On the Fly Oriental Dining

Hosted by "Between Naps on the Porch"

Let's start with Susan's Tablescape Thursday...

THEME:
"Contemporary Asian"
MY INSPIRATION:
Roscher "Tara Gres (Gray)" Square dinnerware and chopsticks
This set was a lot harder to work with than I thought after I bought it for my daughter. Since I'm always on a tight budget, I buy something for my daughters' Hope Chests when I can. Anyway, it never occured to me that the square shape and the chunkiness would be a great contemporary Asian set I can use for tablescaping (I've only been able to use this set once). I'm glad I tried. Also, in the spirit of our project, we were more ready to look for ways to use what we find in the house. Well, my husband found the collection of wooden chopsticks that his father collected over the years from going to this Pho (Noodle) restaurant in San Jose, California.


Since last Tuesday, we put our whole family on a 10-day "Being Self-Reliant" project where we only ate and used what was in our apartment. The only exception to the rule were the necessities like milk, eggs, bread and veggies. We started out by cleaning and reorganizing our food pantry. Then we tweaked our menu to according to what we have on hand. To make it more interesting, I would also make tablescapes to make the foods more appealing. Thank goodness to our Costco run and my neurotic way of stocking up, we had tons of dishes to choose from without the hassle. The hassle came from figuring out which dish to do on what day. :-)

So, on one of these days, I found some beef ribs in the freezer and using my crockpot, I cooked it with only hickory barbecue sauce for 4 hours. As the hour neared, the idea to do an Asian meal came together, but also because while I was trying to figure what to accompany the ribs with, I was looking at the direction of my daughter's plates (it would be hers...) So using that with my "Blossom" serveware, the table came together. It was also the time I made the Asian vignette for the cookie party at Cielo's blog, "The House in the Roses" for last Sunday. I purposely did not use any tablecloth to show off the beautiful dark chocolate color of our new table. Do you see the graceful lines of the bench? My table set is aptly named, "Pagoda" collection from Cost Plus. I scattered the green through my placemats and only used very little candlelight to add romance and a more country feel since all the pieces are obviously contemporary. Luckily for me, I had some chinese vase stands that I was able to use to give different heights to the pieces in the center. In most Asian tables, simplicity and harmony reign... Just like in restaurants, we placed spoons for the soup included in the menu.

There's the pulled bbq beef rib meat that literally fell off the bones after 4 hours in the slow cooker. See the red capped bottle? That's Ponzu soy sauce, the Japanese equivalent of lemons. It is so good on meats. Lisa's boyfriend, Daniel joined us again this dinner and he loved the whole menu! We had a great time eating and talking about how wonderful of an evening it was.
I made this oriental soup called, "Nido with lobster balls and Eggs". I spinkled cut green onions to again capture the green on the table.

(Doesn't the dish make the soup more appetizing?)

TABLE GOODIES:
Plates & Bowls- Roscher "Tara", Marshall's; $3 each
Serveware- "Blossom", Ross; 50-75% off each
Glassware- Anchor Hocking "Fire and Ice", Walmart; $9/16
Placemats- Yellow green round, Ross; $5.99/4
Celadon vase- Chinese water jug, Ross; $3.49
Candle-short pillar, pale yellow, Walmart; 50 cents
Chopsticks- wooden; FREE from FIL
Spoons- Soup/Dessert, Walmart; $3/6
Single Stem White Agapanthus (Recycled), Costco
MENU:
Jasmine Rice, steamed
Hickory BBQ Pulled Beef Ribs
Ponzu soy sauce
Nido Oriental Soup with Lobster Balls and Eggs
Grapefruit/Pineapple juice
Ice Water
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
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For Thrifty Thursday with Leigh... (Actually, I think I already qualify every week with my inexpensive tablescapes, but I also like to feature my great finds...)

Hosted by "Tales from Bloggeritaville"
I present to you my Heritage Mint, Ltd. "Royal Alister" 18/10 Stainless Flatware!


Back in 2006, while living in Mesa, Arizona, a few Albertson's grocery stores closed down near us, and towards the end, one of them, brought out all of their housewares or "general merchandise" and we managed to complete a set of twelve settings plus serving pieces for 50 cents a place setting! Each service sets were also priced down to 50 cents! ("Brain's" happy level went through the roof! How can she not? She was in clearance paradise accompanied by a hunk, no combo is better than that, do you agree?)
But the most memorable of all these wonderful finds, were the times that my husband got so excited with me that he would plan when we can and should go. We went for almost 6 weeks in a row! Gotta love him for that! We also found placemats, tablecloths, steak knives, and Christmas decor. We even grabbed tons of canned grapefruit juice for 8 cents each!

If you click on the flatware name above the first photo, you will see that the equivalent of all the flatware we got on this closeout is worth $239.00 for 69 pieces with the case, but we got them all plus more, including the case, for $15.00! We got two sets of the serving and salad servers.

Doesn't it look beautiful?

I can't wait to dig them out of the storage someday soon; I have an idea for where I can use them... Let's just say, you'll like it when you see it... :-)

I hope you all found some great ideas in this week's Thrifty Tablescape Thursday post edition in my blog. Thanks a bunch Susan and Leigh for hosting! I love these memes, they are so fun! Now go see how many other beautiful tablescapes were done by creative, thrifty ladies! Thanks for peeking!