New York City is a great place for incredible food.
 If you were able to watch the Next Food Network Star this season you might have seen the episode at Chelsea Market.  My husband and I tried all the favorites from the show.  Dickson's Farmstand Meats was serving $5 hot dogs when we first came into the market.  I know, hot dogs!  I don't like hot dogs either, but people were lined up out the door to get one.  We split a hot dog.  It should have been given a different name than "hot dog".  This meat concoction was amazing. 

 The next thing we ate was a pear, gorgonzola crepe from Bar Suzette.  I have not tried to remake this crepe, but I did remake the nutella with banana crepe.  If you have never made crepes before try this crepe recipe.  Spread your crepes with the nutella and serve it to your kids.  They will love it.

Grand Central Terminal,  NYC

I recently was fortunate enough to visit NYC for the first time.  One of the first places we visited was Grand Central Terminal.  Inside the terminal are great shops and restaurants.  One of my favorite stores is Penzeys Spices.  I used to live 5 minutes from the factory.  I really miss being so close to this fabulous store.  The store began as a family business.  There is a little store in the village of Wauwatosa, WI called the Spice House.  The mom and dad are the owner of this store, the son, Bill is the owner of Penzeys. 
 If you want an incredible pepper blend try the California Pepper made by Penzeys it is wonderful on everything. I grabbed a large bag of it at Grand Central Terminal. 

A simple table setting for our last summer dinner party.

There are several blogs that are using paint chip cards for place cards.  I have collected about 300 of these paint cards.  I just can't resist taking them from the Martha Collection at Home Depot.  I used my silver I purchased for $30 at an estate sale.  My mother's goblets and layers of vintage table cloths gathered from thrift stores.  The giant candle holders are from Real Deals.  The chairs where from Savers and the bench and napkin rings were from a friend.

Gift Ideas

I found this cute little pot of begonias at the health food store.  They were for my friend for her birthday, so I wanted to dress them up.  I had this can ready to go into my recycling bin.  I wrapped it in scrapbook paper and added a ribbon and a circle tag.

Welcome back to school!  The kids and I hosted a Sunday dinner for some family friends.  I used reds for color.  The placemats were mixed with chalkboards that I found at a thrift store and red and white check wipeable placemats from Pottery Barn Kids.  A few letter balls, rulers, pencils and a teacher's apple complete the theme.