BYOB: Build Your Own Biscuit Bar

Posted on November 11, 2015 by BeautyFrosting

As you know, if you read yesterday’s blog, I hosted a whimsical, magical and fun Friendsgiving with Hickory Farms last Friday.

But, this was different than most al fresco dinner parties I host, because I actually got to sit, relax and actually enjoy my guests the whole time!

And, that’s because preparation was a breeze. Hickory Farms ready-to-go, farm fresh foods kept our tastebuds tantalized, while keeping my hosting stress level at an all-time low.

So, what was the trick? Well, you can see all the foods we enjoyed on yesterday’s blog. But, the real food focal point of the party was my BYOB: Build Your Own Biscuit Bar.

Dawn’s BYOB: Build Your Own Biscuit Bar – for fun, fuss-free entertaining

Here’s how to do it for easy, fun, fuss-free entertaining.

I baked up a few cans of Pillsbury Grands Homestyle Buttermilk biscuits and put out those on a cake stand…

Pillsbury Grands Homestyle Buttermilk Biscuits

next to all the prettily-housed fixins’, featuring:

DIY Biscuit bar, featuring Hickory Farms ham, cheeses, sausage, mustards and homemade Hickory Farms Farmhouse Cheddar Pimento cheese.

*Hickory Farms Spiral Sliced HoneyGold Ham

A holiday staple in my family? A Hickory Farms Spiral Sliced Ham. I serve it for both Thanksgiving AND Easter!

*Hickory Farms beef & turkey summer sausage

Turkey Summer Sausage and Beef Summer Sausage, served on a slab of wood for added harvest -festive feel.

*Hickory Farms assorted cheeses & Port wine cheese spread (that I sliced, cut and, well, bowled)

Sliced & cut Hickory Farms cheeses with Port Wine these spread

*strawberry preserves, apricot jam and Tupelo honey…

*and…the pièce de résistance: my homemade pimento cheese, featuring Hickory Farms Farmhouse cheddar (recipe below).

My homemade southern pimento cheese, featuring Hickory Farms Farmhouse cheddar (which I shredded, naturally)

I had cute signs on display, made by Karla Magno with instructions on how to build those biscuits.

BYOB – The How-To, thanks to Karla Magno

Then…well…I demonstrated!

Build Your Own Biscuit Bar
1) Pick your biscuit +

2) Top with your favorite Hickory Farms meat, cheese and spreads

3) Easy, Delicious Holiday Entertaining!

Step 1: Pick & prep your biscuit. Cut your biscuit in half for the proper biscuit-building canvas.

Step 1: Cut your biscuit in half for the proper biscuit canvas.

Step 1: Cut your biscuit in half for the proper biscuit-building canvas.

Step 2: Pick your fixins’. Top with your favorite Hickory Farms meat, cheese and spreads. Choose from ham, pimento cheese, sausage, port wine spread, jams, honey, mustards and horseradish. And, make that biscuit a sammie.

Step 2: Pick your fixins’. Choose from ham, pimento cheese, sausage, port wine spread, jams, honey, mustards and horseradish. And, make that biscuit sammie.

Step 3: Easy, delicious holiday entertaining!

There she is!

Eat that biscuit, girl. My Hickory Farms-stacked biscuit was gooood

Dawn’s Southern Pimento Cheese Recipe

My homemade southern pimento cheese, featuring Hickory Farms Farmhouse cheddar (which I shredded, naturally)

1 cup mayonnaise
1 (4-oz.) jar diced pimiento, drained
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp yellow mustard
1 tsp. garlic paste or garlic salt

1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
2 (10 oz) Hickory Farms Farmhouse Cheddar, shredded

Stir together all ingredients except cheese. Add in cheese. Store in refrigerator up to 1 week.

xoxo,
Dawn

A Very Beautyfrosting Brandywine Rustic Thanksgiving

Posted on December 3, 2014 by BeautyFrosting

Thanksgiving for 15? In a 1000 square foot apartment? What to do, what to do?!

The chalkboard greeting guests on the front door *chalk art by Yumarie Morales

Why, we’re gonna do it al fresco, of course, darlings!

A Brandywine Rustic Thanksgiving with old friends & new friends alike!

And the theme? Wellll…Back in October in Dallas, I fell in love with a turkey. No, I’m being literal here. It was at my fave home furnishings & decor shop, Uptown Country Home, in University Park. I saw her, decided her name was Brandywine and had her shipped to me in LA.

I kissed a turkey…and I liked it

My piece of advice for holiday tablescapes? Let one piece of holiday decor guide the rest of your table. In this case, it was Brandywine and she inspired my Thanksgiving theme, Brandywine Rustic. I decided to opt for rusty rose and gold as my theme colors, and then proceeded to find the perfect dishes and glassware at HomeGoods.

My Homegoods Happy finds! (With Brandywine, the star of the show, of course)

I let the Brandywine Rustic theme dictate my tablecoverings – and decided to do just a large piece of Burlap (7 yards, thank you very much), topped with Paper Source chalkboard wrapping paper ($34.95) as a table runner.

Burlap fabric table covering (straight from the fabric store, y'all!) and a chalkboard paper table runner

That way, I could write “So grateful for…” and my guests could write their gratitude down as they ate and drank and mingled. BF Tip? Supply gold chalk markers and gold rolling ball pens so everything shows up in the most beautiful of ways! Many of the pieces became such beautiful little works of art that I couldn’t bear to part with them!

So grateful for…the art that this table runner inspired! *succulent ℅ Rolling Greens

Next, flowers. I chose to keep with the rose and gold theme with simple floral arrangements DIY-style from Trader Joe’s. But my real centerpiece showstoppers were succulents from Rolling Greens in beautiful, gold rustic pots.

Beautiful succulents c/o Rolling Greens - the perfect masculine element to my overtly feminine tablescape

After all, when you live in a place that’s called The Cupcake Palace, things can get a little too feminine, when having a coed dinner. Adding succulents brings the perfect harmonious balance of masculine and feminine to the table.

Speaking of harmony, how about a little social lubrication? Well, that’s exactly what my Thansgiving cocktail, Brandywine punch, offered. **and yes, the recipe will be up tomorrow!)

Sipping on my Brandywine punch, thank you very much. *wearing Annabelle dress ℅ Donna Morgan ($196)

As for the food? Oh, the glorious, glorious food!

For appetizers, we had a vegetable tray, my homemade ranch dip, Matt Marr’s legendary deviled eggs, and a Hickory Farms Signature Party Planner Box ($45). I emptied the box and set them out on a graphite tray, to keep with our rustic theme, and labeled each piece of deliciousness.

Hickory Farms Party Planner Gift Box ($45) made all pretty-like on a graphite, chalkboard tray from World Market

For the main meal, we had Jake’s Famous Turkey (and it’s famous for good reason), a dressing showdown (Matt’s vs. Jake’s!), southern pea salad, my drunk green bean casserole, my Cowboy corn casserole, Nanny’s creamed corn, brussels sprouts and bacon, winter slaw and cranberry sauce. And who could forget the delicious beet and goat cheese terrine that Amy made?

Two turkeys with two turkeys. That's Jake on the right, who crafted that beautiful bird and stuffed it. I'm not talking about the turkey I'm holding here. *wearing Annabelle dress ℅ Donna Morgan ($196)

The al fresco spread...

For dessert? How ’bout my buttermilk lemon chess pie, my pumpkin eggnog bread pudding with spiced rum sauce, fudge pie, pecan pie, coconut cream pie, pumpkin pie and snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches with homemade cinnamon ice cream?

Dessert!! Reminds me of an old church social!

Snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches, pumpkin eggnog bread pudding and utter deliciousness.

Yep. That happened.

A special surprise? When my favorite neighborhood squirrel, Pepper, visited. Love that little lady!

Well, Happy Thanksgiving there, little lady! The friendly squirrel, Pepper, makes an appearance! *wearing Annabelle dress ℅ Donna Morgan ($196)

And, don’t you just love when a dreamy day party turns into an enchanted evening?

When daylight turns to candlelight… (photo by Matt Marr)

It’s a Thanksgiving we’ll never forget, and I’d like to think Brandywine the Turkey for that.

Toasting to Brandywine…and other friends! *wearing Annabelle dress ℅ Donna Morgan

xoxo,
BF

*To buy that melting, bronzed gold dress that I love only SO much? Visit Donna Morgan

BF Asks: How did you spend your Thanksgiving this year? Any friendly squirrels visit?

High-Low 15: CAMP THANKSGIVING

Posted on November 26, 2012 by BeautyFrosting

I am calling this past week, Camp Thanksgiving!
It was craaaaaaazy busy! And I felt a bit like a camp counselor, or like Julie McCoy on The Love Boat, what with planning activities for the week for my brother and friends and me!
I had at least one event/activity every night and I will probably be catching up on sleep all week.

And this next week is my birthday week (the big day is on November 30th) so I have no time to get sick or exhausted!

Without further ado, here is High-Low 15!

HIGHS

1) A fashion illustration by the talented fashion artist/illustrator, Bee, at the J.Crew & Vogue party. I can’t wait to frame this piece!

2) My big brother came into town for Thanksgiving. It’s always so fun when he’s here! But, I swear, if he lived here year-round, I would never get ANYTHING done!

3) The most epic Thanksgiving ever with good friends. My most memorable to date. In my friend Sarah’s backyard with lots of candlelight, wine, games, laughter and a full-on dance party. I kept saying that I felt like we were in some winery commercial. So fun! We were up til 4:30!

4) All of the baking fun that comes with Thanksgiving!!

One of my friends said that this was the best pie he’d ever tasted!

Moonshine Pie (the recipe will be up on Friday):

Cowboy Corn Casserole:

Farmhouse Green Bean Casserole:

Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits:

Pumpkin Cherry & Pumpkin Cranberry cupcakes:

And speaking of cupcakes, check out this southern church social/cakewalk spread. Utterly delightful & delicious!

5) The Counting Crows at The Wiltern with friends. Between staying up late, sleeping til noon and catching these guys, I was pretty sure I must have travelled back to 1997 in a time machine.

Such an amazing week and what a sweet way to see this year come to a close for me!

LOWS

Ahhhh, the lows. We have to have a good dose of those with the highs, now don’t we?

This week, I have three. Booooooo.

First of all, I’d like to address my sadistic curling iron: “Listen, honey, if we’re gonna be friends, you’re gonna have to stop burning me. Ouch! ” This is the second time that’s been a low in my life.

I had a miscommunication with a good friend and that pains me even more than the burn did. I feel miserable about it and my heart hurts. That’s when you know a friend is a good one – when you hurt because you may have hurt them. I hope it clears itself up soon. I hope.

And, lastly, as you guys know, I am a little on the Pollyanna side.
Okay, A LOT.
So when people bring out the hate, I am always shocked, appalled and – to be honest – a little amused. Last Friday, my dear friend – a talented blogger, writer, artist, photographer and social media expert was attacked on her personal wall on Facebook…by a “friend”. When will the unhappy & unfulfilled stop projecting their own self-hate onto other people who dare to stick their necks out creatively? Go into therapy, read a self-help book but don’t let the hate win, folks. Life is too short.

xoxo,
BF

BF Asks: What was your High-Low this week?