Sweet Baby Shower

One of my book club sisters is going to be a grandma for the second time. Last Saturday she threw a beautiful shower for her daughter.

Michelle, The Roving Gourmet, dropped off the food before the guests arrived. The menu was perfect:: cold celery soup shooters, spinach salad, poached salmon, chicken salad, fruit salad. All delicious! 

We ate outside in the back yard.  

After lunch we were invited to decorate onesies and shirts with fabric paints.

Several guest thought that the baby would be stepping into Daddy's car-mechanic footsteps.

Then came the gifts, and there were many.  The time moved swiftly because we played Baby Bingo with cards listing possible baby gifts. With every gift someone may ask "There wouldn't be a hooter-hider in that diaper bag, would there?" or "Could that be used as a pee-pee teepee?". You wouldn't believe the cheers when a night light was finally unwrapped. 

The baby will be well dressed for the World-Series-Winning San Francisco Giants ballgames.

There will be no shortage of onesies and shirts.



Baby will even have one with his Facebook page.

The afternoon ended on a sweet note.

The tiny bundt cakes were from a place called Bundtini. Super yummy!

Next time I will share with you what I brought to the shower. 

Pears Poached in Cabernet Sauvignon Sauce with Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Photo by Marcus Nillson of Real Simple.

The super-talented "Roving Gourmet" chef, Michelle Bailey, shared her fantastic recipe for poached pears with me. The measurements are not real precise; the key is to have enough wine to cover the pears.

Poached Pears with Cabernet Sauvignon Sauce

   1.  Peel pears, leaving the stems intact. Bosc pears are best.

2. Place pears in a sauce pan and cover with cabernet sauvignon wine.  For one bottle of wine, you can usually cover about three medium pears at a time. The wine does not need to be extravagantly expensive.

3. Simmer the pears until they are fork tender, about 20-30 minutes depending upon the firmness of the pears.

4. Remove the pears from the wine by using the stem as a handle so that you don’t bruise the flesh.

5. Using the same wine, repeat steps 2-4 until you’ve poached all the pears .

6. Add sugar to taste, around ¼ cup if you don't like it too sweet.

7. Add vanilla (1/2 split bean or 1/2 teaspoon extract) and a cinnamon stick.

8. Put pears back into the seasoned wine for 5 minutes to infuse the flavors. You may be tempted to add the sugar at the beginning to save a step, but it will not taste good.

9. Carefully remove pears by the stem again.

10. Cook wine until it is reduced and slightly thickened into a syrupy consistency - to around a cup or two.

11. If you don’t have a lot of time or don’t need as much sauce, only use half the wine and reduce to about one cup.

12. Should be syrupy when cold. If too syrupy, reheat until it is the desired consistency. Serve with sauce and Mascarpone Whipped Cream

Mascarpone Whipped Cream

1. For a chunky consistency:
1. Whip heavy cream with honey and vanilla.
2. Add equal part mascarpone cheese.
3. Whip together.
4. Created a chunky texture. I personally loved the bursts of mascarpone.

2. For a smooth texture
1. Whip heavy cream with honey and vanilla.
2. Whip equal part mascarpone cheese.
3. Whip together. Should create a homogenous, smooth texture.

Thank you, Michelle, it was super duper delicious! A perfect ending for our autumn dinner.

Gratitude and Dreams - The Party

I am still feeling the glow of being surrounded by our wonderful friends and reflecting on the sentiments of heartfelt Gratitude and Dreams shared at our party on Saturday.

 

My daughter came through once again with running many errands, including chasing down the last bit of caviar left in Palo Alto (note to self: buy caviar before New Year's Eve, not on the second!), and by cooking homemade peppermint bark, two pies, and 75 tiny red potatoes stuffed with artichoke hearts and topped with lemon zest and minced garlic.

Michelle Bailey, The Roving Gourmet, made the rest of the food. My favorites were the mini blinis that melted like clouds in my mouth. I could have had twenty, but I had my guests to consider. The home-made gravlax, sushi, and herb-stuffed turkey breast were also very popular.

 

Last but not least, I received a package of delectable home-made chocolate truffles from Edi the day before the party. Thank you, Edi, they were out of this world!

I rang the jingle-bell to gather the crowd in the living room to share our journal entries.

 

Here’s a sampling of what our guests shared:

Gratitude 2008:

• My Dad turning 80, on a Sierra wilderness trip with his sons
• Almost finished the back yard greenhouse
• 50 fingers/50 toes are still intact
• The brow beating to complete college applications is over for now
• 45 years of marriage with the prospect of many more
• The end of the dark ages, i.e. The Bush Years
• Having a job in a tough economy
• Moving away from an unloving relationship … moving on with my life to restore my ability to care, love, and create…
• All five of us survived Hurricane Ike as our Partay Garage Tailgate Generator kit saved our day (7 days actually)

Dreams 2009:

• To hear a sweet little voice say for the very first time “Mormor” (grandmother in Swedish)
  
• College goers score summer internships
  
• Wife gets backyard re-model,  post Hurricane Ike
  
• To think less and do more about my dream to own my own little store/studio
  
• Help preserve local history of Palo Alto
  
• We will have enough rain this season for a good crop of apricots and tomatoes
  
• Travel to re-awaken that part of me that loves far away places
  
• Restoring economy
  
• Maybe go see our second solar eclipse

May all your dreams come true in 2009!

Holiday Wreath Clinic 2008 - Part I

Since the year 2000, I’ve offered an annual, sometimes semi-annual, Wreath Clinic. It all started when I headed up the school auction at my kids’ elementary school and we were trying to drum up inexpensive ways to raise money. Parents of the school community offered tickets to a wine tasting party, Oscar party, a Harry Potter treasure hunt, a tour of the Stanford Human Genome Center, and we even auctioned off tickets to a lecture called “How to Get Your Kid into Stanford” offered by a Stanford admissions staff member. These items were not only fantastic, inexpensive ways to give to the school, but they proved to be great community-building events.

I love making wreaths, so I decided to offer wreath-making lessons. I provided all the materials to make Christmas wreaths plus continental breakfast and lunch.

The Wreath Clinic is now a two-day event and the students now also have the option to make kissing balls, centerpieces, or topiaries and the food is offered by The Roving Gourmet, Michelle Bailey and her very handsome baby boy:

This year I offered six spots to a corporate community-giving auction and the other students made donations to Second Harvest food bank.

We start the morning with mimosas and a delicious frittata,

then we work, work, work,

followed by a break for lunch. Michelle made a yummy chicken salad with almond sesame dressing. I can’t believe I forgot to take photos of the food!

The beautiful wreath featured at the top of the post is made by three-time Wreath Clinic veteran, Mary Ann:

Here is Shelley's wreath:

and her cousin Kellie's:

Their grandmother, Martha, made a kissing ball:

Shelley's mother, Susan, made a fresh topiary:

Kellie's mother, Ginger, made two dried topiaries:

Lydia is rightfully very proud of her centerpiece:

Some people are done with their creations by lunch; others finish up or make a second piece after lunch. Lydia made a fresh candle wreath after lunch:

The Sunday crew asked if the Wreath Clinic was a sleepover. Last year, Tracy Lou and I were still making topiaries after dinner in the dark wearing warm gloves.

Since I can't seem to cover these events in only one post, you will have to wait until next time to see what Tracy and her friends created. You will be amazed!