Â
Happy Halloween everyone, and get ready for a photo heavy post! Â (But never fear, I still managed to include a recipe…)
Karen and Eric are our amazing friends here in San Diego and we couldn’t be happier for them that they are expecting their 1st baby! Â We met almost 2 years ago to the date at a dinner party for our husband’s work (they worked together at the time). Â And of course Karen and I immediately hit it off after discovering a mutual love of Jane Austen and Anne of Green Gables.
Becoming fast “bosom friends,” we joined a book club together and the rest has been history. Â So naturally, me being me, I decided to pull out all the stops and plan a baby shower at Mission Bay here in San Diego. Â This is the event that I have been working on for the better part of a month, and I have to say, it turned out pretty spectacular. Â
Most everything at the shower was a DIY project, but I did rent some tables and chairs and we purchased table linens. Â (Believe it or not, purchasing was cheaper than renting…?)
I used kraft paper to make table runners and filled small galvanized buckets with flowers purchased the day-of at Trader Joes.
The favors were little mini pumpkin pies that I baked ahead of time and put in little boxes for the guests.The dessert table Karen’s mom and I both contributed to. Â Her mom made the classic Peanut- butter blossoms, and brought cupcakes. Â And I made the brownies, peanut brittle, and little mini pumpkin-spice cakes.
One of our other friends, Katrina, helped with the set up (she was amazing!). Â Here’s a photo of her setting up photos of Eric and Karen when they were babies!
We did cater the meat for the BBQ from Phils BBQ here in San Diego. Â It’s probably one of the more famous restaurants around here and they do an amazing job. Â We ended up just getting the meat from them, and I made all the sides.
So we had BBQ ribs, chicken, pulled pork. Â And I made my mom’s amazing Baked Bean recipe (see below), vinegar-based coleslaw, mac and cheese, and corn muffins. Â And we had some watermelon for a side of fruit.
I found these cute book-ends for the nursery and the guests gave children’s books to Eric and Karen in lieu of a card.
I made sperm bean-bags (lol) for playing corn hole and one of Karen’s close friends provided the corn hole boards.
Spiced cider that I purchased from Whole Foods was a huge hit.
Aren’t they just the cutest?
We were lucky and had a wonderful sunset just as the event was ending.
All in all the event went off without a hitch and we had such a great time! Â If you have any questions about any of the DIY projects that I did here feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to explain.
Enjoy your Halloween everyone!!
Mom's Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 48 oz jar of Great Northern Beans
- 1/2 lb bacon
- 1 onion diced
- 2 tablespoons molasses
- 2/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Heinz Ketchup
- 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- In a skillet, render your bacon in it's own fat. When crispy, set aside to drain on a paper towel.
- In the remaining bacon fat, saute the onion until translucent.
- Into an oven-safe dutch oven, pour the Great Northern Beans with their juices.
- Using a slotted spoon, add the onions, letting the bacon fat drain a bit before adding.
- Next, use your hands to crumble the bacon into the beans.
- Add the molasses, brown sugar, ketchup, and mustard.
- Stir well.
- Cover and bake for 2 hours, stirring 1-2 times during the cooking process.
- Serve warm or cold.
7 comments
Wow, Sarah! What a beautiful celebration of your friendship and new life n the way! Awesome, and thanks for sharing! You go girl!
You have out down yourself Sarah and mom’s baked beans look so good. A perfect baby shower!
Why did I have to miss this event again???
As always, pictures are amazing!
<3
Nice food on that baby shower. When I get invited in such events we never had fab food like those.
What a lovely spot for a baby shower! Everything looked perfect.
Absolutely perfect! You did a wonderful job and totally jealous of your picnic weather there 🙂 Loving these baked beans, too. One of my favourites, so will definitely try your Mom’s recipe!
Oh wow, looks like you did a spectacular job at planning and hosting the baby shower, girlfriend!! Seriously, everything looked just perfect, including that sunset! And I love your party favors! As for baked beans, OMG, I could eat them every day!! Obviously I MUST try your mom’s recipe!!! They look delicious!! Gimme gimme! Cheers, friend!