Party Banner

Moms can easily go overboard these days with kid birthdays. I remember my young birthdays: Mom bought a cake mix and made cupcakes iced with store bought icing and brought them to my class. Then the party was at a roller rink. No loot bags, no over the top decorated food and dessert tables. Maybe just balloons and if the party was at home, streamers. I think I turned out fabulous. I definitely don't feel less deprived or loved any less or anything.

It didn't take me long to settle on a theme for Little k's first birthday. I wanted small, intimate family celebration...       with champagne of course...

and a pink tutu

and pearls...

oh, and she had two parties...

Although I nearly gave into the pressures a week before and went all pintrest-crazy I maintained my sanity. I limited myself to one pintrest project.

The Party Banner

WARNING: This project, while simple, is deceivingly time consuming. I still haven't figured out why or how but once you begin hours will magically dissipate.

Roasted Red Pepper Soup with Parmesan Crisps

Only three posts in 2013? Really?!?! Guess the motherhood thing rocked my world a bit.
I vow to be better in 2014 - for my own sanity.

It's time to return to this blog and continue doing what I love doing. Talking about food, talking about travel, planing parties, and whatever home projects I can squeeze in there with a crazy 1-year old running around.

To kick it off I'm sharing another one of Husband's trademark dishes. If you come over and he fixes this, he is trying to impress.

Collard Wrap

Who knew that Collards would make excellent wrap materials???

Once again we have started receiving fresh, local produce delivered straight to our door.
(We are using Backyard Produce this time.)

We like to do this for the challenge of cooking with vegetables we normally don't gravitate to. Hence we now have a vegetable drawer full of collard greens that need to be eaten. Husband makes a great Southern Collards dish - stew maybe? - with bacon & onions. But a girl can only eat so much of that.

Off to Pinterest I went to research what to do... (expect to see more recipes forthcoming.)

This of course is the first, easiest thing I found - and it is fabulous.

Why do Collards make great wraps???

1. Size - the leaves are large

2. Durability - a heck more durable than lettuce

3. Nutrition - much more than any fortified tortilla out there or lettuce 

4. Carbs - do you watch how much you consume? well, collards have less than even the low-carb tortillas

5. Taste - Honestly (and I was worried about this one) they don't taste horrible!!

Here's how it goes.

First, trim the stalk

Oscar Party 2013

It all started a week before the Oscars when I received a text:  Are you having an Oscar party?

...Husband is out of town... We've got a great tv for it... I haven't seen any of the movies... Could be lots of fun....

My reply: Why not?! 

Where do you turn when you only have a week to plan an Oscar Party? Why Pinterest of course!



I quickly sent out invites via text and a snappy little app I love called Red Stamp**.

Now to make this party all about the 2013 Oscars:

Roasted Eggplant Pasta Sauce

There are some vegetables I just don't eat very often. I think I get stuck in a rut with my favorites. But lately at the grocery the eggplants have been looking really good. In China I ate them often because there was an eggplant dish that I LOVED. Then I realized that I haven't cooked with them since China - 2 years ago. eek!

It must have been meant-to-be because that weekend I watched Giada on the Food Network cooking with eggplants. She inspired me to do something I don't do too often. Cook without a recipe.