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!
 

4 Oscar Night Atlanta Gala 2012

This was Ian's and my second year attending the Oscar Night Atlanta Gala charity event the other weekend, what fun!  Again, my SIL and BIL were so obliging and took Miss E for the evening while we got all dolled up for our Academy Awards viewing party.   It's a blast!  When you pull up to the red carpet and get out of your car, they they have a gaggle of "paparazzi" shouting your "name" (I was "Tina Fey") and taking pictures. You can't help but laugh!

Again, they had a nice bar, hors d'oeuvres, and the most beautiful petit-fours.  I had one too many. But speaking of dessert, I so want to try this cheesecake.  Especially the turtle.  Yes, please.

We watched the show in the theatre live on the big screen.  There we are directly in the center floor with our eyes glued at the end of the evening, waiting to see who won the big prizes.

They had a couple of those cool instant photo booths, and we acted like a couple of kids having our mugs snapped.  I am, of course, in my perennial "teacup" pose.  I can't help it.  When a lens comes out, that hand goes on the hip in order to minimize underarm unfortunate-ness.  Well, at least it's not duckface.

Here we are at the end of the night, picking up our soundly-slumbering E from Auntie A's.  She and her "sister-cousin" S had a blast playing with ball pit balls in the bathtub.

If you have one of these events in your city, I'd highly recommend checking it out at least once!

0 Melissa & Sean's Wedding

This weekend we celebrated the marriage of our friends Melissa Britos & Sean Sullivan in Virginia!  My sister Liz and my own little Ella were in their beautiful, intimate wedding on Smith Mountain Lake.

Ella was an incredible trooper!  Just moments before walking down the aisle she got badly burned by a hot curling iron on her upper leg.  I was doing her very last curl, and the iron swung around next to the chair she was sitting on and just seared her.  Worst feeling ever. But, she pulled it together and did her perfect flower girl duty, and then was the life of the party at the reception!  She danced all night long and never once complained about her poor leg.

See that wedding arch?  Sean made that!  He not only can speak Chinese and strike a mean pose, but he also knows all about floral wire and arranging blooms to their best advantage.  He helped all the girls do their wedding bouquets too.  What a guy!

It's rare of me to be impressed by wedding food, but my goodness, the food at the Craddock Terry Hotel where the reception was held was exquisite!  Mounds of fresh fruit, cheese and vegetables, huge cocktail tiger prawns, spinach & artichoke dip with tomato and garlic-rubbed crostini, a huge assortment of specialty deli meats, cheeses and roasted, pickled peppers and olives.

I would have been happy with just the hors d'oeuvres!  But the entree menu put to shame any other wedding food I've ever had.

Who offers a made-to-order 16 ounce ribeye on a wedding menu?!  That's crazy!  I ordered one, rare and it was great.  Ella and Ian got the crab-stuffed flounder, and the crab was real, honest-to-goodness blue crab, which made my Maryland heart sing.  

Beautiful couple, beautiful wedding.  Congrats Melissa & Sean!

7 Bento #171 - Turkey Bacon Panini and Snap Peas (Oscar Night Atlanta Gala 2011)

Coming off an exciting weekend!  I didn't have a bento for Monday because I didn't make one.  Ella spent Sunday night with her aunt and uncle who made her a yummy lunch and packed her off to school.  My husband and I attended the Oscar Night America charity gala event here in Atlanta, which was exciting.  We got all dolled up and walked a [small] red carpet.  Here's a picture of us as we were dropping E off at my SIL's house.  You have no idea how many pairs of Spanx I'm wearing.

I think all I'm missing is a corsage! It was fun sitting in the big theatre and watching the Academy Awards on a huge screen, enjoying cocktails, perusing the silent auction items and noshing at the hors d'oeuvre table (and might I add, they had a mighty tasty lemon/fennel/rosemary roasted veg tray. Delish.)

About today's bento. Sugar snap peas are back! I haven't seen them in a while. I also haven't had blackberries in some time, but I snagged some of those, as well as mango, pineapple, pears, strawberries, apples, bananas and grapes. Just call it a fruit salad. I'm going to be grilling the pineapple for tonight's dinner with teriyaki chicken.

The bread is something new [to me] from the Costco bakery. They are mini square rolls of chunky whole wheat, the perfect size for little hands (and I guess large ones too, since I packed this exact same lunch for my husband as well, sans cute accessories.)

Bento #171 - Turkey, bacon & cheese on whole wheat, Goldfish crackers, fresh blackberries, fresh sugar snap peas and Vidalia onion dressing.

2 Cupcake Party!

Whew!  We've finally burst free from our ice world, just in time for Ella's long-awaited cupcake party at Miss Mamie's Cupcakes, Cakes & Such, the fabulous bakery that made my sister-in-law's froggie baby shower cake.  It was a fun cupcake decorating party for a dozen of her girlfriends from school.  I, of course, went over board with the food, and so had a ton of it left over, but between our family and my husband's it'll all be gone by tomorrow, I'm sure.  In fact, tomorrow I'll post the recipe for apple crisp we made from the leftover sliced apples (to die for!)

I only snapped this after everyone had filled their plates.  Mini quiche, crudites with dip, apples & strawberries with chocolate dulce de leche, chocolate truffles, and we also had pizza for the kids.

Miss Mamie read Pinkalicious to some of the girls while the tables were set up with the cupcakes and decorating supplies.

The girls had a blast decorating their cupcakes just like they wanted.  Funnily enough, E only decorated the vanilla one, but nibbled the top off the chocolate as she adorned.  Right now she's sharing her masterpiece with her dad, as a rare pre-lunch snack. ;)

Ella's new baby cousin Ana Sofia also made an appearance.

They had so much fun!

Mamie and her girls were so incredibly helpful during the party, they were awesome.  It's such a cute place to have a little party like this, and so convenient too.  Love it, thanks Mamie!!

4 Another Baby Shower Cake!

We had another eventful weekend!  My husband took advantage of the second part of my anniversary gift to him, and he went up to NC and autocrossed a Ferrari 360 Spider and an Audi R8, and also raced his own little turbo Miata around the track about 50 times.  Great fun.

But, the best part of my weekend was my sister-in-law's baby shower.  We decided to do a 2pm dessert shower, and I did another sweet potato bread pudding, a fresh fruit bowl, a sparkling cranberry-raspberry punch, and a meat and cheese platter.

However, the main event was the fabulous cake I ordered from the wonderful Miss Mamie's.  The bottom tier was was an octagon-shaped strawberry cake with strawberry filling, and the top dome tier is margarita flavor with lime filling (which we are saving for when baby girl is born in a few weeks.)  The theme of the nursery is frogs, and thus the cake's main design was an adorable froggie princess on a lily pad with dragonflies, snails, cattails and pond grass.  So cute!

So, thank you Mamie, the mom-to-be (and everyone else) absolutely loved it!

And now, I'm off to E's school to do a cooking center - we're making gluten/dairy/nut-free organic coconut strawberry waffles!

3 Miss Mamie's Cupcakes, Cakes & Such

A bit of a late posting today, but Miss E and I were busy having a grand ol' time at Miss Mamie's Cupcakes, Cakes & Such on the historic Marietta Square.  My friend D threw this fabulous cupcake mini-graduation party for her two sweet girls.  We had such a lovely time!  I made a little raw crudites & dip platter, and the kids had pizza with the veg.  They served all the kids apple juice in cut glass goblets, and food on fancy plates.

Check out some of these amazing cupcakes!!

After lunch the kids each decorated their own vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, with candy corn, pastel mini marshmallows, M&Ms and gummy worms.  E had much more fun decorating, because after she was done she didn't have the heart to eat it.  She did however eat handfuls of the candy toppings whilst decorating, and a candy bracelet (remember those things??)

Isn't her costume adorable?  My mom sent her a bunch of gift-wrapped costumes a few weeks ago, and I've been doling them out slowly, after having her earn stickers on a chart, but today I had to break out this costume.  What a perfect opportunity to wear it!

Cupcake princess.

Miss Mamie's just screams happiness!  We shall return.