I love making charcuterie boards for large gatherings. It easy and there is usually something everyone likes. I was asked to provide snacks for the first night of our Lenten Bible Study and I knew right away I was going to make a charcuterie board, several of them. There is really no wrong or right way to make one, but I like to at least have 3 to 4 varieties in each area.

For the charcuterie board in the picture:​

• Four types of deli meat; chicken breast, turkey breast, ham, and salami
• Four types of cheese; swiss, cheddar, colby, and gouda
• Four types of crackers; two round kind and two square kinds (one being gluten-free)
• Four types of fruit; red and green grapes, strawberries, and blueberries.
• Two bowls filled with dried cranberries and raisins (something I don’t always do, but I like having one or two bowls on a board)

Charcuterie Boards are usually a great crowd pleaser and a lot of people will be impressed with the presentation and options for them to snack on. I know the Bible study attendees were!

Last month I learned the Knights of Columbus at our parish was hosting a Valentine’s Dance and I was instantly excited and volunteered to make chocolate-covered strawberries. Much to my surprise, the gentleman that was organizing the event asked me if I would be interested in doing the whole dessert table! I genuinely felt honored to be asked and happily accepted. He requested pastries along with cupcakes, which isn’t something I normally make. I told him I would come up with a few ideas and would do a tasting at their next Knights meeting. They were all a big hit but was able to narrow it down to five types, plus four flavors of cupcakes. Oh, plus the 80 chocolate-dipped strawberries I was still doing! Talk about ambitious and it was a lot of work, a lot of planning and scheduling, and a lot of support, but I pulled it off and couldn’t be more proud of the dessert display!

I was blessed to receive so many sweet compliments as Jack and I enjoyed the wonderful dinner and dancing.
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I will be sharing the pastry recipes in upcoming posts if you want to try them too.

For months I’ve looked for the perfect pumpkin onesie for Andrew’s first birthday. I know I am picky and not normally cheap when it comes to the perfect outfit. I just couldn’t find one and could get it by the time I needed it.

​So I did what I also do, I make it. I pulled out one of his white onesie and my trust iron transfer paper and got to work. After searching online for a while I found a “one” that I liked and put it into a word document. I ended up printing it in three different sizes since I wasn’t sure what one would work best on the onesie. I also planned on using the other two for another project. Next, I cut out the image, cutting off as much of the blank area I could before ironing onto the onesie.

The onesie came out cuter than I hoped and was the perfect thing for him to wear as he dug into his smash cake!

Yesterday was Andrew's baptism. It was such a special occasion, everything was beautiful from his heirloom baptism gown to his navy ombre cake. The food was amazing and the blueberry and peach sangria hit the spot after a very busy day!

As stated in the cake post we either ordered the food or asked family to help out. We served pinwheels and croissant sandwiches (Vons) with a wonderful Italian pasta salad and fresh green salad (family). The beautiful personalized cookies came from a friend's bakery and the other cookies came from one of our family favorite bakery's in town. The sangria was the same from the baby shower, a premade Moscato Sangria that we added frozen blueberries and peaches to help keep in cold, plus they were yummy to eat once your glass was empty! I kept the decorations very simple with a pretty pattern tablecloth and topped it off with a burlap runner. I made a matching burlap banner to hang on the window for under $10 and a hot glue gun. The flowers were purchased from Albertsons for $4.99 and placed in a mason jar that I wrapped the same blue twine I used on the banner. The adorable favors were made by my mother in law and filled with white and shades of blue Jordan Almonds, which is the traditional favor at a baptism in France. 

I appreciated how much every one pitched in and helped, it made the day so special. Plus the food was delicious and the day was relatively stress free! 

As announced on Monday, We are having a little boy. Last weekend we had a gender reveal party. I know some think these are a little cheesy, and normally I would agree, but I needed the distraction from my Dad and I’m always willing to host a theme party.

I struggled to try to figure out how we should make the big reveal for weeks. I search Pinterest for ideas but I wanted something different. Then I realized I had all of these white colored M&M’s leftover from the Nuts/No Nuts snacks. I decided to be a little extra mean to the guest. I placed all of the white M&M’s in cute little kraft favor boxes and put a question mark on the bottom of the lid, before wrapping the box with a red and blue gingham ribbon topped with a small fake sunflower. Only one box had the actual answer and Auntie Amber got the honor of telling everyone that we are having a boy!

You're a Mean One Mister Grinch....tonight we hosted our annual Christmas party and this year we made it a Grinchmas Party. It was so much fun! We all dressed up with Whoville in mind and we even had a Grinch! Our entertainment was the original Grinch cartoon (sorry Jim Carrey just not a fan of your version) and a few other Christmas classics. I wanted to do something fun and simple for the menu so we had a red and green veggie and fruit trays, homemade salsa and chips, chicken white chili, country toffee, and the perfect cupcakes for dessert. Oh and don't forget about the Grinch Popcorn! There was even champagne, cider, and a hot chocolate bar too! 

Cupcakes:
Green colored vanilla cupcakes
A ring of white buttercream to create the base of the Santa Hat
Swirled red buttercream to create the Santa Hat
Topped with a white sixet for the puff ball
Santa suit cupcake wrappers

For our annual Halloween Party we wanted to do something a little different. We wanted to keep it similar. A few weeks ago we purchased a project and thought it would be a lot of fun to watch Halloween movies in the backyard.  We had a kid friendly movie which is one of my must watch Halloween movies: Hocus Pocus and an adult movie full of jumps and twist: The Others. I kept the food simple and fun.  I made Devilish Eyeballs, Witches Fingers, Mummy Dogs, Turkey Pumpkin Chili, Brain Dip, Vampire Fang Cupcakes and Eyeball Cake Pops. Creepy and Tasty!

It’s time for creepy and tasty treats! Last Halloween I shared my Devilish Eyeballs and Witches fingers so this year I needed something even better! This is how you make Halloween Cream Cheese Brain Dip:

Ingredients:
1 8 oz. package of soften cream cheese
½ Cup Chili Sauce*

Directions:
Mix the cream cheese and chili sauce together. Add a spoonful of chili sauce in the bottom of a bowl, preferable clear. Put the dip mixture in a gallon size freezer bag and cut off a small piece of one of the bottom corners.
Pipe the dip in a snake design on half of the bowl, when half way up the bowl repeat on the other side. Finish piping the remaining dip in the same pattern creating the look of a brain. Top off with a little more chili sauce. Serve with crackers.

This dip may look extra gross, but it is super tasty!
        *Can use salsa instead of chili sauce. 

Coming off of one wedding and our own blessing, I just finished making cupcakes and a cake for another wedding. The bride to be has order several large order of cupcakes from me several time and was not surprised that she needed 14 dozen cupcakes plus one small cake to cut into. She choice chocolate, French vanilla, strawberry, and lemon cupcakes topped with coral buttercream and white pearls. The cake was a chocolate with chocolate buttercream covered in ivory fondant. I added a little ivory lace on the bottom of the cake to balance the coral hydrangeas that were placed on top. I wasn't able to find coral hydrangeas so I bought peach and colored them with coral food coloring and vodka, just like I did for the roses on our blessing cake. She borrowed the cupcake stand that was used at the pervious wedding and it helped make her beach wedding perfect!

We wanted the feeling of the marriage blessing to be carefree and classy, by picking lace, burlap, and soft blues, corals and pinks we were able to pull off a simple inspired vintage country reception. My good friend let me borrow some of her table and chairs from her rental company. I purchased longs rolls of burlap in the floral area at the craft store since it was much cheaper than in the ones in the craft area. I ordered 25 inexpensive napkins on eBay since I knew I could reuse them.  I already had three long white tablecloths that I bought for Easter and my aunt saved me because she had the perfect blue plates. Between her, my mom, and myself we had enough wine glasses and silverware. I already had tons of mason jars that I use for canning so I just needed to do buy ribbon, burlap, and lace to decorate each jar. Most of the mason jars had an electric tea light and the rest had white and soft pink roses and other greenery from our courtyard. The silverware was wrapped in the white napkins and tied with twine. Jack and our friend did an amazing setting up and decorating the table while I finished getting ready. I didn't need to change a thing!

We wanted our Blessing Cake and Cupcakes to match the overall look and feel we were going with. With a Vintage Country flare I thought a light aqua cake decorated with lace and cream and pink roses on top would be perfect. The cake was my yummy triple chocolate cake with rich chocolate buttercream filling. I made French Vanilla Cupcakes and topped with Vanilla Buttercream frosting top with a small matching rose bud. I baked the cupcakes in blue aqua cups and wrapped a lace paper cut out.  I couldn't find the color of roses that I wanted to so I bought cream roses and colored them with water down rose food colorings. By just placing the paint brush on the edges of the peddles the water soaked in giving it a natural look. I have done this process on difference types of flower and it always gives a look of realism. The cake and cupcakes perfectly matched my table decor and dessert plates!

For my blessing dress I wanted something simple, yet classic. I went to every store in town and I still couldn't find anything like I was wanting. I wanted a cream dress, with lace sleeves, knee length and preferably V-neck. My vision was inspired by the wedding dress Kate Middleton work in 2011. I love how simply elegant it was and I wasn’t to find something similar. I found some online that were pretty close but was way too far out of my press range, they looked too much like a wedding dress and I wasn't something that could be also casual.  After weeks of searching I gave and decided to make my own. And why not, I have made lots of costumes in the past so why couldn't I make my own blessing dress! I found the perfect cream fabric that was slightly stretchy, but wouldn't wrinkle throughout the day. I found cream rose stretchy that would work perfect for the top. I found a dress pattern that I could alter to make exactly what I was envisioning. I used the pattern pieces that I needed to make my version of the dress and started sewing. Once I was finished I was completely in love with the dress and could not have been happier that I took the risk to make it myself. This really encourages me to start making my own clothing!

Last year I converted to Catholism and since Jack I weren't married in a Catholic church the Deacon told us we could do a Marriage Blessing. This would be our third wedding togher. We first eloped during the summer after only know each other a few months, before we decided to elope we were already planning a big family wedding and decided to still have it to get our families together. The Marriage Blessing was going to be our third. Although this was our third wedding it was the simplest, and the funniest. We wanted to keep it casual with a vintage country flare. We had a guest list of only 25 and 10 of them joined us at the Marriage Blessing. We kept our budget very low at only $500. I asked a friend to do my hair and make-up, a co-worker to take photos, my mom and aunt helped me make our decorations and prepared the dinner, and of course I made the cake and cupcakes. I got lots of help from family and friends so we were able to stay within budget and had a really fun and mostly stress free day!

Today was the wedding day of a special little girl I have known her whole life. Her mother has been my mother's best friend since high school. My mother's wedding gift to her and her mother was to pay for the wedding cake, which of course was already going to be done by yours truly! Last month I met with the bride to be and groom and decided on making 15 dozen cupcakes with an eight inch cake on top for them to cut into. The color scheme was yellow, white, and grey. The decided on four cupcake flavors, lemon, chocolate, French vanilla, and orange with two types of frosting, buttercream and cream cheese. I baked the lemon and French vanilla in yellow and white cupcake liners, and the other two flavors in grey and white liners. I colored the buttercream frosting yellow and left the cream cheese white. I rotated the frostings on all of the cupcakes and alternated between silver, white, or yellow sprinkles and silver, white, and yellow pearls. The small cake was French vanilla with cream cheese frosting, covered in yellow fondant and decorated with sugar daisies. I added a band of white lace and a gray ribbon to tie in the theme and place a Mr.  & Mrs. topper on top. The bride’s father made an incredible white cupcake and cake stand to display all of the lovely cupcakes with the beautiful cake on top. Everyone loved how they tasted and I was honored to participate in such a big way on her special day!

​Once a year I try to get all of the important women in my life together for a brunch. This year I wanted to do a Mardi Gras theme so lots of purple, green, and gold decorations, beads, and masks! I even made one of Jack's favorite slower cooker meals: Jambalaya! Now I know this might not be real jambalaya, but it's what we call jambalaya. The recipe is super easy and super yummy. It also makes a great frozen meal! It's even better with a slice of King's Cake!!!