Category — food

I was standing in line at trader joes last night, picking up some dinner (curry chicken, white rice, Asians slaw and the best mini chicken cilantro wontons) when I saw this. If it wasn’t for the packaging I probably wouldn’t have picked it up but the bright orange was calling my name.

Hopefully you all check out Sprouted Kitchen often. I posted about them a while back… the recipes are outstanding and the photography is amazing!  Sara (the recipe genius) and Hugh (the photographer) make a great team.  You agree? Great! Go vote for them for best food photography on a blog!!!  You have to create a username, but it will be worth it!

Congrats Hugh and Sara!

This Valentine’s/President’s Day weekend was spent being super lazy.  I am pretty sure all I did was eat, watch the Olympics and go to Joann’s (5 patterns for $5! woo woo)   We went out to celebrate my dad’s birthday on Saturday night, and last night (V-day) we had my parents and sister over for our weekly Sunday night dinner. Bryan made chicken parmesan sandwiches and they were superb!  I finally got around to uploading my pictures from the past few weeks and I wanted to share some from my sugar cookie making experience.

My mom bought me this vintage cookbook a while back. I figured their sugar cookie recipe would be perfect, and it was.

I love how the sugar created the letters after a while.

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as I did (and if you are in Southern California, I hope you enjoyed the weather as much as I did!  Today I busted out my rainbows with a new sundress…  it was heaven!).

Update: I added a few food pictures. It was mmm mmm good!

I am going to start with something totally off topic: it is WAY too hot for the end of September. Seriously.

Ok, so our reception! It was fun, went by way too fast, and even though I did everything I could to eat I still left hungry! We had a lunch time cocktail and appetizer reception at Cannons Seafood and Grill in Dana Point, California.

Our reception turned out just how I had hoped it would. It was relaxed, there was great food, flowing alcohol, a fun place for the kids (to come in a later post), and an amazing view!  Suzy was amazing to work with as their event coordinator. She took care of everything, was super laid back and was just good at what she does. I really can’t recommend Cannons enough. Although having an evening event there can be a little pricy (renting out the restaurant), they are closed at lunch so the prices are very reasonable. I will do a post on food and cakes later The view is what sold us, and lucky for us July 18th was a clear and gorgeous day! And didn’t the balls turn out great!?  I was so happy that Christa agreed to set everything up for us, she really pulled the whole look off! I of course supplied her with pictures and lists and diagrams… but she followed them excellently!

Tips: Think outside of the box when it comes to reception venues.  I actually found Cannons on The Knot. I had never eaten there and really hadn’t thought of it as an option.  Of course, once I realized that was an option I started thinking outside of the box a little bit more. “well if Cannons is a venue, maybe the Ocean Institute is too?!” (It is, it is just more expensive)  Really think outside of your ‘wedding venue’ box. You would be surprised where you can throw a party! (and remember, that is all you are doing. Throwing a party.)

If you are on a budget, seriously consider doing a lunch time reception. You save so much money, it is ridiculous.

Remember, your guests are there to see you get married. Everything after the ceremony is a bonus. Back in the day, cake and punch receptions were the norm.  I feel like weddings have gotten so huge, and yes, it is ok to want the big party, to want to dance the night away and have your names projected on the dance floor and an ice sculpture replica of your dress (ok… that was taking it too far. sorry). If that is what you want, then by all means, it is your wedding. But if you don’t want all of that, if you just want to get married to the one you love and have a little celebration afterwards, then do it!  I know that we were extremely blessed to have my parents pay for the wedding and only pull the “I am paying so I get my way” card once or twice, and that not everyone can just do whatever they want while having someone else pay…  but… um… (sometimes I wish I was better at putting my thoughts into written words)

All I want  you to know is that you shouldn’t worry about what your guests will think, want, desire… They are just happy to see you tie the knot. And if you feed them something and hang out for a bit, then that is cool too. Just… just do what you want to do!  It is your day! You are getting married to the one you love! Yay!

I’ll get off my soap box now!

Oh and for those who asked, I got the H & B letters at Michael’s… I think!  They were white and Bryan painted them!

All images thanks to Miah and Mike from Studio 7.

I saw these adorable cupcake liners a while ago at Cupcake Social and thought to myself, ‘those would be nice to have.’  

And then Kristina pointed me to Bake it Pretty and oh.my.Lord.  I need to have a baking party. Like, now.  This very small sample of what you can get does not even do the site justice. You have to go and see it all.

I think the twisties are my favorite…  or the ballerina toppers… or the peanut bags…  

What do you get when you mix fresh organic recipes with fresh and organic photography?  Sprouted Kitchen.

Such a delicious looking love child Amazing photos by Hugh Forte. Who also just posted a new wedding. Go check it out!

The cellar is a semi-new wine bar in San Clemente and it is one of our favorite new places. It serves delicious tapas style food, serves its water from glass bottles and poured into mason jars.

They also have an awesome looking menu.

The menu changes every few months and during the day they sell cheeses and wine out of the front of the place.  They have live piano every night and stay open late, which in San Clemente means anything open after 9pm I would totally recommend it for a small daytime reception or rehearsal lunch. The place is gorgeous, the food is delicious… it really is a win win.

yes please.

Doesn’t that picture just make you drool?!  My mouth is totally watering right now. If I had my way, I would eat mexican food every day, and drink mexican beer, well, every weekend No beer bellies here please!

And with that I bid you ado. I am off to VEGAS for my friends bachelorette party and I. am. so. excited. I need this weekend.

Have a fabulous weekend, I know I will  

(from here)

… was my name in spanish class And then when I worked as a server and the bussers and cooks would have  a hard time pronouncing ‘Heather’ I told them to call me Sofia. So maybe i just like the name. Maybe it is the pink cans. Maybe I just love champagne. Whatever it is, I love it!

(from here)

Well look at all of you delurking! You must have felt pretty strongly about that bow huh?! haha I love that so many of you commented, you should do it more often! This whole blogging thing is such a community, a support for all of us whose friends have had it with us talking wedding all the time. If I had asked my friends “bow or no bow?” they probably would have said ‘meh’ and I would have had to decide on my own!  So, thank you for your comments, we will for sure be going no bow on the taller thinner jars and I am gonna experiment with bows (around the neck!) on the actual Ball jars, since they have a more prominent neck to hold the ribbon  I will post pictures soon!

Oh, and an update (cause you all are my community ) on the gelato! So we said we would give them till February, it is February, so we dropped them.  The last real email I sent them was over 2 weeks ago asking some detailed questions about the size of the cart, what the set up entailed etc. and I heard nothing back. I mean, I first contacted them in August, and the most I have gotten out of them is a price sheet and finding out we were on their calendar… I do not want to work with a company that has such horrible communication. So I sent them (the store manager and I cc’d his manager) this email:

“Due to a lack of communication on your part, we will no longer be needing your services for our July 18th event.”

Well, who do you think called me yesterday?! The managers manager! Ha  At first he had no idea what they had done wrong. I had to explain to him that sending me a price sheet and saying I am on your calendar isn’t exactly the details I was looking for. He tried to say that they just always say ‘yes’ to their customers so they didn’t think much into it.  By the end of the conversation I had gotten across to him that I am planning an event (a low-key-no-stress-least-event-ever-event) and needed a few more details than a price sheet and a “see you in july!”  He was very nice and very apologetic and maybe we will use them for our kids first birthday party. But not the wedding. Not my big event

SO. We stopped by a local bakery Saturday and spoke to the owner and got a list of their cakes. Want to hear one?

Princess: Three layer white cake filled with fresh bavarian cream and raspberries, surrounded with roasted hazelnuts and topped with fresh whipped cream and a layer of marzipan.

mmmmmmm

I am excited. We are definitely in the ‘reception’ planning stage, so I am reposting my own reception inspiration board, just as a reminder  Have a good morning everyone!!