I saw this idea online from another brunch and fell in LOVE with the mini cake stands. Since all of the food at the baby shower was small bites, the mini pancake stacks were a perfect size! The stands are made out of wooden candlesticks and small wooden disks glued together and then spray painted to look like real silver. I topped them off with stacks of old fashioned pancakes on knotted bamboo picks with raspberries. I also infused pure maple syrup two different ways and served them on the side in vintage glass cruets. The stands can be painted any color and be reused for any number of things: tartlets, cupcakes, etc. Click here to get the DIY and the recipes!
Monthly Archives: August 2012
Hand-painted Chevron Table Runner
I’ve always been more of a table runner kind of woman than a tablecloth one, so when it came to dressing up the table in the kitchen for the baby shower I immediately knew this was what I wanted to do. I did cover the table with a white table cloth first to give me a blank canvas that allowed for the runner to really pop, but if you had a plain enough table you wouldn’t need to. I had planned on purchasing a white runner and painting it but the one I bought was IMPOSSIBLE to iron! I finally gave up trying to make it work and decided to take an old pair of curtains and just make my own table runner which proved to be much easier than trying to iron the wrinkles out of the other one! I then just taped out the chevron pattern (which was really tedious but a lot less intimidating than I thought it was going to be) and painted it the colors of the shower. It was simple enough not to compete with the cocktail bar that was also in the kitchen, but graphic enough that it still was noticed!
Click here to see how it was made and get the tutorial!
Mini Muffins Three Ways
Instead of making one kind of muffin for the baby shower, I decided to make mini ones so that people could try more than flavor. I had a lot of fruit elsewhere in the spread so deliberately choosing not to do fruit based muffins I decided on pumpkin carrot, lemon poppyseed and chocolate chip. There’s a number of perks to doing mini muffins: you have a lot more than if you made big ones, they’re way less calories so you don’t feel guilty going back for seconds and you can freeze them and take them out as you need them (just take them out of the foil liners and pop them in the microwave for 30 seconds). Click here to get the recipes and see how they’re made!
Giant Bunting Sugar Cookies
In case you missed my previous post, I planned a baby shower for my cousin that my Aunt threw at her house this past weekend. I decided to do cookies as the favors because, let’s face it, baby shower favors are typically a novelty item and that’s it. I wanted something that people would take with them and actually enjoy! I made giant cookies (they were 5″x4″) and then decorated them with a bunting design (I got the inspiration from this website) in the shower’s color scheme. I put each one in cellophane treat bags then designed and printed the packaging. I think they were an unexpected touch, and added to the decor since they were on the console table when you first walked in! Click here to get the recipe and see how they’re made!
Chevron Baby Shower
My cousin and her husband are expecting a baby boy in November and my aunt asked me to plan, cater and decorate the shower that she was throwing for them this past weekend. I was really exciting and honored that she choose me to help with such a special day, but I was equally as terrified as I had never planned a whole event before. After lots of preparing, crafting, cooking, baking and executing (which admittedly left me to neglect the blog for the past few weeks!) everything turned out wonderfully. I was happy to see all of my ideas that had started as sketches on paper turn out exactly how I had pictured them! Pinterest played a big part in my inspiration and there were two showers that I drew a lot from- a vintage bunting baby shower and this wedding shower. I also have to give my husband a big thanks for all that he helped with. Even though he couldn’t do the crafting, baking or cooking he took over all my normal household chores, made me dinners (which was a nice change up!), kept me sane throughout the whole process and was a huge help on the day of the shower. I wanted to stay as far away from the typical pastel colors and baby shower cliches as possible and go in more of a chic brunch idea instead. I decided on apple green and navy blue for the colors and had a chevron pattern that ran throughout the shower and tied everything together. There were so many things that went into the shower and I want to share as many of the recipes and crafts as I can, so I am going to share with you some of the pictures and information in this post and then spend the next couple of weeks breaking everything down. Click here to see all the pictures!
Easy Maxi Dress 2.0
After I did my post on this easy maxi dress at the beginning of the summer, I played around with it a bit to simplify the process and make a couple of improvements. I had bought a ton of really bold patterned fabric over the winter and I wanted to use it up this was definitely my go-to dress for the summer. I used McCalls 6558 as a starting point and you can get all the details about the original dress from the other post or you can follow this post for the new and improved version! Click here to see more pictures and see how it was improved!
Snickers Cupcakes
Last weekend our family and lots of family friends had a big golf outing and then headed back to my parents house for a party afterwards. My dad’s birthday was this past week so I wanted to make him something special to have that night. His favorite dessert is Snickers bars so I decided to make a cupcake that incorporated all the key ingredients from that: chocolate, caramel and peanuts. I made chocolate cupcakes and filled them with caramel, swirled the tops with peanut butter buttercream and topped them with chocolate curls, a drizzle of caramel and chopped peanuts. The star of the show for me was the homemade caramel, which takes a lot of practice to perfect but is so delicious that it’s worth it. The first two pictures were taken the night of the party on my iPhone and don’t do the cupcakes justice, the third one is a clearer view of them! Click here to get the recipe and see how they’re made!
Fish En Papillote
I’ve been super busy the last few weeks so I have been looking to make dinners that are quick and easy with very little clean up. This one is perfect because the fish does the cooking inside of a parchment paper pouch (hence the “en papillote”) so clean up is as easy as tossing it in the garbage! Lots of julienned veggies get piled on tilapia filets and then topped with sprigs of thyme, lemon slices, a splash of wine and a pat of butter all rolled up into small pouches. This is great because it’s steamed making it a light option for cooking fish but it also holds onto all that flavor! Click here to get the recipe and see how it’s made!
Gnocchi with Brown Butter, Sausage and Broccolini
This dish goes with my post from Monday on Homemade Potato Gnocchi and makes the most delicious meal! It was so good, in fact, that we made it twice in one week! The gnocchi is tossed in browned butter and parsley and then topped with caramelized onion sautéed with spicy sausage and blanched broccolini. It’s a nice departure from your typical pasta dish and is a great one to make if you have company coming over because it’s not only flavorful, but really filling too! Click here to get the recipe and see how it’s made!
Potato Gnocchi
I absolutely love gnocchi but I never thought I could make it myself. My husband and I have mastered making fresh pasta for raviolis and fettucini but I thought this would be much more complicated. If the gnocchi dough is overworked it can be really chewy and tough which makes for a very unappetizing combination. When cooked correctly, gnocchi is best described as “little pillows of pasta”… they’re light and soft and can be prepared so many different ways making it not only delicious but versatile. In this post I’ll give you the recipe and the step-by-step photos for a potato based gnocchi and then later in the week I’ll give you another recipe that’s my favorite way to prepare it! Click here to get the recipe and see how it’s made!










