Hungry Anyone?

What's it people say? "Call me whatever you want. Just don't call me late for dinner!"

Some would say having a vegetarian to feed can make it difficult to come up with meals for everyone to enjoy. Well, I beg to differ! Although, that's probably because I'm the vegetarian! :o)

In all reality, it's actually very easy. The only difference is that you may have to dirty an extra dish or two. For example, when we have spaghetti for dinner at my house, I take a small pot to heat the sauce. In a larger pan, I brown the meat and add the sauce. The noodles don't get mixed in with the meat and sauce. It's that simple!

Now it is time to share one of my favorite meals with you.

Hickory Honey Smoked Veggies & Chicken

What you will need:

• Green Peppers
• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Mushrooms
• Chicken Tenderloins
• Kraft Hickory Honey Smoked BBQ Sauce
• Egg Noodles

As for quantities of each ingredient, I will leave that up to you. I base how many of each ingredient on how many people are eating. But, as a general rule of thumb, 1 of each vegetable is usually more then enough for every 2 people.

Now for the "how to" part and, to be honest, it's very easy...

- Cut up vegetables and place in aluminum tin. (Why an aluminum tin you ask? Two words: easy clean-up)

- Trim fat off chicken and place in separate aluminum pan.

- Add one bottle of Kraft Hickory Honey Smoked BBQ sauce to each tin.

- Once sauce has been added to veggies and chicken, cover (aluminum foil or plastic wrap) and place in refrigerator and allow to marinate over night.

Note: You don't have to marinate the veggies and chicken over night. I like to do it because it allows the veggies and chicken to really soak in the sauce!

- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

- Cook veggies for a hour and a half. Stir every 20 minutes or so.

- Cook chicken for a hour and fifteen minutes. Flip chicken half way through cook time.

- For the noodles, follow directions on package.

Time to eat! Enjoy!

I know this meal takes some time. But, it is so worth it. Plus, it really is very easy.

I hope you like it as much as I do!

Bon-Appetit!

-Vicki

Surprise!

Remember when I told you I love that my job allows me to use my creativity in so many ways? Well, I still stand by that 110%! But, every now and then I get a theme to work with that really does test my creativity and imagination to the limits. Thankfully, I have one heck of a team behind me to work with.

So, a few weeks back, we did a surprise party for a man turning 50! His wife gave us a list of his favorite things and told us to incorporate them into the decor elements. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, here's his list of favorite things and why.

• Tomatoes - Because he grows them in his vegetable garden
• Vegas - Because it's his favorite vacation spot
• Marbles - Because he likes to collect all different ones
• Crabs - Because he's from Maryland and, well, who from MD doesn't love them!

I must say, trying to come up with a look that incorporates all these ideas and keeping the look classy and appealing took some real creativity. If not done right, it could have been a disaster.

Here, take a look at what we came up with!

The entrance to the backyard : The entrance to the tent

The buffet tables

Cocktail Tables & Centerpieces

The Vegas Bar

The Crab Buffet Table

The Final Product!

Like I said, while this may seem like an odd combination of "favorites" to use as decorative inspiration, I really am happy with the way it all turned out. I sure hope you feel the same way!

Cheers,

-Vicki

OH... I ALMOST FORGOT!

This last picture is too cute not to share.

After we were all done setting up and in the process of getting ready for the party to start, the family dog decided to make himself the center of attention and sat down right in the middle of the red carpet entrance to the tent! It was so adorable!

Don't Forget Your Mask!

For an Eastern Shore college, what’s a better way to celebrate the school’s anniversary then with a huge blow out for the students, alum, faculty, and staff?

One thing I find to be very cool about this event is that the current students get to pick the theme. For previous themes they have had A Night at the Ritz, NY Club, and more. Last year the theme was Venetian Masquerade.

What I love about this event is that I really get to be creative with the floor plan and décor. The event takes place in the school’s field house. So, I have a very plain pallet to work with.

Because of the size of this event, we start setting up on Thursday. The event isn’t until Saturday! To start, I bring in 650’ of pipe & drape to run around the perimeter of the room. This hides the ugliness of the actually facility. It is an oversized sports complex.

Next, theatrical lighting is installed. There is a large truss structure that is built and flown from the ceiling to light the main event side of the room. For the bar, light trees are constructed to provide a wash of light. While the décor for the event really does bring another element of “WOW” to the night, the lighting is really what does it.

For the décor, let’s start with the bar area.

A 24’ square bar is built using 6’ tables. In the center of the bar, a large decorative display is built. For this theme, we went with a 3’ tall water fountain surrounded by ferns and other greens in gold urns. For an even bigger “POP” the display sat on top of a table to give it more height. The whole display sat about 6’ tall.

Twenty-five cocktail tables are placed sporadically around the bar area. The tables are dressed in linens whose colors compliment the theme. We alternated colors using burgundy and gold linens. For the cocktail tables centerpieces, they are very simple. We used small bubble bowls and square vases. In the vases were colored gems (gold on burgundy linen and burgundy on gold linen) and flowers. To make them sparkle a little more, small submersible LED light were placed in the vases to give them a nice glow.

Off to the main event room!

When I think of a Masquerade Ball, I see long rows of tables for guests to sit at. So, that’s exactly how I designed the floor plan. Again, the table linen alternated in color by row. The colors were burgundy and gold fuchsia. The style of linen that was picked is known as “galaxy.” I LOVE THIS LINEN! The best way to describe the linen is “crushed silk.” The sheen of the silk allows light to bounce off the linen and the crush gives a great texture.

For centerpieces, we had a total of 3 different ones. Centerpiece #1 consisted of varying masquerade masks with decorative ting and accents in an ornamental base. Centerpiece #2 and #3 were two different styles of candelabras.

The 10-piece band played on a 16’ x 32’ stage. The stage was dressed with a 20’ tall by 40’ wide Venetian themed, hand-airbrushed backdrop.

If all that weren’t enough, a 42’ square, black and white checkered dance floor sat right in front of the stage. Talk about WOW!

Each year, a large marquee piece is hung from the lighting truss directly over the center of the dance floor. I saved this for last because it was my favorite part and there are two reasons for that: reason #1 – it was really cool; reason #2 – I am the one the came up with the concept!

What we constructed was a 5’ wide by 7’ tall picture box. On each side of the box was an ornate picture frame with the image of a Venetian mask in it. Hanging below the picture box was a 4’ in diameter chandelier.

The chandelier I was lucky enough to find at a local prop house. As for the picture box, that had to be constructed from scratch. The frames were built in our warehouse. You can imagine my excitement when the first frame was completed. I was actually up on the worktable working of the frame and when the last screw was in place, I actually started dancing on the table to the music we had blaring in the background. It was such an awesome feeling to see my idea come to life!

I sure hope you find this event as awesome as I did! I can’t wait to start planning for next years and share all the details with you. I already have a ton of really cool ideas running through my head!

Cheers, -Vicki

Hold Your Horses!

I know! I know!

I kind of went MIA here for a little while and I'm sorry!

But, I'm back now.

I'm in the process of working on a new post about one of my favorite events that I have done.

If it's not up today/tonight, it will be up tomorrow!

Stay tuned!

-Vicki

Let's Eat!!

When it comes to breakfast time in this house, you better get yours quick or you're out of luck!

With my best friend in town from college, I made our favorite breakfast!

French toast stuffed with cream cheese and raisins

Apricot preserves and orange juice syrup

Old Bay and onion hash browns

For the stuffed french toast, what you need is:

• Bread
• Eggs
• Milk
• Cream Cheese
• Raisins

Defrost the cream cheese to soften it.  Mix in the raisins.

Spread the cream cheese and raisins between two slices of bread.

After beating the eggs and mixing in milk, dip both sides of the bread in the milk and eggs.

Be sure to spray the pan with Pam to keep the bread from sticking to the bottom.

Cook until golden brown on both sides.

For the syrup:

• Orange Juice
• Apricot Preserves

Simply mix Apricot Preserves and Orange Juice in a bowl.

For 1/2 cup of preserves, mix with 1/4 cup of OJ.

For 1 cup of preserves, mix 1/2 cup of OJ.

And so on...

For the hash browns:

• Bag of frozen hash browns
• Old Bay
• Minced Onion

Spray pan with Pam and pour desired amount of hash browns into pan.

As for the minced onion and Old Bay, add to pan while cooking.

It's up to you how much to use.  The more onion and Old Bay, the more of a kick it will have.

I'm sorry to say, I don't have any pictures of what the final meal looked like.  When you're cooking for 5 people, it's gone before you have a chance.

I'm sure I will be making this for breakfast again very soon!  I will do what I can to get a picture next time, but I can't make any promises with the way people scarf food up around this house!

In the meantime,

Bon-Appetit!

-Vicki  :o)