Ephram's Bowtie Birthday Bash

Our little man's 1st birthday was this weekend.  It's hard to believe how quickly the year has passed.

 

We celebrated in classy style with friends & family & threw him a Bowtie Bash!

 

Here are some* pictures from the day! 

 (*and by some I mean a TON!)

 

 the spread

 

 bowtie fruit kabobs

 

 cookies from old drum bakery

 

 

delicious cupcakes & cake from my sweet & talented friend!

 

bowtie pesto

 

smash cake (grain & dairy-free)

 

 

 

birthday poster & invitations by Kelley Cummins Design

 

 

 

  

Our little family all bow-tied up (well, dad's wasn't quite tied up yet!)

 



 

 

 

 

 

favors

 



Ben & I were overwhelmingly blessed to celebrate our little man with family & friends this weekend. And Ephram, though experiencing his first sugar high, enjoyed every minute of it :)

a week in review

 

This week started on a high note, celebrating my first Mother's Day with my two favorite guys.  We went out for a delicious brunch & then they spoiled me with an afternoon of shopping.  The icing on the cake was running into this guy, JD, whom we haven't seen in over a year!  What a blessing! Unplanned reunions are the best :)

 

 

 

I also made my first attempt at goat cheese this week & was quite pleased!  More of that to come, for sure!

 

 

As if Mother's Day wasn't enough, my thoughtful husband took E out for the day so I could get some sewing & cleaning done.  What a guy.  Oh & they came back bearing flowers.  What a winning team, and handsome, I might add.

Ephram was very pleased with his father-son outing; he was all-smiles :)

 



 

 

And although I missed them dearly, I was able to get this cute little wreath made for a friend/customer & worked on some of these. 

 

 

Happy Friday!

Curried Pork Burgers

 

 

 

So there was this one time when we bought 1/2 a hog and didn't know what to do with all this newly acquired pork.  Buying portions of animals for eating is a lovely luxury of our area.  We have also purchase a 1/4 of a cow, which by the way, is a mammoth amount of meat.  It's a learning curve each time we do it, as I am not familiar with all the different cuts, etc...

 

Our pork has proved to be the most challenging for me as I just really don't cook a lot of pork period.  What does it go with? What are good flavors to use in cooking it?  All great questions.  None of which, I knew the answers to. With this particular hog, we also got a ton of ground pork, which is not something you see everyday at the supermarket, so again, I had no idea what to do with it.

 

Insert Curried Pork Burgers from Better Homes and Gardens. When I saw this recipe I had to try it, for the shear fact that it calls for ground pork, and seriously, how many people have that on hand? It was our first grill out of the season & we were quite pleased with the results!

Here is our adapted version of BHG Curried Pork Burgers.

What you'll need:

1/4 cup spectrum organic mayonnaise

1/4 tsp. curry powder

1 lb. ground pork

1/4 cup minced shallots

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp. curry powder

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper

Burger buns (we used Rudi's Organic)

Toppings: shredded red cabbage, tomato, goat cheese, avocado

 

 

Here's what you'll do:

Combine mayo and 1/4 tsp. curry powder in a small bowl and set aside. In a larger bowl combine pork, shallot, garlic, 1 tsp. curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper & red pepper. Fire up the grill & form your patties. We make ours pretty thin so we were able to get about 6-7 patties out of the recipe but for thicker patties you would probably get about 4 out of this.

Grill patties in a covered grill for 14-18 minutes. Grill buns. Top with mayo & assorted toppings & enjoy!

A perfect spring/summer meal!  We enjoyed ours with carrots & hummus on the side but I also thought kale chips would be a good accompaniment!