Welcome To Recipes From the Heart

The old adage 'necessity is the mother of invention' was certainly true as I raised my children. When they were preschool age, my husband's company conducted a reduction of work force resulting in the loss of our only income. Have you ever read a recipe and had all the ingredients except one? Everyone has. So what do you do? Go to the store and buy the ingredient? That wasn't an option during those lean years. I learned to recreate recipes and create my own. I learned to enjoy opening the pantry and putting things together to make a new dish. I have kept the dishes through the years and still use them today. This site will feature my tweaked recipes and some I created on my own. Each of my adult books include recipes. I would love to know how you tweak my recipes for your family's taste or the supplies in your pantry.

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Tablecloth Fix





Birthday Party Woes

Okay this is not a recipe, but it does have to do with serving food.

My friend is planning a birthday party for her husband.  The plans are to set up tables outside, next to the lake.  She wanted to cover the tables with vinyl tablecloths.  Problem?  Tablecloths blow off tables outdoors.  What do we do?  We put the food on top to hold it down.  Then the edges blow until the people sit down and hold it.

(A) Vinyl tablecloth out of package.
My friend decided to use double stick tape to prevent the tablecloths from blowing.  I suggested we buy tablecloths with elastic to fit around the table.  We couldn't find any, so I suggested that we put the elastic on ourselves.  Here is what we did.

We bought cheap vinyl tablecloths ($4.00) at Wal-mart.  Then we bought cheap elastic from Dollar General. Illustration (A)

(B) Elastic sewn around the edge of tablecloth.
I turned the tablecloth wrong side on top and sewed the elastic close to the edge with a zigzag stitch.  As I sewed, I pulled the elastic as tight as possible.  The packages of elastic we bought had different widths in them.  I used each one and found each work well.  The only one that did not work  very well was the knit elastic.  Illustration (B)


(C) Tablecloth after elastic is sewn on.
Illustration (C) shows the tablecloth underside up after the elastic has been sewn completely around the edge.  It will look a lot like a fitted sheet.







(D)  Completed tablecloth covering table.
Illustration (D) shows the tablecloth covering the table.  You can see the tablecloth tucked under the table.  The elastic is holding the cloth on the table like a fitted sheet tucks under the mattress.  Each tablecloth ended up costing $6.00. 
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