I did a post a few weeks ago on a bridal shower I threw for my best friend Tara and this past weekend she got married so I thought I'd write a little about it.  It was a beautiful wedding despite the torrential downpour portion of the evening and everyone seemed to have a really great time.

           Now since I was in the wedding I didn’t get to take as many pictures of the big day as everyone else but I still managed to get a few good ones of the happy couple and of course the cake!

            Tara  married Cesar Contrares on Friday July 24^th at her family’s horse farm in Lincoln University. Although it did rain as I mentioned, it happened mostly  after the ceremony when were all safely under the tents. We did get a little damp but I think that provided some nice comic relief to the rest of the wedding guests.

            The cake was a three tiered basket weave frosted thing of beauty. Tara is lucky enough to also be friends with a pastry chef who can make glorious cakes. Michelle Myers is the pastry chef for Simon Pearce restaurant in West Chester Pennsylvania and I would definitely recommend her services to you if you need a cake anytime soon. This one was chocolate and raspberry (one of Tara’s favorite combos) with fresh fruit topping and garnish.

            All in all it was a great night and I wish Tara and Cesar nothing but the best. It was a really nice wedding and I hope they enjoyed it as much as the rest of their guests did. Cheers to the two of you in your new life  together!

www.simonpearce.com

133 Lenape Road, Rte 52 North,

West Chester, PA

610 793 0949

          Yesterday Lisa made a peach cobbler using a recipe she got from Epicurious.com.  This recipe is changed a little as Lisa tweaked a few things around to suit her taste and style. The peaches were warm and rich in flavor and the crust was perfectly golden brown as you can see.

Changing recipes is a pretty standard practice for anyone who cooks a lot and it’s a great way to actually use the products in your own pantry. Just remember to be careful when you are baking. Baking is chemistry after all, so the measurements and temperatures used in baking recipes need to be fairly accurate to get the desired results.           

For instance deciding on a whim to add a cup of wine to your pasta sauce is usually a great idea and only adds to the flavor. However deciding on a whim to add an extra cup of flour will only end in calamity, especially if small children are depending on you for dessert.

Peach Cobbler Recipe

Serves: 4 (Or 1 if you have had a particularly bad day)

Prep Time: 20 Min

Total Time: 45 Min

Ingredients

10 Large Peaches, cut into thin wedges

½ Cup Brown Sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 Teaspoon Cornstarch

Biscuit Topping Recipe

1 Cup all-purpose flour

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ stick cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

¼ cup boiling water

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425º

Toss peaches with sugar, lemon juice, and cornstarch in a 2-qut. Nonreactive baking dish and bake in middle of oven for 10 minutes.

Make Topping while peaches bake:

Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Blend in butter with your fingertips or a pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in Water until just combined.

Remove peaches from oven and drop spoonfuls of topping over them.  Bake in middle of oven until topping is golden, about 25 minutes. (Topping will spread as it bakes.)

Visit www.epicurious.com to see more of their ideas and recipes.

When you arrive at H.G. Haskell’s SIW Vegetable market in Chadds Ford, it becomes pretty obvious that they have a great selection of tomatoes.  Haskell’s manager Ian Mair confirms stating that, “We are very picky about our tomatoes.” Picky indeed and it pays off as they have a gorgeous selection of over 100 varieties of heirloom tomatoes.

Haskell’s produce farm is also a CSA which stands for community supported agriculture. This means that members of the CSA pay to join and then receive their fresh produce once a week from the 115 acre farm just across the road.

This helps provide an opportunity for the agriculturally untalented to enjoy truly fresh off the vine produce that you simply can’t get from a grocery store experience.  But you don’t have to be a member to stop by and pick up something fresh and delicious.

            Haskell’s also provides local consumers with a chance to well, buy local. Which may seem like a trend right now in this country but it’s become a trend for a good reason. It saves the environment a little stress and it ends up saving you money in the end as well. The fact that it’s delicious is just a bonus.

             SIW Vegetables is open every day from 10 am to 6 pm from Mid June until Halloween. Located at 4317 S. Creek Rd, in Chadds Ford, Phone: 610 388 7491.

Want to be featured on OSP?   

   Are you a bartender or do you know someone who is who would like to be featured on the blog? We’re looking for an experienced bartender who can give some advice to novice bartenders.

            What is the best book to use as a guide when you are first starting out and why? Are there any particularly helpful tools that a bartender should never be without? Something perhaps that not every bar comes stocked with?

            What are the hardest drinks to make? How does one person possibly remember the recipes for the hundreds of classic drinks out there?

            So if you or someone you know has any tips they’d like to share please let us know and we will happy to write a featured post all about them, and any fun pictures of them tending bar.

             You really don’t have to be an expert to throw a good party.  You  just need a head count, plenty of food and drink to match and the ability to ask for help when you need it.  Over the past weekend my mom and  I threw a bridal shower for one of my best friends Tara and I thought I’d share some pictures and details here to thank everyone who helped me make it happen.

I was expecting 25 to 30 people and it was for dinner so I decided that I would order out and hire a bartender to save time. I ordered some things from a local Chinese restaurant, and from my local grocery store to balance out American and Asian fare.  Our lovely bartender Patty served my mom’s recipe for her  Prossecco bellinis as the drink of the night and saved a good bit of money by not trying to have a drink to please everyone’s palette. 

My mom’s bellinis are one of her crowd pleasing secrets so I was happy to have her help create them and Patty to fix and serve them. This way there was no shortage of food or drink and I had time to have fun with Tara and everyone else.  I also had time to take fashion photos of everyone in the toilet paper bride competition, and Tara’s bridal shower bow hat.

 The bow hat can be anything to start with but every bow from every present must be taped, glued, or stapled onto it for the bride to wear at her rehearsal dinner and for the rest of the shower. This is Tara gazing at her lovely bow hat in the last present she unwrapped.

            I am also fortunate enough to have a friend who is  a very talented pastry chef, so I asked her to make the cake for me. Thank you Melissa! The cake was frosted in vanilla with chocolate cake and raspberry filling, which I really cannot recommend enough. It’s a classic pairing for a reason and almost everyone at the shower had second helpings because it was so delicious.

You can ask for Melissa Jenkins of the Country Butcher in Kennett Square if you’re looking for a cake, and the Butcher also features a first class cheese shop and meat market.

             I also went to Beau-coup.com to find tiny take out boxes and fortune cookies with personalized messages for all the guests and couldn’t have been happier with the results. The cookies tasted and looked great and  Beau-coup.com offers a wide variety of favors in addition to Asian themes and they are definitely worth checking out.

Ultimately the main point I’d like to stress is that I was not stressed about this party because I allowed people to help me.  Letting other people handle the food and drink part of the party can end up saving you not only time, but also money and your sanity. I’m sure anyone reading this post can think of at least one party that they attended or hosted themselves that left the host completely stressed out and ready to give up throwing parties for good. It really doesn’t have to be that way although please feel free to share any of those fun stories with the site if you would like them posted!

I hope you enjoyed the post and the pictures and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or comments.

Melinda & The OSP Team

Links from this article:

www.countrybutchermarket.com

www.beau-coup.com