Party weekend......... take 1

March 28, 2011

Party weekend......... take 1

I need a weekend FROM the weekend! I have not partied this much in a weekend in several years and I am feeling tired today...........

Friday:

Had a celebration for PB's birthday. House full of friends, family and kids; good food; good wine; great company! PB had marinated steaks and chicken the night before, I made some dips and chocolate brownies with caramel, Mr. B brought this YUMMY rice and Mrs. B made her specialty: salad. I know that sounds weird but I swear nobody makes a salad like she does!

I also made carrot cake. Thursday night. Uhhmmm, gross. I have never been a fan but when I asked PB what he wanted for his birthday cake that was the answer. Where do I go for the best recipe? The Internet of course! My work computer and I have a great relationship, and after an hour or so of researching, I came across the recipe that met my specifications. And I had a few.

The cake needed to be moist. Who likes a dry cake? It also needed to have no raisins, coconut, pineapple or nuts in it. You would not believe some of the recipes I saw! I swear some people put everything but the kitchen sink in their carrot cake, maybe in an attempt to disguise the horrid flavor?

I gather up all my ingredients, and call Moxie. I need someone who likes carrot cake to try the batter. Why bother baking it if the batter is nasty? After a hesitant bite, I'm kinda a mess in the kitchen, she approves it for baking. 38 minutes later I pull out the two pans and let them cool. I make the cream cheese frosting from scratch, spread out nicely over the top of the cake and cover. Do you think I remembered to take a picture of it? Hell no........

Party day Friday rolls around and after getting off work, running to three different grocery stores, I am finally at the house. We get started on cooking the steak and chicken (no food pictures this time either, yeah I know I am lame) and then it was time for presents!!!

Now, I have had PB's present for over a month. It has squirreled away in the closet (translation: sitting in a plastic bag on my kitchen table) cause I'm that good!

A couple of months ago, PB and I were at Fred Meyers looking at some baking pans when we passed the aprons. He was lamenting about them never having masculine aprons that weren't cliche: go ahead and Google it. There are some funny ones out there! However, PB was looking for something stylish and functional that is "family" appropriate.

So, I called my friend Miss Em, who is our resident seamstress and asked for her help. If I could get the fabric picked out, would she be willing to make him an apron? Oh course she said! So I got to work. Picking out the fabric was harder than I thought. I spent a good hour at the fabric store wandering the aisles in complete overload. Before my eyes permanently glossed over I found something I loved, hightailed over to the counter to have it cut and actually breathed a sigh of relief once I was out of the store. I don't have the patience for this kind of thing, can you tell???

I dropped the pattern and fabric off to Miss Em and a week later I brought the apron home. I absolutely loved it! So when it came time to wrap it, I filled the pockets with gadgets and spices and presented it to PB.