Recipes

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Shower of Awesomness!

I just have to say that I have the BEST bridesmaids :)
After being up in NH for a wedding all weekend (more on that in a different post), I drove back to Mass on Sunday straight to my aunts house for my Bridal Shower!!

It was a pretty-pink-super-girly-delicious event!
I was first shuffled over to see the favors...oh my god the Favors!!! My amazing friend actually made mini wedding cakes!!!! Baked, frosted, boxed, and made little "B" tags for them! Everyone thought they were amazing and that she was insane for doing it hahaha!

They are delicious too!! There were some extras, so of course I took them. I have a couple in the freezer and 1 I'm working on in the fridge. I am so appreciative of all her hard work!
Then there was the food...the FOOD! I believe my wonderful roommate/bff/maid of honor was the organizer of the menu (amongst many other things), and she hit a home run by planning a Greek/Mediterranean inspired menu.

There were so many people to say hi to that I didn't get to eat too many appetizers (probably a good thing), but there was an amazing cheese platter, spinach dip, antipasto, pita chips with homemade hummus, and Caprese salad!!I'll just give the picture play-by-play

Three types of hummus: Black bean, lemon garlic, and roasted red pepperSangria with Fresh BerriesIced TeaGrilled VeggiesOrzo salad with feta, dill, and chickpeasTabbouleh saladDelicious lambFamily salad (it's tomatoes, garlic, romaine, Romano cheese, with a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, and oregano...amazing).Chicken - not sure exactly what type but it had feta and tomatoes and was delish!Shrimp in a red onion, olives, garlic marinadeI was told my mom polished the silver :)Spread...Don't think there wasn't dessert!

Homemade baklava!Chocolate almond torteThe cake!!It was a super moist dark chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache filling!!!! SO GOOD!
cuteEveryone brought a recipe for me :) The girls even made the recipe cards with a "B" on them.Check out my sweet hat my aunts got me hahahahRibbon Bouquet!My shower was seriously everything I imagined and more!! I am so grateful to have such amazing friends and family :)

I have lots of pics from the wedding I went to this past weekend as well, but I think I overloaded this post enough haha. I'm also back to busy bee mode working on favors for my friends Shower this coming Sunday!! (it never ends). It's for the girl who made my AMAZING cake favors so I better step it up!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Who's a slacker?

This girl! Wow I can't believe how neglectful I've been lately with blogging and even reading blogs for that matter!!

Although my mind has been a constant to-do list that keeps running over and over again, and driving me crazy!!

So in less than a week we already have a nice amount of RSVPs! FUN!! My mom even has a little basket to keep them all in haha.

Ok ok, back to a little re-cap in food.

Starting with a new yummy product I picked up at, you guessed it, Trader Joes:I also whipped up a little kick ass salad last week:

  • Mixed Greens
  • Cucumber
  • Red Onion
  • Tomato
  • Shredded Carrots
  • Feta!
  • Dressing of fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper
  • Pita and Lemon hummus on the side
  • small piece of bread on the side as well leftover from a restaurant
Another delicious salad was eaten on Sunday. This was from one of my favorite restaurants in the North End of Boston...Antico Forno.

This is my absolute FAVORITE salad, and it's also extra special because it was this salad that got me to try goat cheese a few years ago and now I am OBSESSED! I give you the Focacinna con Caprino

FOCACCINA CON CAPRINO

Flat aromatic bread topped with mixed green salad, goat cheese, fresh roasted cherry tomatoes and grilled zucchini

My favorite part is smearing the soft goat cheese on the warm flat bread...mmmmmmOther weekend activities included the ever popular selection of paint colors...We have "Hopsack" on the left, and "Oatbran" on the right. Oh the joys of home ownership :)

We went with the Oatbran...actually Brian painted the room yesterday and I am going to check it out after work today! This is for the guest bedroom.

For our bedroom we were choosing between a blue and green
I liked the blue better, but I think we are still going to go with something a little lighter than this. I want the bedroom to be a relaxing oasis...lots of white and soft walls :)

We even ordered a new bathroom Vanity and picked out a new toilet!! Haha!

Later we opted to fire up the grill back at my apt. We went for the pre-marinated meats at Whole Foods, and boy were those steak tips delicious!! I also grilled a chicken breast, a chicken sausage, veggies, and corn!
My plate:A little of everything. Unfortunately the corn just was NOT good...no flavor, off texture :( Boo! So we didn't finish that.

Since the coals were still nice and hot, I dug some old marshmallows out of the cupboard and we made some s'mores!

Now you may notice something odd about the marshmallows:No your screen is fine, it really is purple
and green :)

Ok ok, so all I had were these leftover from Easter time heheHahha multi colored Bunny Mallows!!

Still enjoying eating a lot of this lately too...LOVING the berries lately...Raspberries AND Strawberries were 2 for $5 this week at Whole Foods. Can't beat that! Plus homemade granola = happy face!

Weekly Wedding Tidbits:
  • Panickly working on finalizing a rehearsal dinner location
  • Ordered a potential Flower Girl dress online today! Nordstrom.com carries the Us Angles brand in case anyone's looking!
  • Going shopping tonight for a dress to wear to my friend's wedding THIS Saturday! I swear I didn't slack on that one, I just really haven't seen anything I'm loving anywhere!?
  • Heading up to NH Friday for the weekend for my friends wedding!!! So excited because Brian and I are both good friends with the bride and groom and lots of college friends will be there!!
  • SUNDAY IS MY BRIDAL SHOWER hehehehhe!!!!!!!! Not gonna lie, I check my registries like 3 times a day...whatever, you would too!
I'm going to bring Brian's computer up to NH, so I will be blogging from there this weekend :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Wedding Updates!

I just mailed out my invitations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (yeah leave it to me to pick the ones that require $1.05 in postage hehe)
I am SO SO excited about that! They came out beautifully! I hired someone to write out all the inner and outer envelopes, and let me tell you it was SO worth it! I found this woman online with great reviews so I decided to give it a chance.
I don't even understand how someone just writes like this...
86 outer and inner envelopes looked like these, and even though no one would notice if I just had them done on a computer, I think people WILL notice that they are written out like this. Well I hope :)
You can find info on my calligrapher, Katrina, here and here! She's very reasonably prices (the same as it would of cost be to have them printed digitally) and SO great to work with. I would highly recommend her. If you want more info, email me :)

In case you forgot what the actual invitation looks like, you can see them here!


I also mentioned I had my hair trial on Saturday!


Now I have VERY curly hair naturally and as pretty as they look sometimes, the curls are just way too unpredictable to be left on their own on such a big day. So we are going to blow out my hair and then add some soft curls back in.

She only had an hour (only right?), so it's not as meticulous as it will be on the day of, but you get the idea:
It's not even a bun or twist, she just pinned up pieces of hair to create this low loose look that I was going for...and slightly to the side so it can be seen.

I don't have it yet, but I will have a flower hair piece down on the side also.


More pics later at lunch:

Speaking of lunch I had a delicious sandwich at Sel de la Terre.
Zaatar roasted chicken with grilled zucchini and red onions, Westfield farms goat cheese, red leaf lettuce and cucumber on sourdough
It was warm, with crispy and soft bread, and amazing subtle flavors...plus goat cheese knocks it up a few points right off the bat!

Not to mention it was a perfect day for dining al fresco!
Oooo I also noticed the first gifts purchased of the registry today!!!!!

Now let those RSVPs start roooooooolling in!