The Baby Rodeo

I spent the beginning of February visiting my family in Texas. While my trips home are always special (mostly because they're so rare), this one had a special twist!

A baby shower! (Surprise- his name is Samuel!)

My mom and sister have been such a huge support to me throughout my entire pregnancy and they were sweet enough to throw me a cowboy-themed shower. Even though I've been in Massachusetts for the last decade (seriously, when did 10 years fly by?), I'm still a Texan at heart. I can't wait to teach my cowpoke all about his Lonestar roots!

From the decorations to the cake, this shower was pure country.

Baby boots filled with bluebonnets! My mom's boss has saved her children's cowboy boots since they were small and she has quite the collection. For her son's graduation party, her sisters filled them with flowers to use as centerpieces. She was kind enough to loan us these adorable decorations.

Don't squat with your spurs on!

Everyone's favorite cartoon cowboy, Woody!


I was blown away by the cake- this boot cake was the end-all, be-all of cakes. It was a monster- I'm guessing it was cut from at least a half-sheet cake. A&J Bakery on Oaklawn in Dallas made this yellow-cake and chocolate-frosted dream come true. I'm not ashamed to say I ate three pieces.

Because it was a book shower, my friends and family generously gave us copies of their favorite children's books. Sam has quite the library now! We got the Berenstain Bears, several Sandra Boynton classics, the full set of Boxcar Children books, and so many more. I already read one of the Hardy Boys books- quite an adventure! Everyone was so sweet explaining why they gave us each book- many were favorites of the shower guests or their children. I'm a huge book lover, so this was the perfect way to celebrate my sweet boy.




In true Betty-fashion, I completely forgot to take pictures of myself with any of my guests. I think my mom may have a few stashed on her camera.

As much fun as I had swapping stories with my friends and family, the real star of the show woke up from her nap half way through.

Isabella is going to be the best cousin ever!

A little Christmas party

A little Christmas was had by all tonight! Nick and I wanted to have a Christmas party this year, but usually people get so busy before the holiday that it's hard to find a day that works for everyone. We solved this problem by having a Little Christmas party. Friday was Epiphany or the Feast of the Three Kings. Several cultures actually exchange gifts on Epiphany instead of December 25.

Nick custom designed some lovely invitations and we mailed them out with our Christmas cards to pretty much everyone we know. We hosted the party at the faculty dining hall where Nick works- it was a great space!



My mom sent me these tablecloths a year ago and I finally got to use them! They really added a nice touch.

We had a potluck- I love them because everyone we know has good taste in food! We had lots of delicious dishes: two kinds of macaroni and cheese, a huge antipasto plate, shepherd's pie, 7-layer dip, pesto chicken pasta, ziti and meatballs, chicken fingers, calzone, chili, and more that I'm forgetting.

This is after we ate- it was all so good! For dessert there were cookies and trifle.

We stocked the fridge with beer and soda.

After dinner, we had a Yankee Swap.




There were some crazy gifts- one family brought a live lobster on ice with a gift card!! I had to hold it up for all to see- should've gotten a picture. Other gifts included a mini-sewing machine, a 4-cup coffee maker, some limoncello, and a few sets of lottery tickets. It was a pretty good selection for a $20 limit. I got the game Catch Phrase- so fun- and Nick came home with a digital clock.




After the festivities, it was time to clean up. It's a school night after all so we wrapped up early.


Thankfully, we had some help!

It was a fun night and hopefully a new tradition was born. There were a few wee ones there this year, but next year our parties will be crawling with babies. Fun times!

A preview of parties to come

Our good friends Mark and Angela had us over for New Year's Eve. Well, I kind of invited us over, but they were gracious enough to host. The evening started out promising- the four of us ate an entire bowl of guacamole in about 10 minutes. Mmm...avocados.

Then, we brought out the big guns...


Wouldn't be New Year's Eve without Chinese Food. Lucky Dragon provided us this feast and in only 15 minutes! That has to be some kind of December 31st record.


Served up in style...I think square food is underrated.

We ordered so much food that they sent everyone home with individually Ziploc-ed doggy bags- yum!

Unfortunately, we didn't last too long. Nick's been working on the kitchen non-stop (it's currently gutted to the studs) and I'm 22 weeks pregnant. At 9:30, we called it a night. By 10 o'clock, we were pajama-ed and passed out.

At least I looked party-ready for the three hours I was upright- my mother in law has good taste. This top was a Christmas present!


While this year was a far cry from years past (the infamous sangria debacle- all of our guests were drunk within 20 minutes), it was so nice to catch up with friends and eat some yummy food.

Because New Year's Eve may be hard to pull off for the next few years with the little ones on the way, plans for next year include a New Year's Day brunch at our house!

Cucumber sandwiches for commoners

Flashback! Real high tea spread from Harrods- February 2009.

Pinkies up, husband!



We had a tea party at work on Friday to celebrate the royal wedding- it was SO much fun! We have a stash of real china tea cups and pots from when the nuns ran the college. Apparently tea was important because there is a closet in the board room with at least 100 different cups.

Everyone contributed a little something. One of my staff members brought in her great aunt's silver tea service, the associate registrar brought in decorations (we had a wall of Big Ben and Double Decker bus cut outs), the director of admissions bought some whipped cream fruit turnovers (yum!), and others brought biscuits and digestives.

We also played musical trivia and I won a pair of socks that say England on them! Awesome. Better than the woman who won the already burned candle. HA!

I decided to get real serious about this tea party business and made cucumber sandwiches. Survey says?

Strangely delicious! I'm telling you- they are tasty! The husband snatched at least 3. Fresh and crunchy- these are easy tea party fare.


Start by slicing up an English cucumber. Those are the seedless ones wrapped up in plastic. Slice them pretty thin- tea sandwiches are supposed to be dainty.

Buy some good quality white bread. In hindsight I should have gotten a regular loaf. My sandwiches were a bit...oblong...due to the homestyle loaf. Cut off the crusts, obviously.

This is how thick the bread slices are pre-rolling.

This takes the tea sandwiches to a more authentic place, but I guess you could skip this step (if you're a cheater). Bust out the rolling pin and roll those slices until they are good and mashed down. The thinner the better. I would have rolled a bit more but the bread started to tear.

Slather on some cream cheese. Use the full fat kind. These sandwiches are so smaller they are practically calorie-free. Bonus!? The cream cheese seals the bread and keeps the sandwiches from getting soggy. I made these the night before and they were still good to go the next day at noon.

Layer on some cucumber slices.

Top with the other slice of cream cheesed bread. Mash it down with your hand.

Slice.

Stack.

From this angle, you can see why I call these cucumber sandwiches for commoners. I was a little too lazy to really get after those crusts. Plus, the bread was oval shaped and I would have lost a lot to make prettier treats.

They must have tasted pretty good, though. Came home with a clean plate!

Party time! Excellent!

Though I tend to be an introvert, I do love throwing a good party. It's the hostess in me- I blame it on my Texan roots. Nothing makes me happier than making large amounts of food only to have it quickly devoured and appreciated by friends and family. Or coworkers. Or strangers.

Heck, in high school, I used to bake cookies and offer them up to random people in the hallways before class. I met a few skeptics, but who can resist free & delicious cookies?

No one.

As an adult, this need to feed has manifested itself into regular potlucks at our house. For the past three years we've been hosting Pumptoberfest, a celebration of all things pumpkin held in October. We've had pumpkin bread, pumpkin beer, pumpkin dip, pumpkin cookies, savory pumpkin turnovers, pumpkin fondue, butterbeer (although no pumpkin is involved in this drink- it's highly festive). When Pumptoberfest the 4th rolls around this year, you'll be seeing the results right here.

We also had a back in the day potluck, where people brought family and lunch box favorites. And our most recent potluck was a Pajama Potluck. I believe this to be the biggest hit thus far. Everyone brought breakfast food, we set up a Make Your Own Waffle Bar, mimosas and white Russians were poured, and the best thing? You got to wear pajamas!! Best party ever.

This picture showcases baked eggs- yum, cream cheese brownies, and coffee cake. And a few empty plates. These events are for eaters- not dieters. Baked French Toast was also involved.

A waffle creation! The MYOWB included blueberries, chocolate chips, pecans, & homemade whipped cream and strawberry compote for topping. Yum! You can also see pictures of the chocolate chip cookies from this entry. I had made them earlier that day and had some leftover. Nothing goes to waste at Betty's house!

A slightly more formal affair occurred back in April. My mom held an open house for her newly renovated and stupendously amazing condo and asked me to cater. I graciously agreed to fly across the country just for this event. Or maybe I already had plans to go home. And my sister's baby shower was that weekend. But still.

Having never catered before, this was a bit of a slapdash sort of thing. Though I like baking in bulk, the largest event I had ever hosted was Thanksgiving for 25. And that food is super easy and made for a crowd. This posed a bit of a challenge.

We kept the spread simple, focusing on finger foods, but trying to offer sweet and savory options- heavy hors d'oeuvres. We didn't really stick to a theme for the food, unless the theme was food we thought people would like to eat.

We served sausage balls, caprese salad skewers, Irish Coffee Cupcakes, Pineapple Cupcakes, Fruit Pizza, Snowball cookies, artichoke dip, deviled eggs, and chips & salsa. See? Random. But tasty.

Even though it was an odd combination of food, it made for a really pretty spread. Mom also has some great Fiestaware serving platters that I *love*.

Caprese Skewers- could not be simpler to assemble and people go nuts for them!


Irish Coffee Cupcakes- still amazing.

Pineapple cupcakes. I used Paula's Basic 1-2-3-4 cake recipe and added a cup of pineapple preserves and some lemon zest. Top with a cherry, pineapple cube, & drink umbrella garnish.


Fruit Pizza and Snowballs. For the fruit pizza, simple bake off some puff pastry, brush with apricot preserves, top with berries and slice. Cute, huh? Snowballs are glorified sugar cookies, but a childhood favorite of mine and my mother.

Other recipes used can be found here:

Artichoke Dip

Sausage Balls


What kind of parties do you like to throw??