Royal Wedding Party

Today the world watched Prince William marry Kate, or as they're now known, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.  Meanwhile, I hosted a party at my own castle and had a few Queens and Duchesses over for food and to watch the highlights of the wedding festivities.

We had lots of champagne and cute heart shaped tea sandwiches thanks to Karissa, and I made one of Prince William's favorite dishes, Cottage Pie.  I also made some crown shaped cookies and picked up a few Cupcake Royale Wedding Royale cakes... vanilla cake with a Kir Royale/champagne frosting.  YUM!

The Cottage Pie was a risky move, I had no idea how the end product would taste but was pleasantly surprised.  My kids loved the leftovers!

Simmering the meat, potatoes and a mixture of other ingredients...

All assembled, including the piped mashed red potatoes on top.

And coated in shredded cheddar cheese before going in the oven.

Personalized straws so guests could keep track of their glasses.

Goodies for the guests.

The finished Cottage Pie!

And a post about the Royal Wedding wouldn't be complete with out a picture of a cute little princess!

Prince William's Favorite Cottage Pie, courtesy of formal royal chef Darren McGrady
2 Tbsp corn oil
2 small (6 ounces each) yellow onions , finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1 to 2 tsp dried thyme 
2 c. water
1 Tbsp Kitchen Bouquet browning and seasoning sauce
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 pounds peeled red potatoes
1/2 stick butter
2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground white pepper (I used fresh cracked black pepper)
1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
1 egg yolk
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 c. grated Cheddar cheese

In a large saucepan over a high flame, heat the oil and add the finely chopped onion. Sauté until the onion becomes soft and translucent. Add the ground beef and break it up using a wooden spoon. Sauté until the beef has lost all its pink color. Gradually stir in the flour, thyme, 2 cups water, Kitchen Bouquet seasoning, beef bouillon cubes and Worcestershire sauce.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer the meat (so that it is just bubbling) for about 30 to 45 minutes until the sauce has thickened and the meat is fork tender. Remove the pan from the stove, and use a slotted spoon to transfer the beef to the earthenware dish. The slotted spoon will lift just the beef so it will not be too wet to hold the potatoes.

If there is any sauce left after taking out the meat, cool and refrigerate it. Then reheat it in a small saucepan to serve alongside the finished pie. This recipe can be prepared up to this stage several days before you plan to serve the dish. Cool both the meat and the liquid and store in the refrigerator.

To make potato topping: Place the potatoes in a large pot and add cold water to about 1 inch above the potatoes. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork (about 20 minutes). Drain off the water and replace the drained potatoes in the pan over a low heat for 1 to 2 minutes to dry them thoroughly. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or pass through a ricer.

Stir the nutmeg, cream and egg yolk with the butter, salt and pepper into the mashed potatoes. Then use the mashed potatoes to cover the top of the dish. Either pipe them, using a wide star tube, or spoon them on and then fluff up using a fork.

Sprinkle the top of the potatoes with the grated Cheddar. It can be kept for 24 hours at this stage if covered with plastic wrap.

Bake in a preheated oven (350°) for about 20 to 30 minutes until the potatoes are golden brown and the pie has heated through.

Homemade Easter Dress

I'm on a clothes making kick.  Here is the work in progress for Charlie's Easter dress...

Not too happy about the first fitting...

Second fitting and only have to hem the bottom to be finished!

My cutie patooties modeling their homemade tie and dress on Easter.

Miss Personality.

Happy Easter!

Easter Craft

Each year I set out to find an easy Easter or Spring related craft. This year I saw this cute banner idea and wanted to try it. Orange flags and chocolate (or white) bunnies hanging from ribbon. The orange makes a play on carrots and the bunnies are cute! Google 'bunny silhouette', find the bunny you like most, print it out and trace on construction paper, then cut out. Cut out a few orange triangles and punch some holes, thread the ribbon through, and you are done!

Homemade Dress

Check out this adorable sun dress that I made for our friend Berkley's 1st birthday!  Charlie was my model to help with sizing.

And we couldn't leave out Berkley's twin brother Carson and their big brother Brady!  Nothing like cute coordinating shirts to match their sister.

I've got a few more of these bad boys to make for my own daughter and a few other lucky ladies.  If you're interested in buying one of these dresses let me know!

Paint and Onions

With the project of painting the office with both latex and oil based paints, our home has become overwhelmed with fumes.  Everything stinks like oil paint, especially because the door is off the office for painting. 

Opening a few windows can help reduce the smell but the temperatures are too low outside and the oil paint won't dry properly.  So after a few Google searches we (my mom) discovered that putting a dish of chopped onion in the room with paint fumes will help rid the smell.  I couldn't decide what would be worse... paint fumes or onion fumes,  but figured it was worth a shot.

12 hours later, the smell of paint inside our home is close to absent.  There is a slight onion scent, but I'd rather smell that than headache giving oil fumes.  I've now gone through 2 whole onions and our house is close to normal again.

There were two different methods I read for onions and paint smell. 
1. Chop an onion in half and placing in a dish with shallow water. 
2. The other was chopping an onion in to a bunch of pieces and placing in a dish. 

I chose to chop the onion and add some water to dish... Figured combinging the two methods couldn't hurt.  The key is to have a large amount of raw onion exposed and to switch it out when it begins to dry out.

Give it a try the next time you paint inside!

Skinny Girl Disappointment

I'm not afraid to admit this.  I watch the Real Housewives of New York and Orange County.  I also watch Bethanny Ever After and have been intrigued by Bethanny's 'Skinny Girl Margarita' since watching her order it over and over on RHNY.  This week I looked up the pre-mixed beverage online and found that it was available in our local liquor store; and then made Tony pick up a bottle on the way home from work.  Yes, my poor husband had to walk in to the manly liquor store and buy a $15 bottle of Bethanny Frankel's Skinny Girl Margarita.  Not a very masculine task if you ask him.

I was uber excited to try the cocktail that contains a quarter of the calories of a typical restaurant margarita, and to find a margarita that was so easy to make that all I needed to do is twist open a bottle and pour.  I even went the extra step of shaking the drink with ice before pouring in to two glasses. 

First sip reaction?  Hmmm, this isn't too bad. 

Second sip reaction?  Maybe a slice of lime will help.

Third sip reaction?  I don't think I like this and it tastes tinny.  A slight 'diet' drink after taste. Severly disappointed.

Final outcome?  Tony drank his because it was a margarita.  He agreed it wasn't good, even with a half a lime squeezed in to our glasses.  I was disgusted by it.  I really wanted to love this drink because sometimes I get tired of juicing 20 limes for my killer margs.  But, I'd much rather make a Costco trip and stock up on limes than need to drink this premade margarita again.

I'll admit.  I tried it again today at dinner.  Even worse the second time around.  It killed me to pour out a margarita.

I won't hold it against you Bethanny.  I like that you came up with a margarita that is so low in calories (who knew restaurant margaritas were SO bad for you!?), the label is cute, and you made a few bucks off of me.  I think I'll just stick to watching your show with my own margarita recipe.

If anyone wants to try this marg let me know.  I've got over half a bottle left and I refuse to drink it.

Ugly Pie and Goop

Our neighbors gave the kids a great book called Ugly Pie for Christmas.  Its a story about a bear who is itch'n for some Ugly pie and collects ugly ingredients from his friends (green apples, walnuts, raisins...).  The story is very cute, and at the end of a book is the recipe for Ugly Pie.  Blake has wanted to make this pie since he received the book and today was the day.

Before picking him up at school, I did as much prep work as possible.  Even though Blake loves to help bake, 4 year olds only have limited attention span... So I premeasured the sugars in one bowl, and the raisins, walnuts and flour in another bowl.  B would help me measure the molassis, cinnamon and nutmeg.

I also peeled and sliced all the apples prior to him coming home, and made the pie dough and let chill in fridge until we were ready to roll out.

The counter was all ready for my 4 year old chef.

Once we were home from school, Chef B rolled out the crust.

Meanwhile,  I had a batch of Gwenyth Paltrow's Turkey Ragu from her website Goop on the stove.  This sauce was really good with nice flavor and a hint of rosemary, but not my favorite.  I've got a go to recipe that hasn't failed me yet.  But, I do recommend trying this one out if you want a great pasta meal.  You could easily freeze any sauce leftovers for a future meal. Click here to go to her recipe. 

While waiting for dessert of Ugly Pie, the kids got restless!

While the recipe doesn't create what I'll call my favorite pie... I'm not a huge raisin-in-my-dessert fan, but Blake scarfed it down and loved every bite. If you'd like a copy of the recipe you can email me or borrow the book from us.  Or better yet, go check it out for you and your little one.