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Monday, September 21, 2009

Happy Almost Fall

Can you believe fall is tomorrow?

I know it must be true because I blew out my hair over the weekend and instead of frizzing into a ball it lay flat and totally behaved. If that is not a harbinger of the autumnal equinox I do not know WHAT is.

With the changing of seasons, comes the changing of dinner menus. The grills are put away (except for the hardcore, and to you I salute), and more hearty and warm dishes appear. This is not only the season of the blow out. It is the season of the CROCK POT.

If you do not possess one of these contraptions, you are missing out. A decent one will probably run you $30 or so and it could not be more convenient. Throw in some ingredients in the morning, turn it on and when you come home at night. Voila, dinner is ready. Ahhhhhh.

Target has a great array of crock pots - check them out here.

Anyway to kick off crock pot season I threw together some potato leek soup yesterday and it was very tasty, very easy and very seasonally appropriate. Not to mention super inexpensive to make.

Slow Cooker Potato and Leek Soup

3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
4 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth)
1 bunch leeks, white and light green parts, chopped
½ cup fat free half and half
Salt and pepper to taste.

Put diced potatoes into slow cooker. Add chopped leeks. Pour in broth. Cover and cook on low, 8 hours


Remove about half of the soup and put in a blender or food processor (be careful it will be VERY HOT). Blend for 20 seconds or so and pour back into the slow cooker.

Add cream and stir for a few minutes. If you want your soup to be a little thicker turn it to high and leave the cover off for another 20 minutes or so (this is what I did). Or you could Remove a little of the liquid, add in a tablespoon of corn starch to the liquid and then incorporate it all back into the soup.

Serve with crusty bread.


Delicious! And super easy!

Moving on..

On the wedding front, the search is on for a venue.

We have some specific ideas about what we want: After checking out local function halls and estates and hotels.....we decided what we would really LOVE is to do it in a cool space like an art gallery. A place that isn’t too “wedding-y”, has another purpose to it other than just being available for functions, and has some fabulous art on the walls and it's own kind of theme going on that we can trick out with our own ideas as well. What's even better is a portion of our rental fee would go towards the gallery association so you are doing a good deed to boot!

I’ve done a TON of internet research and came up with a sizeable list of galleries within an hour of Boston that are available for rental. We checked out a gallery in Cohasset this weekend which looked great on line but which in person was way too small. The front runner now is another gallery in the oh so cute Rockport, MA that we are checking out this weekend, and then there is another gallery in Beverly and one in Lowell. All look like really different but beautiful venues to throw a kickass party in.

Once we get a venue and caterer booked I think the REAL fun part begins. Since we are paying for the whole shindig ourselves a lot of it will be DIY and you know me, you know how much I love to throw a party, this kind of thing is right up my alley. I already have great ideas for the flowers, invites, centerpieces etc. This wedding is basically the biggest party we have ever thrown and probably will ever thrown. And we are up for the challenge. Woot!

4 comments:

stephanie said...

what about the south shore arts center in cohasset? (don't know if they do that sort of thing, but it would be a totally cool venue, and larger than the gallery in cohasset.)

Sarah said...

that is the gallery we looked at! haha. it was just too small for us (we have about 130+ people on the list). And also we don't want to have to split the guests up into 2 rooms. It was too bad though because the main gallery is a gorgeous space!

Jenny said...

What about the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln - where I think you just went?

Also, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem is BEAUTIFUL.

Good luck and please let me know if I can help at all! :)

Sarah said...

Thanks girl! I looked at both but they are both more than I want to spend on a venue..and to be honest a little too fancy for what we want.