Heritage Homes!

I'm proud to say we recieved a Heritage Homes Award last night for the restoration and remodeling work we did on our new building.  We put a lot of effort and care into it, and the recognition really means a lot to me.  Also, congrats to Lala's Creamery and all of the other recipients of last nights awards.

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CornerStone Gardens and White Peach Sangria

Catering is good old fashioned hard work; you heft and tote, lift and fold a lot of items. But when it comes together WOW, it feels great.  This last weekend was at CornerStone Gardens outside of Sonoma. This is a great location with wonderful vignettes throughout.  It's an architectural art garden. There are designs from different landscape architects. Quite a site (and a sight) to be seen.

As the dark clouds loomed in Petaluma, I crossed through to the valley to beautiful blue sky. The ceremony was held in front of the reflecting pool filled with water lilies. The guests then moved over to the cocktail area outside the adorable barn. We added a great specialty cocktail White Peach Sangria with Pinot Grigio (recipe below), served in a beautiful pilsner glass.

The dinner was in the rose garden under a beautiful tent, my favorite Tomato Caprese Martini was placed and ready as the guests entered the room, followed by a buffet service for dinner.

Then came the fun, during dinner the barn was turned over to a fun filled lounge for dancing, cake and celebrating.

With the use of so many areas also come many, many details. Thanks so much to Brooke Menconi, she and Kat kept us in place and lended a necessary helping hand. Thank you.

I would have loved to have had a pedometer to see how far we went, but it was so worth while.

Congratulations Kelly and Nate!

White Peach Sangria

4 cups white peach puree

1 cup lemonade concentrate

6 bottles wine (we used Pinot Grigio)

Peach and lemon slices

Refrigerate the sangria until well chilled (at least 2 hours) to blend the flavors. Serve over ice, and include some of sliced peaches and lemons with each serving.

Enjoy!
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We all scream for ice cream!

We are always looking for something new and fun to do on events.  Here are a couple that we have used that guests love.

Being raised in Petaluma the ice cream truck always came through the neighborhood, you could hear that tune a block away. Now John Seratt has restored that same old ice cream truck. It looks brand new and really harkens back to childhood for anyone who grew up with it.  He still makes the daily tours through the neighborhoods, and you can hire him to come out to your private party too.

Imagine a great day of BBQ, fun and games, and then the ice cream truck pulls up. Talk about a blast from the past, just as if we were kids again.

We have had the cutest thing at two weddings recently; Cici’s Gelato.  They are an organic gelato company out of Mill Valley that is often at the local farmer’s markets and now they have branched out and will come to your private event. The two owners come with this adorable bike set up with two coolers and up to 6 flavors of gelato for your guests.  They can do traditional flavors to gourmet creations like Strawberry Basil.

You go guys!

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12 hours in 9 minutes - Inside a catered wedding

At a recent wedding we placed a video camera on a nearby balcony to capture the whole thing from beginning to end.  We sped it up to 9 minutes and added some titles to describe the action.  I think it's really cool, I hope you like it.

Play Video

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Oh Holy Tomato

The season is here!  At last we have our own locally grown tomatoes.  I have three different local growers bringing me the gold of their crops.  When I say gold…. They taste like liquid gold from the sun, especially those little sun gold cherry tomatoes.

So many tomatoes so little time; this weekend the always popular classic Tomato Caprese is on for 300 guests, and at another wedding we're doing a beautiful placed Shiraz Salad (tomato & cucumber with feta & oregano) in a martini glass for a great look.  I'm also really looking forward to our Norwegian bride whose family is flying in from Norway; they will be having just a classic platter of sliced heirloom tomatoes with sea salt and cracked pepper. I hope they enjoy it.

For myself we picked our first "Hillbilly Deluxe" from the plant at home and made it stretch to make 3 bacon and tomato sandwiches. The perfect lunch after a day of yard work.

So many tomatoes, so little time...

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