Andrea's 50th

Last Sunday was Sean's mom's 50th birthday. The kids decided to throw her a surprise party, the planning for which began sometime in the summer. As the plan evolved, we debated a lot: lunch vs dinner, catered vs home-cooked, surprise vs not. After a lot of back-and-forth, we decided to cook the food ourselves for an intimate brunch at the home of a good family friend, Tom. Sean, Cait and I took the lead and planned out an elaborate menu for the 15 guests invited to our Sunday morning get together.

We spent all day the Friday before shopping for the party. The grocery list was two pages long, and ended up requiring us to purchase just about every form of dairy known to man: cream cheese, goat cheese, feta, whipping cream, sour cream, milk, butter, swiss, cheddar, colby jack, mozzarella...you get the idea. We went to three different grocery stores, in addition to braving the elite aisles of AJ's to pick out a lovely tiramisu cake. Then we spent all day on Saturday cooking in Cait's miniature kitchen. It was great fun.

On Sunday morning we had to get up and transport it all to Tom's house.

Our menu was the following:

Quiche - 4 kinds: broccoli & cheddar, quiche lorraine, squash & mushroom, and spinach & mushroom. For me the highlight of these quiches was the discovery of freshly grated nutmeg, mmmm...
Bagels & cream cheese - we bought a dozen different kinds from the Bagelry on Campbell and then dressed up plain cream cheese to create a strawberry flavor with fresh berries and green onion and cucumber
Lox - we made a lox tray with smoked salmon, plain cream cheese, cucumber, tomatoes, lemons and capers
Feta with kalamata olives
Goat cheese with sundried tomatoes and fresh basil
Warm pita
Homemade hummus and roasted red and orange bell pepper
Baby croissants with a meat and cheese tray
Fresh veggie tray
Blueberry muffins
Fresh fruit kabobs with honey-ginger glaze
Gingerbread with powdered sugar
Pots d' creme - an amazing chocolate mousse-like concoction with dark chocolate, whipping cream, and egg yolk. Rich.
Tiramisu - store-bought, but still fantastic
Summer Sangria
Bloody Marys
Orange Juice

One of the main highlights of the party was the amazing gift that Sean made for his mother. Using Blurb books (thanks to Emery's recommendation!) he created a lovely book celebrating her life. It was a total surprise to Andrea. I was taking pictures and I think the following series of shots was awesome, as she opened the present and then looked through the book.



First: curious surprise


Next: teary shock


Finally: happy reminiscing

All in all I think it was a fabulous success. All family and friends in attendance, and -- if I may say ever so modestly -- some damn good food : )

What's in a name?

When I was over at the Eaves' house last night for dinner, Emery introduced me to the wide world of blogging. I enjoyed looking at her blog, with such great pictures and getting inspired by her gorgeous meals. I think I got the bug.

Sean's helping a friend with his homework tonight, so -- relegated to the bedroom with my laptop (voluntarily) -- I decided for some reason, to look up my name on google. It's not the first time I've done that, but it is the first time I did "louisa" alone. Interesting results. I found out a few things.

1. There are at least two towns in the U.S. called Louisa. One is in Virginia, the other is in Kentucky.


2. There is a Louisa County in Iowa...where newspapers report two persons found dead in a murder-suicide on Sunday.

3. There are luxury apartments in Portland called "The Louisa," advertised as being "smart, sophisticated, and beautiful." Hmm.

3. "Sister Louisa" is the alter ego of one Grant Henry, a gay artist from Atlanta who uses the persona of a fallen nun to sell irreverent (un)religious anti-iconography. www.sisterlouisa.com

4. Louisa Burton is the author of the erotic fiction series, the Hidden Grotto, primarily featuring sexual demons and the undead, and most recently awarded the Romantic Times award for best erotic fiction of the year. woo hoo!

5. There was a ship named Louisa that sailed from Belfast to New York on June 14, 1825. It carried 151 passengers, two of whom died on the voyage. Both were young girls, ages 13 and 16.
5a. There was another ship much earlier to carry that name, but unlike the former it did not reach its destination. The "Princess Louisa" was a British East India Company merchant ship that was lost on April 18, 1743 after striking a reef off the coast of an island in the Cape Verde chain. It carried 20 chests of Spanish coins that were only just recovered a decade ago.

6. Louisa John-Krol is an Australian performer of questionable fame, specializing in the "romantic pop-ethereal faerie genre" and whose solo albums all start with the letter A. My favorite? "Apple Pentacle." A sure classic.

7. And finally...the name Louisa means "maiden warrior," or something to that effect. It is supposedly German in origin and is definitely tied to the idea of fighting and honor.

Here goes nothing

The high today is 107 degrees. I haven't stepped foot out of doors since ten o'clock this morning, effectively canceling all ambitions I had today for continuing the search for bridesmaid dresses. As the temperature approaches its zenith, I hide inside...cleaning, organizing, attempting (fairly successfully I might add) to accommodate all of my things into my new, shared home. It's not so bad, actually. The house is full of interesting knickknacks, beautiful antiques, and quirky charm. It seems that our two styles (both old-fashioned, but lying on opposite ends of the minimalist-collector spectrum) have melded quite seamlessly.

Sean is away this weekend, on a research trip in Nevada for four days -- hiking, conducting interviews with Southern Paiute, and generally roasting in high desert canyons and mountain slopes. It's funny how slowly time moves when he is gone. I feel like the days stretch on interminably and that I have little motivation to do anything beyond watering the plants, messing around on the computer (Mac photobooth is genius) or listening to the radio. It's nice to slow down though, putting aside all of the preoccupations from work, family, friends -- everything. Quite necessary every now and then, I believe.