Fellowship, Firearms, Food & Fun - Part 2

Fifteen years ago, when we built our little Shouse on the Prairie, we didn't know a soul in our newly adopted town.  Our first Sunday at church, we were warmly welcomed by a family that would eventually become our dearest friends.  But lifelong friendships aren't built over night.  They take care and nurturing and maintenance.  Relationships require effort.  My new friend, Lady Day, and I, took turns hosting each others families for meals after church.  We exchanged homeschooling encouragements and family recipes.  As the years went by, our families hearts were knit with threads of shared memories - both tragedies and triumphs and everything in between.

Not only were we blessed with that friendship, but so many more.  Every time I met another lady that I found interesting, I would invite her to tea.  More often than not, another friendship would be born.  Because our town is very small, most of my new friends had grown up together and already knew each other quite well.  My little shouse became a meeting place - a place for encouragement and exhortation....and tea.

But it wasn't just the ladies and children that benefited from these blossoming relationships.  Our husbands found brothers in each other.  They discussed biblical truths, world events and how to manage their high maintenance wives (ha!).  They became, in every sense of the word, Brothers-in-Arms.

But it gets even better.  We don't just get to fellowship with incredible friends, we get to fellowship with incredible family.  My parents and their pastor(s) join our group, as well as parents of most of our friends.  And when we are together, we are much more than friends - we are what's best in family!  Such sweet fellowship....and a great foundation for Fellowship, Firearms, Food and Fun!

Can you say "Out of Africa"?

Our resident Southpaw

Men in hats!

 

My father and husband - what more can I say?

Who says you can't shoot clays with a combat shotgun?

My mom!

Master Hand Grenade - the winner of the Men's Division, hitting 11 out of 12 clays!

And a combat reload....

Miss Serenity



Maid Elizabeth

The Firing Line

A delightful time!

Thank you for coming for a visit!

Fellowship, Firearms, Food & Fun - Part 1

What a weekend we had!  Sir Knight and I hosted a lovely tea party, complete with a tent, shotguns and wonderful friends.  Although the weather was cool the fellowship was warm and we ate, drank, shot and talked to our hearts content.

We have so many photos, I thought I would share them in two posts - lets get started!



Master Calvin helping raise the tent

Making progress (very slow progress - it was windy!)

Setting up the tea (and coffee) station

Readying the luncheon

The Ladies Lounge

The Gentlemen's Lounge (we shot from this end of the tent)

My parent's wonderful pastor and his wife made these lovely prizes!  This is 1st place for the Ladies Division...

And the Men's

And a special award for putting "Lead Down Range", regardless of clay's hit

Our beautiful Georgia transplant!

Enjoying food and fellowship

Master Hand Grenade - resident armorer

Bowl full of shotgun shells



Pasty's with our tea....

And Scotch eggs

Sir Knight preparing shotguns

Men of the Redoubt

Master Hand Grenade looking very dapper!

Sweet fellowship

Sir Knight manning the skeet thrower

My dear friend - Julianne of Providence Lodge

And her handsome husband

My beautiful mother with a teacup and a shotgun!  Does it get any better than this?

Maid Elizabeth, Miss Serenity and Master Hand Grenade!

More photos to come......And a round two this fall (perhaps!).

Cheesecake in a Cookie Cup

Often during our afternoon tea, we simply sip on a hot cuppa and forego tea-treats altogether.  Occasionally I have cookies available for a nibble but every once in a while I take the time to make a real, honest-to-goodness delicacy to accompany our tea time.   These Cheesecake Cookie Cups definitely fit the bill of a tea time delicacy!

The recipe is simple and remarkably quick.  The original recipe  makes 16 cheesecakes however I easily made 20 and could have scrimped on cookie dough and made 24.  They are adaptable to whatever fruit is in season (or what you have canned on the shelf) and are even good served plain, with no berries at all. 

And so, for your tea time pleasure.....

Cheesecake Cookie Cups

For the Cups
3/4 C butter
1 C sugar
1 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 C flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cornstarch

For the Cheesecake
12 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 3/4 C powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grease (regular size) cupcake pan.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla.  Beat until well combined.  Add the flour, baking soda and cornstarch and mix until smooth. The dough will be thick.  Make balls of about 2 tbps.  of dough and press into the bottom of the prepared muffin tin and about 1/3 to 1/2 of the way up the sides.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool (in the pan) for about 5 minutes.   Turn out onto a cooling rack and allow to fully cool. 

Once the cookies have cooled, make the cheesecake filling by combining the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and blending until smooth.

Scoop the cheesecake filling into the cookie cups and top with fruit.  Fresh fruit is wonderful, however I used frozen berries.  I thawed about 1 cup of berries, added just a bit (2 T) of powdered sugar, drained the liquid and added a few berries to each cheesecake.  Canned fruit can be used also.  Drain liquid and arrange.

Store these cheesecakes in the refrigerator, taking them out about 1/2 hour before ready to serve.  I think they are just the right size and improve with flavor overnight.

Pressing the dough into a muffin tin

The cookie cups cooling

Filled with the cheesecake mixture

Yum!

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Enjoy your Cheesecake Cookie Cups with your next tea and savor the beauty of the moment.

Tea Shopping - and a Surprise!

As many of you know, I am a serial romantic.  I love beauty and see it everywhere.  And if I can't find beauty, I make my own.  As a romantic, one of my favorite creative outlets is hosting tea parties.  For years I have invited ladies into my home and we have shared our hearts over simple cups of tea.  But then I started thinking....

The guys miss out on the good stuff - tea with the ladies! We needed to remedy this travesty immediately of course.  And so, an idea was born - Tea and a Skeet Shoot!  After talking with Sir Knight, I set a date, made a guest list and began compiling ideas for the perfect event.  A cross between "Out of Africa" (you know, the quail hunting scene) and a Scottish Highland Hunt is what I have in mind - I can't wait!!!

First things first,  we had to go shopping for tea accoutrements - clay pigeons and shotgun shells.  Miss Serenity and I headed to a local sporting good store and bought a few cases of clay pigeons and a case of "target load" shotgun shells.  These aren't for the actual tea - these are for practice!  The few times I have shot skeet have been, well, consistent.  I consistently miss.  Every.  Single.  Shot.

Cases of clay pigeons and shot

Pink shells!  They must have known they were for a tea party!

We don't own an appropriate shotgun, but that didn't stop us.  As soon as we got home, Sir Knight, all of the children and I took to the range and commenced a practice session.  Oh, how humble our children keep us!  In my customary manner, I didn't hit one clay pigeon.  Not one!  Master Hand Grenade, however, hit every one he shot at, even when the thrower was loaded with two clays at a time.  Miss Serenity didn't miss one - not one!  And Maid Elizabeth was the surprise shot of the evening.  She had never had an opportunity to shoot clay pigeons, but in true Maid Elizabeth fashion, she shouldered a shotgun and let the bird shot fly.  She hit her first pigeon.  And her second.  And her third.  She hit EVEY clay she had in her sights!  Every one!  Sir Knight, of course, hit his targets, leaving me alone to wallow in my skeet shooting failure. 

In spite of my inability to hit a flying target, we had the time of our lives!  The littles were in charge of pushing the foot peddle on the skeet thrower (they even had an opportunity to shoot a few rounds) and collecting clay pigeons that had not been shot (mostly mine).  The older kids, Sir Knight and I quickly shot over 100 rounds, laughing and clapping and having fun, until it was too dark to shoot.

Miss Serenity running the skeet thrower with her foot

Determined to master the craft, I spent time looking at various sites trying to find some helpful hints.  Within days, Sir Knight and I again set up the skeet thrower and I was able to hit at least a few clay pigeons.  Success!

Last Friday Sir Knight had the day off work and we were supposed to head out in the morning to drive to my parents where we were spending Easter weekend.  After tea, however, instead of getting into the truck and heading out, Sir Knight and Maid Elizabeth left saying they would be back later!  What?  Oh, well.  I waited patiently and we left for my folks at about noon, rather than in the morning.  I was more than a little curious about their sudden side trip, but I figured they had a good reason to take their excursion, so I didn't ask too many questions. 

Later that evening, after Maid Elizabeth and Miss Serenity had arrived at my parents home, Sir Knight and Maid Elizabeth quickly ducked out to her car and came back carrying a box.  Sir Knight called me to the table and said "Enola - for you and your  tea party".  The box had me confused.  It said "Winchester" across the bottom, however, it was too small to hold a rifle.  Questioningly I opened the latches and lifted the lid.  There, nestled in the box was the most beautiful shotgun I had ever seen.  It was an over/under (something I had coveted since seeing "Out of Africa" for the first time) with a ported barrel and a highly polished stock.  It was gorgeous!  I couldn't believe that my wonderful family had bought such a gift just for me!

The Winchester 101

Look at that engraving!

Chokes and choke key

Assembled

Ported barrels

Maid Elizabeth quickly showed me how to assemble the shotgun and within minutes I was holding a Winchester 101 - my very first "hunting" shotgun!  They had acquired the shotgun from a fellow Redoubter and an avid Radio Free Redoubt listener!  And to top it off - the previous owner was a blog reader as well! 

We spent a wonderful weekend with my parents and had more than one skeet shooting excursion.  We all shot, including my parents and their pastor and his wife!  My shooting is improving and the shotgun worked flawlessly.

Now, I am working on the menu for the shoot (I'm thinking of something rather British) and we are all putting together shooting outfits.  I favor a long, linen skirt with a shooting vest while Sir Knight will be wearing a tartan kilt.  Hopefully, the weather at the end of April will provide the perfect backdrop for our Tea and Skeet Shoot!

Sometimes we have to take time out of the upside world in which we live to enjoy the beauty of the moment.  And we will enjoy this moment - with Tea and a Skeet Shoot!