On the menu tomorrow!

So, I am a HUGE Food Network fan.  Especially of Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa and Giada DeLaurentis).  Most of their recipes have become big favorites of Mr Fix It and Little Miss.  So of course I hit the Food Network web site for ideas for my Thanksgiving Day menu.  (Oh, and I also have a subscription to Martha Stewart's Everyday Food and Food & Wine magazine which has some great recipes in them as well!)

For the 20 aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, inlaws, etc that are heading to my place tomorrow morning, this is what we have on the menu:

*  Turkey: For the first time ever, our family will be having a FRESH (not frozen) BRINED turkey.  I have heard great things about how brining helps make a turkey moister and also infuses great flavor into it.  Tonight as soon as I get home from work, I am sticking our 21 pound turkey into a 5 gallon bucket filled with a brine including molasses, honey, garlic, soy sauce, lemon, thyme, safe and of course, salt!  We'll see how this thing works.

*  Citrus Marinated Green Olives (appetizer):  Along with traditional chips, salsa and onion dip that my family munches on before the big meal, I decided to try this new recipe instead of just sitting out plain black olives and pickles.  I made it Monday night and it marinates for 2 to 3 days...smelled yummy.  The marinade included olive oil, red wine vinegar, garlic, curry, tarragon, lemon zest and juice and red pepper flakes.

*  Wine Simmered Fruit Dressing:  Did you know the difference between a stuffing and a dressing is that one gets put in the turkey and the other gets put in a casserole dish?  That's the only difference!  :)  And I've read that putting stuffings in turkey make the turkey dry out because you have to cook them longer plus it is not the safest way to cook veggies and such.  So I am making a homemade dressing this year instead of Stove Top stuffing (which is what I think we always had at Grandma's house).  My dressing includes toasted oat & honey bread cubes, white wine, apples, golden raisins, butter, onion, celery, pecans and chicken broth.  I never eat the stuffing at Thanksgiving (don't like it) but I am thinking I may enjoy my own dressing concoction :)

*  Traditional things:
        Mashed Potatoes (gotta have 'em)
        Corn (I would opt out of this but the guys in my family like plain old canned corn)
        Carrots (this is a simple new recipe I am making for the family which is baby carrots in a honey glaze with butter, lemon juice and parsley)

*  Green Bean Casserole:  We used to have the traditional canned Campbell soup green bean casserole...and again, I never ate it.  It was gross to me and I LOVE green beans.  So last year I made a simpler green bean dish with homemade onion rings and marinated in a mushroom brandy sauce.  This year I am returning to the traditional casserole dish but making a homemade version with onion rings coated in panko crumbs and flour, and a sauce made up of mushrooms, half and half, butter, chicken broth, nutmeg and garlic. 

*  Whipped Sweet Potatoes & Bananas:  This is also a new dish for the family that seemed surprisingly easy to make.  You just roast the potatoes and bananas and scoop out the flesh into a bowl.  Mix them up with some butter, dark brown sugar, butter, honey and pecans and bake with a crumbly topping.  Hoping this is a family hit :)

*  Cinnamon Apple Cranberry Sauce:  Again, not a fan of the cranberry sauce but decided I am going to make something worthy of being served along with the turkey this year.  The guys again insist on that can of crap that you think is sauce so this year I am making more of a relish with sweetened dried cranberries, gala apples, cinnamon, and sugar.  I made this last night and stuck it in the fridge since it will keep for a day or two so I don't have to worry about making it the day of. 

*  And for dessert, I made a couple of my famous Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tarts from the amazing Ina Garten:  These things have replaced pumpkin pies as a homemade favorite of our family since I brought one to Thanksgiving about 2 years ago.  Super yummy!

Ok, so I have taken on a huge task!  But I have an organized to-do list with time schedule and mom is spending the night to help me prep vegetables, peel potatoes, and set everything up tonight.

Can't wait to snap some shots and share with everyone this weekend.  Have a great Thanksgiving and please do share your favorite dish item from Turkey Day or your favorite ingredients! 

H-moon Recap: Always take the advice of locals

We had some amazing food experiences in Australia and Bali.  The best thing I can suggest for future honeymooners or travelers is to ask a few locals what their recommendations are for restaurants.

On our way down from the rainforest retreat in Australia, we saw a little 'cafe' that we thought we'd stop for breatkfast at. Unfortunately, they just opened at like 10:30 or 11 am and didn't serve breakfast...just sandwiches that were basicly grilled cheese. When we asked for avocado on mine, they came out later and said they had no ripe avocado and then they forgot to put cranberries in Mr Fix It's sandwich. But the trip was salveged when we struck up a conversation with the three people at the table next to us. Two of them were fellow Americans but one was a local who suggested a restaurant for us close to our hotel back near the coast.


The suggestion led us to Ashmore Steak & Seafood.  It was incredible!  A bit pricey but totally worth it for the quality and amount of food you get. 

In Kuta, Bali we found a restaurant called Nero Bali and loved it so much we even went back a second night!  They had insane food and Mr Fix It ended up buying shots for a couple about to get married after he offered to take their photo so their whole group of friends could be in a picture.

We also had a concierge at a casino in Surfer's Paradise suggest we check out Omeros Bros seafood in the Marina and that again was a high end but ever so yummy find!

I highly recommend you check out these places if you ever visit these areas!

Do any of you have fellow recommendations for dining near your home towns?  Do you typically ask for locals to suggest places for you?

Wed Recap: Time to eat!!!

UGH!  I never got around to writing out this whole post...so you might have read the ramblings of my notes.  This just goes to show the madness of life.  I'll try to edit it up a bit in a hurry as I am supposed to be working right now :)

We ran out of the mini cheese chicken quesadillas...John was upset about that and the fact that the lemonade pitcher was empty when he came out to the cocktail area.  But caterer handled it immediately.

Caterer was sick and left early :(  But his staff did a great job of keeping things cleaned up for the most part.

Food was okay...seemed like guests were eating it.  The chicken didn't get the rave reviews we thought it would and John and I thought it didn't taste nearly as good as it did at the tasting.  He thought the tri-tip was not cooked enough but one of my friends said her fiance loves it rare and thought it was great.  One of our friends told us the roasted garlic mashed potatoes were like 'crack' and that he had gone back for 3 or 4 servings.

Salad and veggies were good but hard to screw that up. 

Appetizers seemed well enough...simple - fruit, cheese, crackers and then quesadillas.  Substituted the stuffed mushrooms for little teryaki chicken drumettes at our caterers request because there were no ovens.  John wasn't happy about that and didn't think they were as good but other friends said they were really good.

Seemed like people had cleaned their plates, including my boss who is hard to impress :)

We had water pitchers on each table that we asked them to infuse with either cucumbers, lemons, or strawberries.  Some people loved this, others said it was not that good. 

They only cut up the bottom layer of the cake so the other three layers that had different flavors weren't even set out!  Thankfully, we ate the lemon layer the next day at our day after lunch with family.

Overall, the food was definitely not bad, but definitely not great either.  We knew that food was *NOT* a priority for us as long as it tasted good.  It must have been okay for most of the guests because a few people even commented on the good food on their guest book pages. 

Wed Recap: A thank you for your eyes, feet, mouth and hands

I had mentioned in many previous blog posts about the four, count 'em, FOUR different favors that we gifted our guests as a thank you for sharing our special day with us.

My thought process when coming up with our favors was a list of things I wanted to provide our family and friends...meaning, I didn't actually set out to have more than one favor at our event, but when I thought of all the other little things I wanted to do and incorporate, the guests ended up leaving with quite a bit :)

1)  Comfort
2)  Practicality
3)  Memory/Keepsake
4)  Sweets

1)  To keep our guests comfortable, we set out a basket of flip flops near the dance floor so they could kick off their heels to keep sore feet going.  I found this idea on my coordinator's web site and loved it.  At the end of the night, there were only 12 out of 72 pairs of flip flops left so this must have been a huge hit!

My sister made these adorable flip flop signs

2)  For practicality, we wanted to provide them something useful to remember our day and us by.  There was a favor box at each place setting that contained a small keychain. The keychain also doubled as a 5 foot tape measure...perfect for purses, glove boxes or junk drawers at home. And with the help of my creative sister, we designed a little sticker for the keychain that read "Love Beyond Measure". Get it? Measure? As in, like, the tape measure...cute, I know, right?

Personal Photo

The little favor box was a  dark red colored chinese take out box that had a tag on it that we made that read 'The Beever's Blessing - Numbers 6:24-26' This little passage reference was mentioned in my toast I gave and blogged about as our prayer for our guests.

Picture of the tables set up with the favor boxes but no silver or glassware yet

By RoseAnne Rivoli

3)  One of my absolute favorite favors of the night was incorporated into our guest book as well.  I wanted pictures of our guests as they looked on our wedding day in our guest book and so I was so excited when I discovered the idea of a photobooth to take some fun shots to place in the book as well as to print out a duplicate photo for the guests to take home and also remember the event.  Here were some of my favorite sets from the photobooth:

4)  And finally, a wedding favor almost never seems complete without some type of sweet involved.  Being the ever practical and multi-tasking bride I am, I loved the idea of doubling chair shaped favor boxes as escort cards and sweet favors.   I included cinnamon flavored red Jelly Belly Beans and Turquoise and Silver personalized M&M's in the escort card boxes for the guests. 

I didn't like the 'turquoise' color they sent me.  I wish I would have picked a pastel blue instead but I still loved these little personalized gems with our faces on them :)  And they were so yummy I was eating leftovers up until about a week or two ago!

Personal Photo

Here's the picture our photographer took of the escort card table after half the

 guests had already taken their boxes

I absolutely LOVED all of our favor ideas.  And the guests did, too from what I could tell and heard.  We incorporated our wedding colors and the graphic design from our invitations throughout all of these items.  Oh, and there's still one more favor box I'll have to share with you in a future recap about the kiddos :)

What were your favorite ideas or favors that you have received or given (will give) at a wedding or party?

TODAY'S WEDDING TIP:  Try to do something fun and unique and different for your guests as a favor.  You definitely do not need more than one favor as I had, heck, you don't need any if you don't want.  But it is nice to offer something.  You can handmake cookies or bookmarks, just about anything.  My keychains were only $1.15 each and the flip flops were only $1.25 each including S&H and tax.   You can even have a friend stand and take digital photos of your guests as they arrive, print them out at a cheap site like shutterfly.com or at a Costco and send them back with your thank you cards for your guests. 

EXTRA WEDDING TIP:  If possible, purchase and assemble favors as soon as possible.  I bought the keychains and the flip flops a good 6 to 8 months before the wedding and once I had a good idea of the guest count I assembled them in front of the tv and packed them up.  They were all finished a good three months before the big day.

Photobooth photos courtesy CheesyPhotoBooths
Unless otherwise indicated all other photos by Robert Mullins Photography

H-moon Recap: Eat, celebrate, swim with lots of photos!

So today's recap is going to be a little random, as in all over the place.  But I'll try to offset that by not writing too much and just sharing lots of pictures!

We'll start off with the incredible infinity pool at the last resort we stayed at:  Blue Point Bay Villas.  This is me in the pool.  You could sit on the edge of the infinity pool and look out at the ocean to the surf below where there would be at least a good 60-100 surfers on any given day.  I like this because Mr Fix It could surf down there and I could hang in the pool and watch from above, though I couldn't make him out from that far away. 

In Australia, we ate mostly seafood..a LOT!  We both love seafood and we asked a few locals to make some referrals for us.  They didn't let us down.  One gentlement from Sydney told us to head about 15-20 minutes from our place in Burleigh Beach to a place called Ashmore Steak & Seafood.  I have to admit, I am a horrible blogger...I didn't take a ton of pictures of lots of the food we ate and the few I did get are from my crappy camera.  I really should get a better camera if I am going to keep blogging - and start taking more pictures!

Anyway, this place looked like a huge car dealership with the way the windows and lights were set up.  It was not like any other eating experience we've ever had.  They let you see the meals in a glass display case when you walked in...that's right, raw steaks sitting out for you to view.  Mr Fix It liked this cuz he could see how big they were before he ordered.  His meal was served up like this:

I got the lobster with a new thing I found called Avocado Seafood...it's an avocado filled with seafood - DUH!  Since I am a huge fan of both, I was in heaven!!!

We also ate at a place called Omeros Brothers in Surfer's Paradise.  Very, very yummy food!  Then there was an Italian joint where we met an exchange student from Germany working as a waitress.  Mr Fix It wasn't in love with the bruschetta we ordered...it was like tomatoes on pizza bread.  There was a super yummy, authentic Mexican type place downstairs from our apartment where we met a Canadian waitress.  What was with all these foreigners serving us our food?  :)

In Bali, at Blue Point, we found a bowl of fresh fruit in our room when we arrived.  See that thing in the back left of the bowl?  It's kind of prickly...Mr Fix It couldn't remember the name of it but he peeled it and made me eat it.  It was really interesting...tasted like berries, apples and other sweet fruits all in one.  Very different.

Also at our resort in Bali was their restaurant.  This is a view of the room where we had breakfast and dinner a couple times.  (I would eat lunch by the pool - I got this tempura type seafood and vegetable thing with these yummy fries that was so good I ordered it two days in a row.  It came with this insane crispy asian salad that I scarfed down like I had been starved for a week!)  Anyway, you would see the same people in this restaurant each morning and night because the resort is not super huge and it is really your only eating option other than driving into town - which we did do on the very last night.

This table right in the corner of the room was what I determined to be the best seat in the house because it was right in front of the open windows overlooking the surf and ocean below.  The first night we were there, it wasn't open so Mr Fix It asked if we could reserve it for the next night.  They said they couldn't because there was a wedding reception happening there the next night.  But....

...instead they said they'd let us eat dinner upstairs which had a good view out the window.  Mr Fix It went to check it out to be sure.  The next night when we arrived, they walked us up these stairs to our own private room!!!  We had this all to ourselves...a view of the ocean, the pool, the wedding chapel.  It was so super cool!  And we were all by ourselves!

Here is a view of the ocean below from our private room...we got there at the perfect time as the sun was just about to start setting and by the time we left it was dark.

Here is another pic on my crappy camera (and through a window) of how pretty the wedding chapel looked like all lit up at night.  And let me say, that wedding chapel was PACKED!  The resort is known for weddings...and they did 'em up right.  While I laid by the pool, there were at least 2 weddings each day!  They were all Japanese couples (very beautiful brides) and they were mostly just the bride and groom - no guests.  Though I did see one or two weddings that had about 5 or 6 guests (looked their parents or siblings). 

See that umbrella by the pool that's on the far left of the picture but up on the higher level above the 3rd one in?  THAT was my spot - every day!  It was perfect.  It was right by this pretty tree on the edge of the cliff and it was the only lounge chair in the entire pool area that you could lay in and see the surfers down below over the cliff edge. 

Mr Fix It decided to get a picture of the girls all dressed up for the wedding reception entrance

Before we got to Blue Point (while we were sill at the Wina Villas), we went to a beach called Bingins that Mr Fix It likes to surf at.  He had told me about this place saying that you walk down these stairs on the cliffs in Bali and they have these hut type houses built into the side of the cliff.  People own them and use them to offer food, massages, shops, etc for the surfers who must walk through them on their way down to the beach.  While Mr Fix It surfed, I would lay on a little mat/lounge on a table watching/listening to my iPod. 

When we got there, we met this woman named Wyan.  She totally remembered Mr Fix It from 4 years earlier!  She made us lunch one day while we waited for the surf to pick up and I don't remember what it was called but it was DEE-LICIOUS!  I jokingly referred to it as a high end version of Top Ramen :)  But seriously, so good!  Noodles with carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, fried egg and other sauce and such.

Here is a pic of the little 'hut' type things I was trying to explain.  Mr Fix It is sitting by himself at that little blue table in the middle.

And finally, here's me in the pool again - this time with my hat on.  Yeah, I spent a lot of time in there because man, it was so hot!  You needed to cool off...and that pool was scrumdiddlyumptious!

Here's what would have been my favorite picture of our entire honeymoon if Mr Fix It wouldn't have been making that stupid face wondering if the camera was going to go off...whatever!

Oh, how sweet it is! But what the hell is that crease?!? (Seriously Saturdays)

You may remember reading about my least favorite part of the entire wedding here.  I am not super excited about our cake.  Originally, I wanted a cupcake tower - which I would, in fact, have been super excited about.  At one point, Mr Fix It even gave in to the idea...briefly.  Because then he ripped the carpet out from under me and insisted we have a cake.  Not traditional mind you - just a cake.

So we had come up with some ideas for different and unique cakes.  To which our caterer then shocked us by trying to charge an *extra* $1,000 for the one cake we really wanted.  (Remember our cake was supposed to have been included in our catering package.)

Well, that wasn't gonna fly and while she made decent cakes, they kept deterring us from our desires to have fondant on the cake we wanted and from trying our own fondant recipe we wanted to have them use.  They kept going over and over again about how buttercream is the way to go but we are anti-buttercream. 

Mr Fix It had had enough (so had I), so he said, screw it!  Let's just give the money to your mom's friend that makes cakes for all your other family functions.  Fine with me because I am seriously over the cake.  I don't care if it's falling over as long as it tastes good (that's not true actually). 

Well, we met with our friendor who is only charging us $1.00 a slice for our cake.  Mr Fix It is going to build the stand for her because we want offset round layers.  We discussed cake flavors and are happy with having two layers in red velvet with a real cream cheese frosting and another layer with white cake and raspberry filling with a whip cream frosting and then the 4th layer will be lemon with lemon filling and whip cream frosting.  Apparently the whip cream frosting is not as sweet as buttercream and our friend really encouraged us to use it. 

Well, we told her that we'd love to have her try this marshmallow fondant recipe we found.  It is supposed to be the same consistency as regular fondant but actually tastes good instead of bland or dry.  She was on board and made a small test cake for us to see and taste.

Here's what we got:

Now please understand that apparently the cake was perfectly smooth and flat when she first made it.  She gave it to my mom who transported it and stored it in a fridge until I could get it the next day.  My mom insisted it did not look this way when she was finished with it and handed it off to her.  I did notice yesterday as I was reviewing the recipes I had emailed her that one of the web sites said you should not refrigerate marshmallow fondant, so I don't know if the refrigerator did something to it or if time itself had it's way with gravity or what.  I am going to ask her about the refrigeration part and if that is all that the problem is, that would be amazing!  Perhaps the proportions of the ingredients need to be adjusted, too?  But this creasing and melting look that is not perfectly smooth is unacceptable! 

The good news?  It actually tastes phenomenal!  The cake was super moist and yummy...I'm still eating it almost 5 days after it's been sitting in the fridge, too and it's still moist and good!  The frosting (cream cheese) was not too sweet at all and you could not even taste the fondant!  The fondant tasted good (or rather let the cream cheese overpower it).  But now we are stuck trying to figure out what to do because our friend does not think the marshmallow fondant is going to work and we really don't want to have to go with gross tasting fondant!

Mr Fix It insists we must use the regular disgusting fondant if this is what we are going to get because it is more important to him that the cake looks good rather than tastes good.  (sigh)

So now I need to call her next week and follow up on what our new options are.  This cake thing sucks!  Seriously!

P.S.  If you'd like the recipe for the marshmallow fondant, you can find it here or another one here.  It's actually super yummy.  She's never worked with it before so like I said, it could just be that something needs to be adjusted.  ???

Thankful Thursdays # 2 (Traditions)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I would be shocked to find a whole lot of people on the blogs today but just wanted to be sure I keep up with my routine to have a post for every day :)

Anyway, today's Thankful Thursday is obviously perfect since it is in fact, Thanksgiving.  And today, I am simply thankful for family and tradition.

Every single year for as long as I can remember, we have been driving out to my Grandma and Grandpa's house (though Grandpa passed away about 17 years ago) to have our big family turkey dinner.  In the past we've had as many as 35 to 40 people in my Grandma's 2 bedroom home.  But we love it.  All the little kids, my aunts and uncles, cousins...it's so amazing. 

Almost every year I look at my Grandma, who is now almost 95 years old, and think (or say to her) "Grandma, can you believe that all of the people in this house are here because of you?!"  It's amazing to me.  Granted, our family is not perfect, we have our issues and our little tiffs...but when the holidays roll around, everything seems to fade into the background and we all just hang out catching up, watching football, playing with the kids outside and of course EATING!

Now one tradition I can do without is the fact that for the past 10 years probably they have been making us 'cousins' all do the dishes and clean up after.  As much as I hate that part, it is so fun to hang all with all my girl cousins in the kitchen setting up an assembly line of washers, rinsers and dryers.  :)

This year will be a bit smaller as we have about 8 to 10 family members who won't be making it this year...I am really sad about that.  But also just thankful for the ability to have us all come together at this one time of year and enjoy our family tree.  I'll really appreciate it so much this year since next year after I'm a newlywed we will have to start the decision making process of alternating holidays at me and the hubby's family's houses each year.  (tear)

Have a great day everyone and eat well - but plan on exercising those extra calories off!  I made 3 Pumpkin Banana Mousse Tarts yesterday and am hoping they are devoured!  What's the one favorite food you have at Thanksgiving?

My Very First Blog Award!

So while beginning my morning browsing of recent updates on the blogs I have been following, I came across a Chocolate Lover's Confessions and found that she presented me with my very first blog award (also thanks to Handcrafted Hitching Post for honoring me with this award as well)

Oh my goodness.  I am so excited!  Being new to this whole blogger thing (and encouraged to do so by Chocolate Lover herself) I saw all these brides with their awards on their blogs and wondered how they received them.  Now I know.  So for this one, the directions are simple:

Post the award on your site, write 10 interesting things about yourself, and then pass it on to 10 other bloggers.

10 Fun Facts (easy - I could give you even more but I'll limit them):

1. I am an anal, control freak, OCD, perfectionist...and I don't understand why they call it 'common sense' because most people don't have any so it must not be that common!

2. I have never broken a bone in my body but have had one surgery and a couple weeks ago cracked a rib (wait, is that a broken bone?).
3. My daughter's APGAR score was 0 when she was born...which was by a c-section due to a prolapsed cord. She had to be fully resuscitated and put on a respirator in an incubator for 5 days...she truly is my miracle baby...though she is now almost 15 years old (in February).
4. I was the Editor-in-Chief of my yearbook my senior year in high school. The yearbook was named as one of the top 10 in the country...something I am still proud of to this day. Of course about 25 other people helped me make it. :D
5. I LOVE the Food Network and am a self taught cook from the many recipes you can find on their shows and web site.
6. Video editing is a hobby of mine...I've made hour long videos of my my daughter's soccer season, her all-star softball season, my best friend's wedding and my sister's wedding. People suggested I should do it professionally, but it takes me a year to put one hour long video together.
7. I used to want to be a wedding coordinator but decided it was too stressful, too competitive and demanded too much time on weekends and holidays.
8. By the time I was 19 I had worked at Cinnabon, Mrs. Field's, Kinney Shoes, Farmers Insurance, a clothing store, a furniture store, as a telemarketer, at an alarm company, and in a grocery store...but I worked in the grocery store for almost 10 years and have been at my current job for 7 1/2 years.
9. I met my fiance, John on match.com and ironically, neither my fiance nor I drink any alcohol...at all! Neither of us has touched a drink in over 15 years. Up until last year, whenever a recipe called for wine I would use grape juice as a substitute. I have found that the wine is much better in the food.
10. I have led groups of high school and college girls in weekly bible studies for almost 9 years now. The group I have now is made up of 5 ladies in their early 20's that I have been with for about 4 or so years. They won't leave, they just keep coming back each week. And I love them for it.

Bonus facts:
11. I don't like wearing makeup or curling my hair. I will only do it on special occasions when I have to and it drives my fiance crazy. But hey, I work in an office where I'm all by myself for 8 hours a day...what's the point?
12. I have been skinny my entire life and rarely ever work out or exercise. I often get frustrated because no one has any sympathy for someone who struggles to GAIN weight!

And the fellow Bloggers I would like to pass this award onto:

Gettin' Hitched

A Creative Bride

A Los Angeles Love

Becoming His Mrs.

BP Wedding

Newport Nuptials

Nu Flaiir

With This Ring, I Thee Blog

The Roddy Bride

The Indecisive Bride

Have fun with it, ladies!