Posts Tagged ‘food’
Family Ties
Families come in all shapes and sizes. The older that I get, the more that I realize that the important people in life are not necessarily those that I grew up with or who raised me. I am close to my extended family as I’ve spent a lot of time around my grandma’s siblings and nieces and nephews and their families.
One of the things that I inherited from my grandma is that we claim people we like as relatives regardless of bloodlines. For instance, she had a neighbor who we all called Grandma. Her name was Grandma Meinhardt. Even my grandma called her Grandma. I had no idea until she died that her real first name was Mabel. She was a very dear friend of our family. Grandma also accepted her in-laws as relatives right away. She loved inheriting nephews when her little brother’s eight daughters started getting married. She remembered everyone’s anniversaries and birthdays and always sent cards.
Claire was a dear niece of my grandma’s…Grandma loved bragging about Claire, her niece who was a nurse practitioner. I actually forget that Claire was married to grandma’s nephew, so she is actually related by marriage, accept for the fact that they aren’t married anymore. But she’s still one of my favorite cousins and always will be!
One of my all time favorite things about Claire is that she really doesn’t seem to let much bother her, and she cares so much for her four daughters (3 that she helped raise when she married their dad, and one biological).
Claire invited me on her annual New Orleans trip in June and I happily accepted! The funny part of this trip was when a friend of mine asked who I was going with. Now, I really don’t have a complicated family tree, but when you consider the fact that I’m so close to my extended family and we start getting into Grandma’s nieces and nephews and their kids, it can get a little hard to follow. So, I found myself laughing as I was explaining it.
Claire, and the oldest of the three daughters who she helped to raise, as well as the daughter’s biological mom and step dad were going to be going on the trip along with another one of our cousins. And then me, the random second cousin (I think?)…Six very different people with different personalities from various branches of the family tree living it up in the Big Easy! Half of us had been before and the other half were newbies!
We had an awesome time and the entire trip I kept thinking about how grateful that I am to be connected to these people and how they each have a unique life experience that I can learn from. It was also fun to experience New Orleans with people who had never been before!
Here I am with my unconventional family at a nice lunch at Commander’s Palace, home of the 25 cent martini! I won’t rat people out and tell how many we drank!
Another great trip in the books and another reminder of how grateful that I am for my extended family!
Here’s To 20 Years
Six months ago I was asked to head up the committee that planned and hosted our firm’s 20 year anniversary celebration. I was really excited as I LOVE planning parties. I love it so much that I am planning at least four parties over the rest of the year.
We decided that we would have the party at a local brewery and that we would incorporate a sunflower theme from our save the date cards to invitations, to event space decor. We invited all of our clients, firm members and their spouses, and some of the associated professionals that we work with. All in all, the guest list was over 400.
We spent six months organizing and securing vendors from the event space, to the caterer, baker, and DJ. The brewery provided space for up to 225 people, a bar stocked with their beers and house wine, soft drinks and coffee, a limited number of sunflower centerpieces, and commemorative pint glasses with our logo for party favors for our guests. The caterer is a well known local catering shop run by a husband and wife team. We have used them for several office functions in the past. We chose to have a heavy appetizer buffet for our casual “open house” style reception. We asked for a mix of hot and cold choices with a mix of beef, chicken, seafood, and vegetarian options. We told the DJ that we wanted to be able to play music that would appeal to a wide variety of people, including a diverse age group. He told us not to worry as he had a music catalogue that contains 35,000 songs. The dessert would be cupcakes with simple designs….some had 20s and some were decorated with sunflowers to continue our theme.
215 people RSVP’d that they would be attending our party from 6-10 on Thursday evening. We asked our staff to be available at 4:00 so that we could have all hands on deck to get the event space ready for the party. The event space staff took care of setting up the bar and the caterer put out candles on each of the 8 top rounds and high top rounds and they set up the beautiful food buffet. The baker came and set up a simple but elegant cupcake display complete with white, chocolate, red velvet, and lemon cupcakes. We set up the registration table with preprinted name tags for the guests and trivia questions. We had slips of paper for each guest to answer four trivia questions to be put in a drawing for door prizes.
Our company office manager made a really neat slide summarizing the history of our firm, what we do, our clients, and a slide for each firm member showcasing their families and leisure activities. It played on two jumbo screens throughout the duration of the event.
Before we knew it, guests began to arrive. We had several local clients and associated professionals as well as clients that traveled in from Missouri, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Virgina.
We stopped the music at various times during the event to introduce our firm members and do the drawing for trivia question winners. We had four questions and therefore, four winners. Each winner received a sterling silver piggy bank.
Everyone was raving about the how great the party was and how delicious the food was. The DJ did a great job keeping the music selection varied and pleasing to all in the room.
Finally, by about 9:00, I was able to take a load off and enjoy some food and have a meaningful visit with a couple of clients. The party was a success, but the worst thing about it was that I spent about 15 seconds talking to each person, and there were even people that were there that I never saw or talked to. I guess that comes with hosting a party. But, I was disappointed, it felt like guests started to arrive, and FLASH, the party was over.
Anyway, I’m so glad that we pulled the party off without any major hiccups and that. I’m happy to add a party of 200+ to my list of events planned to date and I hope that I was able to show the company that I can handle a few extra responsibilities.
And that is how the birthday month ended.
To the next 20 years!
Jazzed Up
I really love the Kansas City arts and cultural scene from live music, theatre, art galleries, etc, including the Jazz scene. One of my very favorite local jazz pianists has a resident gig at a local Jazz club in Kansas City. I often watch he and his band mates jam on Sunday nights.
I decided to get a group together to continue the birthday month festivities for dinner and drinks at the club. It worked out great as we ended up having a girls night out. A few girlfriends and one of my cousins joined me and tolerated my jazz obsession.
We sat front and center in the first row and enjoyed our wine and the piano. The piano player gave me a birthday shout out, which made me feel important. We moved a bit away from the stage for dinner and dessert where we indulged in delicious food, gossip, and general typical girl talk. I just can’t describe the vibe that exists between girlfriends that aren’t catty or judgemental and are truly down to earth and friendly. What was really neat is that the only thing that the girls had in common was me.
We had a fantastic time, the food was delicious and the wine was smooth. What was even better is that the cute bartender made my favorite drink. It is a refreshing summer cocktail including cucumbers.
What is a Piropo?
And the birthday month continues….
I hopped on a plane at Chicago Midway and headed for home. I went straight to my car at the airport where I had a change of clothes. It was 7:20, and my next birthday dinner was in forty minutes. I threw on a dress and a bit of make up, and headed for this amazing Argentinean restaurant, Piropos, to meet some friends. www.piroposkc.com
Piropos was convenient as it is on my way home from the airport nestled in an area of Briarcliff Village www.briarcliffvillagekc.com They are known for their unique and authentic menu as well as the view of downtown Kansas City.
We started the evening off with a bread basket and specialty housemade sangrias. I wish that I could remember some of the concoctions that made up the sangrias that evening. I tried three of six or seven, and they were all incredibly unique, refreshing, and fitting for the meal. They were a part of a special summer menu.
We moved onto the main course which consisted of two entrees, as my friend and I each ordered an entrée and split them. We ordered the pork chops served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, sautéed apples, walnuts, raisins, and mushrooms and the pan seared halibut with lobster risotto and juilenne vegetables in a roasted red pepper sauce. The pork chops are not something that I would normally order, but I thought that I would branch out and try them.
I will admit that I was already full from bread and sangria by the time that the entrees came, but I ate anyway. I devoured the halibut and lobster risotto. They were to die for!! I was too full for the pork chop and mashed potatoes, so I decided to ask for them to be boxed up and taken home. I did try a bite of the mashed potatoes and was disappointed when they tasted like instant. I ended up eating half of the left over pork chop for dinner the next night and it tasted great with the apples.
Although I was beyond satisfied, we went for dessert! We had the Copa Piropos on the house for my birthday and the Churros de Caramelo. The Copa Piropos was fresh berries with creme anglase and vanilla bean ice cream drizzled with imported argentine dulce de leche. The Churos were stuffed with ccaramel and served with vanilla bean ice ream and drizzled with Dulce de leche and hot chocolate ganache.
No, this isn’t a food blog, but this meal was so delicious that I couldn’t leave it un mentioned.
The service was great and my friends and I enjoyed our time together. Needless to say we left the restaurant stuffed! Next stop was home to sleep off the food coma and get prepared for the next day’s birthday month festivities.
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