the one where we throw a garden party

i love throwing parties - especially themed parties. for the past two summers, my close high school friends (the nuns) have created a book club. last year we got through three novels. this year we only read one: the help.

the nuns (3 missing) at our book club garden party

if you know nothing about this great story, read about it here. basically, it takes place in mississippi during the 60s and describes the relationships between white ladies and their help. you love some characters and hate others, and the maids' stories reel you in. there are certain points where you sit on the edge of the seats and pray that their secrets aren't found out, until you remember that it's fiction. so there's my endorsement for the book - now go read it!

so because of my love for throwing themed parties, it dawned on me that we should have a garden party to discuss the book and eat southern food. but my knowledge of southern food is very lacking, and i've been busy trying to get ready for czech. thankfully my mom was really excited for it too and did most of my research and cooking (she also served us and was basically my help!)

here's what we discovered (skip the recipes if you're not interested, but know that everything is delicious!):

basically anything paula deen is appropriate :) but these things were wonderful:

cheese straws 

the recipe for this is here - again, thank you paula deen! we devoured these things. mom made these (and took pictures of the process while i was out), and it seems pretty simple, but mostly delicious.


basically, it's cheese, butter, flour, and cayenne pepper to add that spice. you blend them together, roll the dough out, bake them, and pull deliciousness out of the oven. eating only one is prohibited.

we also had chicken salad, but because of a lack of time on my part, we bought some from stauffers. and it was good.

then of course we enjoyed deviled eggs, which are mentioned in the story as being enjoyed by many. again, eating one is strongly prohibited.
the basic recipe for this is that you should hard boil as many eggs as you want. slice them in half and remove the hard-boiled yolk. mix the yolks together with mayonnaise and mustard to taste. fill the halves of eggs with the yolk mixture by placing the mixture in a plastic bag and cutting off a corner. sprinkle with paprika, and again, deliciousness ensues.

in our research, we also discovered that ham and cheese roll ups were a big southern thing. this recipe we found online at this site, and again it was simple and easy. i might make some now. stir together cream cheese and chives, spread over slices of ham, roll the ham up, and cut into pieces!

the final food item that was absolutely necessary at this party was chocolate pie. you NEED to read or watch the help to understand just how important this pie is...it's an easy bake, and i did NOT include minnie's secret ingredient :) just a pre-made pie shell with chocolate pudding. yummy.

homemade lemonade

homemade sweet tea

and of course it wouldn't be southern without sweet tea and lemonade. mom (who we fondly labeled as Aibeleen - the main character/help in the book), home-made both the tea and the lemonade. she does her own thing for the lemonade, but we found out some cool things about the sweet tea:


2 cups boiling water
6 tea bags (we used 4 because twinings is a stronger tea)

steeping the tea

3/4 c - 1c sugar
6 cups cool water
secret ingredient: 1/8 tsp baking soda!


supposedly the soda removes the bitterness and keeps the tea darker. and it did, because that sweet tea was excellent.

and all of this was served to us (literally - we had servers) by mom/Aibeleen and kimberly's husband tim. they brought out beautifully-garnished food on pretty plates, and cleaned up afterwards. we felt like real southern belles. thanks mom/Aibeleen and Tim!

my family has a canopy which we set up and the shade kept us nice and cool. mom had and awesome old tablecloth with matching napkins which we used, and of course i had to go over the top and make church fans for us to use (the pictures on the fans were ones that i found online and were actually pictures on fans!)

 

and of course in true fashion, we ended our time with a nerdy game of bocce ball. we could only play four times until the sun caused us all to turn inside to the air conditioning, and we ended our time by watching the movie version.

 

always a fun time with these ladies, and i'm glad that i got to spend my last days enjoying this time with them! thanks girls!

the one where the family goes to chincoteague

this morning i woke up and right away felt overwhelmed - i leave in ONE WEEK! and there's so much to do before then!

thankfully last week i got to spend the week with my family in chincoteague. i always look forward to this week away. chincoteague is such a family-friendly place. we all loosen up - leave our cell phones at home, our wallets in the car, escape the clutches of the internet (let it be known that mom and dad checked their facebooks on dad's iphone way more often than my siblings and i!), bike everywhere, and enjoy some new scenery. this year we tried crabbing...

steaming our crabs

first day crabbing

every year we've talked about how we'd like to try crabbing and finally this year i made us do it. mom watched youtube videos about how to do it which made her a pro. our first day all six adults attempted it, and we got one crab between the six of us (wah wah wah). mom felt bad for it, but we still ate it anyway. the second time, we got six crabs, and they became a yummy crab alfredo. thanks crabs! the last day, billy and i tried it again and got nothing. still, we think we're professionals.

grace digging

grace

grandpa & grace

grace and eva

we got to the beach almost every day. grace has almost always been scared of the water, and so a majority of our beach time is spent with her parents, grandparents, and aunts trying to trick/coerce her in getting down to the water. (this involves us making sandcastles/digging in the wet sand - what must others think of a bunch of adults building a princess sandcastle?) thankfully she made a friend named eva who loved the water, and grace actually let the water touch her feet a couple times. she's a total beach babe and loves digging around in the sand.

the water was perfect this year and fun to swim in. we saw a couple dolphins one day (no ponies though).

sisters

mags and i heading to chincoteague

we also bring the dogs with us - our springer spaniel, maggie, and my sister's mutt, jackson. we gave maggie a tranquilizer while going down so that she wouldn't freak out in the car as she normally does. it worked, but the poor thing could hardly walk, and her eyes were glazed over for a couple days. on the way back we had both dogs with us, and we gave both of them tranquilizers. i spent the 5-hour drive in the back seat with jackson in my lap the WHOLE TIME and maggie who stood up with her glazed eyes and panted every time the car stopped at a red light. what fun.

maggie & jackson

and as always, we enjoyed good meals. my sisters and i both cooked meals. we enjoyed fresh seafood at local restaurants and awesome ice cream at the island creamery. major thanks to my parents for blessing us all with a relaxing, restful week away!

me, larissa, dad, mom, bill, julia, grace