2 Momocon 2013

I punctuated my coming-out-of-hibernation with a big BANG!  Momocon 2013!  "Momo" is Japanese for "peach" signifying The Peach State of Georgia. Several months ago, Jessica the director of the Momocon family events planning asked me if I would be interested in hosting a panel and and workshop. Would I?  Of course! So, I invited three of my bento-bloggery friends and we led a panel discussion on American-style bento on Friday evening, and then a make-your-own bento on Saturday morning.  SOO much fun!  We also had a TON of help from my wonderful husband Ian on both days.  He actually moderated the panel on Friday night and kept everything going!

Left to right: Beth from A Boy and His Lunch, Kandice from We Aren't Scared of Sugar, yours truly, and Erin from Feeling A Little Lunchy

During the panel, we had about 300 people come through!

After the panel discussion we let con-goers come up to the stage and check out our loot!  On the left side of the picture is someone checking out my Cooking With Trader Joe's: EasyLunchboxes book!

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant after our panel was over.

Morning of the workshop. I wore baby Clara in my Beco Gemini carrier the entire time (and she slept right through!)

Ian and a unicorn staffer helping to prep food for the workshop.  Isn't everything better with a unicorn?

The line for the workshop was out the door and around the corner!  We only had seats for 120, and it ended up being standing room only!

My Angry Birds in an EasyLunchbox.  I made three before I got up and started walking around the room to see how everyone was getting on.

Our awesome workshoppers!

3 Stained Glass Project Flashback

This is almost as far off-topic as this blog can get, but I was reminiscing about our stained glass project we undertook a few years ago when I was taking some 27 week belly pictures today in our bathroom.  I'm still so proud of the glass that I take guests in to take a gander!  So, I'm going to pretend you're my guests, and show you our master bathroom glass.

This project was two years in the planning. It hangs in our master bath picture window. It was a collaboration between my husband, (design) my mother-in-law K and my sister-in-law C (and I helped a bit, by doing the running around, and mostly being bossy, as I tend to be, and not in the least bit crafty.) I did actually do some of the cutting and grinding, coppering, and helping to place the pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, so anything that's wrong with it is generally my fault (haha.)

We ran into so many problems with the blue glass. Originally I had bought two full sheets, but we quickly figured out that that was only going to be enough for half the window, which measures 5' by 4'. We went back to Armstrong Glass for more, but they didn't have any more of that exact glass due to the production being moved to China. They had old sheets of glass, but they didn't totally match up, and it was extremely brittle and very hard to cut. We ruined so many pieces. Eventually we had to go back and buy smaller sheets for individual pieces because they just didn't look right color and pattern-wise.

When we finally were ready to install it, it didn't quite fit. So that required K to have to take it down on the floor of the bathroom and take the outer rails off and try to cut it down. She didn't have all the tools right then and there, so we were forced to put it back up for safety. I had about 12 inches of space between the glass window on the floor and the closed door/wall behind me. As we were getting ready to maneouver the window back into a safe place, I lost my balance and put my heel through the bottom! And as I was trying to get my balance back, I stepped onto it again, breaking another panel. In all, five pieces were broken and needed replacing. I wanted to pull my hair in frustration, but at least I didn't hurt myself.

We had to go back to the glass store yet again and search for pieces that not only matched in color, but were large enough to cut.  We found some, though not 100% perfect in color, and got the pieces cut, ground and leaded...again.  So, now for some in-progress pictures, in case you've never seen stained glass making before.

The original, bare window (before we painted the casing and the walls):

Original design line drawing taken from a design book (I have since lost the source, if anyone knows where it comes from, I'll link credit here):

My husband's Photoshop rendering of how we would eventually build the window:

Raw cut glass before grinding for smooth fitting:

Glass after grinding and leading:

Where I put my heel through and broke it!

Fixed and installed (nighttime picture)

Morning picture with overcast sky lighting:

Picture taken in stronger light:

Just look how closely the finished piece matches the rendering!

We have since painted all the walls in the master bathroom Behr Premium Plus Ultra in Deep Garnet, which complements the red in the glass beautifully.  I absolutely love this glass!  The colors change all day long depending on the weather and light, and stronger light coming through casts color onto our tiled floors.  Simply gorgeous and such a pleasure to look at every day. I'm so grateful to have such generous and talented family!

Thanks for looking!

2 Princess Bride Party

I'm continuing with the pirate theme today, since yesterday was the 25th anniversary of my all-time favourite movie, The Princess Bride!  This party happened a couple of weeks ago, hosted by my good friend R, and it was so much fun she wants to make it an annual thing.  All guests were encouraged to dress in character, (my friend E as The Abino, above) and bring a themed food item.  I have to say, we have some amazingly imaginative friends!

First of all, my own offering.  I made Skewered R.O.U.S. Meatballs, which were Aidell's teriyaki pineapple chicken.

Next was R.O.U.S. Thighs and [pretzel] Turds

And what Princess Bride party would be complete without MLTs?? That is, Mutton [ham] Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches!

We also had Count Rugen Six-Finger Tuna Rolls

Fire-Swamp Chili and Screeching Eel Cutlets (bacon-wrapped mini sausages with a brown sugar glaze!)

We had a wide array of themed desserts.

And of course quenched our thirst with sparkling punch (with or without Iocaine Powder)

Ella won her very own copy of The Princess Bride book.

We made our own t-shirts for the party, check out Ella's!

Hubs'

The Westleys.

My friend S as our very own Inigo Montoya!

The whole fam!  My shirt says "Keep Calm and Carry Iocaine" (I had to buy a white maternity shirt to fit my 6 month belly.)

Such a fun evening!  We watched the movie, quoted lines, had some yummy food, and great company!
 

5 Cupcake Gender Reveal!

Recently we decided to make an appointment at a third-party ultrasound place to find out if we are on team pink or blue!  We wanted to make it fun for our families, so we called up Judy at one of our favourite dessert boutiques, Gigi's Cupcakes Marietta to make us some adorable, scrumptious cupcakes that would reveal the gender of our baby with a pink or blue cream filling.

The cupcakes with the cute toppers were the reveal cupcakes (the others were different flavors for later, and ohmygosh were they good.)

We went with the Italian Cream cupcake with toasted coconut!

We gathered all the local family together at La Madeleine for dinner and dessert.

And the verdict is...

 Team PINK!  We're having another little girl!

How about that?  This little girl will have all the gobs and gobs of gorgeous girly clothes from her big sister and cousin!

3 Blue Crab Crazy (with Video!)

As I mentioned recently, we went on a long road trip.  Ella and I stayed for a few days with my parents in Maryland, and we decided on a last-minute whim to get some live crabs.  Our dad was pretty disenchanted, because he believes that anything that takes that much time and effort to get food out of is worthless. This is not news to us, and we nevertheless forged on while Daddy shook his head and hid in his bedroom while we made phone calls (so-and-so-knew-a-guy who has fresh crabs for a good deal.)

It has been years and years since we have tackled an actual bushel of crabs, and even then we have historically never dealt with live ones.  There is good reason for this.  It's kind of crazy, not to mention labor-intensive!  My sisters and I had a hilarious time getting these little buggers steamed up for dinner.

We were worried that the crabs would expire before we all returned from seeing the Brave movie, and were anxious to perhaps transfer them to a roomier abode before we left. I lifted the cover in preparation to dump them into a larger plastic tub.  Sister A was skeptical that we should disturb them.

Whatever.  They looked totally harmless.  In fact, the top couple were lifeless (I somehow missed that my brother-in-law had to actually incapacitate them on the trip in the car because they kept escaping!)

So here's what happened next.



Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing
Sister A was the one up on the chair screeching and had grabbed her iPhone (unbeknownst to my sister E and I, who were the intrepid ones scrambling to pick up the escapees with tongs and...pasta spoons? without getting pinched.) What you can't see on the video is the crabs escaping from the back of the bushel basket.

We abandoned the 'roomier abode' idea as soon as we retrieved all of them, slapped the cover back on that bushel (we were pretty sure they were alive and kicking...literally) and headed out to our movie, hoping that the cover was strong enough to hold them unsupervised, and that the escapee crabs didn't know how to climb up smooth surfaces.

So we were all ready to go. Crabs? Check. Newspaper? Check. Vinegar? Check. Beer? Check. Commecial-sized container of Old Bay? CHECK!

Giant steaming pot? Fail. We resorted to rigging the largest pots we had, (which were none-too-large) and turning wooden bowls upside down in the bottom to help keep the crabs out of the steaming water. I don't have any pictures of this, but it was my idea and pretty genius, if I do say so myself. ;)

It took forever to do them in these small batches. We had to employ a three-person line. I was in charge of the pot (and slapping the cover on after the hapless crab was tossed in), sister E was the crab-grabbing boss, and sister S had to keep the rest of the crabs incarcerated. Mom and sister A were conveniently absent. It was only after we were 1/4 of the way through that BIL volunteered to get his dad's crab steaming pots.

Yay! Crabs, steamed in beer, vinegar and Old Bay.

The crab feast.

This was really fun for a change, but man, next time we're heading to a restaurant!  Long-live Maryland!

Have you ever steamed your own live crabs?

3 10th Anniversary Dinner - Kyma

For once our anniversary fell on a weekend night!  This past Friday, Nana and Papa took Miss E overnight and the Mister and I made reservations at Buckhead's famous Kyma.  They specialize in Greek seafood and meze (small plates.)  The service was excellent, the staff went out of their way to make us feel special, and the food was amazing!

First we enjoyed a cod fritter amuse bouche, compliments of the chef.  It was light as air.

Next arrived the best spanakopita I've ever tasted.  Perfectly crispy and creamy.

Then we had herb crusted Hawaiian white tuna, quinoa salad, preserved lemon, pine nuts, tomato and mint.  That quinoa salad was so good, even my husband loved it!

Next was perfectly seared sauteed scallops - Maine sea scallops, yellow split pea puree, pickled red onion and capers.  The were probably the best-prepared scallops I've ever had.

Fifth was an off-menu special of fish stew - prawns, mussels, scallops, Arctic char, Dover sole, Royal Dorade sprinkled with salty feta.  By the way, we had a delectable selection of dips served with smoky grilled pita.  The chef chose the pairings, and we had a roasted red pepper and feta htipiti, a lavender hummus, (complex and delicious) and a balsamic vinegar and garlic spread.

Next was served Kyma's famous grilled octopus with pickled red onion salad in red wine vinaigrette.  They braise it for four hours to make it tender, and then grill it so that it gets this crispy, almost pork fat-like crust.  Totally unexpected and delicious!

By the octopus we were totally stuffed, but we still had the Athenian meatballs with white navy bean stew, tomato-carrot compote and preserved lemon yogurt.  We could only have a couple of bites, but I loved the navy beans, it lent a creaminess to the gyro-like meatball.

And of course we couldn't end the evening without a bite of dessert!  From left to right, a baklava roll with a quenelle of pistachio ice cream, loukoumades (a ridiculously light and airy warm donut) with honey and bougatsa cream tart in a filo cup.

If you ever visit Kyma, you must try the espresso marini with homemade hazelnut cream, caramel and cinnamon. We had 2 of these! We also tried a pomegranate martini and a cucumber martini, and a decanter of very good Greek Sauvignon Blanc.

I'm so bummed I didn't get a picture of the both of us that night, the one I had was totally blurry, but here is one I snapped on the way out, rocking one of the new dresses I got on the consignment tour a couple weeks ago.

I'll leave you with a cute pic of us at our reception 10 years ago, looking really young.  This was before digital photography, yikes!

Speaking of weddings, we are getting ready to leave for my sister Amanda's wedding in Maryland this weekend! She's having her reception in the exact same place we had ours, and I'm so excited that Ella and I are to be a part of her special day!