The Baby Shower

The baby shower is over--hallelujah! Here's a summary of how it turned out:

This is the invitation. My father-in-law did the cute illustration of the baby and they turned out really well I thought.
Last minute, we decided to make creme brulee french toast (instead of quiche) and it was a hit! We were first introduced to this recipe during our 4th of July celebration we had at Noah's Uncle Bud's cabin. It is super easy, all preparation is done the night before (all you do is bake it the morning you intend on using it), and it's so tasty! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup
6 (1 inch thick) slices French bread
5 eggs
1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon brandy-based orange liqueur (Grand Marnier or orange juice)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Mix in brown sugar and corn syrup, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Remove crusts from bread, and arrange in the baking dish in a single layer. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, half and half, vanilla extract, orange brandy, and salt. Pour over the bread. 3. Cover, and chill at least 8 hours, or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Remove the dish from the refrigerator, and bring to room temperature.
5. Bake uncovered 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffed and lightly browned.

We topped the french toast with sliced fresh strawberries (no need to add sugar), and sliced almonds.

My sister-in-laws made these booties (which are a royal pain in the neck to make) for our party favors. They turned out great! We filled each bootie with Hershey kisses wrapped in toole. The pattern for these is below. Here's how to do it: We printed the pattern out on 8 1/2 x 13 card stock, folded them using a bone folder so the creases were well defined, punched small holes for the laces, glued them together with a hot glue gun, laced them up with thin ribbon, and used a make-up sponge to antique them with dark brown ink.

We had the shower in my backyard. under the only tree that provided shade.
This was the table. We served our guests the french toast and orange juice/ water, then they dished themselves the fruit, bagels, and cream cheese. I finally got to use my table cloth I got for my wedding 7 years ago and found a plastic cover for it at Wal Mart in the fabric section of all places (you don't want to spill creme brulee carmel on your best table cloth). We bought the flowers at Costco. Rather than play stupid games, we just visited at ate. Things turned out really well.

Fool Proofing the Baby Shower

I pretty much couldn't love these baby shower plates more--they're modern, simple, and totally cute! They are available at showerherbaby.

If I don't go with a nesting theme, I might go with a pampering theme (I'm not going to tell guests what to bring as gifts or anything), but it would be fun to make scaled-down diaper bags like the ones above for party favors and fill them with lavender and small bars of soap that resemble diapers, or just candy (not both because no one wants candy that tastes a little like lavender when it shouldn't). The bags themselves will be pretty easy to make (you can purchase them for $15-$17 each, which is a bit much when I'm expecting 20-30 people), I'm not so sure about the hanger, that's going to be a trickier matter--anyone know where I can buy little hangers?

If we play any games (which I am oh so wary about), the prizes could be a massage (my neighbor gives them out of her house so I'm sure I could arrange a gift certificate), little spa kits (this could get really expensive), nail polish (that wouldn't be too costly), etc. So what do you think--nesting theme or pampering theme? Still no word on if the baby is a boy or a girl, but I'll take any ideas you have on invites. Less is more in my book, so nothing that's going to overwork me too much.
I know this is so dorky of me, but I'm already trying out recipes for the brunch and I found a definite winner: Lemon Dipped Blueberry Muffins--I've already made them twice this week and finally had Noah take them to work with him so I'd stop eating them. Here's the recipe:

• 1 3/4 C flour
• 1/2 C + 1/2 C sugar divided
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg, well beaten
• 1/3 C vegetable oil
• 3/4 C milk
• 1 C fresh blueberries washed and dried (I used frozen and that worked great too)
• 2 tsp grated lemon rind (1 lemon)
• 2 Tbsp butter, melted
• juice of 1 lemon (the recipe calls for 1/4 tsp lemon juice, but I preferred a lot more)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the flour with 1/2 C of the sugar, the baking powder and salt. Make a well in the center. Combine the egg, oil and milk. Add to the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Toss the blueberries with 2 Tbsp of sugar and the lemon rind. Fold into the batter. Fill muffin papers or greased muffin pans 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

While the muffins bake, prepare the topping by mixing the melted butter and lemon juice. Dip the warm muffins in the butter mixture, then in sugar. Note: I forgot to take a picture of them last night, and couldn't find a picture to do them justice--just know they look even better than that picture.

Makes 14 muffins.

Planning a Baby Shower

I'm going to be hosting a baby shower for my sister-in-law some time early-mid summer (she's due in August). You might think I'm jumping the gun a bit, but if you knew the kind of showers I'm up against, you'd know I'm actually a little behind already.

So I'm thinking about doing a brunch because: 1) brunch foods are pretty 2) they're relatively easy to prepare and 3) they include some of my favorite foods such as the crepes above (with a host of filling options), German pancakes with the buttermilk syrup or raspberries and powdered sugar . . .

You can't go wrong with quiche for a brunch.

I'll probably do a test brunch for the Sunday school class Noah and I teach so I can work out the kinks ahead of time.

This nesting theme would be fun and it could work in conjunction with a brunch. I love the party favors--who wouldn't want a nest filled with candy coated almonds at their place setting? This theme would have worked perfect for a spring shower, but it also works for the summer, not to mention that now is a perfect time to buy all things egg themed because they're now on clearance.

I think these napkin holders are so cute.

I love this idea from Martha Stewart with the herb garden centerpiece. Find directions here. Not only are they cute for a shower, but they're perfect for a window garden (I use a lot of fresh herbs so I might do this for me and then use them as center pieces at the shower--in conjunction with egg decor of course).