My Dad's wedding reception - 50's style!

A few posts back, in late August, I announced that my dad had gotten remarried. Well, at the end of September, my sister Suzanne and I threw him and his new wife Mili a 50's style wedding reception at my house. We had about 125 guests -it was so much fun! We figured that since they met in high school in the 50's, they (and their friends) might enjoy a walk down memory lane. It was a really fun theme to go with.

Suzanne & I wanted to be in the true party spirit, so we got matching outfits! We didn't mind looking ridiculous - it was fun!



And here's a shot of Suzanne's family - the boys were such cute greasers. We didn't have any hair gel on hand so we used coconut oil! It did the trick. :-)



Rich even dug out his letterman's jacket. (How many of you know that Rich was a record holding swimmer back in his day? Yeah, quite the stud. Can you see the dates on his jacket?)







Stephanie and Lindsay looked great in their poodle skirts!






We set up a "photo op" for those who wanted a fun picture.



I think it was mostly the kids that had fun with it...











The bride and groom.



And some of us didn't really need a 'photo op' to ham it up. Love this pic of my sis - she's so fun.

The party started at 5:00 pm and we had Route 66 cater dinner. They showed up around 3:30 and started cooking tri tip, ribs, and chicken over a red oak wood fire barbecue. It smelled so good and the food tasted amazing. I highly recommend them- they exceeded my expectations in every way. They also served Caesar salad, mashed potatoes, creamed corn, and garlic bread which was all super delish. They were fantastic.

We set up the yard with round tables and bubble gum pink tablecloths. Our centerpieces were vintage glass sundae cups filled with Good 'n Plenty candies, which we put on top of an old 45 record. We tied helium balloon bouquets on, but they got blown around so much in the breeze that we had to cut them off right before dinner!

We served old fashioned sodas in bottles. Glad to find these and root beer in bottles at Smart and Final.



Inside the house, we set up a "Sweet Shoppe" with vintage candy for favors. I have always wanted to do this! Suzanne's son Austin made the darling sign for us.

We found some fun vintage candy jars at thrift stores.



Most of this vintage candy was easily found at Smart and Final. We did make a trip to Rocket Fizz in Burbank to supplement a bit, and to get some other old time candy to decorate with.





Dad and Mili liked the old time candies.



Austin also made us some adorable signs for our "diner desserts" buffet.




For dessert, we had pies and cakes which we served on our fabulous homemade cake stands.



The table looked awesome!







Suzanne and I did make some cakes so we could have a formal cake cutting. She made red velvet and I made carrot. We did them 3 layers each so they'd look like the tall diner cakes of old. We used this one for the cake cutting. Isn't it cute? My sister decorated it and I found some vintage decorations on ebay.



Mili arranged for a DJ to play 50's music and we turned our basketball court into an impromptu dance floor. The 70-something crowd were darling dancing to the songs of their day. Here my dad had a few words to say to all the guests. The DJ and his music really made the party special.





And I think the bride and groom had a few words for each other as well. :-)



Mili found the cutest dress to wear - aren't they so cute together?



And they had such a great time visiting with a lot of longtime friends.




The guests seemed to enjoy dinner. The weather couldn't have been nicer for an outdoor party.



After dinner, we had the cutting of the cake on the front porch.



It started off nice with Mili giving my dad a nice little bite of cake.





But then my dad decided to have a little fun. He looked at me and I gave him the thumbs up to DO IT! I think Mili knew it coming by the look in his eyes...



Smash!



Yes, these are 70-ish aged people. Love it.



At least Mili was a really good sport!



We were so happy to be able to celebrate with our Dad.



Before the evening ended, Dad got a dance with his new wife. They danced to "At Last."



We love them and wish them many happy years together.

Photography credits go to the lovely Emma Leigh Harasick

Life as I know it....

...is gonna change for a short season.

I have been seated as a juror on a "high profile civil case" at the L.A. County Courtroom for a 5 week trial.

Yes, you heard me - FIVE weeks.

I think I'm pretty much over the initial shock, as I had much time to ponder its effects on my life during this week's lengthy and tedious jury selection. The court initially seated twelve potential jurors into the jury box out of a large pool of at least eighty prescreened people. I have no idea how they got their first twelve and assume it was most likely random. I was not selected in that group so I sat in the jury room for two days listening to attorneys on both sides ask endless questions of the group.

Not knowing exactly how the process worked, I did figure however, that these twelve would probably not end up being the final jury. Sure enough, one by one, about half of them were excused and the empty seats began to be filled by people from my group. It didn't take long until my name was called and I entered the jury box for personal examination and cross examination from the attorneys.

Unfortunately for me, they must have liked my responses to their questioning. After I was seated, many others were excused and replaced, but I remained firmly in my seat. I have to admit I was secretly hoping that I would hear the familiar words spoken to me "the court would like to thank and excuse Karen Harasick"... but the words never came. And after four days, the attorneys agreed on the jury and we were sworn in. After standing to be sworn in, the twelve of us sat down, all looking a bit shocked and dazed, though no one dared to let out any audible signs of the reality that our lives had just been turned upside down.

So, I'm a "workin' woman" as Rich says. I leave the house at 7:30 am to battle traffic and be at the courthouse at 8:45 am. I leave the courtroom at 4:30 pm daily, and then battle traffic once again to arrive home around 5:30 pm. A very strange life for a woman who has been a homemaker for 22 years. Just putting on makeup every day is strange enough for me!

I am thankful for God's grace in it all. First of all, I was sicker than a dog this week when we began jury selection. My several ailments were keeping me up at night which resulted in me being dead tired and highly symptomatic in the courtroom. Do you know what it is like to cough, sneeze, and blow your nose every 2 minutes in a solemn and quiet court of law? Embarrassing would be an understatement. I finally went to the urgent care Wednesday night (I despise antibiotics so I tried to wait it out) for an infection I suspected, and the doctor told me what I thought was an additional infection was just bad allergies. She suggested Claritin and it really helped. The next day, one of the jurors commented to me "the courtroom is so quiet - are you feeling better?" I'm glad to know I was so discreet. :-) Anyways, everything is working now, and I'm sleeping again and feeling much better. I haven't been sick for at least 10 years - I forgot how miserable it can be!

I am also thankful, though I would honestly rather be doing something else with my time, at this time I am able to serve. I am also thankful for all the years that I raised my children and homeschooled them that I was able to avoid jury service. That was a huge blessing! It is kind of ironic that now that the kids are off at school, Master's Kids is well on its way and I've stepped back a bit, and my dad's party is through, that I now have this. I thought I'd be settling into a new kind of life with more free time... so much for that!

Oh, and one of the biggest blessings of all about it? Rich works a block away from the courthouse and I have a 1 1/2 hour lunch break everyday! This week we had lunch 3 times - so fun! He is so excited, borderline giddy I'd say, about the prospect of having me downtown. And I'm glad that I have something to brighten my day as well!

So, I'm sorry to say that the blog may be a little quiet the next month or so, since I obviously can't talk about the trial and my homemaking will be limited to survival mode. I'm wishing everyone a happy, cozy fall! Blessings!

Inexpensive Fall Decorating Idea

I'm so excited that it's Fall! I made a trip to Trader Joe's yesterday for all kinds of pumpkins for my front porch and house, and today Rich unloaded my box of Fall decor from the attic. I'm so in the mood to decorate and bake anything and everything with pumpkin.:-) I think I went a little crazy as my pantry has about a dozen cans of pumpkin in it!

Last Saturday, my sister and I threw a very fun 50's style wedding reception for our dad and his new wife, Mili (I hope to blog on that as soon as I score the pictures from Emma). For dessert we wanted to serve diner-style cakes and pies on cake stands, but found that we didn't have enough between the two of us (we needed 12!). So, while thrift store shopping one day, we decided to make our own cake stands using candlesticks and plates. I think we spent about $10 for 7 cake stands! My sister took everything home and used a special glue made to adhere glass to glass to put them together. She said it took her about 5 minutes to do them all! Score! They turned out awesome.

And, the benefit of making them for the party was that we also got to keep them! I found a few cute ways to use them for easy and inexpensive Fall decor.

This tall one was actually made using a clear Pyrex pie plate. I love these adorable Sugar Pie pumpkins.



This stand is one of my favorites. We made two like this, so we each got one.



This larger one is perfect as a centerpiece for my dining room table. A great way to display my freshly made apple cider candle, too. Yum!



Other thrift store finds make cute pumpkin holders.



And of course, vintage glassware proves to be a great way to display the ridiculous amount of candy I buy at this time of year. I still get excited when I see these come into the store!



Rich's fave.



And ice cream sundae cups are perfect for M & M's. We used a dozen of these (all different ones from thrift stores) for the party table centerpieces. We filled them with Good 'n Plenty candies and used them to anchor our helium balloon bouquets. Now my sister and I will both have a set of charmingly mismatched sundae cups to use for serving dessert.

25 years ago today...

....Rich whisked me off to San Diego and proposed marriage at George's at the Cove restaurant in La Jolla! We actually went by plane - it was a short but fun ride. As we went through security at LAX, my engagement ring in his pocket (which happened to be in a metal box) triggered the metal detector and Rich had to discreetly show it to the security officer... I kind of already knew what was going on and that it was "the day" but that was the clincher. :-) We had an exquisite meal at George's and after a long and sentimental expression of his love, he handed me the ring. I just looked at him and finally he remembered, "oh yeah, will you marry me?" As you well know the answer was a resounding "yes!"

We've been back to George's a few times over the years - most recently at our 20 year anniversary in which we stayed at the amazing Lodge at Torrey Pines (a beautiful craftsman style resort which went on to inspire our living room and all our pine cone light fixtures outside). We decided, on the 25th anniversary of the day this year, to go down and spend the day in San Diego and have dinner there once again. Due to my pending jury duty service, we were able to get away Monday and it was a delightful time.

The plan was to first hit one of Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives for lunch. We had been to Hodad's in Ocean Beach once before - getting take out while we were camping several summers ago in San Diego with the Tubbs. It was so busy when we went that time, that I think it took 45 minutes to get our burgers! This time, we decided to get the full experience and dine inside the restaurant.

Their specialty is really their bacon burger. They don't just lay slices of bacon across the burger either, like most you've seen. They make actual thick bacon "patties" which are as big as the burger. In the picture below, it looks like there are two patties on the burger, but one is really just the bacon layer! I love it that they serve "frings" (half fries/half onion rings) and we were sure to order some real Cokes to go with. The burgers are good, but I can't say that they make my top 3 list of burgers (In my opinion, the Apple Pan, Pie 'n Burger, and Bob's Big Boy still rule).

Check the place out! I am pretty sure this one falls under the category "dives."

I convinced Rich to sit at the table that was fashioned out of a hacked off VW Microbus! So fun!

It is very hard to get your mouth around this burger! See the bacon layer?

After stuffing ourselves, we decided to park the car and take a walk around Mission Bay. The weather was so delightful that we ended up sitting on a park bench for over an hour just watching the sailboats on the bay. It was just so pleasant! We then headed over to La Jolla and drove to a vista point that had panoramic city views, grabbed an iced tea at Starbucks, visited some seals at the beach, and drove around some charming yet stunning neighborhoods in La Jolla. We arrived at our anticipated dinner destination around 6:00 p.m.

Goofy self portrait.

We had fun watching the seals! They were so entertaining. When a wave would come, they'd arch their backs, and put up their heads and tails for leverage.



Do you see this cutie? I love the way he looked right into the camera!

One of the amazing homes we drove by.

Beautiful gate. Would have loved to have seen the estate behind it!

So much charm!



Finally, time for dinner! George's has three levels - we like the "California Modern" level downstairs. They gave us a beautiful ocean front table and a complimentary bottle of artisan olive oil as a gift in honor of our celebration. They do things right here.



We began by sharing this gorgeous ceviche appetizer.



This was my entree! Isn't it breathtaking? Seared rare tuna over carrot-miso puree, spectacular veggies mixed with fresh ginger and a tangerine butter. Definitely one of the most appealing and delicious plates I've ever been served. Almost too beautiful to eat. But no worries, I ate every bite.



Here's Rich's entree - a tender braised lamb shank over corn risotto, roasted squash, and a feta salsa verde. Amazing dish as well. The meat was fall-off-the-bone tender and ultra-flavorful due to the braising. And the risotto was done right.



Boy am I glad my dinner entree was so nice and light. Here's our killer dessert. Fresh, warm cinnamon-sugar encrusted yeast donuts with four different dipping sauces: deep chocolate infused with orange, espresso caramel, mascarpone whipped cream, and chocolate hazelnut mousse. They were all incredible. Fried dough with cinnamon is pretty much my favorite thing on earth, so these sure floated my boat! This was paired with a most delicious cup of coffee - divine. Seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten.

I am so grateful for the beautiful day we could get away and celebrate our marriage - we have much to celebrate as God has blessed us so richly. And, I am infinitely more grateful for the man God has given me to spend every day of my life with. After 25 years, I can truly say I love and appreciate Rich more and more with each passing day, and after all these years, I can recognize in a deeper way what a gracious gift from God he is. There's no one I'd rather have by my side than him. Blessed.

Here we are September 28, 1986 - I think I'm trying to show off the rock!

25 years later on September 26, 2011

Rich wanted me to mention that my hair hasn't changed a bit, but that his has :-)

Easiest Homemade Bread ever!

Don't think you can make this bread? You can, and in just 5 minutes a day!

Remember the bread machine craze? I remember Rich taking me to some warehouse out in Woodland Hills to get a refurbished DAK machine, oh probably almost 20 years ago. It was a beast and took up half the kitchen! The funny thing about it was, that it made a tall round loaf (I think the later models made rectangular ones which made more normal looking sandwich slices). The machine was actually a lot of fun to use, though. I particularly enjoyed the "dough cycle" setting, where the machine would do all the work for you, then you could use the dough it as you wish. Some of my favorite things to make were crescent rolls, pizza dough, and cinnamon rolls.

Well, eventually, the bread machine quit and I never replaced it. Sometime after that I got a KitchenAid mixer, and I tried to make bread a few times in that. However, I always sensed that the KitchenAid wasn't quite up to the task (I don't have the heavy duty one). Maybe it was the smell of what seemed like the poor overworked motor burning up that caused me to set aside breadmaking, but I just kind of stopped making dough and bread completely.

The situation was so dire that I had turned to Trader Joe's for my pizza dough and Costco for La Brea breads...I needed help.

Enter in, this little miracle book:

My sister had told me that a girlfriend of ours had been using the method in this book with great success. She tried it as well, and raved, so I decided to give it a try myself. I checked the book out of the library, and felt quite skeptical as I read. All you do is mix flour, yeast, oil and salt (no kneading), stick it in a container, and refrigerate. Any time that you want to bake bread, you tear off a chunk (1 lb. of dough), rise it on the counter for 40 minutes, and bake. I had to try it. It was about 9:00 at night and I was in my pajamas but I got myself up off the sofa and made the dough (you have to let it sit on the counter for 2 hours first) and put it in the fridge. The dough needs to sit in the fridge at least overnight before first using it. So, I got up bright and early the next day, put my bread out to rise (it takes 40 min.) and baked it for breakfast. I will not tell you how much of the loaf I ate. (OK, half.) Anyways, it was SO amazing. I could not believe how easy it was, and how good it tasted.

I will let you know that you need a baking stone for this method. I have an old trusty, well-seasoned Pampered Chef one that I make pizza on all the time. Also, since you preheat the stone in the oven, you are supposed to rise your bread on a pizza peel and slide it on to the preheated stone. I don't have a peel so I just use parchment paper - it does the job perfectly. I simply place the dough, on the parchment, right onto the hot stone. After baking, you simply pull the parchment away and discard.

And, do you want to know what the greatest thing is? The batch makes enough dough for four loaves, and stays up to two weeks in your refrigerator. And, the dough gets better with each passing day. When the dough is gone, you don't even wash the container out! You just add the new dough batch to the remnants as they act like a sourdough starter would, giving the dough more flavor.

The book is full of all kinds of recipes. You can make pizza dough, foccacia, wheat bread, and even sticky pecan rolls with the many different doughs and recipes. Everything I've tried this far has been amazing. After such success, I decided I needed to buy this book and keep it forever. I also discovered that the authors have a second book, Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. So,I got that one too. I can't tell you how seldom I buy cookbooks but these are keepers. I cannot wait to try all the whole grain recipes. Who knows, maybe I'll even blog about them! :-) I can't wait for the cooler fall weather so I can make some soup and more of this yummy homemade bread.

Hey Holly...

Here's Holly & me... don't we look like dear old friends? Actually, this photo was taken on the first day that we ever met! Holly is a friend of my longtime friend, Tracy, and has been stalking reading my blog for awhile. She once recognized me at Disneyland - but instead of coming up and introducing herself, she called Tracy and gushed "I think I just saw the E-wife!! Find out if she's at Disneyland today!!" Anyways, it's been fun to have a fan and recently we finally got to meet in person. It truly did feel like we were already great friends when we met. Through Tracy, I know Holly is a godly woman and and I look forward to getting to know her better. I thought she'd blush a bit if she actually saw herself on my blog!! So, here's to you, Holly! Thanks, Tracy for the pic!

Good Reads

This summer, a friend introduced me to Goodreads.com - it's a neat site that you can review books that you've read, and best of all - read the reviews of friends that you trust for books you can read! You can have "friends" on Good Reads, and you can see all the books they've read and rated, as well as make a "to read" list for yourself. So, if you're a voracious reader, or just looking for a good vacation book, you can find what you're looking for. I recently put up a page there, so if you want to see some of my favorite reads, just click here!

My dad got married!

My devoted mother passed away almost 6 years ago, at the young age of 63, and my dad has found love again! This is Mili (a nickname for Mildred), and she is actually a friend of both my parents from long ago. She was in my mom's 2nd grade class and Girl Scout troop, and went to high school with my dad. My dad and her even signed each other's yearbooks - sentiments that are quite cute looking back. Anyways, they were each married more than 40 years to their respective spouses, my dad losing my mom suddenly to a heart problem 6 years ago, and Mili's losing her husband Ron, 2 years ago to cancer. Each have enjoyed children and grandchildren and lives that never intersected until about 6 or 7 so years ago, when Mili met my uncle at a voting poll in her neighborhood of Huntington Beach. She recognized the name Vida, and gave my uncle her telephone number to give to my folks. My parents actually ended up meeting with Mili and Ron and caught up on the years. Mili came to my mom's memorial service, and a few years later, she let my dad know about Ron's passing. Then, a few months ago, my dad suggested in just a friendly way that they might plan a time to meet for coffee, and as they say, the rest is history. They were married in a private ceremony yesterday in Catalina. My sister and I have the joy of throwing them a big 50's style reception at our home at the end of September.

Meeting Mili was like meeting someone who has known and loved you your whole life. We connected right away. She began by filling us in on her life story, showing us many family photos. She loves my dad dearly and that makes me very happy. He was widowed too young, and had a lot of love left to give, and so does she. I am happy that he won't have to be lonely anymore. I truly thank God for her, she will be a blessing. As she said to me recently, "I love you so much already!" And I feel the same.