"The Stars at Night...."

                                           WANTED: For serving too much delicious food!

THE STARS AT NIGHT: Jennise & Kristin
.SO. much. DARN. fun. It was our first outdoor dining event and the evening was filled with such yummy food, laughs and beautiful weather!!! It rained the day before, and the day after-- but Texas knew it was the special guest that night and Mother Nature made sure to keep the skies clear. We missed 2 of our beautiful ladies... Courtney and Bonnie. {HUGS}
Thank you to Jennise & Kristin for a wonderful evening under the stars!

The Texas Tablescape
Look at all the fun detail. Our appetizers were served on the cute tins and we were able to fill them up with leftovers to take home. I will be honest, I was not shy about my doggie-bag portions!
Kristin and Jennise had fun quiz's & information about Texas for us...
What is the state animal-- anyone? anyone?

Dressing for the occasion!

Ambiance

The Menu

The "watering hole"
Those little hay decorations are so darling!

Appetizer Buffet
Texas Caviar w/Bagel Crisps, Sweet Potato Fries, Cornbread with Honey, Buttermilk Biscuits with Butter & Jam

Chewy Praline Recipe

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2 cups sugar 2 cups white corn syrup 1 lb. butter 2 cups whipping cream 2 tsp. vanilla 7-8 cups chopped pecans

Instructions:

Ingredients:

Cook sugar and corn syrup over medium - low heat
until candy thermometer reaches 250 degrees.
Remove from heat.  Add butter and stir until melted.
Add whipping cream(unwhipped) slowly. Return to
heat stirring constantly.  Cook until thermometer reaches 242 degrees. Remove from heat.  Add vanilla and pecans. Drop on foil sprayed with Pam. When cool, wrap pralines in saran wrap.
                      Delicious chewy treats!

Texas Caviar (from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 bunch green onions, chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 (8 ounce) bottle zesty Italian dressing
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can black-eyed peas, drained
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 bunch chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together onion, green bell pepper, green onions, jalapeno peppers, garlic, cherry tomatoes, zesty Italian dressing, black beans, black-eyed peas and coriander. Cover and chill in the refrigerator approximately 2 hours. Toss with desired amount of fresh cilantro to serve.
2. We served with Bagel Crisps with sea salt.
   
   Cousin's Cornbread (from the Essential Mormon Cookbook)
   1/2 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
   1 cup sugar
   2 eggs
   1 cup yellow cornmeal
   1 1/2 cup flour
   2 tsp. baking powder
   1/2 tsp. salt
   1 1/2 cup milk
   
   
   Cream butter, sugar and eggs. In a separate bowl blend cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt. Combined creamed mixture, dry mixture and milk. Blend. Bake in a greased 8X8 inch pan at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes. I used an 11X7 pan to make more and it still works.
   
   
   Biscuits (from the homesicktexan.blogspot.com)
   Ingredients:
   Two cups of flour
   1 tablespoon of baking powder
   1 teaspoon of sugar (can add more to taste)
   1/2 teaspoon of salt
   1 stick of butter, cold (8 tablespoons)
   3/4 cup of buttermilk, cream or half-and-half
   
   Method:
   Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
   Mix all the dry ingredients together.
   Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and work into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs.
   Add the liquid, mixing until a bit loose and sticky.
   Pour dough out on a floured surface, and knead for a minute. Dough should be smooth and no longer wet. You can sprinkle more flour on the surface if you find it’s sticking.
   Take dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes.
   Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half.
   Using a round cutter (can use a glass or a cup if don’t have a biscuit cutter) cut out your biscuits from folded dough.
   Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
   Makes 10-12 biscuits.
   
   If you don’t want to roll and cut them out, after kneading and beating the dough you can drop the dough onto the baking sheet with a spoon. They’re not as symmetrical (dropped biscuits are also known as cat head biscuits) but they’re no less delicious.
   
   
   Sweet Potato Fries
   Cut sweet potatoes into long slices, coat with olive oil, then in a bowl with parmesan cheese, garlic salt, salt and pepper to taste. Bake at 400 until at the crispyness factor you desire!

The Main Course
BBQ Brisket, Chile Cheese Grits, Stemmed Green Beans with Nana's Fruit Salad

BBQ Brisket

Select a brisket (or skirt steak, The briskets you buy in Texas are usually what is known as a packer cut—this means that it’s the full chest muscle and it’s usually covered in a generous layer of fat and weighs anywhere from seven to 11 pounds.)

Wrap the brisket in foil and pour Claudes' brisket marinade, and some Claude's BBQ brisket sauce on the meat(http://www.claudessauces.com/p_claudes_brisket_sauce.html), it will be sitting in the sauces. Place it on a pan with sides like a cookie sheet, and bake at 250 degrees for 8-10 hours or over night. You can let it marinate over night, then bake it. Then slice it while its warm. 

Chili Cheese Grits

Cook 1 cup grits in 6 c. boiling water (follow the package directions on how to cook grits)

Then Add:

1 lb. Velveeta cheese, cut up

1 cube butter/margarine

2 tsp. seasoned salt

3 eggs beaten (to avoid the eggs from curdling, beat the eggs into a smaller bowl, add a little of the hot grits slowly to the eggs, and keep adding a spoonful at a time  then when they are warm add them to the grits in the pan)

1 can chopped green chile

tabasco sauce to taste

Stir until all the cheese is melted and Pour into a greased 9X13 pan.

Bake at 255 for 2 hours.

Dessert
Mom's chocolate Sundae Pie, Fresh Peach Pie, & Pecan Pie with fresh whipped topping.. mmmm.

                                 Have you ever seen 2 more beautiful "cooky's"?  Love you gals!!

Our fun take home!!! Along with our Texas place card cookie & tin full of leftovers-- we were given the cute little bag above filled with goodies! Yummy pecan caramels, a sweet little bracelet to remind us of our evening under the starts & and a Texas ornament. Oh! And there is a peak Kristin & Jennise's rustic invitation that was mailed to us all the way from Texas!!! It was so fun to get mail from the Lone Star State. (FYI... NOT the largest state in the U.S.)

YOU SCREAM, I SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR....
Root-beer floats? Yes, folks, Rootbeer.
We are missing two of our beautiful country-gals. We Love ya Bonnie & Courtney!
Thanks again  Jennise & Kristin for all the country fun!