"Putting on the Ritz" for a Birthday Brunch

Today we celebrated the 60th birthday of Julie, one of my Romancing the Home girls. She is my rock- the one everyone calls in to cover absences, the cleaner, the absolute organizer and the one that follows the rules---------- and I wanted to do something special for her  big birthday.  She is such a special person in my life and I am so lucky.  About 16 years ago, she was a customer, shopping  in my store. I remember her buying a leather bound book and she said to me " If you are ever looking for someone- I would enjoy working here"- and I hired her on the spot!  It is a decision that I will never regret. I love this girl! 

 Since the weekend of her birthday is  Super Bowl , we decided to do brunch.  I had my favorite florist, Twigs, create the flowers, while I concentrated on the food.  I wanted to set the theme as a "virtual " week in Paris.  So I decided to turn the kitchen into a French Café.

I took Twigs a collection of pink and turquoise opaline glass . Julie's favorite colors are pink and blue.

 

 

 

Pink Opaline glasses - so pretty and so hard to find.

 

Love these turquoise votives used for  the party.

 

 

 

 

She created several little arrangements so that I could place them in several locations.  

 The ones above were on the patisserie stand on the kitchen island.

 

 

 

Vintage tumblers were dipped in cranberry juice and then dipped in

Raspberry and Rosemary sea salt.

 

 

 

Sea salt was placed in the black swan salt cellar that my dear friend, Mariterese gave me.

 

A grapefruit liqueur ,Pamplemouss Rose, from France made by Cartron  was chilled and poured in the salt rimmed glasses.

 

 

A fresh squeezed grapefruit taste prevailed- delicious little aperitif for brunch.

Beautiful color.

 

 

Fresh berries ready to go on honey vanilla yogurt parfaits with apricot granola.

 Tarragon egg salad in little champagne glasses, topped with crumbled bacon, pear bread, strawberry bread in little pink wraps on the 3 tier stand.

 

Close - up of the Strawberry bread wrapped like a present on a 3 tiered tray.

 

Bacon and Eggs the easy way - egg salad with crumbled bacon and a sprig of fresh tarragon.

 

A pink opaline vanity piece substitutes for a votive on the breakfast buffet

 

French Toast Bread Pudding with fresh raspberries and whipped cream- great recipe.

An over night recipe - no hassle and very good!   I finally found 12 gold ramekins just before the party!  I have been looking for them for years.

 

 

 

Fresh hot chocolate croissants from Trader Joe's- right out of the oven.

You simply cannot beat them for taste, a wonderful smell in the kitchen and convenience.

 

We made  brunch casual - served in the kitchen and eat where you want! 

 Laid back and easy for a snowy Sunday morning.

 

 

 

Mariterese sent a special delivery of macaroons from a  Belgian bakery in Chicago-

and trust me -they were divine!

 

I decided to set up my hotel serving cart for the dessert course and covered the salted caramel chocolate macaroons with the French patisserie cloche.

 

 



My friend Gail gave me this old hotel serving cart about 5 years ago and I love serving dessert on it!

 



 

Simply decadent taste- just look at the filling! These little babies are about 3 inched wide and 1 inch thick and have a gooey yummy filling.

 

 

Of course Mariterese sent enough for an army, so everyone got to take a couple home.

 

 

 

Next it was time for some lovely wrapped presents.

 

 

 

Several of the girls gave Julie flowers from Twigs in special containers.

 I love this blue opaline vase that Katha found.

 

Vintage flower bows- I just love ....

 

Absolutely exquisite Venetian dish - I realllllly did want to steal this !

 

And look at the divine Venetian perfume bottle.

Julie has this awesome blue and crème toile paper in her powder room.  I can just see these in there.

 

Another exquisite floral with the little  bee pin on the quince stem- can you see it?

Such a clever idea from Jill.

 

 

A pretty Strawberry Crème cocktail  for " after  the gifts"!

 

 

We spent the afternoon on a virtual tour to Paris- lots of photo-shopped pictures with our faces super imposed  on great bodies ( not ours!) - found ourselves as fashion models, super wealthy shoppers and jet setters in the City of Lights- Paris- with all the fantasy  pictures synced to the big flat screen in my family room. We sat back on the sofas and drank Champagne and laughed and sometimes wondered- could I really look like this if I lost weight????? Or maybe if I was 10 inches taller????

 Nope- no way ever!  Can I have another croissant please??!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a lot of laughs and memories between friends.

 

Happy Birthday Julie- I love you!

 

 

 

 

Pretty Butler Pantry Details

When we moved into our store, we built a fabulous little kitchen- really it's a perfect butler's pantry. We used it to display food products and kitchen accessories, as well as serve prepared food from our cookbook "Romancing the Home Entertains". It would be perfect for a bar or butler's pantry and could even be adapted to a full petite kitchen by adding one of those wonderful Wolf small free standing ranges.   As we are moving, it is for sale now and I wanted to share some of it's unique features with you.



The cabinets are grayish taupe distressed finish over knotty alder with a  thick zinc countertop.

 

 

A custom pewter sink was hand fabricated and finished with a pewter relief on the front of the apron.

 Hand wrapped zinc and copper tiles were inset with a crystal and pewter jewel for contrast.

The bottom row of tile is hand cast crocodile pewter with a hand wrapped brass baton on top.

 

 

Over the sink, Laurell created a fabulous old world mirror with an antique effect.

It is designed to look like the menu board in a French cafe..I love the way it reflects the little chandelier in the center of the space.

 

We found exquisite old hardware to use on the doors. Just look at all that detail.

 

 

I adore these handles on the undercounter refrigerators.

 

 

 

We have enjoyed this little space in our store so much. I am hoping it goes to a good home.

But as I am reviewing all the details of it's design I am falling in love with it all over again.

If it doesn't sell, I will just have to figure out a spot at home for it- I'm not leaving it behind!

 

 

 

 

 

Think Pink to cure the Winter Blues

For some crazy reason, I am in love with "pink" right now.  Especially, the blushy tan version of pink!  So I decided to re-do my pastry stand on the island with pink, especially perfect for upcoming Valentine's Day.  I layered it with some gold  vintage pieces from my stash of goodies.

 

Costco had these beautiful pink ranuculus bunches this weekend and I couldn't resist!

 

I love their little faces. So ruffled!  so very perfect!

Found these adorable pink lemonades at World Market last week!

 

Little gold sherbets just waiting for a splash of Strawberry Creme Liqueur.

These pink champagne biscuits are so pretty and fun to dip in champagne.

Gold ramekins just waiting to be filled with a delicious bread pudding.

 

 



 

I found this wonderful Pink Pamplemousse Rose from Cartron. It tastes like fresh squeezed grapefruit juice.  I am thinking it will be delicious in a salt rimmed glass over ice.  Maybe I'll find pink salt!

Pink peppermint marshmallows from Butter.  Ready for hot chocolate.

 



 

 

The most amazing strawberry jam you will ever taste.

 

 

Strawberry Creme Liqueur-  chilled and garnished with fresh strawberries.  Could be very pretty!

Looks like I need to have a "pink" party.  Valentine's is coming soon- maybe I'll plan a dinner party.

Kitchen Accessories Really Do Make a Difference

It's that  time of year- you take all your Christmas decorations down and your house looks like it's missing something.  Know what I mean?  So I am in the mood to re-do all the kitchen accessories and create a little change in my kitchen.  When Angela, the Parisienne Farmgirl, was  here last spring, we played around with a few new ideas. I was just reviewing those photos and decided I liked the little pops of color- especially for this deary time of year. 

I love the pop of green on the neutral tiles by the range.

And the pop of a little red in the flowers on the old tray placed behind the stove is good too!

The French pastry stand on the island is fun to change with the seasons and it seems to need a spot of color right now!

Todays view from the kitchen through the stone arch into the servery.
It does seem like it needs a little color??
 



While not practical for the normal home cook- I do love the way this looks.
An old silver tray is gathering a collection of vinegars in antique carafes, celery vases with old horn flatware,
silver plate sherbets filled with sea salt, and an Old Paris porcelain tureen. 
Maybe I'll re- create a version of this vignette in another spot!

Close up of the pastry stand- think I need to add a little Valentine's decor today to it!

Aged mirror refrigerator- will probably do this again in my next house.
It always reflects what is going on in the kitchen and makes the small space seem bigger.

another little spot of red on the kitchen table.
I found this old silver plate decanter holder that was missing its bottles.
 It is perfect for wine, candles and flowers
on the kitchen table.


So in the next few days, I am going to re-do my kitchen accessories. Let's see what I'll come up with.
 Yes, It is that time of year again-  time to "nest" and move things around!  Stay tuned!