1st day of school

Well Monday August 30, 2010 we started back to school at Woodinville Montessori. I like montessori more and more especially as I'm talking with some of my friends and they are bolting around looking for deals on school supplies. With montessori we are spared that headache. However they do make up for it in the tuition.

Sofie starts kindergarten this year. Her teacher is Miki and she seems really great. She is a luncher this year which has been bittersweet for me as I will miss her and my one on one time but quite honestly I am not missing the 3 hour drive time back and forth, back and forth. Sofie loves helping the kids that are younger so she is in her element. The kindergartners are the oldest as there are some preschoolers and she is such a mother hen. She really hounds Sam about being more responsible every day in the car. Today it was about his toothpaste. I need to remind her every once and awhile that I'm the mom and she can be the mother (hen) to all those cute little preschoolers.

Sofie's favorite color is blue. Her favorite breakfast is danish pancakes. Her favorite dinner is tacos and her favorite dessert is ice cream.

She's gorgeous--bottom line.

Sam is in the 2nd grade. As I dropped him off the first day he couldn't dash faster to his classroom. He was very excited. The sad news is neither Hunter nor Adil is back. The good news is Nick is. He has the same teachers LeeAnn Brown and Alexis Plunkett.

Sam's favorite color is gold. His favorite breakfast is danish pancakes. His favorite dinner is spaghetti and his favorite dessert is frozen cookie dough melted in a ramekin for 15 seconds. He loves money and is willing to work hard to get it.

He's gorgeous--bottom line number 2.

Below is Gabrielle Murphy's bridal shower. I wanted to do it all in white but ended up having a little green as an accent. I served a sangria and cucumber, mint water for drinks and for the sweets I made single serving pavolova's (wish I had taken a picture--they were gone pretty fast) with a lemon cream--topped with blueberries and golden raspberries. Miniature french silk tarts, rice pudding topped with grilled peaches and I had Trophy make their coconut cupcakes--yum!

I served savory palmiers and marcona almonds to even out the sugar kick.

Dave set up lights everywhere. It's amazing what lights do for an evening.
I could only get green umbrella's (so had to go for that green accent) but they were fine--not great--but I wanted an umbrella you now for "shower". I know kind of corny.
OK so below are the grilled peaches. I am telling you these are amazing.

They don't look too appetizing in this picture but really added a nice summer depth to the rice pudding.

I think you may have my rice pudding recipe but here it is just in case. This is not low fat in anyway but I guess that's why it's so delicious.

1 quart milk

1 pint heavy cream

1/2 tsp salt

1 vanilla bean

1 cup sugar divided

3/4 cup rice, uncooked

1 egg yolk

1 1/2 cup cream whipped (optional--depending on your mood)

In a heavy saucepan, combine milk, cream, salt, vanilla bean, and 3/4 cup sugar. Bring to a boil. Stir well, add the rice and allow the mixture to simmer gently covered for 1 1/4 hour on a very low heat until the rice is soft. Remove from heat and cool slightly. (Sometimes I just end here and it is so good) however for a bit more richness---Stir in remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the egg yolk. Allow to cool a bit more.

Preheat broiler (or use a torch) stir in all but 2 TBS of the whipped cream and pour mixture into a souffle dish. Make sure the mixture is cool, then spread the remaining whipped cream in a thin layer over the top. Place under the broiler until pudding lightly browned. Chill before serving. (I rarely do the broiler part because it is pretty fancy and time consuming and besides by this point I'm ready to dive in)

Grilled Peaches: (about 4 peaches--cut in half)

1 TBS butter

1 tsp lemon zest

2 TBS mint leaves cut into very small pieces

2 TBS brown sugar

Muddle the mint and the sugar together. I use a mortar and pestle. Heat all the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. This is where they say strain the sauce--I don't

Baste the peach halves with with the sauce and place them cut side down on the drill over me-low heat. Cook about 3 minutes and turn.

Spoon some of the sauce into each peach half lightly cover with a foil and heat for another 4-5 minutes until soft and warm.

These are the parting favors and the napkin ring. You can really find anything you want out there anymore. I think these rings were 4 for like $1.00. I did popcorn because the bride and groom love movies so I just made a kettle corn--actually Royleane totally helped me out here. She did 30 for me. I am so indebted to her! I actually am indebted to Cydney and Barbara, my kids and of course Dave. He's the miracle maker.