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This is the third in my "Set the table, please! series and begins MailArt365's month long alphabet theme with an exclamation.

The exclamation is both proper punctuation for the Spanish exclamation (thank you, Mim!), and also because the title of this recipe card caused surprise, and a bit of horror. "Triple Fruit Brandy, Cucumber-Onion, Mustard Salad" sounds like someone was into the brandy well before dinner was to be prepared. However, once the card is turned over, the recipe is really four recipes, all dressings of some sort. The Brandy Dressing is actually intriguing.

Combine 1/4 cup brandy, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 2 teaspoons sugar. Makes about 1/2 cups.

This is the second in my Table Setting series using recipe cards from 1958. This time I am using mailing seals to hold the recipe card in place for the card's journey. The first time I was going to go with just non-permanent adhesive on the back of the recipe card, but I chickened out and used the mailing seals on that one, too. It is too soon for that to have traveled to its destination, so no way of knowing if my idea works.

This recipe is what we always called a "doctoring" recipe. It just takes something that is already edible and jazzing it up somehow. I love the sound of those curried olives.

I had so much fun "setting" this table this morning. It is like playing with a doll house. The centerpiece is slightly dimensional, but even though I'm going to use non-machinable rate postage, I suspect the flowers will be flat before arriving.

The bits under the plates are called "chargers." I learned that on HGTV. We don't have cable, but both my daughters do. When I visit them in Boston they have to come take the remote away at 2 in the morning and tell me to go to bed because I'm ODing on HGTV. I suspect if we did have cable, I'd get bored of HGTV, but when it is only something I have every three months or so, it is very interesting.

This is going to Sue in Massachusetts. I wish I could shrink myself and slide between the recipe and table setting. Then, after magically unshrinking and enjoying a lovely beverage with Sue, I'd jump on the T and head down to my daughters' houses for a nice long visit.

 This is a two part postcard, and the first of a short series of 10 that I'll make in the coming months. I've written this one, but haven't mailed it because I want to find some sort of removable adhesive to hold the recipe card in place. Its corners are tucked into slits in the card, but I don't think it will stay in place for the journey. And I'm pretty sure I've seen an adhesive that turns ordinary paper into post-it notes, and that's what I want to find.

The Holiday Rice picture looks quite awful, but food photos from the 1950s (recipe is dated 1958) often looked pretty bad. They hadn't heard of food porn back then.

When the recipe card is removed, there is a table setting underneath. It is missing beverage glasses, I was not having any luck drawing tiny beverage glasses. The plates and flatware are a rubber stamp, that I embellished a little bit.

A while back there was a mail call for recipes, and I wanted to participate, but nothing I created seemed good enough. This is too late for the exhibit, but I'm going to send it to the curator anyway.