Category Archives: Holidays

{Wine Wednesday} Party pumpkins

Posted in Crafts, DIY, Drinky drinky, Holidays by

WineWednesday

Holy cow!! Look at what I found while cruising the interwebs earlier this week: the best party accessory ever (besides a pinata, of course): A pumpkin keg! Yes, it’s not wine per se, but it’s booze-related and it’s awesome and technically if you wanted to fill the pumpkin with wine, you totally could. Or cider or something non-alcoholic, the possibilities are endless!!

2013-10-16 Pumpkin keg

This tutorial is taken from Celebrations. Watch their video tutorial here.

SUPPLIES

  • One large pumpkin
  • Marker or pencil
  • Carving kit
  • Plastic Spigot (aka tap)
  • Lots of Sam Adams Octoberfest beer
DIRECTIONS

Step 1: First, draw a ring around the top of your pumpkin. This will be your guide to carve the lid. Try to keep this pretty close to the top of the pumpkin so you optimize the hollowed out space that will hold the beer.

Step 2: Once that’s done, carve it! If you’re sans carving kit you can use a serrated knife. Whatever your tool of choice, poke it in at an angle and work your way around the ring.

Step 3: Pop the lid off once you’ve gone all the way around and clean out your pumpkin. Make sure you get all the seeds out and most of the pulp, but don’t worry if some of that’s left behind since it’s responsible for flavoring the beer.

Step 4: Now, find the spot where you want to place your spigot. Using your pencil or marker, trace around the rim once you’ve decided upon the spot. Cutting the hole here will require a pretty fine serrated knife, so the carving kit proves really worthwhile at this point.

Make the hole as clean cut as possible, then pop in your spigot. If your pumpkin is as thick as ours was you’ll have to thin out the pumpkin’s inner wall to fit the spigot properly. Don’t be afraid to dig in – the pumpkin can take it.

Step 5: Once your spigot is secured, you’re ready to go! Pour in your Sam Adam’s Octoberfest (because that IS the official beer of fall as far as we’re concerned) and pop the lid back on your pumpkin.

Step 6: Celebrate fall and all your hard work with a cold brew from your pumpkin keg!

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The possibilities are truly endless on this project. I am headed to buy a spigot right now for seasonal gourd/watermelon drinking fun. Have a wonderful, festive Wine Wednesday!!

Birthday eve…

Posted in Holidays, Photos by

Sorry for the blogging hiatus: it’s birthday week and I’ve been super busy recovering from the cold that’s going around and prepping for the spectacular birthday party tailgate Brandon and I are throwing tomorrow. I’m biased, of course, but it’s going to be awesome. Please think positive, anti-rain thoughts for us!

I hope you have a great weekend. Think of me on Saturday and give me an air cheers!

I believe this photo was taken nearly 29 years ago...

I believe this photo was taken nearly 29 years ago…

Celebrating our second anniversary

Posted in Exploring Seattle, Holidays, Photos, Uncategorized by
Ready for our "cotton anniversary" photo

Ready for our “cotton anniversary” photo

A very happy second anniversary to my one and only: Brandon!

We’re celebrating with dinner tonight and a big, cold trip to Alaska to see the northern Lights in January.

We also like to give little traditionally-themed gifts for one another. For the paper (first) anniversary, I made Brandon a book of “coupons” and he gave me a scrap book that we’re putting photos of highlights of the year in. We also take photos each year, to celebrate. (And remember how young we once looked…HA!) Last year, I newspaper-mached the letters “O” “N” “E” and we took the photos at my sister’s wedding. We’ll take our anniversary photo tonight, with this cotton-ball covered “two.”

Until then, here are our photos from years passed.

2011 (More wedding photos on our photographer’s blog: Mike Fiechtner Photography.)

Seattle wedding photography on Alki

What a gorgeous couple, if I don’t say so myself… circa 2011

2012

We’re still trying to locate the official photo with the “ONE” in it, but for now, this Instagram-ed shot of our photo booth photo will have to do. Sorry it’s so grainy:

Celebrating our paper anniversary

Celebrating our paper anniversary

Celebrating our first anniversary a week early, at my sister's wedding

Celebrating our first anniversary a week early, at my sister’s wedding

And on our actual anniversary, a trip to Bainbridge

And on our actual anniversary, a trip to Bainbridge

Last year, we went back to the “scene of the crime” and enjoyed the all-you-can-eat award-winning brunch at Salty’s followed by a nap and exploring on Bainbridge Island.

Cheers to many, many more anniversaries!

Hello, Dawg fans!

Posted in Adventures, Drinky drinky, Exploring Seattle, Holidays by

2013-8-31 UW 2

As one of the official (literally– I’ve been on the Homecoming posters for the past three years, banners in the parking lot, web banners and email ads) University of Washington representatives, I hereby wish you a very happy college football opener.

The Huskies play the Boise State Broncos tonight at 7 p.m. and we’re off to celebrate this momentous season opener around noon. While I won’t be physically in the stadium (Brandon will), I’ll be watching and cheering on our Dawgs.

Husky Stadium has been under renovation for the past year and it looks amazing. I haven’t been there “in person” yet, and won’t be for a few months, but there is a certain air about Seattle with all of this “retake Montlake” talk.  I think tailgating tomorrow is going to be fantastic. We were a bit disjointed last year, trying to make-do with Qwest Field, so this year is very exciting. So exciting that the Huskies are playing Oregon on my birthday, so I’ve already started planning a huge tailgate to celebrate. More on that as we get closer…

Cheers to you and come back soon for lots and lots of tips on tailgating treats and decorations.

In the meantime, GO DAWGS!!!!

2013-8-31 UW 1

 

Happy Birthday, America!

Posted in Holidays, Photos by

Sorry to butt into your Fourth of July festivities… I wanted to wish you a wonderful day full of family, friends, food and fireworks.

We’re in Central Washington on a fun trip of relaxation and wedding celebrations. In fact, I’m writing this from a nearby winery. Once I hit post, it’s time to do some tasting!

Happy Independence Day from Megan’s Island!

20130704-132903.jpg

This the Columbia River, as seen from our cabin.

Happy Birthday, Moll Ball!

Posted in Holidays, Photos by

Today I’m celebrating my little sister Molly’s birthday. Happy birthday, Moll Ball! I hope you get that really big present today! (They’ve been house-hunting and today might be the day!)

2013-6-20-HB-MB

 

Clearly we’ve been close for years and she’s always loved her big sister…

2013-6-20-HB-MB2

My Mother’s Day Brunch

Posted in Food, Holidays, Homemade by

I hope you all had a nice Mother’s Day (or Sunday, if that’s what you chose to celebrate)! Brandon and I went over to my sister and brother-in-law’s house for a homemade brunch with my Mom and Dad and my brother-in-law’s Mom and soon-to-be Step Dad. The food was delicious and the company was great.

With eight people in attendance, some with gluten and lactose intolerances, my sister and I got creative with the menu and really leaned on the flavors of the new spring fruits and veggies for our Mother’s Day Brunch Feast:

Brunch

  • Broccoli quiche with ham
  • Crustless spinach quiche with ham, mushrooms and goat cheese gouda
  • Homefries
  • Butter croissants (from Trader Joe’s freezer section – have you tried these? They taste amazing, are easy to make and are perfect for brunch! However, the ones we made for Sunday may have been in the freezer too long. They didn’t proof right but they tasted ok. We bought some other croissants to supplement them.)
  • Chicken and pork breakfast sausages (I normally get the Jennie O turkey breakfast sausages, but these were ‘healthier’ [less bad] for you. They were really good!)
  • Fruit salad with raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and pineapple with a pinch of mango sugar

And a MIMOSA BAR!

Here are a few photos and recipes that helped make our Mother’s Day celebrations shine…

Broccoli quiche with ham... Delicious!

Mimosa-barMimosa Bar

  • (2) Gigantic bottles of Cook’s Champagne (there are eight people, after all)
  • (1) bottle of Trader Joe’s Tangerine Juice (like orange juice, but BETTER!)
  • (1) box of Trader Joe’s Tropical Fruit Juice Box
  • (1) handful of the following: fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberry slices

Follow these steps for a mimosa bar of your own:

  1. Cut and/or wash the berries. We did this the night before.
  2. Chill the Champagne/Prosecco in advance of the event. We put ours in the fridge the night before. I have heard that you shouldn’t chill wines or champagne for more than four hours, but this stuff is pretty medium quality and we’re adding juice, so it’s better that it be cold than super flavorful.
  3. Create an amazing display! We got a ton of serving dishes and trays when we got married a couple of years ago and I love getting them out. This was one of those occasions. We also rimmed the champagne glasses with some mango sugar. It was a wonderful touch.

Cheers!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Posted in Food, Holidays by

Better late than never: Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  We had a pretty leisurely day– we were supposed to get up and run/walk in Seattle’s St. Pat’s Dash, but it was raining pretty hard and started snowing, so we opted to stay in bed a bit longer and run on the treadmill instead.  Probably one of the best moves we’ve made.

Wearing our Dash shirts, we opted to stay in, crack open some Guinness and make a very green meal at home.

I discovered Kevin and Amanda’s blog and combined their tribute to the Pioneer Woman’s Pesto Cream sauce with Eating Well’s fettuccine with mushrooms and basil. The result was a bit lighter and fantastic!

First, I made the basil, per their instructions:

Simple pesto: basil, shredded parmesan, pine nuts, garlic, salt, pepper and some drizzled olive oil. So good I could have eaten it all by itself!

Homemade pasta

Once the pesto was made, we made some fettuccine with our favorite Kitchen Aid pasta attachment. It’s so easy and so good.  While the pasta was drying, we sauteed some sliced chicken breasts and shiitake mushrooms.

 

 

 

 

 

Sauce, pre-pesto, cream and butter

We cooked the pasta and added the pesto, cream and a wee bit of Irish butter to the sauce and voila! Happy St. Patty’s day!

YUM! St. Patrick's Day style