Sausage Party...

Yes, it's true. Last Sunday afternoon, I was the only girl at the party...sitting at a table with 5 boys.

  

You see, Running Bum threw a party at his house (in honor of one of his friends on his 60th birthday). And, a few weeks ago, the marketing people at al fresco sent me some coupons to try their product and show it to all of you. So to help out on the food preparation, and because I sensed it was a good opportunity to try the different flavor options, I skewered up the sausages with a colorful bunch of vegetables, and we threw them on the grill.

   

The varieties we sampled are pictured below:  

The sausage and vegetable kabobs were the perfect way to try the different flavors. The Sweet Italian sausages had a red and green bell pepper flavor, the Roasted Garlic had a more mild flavor, and our favorite, the Roasted Pepper and Asiago had a great red bell pepper flavor with just a touch of cheese. The sausages were flavorful enough on their own, so I am happy we tried them this way and not disguised in a complicated recipe. The bonus is that each sausage is an average of 140 calories. And I am always looking for a calorie bargain.

  

It was fun afternoon. The party guests are all runners, and it was very entertaining to hear their stories, since I am kind of a beginner at the sport. All the food we served was Paleo, because two of the guests besides RB and myself already follow the diet. We also dined on pork and blueberry meatballs (recipe to come), a huge salad, and prosciutto-wrapped melon. Dessert was some 80% chocolate and bacon-wrapped dates. RB and I really love to entertain and cook for others!

 

To learn more about al fresco, you can find them on Facebook here, and you can follow them on twitter here.

Fabulous 500 Gala Takes Place on Saturday, August 27th

You won't want to miss the party of the year!
The Fabulous 500 Gala will be Saturday, August 27, 7:00pm at Willis Estate in Granite Bay.

Gala guests will have the opportunity to bid on amazing auction items, enter exciting raffles, sample the finest local restaurants, enjoy top-shelf cocktails and dance to live music - all while enjoying the ambiance and impressive view at this exclusive estate.

Tickets are now $250 per person
an incredible value for the impressive venue, top named entertainment,
best of the best restaurants, and all the local who's who.

*Special Discount - buy two for $300 or $150 each for two or more*


The theme this year is "Fly Me to the Moon". The gala committee is thrilled that Mark S. Allen has recently agreed to support the "Fly Me To The Moon" gala as the guest auctioneer. Emmy Award winner, Mark S. Allen is well known for his work with "Good Day Sacramento," Mark@TheMovies and NOW 100.5 FM.

Restaurants set to appear at the Gala are Source Tapas, Sienna Restaurant, Crush 29, Mas, Chocolate Architect, Pete's, Cupcake Craving, California Caramel Company, Outback, Land and Ocean, Paul Martin's American Bistro, and Vaiano Trattoria.

NEW Benefit For Gala Sponsors:
Sponsors $5,000 and above receive private VIP limousine transportation to and from the event in addition to four tickets, signage recognition, web site promotion and advertising visibility.

All event proceeds help the FUTURE Foundation of Sacramento.

Your support will help provide volunteer mentoring and scholarship funding to local underprivileged students in support of their college education. In addition to providing each student a multi-year college scholarship, FUTURE provides eight years of guidance through mentoring. (FUTURE is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.)

To learn more about the gala, and learn about sponsorship opportunities, visit www.Fab500.org

RSVP and purchase your tickets now!

You can find the FUTURE Foundation of Sacramento on Facebook here.

Photos from last year's event are courtesy of Tia Gemmell of Riverview Media Photography.

The Fabulous 500 Gala is brought to you by MGE Events.

Specialty Cakes Lately…

I have had the opportunity to do a few more specialty cakes lately, so I am posting some pictures with some remarks about them, & recipe to make your own piping gel. Enjoy!

••••••••••October Cakes•••••••••••

The first cake is a submarine cake I did for a bride in Elk Grove. She wanted to surprise her husband, and this served as his groom's cake. He had served on the Cincinnati 392 submarine and asked that I try to capture one moving through the water.

The cake itself was mocha flavored with a mocha filling. Decorated with buttercream and fondant. For the water effect, I used blue-colored piping gel. You can purchase piping gel, but I had everything I needed to make it. Below the pictures, I am supplying the recipe I used.


Here is the base with the filling.


Looks like a giant ice cream sandwich...


I then crumb-coated the cake with buttercream, covered the vessel portion in gray fondant, and began on the water.




Then I made a paint from vodka and luster dust to brush on the cake to give it a "metal" effect.



Piping Gel for Water
2 cups corn syrup
1 large envelope of fruit pectin
3 Tbs mixture: 2 Tbs water + 1 Tbs lemon juice
Bring water & lemon to a boil then add pectin. Dissolve the pectin in the mixture, then add to corn syrup in another saucepot. Allow to heat thoroughly and mix, but do not bring back to a boil. Mixture will thicken/gel as it cools. From there, you can color it as you wish with food coloring paste. Piping gel is also useful in thinning buttercream to pipe through very narrow piping tips.

••••••••••••••


The cakes below were for the Safely Out Celebration Event. These cakes were sheet sized and placed on wooden boards for support. The green cake was chocolate with chocolate filling, and the red cake was vanilla with vanilla bean filling. The actual "Need Help" sign was pumpkin cake. The cakes were iced with buttercream frosting and the letters of the door signs were cut out of fondant.










•••••••••••••••

The last cake was done for a military family. I was so happy/proud to do this cake. It was sort of a wedding cake, as they had actually gotten married earlier, but were just now celebrating because of the soldier's return home from serving in the Middle East. When I delivered the cake, I got chills upon seeing the "Welcome Home" banner hanging over the porch. I spent a lot of time on this cake and got pretty emotionally attached. I was proud of both the flavors of the cake and the way it looked when I was done.









The bottom layer was lemon with raspberry buttercream, the middle layer was white with lemon curd, and the top layer was chocolate with chocolate fudge filling. I used wooden supports through the cake so that it would be stable. The entire cake was crumb-coated with buttercream and then covered in fondant. Different patches of fondant were placed on the layers to give it a camouflage look and I also used the colored fondant to make the beads placed around the layers. I brushed corn syrup over everything to make the cake look shiny. The dog tags were made out of butter cookies and covered with fondant and the metallic paint I described earlier in the post. The bow on the back was made from a blend of the three fondant colors.