My DIY Bridal Shower

 After many weeks of planning, we finally celebrated my bridal shower this past Saturday*. Friends and family gathered round to celebrate my upcoming nuptials at Paisano's, my favorite restaurant in Rutherford. My maid of honor and I are pretty crafty so we wanted to DIY as many of the decorations as possible, I really love how everything turned out. 

I can't believe that I forgot to take pictures of some the shower decorations, especially after all the work we put into them. The signs, banners, and centerpieces are some things I forgot to take pictures of so I thought I'd set them up at home to give a little example of what I was trying to go for.

Another decoration I fell in love with was a picture of a Kitchenaid mixer used to hold a bouquet of flowers featured on Hostess with the Mostess. I thought a floral monogram I found by Sweetly Chic Events would also be a nice addition to the gift table.

Since the shower started at noon I wanted to have a mimosa bar and some punch to keep things on the lighter side. I saw this 'bubbly' sign used for a New Years Eve party and decided to recreate it. I have a feeling it's going to make some more appearances since it's my hands down favorite thing I made for the shower.

Here's a full shot showing the crates and moss covered foam that supports the letters

I picked up the mini easel signs from Michael's and wrote on them with a chalkboard pen to let guests know what was in each drink dispenser.

I wanted to keep the centerpieces simple but still have an impact so I picked out some orchids and african violets to decorate the table (I forgot to take pictures of them day of but here they are when we picked them out the week before the shower).

My bridesmaids all chipped in and got us our vacuum off the registry, they did an awesome job decorating the box since it was a no wrap shower. I bet you didn't know Nick and I were models.

For dessert we set up a cookie bar filled with all different types of homemade treats. We also ordered delicious cupcakes from House of Cupcakes which we stacked on crates that we bought and stained from Michaels. We finished off the table with gold and confetti balloons from a local vendor and matching gold frames with descriptions of the desserts. We also provided to-go containers so that everyone was able to bring home cookies or cupcakes as a treat for later.

My favorite of the cupcakes were the s'mores with a graham cracker bottom, chocolate cake, and fluffy icing dipped in ganache. Hard to fit all in one bite but I tried!

Where to Buy:

• Card board letters for floral monogram- Hobby Lobby
• Signs, banners, and wreath components- Michael's
• Crates and letters for mimosa sign- Michaels
• Orchids and flower pots- IKEA
• Drink dispensers- Bed, Bath, and Beyond
• Cupcakes (fluffy chocolate, vanilla rage, s'mores, and strawberry shortcake)- House of Cupcakes
• Food and location- Paisano's, Rutherford, NJ

Let me know if you want more info on any of the crafts we did or where to find them.

Check out the rest of my shower ideas on my Pinterest page here and be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more engagement, shower, and weddings posts

*A huge thank you to my maid of honor Jessica for help with all of the decorations, to my two mothers for hosting and baking for the shower, to my fiance and two fathers for coming early to set up and coming  back after to help clean up, and to my friends and family members who came out to give their love and support on such a wonderful day. Thank you all.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Torte

I saw this salted caramel chocolate torte floating around Facebook a couple of weeks ago and it looked right up my alley. I looooovvveee caramel and you can't go wrong by adding the chocolate ganache with a  sprinkle of sea salt.

The full original post with recipe and pictures can be found on the Home Cooking Adventure blog. Below are the instructions and ingredients from Tastemade's Youtube video. 

The recipe took me almost all day to make but was well worth it. To save time I would make and chill the crust the night before and roll it out in the morning.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Torte
Makes about 6-8 servings

Almond Chocolate Sweet Pastry
1 1/4 cups (160g) flour

1/4 cup (30g) ground almonds

1/4 cup (30g) unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup (50g) sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick (110 g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small (1/2-inch) cubes

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

1-2 tbsp ice water

Caramel
1 1/2 cups (300 g) sugar
1/2 cup (100g) water

1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream

5 tbsp (70 g) unsalted butter

1 tsp salt

Chocolate Ganache

1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream

4 oz (120g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

Garnish

sea salt crystals


Directions
1. Prepare the sweet pastry. In a large bowl mix flour with ground almonds, cocoa powder, sugar and salt.

2. Incorporate butter to the flour mixture, using a pastry blender, a fork or a pastry processor, until crumbs are formed. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix them in. Add water and incorporate into the dough. Wrap it with plastic, knead slowly to form a disc and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

3. On a floured surface or over the plastic wrap roll the dough to a circle with about 1 1/2 inches larger than your tart pan. Lift up the rolled dough and place it on a greased 9 inch tart pan. Remove the edges and refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking.

4. Prick the dough with a fork, line a parchment paper over the dough. Fill with dry beans, rice or pie weights.

5. Bake for 15 minutes in preheated 350 F (180C) oven. Remove the weights and the parchment paper. Return to oven for another 10 to 15 minutes. Allow to cool before removing from the tart pan.

6. Prepare the caramel. Place the sugar and water in a medium heavy bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat, and cook without stirring until sugar dissolves and gets a caramel color.

*This step took me approximately 10-15 minutes and I actually had to do it twice. The first time I was afraid of burning the caramel so I took the mixture off way too early and it was nowhere near caramel when I tried to mix in the cream and butter. The second time I thought I burned and ruined the sugar mixture when I waited for it to turn a caramel color since it was smoking slightly and smelled a hair burnt, but it came out prefect after mixing the cream and butter.

7. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cream. It will bubble a little bit.

8. Cook for about 1 or 2 minutes stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until smooth. Remove from heat and add butter and salt. Stir well until smooth.

9. Let the caramel cool slightly and pour over the chocolate crust. Refrigerate for about 4-5 hours.

10. Prepare the chocolate ganache. Heat the cream in a small saucepan. When the cream just begins to boil at the edges, remove from heat and pour over the chopped chocolate. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth.

11. Pour the chocolate ganache over the caramel. Spread it evenly and refrigerate for another 2-3 hours before serving. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and serve.

Enjoy!

Mother's Day Sugar Cookies and a Recipe for Tropical Trifle

For Mother's Day a couple of years ago I made some really cool monarch butterflies from Hello Cupcake. They were my favorite cupcakes to make by far and I wanted to try and recreate them into a sugar cookie for Mother's Day this year.

I hosted a Mother's Day BBQ for my mother and mother-in-law and decided to make my cousin Jeff's trifle to accompany the cookies for dessert. Every year his trifle is requested at all of the family holidays and it's a perfect springtime dessert with hints of coconut, crushed pineapple, and mandarin oranges. The best part is you can cook the components the night before and assemble it the day-of to make the day even less stressful.

 Jeff's Tropical Trifle

2 cans crushed pineapple, juice reserved

2 cans mandarin oranges

1 box yellow cake mix

1 box vanilla cook and serve pudding, not instant pudding

1 box coconut cook and serve pudding, not instant pudding (can used 2nd box of vanilla if coconut isn't available)

3 cans Goya coconut milk

2 cup shredded coconut, divided

1 cup malibu rum

1 pint heavy cream

Night before/morning of

1. Substituting coconut milk for regular milk, make pudding according to package directions (mix powders from both packets into one pot). While the pudding is cooking make sure to stir the pudding constantly so the bottom of the pot doesn't get scorched. Once pudding has thickened add 1 cup of shredded coconut to pudding and place on counter to cool. To prevent a skin from forming, place plastic wrap directly on the pudding. 

(If making the night before, once the bowl is cool to the touch, place in refrigerator until you're ready to assemble the trifle)

2. Drain the two cans of crushed pineapple, saving the juice, and place solids into a non reactive bowl. Prepare the cake mix replacing the water with an equal amount of pineapple juice and bake on a jelly roll sheet following the box instructions.

3. Drain the mandarin oranges and add the fruit to the bowl of crush pineapple. Add 1 cup Malibu rum and allow to soak into the fruit as long as possible (night before would be best). If there's any left over pineapple juice after the cake is baked, you can add it back into the fruit mixture. Refrigerate mixture if making the night before. 

Day of

4. Assemble trifle by cutting a circle of cake using the trifle bowl as a guide. Build by placing a layer of cake into trifle bowl, topping that with a layer of mixed fruit (approximately half) and drizzling some of the leftover juices onto the cake. Top the fruit with a layer of pudding and repeat until you reach the top of the trifle bowl.

(I actually had enough left over to make one more mini trifle in a canning jar for lunch the next day... Yum!)

5. Top trifle with fresh whipped cream and remaining coconut.

Enjoy!

Happy Star Wars Day: May the Forth Be With You

Happy Star Wars day everyone! Ever since I found out this was a real thing I've been wanting to make cookies for it. The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle has a bunch of really awesome cookie pictures and tutorials for Star Wars cookies including what cookie cutters you can use, R2-D2 and Yoda tutorials, and a post of the whole set. If you haven't been to her site before, you need to take a look at her work, it's simply amazing. Anyway, here are some pictures of the Star Wars cookie set I did for Star Wars day.

Enjoy!

Another Busy Weekend at the Farm and Some Waterfall Pictures

The weather was beautiful last weekend and when I wasn't helping my parents getting the farm ready for the warmer weather, I was walking around taking pictures and experimenting with my camera. 

I always used to wonder how photographers were able to take pictures of waterfalls and get a misty, soft shot of the moving water, making it appear almost magical. I've read up on it a few times and learned its due to the shutter speed. When the shutter speed is slower, moving objects become blurred when the picture is taken while motionless objects remain the same. Since we have a small waterfall on the farm I thought it was the perfect oppertunity for me to practice with moving water.

Since the water was flowing and the rocks were motionless with a steady hand I was able to play around with the shutter speed and get my shot! It took a bunch of different adjustments to ISO, shutter speed, and going back and forth between my lenses, but I finally got some I was happy with. I ended up having to wait for the sun to go behind some clouds and that gave me some pictures that weren't so over exposed.

Waterfall with a "normal" shutter speed

Waterfall with a slower shutter speed but still not there

Waterfall with an even slower shutter speed, magical!

In hindsight I would have gone back and switched from JPEG to RAW to try and save some of the white tones,  I didn't realize I had switched it until we were getting ready to go home for the weekend.

I also had a lot of followers throughout the day, the chickens were especially interested in what all the clicking was about.

Julie and Lilly both followed me all around the farm, keeping watch over the chickens and running along the paths.

After all the running, picture taking, and prep work, we took a break on the new deck, enjoyed a bit of the warm weather, and took in all the changes that come along with spring. Lilly is such a ham and enjoyed sitting on the deck with her Mr. Grandpa.

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more pictures and posts

Great Weekend for a Horseback Riding Lesson and Some Much Needed Barn Time

This weekend the weather was gorgeous and on top of that I even had some time to go horseback riding and take a lesson at one of my favorite barns, Legacy Farm in Telford, PA.

I started riding at Legacy Farm during my second year of optometry school, taking lessons on the weekends and eventually half leasing a horse once I had more time after taking boards. Their riding program is awesome and they have such nice and suitable horses for every level.

I was so happy to be able to stop by and spend time with everyone and was able to take some cute pictures of their four legged friends.

Enjoy!

Be sure to follow me on instagram @rocky092 for more equestrian and horse related posts