After our productive (and relaxing) Saturday morning, the rest of the weekend seemed to fly by in a blur with some fun events that I’d been looking forward to all month.
Saturday night we headed over to our friends’ Courtney & Dave’s for a catered dinner party they received as a wedding gift. Isn’t that a great gift idea? Basically it meant that a chef comes to your house, prepares a 3-course meal and teaches you tips along the way.
I, of course, was practically grilling the chef with questions about the different techniques he used and where he buys his produce and meat. He was very friendly and was happy to answer all our questions.
The first course were these brie and crab filo appetizers. They made the whole place smell delicious.
When we sat down at the table, he served up this delicious spinach salad with feta cheese, olives, fresh mandarin oranges, red onion and a lovely balsamic dressing. I definitely want to recreate this at home.
Our main course was steak (marinated in rum for 8 hours), alongside roasted veggies and potatoes. I enjoyed every last bite (although I did give some of my steak to Garrett because it was as big as my face). Dessert was some (nut free!) wedding cake they had thawed from the wedding. I didn’t really get to enjoy it at the wedding because we were all so stuffed, so it was nice to be able to enjoy it more here.
After a few rounds of board games by candlelight (because of Earth Hour!) we all headed home with full stomachs and dreams of recreating that steak rub on our own next time.
(psst – If you’re in the Greater Toronto Area and are interested in hosting your own catered dinner, let me know and I’ll pass on his contact information. It was a great experience and you should definitely try it some time!)
Sunday was another fun day as I headed over to a friend’s house for a surprise baby shower.
When the momma-to-be walked through the door she was floored to see many of her family and friends packed into the house. She lives on the other side of the country, in British Columbia, so for her this was a super sweet surprise. She thought she was just meeting up with a friend for lunch – not 40 women!
She was actually one of my fellow bridesmaids from Courtney’s wedding in November, so it was fun to see how much had changed since we last saw her over 4 months ago. I couldn’t believe how cute her bump was!
Our hostess put out a lovely lunch spread of sandwiches, pulled pork, meatballs, cheeses, and lots of fruits and veggies. So much scrumptious food!
The centerpiece was this beautiful diaper cake made by the daddy-to-be’s niece. Didn’t she do a fantastic job? I love the little monarch butterflies.
After we’d all filed our plates, we headed into a room all set up with gifts and games.
As she opened up her presents, we played a round of baby bingo. You filled out a bingo card with different gifts you thought she would receive and then checked them off as she opened them. It was fun to see everyone get so excited when she’d unwrap a blanket or a pair of mittens.
There was also a sweet (lemon filled!) cake with a picture of the “bump” on top that she had sent her mother, not knowing what it was for. We all couldn’t help but tease her that she was wearing the same t-shirt, but thankfully she also got some more cute maternity wear as gifts as well.
It was a fun afternoon celebrating this exciting milestone in her life, and meeting all the wonderful women in her family. A nice end to a busy weekend.
Now its Monday and I’m already wishing it was the weekend again. Thank goodness its a short work week because of Good Friday!
What a fun…and yummy looking weekend! 🙂
Hey Amanda, I had a marathon baking session sunday to try some more recipes. I think after all that, I am baked out for awhile! I made the sweet spiced chickpeas first, and I have to say they ended up being my favorite! I couldn’t stop eating them. Then I made the chocolate protein granola and forgot to spray the pan, so that was a huge mess! I was not a fan of the granola for a while after I chiseled it off the pan, but the next day, I loved it. I found some michigan dried cherries to add to it and that made it. And lastly, I made the raspberry lime bread. The batter was awesome! I think that because raspberries aren’t in season here, I could only get the big ones, which I didn’t like as much. But it was still really good. The lime just gives it such a kick! I think I might try it again (because I got too many limes) and swirl in raspberry jam that I made last year instead of raspberries and also add a struesel topping, because I liked the sugar topping, but felt like I needed more of the crunch on top. So thanks for more great ideas! Once I recover, I’ll probably try some more since I’ve really liked everything I’ve found here. I’m still hooked on the green mint monster smoothies. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad you’ve been enjoying the recipes! And I love your idea of using raspberry jam when you can’t get raspberries for the raspberry lime bread. I bet it will taste great. I’ll have to give it a try myself next time 🙂