Top Chef Re-caps

In honor of the Restaurant Wars epi scheduled to air tonite, I thought I'd share a little Top Chef news:

First, there will be a Top Chef spinoff according to L.A. Eater, the same producers who brought you Top Chef will soon be serving "Top Chef: Masters," where the best of the best will be competing against each other for . . .even more money? gold? a lifetime supply of Calphalon appliances? I don't know. And who could be worthy of judging these Masters? Mmm.

Second (and this is a bit old), there will also be a Top Chef tourney for teens: "Top Chef Junior." According to Reuters, Chef Jean-Christophe Novelli will be opening a cooking school for teens in Los Angeles and the docu-series will be focusing mainly on the chef.

Last, but certainly not leasto, Top Chef Season 5 will be heading to the Big Easy for its season finale. It seems they had enough of the Big Apple and decided to kick it up a notch with Chef Emeril Lagasse as guest judge. According to Grub Street, "Season five will travel to New Orleans for the finale, where guest judge Emeril Lagasse will try to out-catchphrase Padma Lakshmi. Bravo’s PR machine tells us that there will be a “shocking twist” on part one of the finale on February 18, one that we hope will make the show interesting to watch again. Our unenthusiastic predictions:

• Stefan is actually from Delaware
• Everyone on Team Rainbow hated each other
• Hosea knocks up Leah"

In addition to this last bit, we were in touch with a certain Season 5 contestant from San Francisco last week when we received her out of office: "Thanks for your email. I'll respond when I get back." Hmm. . . I wonder where she could have been. Coincidence that we learned today of the finale's location? Perhaps not? Bon appetit!

Engagement Party Madness: Secondo Parte

As relaxed and intimate was my parents' engagement party, the engagement party my fiance's arents threw for us was out of this world. His parents covered all the bases and hit quite a few homeruns in the process. These are the wonderful details my future family thought of:

It was at their home in Rochester, so they bought a propane heater for the back deck to expand the gathering space (even though we TOTALLY lucked out with the unseasonal 50 degree weather). They hired a professional pianist, bar tender, and caterer that made delicious, delicious food.

They rented small bistro tables and had ADORABLE centerpieces (with little mini-engagement rings from Michael's).

My future mother-in-law made a small album of us to share with the guests. Chocolates AND m&ms with our names and the wedding date on them and a two-tiered cake perfect for a wedding. (Sorry I don't have a better one of the cake. ) Isn't the little present cute? The caterer was Grand Finales Catering in Rochester. The cake was a moist sour cream cake with caramel & hazelnut praline filling.

Wedding Tradition Tip: When cutting one's engagement party cake, the bride makes the first cut on one side and the groom makes the second cut to complete it, rather than the two holding the knife at the same time.

And then during the toast, my fiance's parents almost made me cry with their sweet sentiments. I would have cried if they hadn't presented us with our present, a watercolor of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the location where Mike proposed to me. His mother actually saw it at the art gallery the day after we became engaged, which was the same 8 years later that we first sat there with our when we met.

I felt so special during that evening and my family felt so welcomed and assured that their daughter was marrying into a wonderfully loving and caring family. I don't think I could name one favorite detail from the whole night, but if I had to, it would have to be the strong sense of family that permeated everywhere.

Engagement Party Madness: Primo Parte

Over the holidays, my family and future family squeezed in their respective engagement parties because that was the only time both my sister (maid of honor)and father were going to be in the country until this summer (sister is dancing in London and father is at our ranch and farm in the Philippines). Needless to say, it was a bit hectic, but what are the holidays for?

My fiance, my sister and I arrived at 4 AM Sunday morning from DC after picking her up from Dulles and driving all the way to Southwest Va. Because we knew we couldn't have a traditional cocktail party, Mom and I got creative and had our friends over for a proper afternoon tea. My sister brought marmalade and proper tea (English breakfast, Mango, and Vanilla) from England and we hired a caterer for finger sandwiches, scones, dessert, etc.

At 2:15, I'm getting ready for the party and ask my mom what time the caterer is supposed to arrive. 2:00. She calls. At 2:20PM, he's still THIRTY minutes late! I almost had a meltdown (well, everyone else says I did. I don't think it was that bad, but to each their own). The caterer arrived 10 minutes after our contract's "event time" and he didn't even apologize! I was very disappointed with their professionalism (or lack thereof) and will not be using them again. Luckily, we were able to plate everything as the guests were arriving. As an events person, it was actually very difficult for me to stay out of the kitchen and greet and mingle with the guests when I knew there was a minor emergency happening "backstage."

It was a small gathering (30ish), but it was all the people I really wanted present to share this special time. My fiance put on the game for some of the husbands and I visited with the ladies. We tried to stay together during the party as the celebrants, but it was harder for him because he barely knew them and he was very new to this. I knew everyone, and I knew which guests would probably know fewer people, etc. All in all, it was a good dress rehearsal for my future mother-in-law's engagement party, which was going to have over twice as many guests. We had good practice juggling all the guests and we had really great quality time with all of them.
(I promise to upload some pictures when I get them from my sister. I was banned from photographing.)

Housing Crisis (not the economic kind)

So, I'm starting to get a little anxious with our housing block. I contacted the Hilton Garden Inn in Charlottesville in November 11 regarding a housing block. I received a proposal and we liked it, so I went ahead and asked her to send me the housing contract. I never received anything, so I followed up again early December. I thought I'd give them sometime over the Thanksgiving holiday. The Director of Sales responded within an hour and said she'd "send" it that afternoon. Nothing arrived via email or post. I emailed this weekend and called today. Nothing. Does anyone have any advice or thoughts? I'm getting worried it's taking this long to get a contract, especially given the economic climate. We wanted to go with the Hilton Garden Inn because the hotel's super close to our reception venue. Thanks for any insight or advice!

J. Crew Bridesmaid Dress Debacle

Some of you may remember my post a while back about my bridesmaids dresses. Well, as you might be able to tell from the title of this post, things didn't end so well even after my girls were able to deal with J. Crew's faulty website. My sister and I had a little runway show once we were both home to check out her dress options, when I realized the dresses were NOT the color they appeared online. Don't get me wrong, they are pretty dresses, but they were an orangey pink, and our wedding colors are wine, raspberry, and champagne. I agonized over it during the holidays, do I ask them to return? work around it? suck it up? But my sister (maid of honor) and 2 of my 3 secondary sponsors (kinda like bridesmaids but they take care of the cord, the candle, and the veil during the ceremony) were adamant that if they didn't fit with our vision, then they were happy to return them.

Below are the dresses:

J. Crew Silk Sophia Short

J. Crew Silk Chiffon Juliet

Actually, only the second dress came out orangey. None of the girls (at least that I know of) ordered the J. Crew Silk Sophia Short dress. Luckily, J. Crew has a very easy and friendly return policy, so we don't anticipate any problems returning the dresses. In addition, my wonderful bridesmaid Sarah was able to find an email address on the website to which you can write to request SWATCHES. Oh how I wish I'd known that was an option. But again, I think we were all swayed by the ridiculous Sales going on the website. Here's the email address: ashley@jcrew.com. Kinda random, huh?

Has anyone had any luck or experience with this?

How to NOT begin a bachelorette party

Thanks to NY Magazine's Grub Street, I found this article on one girl's experience in throwing a bachelorette party pretty funny:

I organized a bachelorette party at the Clover Club a couple of weeks ago. The celebrant wanted no fanfare but I decided to bring a couple of accessories, to make the occasion feel slightly more special than a girls-night-out. I brought four white balloons, not shaped like penises, and a banana cream pie from a fancy bakery. I was wearing a pretty suit. When I met a group of 5 women there, we attempted to tape our white, non-sexual balloons up to mark our table for our arriving guests. When he noticed this, the host, a poor-man's Michael Stipe, descended on us and asked if we got clearance from the owner to modify our space. He explained that the owner had taken meticulous measures to design the bar just-so and that our four white balloons were interfering with her vision. He didn't make us remove the balloons, but he warned us that there might be retribution if the owner stopped by that night. We stared blankly at him for a moment, exchanged a few confused words among ourselves quietly, as a reality check, and proceeded to order stuff.

He turned us over to our waiter, who was very pleasant and seemed to turn a blind eye to the banana cream pie, which I would have been nervous about by that time had I not called ahead to get permission to bring it. Shortly thereafter, the owner showed and, as predicted, threw some Miranda Priestly shade our way. Our group was 10 by then. The waiter "noticed" the banana cream pie suddenly, became uptight and advised us that we should have called ahead to get their policies on such things. I told her that I had indeed done that but that I could not remember the name of the woman who had taken my call. Maybe I was supposed to complete an online application or something to bring a pie to this bar. The owner walked over and looked at the pie and me like I was Jed Clampett bringing a tin of vittles to dinner at the White House. She offered to "plate" our pie in the basement, and return it to us, waiving the $25 plating fee. We politely declined, on principle, and made a little mess. But not before the waiter confiscated our paper plates (white chinette) because the owner felt they were "trashy." She actually said "trashy" to my face. Oppressive. Power back to the people.

For the full Grub Street article: Clover Club Cracks Down on Balloon-Happy Bachelorettes. I'm not sure I can fairly comment as I have not been to Clover Club and don't know what kind of ambiance the place has. I may be okay with a simple balloon maybe for the celebrant, but many balloons and you get close to tacky. I might have also left the pie at home or waited to eat that in the limo later in the night.

I actually would much rather a relaxing day at the spa with massages and lunch with my girls, but I know not everyone shares my tastes. What do you have in mind for your bachelorette party? Any special requests?

Photo Credit Melissa Horn via NY Mag

Sample Sale at Hitched Tonite!

For those of you who haven't read your Daily Candy yet for today (sometimes I get really behind), Hitched in Georgetown is having a Sample Sale tonight from 5-8PM. I've already called - no appointments are necessary, in fact, they won't be taken for between 5 and 8 PM. Good luck! I'm going to try to get there myself today to look for a veil :)