Food Archives - Page 4 of 19 - A Golden Afternoon: Simplified Home Living

How to Throw a Tea Party with Minted

When I have a party, I want everything to be beautiful but simple. I was so excited to team up with Minted for Faith’s birthday this year because they totally fulfill both of those requirements in their party decorations. I love seeing new companies make party-planning easier, true, but making the decorating the way I would make it myself…AMAZING!

I started using Minted products back when I bought my business cards in December. I fell in love with their triple-ply cards and I’ve had nothing but an amazing response to them from the people I hand them to. SO, I was definitely excited to play with their party product line that came out recently.

I ordered the Perfect Party Package, which provided everything you see in the photos. The name of the design I chose is “Retro Floral Garden Party”. So many wonderful things and I didn’t have to do anything more than arrange everything.

Now, the food…you know, the best part. I’d love to share some of my new favorite food finds with you. Sound good?

For most parties, I tend to do too much. No, I don’t go so far as to build the gardens of Babylon out of fruit, but I do tend to try to make, create, and cook so many things from scratch. I love making all of it and THAT is the problem.

This time, I found a few great pastries which I would be happy to serve day or night to my guests. The first one is from Trader Joes. Have you guys had their macaroons from the freezer section for $5?! Amazing, let me tell you. I’ve eaten sooo many. They have the right flavors and colors for serving purposes, as well. You can see them a few pictures above. The second food item would be petit fours. Man, what a time I had locating a bakery that would make me a tray at all or for under $150. After a crazy amount of searching, I finally just decided to make them. I had told my family I was buying them and they were all so impressed that I was attempting changes in my life, I couldn’t let them down and “fully” make them. So, I pulled a semi-homemade. I used a Trader Joes pound cake, filled them with some of our homemade strawberry jam, and bathed them in a white chocolate ganache. They worked out pretty well, methinks! I’ll share more details soon.

I don’t tend to love games at birthday parties, so Faith and I opted for having the girls piece together flower crowns from rosemary pieces and flowers around floral wire. I love the touch that the sign added to my display. Simple and beautiful.

Here was our full menu:

Goat Cheese and cucumber sandwiches

Petit Fours

Blueberry Scones

Macaroons

Strawberry Lemonade

Raspberry Tea (Cafe Moto)

It was fun to play around with my friend Rachel’s new line of stencils. They worked out perfectly for our favor bags! Cute patterns, right? Check out more ideas and options for these adorable stencils on her blog, Handmade Charlotte. You can find the stencils at Jo-ann’s Stores or online at Plaid Crafts. I just bought some new ones to play with!

As a parting gift to her friends, Faith wanted to share her favorite raspberry tea from Cafe Moto. She filled the bags with loose leaf tea. You can find the empty tea bags on amazon here. We sealed the bags with the cutest scalloped stickers that are included in the Minted party package.

Tea Parties are the sweetest, aren’t they?

(I truly LOVE Minted products. The words above are my own opinion about Minted products. I did receive free products in exchange for my opinion and this post, but who are we kidding? Their products are amazing!!)

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How to Decorate a Cake with Kids

(Instagram iphone photo. Follow our Modern Buttercream fun on Instagram here: @agoldenafternoon)

Faith is loving everything about cooking and baking. I’ve spent years training and teaching kitchen skills and I’m so excited to see the results!! We have a lot of fun together and I can ask her to do most things we do every day in the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a LOT of work, but like most skills and character traits we are trying to nurture in our kiddos, I know it’s worth it.

Sometimes with our kids, I think we WAY underestimate their abilities. Faith has been in the kitchen for years, but it took me a while to realize I could take her learning to a new level. This year, I’ve been trying to take the time to teach a specific skill, like making pie dough or how to use a knife. This week, we are attacking cake decorating. Awesome.

Craftsy approached me about trying their FREE (say wha?) cake decorating classes, specifically Modern Buttercream, and sharing our experience. People, nothing seems to be FREE anymore so this opportunity is one to jump all over. I immediately thought Faith would LOVE to try this. I don’t necessarily think the classes are designed for kids, but part of taking a kid’s kitchen skills to a new level is teaching them to follow recipes and instructions, just as an adult would. Video Instruction is very kids friendly and that is what the cake decorating classes at Craftsy offer.

If you want to take this Modern Buttercream class with us, sign up below:

Decorate Cakes with A Golden Afternoon

I think you’ll love it. You can go at your own pace, material lists are provided, and you can watch or re-watch as many times as you need to. Perfect for your older kiddos and really…all of us. Plus, it’s FREE, people!

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Buy Local: Chicken Salad with Fennel and Apricot

Around here, we are always looking for something yummy to make at lunchtime. My husband works from home (although we are in a season of him working with some clients away from his home office right now) so I often have to be creative with lunches so that we aren’t eating the same things all the time. It’s not that it’s NECESSARY to have a constantly changing menu, but in doing so, I feel like we always find new recipes we enjoy more than the last ones.

This chicken salad was the product of leftover roasted chicken, a bulb of fennel, fresh herbs, and some dried apricots we had lying around. It was AMAZING. There is something about the unexpectedly good that really makes my day. Plus, this dish is perfect for springtime since fennel is still found at the farmers markets! The sweet dried apricots and fennel work together so nicely with the chicken in this dish. Chicken isn’t boring unless you make it boring.

Bonus: the kids loved it too.

Fennel & Apricot Chicken Salad

4 cups chicken, roasted and cubed

1/2 cups fennel, finely chopped

1/2 cups dried apricots, chopped

2 Tablespoons chopped parsley

2 Tablespoons chopped chives (or rosemary!)

1/2 to 3/4 cup mayo

salt and pepper, to taste

fennel frond for garnish

Combine all chicken salad ingredients in a bowl and season to your liking. Garnish with a piece of the fennel frond you saved from the fennel bulb.

Hint: I keep the fennel fronds in a jar of water in my fridge for future uses like roasting salmon.

San Diego food sources:

Descanso Valley Farm‘s chicken

San Diego Public Market for:

Maciel Family Farm‘s fennel

Smit Orchard’s dried apricots (seasonal)

Suzie’s Farm‘s spinach, parsley, and chives

Eat Local!

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Let’s Throw a Party: How to make a banner for a cake

I love to throw parties.

I love the planning, the shopping, the excitement on everyone’s faces, the DIY creating, and the cooking. My husband has become very patient with me throughout the process in which I plan a party and I might even say he gets a little excited…a little. Maybe he’s just become really good at pretending to be excited. In any case, I love the whole process.

Most parties I throw, I never end up having pictures from because I’m usually putting it all together. I’m trying to be better at catching little snapshots here and there to share like this DIY birthday banner.

This banner is super-easy and very fast to make. My littlest, Dean, wanted a meerkat party (incredibly common) so I threw together these chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting, crumbled graham crackers for dirt, and a little meerkat on top with some rosemary shrubbery.

It was a hit!

Banner materials:

twine or string

washi or paper tape

skewers or twigs

scissors

Start by measuring the amount of twine you want to hang across your cake or cupcake. I like mine to hang out to the side for a more whimsical look.

Next, pick the repeating color order you want the tape to appear in and start tearing 1 1/2 inch pieces off. Put the twine in the middle of the sticky side and fold over, meeting the ends of the tape.

(Also, those are totally my 29 year-old hands and not my Grandma’s…I blame the gardening.)

Next, snip a triangle on the end, making a cute little flag. You could also keep them square or make them into triangles.

Now, get your cake. My sister turned me on to Thomas Keller’s chocolate cake and frosting recipe a few years ago like I used in these owl cupcakes. You can find it in his Ad Hoc cookbook. So good and the only recipe I’ve ever tried that is moist like boxed cakes!

Lastly, tie the ends of the twine onto the sticks/skewers and place at an angle in the cake for a cute DIY birthday banner! Twigs are my favorite trick for making easy and FREE touches to any cake. You can also use paper and just glue the pieces over the twine for the banner. These are fun because you can add words or names!

Now, if you ever have to throw a meerkat party, you will have at least one things to make! haha.

Anyone planning a party? :)

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Sweets: Nutella Heart Poptarts

We love Nutella.

We love hearts.

We love pop-tarts.

Now, they have been brought together as one. It’s a good day.

I’ve made Nutella pop-tarts before here, but the heart really gives it that sweet touch (sweet tasting and also sweet looking…har har).

Nutella Heart Pop-tarts

1 recipe for pie crust dough or a prepared pie crust, split in 2

Nutella

1 egg, beaten

crystallized sugar for sprinkling

Heart-shaped cookie cutter

Roll one part of the pie dough out until it’s 1/4 inch thick. Cut the heart shapes out and then place them on a cookie sheet. They need to be far enough away to allow for you to seal the edges with a fork. They won’t rise much so you don’t need to worry about allowing spacing for that. Spread the filling over the hearts , leaving 1/4 space on the edges for sealing. Place an additional heart over the heart with the filling on it. Then, seal the edges all the way around with a fork. Brush the hearts with the beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until brown. The time will depend on the size of the hearts.

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