Part two of Lincoln’s red, white and blue party…the photo booth! This is such a great way to liven up a party. Throw up a simple backdrop in a shaded area of the party, add some props and fire away! Adults and kids get into it. Fun times!
My good friend Laura of Ascot Friday recently threw super cute party for her one year old son, Lincoln. All the stars aligned (with a birthday right before 4th of July and a name like Lincoln) for a red-white-and-blue BASH. I’ve photographed several of Laura’s parties and she out does herself every time! I’m dividing the party into three parts for the blog. This will be the post showing the decor and party guests. Then the photo booth and a special post for the cake smash. Because it was that cute!
Laura bought an old presidential campaign book and used the pages to make posters as decor. The dollar store had a wealth of flags and red, white and blue accessories.
Here’s Laura and her sister prepping the hot dogs…Bryan’s mastering the grill behind them.
What’s more American than apple pie a la mode? I love this party tip…pre-scoop the ice cream and adorn it with flags, so it’s ready to serve!
Next up…the fun photo booth!
I’ve shared parts of my boys’ room over the last year since I made it over, but never the finished product. I think homes are always a work in progress…we are constantly re-freshing things and the kids are growing, so we try to re-configure according to their needs! The boys have been in bunk beds (purchased online as pottery barn knock-offs) since they moved out of toddler beds, many years ago. They are 10 and 11 years old (19 months apart) and collectors of legos, bionicles, art supplies and just about everything else under the sun. My goal in the room was to keep the clutter down. I wanted to have a container for everything. Basically a place to put everything away.
The focus of the room is the shelving unit that Bryan (husband of Ascot Friday) built for me. It’s loosely based on shelves seen at The Ace in Palm Springs. He did an AMAZING job and if you’re in Long Beach and want to have him make you shelves like these, let me know and I’ll put you in contact. The shelves are filled with books, toys and a few vintage found items.
I tried to use vintage pieces that would be functional, like pottery bowls to hold lego guys and an old pair of speakers as book ends. I did a whole blog post about the soda crate that houses all of their art supplies. I also love this old flour sifter that now houses colored pencils.
The green storage boxes are from Ikea. I printed out matching labels to remind the boys what belongs in each box!
The white bedding is also from Ikea. I splurged on a Jonathan Adler needlepoint pillow to inspire the room and the other pillows I made. I also have a whole blog post about how I made chevron stripes out of the regular old striped fabric that you buy at Ikea.
Jul
11
2012
I grew up hating bananas. Especially the brown spotty ones. My grandpa used to say the brown spots means they are extra sweet, but I never believed him. Just like avocados, seafood and blueberries, bananas grew on me. And now I think the brown spotted ones are like banana pudding. Turns out my grandpa was right!
Bananas gone ripe…too ripe, make perfect banana bread. But, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Before you let them go to the mushy ripe stage, make bananas foster. Don’t be scared, there will be no fire in your kitchen. I had only ever had bananas foster in fancy restaurants where the whole pan is aflame. But, Ben the Chef, introduced me to a new bananas foster. The ingredients are pantry staples, which means this dessert can be your bale-out when guests show up last minute!
In a large saute pan, melt your butter and add the brown sugar. Stir in the zest from half an orange and the juice from the whole orange, along with 1/4 cup strong coffee. We used my Keurig and brewed a cup of coffee on the smallest setting. Add four sliced bananas and stir for a few minutes until the sugar has melted. Serve immediately over ice cream.
I don’t normally just leave the blog empty for a whole week. We got back from a two week trip and I headed straight to my photo sessions at Rascals to Rebels. I hit it with full-force! The kids that came had tons of energy and it was a rare visit of sorts! I had 2 newborns, a set of twins and a set of triplets! The photo sessions are only 15 minutes long, all back to back, so be amazed at how much cute was squeezed out of a mere 15 minutes!!
I was going through the archives and found one of my very first photo sessions. It was the summer of 2007. I had just bought the Canon 5D and I was practicing on every willing friend. Looking back, I’m really lucky my friends were so gracious to me as I worked out my skills and business practices. I noticed in these photos that my style is still much the same…babies and kids. Being cute. Being themselves.
I’m a bit vanilla. When it comes to how I dress and how I decorate my home, plain is best. I’m creative in my work, but I tire out when it comes to personal decisions. Thankfully I have stylish friends. And thankfully they help me make personal decisions.
Two of my good friends have wallpaper in their homes. The exact same pattern, in fact! So, the wheels started turning about a year ago. I wanted to wallpaper a wall in my dining room, but oh the choices! I waffled this way and that for a whole year. I pinned different patterns. I was sure about this one, until I saw that one. Finally ready to pull the trigger, I ran two options by my friends. Laura told me to go to Walnut Wallpaper by where she worked at The Grove. She met me there and we looked through all the books until we narrowed it down to this: Summer Palace Fret in Mineral by F Schumacher. Heather gave the stamp of approval and we were off!
I’m so happy with how it turned out! The mineral color nicely compliments the soft gold color on the walls. We also got these mercury pendants from West Elm a few months ago and these chairs from Crate and Barrel were what started the whole change. I used to have matching wood chairs to the table. Matching. How boring. Laura recommended a galvanized steel chair and I love how it has a vintage feel, while still being modern. And of course I love my DIY terrariums.
We also decided to wallpaper around the corner, so you could see a peek of it when you walk through the front door. Danny, our contractor, installed the wallpaper and it looks perfect. Brent agreed to wallpaper if it was professionally installed. I would have happily tried to do it myself, but weird seams and crooked patterns weren’t what Brent had in mind. If you’re in the SoCal area and looking to wallpaper, I will gladly give you Danny’s info. He’s the best!
And just so you can see the difference. Here’s a before picture. VANILLA!
I love this curly redhead! I’ve been photographing her since she was a baby and now she has a new baby sister. I can just envision our future photo sessions with two little sets of red bouncy curls. Love!
Jun
24
2012
This is an original recipe created by Ben. We made it to serve a crowd (8 adults and 4 kids) so if you have a family of 5, half it. Or invite over some friends and they’ll be friends for life.
We started with a half gallon of natural squeezed orange juice (store bought-look for a quality brand) heated to a boil in a sauce pan. Zest an orange into it and add your minced ginger and garlic. Stir and then let this simmer for an hour. The mixture will reduce down to a concentrated orange sauce. You can leave it simple like that OR add 3 T sesame oil and 1T of rice vinegar.
While your sauce is cooking, you can prepare the chicken. We used boneless chicken thigh meat for the flavor, but boneless skinless breasts will also do the trick. Cut them into small chunks and place into a bowl. Sprinkle a cup or so of cornstarch into a shallow dish. You’ll be breading your chicken in cornstarch. WHAT!? I know, I had never done it either. But, it absorbs less oil and maintains a crisp even while drenched in sauce.
Below, you’ll see the step by step process of Ben coating the chicken in cornstarch, then shaking off the excess through his fingertips. He cooked them in small batches in vegetable oil over medium high heat and drained them on a paper towel.
Add a few tablespoos of cornstarch to 1/3 cup water and mix well. Add this to the orange sauce and simmer for 5 minutes to thicken. In a new saute pan, add the cooked chicken and your sauce. Boil it down for additional 5 minutes and you’re ready to serve! We made a kid version and an adult version with the addition of chile flakes for a little heat.
I normally always make brown rice, but this was the time to splurge. We made white jasmine rice with a 2-3 ratio for sticky rice. So if you are using 1 cup of water, add 2/3 cups of rice. Also make sure that you season the water beforehand (salt and pepper to taste). That’s a pro tip right there!
Steamed broccoli rounds out the meal. I’m not kidding you, we devoured this stuff! The flavors were so amazing! I’m learning from Ben that quality ingredients go a long way. You don’t need fancy techniques. Simple prep is the way to go!
Ben’s thinking about starting his own blog for his original recipes. He started writing recipes, well when he learned how to write. (Hello, child genius.) Brent and I love eating his food and the chance to cook with him and learn so much was a treat! So…if you want to see more recipes and kitchen tips highlighted here, holla back!
Orange Chicken: serves 10-12
1/2 gallon orange juice (store bought-quality brand)
zest of one orange
2 T. minced garlic
2 T. minced ginger
1 T. rice vinegar (optional)
3 T. sesame oil (optional)
red chile flakes to taste (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
4 pounds boneless skinless thigh meat, cut in 1″ chunks
1 cup cornstarch (feel free to use more if you need it)
vegetable oil for frying
(directions above)
I’m sorry. This is a teaser. I promised a post about the most delicious orange chicken you’ve ever had and I’m giving you a post about ginger. But, I felt like what Ben the Chef taught me was worth it’s own blog post. Full on orange chicken is coming tomorrow. Pinky promise.
I’m gonna back track and say that I was sent to the market with a list. Whole ginger was on the list and it was the first time I had ever purchased it. I always use ginger from the jar. I’m a stickler when it comes to fresh garlic, but I was just a little intimidated about those big knobby fingers in the produce aisle.
The first thing I was taught is that you should not use a microplane. It shreds the ginger and you end up with a hairy mess. What you should do is peel it. With a vegetable peeler? No. A spoon. That’s a pro-tip right there. Peeling ginger with a spoon is the fastest and easiest way. The fibers will run length-wise through the stem, so cut it against the grain (so it looks like small circles). Then, you’ll want to make vertical slices, then turn the other way to create a mince. We added the minced ginger to the orange chicken sauce for a perfectly infused ginger flavor without any fiber-y strings.
Thanks Ben!