A Couple of Follow-Ups - Pear Vanilla Vodka Results and the Folk's Party

In a couple of my previous posts, I commented that I would let you know how some things came out. I can tell you that my Pear/Vanilla Vodka is an unmittigated success. When I first strained and bottled it, the vanilla flavor was very forward and I was glad I only used 1/2 of a bean. Now that it has mellowed, it is turning a lovely amber color and the pear flavor is right up front. In fact, when I pop the seal on the bottle, the aroma of fresh pears wafts onto the air. This has been so successful, that I now plan to make a blackberry vodka with a bag of frozen blackberries I found burried in the freezer. I think I will use the same proportion of sugar, but will only use the blackberries as a flavoring agent. I'm sure there will be some pictures of that sometime too.

I also promised to post a few photos of my mom and dad's 50th party. Because I'm extra curteous, I asked them about posting pictures of people and they respectfully declined. So, what you get here is just food and decore. Above is their cake - carrot cake with cream cheese frosting decorated with their original cake topper.

The theme was yellow gingham and daisies. I was thrilled to find this cute relish dish at the Crate & Barrel Outlet in Berkeley. The dills and onion pickles are mine.

Here's the serving table. I made the table cloth and the table runners for the guest's seating. They really did come out cute. We overestimated badly on the amount of food, but lots of people got yummy care packages to take home. You might have noticed that I used quart jars for vases. They really added to the casual feel of the day.

The happy cake couple.

Here is part of the patio decoration. You can't see them in the photo, but we also sprinkled the table runners with little gold 50 confetti.

At the end of the day, my parents had been able to enjoy friends and family from around the country and my dad even said it was one of the best days of his life. I'm glad that I took it easy with the food. It made it a lot easier for me to enjoy and play the hostess. I'll stick to show-off cooking for small dinner parties.