Connie Bandstra Celebrity Guru

Connie Bandstra’s flair for cooking began when she was just a young girl living in Coon Rapids, Iowa. She baked pies for the customers in her mother’s beauty shop. At her mother’s side, Connie learned how to cook, handle the business and assure repeat customers by preparing her delicious temptations. Connie’s love for the kitchen took her to Beryl Whiting of Whittier, California’s Green Arbor Tearoom. Working by her side, Beryl showed Connie how to run a successful tearoom. Connie has served on the Los Angeles Gift Mart Board of Directors and was a multi-million dollar producer and principal for the popular Yankee Candle Company. In 2002, Connie and her husband Andy opened Teacups & Tiaras in a restored district in West Des Moines. The tearoom reflects Connie’s whimsical creations and is becoming a top destination. www.tastytemptationscookbook.com

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Decorating for the Holiday Table: Use leaves

Thanksgiving is a great holiday to gather friends and family to dine around a bountiful table. In addition to setting the table with fine linen, china, crystal, adorn the area with fresh fall leaves you can easily collect and press. They can be used as both placemats and coasters.

Use mini pumpkins

Mini pumpkins are great to use for table decorations. Drill holes into these gourds to hold candles or cut a wedge out of to hold place-cards. These are then placed at each setting with the candles lit during dinner.

Save your Halloween pumpkins

Actual pumpkins are also useful at the Thanksgiving buffet table, purposely saved after Halloween. Purchase several extra pumpkins to keep in the cool garage to use in decorating because it is difficult to find pumpkins two weeks after Halloween. Use one that is tall enough to cut out the top, scoop out the seeds, place a floral container inside filled with water to use as a fresh flower centerpiece.

Try out the turban squash

The buffet table would not be complete without Turban Squash (found in the Tasty Temptations cookbook pg. 105). Use as a holder of perfectly baked creamed sausage and mushroom compote or any other tasty Fall dish. The squash in and of itself is a beautiful addition to any fall setting, but is a delight to guests when discovered that it is being used as a serving bowl!

Be creative with sugar cookies

Bake sugar cookies prior to Christmas to be used in various settings. Hang them from the tree. Make different animal shapes and decorate and then place them in the greens on the fireplace. Wrap the chandelier with fresh greens then hang decorate with sugar cookie horses creating a carousel.

Use bath towels as decorations

Take red, white or green bath towels and stack three different sizes with coordinating ribbon thus creating a "gift wrapped package". Place on bath counters or tiered rack behind toilet bowl to dress up the guest bath.

Use marshmallows

Take regular sized marshmallows, red and green-tubed frosting and design the sugary snack with gift bows on the top with ribbon frosting down the sides to give the illusion of packages. Place them in a pretty crystal bowl on the kitchen counter to be used to float in hot chocolate.

Put bows on everything

Place bows on everything during the holidays -- dinner plates, dessert plates, candle holders on the table and even the butter. For example, take four partially chilled sticks of butter that are stacked together creating a rectangle package on a pretty butter dish. Using a fork, run the fork down on the diagonal scoring the butter sticks. Place the scored butter on the dish in the freezer to harden the butter long enough to lift from underneath the sticks to add a wire ribbon that compliments your table scape and "wrap" the butter package with the ribbon tieing into a bow for your beautiful butter package presentation.

Use regular glass bottles

Regular glass bottles generically placed around the kitchen offer a festive look when filled with colored water – autumn tones for Thanksgiving, blue for Hannukah and red and green for Christmas.

Make cornucopia baskets

The centerpiece of the table scape is filled with cornucopia baskets complete with apples, oranges, pears, grapes, pomegrantes and greens. Fresh mums and plenty of candles adorn the center of the 16 foot table with nuts scattered about for cracking during after dinner conversation.