Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Love, Cooking and Time with My Girls

Tex here. This past weekend was an extra special one for me. For starters, I actually relaxed. I also had the opportunity to spend some time in the kitchen, doing one of my favorite things. Cooking. But not just cooking, this was one of those labor of love events because we were celebrating, well, love.

You may or may not remember me telling you how our middle daughter sprang the news on us just before Easter weekend that she was getting married--the next day. Well, fast forward six months. The happy couple has bought a house and were finally ready to celebrate their new life with family and friends.

As we all know here at the cafe, a celebration just isn't a celebration without food. So I pitched in by making their wedding cake,

Cupcakes for all of the guests,

and, since the groom was rustlin' up a mess of ribs and smoked brisket, a pot of  cowboy beans (recipe here
and some macaroni salad (recipe here).

Everything looked so pretty.

Best of all, perhaps, was getting to spend some time with my girls.
Now that they're all married, the times we're all together are few and far between, so when we are, it's definitely a treat. One that always warms this mama's heart.

Now it's your turn. Do your celebrations revolve around food? If so, what's you're favorite? 

14 comments:

  1. Wow Mindy, Hard to top that celebration. What a beautiful and yummy layout.

    Everything in our family revolves around food. We play pickleball and we have happy hours at least once a week. Well food choices are creative and really fun.

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    1. Okay, Sandra, I have to ask. What is pickleball? I love the idea of happy hours. Very cool.

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  2. Love all those pics and your cupcakes and cake are beauteous. I have to do plainish desserts if I'm inviting folks over or attending a potluck because though my cakes taste delish, they look like a three year old decorated them. And I wasn't above using that excuse when my daughter was little. LOL

    Celebratory food is odd for me so I hesitate to share. But being vegetarian and having endured endless years of "I'll just eat the vegetables" family dinners those kind of gatherings just don't hold appeal for me. I graduated to bringing my own tofu burger but still -- that's pretty lame as far as celebratory feasts go. LOL

    This Thanksgiving my daughter and I got together and we had brunch...drum roll...scrambled tofu and home made potato and sweet potato fries. It's our favourite meal to have together -- and the scrambled tofu really does taste divine when seasoned properly and laden with lightly grilled veggies. Then we gardened a bit and went inside for hot apple pie.

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    1. Oh, you had me at apple pie, Kav. Some things just transcend lifestyles. :)

      Kav, I've just started piping the frosting onto my cupcakes in the last couple of years. Before that, I just frosted with a knife and wished I could make them look pretty. Then one day, when I made a batch just for us (and had watched a few too many episodes of Cupcake Wars), I decided to play a little. So I put my icing into a large decorator bag with a large tip and practiced piping it onto the cupcakes. Believe it or not, it was actually faster than using a knife once I got the hang of it. They're still far from bakery quality, but that's why I call myself a country cook.

      If I were you, I think I'd always take a dish or two of my favorite recipes to gatherings and just say you wanted to contribute. Okay, maybe not the tofu burgers, but a casserole or something. That way you'd be guaranteed to have something you like and are able to eat.

      I was just watching a movie on Hallmark the other night where the heroine unexpectedly showed up at the hero's house while he and his kids were eating dinner. He already knows she's a vegetarian, but he asks her if she'd like to join them. She sits down to discover they're having hamburgers. I had to laugh when she grabbed a bun, piled it with baked beans and took a bite. Now that was unexpected.

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    2. LOL - we vegetarians have to be creative when we eat out!

      I don't have a piping bag but I think I should get one and experiment. I have been watching The Great British Bake Off on PBS and they are inspiring me to try new things. Love that show -- so very British and very entertaining.

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    3. Yes, you definitely need to get a piping bag and a large star tip, Kav. Let those Brits inspire you. And I want to hear the outcome.

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    4. Kav, you can do this!!!! It's just practice. Go for it!!!

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  3. How beautiful!! I'm so impressed with your cake! Simple and elegant. Beautiful girls as well! Congrats to the happy couple.

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    1. Simple is the key, Missy. Keeping it simple. 😉

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  4. Oh Mindy, when I saw those cupcakes on FB I had no idea they were for such a wonderful occasion. I hear you on not enough time with the grown daughters. :(

    So glad you had this beautiful time. Best wishes to the bride and groom!

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    1. You know, Mary Cate, when they're young, everyone says cherish them now, because soon they'll be gone. Yet we're often so frazzled, we fail to truly hear that message until it's too late. Ah, if only we knew then what we know now.

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  5. I missed this yesterday, but I remembered that pic of cupcakes on Facebook and had to hunt them down! Mindy, what a beautiful day and a wonderful celebration of life. The cake: Awesome! And the cupcakes and food... I just love it.

    Congratulations to you all and God bless you on such wonderful occasions! Weddings... babies.... and yes, even funerals can bring out the family in us!

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    1. Ruthy, this is the daughter whose daughter (our granddaughter) we kept for two years while she was overseas with the Navy. It's been a long road, so it's nice to see Rachel finding that happiness she's been longing for. Stephen has a daughter, too, but who knows, their hoping for more babies in the near future. I'll keep you posted.

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