Gingerbread Cake

To celebrate my Dad's 50th birthday this year I went with his favourite and a classic, Gingerbread Cake. Its a super moist cake with lots of flavour and warmth. I love to pair it with vanilla bean ice cream and some chocolate covered strawberries when I get the chance!  I got the recipe from one of our dear family friends who used to own a bakery. Last night we served it with vanilla bean ice cream, chocolate and pistachio covered strawberries and a fruit skewer. Yummy!

Rosemary Pineapple Scallop Skewers

One of my favourite parts about summer is all the fruit that is ripe and in season as well as all the herbs that are finally growing fresh in our garden. I got inspiration for this post from a picture I saw recently on pinterest, showing a skewer made with fruit, fish and some herbs. I decided to do my own take on it by pairing up rosemary, pineapple and scallops. Ideally I would have preferred to use mini scallops but because I couldn't find any I used large scallops that I cut in half during prep. I used a piece of rosemary as the skewer base and then added pan seared scallops and fresh pineapple on top. 

The First Garden Party Of The Summer

 In honour of my dad turning fifty this week, my family threw a small garden party with some of our closest friends to celebrate him and his successful fifty years. My sister has the amazing talent of decorating and she did a wonderful job turning our backyard into the ideal party location after giving my mom and I detailed lists of what to search for and buy at Ikea last week. After running aimlessly around the kitchen preparing all sorts of food and appetizers prior to the day of the party, saturday night came quickly bringing along with it the perfect weather for a garden party, minus a few mosquitos. The party started early evening with all sorts of different appetizers being passed around and conversations going. We ate the night away starting with lamb chops, a quinoa salad, pineapple scallop skewer and greek tzatziki and finished it with a dessert plate of gingerbread cake, fruit, chocolate and pistachios.  It was a lovely night that will definitely be remembered. 

Olive Oil and Rosemary Party Favours

 

Party favours are one of my favourite parts of summer get togethers! For my dad's fiftieth this weekend I decided to copy some adorable bottles of olive oil and rosemary I saw in Bride Magazine a few months back to send home as a gift with each family after the party. My dad loves cooking and I thought these simple take home gifts would be a perfect way to end our garden party saturday. They were super easy to make, I used extra virgin olive oil, rosemary from my garden and glass bottles I found whilst shopping at Michaels.