jaina's cooking party!

Jaina chose cooking for her birthday party theme about six months ago, and we've been talking about it ever since. She knew she wanted to make her own food, and I knew I wanted to use all of my vintage pyrex. ;)

 I've brought home so many vintage baking and tin pieces from my grandma's this year, and I love being able to use them.

It's fun when your dining room decor goes along with you party decor. ;)

I was a little stressed thinking of planning a birthday party just a few weeks after my sister's wedding, but turns out make-your-own food parties are THE BEST!

I made pasta and quinoa salads the day before, the kids topped their own pizzas and decorated their own cupcakes! No staying up late melting chocolate and icing cakes!

 I've loved that red Costco stool ever since I was a kid, and I'm so glad my girls get to use it now.

Plus you don't have to plan any games since cooking is quite an activity on it's own.

  When you're four you start to look quite grown up. ;)

Now I'm hungry...

 While the kiddos were waiting for their pizzas they played in Jaina's play kitchen, and I made "grown up" pizzas for the adults. Pesto broccoli, pepperoni basil, and sausage spinach provolone.

We always have the guests sign a "birthday book". This year's was Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. 

I came up with the idea for these paper chef's hats, and they couldn't have been easier. I printed a page with each kid's name on it - landscape and centered at the bottom. Then taped it to another piece of paper and drew the lines on with a fine-tip Sharpie. It didn't matter if the lines were wavy since it only helped to make it more realistic. Each kid also got their own apron for their favor.

I always wanna know what they're talking about!

That evening Jaina gave me a big hug and said she had sooooooo much fun at her party. So sweet!

This girl's gonna have some big adventures while she's four. Preschool, ballet, and who knows what else! She is kind, helpful, funny, responsible, thoughtful, and getting braver every day. I can't wait to see how she continues to grow!



Party Credits
Party Styling: Kara Hallead
Aprons: Hobby Lobby
Linens: Vintage
Dishware: Vintage
Chair: Vintage Costco stool
Banner paper: A.C. Moore

roasted cauliflower with curry and walnuts

So I've been wanting to write about this little dish I made up for a while now, but I never remember to take pictures until after I'm done making it. Dinnertime with a toddler does not easily lend itself to artfully posing ingredients and plates of food. It's mostly full of conversations like these:

"I eat food?"
"Not yet. We're waiting for Daddy."
"Daddy comin'?"
"He'll be here soon."
"... Daddy come soon...Somefin to eat?"
"We have to wait until dinner's ready. See Mommy cooking? See the fire? It's so hot. I'm cooking dinner. It's almost ready."
"... (blink, blink)... Somefin to EAT?!"

Aaaaanyway, I took Jaina's nap time the other day to make some cauliflower, take some pictures, and try to figure out the amount of each ingredient that I used. I think that means I wrote a recipe. Enjoy!

 Cauliflower, walnuts, curry powder, and olive oil (salt & pepper not pictured)

Chop one head of cauliflower into florets and place in a glass or ceramic baking dish. You can combine all of the ingredients in a bowl first, then transfer to the dish, but I like to keep the dishes I have to wash to a minimum. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

Drizzle oil all over the cauliflower (I zig-zag about six times across, let's call it five tablespoons), and sprinkle with one heaping teaspoon of good curry powder. Add about 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts.

 Next, I get my hands in there and make sure every piece of cauliflower is coated in oil and curry. If you use a spoon to mix it up, the curry powder won't disperse evenly. Make sure the walnuts get tossed in the oil as well, so they don't burn. Add sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste.

Bake for at least 20 minutes, stirring once during that time. Pierce with a fork after 20 minutes and see if the cauliflower is cooked to your liking. I like mine to still have some bite to it. 

My helper woke up from her nap just in time for an afternoon snack.

She wanted to wear her oven mitt too.

Mmmm, nothing says home to me like curry. I love that it's pretty much as easy as throwing a frozen pizza in the oven, and probably more satisfying. 

If I ever host Thanksgiving (which is unlikely, since I belong to a long line of Hostesses with a capital H - which is awesome), this is the kind of side dish I would serve. To be honest, though, I don't know if I've ever made this as an actual side dish. Usually I bust this out when I'm hungry at night and don't want to stuff my face with junk. It's an easy recipe to adapt to just a personal sized baker, like a brie dish. 

I hope this inspires you to try something new with cauliflower! Let me know how it goes if you try it out. (Recipe below)

Roasted Cauliflower with Curry and Walnuts

1 head of cauliflower chopped into florets
1 tsp. of curry powder
4-6 T. of olive oil
1/4 c. chopped walnuts
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Add cauliflower, curry, oil, and walnuts to a 9x13 baking dish. Combine ingredients with tongs or hands, making sure to disperse curry powder. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

Bake for 20 minutes or until fork tender, turning once.

make it rain

I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my friend, Alaina last week. She and her husband just (and I mean just, like, a week ago) moved into their new house, and were excited to have friends over to see the house and celebrate their soon-to-arrive son, Zaiden. They were also nice enough to leave the blue paint in the dining room for the party, even though they were itching to get rid of it. So considerate. ; )

I made Alaina go out for lunch then head upstairs without peeking, so I had all morning and afternoon to set up our little rain-themed shower. Let's get started with the pictures!

My big, puffy cloud with tinsel rain was definitely the star of the show. 

Thank goodness for craft stores having Christmas stuff out in September.

I finally invested in a craft punch, and cut out a million circles out of magazine pages (you know I love 'em).

(Also, this is one of my wedding tablecloths. Nice, thick, durable fabric, 

but no iron exists that can tame them.)

Meringue "clouds"

Lemon Cream Cheese Cake Pops

Babybel Cheese Umbrellas!

How do you even eat rock candy? Bite it? Lick it? Seems painful. They sure are pretty, though.

Most paper umbrellas look like tropical parasols, so I made my own!

Here's the Martha Stewart tutorial.

Vintage blocks from my grandma's and the chevron runner I made

Most of the food and the signs were in circles to go with all of the cut-outs I made. 

All of the guests signed this cute book I found about a rainy day.

More vintage blocks. They're so pretty.

I found some neat verses about rain.

Gift table (before the gifts)

"Rainbooties"

I also made the cloud onesie and burpcloths on either side. 

Hershey's Kiss "Raindrops" for every one! 

The blue strips that the favors are nestled in were a contribution from my very thoughtful husband. He brought me a box of 10 ft. long blue plastic strips from work. Apparently they're the backs of extremely long stickers used in some part of the window making process. What others would see as trash he saw as decor for his wife's rain party. What. a. guy. 

I hung a bunch of them from the ceiling to make a photo wall, too.

Thanks for letting me indulge my imagination and take over your house, Alaina! Hope you felt loved and appreciated. 

And a HUGE shout out to the lovely Jess Harbold for taking such beautiful photographs! Someday I'll make it big in the party business and I'll have you to thank.

Party Credits

Party Styling: Kara Hallead of Kara's Domestic Life

Photography: Jess Harbold

family shopping day and my husband: the ikea champ

Whew! Back after nearly two weeks. Zach's schedule gave him a lot of daytime hours at home last week, and we were enjoying some great family time. We also went to our favorite store, Ikea!

 

We're becoming pros at the Ikea cafeteria. I used a tiered tray cart for hands-free food selection, we got Zach free coffee with our Ikea Family Pass, and we snagged our free jar of baby food. I saw on the way out that there were paper bibs that said Ikea on them. Next time.

This girl loves her daddy so much.

Ikea Swedish Meatballs

Whatever, haters. They're delicious.

Ikea shopping is fun cause Zach genuinely likes it. Ladies, you know how it is to shop with a guy who is not enjoying himself, even if he's trying really hard. We had so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. I need to get better at that. You can't be a blogger and not take pictures during shopping trips. ; )

I sat right down in the outdoor furniture and fed Jaina while Zach went to hunt and gather our loot. 

After checking out and sharing a frozen yoghurt, Zach went out to get the van. He came back with a really serious face, and I freaked out cause I thought he locked in the keys.

"We brought the car."

"Yeah?.... I don't get it."

"We brought.... the car."

We brought our our little Pontiac to pick up two six-foot-high shelving units. (My former retail coworkers are rolling their eyes at me, I'm sure.) But my MacGyver husband came through for us, and within a few minutes we were loaded up and on our way.

Impressive, no?

Thanks hubby, for driving us, fitting everything in, for putting the furniture together, and for being on board with what I wanted to do in the living room. Baby, you're the greatest.

Update on our shopping finds soon. I'm so stoked about all of it!