Let Them Eat Strawberries

Welcome to another Tablescape Thursday hosted by Susan over at Between Naps On The Porch.

Come on over and see all the beautiful tables and a vast array of dinnerware!

It's always just plain yummy!

It's HOT HOT HOT here in Northern California and I'm loving it.

Breakfast and lunch are pleasant on the side patio before the sun comes around.

Dinner is also doable, but must be fashionably late to avoid the late afternoon sun and heat.

This is all about a planned weekend breakfast for six. Waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon

and lots of fresh fruit to choose from.  The strawberries will have to be store bought,

as two of my grandkids were here this weekend and cleaned out the latest crop of

strawberries from my garden. We'll start out with Mimosas and then move on to a

fruit course, followed by traditional breakfast items.

I've mixed in my Portmeirion "Pomona" with imported chargers, plates, flatware and napkins from Home Goods, stemware from Pier 1, candle holders from Tuesday Morning, and the little stoneware vases came from Michaels many years ago.

Thanks so much for stopping by again this week to see my tablescape, I do appreciate it!

I'll soon be back with a tablescape featuring one of the vintage tablecloths from my collection.

Please do stop by the tablecloth database I launched this week.  I'd love to have your input

on the new database, which has links to all the tablescapes previously posted here on

The Little Round Table.

Tablecloths from The Little Round Table Database

Portmeirion Pomona Fruit Harvest

One of my favorite series of all time was "The Prisoner." The real Portmeirion is a miniature Italianate fantasy village on the coast of Wales and was the set of the BBC classic series in the 1960s. Portmeirion Pottery is a British pottery company based in Stoke-on-Trent, which has historical ties to East Liverpool, Ohio.

The Portmeirion shape/pattern is "Pomona" and honors the Goddess of Fruit and the harvest season.  The borderless plates are an older style, as opposed to the bowl in the center with decorated border and cherries.  Cinnabar Fiesta compliments the colors of the fruit on the china and the Hunter Green chargers. Sterling silver is American Directoire.  The little vase is china clad in sterling made by Deusch and Co., c. 1940.  The tablecloth and napkins are from Williams Sonoma, glassware from Pier 1.

Tropical Philodendron Breakfast w/ Palm Jelly for Foodie Friday

It's Foodie Friday with lots of good things to eat over at  Designs by Gollum , come join the fun!

Butia Palm Jelly for Foodie Friday

I'm down to my last jar of this palm jelly from my last batch made in 2006, when we moved and I had to leave my wonderful Butia capitata behind.  Plans are to plant one next Spring here in the new garden.  3 quarts of fruit yield 4 cups of finished jelly and it tastes great, very mild apriocoty/tropical flavor.

It would make an awesome marinade/sweet sour sauce and unlike the written accounts I did not find it difficult to remove the pulp from the large seeds. If it is fully ripe it is not difficult to mash and remove the seeds.

Preparation of Juice:
3 quarts fully ripe fruit
6 cups water

Sort fruit, wash and remove sepals if still attached. Barely cover with water (about 6 cups), bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. You can try to crush the fruit with a potato masher after it starts to cook; however, the seeds are so large that the masher only partially crushes.

Drain juice through colander, then strain two or three times through several thicknesses of damp cheescloth or some other thin clean cloth. Let set in refrigerator overnight because it will still contain lots of solids. Pour off juice leaving residue in bottom of container, and strain again. The juice may never be perfectly clear. The natural color is a yellowish amber. The jelly is much prettier if tinted with red food coloring.
 Making the Jelly:
5½ cups strained juice
1 box powdered pectin
Few drops red food color
7½ cups sugar

Measure juice into a 6- or 8-quart saucepan. Mix pectin with juice until dissolved, add food coloring, and bring quickly to a hard boil, stirring occasionally. Add sugar all at once. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to full rolling boil (a boil that cannot be stirred down); boil hard for 1 minute and 15 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; skim off foam with metal spoon. Pour into sterilized jelly jars, leaving 1/8-inch headspace. Wipe sealing edge clean and seal with new lids. Invert jars until all are sealed; stand upright to cool. Yield: about 8 half-pints.

And breakfast is the perfect time for this yummy jelly!

Leacock Quality Hand Prints "Mandalay" vintage tablecloth has appeared before here on this space.  Here's a breakfast setting with Juniper Fiestaware 2000, Deauville flatware, vintage glassware, vintage Fiesta Light Green Marmalade in a Royal Chrome rack, a vintage Light Green Syrup pitcher, vintage Oven Serve Bean Pot and a couple pieces of Pomona.

Roses and Pears

The roses are 'Cocktail', the tablecloth is vintage Startex.
The dinnerware is Post86 Fiesta in Sunflower, Lemongrass and Shamrock.
Also shown is a Bauer footed cake stand and some Portmeirion Pomona.
The flatware is rosewood handled Dansk.
The green acrylic chargers are by Arita.