And They're Off!

In the South the Kentucky Derby is a big deal. It always takes place the first Saturday in May and is a good excuse to gather your friends and wear big hats. In college I made the trip to Louisville several times to the infield at the Derby, but must admit I hardly ever saw a horse. Now, I find that it's a lot more fun to gather some friends and family and watch it at home. If you're going to host a Derby party, it's fun to have your guests wear hats. At the Derby there are a wide variety of hats, from fancy store bought ones to ones made at home and adorned with plastic horses. If you're going to serve alcohol, mint juleps are a must. At the Kentucky Derby they are mainly served in souvenir glasses (at least they were in the infield!), but you could also serve them in silver mint julep cups. When I lived in Bowling Green, Kentucky they sold the official Derby glasses at local liquor stores, so it should be fairly easy to find them for your get together. I've got a collection of Derby glasses, some of which I got at the Derby and some I found on eBay. Here are a few of them:

For a little fun at your party, you can put all the horses names in a glass and have each guest draw a name when they arrive and award a prize to whoever draws the winner's name. The most important thing is to have fun!

Happy Friday!!

Friday is my favorite day of the week, so Happy Friday! My irises have finally bloomed. We planted them three years ago after moving to Charlotte and they have come up every year but haven't bloomed until this year. They originally came from my grandmother's farm, she had flowers planted all along the fence in front of her house.

Now that the weather has gotten warmer an ice cream truck has been driving through our neighborhood every evening. While I'm a little too old to chase down an ice cream truck, it has made me want ice cream! I've got a notebook where I put recipes I've cut out of magazines and newspapers. I was looking through it the other day and found a recipe for Easy Ice Cream Cake that I got out of Real Simple magazine several years ago. I've never made it but it looks really good, so I think it needs to go on my to do list!

1 c. heavy cream

2 T. confectioners' sugar

6 ice cream sandwiches

1/2 c. chocolate chips, chopped

Line an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan with a piece of wax paper or parchment paper, allowing the paper to hang over both long sides. In a large bowl, beat the cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. In the bottom of the pan, arrange 3 of the sandwiches in a single layer, cutting them to fit as necessary. Spread with half the whipped cream. Repeat with the remaining sandwiches and whipped cream. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the chopped candy bar. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm, at least 1 hour and up to 1 week. Holding both sides of the paper overhang, lift the cake out of the pan and transfer to a platter. Discard the paper, slice the cake and serve.

Happy Spring!!

Hello and Happy Spring! I didn't realize exactly how long it's been since I've posted anything. One of my goals is to do a better job with keeping the blog up to date. Haven and I are already hard at work for this upcoming November. We were in Atlanta for Market a couple of weeks ago and saw lots of wonderful things and we'll be going back in July. I find it funny that in high school I was the one who refused to go in the Christmas store in the mall with Heather until after Thanksgiving because I said it was too early for Christmas, and now I spend all year thinking about Christmas!

While in Atlanta we went to eat at Nuevo Laredo Cantina, which may be the best Mexican food I've ever eaten. The first time I'd been to Nuevo Laredo was the first time we went to Market, which was a couple of years ago. Our husbands were with us for the trip and we weren't real sure where we were going so we asked if the shuttle service at our hotel would take us there and let me tell you it was a wild ride! We took a very long way through different neighborhoods and finally pulled up to the front of the restaurant (which was very crowded at the time) in the hotel van with our driver was playing the song "Party Like a Rockstar" at top volume. Our most recent trip to Nuevo Laredo was much calmer, we used the GPS and it only took us about ten minutes to get there. We had to wait a little over an hour to be seated, but it was well worth the wait!