A Floral Baby Shower Brunch!

In October we hosted our first party at our new home.  It was so much fun getting to do this for my sweet sis-in-law, Charis, who was due in November.  Charis' sister spearheaded the whole party and did the beautiful decorations and J helped me with the food.  And of course, he had a blast helping me figure out the menu and cooking. (I seriously have the best husband ever!)

Kelsy had suggested a floral brunch, so we immediately had all kinds of ideas for the menu.  I'm fairly certain we cut like 10 or 12 items 3 or 4 items we had wanted to serve, just so that we weren't swimming in food.

Our menu was:
-Pancake Bar
-Sausage Quiche
-Donut Kebabs
-Yogurt Parfaits
-Southwestern Potato Burritos
-Biscuits & Gravy
-Banana, Pumpkin and Poppy Seed Bread
-Mini Yellow Chocolate Chip & Andes Mint Cupcakes
-Mimosas

For party favors we did mini red velvet bundt cakes.

Yes, it was so much fun entertaining and getting to put out some yummy food.  And it was even more fun getting to spoil Charis and celebrate with her and her little family on their impending arrival.  We definitely hope we can have more fun events at our home.

  

AP's First Birthday Bash

Oh my!  Where has the time gone?  My little man is over a year old and it's already 2015.  Since it's been a while, there may be a couple look backs over the exciting things that happened in 2014.  I've finally found the time to sit down and write!

One of the first things I had to share was our fun day celebrating AP's big birthday. First of all, December birthday parties are difficult to figure out.  Between holiday plans, company Christmas parties and people being out of town, it's hard to figure out a time that works where all the loved ones can be there.  But, we figured out a good day, so we were off to a good start!

I decided to go with a black, white and brown theme.  I figured I would go for a classy, modern vibe this time, since I'm sure I am destined for plenty of super hero, train, and cartoon parties in the future.

The menu had a Chili Bar.  We had mini corn muffins, baked potatoes, Fritos and hot dogs as the options for what to put your chili on.  Then for sides we had baked beans and J's famous potato salad.  For dessert, we had a Sweetheart Trifle, Reese's Cupcakes, a Naked Yellow Chocolate Chip Cake and a sweets bar.  I ordered these kraft food trays on Etsy that were so fun to use as dishes, and definitely made the clean up a lot nicer!

It was so much fun having our family and close friends with us.  And the cousins had a blast helping AP open his birthday presents!  Can't wait to celebrate many, many more birthdays with our favorite little guy!!

Blessings in the Form of a Shower

Grandma Cam, who has already done an incredible job of spoiling our little man who has yet to come, went even further, this past Saturday, and outdid herself!  With the help of my sister-in-love, Lessye and dear family friend, Maria, my mom threw me a gorgeous shower!  These three ladies managed to overwhelm me with all their attention to detail.  From the theme, to the party favors, to the appetizers, to the decorations, everything was put together beautifully. 

And on top of all that, I could not have been more thankful for all the ladies that came and helped celebrate our baby's impending arrival!  Ladies drove in from all over Oklahoma and it meant so much to have them all there.  After opening gifts, all the ladies went around and shared their best advice for this first-time-mom and it was so great to hear their nuggets of wisdom.  I truly felt blessed in so many ways and it was encouraging to know that Jason and I have a supportive "village" to help us as we navigate this new chapter of our lives.

 

Catching Up

So, I'm waaayyy behind in posting.  Life has been keeping me super busy.  So, here are some things that have been going on lately.

We babysat Zoey one night, and I think Jason looks pretty good with a baby on one arm! ;-)  This pretty girl is exactly what I hoped having a niece would be like.  She's freaking adorable with a precious spirit.  Jason and I are super scared that our kids won't turn out near as cute and cuddly as she is.  It's the truth. 

I made cupcakes for a charity fundraiser my mom was doing at her office.  Andes Cupcakes and Pina Colada cupcakes were on the menu!  Ahh, cupcakes are my friend!  I still have many cupcake recipes to test!

We went to my dear, dear friend, Rachel's wedding.  And I got to catch up quickly with some childhood friends!  These three ladies I have known for a very long time, and hope to continue to be friends with for many years to come.  Rachel (top) I have known since 5th grade.  We went to CEA together till 11th grade, where I decided to try out Jenks HS.  I also met Ashley (middle) at CEA.  She's got two precious children, that I wish I had gotten to see at the wedding!!  And Taylor (bottom), I've known since I was seven years old.  Umm...I don't know that I still stay in touch with anyone other than a handful of people that I knew when I was that young.  So excited to see where life takes her!

Erin, Payton and I hit up the Norman Music Festival. I'll admit, I'm not a very good Normanite, because I never make an effort to check out the Norman scene.  This was really probably one of the first Norman community events I've checked out in my seven years of living here.  It was quite the people watching event!

I hosted a Stella & Dot Trunk Show with the fabulous Christine Rorabaugh.  It was so fun to spend time with all my girl friends.  And, I finally had an opportunity to try out a whole lot of Pinterest recipes at once!  I keep thinking maybe I'll make this a monthly or semi-monthly event; hosting a little soiree.  Ehh, we'll see!

Anyways, that's about all the excitement I've had lately.  And, I think I'm about to get my life back.  So, keep an eye out for more regular updates!! 

Experiencing New Things

Jason and I have been wanting to try the Royal Bavaria restaurant out on Sooner Road. So, when Payton invited us, we jumped at the opportunity. When we got there they were serving a buffet in the Bier Garten. We figured we might as well try that since we'd get to try several of their well-known dishes. Only drawback to this buffet is that it's outside. So we sweated and swatted at bugs while we tried to enjoy our meal.

Jason and Payton ordered the King's Weizen beer. I'm not a huge beer drinker and it was actually good! Although, Jason was upset that he couldn't drink his beer from a boot. Apparently they don't allow that outside in the Bier Garten. Halfway through our meal, the waitress had some extra glasses of King's Gold that she dropped off for Payton and I. So, we got to try that one as well, and I liked that one too.

 Overall, it was a fun experience and we all agreed we'd actually like to try some dishes off of there menu next time. The homemade noodles, sausages, and the pork schnitzel with brown gravy were all yummy!

Life in the Kitchen

Today, we somehow ended up spending over three hours in the kitchen doing various things and had fun doing it! The first thing was that Jason decided to spoil me with Porcini-Crusted Lamb and Asparagus & Bacon Risotto. He is such a spectacular chef!! The lamb was a Williams-Sonoma recipe we used when making our Valentine's Day dinner, we just omitted the sauce since we didn't really care for it the first go round.

While Jason cooked, I continued the job we had started on Sunday of organizing our pantry. We already can't wait till we have a much, much bigger kitchen!!! So, here's a picture of our pantry as it is now. Honestly, it shares quite a lot about Jason and I, individually, and how we have influenced each other. I'm super organized and Jason is a food guru. So, now we have all our foods in awesome containers and we have an amazing selection of foods to choose from when cooking. I mean, how many pantries have four different kinds of flour, five different kinds of pastas and six different types of grains? So, Jason's love for cooking and gourmet foods is quite evident in our pantry!

After all that was done, I decided to continue my cupcake experiments and decided to try Boston Creme Cupcakes. They were quite easy to make and yummy! I think we'll be experimenting with the recipe to see if we can get more of a custard taste and may try to thicken up the ganache frosting, but it was a great first try. Much better luck than I've had with some of my other cupcakes!

Savory Delights

I was super excited when Rocco Dispirito's new cookbook Now Eat This! Diet came out. So we ordered it and the other day I picked out some recipes to try. So, last night we tried making the "Flash-Fried Chicken Carnitas" and the "Chicken and Cheese Jalapeño Poppers". Overall, I'd say they were a success.

The poppers were fantastic. They were yummy and looked great and they were easy to make. You can find the recipe here. Chicken and Cheese Jalapeño Poppers.  

The carnitas definitely were more time-consuming and a little more difficult to follow since you have to make sure you have the correct temperatures when heating the chicken stock and the grapeseed oil. And they were way too salty, so we'll probably cut down on the adobo and the salt next time. Here's the basic recipe although the directions aren't as detailed as in the book. Flash-Fried Chicken "Carnitas"

So, while we were waiting for the chicken to cook, we went outside and I took pictures of Jason and Titan. There were storms nearby so the lighting outside was really cool.

These are a few of my favorite things...

So, two of my most favorite things are good friends and sushi! And last night, Jason and I were able to enjoy both. We both love entertaining, and since I am finally back home from my training in Dallas, we decided to have two of our favorite married couples over, John and Amy (top) and Eric and Ashley (bottom). And since Jason is a 5-star sushi chef, we had to treat them to some yummy sushi!!

We started the afternoon off at Super Cao Nguyen in OKC. This Asian supermarket is brimming with all kinds of international foods, so we stocked up on sushi essentials and headed back home.

After Jason had prepped all the food and John and Amy had arrived, the sushi rolling began! Amy wanted to get a crash course in sushi-making, so she tried her hand at the art, and she was a quick learner! While they were making sushi, my parents stopped by with Aunt Debbie, one of my mom's best friends who was in town for the weekend. Aunt Debbie had never had sushi before, so she watched Jason make some rolls and tried a couple, and she liked it!! It was definitely fun having them over for a little bit.

After several hours of hard work and 16 rolls of sushi, made with love from Jason, we all finally sat down to a delicious dinner. Also, since John is not a sushi fan, we bought some Rudy's barbecue for John and tried to make him feel like part of the sushi club. :)

After dinner, we watched the basketball games and had mochi, a Japanese rice cake that has sherbet in it. But that wasn't before we all tried some durian. It's a stinky fruit that is popular in Asian countries. Amy and John were kind enough to bring it so we could indulge in this fruit. It was quite the experience! Eric likened the smell of the fruit to mildew and I thought it smelled like a dirty locker. But the taste was quite offputting. Now it's not quite as revolting as I had imagined it was going to be, but it tasted pretty bad.

Last night was a fabulous night! I could not be more proud of Jason and his amazing sushi-making skills. He undoubtedly exceeded our guests' expectations and it was a yummy meal. And last, but not least, I could not be more thankful for the sweet friends and couples in our lives. It was so much fun spending time with them and talking about all kinds of things, and watching the Final Four games. I definitely hope this becomes a routine event, because friends and sushi are a few of my favorite things. :)