San Diego Baby Shower + Mom’s Baked Beans

Happy Halloween everyone, and get ready for a photo heavy post!  (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!  We met almost 2 years ago to the date at a dinner party for our husband’s work (they worked together at the time).  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.  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.  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.  Most everything at the shower was a DIY project, but I did rent some tables and chairs and we purchased table linens.  (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.  Her mom made the classic Peanut- butter blossoms, and brought cupcakes.  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!).  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.  It’s probably one of the more famous restaurants around here and they do an amazing job.  We ended up just getting the meat from them, and I made all the sides.

So we had BBQ ribs, chicken, pulled pork.  And I made my mom’s amazing Baked Bean recipe (see below), vinegar-based coleslaw, mac and cheese, and corn muffins.  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!  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

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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.

Did you make this recipe? Head on over to Instagram and tag me @thegourmetgourmand or share on the hashtag #thegourmetgourmand. Happy cooking!