Ava's First Birthday Party!

After weeks of planning and collecting all the ideas from Pinterest and hunting out the actual supplies and decor items on the web, everything came together perfectly for Ava's first birthday party. I knew I wanted something soft and pretty for her, a cute little brunch. Originally the plan was the make majority of the items which I also found from Pinterest, but as I got closer to the party date, I had to improvise and search for items that didn't require too much work but would fit into her brunch. 

Store bought lemon curd from Trader Joe's and fig jam from the local supermarket went perfectly with simple scones I made that morning.

Tossed the berries in a little bit of sugar, except the strawberries

Decided to get prints of photos of Ava since birth to put as the background.

 Anything with a vintage and french flair I found through the website Save-On-Craft. The website has every kind of supplies you would need to decorate a wedding, baby shower, birthday, and/or any occasion. The mini milk bottles I got was much cheaper than other places I've seen. The paper straws was ordered from Etsy.com through a store that allowed you to select the styles you wanted for a set price.

The mini bottles were a hit with the different style paper straws

 Originally from my previous post, I did a test run on the pink ombre cake that I originally was going to make for her birthday, however due to time restraints, I ended up purchasing a cake from my favorite dessert restaurant in San Diego called Extraordinary Desserts. I got Ava the Shangri-La which is AMAZINGLY delicious. The cake contains white chocolate mousse, guava mousse, fresh strawberries and whipped cream are layered between vanilla cakes moistened with kirsch. I also love how the outside has off white and pink!

I ordered washi tapes from Etsy.com and made a little banner to put on her cake.

Costco mixed cookies in a jar!

Here is the final set up with the drinks in as well! I love it! Majority of the food I found at Costco, and surprisingly Trader Joe's carry a lot of miniature sized appetizers!

I was able to also make the pressed Italian sandwiches from the previous night using torta buns, salami, provolone cheese, pesto, and mayo all from Costco. The morning of the party, I cut each torta to make three small mini sandwiches and I wrapped it with parchment paper and pink/white baker's twine. Also since the food theme was more of a brunch, I decided to make a quick potato hash that I sauteed with onions, green bell peppers, and salt/pepper. I put a little in the mini cupcake liners I found at Michaels.

The two kinds of meatballs were also found at Costco that my friend sauteed and warmed up the morning of the party.  To cut time, I bought raspberry lemonade and guava juice I found at the market for refreshment.

The hardest item to find for her party was the cake stand. I saw so many beautiful white cake stands but with them costing $40+ just for one , it would of been extremely expensive to have multiple. I eventually came across this beautiful teal/blue 3 tier cake stand from Kohl's!! It was already on sale, plus an additional 30% off and free shipping, it was too good to pass up. In the end it gave the brunch table a nice pop of color and I was able to coordinate that to the strings for the balloons.

The strings attached to the ballons are just strips of plastic table clothes I found at PartyCity. This idea I also found on Pinterest!

Birthday girl enjoying her cake.

Ava playing with friends :)

Overall it was a perfect first birthday party for Ava, the party I had envisioned with the help of Pinterest came through and everyone had a wonderful time. Food was great and all the kids had a lot of fun. Now with two kids, I will have to start earlier planning for each of them since every birthday is special. Pin It Now!

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Ava's first Thanksgiving!

Little Pilgrim!

First Thanksgiving that we are spending together with the four of us. Lots to be thankful for, like the picture above, Joseph being the great big brother he is. Always willing to give Ava a hand without asking. Ava is very lucky to have Joseph and let's hope she doesn't boss him around too much when she is older!

Each year now for Thanksgiving we like to keep the meal planning as simple as possible. Last two years instead of getting a whole raw turkey or raw turkey breast to bake, we buy it the morning of Thanksgiving from the deli section at the local market. Meat is cooked in their oven and it is always tasty and fresh. Last year we only got the dark meat and this year we decided on turkey breasts. This helps to free up the oven space to do other baking like the sweet potato and warming of other dishes.

Very flavorful and yummy!

Always got to have the green beans no matter what. And we do prefer the french green beans over the fatty ones. I usually blanch the green beans first before a quick sauteed with onions and mushrooms with some salt and pepper. That is all you need to keep it fresh and light.

We always prefer sauteed green beans with cremini mushrooms and onions.

Mashed potato is the most basic, this year I roasted a whole head of garlic to give it that sweet garlic tasty but without the garlic bite.

Roasted garlic mashed potatoes

 The #1 most requested item on Joseph's Thanksgiving meal. The one and only sweet potato and marshmallows. However, since we had a butternut squash sitting around, I added some to the mix and added some butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I even went above and beyond by placing each marshmallow standing up!

Sweet potato and butternut squash with marshmallows

 Since this is Ava's first Thanksgiving and just in time to start eating human food, I plated her little Thanksgiving dinner for her. She has a little pile of mashed potato with the turkey gravy, diced turkey breast, diced green beans, some sweet potato/butternut squash with marshmallows, and a piece of crescent roll for the gold! She ate that all up and loved every bite of it!!

Ava's first Thanksgiving! Her modified baby plate of her food.

Delicious!

 Here is the adult version of Ava's dish. Soon enough she will be eating like us all!

Mommy's adult version.

And what's a Thanksgiving without some good ol' Julian pies? Since Joseph finished the pumpkin pie from Costco earlier in the week, I decided to get Julian pumpkin and apple pie. We ate them nice and warm with french vanilla ice cream. However my mom preferred it with her Haagen Dazs green tea ice cream.

Super Asian style here with the green tea ice cream!!

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It's a Happy Halloweenie with lots of candies!

Finally Ava's first Halloween! Having Halloween definitely made things a bit hectic this year. I had to bring a potluck item to work and also a potluck item to a neighborhood Halloween Party. I found some great ideas on Pinterest and decided on the chocolate covered pretzel rods. Simple enough right? Dark chocolate was easy but the white chocolate was a little harder to work with. So here's the end result, was a total hit at the neighborhood Halloween party for the kids!

Eye catching sprinkles and ghosts!

Someone brought these wormies! I have to find out how to make these!!

For Ava's first Halloween I knew I wanted her to be Snow White. I've been lugging around these 7 dwarf plush from Japan for probably 15 years!! Joseph's costume was....well easy enough. I had to just get him a t-shirt for his Minecraft Steve character.

My Snow White Princess!

There is my Minecraft Steve and Ava in her Radioflyer carriage!

Joseph as Minecraft Steve

Part of any baby's first holiday, it's a must to get those fleece suits. So since we had some time before the actual trick or treating started, we put her in the outfit for some photos! Her little pumpkin top headband I found in the dollar bin at Target. Best place to find cute and cool knick-knack stuff.

It was definitely a great Halloween. Joseph's first with his baby sister and Ava's very first! Can't wait to start brainstorming for next year :)

LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!

"PRINCESS AVA COMING THROUGH!"

Living the life in her carriage with her entourage!!

We even had baby T come visit!

Little Chef! Super cute!!

Angry Bird pumpkin!

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Konnichiwa! Japanese Chicken Curry

Warms up the soul! hahaha

At least once a month or even twice a month, I like to make my chicken curry with rice. There are many types of curry out there, from Thai red-yellow-green curry to Indian curry and then there's Japanese curry. The difference between Japanese and the others is that it is simply a more gravy-like consistency and alot more sweeter. Whereas Thai and Indian is more thinner and consist more of spices.

I like keeping my curry simple, with enough ingredients to pair with the rice and cut them into smaller bites so they can fit nicely on a spoon. (Also plus with little ones, they tend to like food cut into smaller "baby" sizes).

If you go down the international aisle at an American supermarket, you will most likely find Golden Curry. It is not bad, but seems more spice oriented. If you go to a Japanese market, you will find more brands that is similar to the Kokumaro. I definitely like Kokumaro the best because like it says on the box, "The perfect blend of rich and smooth curry". No arguing with that one!

The key players in this gravy boat consist of:

I typically make half the box to feed a family of 3 with enough leftovers for work.

For that quantity I use:

2-3 red potatoes- diced
2 carrots- diced
2 boneless/skinless chicken thighs- cut into 1" pieces
Ziploc bag with All Purpose flour for the chicken
Vegetable Oil
half a box of Kokumaro Curry- 6 blocks
Any additional vegetables (For this meal I had some extra green beans I cut into 1" length)
3 cups of cooked white rice (1:2 rice to water ratio)

There's two ways to cook the vegetables. One way is combine all the vegetables in a microwaveable container with half filled water and zap until half-soft (5 minutes?). Other is sauteed in the pan and add water when it is dry to "pan-steam" the vegetables until tender. After vegetables are tender, put aside. Toss the chicken pieces in a ziploc bag with regular A.P. flour to coat. Shake off excess and sauteed in the pan with oil until brown. When done, add back the tender vegetables and then follow the directions on the curry box to complete.

Curry directions: Combine all the vegetables and meat in the pan, for half box directions, pour 3 cups of water to the pan. Bring to a boil and then lower to simmer for about 15 minutes. Turn the heat down to low and add the curry blocks to dissolve. Stir slowly and the curry blocks will thicken the water into a gravy-like curry.

Love the color contrast between the curry and the white rice

Bite size pieces sure to please all the little ones in the house!!

You can always finish the curry with a dash of milk and a sprinkle of sugar to give it that velvety smooth consistency. I typically don't add that, but I have in the past. This is a dish that everyone in the family will always eat. It's got your staple of potato and carrots as well as chicken! Since fall is coming up, this is definitely perfect for those rainy, cold days!!

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