Rest and Relaxation

I'm heading over to the cabin for the long weekend. I hope you have a great weekend, and I'll see you back here next week!

Savoring the Last Days of Summer

One of my many fond memories of summers growing up as a kid was hearing the tune of the ice cream truck coming down our street. My sister and I would grab our allowance money and race out the door to meet him. There we would pick from the smorgasbord of drumsticks, ice cream sandwiches and Popsicles. Unfortunately, it's been awhile since I've been able to chase down the ice cream truck, but I still enjoy a good Popsicle or ice cream every now and then.

You remember my love for blackberries? Well here is another recipe that incorporates the berries in a nostalgic treat. I had planned on posting about a recipe I'd seen somewhere, but I seemed to have lost it so I decided to make up my own recipe instead.

Blackberry Yogurt Pops

Ingredients:

3 cups blackberries

2 tsp lemon juice

2 cups vanilla yogurt

1 frozen and then thawed banana

Directions:

1) In your food processor, mix berries and lemon juice.

2) Strain into a large bowl to remove the seeds. You'll be left with about 1 cup of juice.

3) Mash up your thawed banana and mix with juice.

4) Mix in yogurt.

5) Option #1: Pour into Popsicle molds Option #2: Pour into your ice cream maker and follow machine's instructions for making frozen yogurt.

I went with option #1, and here are my delicious results:

For more Popsicle inspiration check out this book called Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone from the Spoon Sisters.

Build-A-Bar

When I'm on the run and I don't want to miss a meal, I usually opt for grabbing a nutrition bar. They are quick and easy, and take the edge off my hunger. However, often times it's hard for me to find an option that has the taste, texture and ingredients that I want. I recently heard about a new company called YouBar, that allows you to create and customize nutrition bars. It was formed by a mother-son team who were tired of eating generic flavored bars. You get to choose the ingredients, the texture, toppings, and they even have gluten-free and vegan alternatives. Since you're choosing what goes into the bars you can be guaranteed that you will be satisfied with the results. As this mother-son team says, "You are what you eat, so choose!".

Back to School Entertaining

I used to love the first day of the new school year. Organizing my new school supplies into my backpack, picking out the perfect outfit, getting onto the bus with friends and the nervous feeling of wondering if I would be able to get my locker open or find my next class. It's such a special time that deserves a party marking the end of summer and the beginning of a new start.

Turn your home into the kid's school by decorating with the school colors. Create various "classrooms" by having the kids go to the "Art Room" to create decorations for their lockers, to the "Cafeteria" for lunch, and out to "Recess" for a game of kickball or tag.

For your "Cafeteria" decor create a centerpiece with various glass containers filled with colored pencils. It adds color and it's a fun way to decorate with school supplies.

Continue the school theme with these creative ceramic "Memo" trays from Fishes Eddy.

Idea courtesy of Totally Tabletops.

Make sure and send your guests home with a bag full of fun school supplies. Your party will be sure to get everyone excited for the new school year.

The List

I am a list girl. There's the cleaning list, the shopping list, the to-do list, the list of books to read...the lists go on and on. They are usually on scratch pieces of paper with quick scribbles to help bring order to my life. I recently started a new list. A list of goals. I feel that the first step in achieving your goals is to put them into words and writing. So that's exactly what I did. The goals may be small achievements, but they are accomplishments none the less. Here are some of my goals: learn to make gnocchi, visit the Sculpture Garden in Seattle, learn about my family's history, sew a quilt, volunteer at the Special Olympics, bake a fancy cake, participate in a walk-a-thon, write a children's book (even if it's just for my own kids to read)... Over time I hope to check off these goals and create new ones. What are your goals? Whether they are big or small, I encourage you to write them down and make them a reality.

Blackberry Goodness

I have been waiting...

And waiting and waiting and waiting...

And finally they have arrived...Blackberries! I have big plans for them this year. Jam, cobbler, muffins, sorbet. We are one blackberry loving household. Since Adam is just as excited about tasting the results of these sweet little berries, he offer to help me pick batch #1. We went down the road and filled our tupperware container to the brim.

The first blackberry treat of the season were muffins inspired by a recipe by Martha Stewart.

Ingredients
Makes 6 large or 12 small muffins
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for tins
3 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1 large egg
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 3/4 cups blackberries
Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.butter large (3 3/4 inches) or small (2 3/4 inches) muffin tins, and set aside. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add egg, egg yolks, and vanilla; mix until well combined. Reduce speed to low; alternate adding reserved flour mixture and milk to mixer, beginning and ending with flour. Remove bowl from mixer; gently fold in berries by hand. Divide batter among muffin tins; sprinkle generously with sugar. Bake until light golden, about 45 minutes for large muffins, about 30 minutes for small muffins. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove from pan; transfer to wire rack, and let cool completely.

YUM!

A Cultural Weekend

I have had the privilege of working with Mona Lisa Events this summer during the busy wedding season. Heather, the owner, went to college with me, and I only wish I had known her more then and known about her passion for events. She has such a strong work ethic, a high level of professionalism, is incredibly creative and is so much fun!

As an event planner one of your jobs is to never let your clients know anything has gone awry on their big day. However, the reality is that there is almost always some little (or big) mishap. You take on many roles to solve whatever problems may occur: seamstress, cake decorator, designer, babysitter or makeup artist. I'm working on getting her to start a blog about the crazy stories from behind the scenes. Some of her stories have me laughing to the point of tears! I'll let you know when I finally convince her.

This last weekend I assisted at two wedding of couples with very different cultural backgrounds. On Saturday it was for a Vietnamese couple. I missed their traditional tea ceremony that took place in the afternoon, but at the reception the couple opted for an early dinner so they could walk from table to table collecting envelopes with monetary gifts from their guests in lieu of a set of towels or a blender.

Sunday's wedding was for a Jewish couple. The couple followed many of the traditional rituals such as the use of a huppa, signing of the ketubah, sharing a glass of kosher wine and crushing the glass at the end of the ceremony. At the reception the entire family circled the couple as they danced and clapped. Then the couple was lifted into the air on chairs and raised up and down. It was such a fun celebration of the family coming together to celebrate the new couple.

I ended the weekend feeling like I had not only learned a lot about two very different cultures, but I had also experienced them. The entire next day I had Hava Nagila playing in my head.