Showers of Happiness

For a bit of a change, I wanted to commemorate the baby shower we had at the house for my mom's friend Charissa from work who is having a baby girl in December. It was celebratory of other things as well, in what my mother referred to as the first "happy party" we had in the house since my Dad died. We spent weeks cleaning the house and preparing the menu. As usual, I planned enough menu items for 30, when we were only about 12.

Unfortunately, we were both left having to work late the night before forcing us to rush around cooking up until the moment Charissa walked in the door to her surprise party.

What kept us sane was everyone at the party contributed food...and we were flexible enough to ditch some of the "cute" ideas as we went (i.e. chicken salad sounds great in a lettuce cup, but sometimes you just have to get down to business).

We proved to ourselves that we can still put on a pretty good party...

that no one will ever leave our house hungry...

and that you really can put on a great baby shower without any goofy games whatsoever. We are all so excited for Baby Mackenzie (aka Baby Mango) to arrive we can't wait to meet her!

Notably, I think our recipe triumphs of the day were the Mediterranean barley salad:

Ina Garten's Lemon Bars (which I successfully made without burning the house down and putting the new juicer to good use for the second time):

And today's featured recipe of the day, Shrimp Canapes (which I somehow couldn't manage to remember to get a picture of all by itself). We tested this recipe as it was originally written by Claire Robinson from the Food Network, and made the necessary changes featured here to make it a more well-rounded appetizer.

20 large fresh shrimp, peeled, cleaned and deveined
2 tbsp old bay
1 quart water
1 cup white wine
1 bag presliced french bread
1 small container sour cream
1-2 tbsp prepared horseradish, depending on how strong you want it
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
chopped chives for garnish

Bring a quart of water to a simmer in a large pot over medium heat. Once simmering, add the white wine and the Old Bay to flavor. Add the shrimp, and poach (do not boil!) for 5 minutes until pink and cooked through. Use caution to not overcook or they will be too tough.

While the shrimp is cooking, mix the sour cream and horseradish in a small bowl. Place in refrigerator to chill.

Drain the shrimp and place in a bowl of ice to cool.

While the shrimp is cooling, place the bread slices onto a baking sheet, heat oven to 350, and toast for 10-15 minutes until just lightly toasted (not too hard to bite through).

Once the shrimp is cool, pull the tails off the shrimp and slice in half to form two shrimp rounds.

Take the toasted bread slices, dip one side quickly in the champagne vinegar to gently flavor (don't let it soak through) and place on a plate. Spoon a small amount of horseradish sour cream onto the bread, then top with a shrimp round. Continue this process with each of the toast slices. Top with chopped chives for garnish, and serve. Enjoy!

And congratulations again to Charissa and Shannon!