I love this. About four years ago, my husband said he wanted us to have a really good dining room table. "After all," he pointed out, "we never eat out." So we invested in an Amish-made table. Four leaves, eight chairs, but we can comfortably seat 14. Now we get to host all of our wide family gatherings-- still lots of lap trays then, but hospitality has become so much more of a breeze since we brought the table home.
Leila, do you have a link to where we can watch the School for Housewives documentary? I was able to find the trailer but not the full length. It looks great!
Also, “Auntie Leila” is officially in our family recipe cookbook — perhaps for a future relative who needs to know how to begin starter and what to make first with the discard (we still love your overnight waffles!). My first sandwich bread ACTUALLY TURNED OUT (!!!) and I made a discard chocolate Bundt cake to celebrate Michaelmas today. 🥲🙌🏻 Thank you again. 🙏🏻
I need a lesson on how to decorate the table! How much is too much? How to put things *just so.* I am so clueless. I try to make the table pretty, but it just feels like everything is in the way, or it fails to become more than the sum of its parts, as in, "yep there's a candlestick placed awkwardly on the table." How does one make it all cohesive and pretty, and also not annoying whilst eating together?
It seems to help if you put something under the decorative things, a doily or table runner, or a small tray. I like trays to pull together things: a candle, a statue, and some flowers say. If there is room it can stay through the mean if not it's easily moved off for meal times.
Simply making the nessisary things nicer helps too. If the food goes on the table you can put things in serving dishes (not every meal perhaps but for supper, or on Sundays, or when you really would like that pot washed before you sit down to eat.) Using glass over plastic as soon as the children stop throwing/dropping dishes makes them feel big and looks nicer.
I love this. About four years ago, my husband said he wanted us to have a really good dining room table. "After all," he pointed out, "we never eat out." So we invested in an Amish-made table. Four leaves, eight chairs, but we can comfortably seat 14. Now we get to host all of our wide family gatherings-- still lots of lap trays then, but hospitality has become so much more of a breeze since we brought the table home.
Leila, do you have a link to where we can watch the School for Housewives documentary? I was able to find the trailer but not the full length. It looks great!
Also, “Auntie Leila” is officially in our family recipe cookbook — perhaps for a future relative who needs to know how to begin starter and what to make first with the discard (we still love your overnight waffles!). My first sandwich bread ACTUALLY TURNED OUT (!!!) and I made a discard chocolate Bundt cake to celebrate Michaelmas today. 🥲🙌🏻 Thank you again. 🙏🏻
Wonderful!
So happy about the bread!!
This is the link for the film: https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09q5pqm/the-nordic-school-that-creates-the-perfect-housewife
You can turn the subtitles on -- let me know what you think (we have a chat thread about it too)
I need a lesson on how to decorate the table! How much is too much? How to put things *just so.* I am so clueless. I try to make the table pretty, but it just feels like everything is in the way, or it fails to become more than the sum of its parts, as in, "yep there's a candlestick placed awkwardly on the table." How does one make it all cohesive and pretty, and also not annoying whilst eating together?
It seems to help if you put something under the decorative things, a doily or table runner, or a small tray. I like trays to pull together things: a candle, a statue, and some flowers say. If there is room it can stay through the mean if not it's easily moved off for meal times.
Simply making the nessisary things nicer helps too. If the food goes on the table you can put things in serving dishes (not every meal perhaps but for supper, or on Sundays, or when you really would like that pot washed before you sit down to eat.) Using glass over plastic as soon as the children stop throwing/dropping dishes makes them feel big and looks nicer.