Tales of an Overtime Cook

I know what you’ve been thinking. “She keeps talking about her party, and promising to show us her pictures, but she doesn’t follow through! Why, I bet she didn’t even make a party!

Yeah right. I flatter myself thinking anyone was desperately waiting for these pictures. And I almost didn’t show them off because they are seriously awful pictures. Here’s what happened. The day of the party was crazy rushed, and I didn’t have a second to take a picture until the guests were already starting to arrive. My mother was completely mortified because I made her stand guard and make sure nobody took anything while I finished putting on my makeup and getting my camera ready. So as you can imagine, I took the pictures in minutes. Less. And without putting any thought into the lighting, composition, etc. My apologies to your eyes.

For those not familiar with this, the party was a Sheva Brachos, a traditional party made for a Jewish bride and groom every night for the week following their wedding. This particular party was a sit down dinner for about 35-40 people. I got a picture of the appetizer and the dessert table. Sadly the rest of the meal didn’t get photographed because I was so busy.

Anyway. Here we go!

As you will see, my theme colors were green and white. The room the party was in is actually painted green. The dessert table was in the doorway of another room, painted red, but it looks a lot more prominent in the picture than it did in real life.

Parts of the table are cut off in that picture, because I didn’t have my wide angle lens on the camera, and didn’t have time to switch. Let’s go through it bit by bit.

Firstly, the top of the vase- here’s the gorgeous arrangement done by my talented mother (who did all of the flowers for the party):

It was very pretty and dramatic, shame you can’t see the full effect!

Next, we have the treats. In the corner, I bunched together a couple of pretty glass containers that I got at the discount store:

In the tallest container in the back I had snowball cookies. (A snowball in July…hehe) I used this recipe for the cookies. They were delicious!

To the left, I made ordinary meringues, added a bit of mint extract, then dotted green food coloring over it so that it swirled nicely through when I piped them. I didn’t think anyone would like them, but these were a huge hit!

To the right, in the back, I took regular marshmallows and dipped them halfway in green candy melts. My only regret with those is that I should have added some white to make those lighter.

In the front, I put out a bunch of these awesome little green and white sour candies.

There’s also a dish of pistachio nuts in the front, but you can’t really see them in the picture.

Next, just to the left of the flowers, I had this gorgeous thing:

Remember when I posted about Sprinkle Bake’s amazing cookbook? Well this clever Cookie Tree is in there, so is the recipe for the cookies. You need to buy this book just for this. Trust me.

Then there were cupcakes. Not because I thought cupcakes were needed, but because I found these cupcake liners and couldn’t leave them in the store!

I used a recipe for Lemon Cupcakes, but I made them with lime juice and zest instead. Then I glazed them with a cream cheese glaze, and topped them with green sugar pearls. Simple, but I like them.

Next came the healthy part:

I know I always appreciate it, as a dieter, when there’s a fruit option. I am lucky to have a super nice brother in law who cut up the fruit for me.

Lastly:

Those are lime flavored sandwich cookies (I totally need to make them again and post the recipe, they were easy and totally delicious) and simple oreo truffles that I decorated with white and green.

Onto the actual table:

I didn’t get this in the picture, but I also had a shallow dish with green marbles and white floating candles next to the vases. Aren’t those vases perfect?? The big ones aren’t even mine!

Let me show you a close up of the place setting:

My apologies for the crooked cutlery. My OCD side can’t believe I let that go!

For the appetizer, I made wrap bowls using this guide from The Spiffy Cookie. (I used mini wraps instead of tacos. It worked beautifully!) I filled those with a delicious salad made by my little sister. (Totally going to have to post that recipe too!) I love this presentation because it looked fancy, but wasn’t very hard, and the bowls were made a couple of days in advance.

My big sister made those gorgeous mini challahs. Of course, we couldn’t leave well enough alone, so we tied ribbons around the challahs. I love how that came out.

I’ve been calling it “my party” but this was totally a group effort. Aside from everyone I mentioned before, I have to mention that my sister in law cooked a large part of the actual meal, plus helped plan it for weeks in advance, and coordinated the serving. Turns out that’s not something I am experienced at. Who woulda thunk? My big sister, aside from making the challah, made a bunch of food for the meal, showed up early to help set up invaluable!, and did a ton of the planning and serving. My little sister was a life saver. Aside from making the salad, she devoted hours that day to helping me set up and pulling everything together. Also, my friends L. and Y. neither of whom even read this blog were the best. Seriously. L came straight from the dentist to help me set up, and Y took off from work to help. You should totally be jealous of my friends!

Moral of the story: if you want to throw a fancy party and don’t have much time to do it, have my family and friends.

Oh, and my (other) big sis is married. How weird is that???

Thanks for coming by folks! Come back soon, I have some fun stuff to share! -Miriam

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