HOW TO THROW A BEAUTIFUL BIRTHDAY PARTY

Hi there!

Recently I threw a dinner party to celebrate the birthdays of 2 of my besties, Brenda & Mo.

And today I thought I’d share some photos and recipes from the evening with you.

I’ll start with the flowers.  This time of year our mountain is covered with blooms just ripe for the picking. The dogwoods are in bloom along with snowball blossoms.  It is easy and free to forage for flowers around here so that is exactly what I did.

I set up shop on my back porch and made one giant arrangement for the center of the table……

and made some smaller arrangements to flank the large one.  I used a long piece of burlap for a table runner and added my own hand forged iron votives and place card holders.  One day soon I hope to offer these votives and place card holders for sale in an Etsy Shop I am developing.

Adding to the table decor were my party favors.  I purchased small live rosemary plants at the grocery store, wrapped them in burlap and tied them up with twine.

Everyone took a rosemary plant home with them.

I sewed the tablecloth and napkins from inexpensive fabric purchased at Home Fabrics, a favorite resource.

My gifts to Brenda & Mo became part of the table decor as well……

wrapped in brown craft paper and tied up with lace.

We started the festivities in the bar with Spanish Style Rosemary Gin Fizzes……

toasting the 2 Birthday Girls.

I’ll also be sharing the recipe tutorial for my Spanish Style Rosemary Gin Fizz in an upcoming post.

I served this delicious Lemon & Feta Dip with raw vegetables as an appetizer. The recipe comes from a favorite website called Sweet Paul.  I’ll share the recipe and photo tutorial with you in a day or two.

My hubby Brad poured some great wine called Starmont from one of our favorite wineries in Napa, Merryvale Winery.  We hosted the rehearsal dinner before our son’s wedding in the Merryvale Cask Room and have loved the wine ever since.

The first course was a salad of roasted beets fresh from my CSA farm delivery that week.

I topped the beets with goat cheese that had been rolled in walnuts and dressed the salad with a lemon vinaigrette.  Of course I plan to share this recipe too.

Birthday girl Brenda is an excellent bread baker and brought along a wonderful loaf of her homemade seeded whole grain sourdough bread which we enjoyed with dinner.

The main course was grilled salmon that I served over barley and added a delicious Spanish Romesco Sauce.

Sauteed kale, a kale chip and a couple of grilled green onions completed the dish. Stay tuned for my delicious Romesco Sauce recipe.

And no birthday would be complete without a birthday cake.  I made my super moist and delicious recipe for Banana Poppy Seed Cake, also a recipe I’ll be sharing soon.

So there you have it: How To Throw A Beautiful Birthday Party.

Stay tuned for all the yummy recipes coming real soon.

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