Jedi

When you purposefully set your wedding date for May the 4th...you certainly will get those who reference Star Wars and May the Force Be With You. When your whole immediate family are big fans of the Star Wars universe, there will likely be some references on the Big Day.

Just after dinner, the chef set up a station for making instant ice cream drops using a metal bowl and some sort of coolant that made steam. As the bride and groom stood together waiting for the ice cream mixture, someone brought them light sabers...a red and a green. They had a little fun with them before the ice cream drops were made...and here they are, bride and groom Jedi! 

I really will return to the usual posts, but couldn't resist this one.

Some More About the Wedding

I promised you some stories about the unexpected things that happened on May the 4th, and I have told you about the mix up on the bouquets and about the snow forcing a move inside for the ceremony, but that's not all...

Turns out that the amazing chef for the wedding dinner lives somewhere like Fresno. He had to make his way through all the crazy traffic and delays caused by the spring snow storm...which ended up bringing two feet of snow we were told...so he was well over an hour late. Fortunately the group had meshed by then and the consumption of the signature cocktail I mentioned in an earlier post, plus other adult libations as desired, led to a pretty mellow group. Once the chef arrived he quickly set up a beautiful cheese board and the fun began. Pretty soon there were bacon wrapped dates and pulled pork with a 12 hour mole sauce, sizzling shrimp, and much more...and these were just the appetizers!

Of course the late dinner meant that the whole evening ran late. It was well after 9 pm before the cake was cut. The bride (with a little help by yours truly on baking the cake layers) made her own wedding cake and it was delicious as well as lovely. The flower decorations were done by one of her talented LA friends. (see photo at top of post) The groom claims that he had one bite and the bride may not have actually eaten any of the cake! They did do the traditional cake cutting and, later, the first dance was late enough that the bride had changed into pjs. Good thing that almost all the guests were staying at the lodge. Sweetie and I sort of sledded down to lake level before the cake cutting, to where we were staying, and were glad to get there safely.

Because there were guests, including the groom, who really prefer pie to cake, and because the bride wanted everyone happy, a local bakery was chosen as the place to pick up an assortment of tarts and small pies. Due to a glitch, when Sweetie and I went to pick them up on the morning of the wedding, they had no record of the order! Fortunately, they were very accommodating and filled the whole orderexcept for the chocolate dipped strawberries once we found out what the order should have been. They were really delicious pastries and the bakery was not at fault in any way about the glitch. I highly recommend the Sugar Pine Bakery in South Lake Tahoe if you are in the neighborhood and want high quality and tasty baked goods, plus excellent customer service.

Sugar Pine Bakery, 3564 Lake Tahoe Blvd. G, South Lake Tahoe 96150    530 503-0560

You would think that we had reached our limit of things that could go wrong, wouldn't you? But, no, there was one more. Sunday morning some of the guests headed to the kitchen for some breakfast and found a large bear in the sink. The bear had eaten all the breakfast croissants and was probably thirsty! A quick thinking guest made himself large by waving his hands and shooed the bear out a side door! Guess that was a very memorable final glitch.

If you have gotten this far in the post you deserve some photos of the bride and groom. I think you'll like this one, and the ones following.

Sweetie looks pretty good escorting his daughter up to her groom, doesn't he?

Quick Dinner

 
Sometimes you need or want to fix dinner quickly. I was lucky this evening to have some leftover rotisserie chicken, some ricotta tortellini, some pesto sauce, some pine nuts from the freezer, and a few veggies on hand. Put together they made a delicious meal in a very short time. Sweetie was a very happy guy and said I can make this any time.

The first thing to do is to put a big pot of water on to boil to cook the tortellini. While that's coming to a boil, toast the pine nuts in a large skillet. It only takes a minute or two. Set those aside and chop some onion - I used green onion, but yellow or white works, too. Spray the same skillet you used to cook the pine nuts with a little olive oil, then add the onions and sauté, stirring often. While those are cooking, chop some tomato...I used about a half dozen grape tomatoes. Add those to the onions, stir, and let them begin to sauté, too. Cube into bite size pieces the cooked chicken. (You could also use cooked turkey, cooked Italian sausages.) 

By now the water should be really boiling. Add some salt, if desired, and then the tortellini. Stir them every few minutes to cook the pasta part evenly, but be gentle so the fillings stays inside.

Add the cubed chicken to the onion-tomato mixture and stir to combine. Turn the heat to the lowest setting, cover and let it all heat up.

Get ready to drain the pasta when it is cooked al dente and cook about a cup of frozen peas in the microwave. Check the pasta and when it is ready, drain and put into a large bowl. Add a big scoop of pesto sauce and stir to combine with the pasta. Add the chicken-onion-tomato mixture and the pine nuts and stir gently to combine.

Serve at once with the hot peas on the side.

I know that there are no actual measurements for this recipe. If you feel you need them, make a comment asking for that and I'll try to figure out the amounts I used, O.K?

Signature Cocktail for the Wedding

On May the 4th (yes, the Star Wars day) our daughter K married the love of her life. The wedding took place in South Lake Tahoe and it was memorable for a number of reasons, including that it took place during a late season snow storm...one that was just supposed to be a few snow showers. It was beautiful and the bride and groom not only went with it, moving the ceremony inside instead of on the deck overlooking Lake Tahoe (which couldn't be seen due to the snow but was sort of visible during dinner, see photo below), but going outside into the snow after the ceremony and creating some very beautiful and memorable photos there like the one above. 

As with all events, there were various glitches but overall everything went very well, the guests and family enjoyed their time together, we had an amazing dinner created by a private chef who was delayed by the snow but still made delicious and flavorful food with a bit of showmanship thrown in. I'll update this post later when I have his contact information.

It seems that having a special cocktail to serve to your guests is fairly expected these days, so I wasn't surprised that K& A not only planned one, but put the mixture together themselves. To make the mixer extra special, they added edible glitter. The liquid shimmered and shone with a greenish glow...very pretty. Unfortunately I was suffering from altitude sickness and the cocktails were served downstairs. I was avoiding stairs as much as possible, so no photo...sorry. I do have the sign that allowed guests to serve themselves:

In case you would also like a refreshing cocktail for warmer weather, you can make this pear and elderflower one yourself. It starts with pear flavored vodka and includes elderflower liqueur. They provided coupe glasses and a way to rim the coupe with sugar. Then you add 3 oz. of the mix and top with sparkly wine...prosecco works well but you could also use champagne or cava.

Here's to the happy bride and groom!

As long as we are talking about adult beverages, I want to give kudos to Dickinson Glass of Sebastopol. They have a location in the Barlow, a shopping area just off Hwy. 12 on the east side of the town.

Dickinson Glass not only creates beautiful, heirloom quality hand blown glass pieces, but they give lessons, too. I commissioned a pair of toasting flutes for the happy couple and Michael Dickinson, the artist and craftsman who owns Dickinson Glass, produced awesome glasses that are so lovely they brought tears to my eyes...and stunned our daughter when we presented them to K & A before the wedding. Each is just a tiny bit different in the swirl of glass near where the stem joins the base of the bowl, so you know they are hand made. I highly recommend this company. The packaging was outstanding, too. They will soon be giving classes about 15 minutes north in a remodeled barn, so be sure to check and see if the shop in the Barlow is open before coming. 

Dickinson Glass Studio and Showroom
6770 McKinley St #120,
The Barlow
Sebastopol, CA 95472
707-690-4136