Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Lessons in Frosting

This past weekend my cousin, Brianna, and I served a meal and a dessert to 85 8th graders and their families. (Grand total: 220 people.) Brianna is a chef and caters events like this often enough to know how many bags of green beans we need, and when enough rice pilaf is enough. Since Brianna taught me that it's ok to give yourself props, we did such a great job! Eveyone loved the food and our cupcakes were so cute you almost didn't want to eat them!

Below are a few pictures that will make you salivate. (Note: The first picture shouldn't make you salivate, although Brianna is striking a rather alluring pose.)





















The chefs standing in the star entrance. (Props to Amy Elwood for star construction)


Chocolate Ganache.


Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Lemon.


White on white and coconut delight!






















Brianna and 1 of 3 giant pots of beans.


Isn't the salad so pretty?


Oh, the glamour of bagging raw chicken.

First Course: Salad with strawberries, feta cheese, red onion, avocado, candied walnuts in a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.

Dinner Menu: Teriyaki chicken breast with Rice Pilaf and Sauteed Green Beans.

Cupcake Flavors (10 in all): Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting, Nutmeg with maple frosting, Chocolate cake with homemade chocolate ganache, White cake with white frosting, Lemon cake with lemon frosting, Strawberry shortcake, Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, White cake with pink frosting and coconut, German chocolate cake, Spice cake with cream cheese frosting.

Mmmmmm . . .

(Confession: I made not one, but two batches of white cake incorrectly! And it was out of a box. Tip: don't add the egg yolkes, otherwise it's not white cake, it's yellowish cake.)

Monday, June 2, 2008

Congratulations Vincent and Suzanne!

On Saturday, May 31st, my good friend from college got married. The ceremony was at the city hall in Santa Barbara and the reception was in a barn connected to the Carriage and Western Art Museum. It was such a blast seeing friends from school. Hans had a great time hearing all our crazy stories from college days. Here's a few shots from the blessed event.


The Happy Bride and myself.












My friends from college (Stephanie, me, Holly and Suzanne)












This is me and some guy I picked up on my way to the wedding . . . He was nice