a family affair

 over the weekend we had a charming birthday celebration for my youngest son Alex. we do love a good dinner party and birthdays are a great reason to plan one. the meal was set with four courses and wine was perfectly paired with the help of my husband gathering some advice from the local sommelier. i highly recommend doing so if you are having a dinner party and aren't sure what wines would go well. it was such a treat!
our place settings were also set with fun questions concerning the birthday boy...such as 'how would he define his personal style?' and 'what is your favorite memory of him?' which all made for some rather good laughs.

the evening menu

first course

figs with goat cheese & candied pecans

mussels with bread crumbs & almonds

second course

arugula salad & mushroom tart

third course

bacon wrapped pork tenderloin

garlic mash potatoes

fourth 

mixed berry streusal pie

our recipes were taken from both A Kitchen In France as well as The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

the berry pie was a home recipe:
one par baked pie crust; i love ina garten's pie dough from one of her first books as it includes both butter and shortening...but you may use what you like!

pie filling:
about four cups of mixed berries, strawberries sliced
3/4 c. sugar
juice 1 lemon
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 c. cornstarch
1 t. vanilla extract
zest of one small orange

toss berries well with above ingredients, careful not to smash berries. let rest and toss occasionally while you roll out dough and par bake crust, and make your streusal topping.

streusal topping:
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/2 stick butter
handful of slivered almonds

melt butter and whisk with all ingredients to make a crumble.

Fill crust with berries and top with streusal. bake at 375 for about 45minutes to an hour until filling is bubbly. let cool before cutting. enjoy!

counting blessings

every summer i find myself yet another year more blessed.

not another year older right, but rather another year to count 

the many blessings i am surrounded with.

i find myself incredibly fortunate to have such a wonderful 

group of grandchildren keeping me on my toes and keeping me 

laughing. 

"God gave us the gift of life, it is up to us to give ourselves 

the gift of living well"

-voltaire

hope your week is off to a great start!

Ruby's Petite Tea Party

My beautiful granddaughter, Ruby, turned 7! Where does the time go?

My talented daughter, Christine, went all out (as usual). She hosted a lovely tea party for Ruby and her friends.

Mid Morning Tea

~MENU~

Passion Fruit Tea

Scones with Butter & Jam

Nutella Flower Sandwiches

Cream Cheese & Cucumber Sandwiches

Chicken Salad Croissants

Pink Pavlova with Berries & Cream

She found the sweetest mini pie dishes and made the apple pie filling and dough from scratch! See what I mean by going all out? Each young lady was able to roll out their own crust and scoop in just the right amount of yummy apple filling. These girls were becoming professionals and even got super fancy with a lattice top.

Such concentration!

Of course, what professional little pastry chefs don't have their own apron? Christine made special one of a kind aprons out of her stash of fabrics for each special guest. (Keeping a stash of fabrics...hmm...wonder where she gets that from?)

She also purchased adorable pink pie boxes, topped them with a chalkboard label (available at The Willows) and let them write their names so they could take their masterpieces home.

 Happy Birthday, sweet Ruby!

 

A special thank you to my insanely talented youngest daughter, Emily, for capturing these wonderful moments for us. To see more of her brilliant photography, check out her blog HERE.



lucky number 7

Once again, my odd collection of things I pick up here and there comes in handy!

My grandson turned seven a couple weeks ago, so I threw together this jar of goodies for him and tied on the "7" card I had laying around my craft room.  

Happy Number 7, sweet boy!

why i can't pass up old junk boxes

Because I always have some little guy in my life that needs one!

They make a great birthday present for boys and you can fill them with whatever you like!

My go-to: hot wheels.  I've never met a little boy who didn't love playing cars.

a march birthdays party

We have three grandkids' birthdays within a couple weeks in March every year, so this Sunday we had a big family dinner and birthday celebration for all of them.  A couple of the little girls were my helpers in decorating and they did such a sweet little job.  The kids loved all the balloons and decorations.  It is so easy to make it feel like a big, special party by simply getting a bunch of balloons!  

As usual, the kids ran around and played in the yard and enjoyed the beautiful weather...

They also made marshmallow sculptures and had a good time with some funny face stickers I bought...

We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and made ice cream sundaes for dessert.

The kids opened presents, played and never wanted to go home ("I'm not tired.")

And, as expected, our sweet little Ruby was absolutely thrilled with her princess dress-ups!

So good to be surrounded by family!  It always puts a smile on my face!

(And Happy-Actual-Birthday to Luke Burch today!)