Home Wong Nga and Black Cty: April 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Life ~ Food & Friends~

Mmm...sushi...
I don't know what it is, but I am going through a major "sushi" craze.

Last weekend, we got together with some frineds, and I was assigned to make something Japanese.
I decided to make some sushi, but real sushi quality tuna has been pretty expensive nowa days.
So I made sushi without raw fish...

From the top:

{Spam Musubi} / You might be thinking "what?! Spam for sushi? What is that stuff made out of anyways?" but, trust me they are actually pretty good. My kids LOVE this. All you need to do is slice the spam, grill both sides on a frying pan until they are a little crispy, put them on top of the moulded rice and wrap them with Nori (seaweed) strips. That's it!

{Inari-sushi}/ Basically, the tan looking thing you are looking at is a fryed tofu pouch. It has a sweet flavor; kind of like teriyaki, but different. Typically it is stuffed with sushi rice, but my mom always added minced cucumber and sesami and that's what I do to.

{Maki-sushi}/ Usually I use real tuna for this, but this time I rolled imitation crab meat, avocado, cucumber, and eggs. I also made the ones with imitation crab mixed with salt and pepper, and Japanese mayo.

There were French, Mexican (they were very yummy by the way), and Japanese food at the table that night. Also the company of the friends, love, and laughter.

Oh, that is life.

How can I ask for more? :)

We have another wonderful Phoenix home to share with you as part of our 'lovely homes' house tours. This time Amy Adkins let us invade her beautiful home. This 1952 mid-century gem is beyond charming. I love that old Phoenix feeling that still exists in these homes. Hope you enjoy peeking around as much as we did... Have fun!

Thanks so much, Amy!

Hello everyone,

It is hard to believe April is almost over and tomorrow we welcome May. It is still cool here but the weatherman has predicted sunshine and warmer temps for the next few days so the garden will jump ahead now.

Anyway,lets enjoy a cup of tea with a pretty garden bouquet.

Daffodils and hyacinths are pretty and fragrant.Did you notice my pretty little vase from tjmaxx? It goes nicely with the pretty mugs from Winners(tjmaxx in U.S.)

Sugar cookies on a pretty plate also from tjmaxx.

Inexpensive china but so pretty together.

My garden bouquet with some faux blue hydrangeas.

I am joining Rose Chintz Cottage for Tea Time Tuesday again today.

Happy May Day!

Take care,

Carolyn

The weather may have been throwing its worst at us this week, but we don't mind, a pair of boots, a hat and we are still game to get out and about.

When I visited Giverny last week, I was a little too early for my favourite season when the irises and peonies are on show.

But the lily pond looked calm and magical, and the gardens were a riot of colour with all the spring flowers.

The tulips were magnificent, and by their thousands!

And peonies in bud, are really almost as stunning as fully opened.

I'll just have to go back next week! If you 've already been to Giverny, do you have a favourite moment of the year?

Bulkheads

We have bulkheads over our kitchen cabinets. For years we've said that when it came time to renovate the kitchen we'd take the bulkheads out and make the cabinetry as tall as possible to maximize space. Fast forward to this past weekend and my Mom casually said, "Are you sure there are no heating ducts behind the bulk head?" Yikes. We totally forgot to check. So this afternoon Aubrey took out a drywall cutter and of course I took a video. :)

Well, seeing as though my sister-in-law's wedding was this past weekend, I figured it was about time for me to finally post these pictures from her french-themed bridal shower. Her shower was many months ago, but with so much going on lately, I just never got around to sharing these with all of you. We won't have the wedding pictures back for a couple weeks, so I'll fill you in on how the girls did as the flower girls and the whole wonderful experience once I have some pictures to share. All I can tell you right now is that is was amazing and my sister-in-law, Abigail, was simply stunning.

I know I talk about my mom a lot here on the blog, but my mother-in-law, Vicki, is quite the creative soul herself. She makes art dolls and has a fabulously decked out studio in their home. She also knows how to throw a really great party. So she went all out when it came to her daughters bridal shower. Abby and Bryan left yesterday to spend two weeks touring around France on their honeymoon, so the entire bridal shower was centered around their honeymoon destination.

Are you ready for a lot pictures? Here goes.......

Our family loves to eat, so the shower was definitely centered around delicious french-themed food prepared by my mother-in-law with some help from her sisters.

Everyone went home with one of these amazing ornaments. They were all a little different and they were wrapped up so pretty.

Lots of fresh flowers all around.

How fun is this donut cake that my mother-in-law put together? So cute!

There were so many yummy sweets to try, but my girls always love their berries, so they couldn't get enough of these delicious strawberries.

These were the different labels for the food at the shower. I loved these fresh roses. So pretty and romantic.

Pretty party favors for everyone to take home.

This was a funny, joke sort of thing. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law loved watching all the details from the royal wedding, so my mother-in-law put the bride and grooms heads on William and Kate's bodies. It was pretty funny!!

The Bride

Finally we played some games. We weren't going to do the 'Toilet Paper Bride' game, but my sister-in-law really wanted to do it, so we made sure to include this one. My two little ladies just loved being brides as dress-up is their favorite activity. I was in charge of a fun game where I asked the groom a bunch of questions prior to the shower and then we saw how well my sister-in-law knew him.

Overall we had lots of laughs, delicious food and the coming together of two families. The same went for the wedding this past weekend. I can't wait to share the details of the day with you all......it was a truly spectacular downtown Chicago wedding.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Check back on tomorrow for our big May Giveaway Day!!