{26th birthday party: part one}

Chris and my birthdays are three days apart so we usually have a joint birthday party each year.  Last year we choose to have a dinner party at our home in Silverlake with 18 of our closest friends.  It was so much fun that we decided we wanted to do the same thing every year.  One of the best things about our new loft is the versatility of the open space.  For this year's party we moved out our living room furniture and put a table for 16 in its place...

This year I decided to go with a Viceroy Palm Springs inspired color scheme using mostly black and white stripes with pops of yellow.  I picked up 5 yards of black and white striped cotton and a few yards of bright yellow.  I also grabbed some cardstock in the same colors to make hand-made confetti to sprinkle around the tables.  The finishing touch was some white hydrangeas and yellow craspedia from the flower mart placed in some simple white ceramic vases.

Tomorrow I will share the menu Chris created!

{weekend photos}

Growing up in Huntington Beach, the 4th of July is a BIG deal.  We usually spend the day riding bikes around the parade, BBQ-ing, lounging by the pool and then watching the fireworks on the beach.  On top of all that, this year we also got to go to an early 4th of July celebration on Saturday in Venice Beach at our friend's neighborhood block party.  Here are a few photos from the weekend:

 {patriotic dogs}

 {chris grilling at the block party}

 {terra, dugg-e & mortie ready for the block party's pet parade. yes I said pet parade}

{Chris' invented this great way to save sprinkles}

 {razoring and roller skating with muji}

{lounging poolside}

{diy bachelorette headbands}

{terra with muji & dugg-e wearing their pouf collars}

For Chris and my 25th birthday party last year, we made fabric pouf collars for the dogs to dress up in- see the photo above (please note the happy expressions on the dog's faces).  The dogs were less than thrilled about this and as the night progressed the pouf collars turned into a pouf headband- see picture below:

{Terra wearing the pouf collars as a headband}

This past weekend was the bachelorette party for my friend Heather and she had the great idea to make these pouf headbands in all different shades of pink for all of the ladies to wear instead of ordering obnoxious screen printed tank tops (thank you heather).  Here are the very simple directions on how to make these fun headbands:

{kaylee, natalie, heather (the bride), me}

what you need:

• fabric in the varying shades you wish to use. (one single headband using about 5 or 6 different fabrics will only need about 8 square inches of fabric for each color)
• one 24 inch strip of grosgrain ribbon for the band (while we used fabric for the band part of the headband- it will significantly cut your time and effort if you use ribbon)
• scissors

1. cut strips of the different colored fabric about 1/2 inch wide and 6 to 7 inches long. These strips do not need to be straight or perfectly cut in any way.  It actually looks better if they are a little but uneven and fraying at the edges
2. starting in the middle of your 24 inch long piece of grosgrain ribbon start double knotting the strips of colored fabric one by one right next to each other
3. push all the knots as close together as possible and rotate some of the knots so that the strips become more of a cluster than a straight line

{Sarah (the maid of Honor) wearing hers as an arm-band}

{cooking with friends + squash blossom recipe}

 
Cooking for my friends is one of my favorite things, but even better than that is spending an entire day with friends picking out ingredients and then cooking the meal together. This past Saturday, we got up early and headed out the Santa Monica farmer's market with our good friends Josh and Heather. We didn't have a meal in mind for dinner, but one soon came to us after browsing around at the farmers market. After picking up some artichokes, squash blossoms, fresh herbs, and fava beans, this is the menu we decided on:

Cocktails: 

Manhattans

Blackberry Caipirinha

Appetizers:

Fried squash blossoms stuffed 

with ricotta, thyme, and sauteed shallots

Artichokes with spicy mayo dip

Main:

Sauteed fava beans with bacon and roasted asparagus over rosemary polenta cake 

topped with a perfectly poached egg

Dessert:

home-made donut holes with 

caramel, chocolate, and whipped cream dipping sauces

 {the advertising on these artichokes won me over}

 {part of the farmer's market purchase}

 {polenta with rosemary and thyme}

{Chris shucking the fava beans}

We followed the farmer's market with a brunch at The Farm of Beverly Hills and then relaxed on our deck in the beautiful weather drinking sangria before walking over to Josh & Heather's loft to cook the dinner together. By far the best part of the meal was the squash blossoms. If you happen across some of these, I highly recommend picking them up and preparing them the way we did.  Here is our recipe for fried stuffed squash blossoms:


What you need:

• 10 to 12 squash blossoms
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 tablespoon thyme, chopped
• 1 half shallot, chopped
• 6 cups vegetable oil for frying (preferably canola or grapeseed)

1. pat down the squash blossoms with a damp paper towel. Do not rinse underwater- the blossoms are too delicate to be cleaned this way
2. saute chopped shallot in olive oil
3. in separate bowl mix together ricotta, thyme and shallot. Salt & pepper to taste.
4. spoon about 2 tablespoons of filling mixture into each squash blossom and twist the top to close
5. place egg on one plate and flour on another.  lightly roll each blossom in egg and then flour.
6. heat oil in medium saucepan to 350°F
7. gently place each blossom in the oil. turning for about 1 minute- until batter is crispy- it will not brown
8. place on paper towel to drain excess oil
9. Enjoy!

 {squash blossom filling}

 {Heather filling the blossoms}

 {coating the blossoms to be fried}

 {battered and ready to be fried}

{kale chips + weekend photos}

I finally had a chance to make the kale chips that I mentioned here and they did not disappoint. I followed Smitten Kitchen's very simple and quick recipe here and added a teaspoon of lemon zest. This bowl disappeared in about 3 minutes and we were already brainstorming different ways we want to try using these such as served over mashed potatoes or as a garnish over steak.

This past weekend started with a dinner on Friday night dinner at Bottega Louie followed by a Saturday spent wine tasting in Santa Barbara/Los Olivos.  Sunday started with a relaxed brunch and a shopping trip to find the perfect planter for our citrus tree. Here are some photos from the past few days:

 {tasting board at Dragonette Cellars- Hillard Bruce Pinot Noir is amazing}

 {tasting at Epihany- the Petite Sirah was accompanied by chocolate}

{sunday brunch}

{muji being dramatic}