Gabriel's 3rd Birthday Party - a GabriElvis Tribute

Ever since we stopped by Elvis Presley's home, Graceland, on a cross-country road trip, my then 2-year-old has been the biggest fan of the "King of Rock 'n Roll." While most of his friends ask their parents to play Elmo, Mickey or Dora, the Explorer songs and videos, my son asks us to play Elvis' hits such as Suspicious Minds and Burning Love. So when it came to plan his 3rd birthday party, I had no doubt on my mind it was going to be an Elvis-themed one... a little curious fact: idol and fan share the same birthday, 8 January!!

I had a design in mind for the invitation, and while in Brasil visiting family, I asked my sister to help me bring it to life using her awesome design skills. I then printed the cover image on glossy photo paper and cut in the shape of a CD sleeve. Inside were the party details written as a record label on a black cardstock paper "disk".

The colors chosen were black (inspired by the Elvis' silhouettes), blue (as in blue suede shoes) and white (to balance it all out).

At the beverage table I set an Elvis record on a display stand with a couple of silver permanent markers for friends to leave a message for the birthday boy.  The vinyl record and its cover are now framed and on display in his bedroom.

The main food table

For the table centerpiece, I used "leftover" Elvis silhouettes from my work crafting the gift bags (keep reading to know more about it...), plus black music notes-shaped large confetti and silver stars sprinkled all over the table.

Caprese salad "on a stick" with homemade pesto (recipe at the end of this post)

Some of the food served was inspired by the King's favorites as barbecue chicken pizzas and the famous peanut butter and banana sandwiches (and it didn't hurt that they were a hit among the kids...)

To display the food names, I chose "Welcome to Las Vegas" placecard holders as a reference to Elvis' Las Vegas phase.

Musical notes and guitar-shaped pita bread with homemade hummus

Star-shaped toasts with salmon-chive spread

This amazing cake was made by my talented "cake master" friend Theully.  I found a similar image online and asked her to re-create adding a few personal touches.  For the record label I used an Elvis CD sampler that came with a Collector's Limited Edition box of Elvis PEZ dispensers. 

As a "cake topper", I used these Elvis bendable figurines which Gabriel now carries everywhere with him in his backpack.

Paper crown hats for the kings and queens of the night :-)

The candle is another collector's piece - a hand-painted candle modeled after a Red Hagstrom Viking II guitar Elvis used during his 1968 TV special.

I had a small surprise reserved for my little star - a recording of Elvis singing Happy Birthday!!  His face when he recognized his idol's voice (even before many of the guests did) was priceless.

For the party favors, I continued to use the black and blue theme colors. I printed an Elvis silhouette, traced it down on black card stock paper and hand-cut them individually to be glued on the front of each gift bag.  Yes, cut them one. by. one.  Glad I only had about half a dozen bags to prepare :-)

An Elvis Presley themed birthday is not necessarily "kid-friendly", but I managed to find great items for the favor bags: the "King" paper crown, a plastic microphone, Elvis-style sunglasses, Elvis PEZ dispensers (featuring 3 versions of the King: 50's, 60's and 70's Elvis), and an Elvis CD entitled: "Elvis Sings for Kids" which includes songs like Old MacDonald and Teddy Bear. I even had an Elvis interactive dress-up magnet set for kids to play with.  The little tag attached to the bag's handle reads "Thank you. Thank you very much", which many know is how Elvis ended his songs and/or his concerts.

Life is good... Gabi in his Elvis suit.

Photo by "tia" (auntie) Katia who, along with my parents, came from afar especially for the party. 

I also dressed the part wearing a Priscilla Presley beehive wig I found on Ebay ;-) The Elvis sunglasses were distributed to the guests upon their arrival, along with blue, black and white leis which were a nod to Elvis' Hawaiian movies.

We were even awarded a special performance by our little "king" :-)

Pesto alla Genovese 

Adapted from "Il Grande Libro della Cucina Tradizionale Italiana"

The "secret" to a good pesto is on the freshness and quality of the ingredients you use, so make sure you get the freshest basil, the best quality parmigiano-reggiano, salt and olive oil. Buon Appetito!

Ingredients

• 15 organic basil leaves (washed and lightly patted dry, stems removed) 
• 1-2 cloves of garlic
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 15 g toasted pignoli (pine nuts) 
• 25 g finely ground parmesan
• 3 tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil

Method

Place garlic and a pinch of salt in mortar and start rubbing it down with the pestle to break up the garlic (the salt helps grind it.) Add teared pieces of basil and smash using a down and outward motion, being careful not to bruise it. Add the pignoli and pound, working them into the garlic and basil mixture.  Mix in the parmesan and then the olive oil, mixing with a wooden spoon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a storage container and cover with a fine layer of olive oil to preserve its color, moisture and flavor. Store covered with a lid or plastic wrap in the refrigerator for a week or more, depending of your storage conditions (and use, mine never lasts past a couple of days, since we find so many uses for it in the kitchen!)  

You can also freeze it in small ice cubes and remove as needed.  Some purists say you should never freeze pesto because of its oil content, others advise on freezing it without the addition of the cheese.  I personally think that yes, nothing beats the amazing flavor of just-made pesto, but the handy frozen cubes of this sauce mean less time in the kitchen, less loss/waste of ingredients and a small feeling of summer in the middle of the winter, when I cannot pick fresh basil from my backyard.  In other words, still very yummy!

Note: The traditional pesto is made using a mortar and pestle to smash all the ingredients into a paste, but you can use a food processor as well (but try to avoid, ok?) Just make sure the blades and bowl are very cool so that they don't burn and bruise the leaves - you can put them in the freezer for a couple of hours prior to use. 

Para uma versão em português da festa, clique aqui.

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Christmas Eve Dinner 2010

I love Christmas. I do. However, I get a little blue around this time of year, but that's because my whole family (minus husband, kids and dogs) is far, far away. I think the last time we spent it together was back when I moved to the United States. The year was 2000. Yep, quite some time ago.

But even though I think Christmas is being "rushed" on us earlier and earlier each year (plastic trees and glittery ornaments decorate store display windows even before Halloween!), I love when I start hearing Christmas songs and merry wishes everywhere. It always puts me in the holiday mode :-)

For the past few years I have been spending Christmas Eve at different friends' houses, but always wanting to host it myself. So it finally happened. We'd recently moved to a new city, didn't know a lot of people, but had already made some good friends. We thought it would be nice to thank them for their warm welcome by inviting them to dinner at our new place. This way we would feel a little more at home as well, and with our kid growing up (and another one on the way) maybe start our own holiday tradition - based on the memories from our childhood, but making new ones as well.

Since we didn't have much time to plan and didn't want to spend much on decorations (we had just donated lots and lots of boxes of stuff that didn't fit into our new pad), I started looking for things I already had in the house. I ended up with a few different glass vases and candle holders in shades of green and red and arranged them on our buffet table.

The same "decoration rule" went for the dinner table. Which is pretty much one of my favorite "green mantras": reduce-reuse-recycle (or even, "upcycle")

The place card holders were purchased from Pier 1 many years ago at an "after Christmas" sale and I had been waiting to use them ever since. I've never had marked seats at the table before, I like to leave the guests confortable enough to choose where to sit (and change their minds mid-dinner if they choose to do so). But... I admit it, I just wanted an excuse to use these adorable ornament look-alikes.

Jingle bells napkin rings also from Pier 1 big sale…

I downloaded a few free "Christmas" fonts and being unable to decide which one to use, I went with a different one for each of my guests' names.

Inexpensive plastic ornaments and some garland purchased at Target (at their dollar bins) nested inside clear vases looked pretty good too!

The table runner is from West Elm, and the wine glasses from Crate & Barrel

I like to play around with different uses for jars, glasses... this time, the martini glass was reborn as a nut dish for the table.

I set a "welcome" station with PAMA pomegranate liqueur, Prosecco and pomegranate seeds for guests to enjoy before dinner. I had pomegranate Izze (sparkling fruit juice) drinks for a non-alcoholic option.

Notice the cute jingle bells on top of the food picks. Awwww...

I used a curved tasting spoon to scoop mixed nuts from a glass footed bowl.

Clockwise from left: Coconut brown rice with Brazil and cashew nuts, apricots and raisins; Herb-butter roasted turkey; Brown-butter, lemon-scented green beans with almonds; Rosemary-olive oil roasted fingerling mixed potatoes.

The kids couldn't be more ready for their gifts...

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Halloween 2010

When I heard about the traditional Halloween celebration on Belvedere Street, I knew that that's where we would be trick or treating this year. But before venturing into the crowded streets, I thought we could have some friends over so we could talk, the kids could play and we could also prepare ourselves for the chilly weather outside by filling up on some snacks and a warming glass of wine.

We came up with this idea only days before Halloween and when I hit the stores for decoration, everything was already picked over. So I had to let go of many of the ideas I had in mind for setting the table... I went through my apartment looking for inspiration and found an old black table runner, some Halloween confetti, food picks and cupcake toppers (which I had purchased the previous year on sale after Halloween) and a roll of gauze from the medicine cabinet. Combined with a few metal serving pieces, mission was accomplished.This is a little cool trick I saw on a Martha Stewart Living magazine (or was it online?) Simple and very affordable, yet, so clever: burn a red candle on top of some regular white taper candles and let the melted wax drip to the sides of it, for a "bloody" effect. I even got the husband to help with this little project :-)I think the only things I really had to buy were the red taper candle and some plastic mice (I really wanted cockroaches and spiders, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?)I found the metal pumpkin candle holders at TJ Maxx (one of my favorite stores - you need to do a little "hunting" sometimes, but it is oh-so-worthy!)

Pumpkin-nut muffins fresh out of the oven Pesto Chicken Meatballs with some happy jack-o'-lantern picks

Para uma versão em português da festa, clique aqui.

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