Rebellious

Shirt - Anthro; Skirt - Anthro; Shoes - Urban; Belt - old ???; Toes - OPI (The "It" Color) 

Date: Sunday, May 29, 2011

Now that I'm done talking about my shower, we can go back to our regular scheduled program. Let's talk about how I look really pregnant one day, and not so pregnant the next. Or, let's talk about how I'm mixing two prints, and mixing black and brown. I'm such a rebel! Really though, making whole people disappear (yes, I'm referring to my child), and mixing all of those no no's...I think I got chills!

Time of my life (part 2)

As I stated in Part 1, I forgot to take pictures, I know, EPIC FAIL!!! However, one of my line sisters came through and designated herself to be the resident photographer. The pictures don't include everyone, but there's a lot of us nonetheless.

There were about 50 people who came out to the shower, a fun time was had by all. Additionally, all of my friends and I went to Bar 7 in DC after the shower. Idris Elba was there too, he's actually just as fine in real life as he is on screen.

I danced for the first hour or so, and then parked it on a nice comfy couch as one of my homeboys designated himself to be my own watch man. He checked on me throughout the night to get me water, and to make sure I was enjoying myself. I seriously have the best friends, EVER - I'm truly blessed!

Time of my life (part 1)

My baby shower was this past Memorial Day weekend. The shower brought together lots of my high school and college friends, family and truly will be a wonderful memory for me to share with Naja. I hadn't seen some of my friends in OVER two years, and folks flew in from all over: California, Upstate NY, Indiana, North Carolina and more. At the end of the day, I felt blessed to have the friends and family that I have. I know Naja is going to be a lucky girl with about 20 extended aunts and uncles.

I'm going to break the shower up into two posts: 1. Shower details (food, et al) and 2. Party pics. This post will feature Part 1: Food, et al.

My mom threw me the shower, and I probably had a little more involvement with everything than you normally see...however, I'm really hands on, I love to be involved and busy - so I loved every part of it!  The theme was, "Round and Poppin'" and the colors were brown, pink and green. We tied the theme in with the shower game gifts, and gift bags, and the decorations. My mom knows how much of a foodie I am, so she let me plan the menu. We served the following:
*Anything with an asterisk has previously been featured on the blog, and is linked.

Appetizers
Zucchini Roll Ups*
Bruschetta*

Main Dish
Curried Tuna Salad*
Emerils's Chicken Salad SS: Link to recipe from foodnetwork.com
Fried Chicken
Deviled Eggs
Smoked Provolone Pasta Salad (see below)
Very Berry Fruit Salad SS: Link to recipe from foodnetwork.com
Cucumber Salad SS: Link to recipe from foodnetwork.com

Drinks
Red Wine Sangria
White Wine Sangria
 Mom's Punch

Dessert
Cake from Brown Betty

The cake got a little messed up in the commute from Philly to VA, nonetheless, I loved it! Unfortunately, I was so busy talking my head off at the shower, I forgot to take pictures of pretty much everything. However, I do have one picture of the Smoked Provolone Pasta Salad (with some of the cucumbers), so I'll go ahead and share that recipe.

Smoked Provolone and Penne Salad

Source: Whole Foods Market Cook Book

Serves 8, Adapted to serve 60+

Ingredients 

THE PARMESAN DRESSING

2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups chopped parsley

4 cups mayonnaise

2 cups white wine vinegar  SS: I would use less next time, perhaps 1 3/4 cup, we had to adjust this by adding a lot more pepper because the vinegar was very strong

1 bulb garlic, minced (~ 2 tablespoons)

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

THE SALAD

4 pounds penne pasta

6 cups packed baby spinach, washed and stemmed

4 16-oz jars roasted red peppers, diced

3 pounds smoked provolone cheese, diced

Directions 

TO PREPARE THE PARMESAN DRESSING

Combine the Parmesan cheese, parsley, mayonnaise, vinegar, garlic, cayenne pepper, and salt and pepper with a hand mixer or in the bowl of food processor or in a blender until the dressing is smooth.

TO PREPARE THE SALAD

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasts until it is al dente. Drain the pasta into a colander, run cold water over it or submerge it in ice water until chilled through, and drain well. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cooked pasta, spinach, roasted red peppers, and smoked provolone.

Toss the salad with the dressing. Serve immediately. *You may make this salad up to 2 days ahead of time; just add the spinach and dressing before serving. The pasta base keeps perfectly well for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

My mom made the Chicken Salad, my uncle made the fried chicken and deviled eggs, and I prepared everything else on the menu. I also had lots of friends help out the day of with preparation. Many thanks to Steve, Ashley M., Ashley H. and Danielle - seriously,  you guys are AWESOME!

Gift Bags
In addition to preparing the food, I also helped out with the gift bags. Each guest received a bag with hand-painted pink and green circles, packed with a "Baby CD Mix", AKA songs with the word "baby" in the title, and a set of cookies that spelled out "N-A-J-A." I printed out labels for all of the CDs and added some polka dots along with the list of songs on the CD. I baked about 200+ cookies total, and I iced them myself. The green color wasn't what I expected, but this was also my first time using food coloring with icing. I made the cookies from here, and used the icing referred to here.

OK, I think that's A LOT for one post, since this is a blog with a bit of everything, I did want to share some things, but I'm leaving out some details. If you have more specific questions, ask away!

Comedy Show...Two Weeks Later

Mrs. J asked me if I was going to post pics from the Comedy Show mentioned in my "Smile" post, and well...I WAS going to post them on Friday, 5/13, but that was the day that Blogger was down. So I took it as a day off. THEN, I was going to post the pics last Friday on 5/20, BUT I was at home in VA, and the pictures were on my computer in Philly. So for this Friday, I'm in VA, however I planned ahead and compiled pics from the comedy show. Why? Because this vintage dress was just too pretty not to share more, and because of the cause - supporting the Community Partnership School (CPS). I'm all for quality education in black and brown communities - it's very necessary!

...the cocktail hour where I had a sweet potato sundae with sweet and plain mashed potatoes topped with smothered mushrooms and blue cheese.

...the stage where the children performed a tribute to Dr. Cosby.

..the friend who made it happen!

*The dress is a hand me down from my aunt, which makes it vintage (???) - it's probably from the 80's - sorry that I have no full-length pics.

Just to recap, since I mentioned this AGES AGO, my best gal pal received a handful of complimentary tickets to a Comedy Show featuring Bill Cosby in support of the Community Partnership School. We went, ate, drank, laughed, and supported the children. It was a great cause considering that all of the children at CPS come from low-income neighborhoods, and CPS is a feeder elementary school for a lot of the well-known private high schools in the Philly area (Penn Charter, Germantown Academy, etc.). It truly shows that it doesn't matter where you're from - brilliance is everywhere. All of the children are sponsored to attend, so it costs their parents nothing. All in all - this was a wonderful event for a great cause.

If you didn't know - I have a big heart for philanthropy and community activism, so this kind of thing is right up my alley. For more information on supporting CPS, click here. Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Panko Crusted Asparagus with Soy-Ginger Drizzle

This weekend, my mom is throwing me a baby shower. A lot of my friends from high school and college are flying in, along with a handful of my mom's friends. I'm super excited to see everyone. knowing my love for food, my mom asked me to help plan the menu for the shower. This asparagus was one of the options I considered for an appetizer, but it was later nixed. I previewed the asparagus for my cousin last Saturday to taste it. We both loved it! This is a great healthy appetizer for a party - many thanks to Dana for sharing the recipe with her followers! One note - these are messy, and I think they are  best served warm, that's why we nixed it.

Roasted Sesame and Panko Coated Asparagus with Soy-Ginger Drizzle

Source: Bon Appétit via Dana - Treat Yourself

Serves 4-6

Ingredients 

¼ cup mayonnaise

4 teaspoons unseasoned rice vinegar, divided

3 teaspoons soy sauce, divided

1 ¼ teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger, divided


1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

¼ cup sesame seeds

1 pound thick asparagus spears, trimmed, bottom 2/3 of each spear peeled

1 teaspoon golden brown sugar


1 teaspoons chili-garlic sauce

½ teaspoons sesame oil

Directions 

Preheat oven to 450°F. Oil large rimmed baking sheet. Whisk mayonnaise, 1 teaspoon rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon soy sauce, and 1 teaspoon grated ginger in pie dish. Mix panko and sesame seeds in another pie dish. Toss asparagus in mayonnaise mixture to coat, then roll in panko mixture. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons sesame oil. Roast until browned, turning once, about 16 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk 1 teaspoon water, brown sugar, chili-garlic sauce, remaining 3 teaspoons vinegar, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, ¼ teaspoon ginger, and ¼ teaspoon sesame oil in small bowl for sauce. Transfer asparagus to platter, drizzle with sauce.

Too bad my friends will miss out on this one. I'll have lots of pics from the shower next week - expect food, friends, fashion and more to come - I can hardly wait!

Animal Keeper

Dress (worn as top) - Fcuk; Pants - Limited (c. 2004); Shoes - Anthro; Necklace - Anthro; Bracelet - Anthro; Headband - Anthro; Ring - J. Crew; Earrings - Anthro

Date: Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I just piled on the accessories today because I was feeling rather plain with just the top and cargo pants. This is a perfect example of how accessories can take a plain dress (turned tee) and pants, and add some EMPHASIS! I call myself the Animal Keeper today, because the bracelet reminds me of an elephant's tusks - don't worry, it's not an actual tusk - it's earthy, and it's filled with child-like shapes of elephants, turtles, seals and more! Additionally, my headband, though discrete is actually a leopard-like print. I can't stray far away from mixing prints - it's one of my loves of fashion!

Remix
This dress was in my 30 for 30 Challenge, so I've worn it a lot. I put a mini collage of the various remixes below.

Do you like seeing me reference previous remixes? Do you prefer me to link it to the remix post, or the collage like the one above. If you like the collage, I'll try to comply :). PS - I was 3+ months preggo in the last pic!

Whoa belly!

Dress - Anthro (2009)?; Blazer - Anthro (2009); Shoes - Macy's (2008)

Date: Sunday, May 22, 2011

First off - how did I even fit into this dress? I'm still not sure about that, but I think this is probably the LAST time I would have been able to wear it. Honestly - it was a bit tight, but it wasn't unbearable. I don't know what's up with people inviting me to all of these formal/nice clothing required events while I'm pregnant. LOOK - NOTHING FITS (how I want)!!! It's like my belly just pops right out and says "HELLO!" In this last week - it's really popped out there. Sorry, about the slight rant-tangent.

On Sunday, my aunt was honored at her church for being the "Woman of the Year." I was happy to be able to show her support because she is AMAZING, and I love her to pieces *MUAH* - that's for you Aunt Kim :). Her church is a little more traditional than mine, thus I had to dress up, again. Two dressed up outfits at 30+ weeks pregnant...I don't know how I might make nice outfits work as I get bigger, I better get my creative juices flowing!

Random SN: Is it just me, or is everyone expecting? Ashley just made an announcement, and so did Sydney, while I don't know them in real life...two friends from my bball team are expecting, one of my line sisters is also expecting, and another two friends just had little girls in March. I guess that's what happens when you get a lot of snow during the winter...you get a lot of babies in the summer and fall.

Remix
See the blazer here.