
•Felt Flower Wreath 

•Cupcake Liner Wreath

•Fun Holiday Wreaths

By Libbie Summers
Assisted by David Dempsey
I’m wearing the Everyday Beautiful A-Line Apron Wrap Skirt from Yum Yum Smile Shop

There’s no denying that this Thanksgiving is different, but to me it feels more authentic. Giving thanks for the blessings we have in our lives without the worry of who’s bringing what to put on the table (note: never let your sister be in charge of the mashed potatoes). This year is about a meal shared with my immediate family and a couple of equally minded “safe” friends. We have only spent time in the presence of each other for months and months, so I wanted to take us to a different place -to have a special happy memory of  Thanksgiving 2020. If you follow me on instagram you’ll know there’s a majestic spot just a few miles south of our home where quail thrive among the tall grasses and a certain crusty bird dog works hard to find them. This time of year, the goldenrod is prolific and stunning and the happiest shade of mustard yellow in this perfect spot -it served as my inspiration.

This Thanksgiving, on a mowed path surrounded by tall grasses and mustard medicinal weeds, this family of 8 will share a delicious meal, give thanks for how fortunate we are and raise a glass to those that others have lost.

Love is in the details…
Table Linens: Floral flat sheets lay over two simple work tables and then topped by yardage of mustard colored linen fabric. Finally, 4 table runners were sewn from storied scraps of fabric into a patchwork pattern and were draped over the width of the table top. Two people sitting across from each other at the table shared one runner.

Place Settings -Dishware, Flatware and Napkins: To continue with the homespun chic feel of this table, I chose to use mix and match vintage and antique china along with a mismatch of antique silver flatware. The patterns on the china worked beautifully against the patchwork quilt and added even more layers of storytelling. With all the busyness of the runner and china I knew I wanted to use a more subdued yet organic napkin. I chose the natural colored linen pulled from the Agen napkin set from Yum Yum Smile Shop.

Place Cards: Thick card stock printed with the names of each guest were cut into small ribbon like pieces. A hole was punched at the end of each piece and a small strand
of green twine was threaded through the hole and tied to a boutineer-sized bundle of goldenrod.

Flowers and Vases: I’m a believer of using what grows around you any chance you can. Naturally, it saves on cost, but more importantly it brings the season to the table. This time of year in Coastal Georgia, goldenrod is prolific. I let it and my new Mustard Colored A-line Apron Wrap Skirt inform the color pops! For vases, I mixed a tin can craft (new diy blog post to follow) with my collection of old mustard tins and biscuit tins. Mixing the two, I ran them down the middle of the table among the place settings and then filled with low bunches of the beautiful goldenrod.
Fun Fact: Goldenrod does NOT cause seasonal allergies. Some confuse it with ragweed which is a real problem. You would never want to sit a table with any wild floral that could potentially light a guest up!

I hope my take on Thanksgiving gives you inspiration to create something a little different this year -a table layered with stories and surrounded by love.
Happy Thanksgiving!