A simple and elegant napkin fold to bring Autumn to your table. Live your life with elegant simplicity.

The Pumpkin Napkin Fold

This napkin fold is so simple to do and so very elegant! You don’t even have to have cloth napkins…you could do it with a square paper towel! All you need is a square napkin, a napkin ring, and something for the pumpkin stem.

For the stem, I used a dried gourd stem, but you could twist brown paper  from a grocery bag, or lunch sack, too.

Lay your napkin out flat with the napkin ring in the center:

Gather the center of the napkin and pull it through the napkin ring about an inch:

Begin folding in each corner of the napkin and tucking them into the napkin ring:

Now, do the same thing with the corners again:

Turn the bundled napkin over and fluff it round:

Place your stem in the center of the napkin:

Done!

Add some elegance to your Autumn table with this simple napkin fold.

P~

Spicy Cheddar Cheese Ball Pumpkin

Happy Five Ingredient Friday! And since it’s Friday, with football games and tailgating going on this weekend, and with Halloween so close, not to mention Fall festivities ahead, I decided to make a really simple cheese ball for you…pumpkin shaped to fit any of your Autumn entertaining needs.  

I’ve been doing parties and entertaining for years; it’s one of my favourite things to do! Through the years, I’ve done countless cheese balls and shaped them to match the theme of whatever party I was having.

There have been pineapple-shaped cheese balls, fish-shaped cheese balls, football-shaped cheese balls, and one of my all-time favourites, a hot chili pepper-shaped cheese ball that was coated in paprika and had a green pepper stem. That’s just to name a few, but you get the idea. I love using creatively shaped cheese balls to enhance the party “story.”

If you’ve been following my recipes, you know how much I love cheddar cheese straws. As a matter of fact, a couple of weeks ago I brought you Cheese Straw Crackers shaped like pumpkins. So, I decided to bring those same zippy flavours to this cheese ball.

I used a combination of cream cheese and sharp cheddar cheese. I actually combined white and yellow cheddar, but you don’t have to do that. All I added was some cayenne pepper, garlic powder and Tabasco. Super simple. Then, using my hands, I formed a flat-ish ball with an indentation in the top, pressed grooves into the sides with my finger and used a gourd stem for the pumpkin stem.

So, here are your five ingredients:

• Cream Cheese
• Extra Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• Garlic Powder
• Cayenne Pepper
• Tabasco

I couldn’t be easier, or more darling. Bring a little whimsy to your Fall entertaining, or snacking by making this Spicy Cheddar Cheese Ball Pumpkin recipe.

P~

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Spicy Cheddar Cheese Ball Pumpkin (Five Ingredient Friday)

 

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With flavours reminiscent of a Cheddar Cheese Straw, this simple cheese ball can be transformed into festive shapes to add a touch of whimsy to your entertaining.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Appetiser

Ingredients

• 10 ounces Extra-Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated (I used 5 ounces of Vermont White and 5 ounces of Wisconsin Yellow)
• 1- 8 ounce package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ – ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on your comfort)
• 2 teaspoons Tabasco
• salt and ground black pepper, to taste (I didn’t salt ours)
• gourd stem for garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Combine all the ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine.
2. Shape mixture into a flat-ish ball, make an indentation in the top center to hold your stem.
3. Using your finger, make vertical grooves in the ball to resemble the grooves in a pumpkin.
4. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
5. Place the gourd stem into the center top of the cheese ball and serve with crackers and vegetables.

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I decided to take the rainy day we had yesterday to begin the Autumn-ification of the Saucy house. Each year, I change our Christmas tree theme; so, I try to match my Autumn/Thanksgiving themes to coordinate. This year’s tree is going to be “Sticks and Twigs Go Elegant.” I thought you might like a peek at how I used that theme for Autumn.  

I used to be of the holiday decorating school that required every surface to be covered with “stuff.” I’ve come to realize that, for me, less is more. The upside to that old philosophy is that I have a tremendous assortment of “stuff” to choose from now for holiday decorating.

So, I’ll sprinkle out bits of it, here and there, throughout the house, following whatever theme I’ve chosen for the year.  I start that decorating in the Autumn…just because I like for our house to be festive for the Fall and Thanksgiving. Generally, I will give a hint for my Christmas tree theme in the Autumn decorations.

This year’s Christmas, as I said, is going to be “Sticks and Twigs Go Elegant.” So for the Autumn, I really wanted to highlight twiggy looking things.  I don’t do much…just enough to make it feel festive throughout the house. Besides what I’ve shown below, the only other thing I did was to place some seasonal paper hand towels in the guest bathroom. Just a few little touches made a real difference, though.

Here’s a peek at this year’s Autumn-ification.

Autumn above the Fireplace

My antique bread bowl re-purposed on the coffee table.

An antique English soup tureen for the dining room table.

And, of course, the china cabinet gets a remake for the season. I do this four times a year, changing out china, rearranging, displaying and storing what I’m not using in other china cabinets and sideboards:

The tippy-top…

The top shelf…

The second shelf…

Happy Autumn from our house to yours…

Happy Autumn!

P~