A June Wedding

My little sister said I do!  She tied the knot at our church in Decatur, Alabama and the reception followed at Mallard Stables.  A few favorites from the weekend.

Rehearsal Dinner.  A Southern BBQ.

The Wedding.

Church and getting ready.

The reception.

I must mention, this wouldn't have been possible without her fabulous wedding coordinator, Katie Caldwell. She is the best!!!

On another note, we are finally back in Paris.  French blogging right around the corner.

Summer Strawberries and Hydrangeas

I forgot how beautiful the South is in the summer.  And I don't mean the South of France this time.

My little sister is becoming a Mrs in two weeks and I am back in Alabama to help her get ready for the big day.

The bridesmaids hosted a shower for the Little Mrs-to-be in my grandmother's back yard this weekend.  There is nothing more beautiful than a Southern backyard in the summer.  Hydrangeas, gardenias and magnolias are giving my beloved renunculas, peonies and geraniums a run for their money. 

We set up tables in the grass and served a light lunch followed by cake a gifts. 

But first things first, of course. A bar dressed with magnolias and hydrangeas to serve strawberry belinis and white wine spritzers with elderflower and mint.  (And of course sweet tea). 

The Little Mrs to be and I scowered the neighborhood the night before to find magnolia blosoms.  The most intoxicating smell in the world. Mint from mom's backyard.



Not to mention we had a great bar tender.


The bar tender with the Little Mrs-to-be.

 I think my favorite thing about the shower was that all of the flowers came straight out of the backyard.



I had the Little Mrs-to-be clipping flowers all weekend.

We found these cute little wire baskets at Boxwoods in Atlanta.

They didn't have enough for all the tables so we improvised and filled in with some wire candle holders from my mom's back porch.

I loved how I could tell which hydrangea came from which yard by the size and hue of the petals.  Big white petals from mom's  yard, blue hue from Laurie's and the delicate lacey  petals from grandmother mom's.

On the bride's table, we took my Aunt Laurie's ivy topiary and added bright blue hydrangeas.  (The Little Mrs favorite).

Love an excuse to break out the silver.



The bride-to-be and some of the hosts

We start them young around here...

The Flower Girl of the year.  My cousin Caroline's daughter, Mary Emma.

On the menu - chicken salad and pimento cheese sandwiches, pasta salad, marinated carrots and fruit salad. 

The cake was decorated with strawberries and came from Olexa's bakery in Birmingham.  (The best in the world. If you are ever in Birmingham, stop by her cute little restaurant for lunch.  Splurge and order a piece of the vanilla cake. They serve it warm with a little strawberry. One of the partners at my old law firm introduced it to me and I've been in love ever since.)

  

Sticking with the strawberry theme, we made strawberry compote as party favors (which also served a double purpose as the star ingredient in the strawberry bellinis).  Recipe courtesy of Ina Garten.

I love gardenias in silver sugar and creamer servers.  So simple yet elegant.



But I digress. Making the party favors was really simple.  I bought little mason jars from Walmart (I can't believe I'm saying the word Walmart on my blog! but there it is...)

Washed them in hot water to disinfect.

Covered them in burlap fabric cut into squares (big enough to cover the top of the jar. I cut one by estimating and adjusted.  Then I cut the rest the same size.) 



And tied them with red gingham ribbon (which ran out, so I mixed in what my mom had in the house, sheer white.). So that's 2 cases of jars, 1 yard of fabric and 5 spools of ribbon.  Fill jar, put on metal lid. Cover metal lid with burlap and then screw the top.  Finish by tying the ribbon on the outside of the jar, or however you like!

And volia.  Fill them with whatever you feel like making.  I chose strawberry compote to tie in the cake and bellinis. 

Now, if only the Mr. doesn't kill my geraniums while I'm gone.

Printemps Dinner Party

I am always looking for a good excuse to host a dinner party so when our friends Caroline and Peter moved to the neighborhood, I immediately jumped at the chance to have them over.  Although in my head dinner parties include fine china and a fabulously decorated dining table, I think the delicious French Rose and cheese made up for the Ikea dinner plates and eat in your lap setting.

Oh! And icing on the cake, the Mr.'s Aunt and Uncle happened to be in town and dropped in for cocktail hour.  Two sets of guests in one night made for one big day for little 26 Rue.

So without further adieu.... Le Menu

Hors d'oeuvres
Crottin du Chavignol with a rose infused grapefruit jam
Baked Camembert with thyme and honey
Rillette du Canard

Le Dîner
Spinach salad with avocado, cherry tomatoes and a balsamic vinaigrette
Rack of Lamb with Dijon and fresh rosemary (courtesy of the Barefoot Contessa)
Mini ramekins of Truffle Butter Mac and Cheese (Frenchified version of my go to mac and cheese recipe)

Dessert
Lemon tart and noix tart  (courtesy of our guests, Caroline and Peter)

Crottin du Chavignol

Baked Camembert

The star of the salad (along with the delicious dressing that only the Mr. and his mother can make.... believe me, I've tried... )  

Truffle Butter Mac & Cheese

 

And of course I couldn't resist adding breadcrumbs, made with Poilane bread....

Rack of Lamb

These looked much more appealing after they were cooked, but turned out really well.  Ina never steers me wrong.  So if you are looking for an Easter Sunday main, give this a try.  Superbe. 

This post is making me very hungry....but I just remembered that Aunt Cathy brought us some Poilane cookies!! (I swear, I literally just remembered them!! It's like finding a dollar in your pocket!! Love when that happens)

 

Buttery, melt in your mouth deliciousness. 

So for the Recipes.  They are all pretty easy. (Especially since I bought the cheese, jam, and rillette at a market... and used Ina for the meat... and the guests brought the dessert.... ) That leaves us with Baked Camembert and Truffle Butter Mac and Cheese. 

Baked Camembert with Thyme and Honey

Ingredients

Wheel of camembert cheese

Thyme

Honey 

Heat the oven to 400.  Using a knife, cut a few slits into the top of the camembert cheese wheel. Sprinkle with thyme and insert sprigs of thyme into the slits.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove and drizzle with honey. Serve with slice baguette or anything similar you may have.  

Truffle Butter Mac and Cheese

This is simply an enhanced version of my normal "Fancy Mac and Cheese" Recipe. I note how to make truffle butter below. 

Fancy Mac and Cheese 

Ingredients
1 box of cellentani noodles (or penne, whatever you have)
vegetable oil

4 cups milk
1/2 cup flour
1 stick butter (or truffle butter if desired)
1 T. salt
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. pepper

1 block gruyere shredded (1/2 lb)
1 block white cheddar shredded (1/2 lb) (getting good, quality cheese is key)
5 slices of bread

Heat milk on med-low.  In the meantime, melt 6 T.'s of truffle butter and then add flour whisking constantly for 1-2 minutes.  Pour in heated milk.  Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.  Cook on med-low for a few minutes then remove from heat and add shredded cheeses (there should be more cheese than sauce).  Pour noodles into the sauce and mix. Transfer the mixture into casserole dish.  To make the breadcrumbs, cut crusts off the bread and put in a food processor.  Heat the remaining butter in small saucepan and add the breadcrumb mixture.  Spread onto pasta dish and cook 30 minutes in the oven on 375 degrees.

*No white chedder in France... so I substituted Asiago and it was just as good. 

Truffle Butter 

Ingredients

Stick of butter - room temp

1 T. White truffle oil 

Fleur de sel, to taste

Mix butter, truffle oil and fleur de sel in a mixing bowl until combined.  Place in ramekin and cover with plastic wrap.  It should keep for a  few days; otherwise, freeze.