friendsgiving

I'll admit it. It was a somewhat selfish decision to host a friendsgiving this year. You see, we'll be out of the country (more on that later this week…eek!) next week over Thanksgiving. We were also out of the country last year, and as much as I love to travel, I couldn't go two years in a row without one of my favorite meals of the year.

To remedy this problem, we invited the lovely members of our church community group over for a Thanksgiving feast today. I made the turkey, gravy and crescent rolls and everyone else brought the side dishes and desserts. It was so much fun to celebrate Thanksgiving early with some of the people I am most thankful for. I love this group of sweet friends, and I love that they indulged my wish for a Thanksgiving meal and showed up at my house with delicious food to share.

I had so much fun setting the table. I wanted it to be casual so I used mason jars, burlap and green apples that I already had on hand. Hydrangeas are my favorite so they always make an appearance. :)

Jon has better hand-writing than me so we wrote the place cards. We added a Lindt chocolate truffle at each setting.

These are actually Christmas candles that spell out "Peace." I wrapped them in burlap & tied them with bows to repurpose them for this occasion. 

A staple at every holiday meal growing up. I love these rolls. 

Victoria laughing about the fact that she peeled 5 lbs of potatoes.
That would be roughly 1/2 lb of potatoes per person. 

The carving of the turkey. 

I took this after we were done eating, but at least I remembered to take one before we all got up from the table. 

It's not Thanksgiving without a dessert table. Yes, it must be an entire table.

In true thanksgiving fashion, we watched some football in between dinner and dessert. :)

Looking for an easy and delicious Thanksgiving cocktail?
We served apple fizzes before dinner . Apple cider and bubbly = perfection.

oh baby, it's cold outside

If you haven't already noticed, I love throwing a good party. It's one of the things Jon and I talked about before we even started the home-buying process. We wanted a house that was conducive to hospitality & entertaining. Not just because entertaining involves food & fun, but because it's an opportunity to sacrificially love & serve others. 

When we found out our friends Peter & Melissa were expecting, we were absolutely thrilled. We'd been praying for this to happen, and now, in just 2 months, they will welcome their first child into the world! They are part of our "D.C. family" and we wanted to literally shower them with love. 

The Momma to be, Melissa, suggested a wintery theme for the shower. I loved that idea for an early January baby shower. It also really worked for a baby boy shower because what's more wintery than pretty shades of icy blue? And because I just couldn't resist, I planned everything around the phrase "Baby, it's cold outside." Of course, after several days of chilly temps, Saturday was warm and very rainy, but that didn't stop us from having a great time.

The inspiration board

We decided to have the shower in the late morning so we could serve brunch. Who doesn't love brunch?! The menu consisted of a waffle bar, yogurt, granola, fruit, breakfast potatoes, mini quiches, donut holes, mimosas, coffee, punch and, of course, cake! By far the biggest hit was the waffle bar. I used this recipe for overnight yeast waffles, which were perfect for feeding a crowd because the batter can be made ahead, and the waffles stayed warm and crisp in the oven until serving. They were even good leftover the next day, and any unused batter can be kept in the fridge for a few days.

not pictured - the sparkly snowflakes seen on the table also covered the wall behind the waffle bar...
my photog (ahem, Jon) failed to capture everything when I told him to go take pictures of the decor.

The best party leftover was the giant bowl of freshly whipped cream.
I may or may not have eaten most of it straight from the bowl with a spoon.

Lots of wedding presents finally being used in this photo - they had been hanging out at Mom's house until we had room for them!

This is also a great theme for after Christmas. I already had the table decorations from a white Christmas party I threw a few years ago, but I got all of the other decorations 50-75% off at after Christmas sales. The best part is that I can recycle all of them to use next year - I think I'll turn the kitchen into a winter wonderland!

Table decorations

Snowflakes hanging in the front windows - you can see what a gloomy day it was. :(

Remember these from the holiday house tour? They got to stay for the shower. 

Snowflakes hanging in the doorways

Party favors

Baby shower bingo cards

opening gifts! and no, we weren't watching TV. we had it turned on for the music station. :) a better hostess would have had time to put together a special party iPhone playlist. :/

Melissa & the other hostesses - I couldn't have done it without these 2 awesome helpers!

And just so you don't think it was all fun & games - this was my kitchen post-shower. 6 hours, 1 nap, 20 hand-washed champagne flutes, and 2 dishwasher cycles later, it was finally clean....or at least clean enough for our housekeeper to come the next day. Thank goodness for Flor!

And just because my hubby is awesome - I got a much-needed foot rub at the end of the day.

Peppermint Pound Cake

The photo doesn't do this cake justice.
That's what happens when I hurriedly pour on glaze and snap a quick iPhone photo.

I love pound cake, and I like peppermint, but I can only eat so many candy canes before I'm ready for something with butter in it. I had medium expectations for this recipe. I thought it would look awesome and taste pretty good. Turns out, it looked pretty good, but tasted awesome. It's a combination of two recipes - Smitten Kitchen's cream cheese pound cake, my favorite pound cake recipe, and Nancy Creative's peppermint glaze, where I got the idea in the first place.

Peppermint Pound Cake

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
8 oz package cream cheese, at room temperature
3 cups sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. peppermint extract
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees (300 if baking on a convection setting - my oven is confection only). Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.

Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and continue beating on high for 5 minutes or  until light and airy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla and peppermint extract. Add the flour and salt and mix until just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix after adding the flour. If your cake falls in the middle after it's baked - this could be one culprit. I've learned this lesson the hard way. :)

Bake for 1 hour and 25 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean. My cake always takes longer, but it may just be my oven.

Note: Pound cakes freeze really well. I made this a week before the party. I defrosted it overnight in the fridge and then at room temperature the day of the party.

Creamy Peppermint Glaze

1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup marshmallow creme (half of a 7 oz jar)
2 cups powder sugar
5 Tbs milk (I used skim)
1 tsp. peppermint extract

Mix butter, marshmallow creme and extract until well blended. Add powder sugar 1 cup at a time and mix well after each addition. Add milk and mix until the glaze is smooth and creamy. Just before serving, pour over cake and top with crushed candy canes.

Tip: My leftover cake has been sitting on the counter for 3 days now and the glaze still looks and tastes good. I suspect you could get away with glazing your cake well before serving. My cake probably would have looked nicer had I not waited until I was rushed at the last minute to do the glazing.