Remembering

Despite all the excitement that goes along with my drama-free wedding planning, there's one thing that still gets me down. I am the first grandchild whose husband (or wife)-to-be will has not met my granny.

For those of you who read this who did not know my granny, which is probably all but maybe two people, my granny was an amazing human being. She would do anything for anyone. She was the kindest person I've ever known. She hemmed my pants to the PERFECT length every. single. time. She mashed the best mashed potatoes on the plane. She let me eat green sherbert from a coffee cup when we had slumber parties every other Friday night. We never went on outings because she didn't drive, but she would buy me a Golden Book when we went to the grocery store with my mom. And she had this nack for making a game out of nothing. I would spend hours stringing buttons at the kitchen table while she sat in the spare room and worked on her antique sewing machine. She even made washing dishes fun and made me "aprons" out of trash bags so I wouldn't get my head wet. All she did was cut a hole in the top and two holes in the sides for my head and arms, but I thought I was a dish washing master in those things. My mom and I used to go to the library and rent old movies for her, those featuring Shirley Temple being her favorites. Most heroic of all, she listened to me jabber on about vikings and explorers when I learned about them in fifth grade and acted like she was interested in and fascinated by every detail just as I was.

To me, my granny is the epitome of a Christian lady. She would always sing hymns under her breath while she was mashing those awesome mashed potatoes or baking countless pans of sourdough bread, or rolling out biscuits, she didn't miss a Sunday of church unless she absolutely couldn't help it, and went to bible study every week.

I need to find a way to honor and/or remember Granny at my wedding. I can't do a candle because it's outdoors and a candle wouldn't stay lit. And I don't really want to do flowers because we are only doing flowers for bouquets. I finally decided to attach a small framed picture of her to my bouquet, like this.

I really think this will be the perfect way to honor her and keep her with me on my wedding day without shouting memorials from the rooftops.

"Do You Do It Yourself?"

Bravo if you know where the above quote is from!

Paul and I will not be serving a traditional wedding cake. If we did that we'd have to have extra utensils and someone would need to cut the cake and that's just too fussy for me. For a while we were going to have cupcakes from Bubblecake, but then we realized that would be really expensive. So then I considered doing the cupcakes myself (with the assistance of some very lucky helpers, of course), but then I made Paul's birthday cake Sunday and, while it tasted good, it was all sorts of ugly. You see, I was not blessed with the icing gene, so whenever I make a cake, the final result is visually unfortunate, to say the least. I couldn't bear the thought of an eyesore of a wedding "cake" so we nixed the homemade cupcake idea. That brings us to the delicious dessert that will grace our reception: donuts!

I know what you're thinking, donuts are only for office breakfasts and Homer Simpson.

Or are they?

You see, about 10 minutes away from Santillane is a lovely little establishment called Blue Collar Joes. They make the single best donuts I've ever had in my entire life! Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme, eat your heart out! They come in amazing flavors like chocolate with fudge and Reeses Pieces and Blueberry Pancake Breakfast, which involves topping a blueberry donut with maple icing and then topping the icing with BACON PIECES!!!!! Bacon pieces I tell you!! It's amazing!!! It's a pancake party in my mouth, people, and I will be serving them up to my loving wedding guests who will have QUITE the selection of flavors to choose from.

Now the next problem is, how in the world am I going to display these beautiful, sinfully delicious edible plates? On plates, of course! I came across a project the other day where I can create my own cake stands using plates, candle holders and epoxy. They will wonderfully mismatched, both in color and size, and they don't look too difficult to make. Take a look at these beauties that FutureMrsWalker posted to http://www.weddingbee.com/.






I really want to try to make one double decker stand that will hold my and Paul's donuts of choice for "cutting" and ultimately feeding to each other. Yes, that's correct, we'll be cutting our donuts.

Check out all of the Blue Collar Joe's flavors I have to pick from at http://www.bluecollarjoes.net/!

**Despite the fact that my previous two posts were complete jokes, this one is not. I am 100% serious and excited about donuts and plate/candle stick cake stands.**

And While We're At It, Bridal Portraits!!

Substitute that striking floral frock with a white wedding gown. I will obviously keep that gorgeous headband. I believe that would be an ideal photo for framing and displaying at the reception and then in my and Paul's home.

Engagement Pictures

Paul and I have engagement pictures coming up at the end of May and I've been scouring the internet for inspiration pictures. I found this little beauty on http://www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com/ and I think it's the winner. Hello newspaper engagement announcement page!!

Now if that's not hot, I don't know what it.

Yum-O!

My lovely next-cubicle-neighbor Taylor gave me a recipe for Spinach and Orzo Salad. I made it and baked chicken for dinner tonight and the combination of flavors was such a party in my mouth that I have to share the recipe with you.

Spinach and Orzo Salad

Ingredients
1 pound orzo
1bag spinach
1 package/bunch basil, finely chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup olive oil (my preference being extra virgin, since it has the strongest taste)
8 oz. feta

Directions
1. Prepare orzo according to directions on the package, draining when done.
2. Combine feta, olive oil, lemon juice, green onions and basil with the orzo.
3. Add spinach just before serving.

Baked Chicken Breasts a la Trista

Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Garlic Pepper
Salt
Egg Beaters
Bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and spray a baking pan with PAM.
2. Tenderize the chicken breasts (I use the mouth piece of a glass coke bottle).
3. Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and garlic pepper.
4. Dip chicken breast in egg beaters and then roll it in bread crumbs. Transfer to pan.
5. Bake chicken for one hour, turning at 30 minutes.

Let me tell you, it was delicious! It was the perfect light spring meal. And now I'll have leftovers for a few days. You can't beat that!

Chairs

Could someone please explain to me why the wedding world is obsessed with the chiavari chair? What is a chiavari chair, you sane, level headed, non-wedding-planning people may be thinking? This is a chiavari chair.

I really don't understand the fascination. It's just a chair, but people spend $8 (and that's just in Roanoke) per chair to rent these puppies. They come in all sorts of colors like black, gold, silver, white and au natural wood. And apparently they're elegant? But I think those knobby things look super-uncomfortable. And I could never justify spending nearly 1/5 of my overall budget on chairs. Especially when, if my venue didn't provide chairs, I could rent these for $1.50 each.

Now they may not be as elegant or scream class, but they're affordable and let me focus on more budget-spending-worthy items like a beautiful location, delicious food, amazing photography and a dj. And if they're good enough for every seated, outdoor function at Roanoke College then they're good enough for me andmy super-awesome impending nuptuals.

Could someone please convince me that those chairs aren't completely ridiculous and that they do, in fact, have some redeeming quality?

BTW

All of my ladies agreed rather whole-heartedly to buying and subsequently rocking white Chuck Taylors when Paul and I get hitched!

I. Am. Pumped!

I'm going to have the rockin'est bridesmaids on the block.

Zesty, Springy Deliciosity

I just ate the best pasta salad I've ever had in my life and, get this, it came from a box!

After taking Ginny for a walk I headed to Food Lion for some peanut butter. I've been eating peanut butter, banana or apple, and waffle sandwiches for breakfast for the past few weeks. There are pros and cons to my new breakfast creation.

Pros: It's delicious, full of protein and E-Z P-Z to throw together on my way to work.

Cons: I go through a truck load of peanut butter!

As I wandered the aisles of the grocery store gathering ingredients for a pasta salad that a girl at work told me about, I remembered that my budget is in quite the precarious situation for the next two weeks. Instead of buying lots of ingredients, I opted for the boxed pasta salad that was on sale and now I'm so glad I did!

All I had to do was boil the pasta and mix a seasoning packet with some oil and I had fresh homemade pasta salad ready for my enjoyment. It's not strong like creamy caesar dressing and was the perfect companion to the grilled tilapia and green bean dinner that I'd already planned.

And in case you're still intrigued by my wafflewich, here's how to make your own!

You'll need:

2 waffles (I prefer multi-grain but sometimes I can't find them)

Peanut Butter (As much as you want)

1 Banana, sliced
OR
1/4 of an apple, very thinly sliced

Here's what you do:

Toast the waffles on the lowest setting. Next, slather peanut butter on one side of each of the waffles. Put the fruit in the middle like a normal sandwich and enjoy!

I slice my apples at home (and give Ginny some leftovers) but I wait until I get to work to slice the banana. It tends to get brown if it sits and I'm not a fan.