Bedazzled!

It's been a busy couple of weeks, so I have lots to share and catch up on.

Two weekends ago, Donna, Anna, the hubby and I spent something like 6 hours decorating 8 aprons for Anna's birthday party which was a cooking class at LeTiti de Paris on Sunday.

I have to say, couldn't believe how much fun bedazzling is. We started with iron-on names for each girl. Boy did we struggle with Jacqueline's name. It almost didn't fit. We all decided she should really go by Jackie. We were running out of letters, so we decided to whimsically mix capitals and small letters. If it wasn't quite right, we called it 'whimsical'.

We artfully placed, well Anna artfully placed, iron on butterflies, flowers and they such.

Then the fun began! Anna, Donna and the hubby arranged the rhinestones, and I heat set. Donna is the least sparkly, and not bedazzled person I know, but at one point Anna, who had rhinestones on every article of clothing, told her mother that she was overdoing the bedazzles. It was really funny.

I kind of invited myself to Anna's party. I did it under the guise of 'helping'. I thought it was only fair though, since Donna and I were the only chaperons for her son's birthday party in October at Medieval times. I figured, if I had to corral 10 seven year old boys and tear apart their chicken for them, then I should get to go to the French restaurant too.

The restaurant did a great job. The owner, Chef Susan and her daughter taught the class and wouldn't let Donna and I do anything but watch, have a glass of wine, and a fantastic gourmet lunch! Now that's a party I can enjoy!

The girls had a chocolate theme for the party. They made the Pot du Creme, the chocolate mousse cake (which was Anna's birthday cake)and the warm chocolate ambrosia, which was like a molten cake. Chef Susan made an executive decision at the last minute to make a double batch of the Ambrosia so that we could have some with our mousse cake. Smart woman, that Chef Susan!

Donna made sure that I got a picture of the ingredients table. Look at that butter!

I should have taken a photo of what Donna and I had for lunch, but well, we were so excited by the meal that we dug right in. The girls had salad, chicken breast and a wonderful homemade macaroni and cheese for lunch. One girl declared that "it was ok, but it had nothing on Kraft mac and cheese". Ah youth. The same child declared that the chocolate desserts were "glorious!" and based on the copious amount of chocolate all over her cheeks, I'm positive she meant it. She really got into the chocolate thing.

All of the girls seemed to have a good time. I had totally forgotten how loud 8 girls can giggle. I felt badly for the other's in the restaurant, but at least the girls were having fun and laughing, not screaming.

Le Titi has monthly children's cooking classes. I think it's a great thing to teach your children how to cook for you! And it's even better if you can sit and have a lovely meal while they are learning.



Three Down, Ten to go!

I mentioned a couple of posts ago about making table runners for my friend Emily's wedding. She wanted to help, so she's been over the last couple of nights helping to design and iron. She doesn't sew, so that part is up to me. She seemed interested in learning the rotary cutter, so she may be upgraded to cutting soon.

Emily chose the turquoise and oranges from the gorgeous Lantern Bloom line that I made my boss's birthday quilt with. I started out making Pleasant Home's Pinwheel Runner, but Emily wanted something that showcased the fabric more, so we went with larger blocks and rectangles and the such. We designed 3 different styles. There will be 8 of style number 1, and 4 each of the other two.

We finished piecing these two last night:

Please forgive the terrible photos, my editing software isn't doing what it should tonight.

And because we need to eat, and both Emily and I love to cook, we made a fabulous pesto (with basil from the garden) pasta with grilled shrimp and a salad with roasted red and yellow peppers, pine nuts and lettuce, also from my garden. Not to be overly humble, but holy cow are we good cooks. It was it gooooodddd! I had some left overs for lunch today and had to use much self retraint to not eat it all and save some for dinner.

The recipe we loosely used was this:

Skewer shrimp, brush w/olive oil, sprinkly w/salt and pepper. Grill until done. About 3-4 mins each side.

Brush peppers w/EVOO,  grill about 6 mins each side. Cut up when cooled, toss w/lettuce & pinenuts.

Make pasta per directions on box.

Pesto:

2 Cups Basil (I used 3 different kinds, Italian, Pesto and Spicy Globe)

7 tbs EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

3 med garlic cloves, peeled

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan (we kind of just threw a few hunks into the food processor)

1/4 cup toasted pinenuts

Zest from 1 med lemon

1 tsp salt

Put all ingredients into food processor and blend the beejeezes out of it, until it's all blended and, well, looks like pesto should look.

 Add more EVOO if needed.

Toss pesto into pasta, place shrimp on top and Bon Appetit!