Wedding Plan Checklist: Dress? Check. Baked Goods? Check.

Tom and I are slowly making headway on the plans for our wedding this fall. This week I was able to check one major item off of the list: the dress. Some good friends of my parents who own a wedding dress company based in Orange County, CA, have generously offered to set me up with a dress. I flew out to Los Angeles last week to pick it out.

While I tried on dresses, my parents chatted with their friends Jerry and Esther, who own the wedding dress company. At some point during their conversation, my mother mentioned that I maintain this blog, and apparently they all started browsing through it. When I had finally selected a dress, I came out and Esther half-jokingly said that she was ready to place her baked goods order. I was of course more than happy to whip up a little something to show my appreciation.

Esther expressed a particular interest in sweet scones and macaroons, but when I got back to my parents' kitchen, I realized that the lack of a food processor was going to be a problem. (I should clarify: my mother does have a Sunbeam food processor that is probably somewhere between 25-30 years old; I remember it from my childhood in Lincoln. Amazingly, it still works. But when I pulled it out to take a look, the blade had some seriously caked on ancient food residue that I couldn't wash clean. I decided to take a pass on the food processor.)

Instead, I decided to make a couple of selections that don't require a food processor or a mixer: Cheddar Chive Scones and Chewy Cherry Almond Bars. (I did have to spend about 30 minutes chopping the almonds into the equivalent of a food processor grind, but I was able to get the job done. In comparison, I'm pretty sure that no amount of time and effort would allow me replicate the results of a food processor when it comes to cutting frozen butter into flour for scones, or grinding pistachios and powdered sugar into dust for macaroons.) When my parents sampled the finished baked goods, I was very pleased that they seemed to be big fans. In fact, when it came time to pack up the baked goods for Jerry and Esther (which my parents were going to deliver the following day after dropping me off at the airport for my return to DC), my mother and father briefly debated how many scones and bars they were going to keep for themselves. I did leave them with a good share!

I have to go back for a dress fitting in a few months. Next time I will definitely plan in advance to make sure I can bring a nice baked goods selection to my dress benefactors!

Recipes:
Previous Posts:

Comments

Post a Comment