happy birthday, Mitch

Happy Birthday to our dear friend, Mitch!

His birthday fell on a Wednesday which seems to be everyone’s busiest day of the week. With all the activities planned for the evening we couldn’t all get out so we asked to bring dinner to them. B whipped up some chicken paprikash which is a big time favorite of this group. We gobbled it up and had a great ol’ time celebrating Mitch’s day with him. These are good peeps and we’re lucky to call them friends.

I can think of no one who likes paprikash more than this guy! Happy, happy birthday!

Gwyneth and Sarah.

Cupcake time.

Not a bad bash for a Wednesday night!

fall festival

We hosted a booth at the girls’ school Fall Festival again this year. Painters could make little pumpkin magnets at our station. I had a staff member join us so we wouldn’t be tied to the booth all night and explore with the girls. It turned out pretty well, but there is always room for improvements. The magnets were not as big of a hit as the pumpkin dishes were last year so I have to come up with a new, better idea next year. Luckily we already have several ideas for these suckers…because we have quite a few leftover.

B and I also got signed up to work a few of the other booths over the course of the night.

Annabelle worked this booth with a friend too.

And the girls played! They had a great time with their friends. We gave them a lot of freedom to explore and have fun on their own. It’s always great to see them with their pals.

Annabelle soaked her teacher! Ha!

bmk thursday

Just another lunch date at Blue Mountain Kitchen….believe me, I don’t take that for granted. Today I was spoiled with many dishes. We enjoyed shrimp scampi, ginger beef, cashew chicken, chicken tikka masala, and chicken Caesar salad. Each dish was more delicious than the next. We tried a bit of each and then packaged the rest up for our family meals this week. We’re going to eat well at our house!

I’ve got a pretty good gig taking these menu pictures. I hope we keep adding new items so these Thursday lunches never end!

Shrimp Scampi

Chicken tikka masala

ginger beef

cashew chicken

chicken Caesar salad

breck

We were all pretty excited for the long weekend. We are back in our groove for school and work and it’s nice to have a little quiet time to ourselves. We took a few days off and went up to the mountains. We explored, read books, colored, played games and just enjoyed the time together.

I didn’t take many pictures of our adventures, but managed to grab a few when we stopped in town and hit the hot tub.

Pretty excited that we picked up A LOT of Mountain Mary cookies

The girls have really upped their shuffleboard game. They have both gotten pretty darn good. We played several pretty intense games. I love it!

It was pretty chilly up in the mountains. The girls were excited to take a dip in the hot tub.

We headed back early Sunday morning to meet friends for a BBQ. That extra day to sleep in on Monday was pretty great too.

bmk | stroganoff, paprikash, tenders, chimis

When I arrived at the kitchen for our Thursday lunch I was pleasantly surprised to find so many goodies waiting for me. B had been a cooking fool this morning!

B had four different dishes for me to photograph and then we got to eat a bit of everything for lunch. Thursday has quickly become my favorite day of the week. I don’t ever want to take this for granted. I’m a lucky gal and that B is one talented chef.

Beef and Bean Chimichangas

Waiting for the egg noodle dishes to be plated up. Everything is just better at Blue Mountain Kitchen.

Chicken paprikash

Beef Stroganoff

This has always been one of my favorites and it certainly did not disappoint today.

Baked Chicken Tenders

We had so much food. After lunch we still had LOTS left. B packed it all up for us for the holiday weekend. We are going to be eating well!

bmk | green chili chicken enchiladas

With the girls back at school, B and I finally have time to tackle some of the projects on our to-do lists. One of those things was updating the pictures on the BMK website.

This is a lovely plan for me because I get to take pictures (LOVE!) and I get to eat the food that B makes for the pictures (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!).

We started today with his most popular dish and strangely enough one that I have never tried. He made green chili chicken enchiladas and they were AH.MAZ.ING! Holy cow, I could eat those everyday.

Here’s a few pics from our fun little lunch photo shoot. I can’t wait for the next round. Yum, yum, yum!

fairy tale treats camp

Today was the last day of summer camps at Blue Mountain Kitchen. It has been a busy, busy summer in that kitchen and B hosted some really great camps for the kids. They learned a lot and had plenty of fun too.

Today’s theme was Fairy Tale Treats and it was fabulous. The kiddos made Sword in the Stone donuts, Princess Cupcakes, Snow White Caramel Apples, and Alice’s Mad Tea Party Cucumber Sandwiches and Tea. B gave them instruction and then they set off to make their creations. It was hands-on and they really made their way around the kitchen. Gwyneth pulled me aside and said “this camp is awesome!”.

It was a smaller group, with only 6 kids attending. Many of the local schools are already back in session. Having a smaller group is pretty nice though and all the kids, AND B, really enjoyed it.

Snow White’s Caramel Apples…they opted for sprinkled apples instead of poison apples

that Chef B is pretty fun!

Making tea sandwiches.

I was so impressed that they all tried the cucumber sandwiches and liked them.

Sword in the Stone glazed donuts. Yum!!

Super cute cucumber sandwiches….and they tasted great too!

cake boss

We decided at the beginning of the summer that we were not going to have birthday parties this year. We went on two long trips already and celebrated lots. We agreed that we would do a family birthday night on each of our birthdays and save the friend parties for next summer.

Well, that Gwyneth is a sneaky one. She kept dropping hints about having her friends to the Kitchen for a cake boss day. The hints turned into begs and we agreed to host an event for her friends. Well, without much work she transformed that gathering right into a birthday party for herself! To her credit she did ask that no one bring gifts….but her friends showered her with presents anyway.

We invited lots of sweet friends, B made pizzas, the girls decorated cakes and we had a blast in the Kitchen celebrating that silly 10 year old that we all love so much.

Fondant time!

We had cakes, cakes and more cakes!

Gwyneth’s team made a a breakfast cake…chocolate chip pancakes, waffles, bacon, eggs, etc.

These sweet little ladies have been friends since kindergarten. They make my heart happy together!

An “underwater artist” cake!

Fabulous friends since 2nd grade. They have all moved on to new schools, but come together as though no time at all has passed. Oh my, how they’ve grown! Gwyneth truly has a gift for picking amazing friends.

Sisterly love!

Annabelle’s team made a pig cake for her…I like the pig that ended up face down in the mud. Ha!

Sisters, new friends, neighbors and cousins. Loving all these girls!

A little cake walk to pick their favorites.

Happiness!

This is one of my favorites!

A little cousin love before calling it a day!

After we cleaned up, B and I headed downtown for a night of theater. We went to see Les Mis, which neither of us had ever seen before. Oh boy, we had been warned, but that show is a DOWNER! It’s a great story of resilience, the music and production is beautiful, but everyone dies. They even kill off a few of the kids. CRIKEY! I’ve heard many people say this is their favorite show and I was surprised. It was beautiful, but beautifully depressing! I’m grateful we were able to see it finally and will someday attempt to watch the movie.

saint louis

We went on a quick trip to St. Louis for my dad’s birthday. We were there for less than 48 hours. It was A fun-filled trip filled with visits to all our favorite restaurants – Dominics, Ragazzis, and Mortons. Our family visits are usually focused around the meals. Of course this trip didn’t disappoint.

We walked most everywhere and the weather agreed with us!

Saturday morning we got up quite early and headed over to visit Madison. She has only been on campus for 3 days, but she looks quite settled in. She showed us around and seems the perfect mix of nervous and excited. Her school is located right in the heart of downtown St. Louis and the campus is beautiful.

We left campus and met the rest of my family at the zoo. We watched the sea lion show and took a quick ride on the train.

We spent the rest of the afternoon splashing around in my dad and Melissa’s backyard. We had a lovely time and hope my dad had a great birthday weekend!

cupcake wars

We hosted an appreciation event for my Color Me Mine employees at Blue Mountain Kitchen. B was amazing, of course, and made us a delicious meal. We enjoyed gnocchi, hummus, and bacon wrapped dates…my favorites.

After dinner we had a friendly game of cupcake wars. Everyone was so creative!

I have a few employees heading off to college in a few weeks. It was a wonderful opportunity to say thank you and wish them well on their next journey.

Annabelle and Gwyneth were big helpers too!

It was a great night and I’m so appreciative of these ladies. An extra special thank you to my husband who went out of his way for us on his day off. I couldn’t ask for a better husband. He takes such good care of us. He’s a pretty darn good chef too.