How to Throw a Leap Year Party: Part One

You know that feeling you get when you've just come home from a really incredible trip?

It feels like some part of you must be carrying on in Bangkok/Portland/Budapest/fill in the blank, having experiences and living life. How could something so vivid come to an end? Yet, the rational part of your brain knows that it's over. You occupy one place and that's home. There is a sweet relief in this. But it comes with a bitter edge.

Welcome to my emotional state from January 29th and on. Whee! What had once seemed like a completely fanciful life (baking school in New York), turned into a new normal. As happy as I was to be reunited with home (and husband!!), readjusting to Saint Paul life was a little tough. So what did I do to ease the transition?

Melissa Copon©

I threw a party. And guess what? It worked.

Let me back up. Melissa and I threw a party. 

It started four years ago when my creative partner in crime, Melissa, asked if I wanted to throw a leap year party. She came up with the initial awesome idea and we collaborated from there–Dinner in the Dark. We invited eleven people over for a dinner in the pitch black dark. Eight courses later they emerged from my bedroom-turned-dining room with dazed, happy grins. And the tradition of the Leap Year party was born.

This time around we wanted to do something different. But what? 

My partner in parties (and the occasional victimless crime).

When I was in town for Christmas, we got together for late-night pizza and beer. A tipsy discussion of how awesome it would be if you could spend the holidays with your friends gradually morphed into an idea. What if we could celebrate all of the holidays with our friends? In the form of a party. Five holidays in one night–All-iday!

Oh, the holidays we left on the cutting room floor (Presidents' Day, you had so much potential). It was hard, but we narrowed it down to just five and then Melissa got to work on the invite. A killer invitation can really kick-start a party, setting the tone for everything to come. Melissa knocked this one out of the park (see above). We spent a Sunday afternoon hand-delivering our red-ribbon wrapped scrolls and then it was official. This party was really happening.

As for the rest, I'll leave that for the next post. There may or may not have been truffles...

There was certainly a garland of Christmas bows.

And this one is a surprise. Any guesses?

A Tale of 400 Cookies

There are some people I'd walk across fire for. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's true. My friend Sara is among that select group. If I was ever locked up in a Tijuana jail at 4am with no passport or pants (hypothetically-speaking, of course), Sara would get me out. So naturally, when she asked me to bake cookies for her wedding favors, I said yes. Then I asked, how many?

That bowl of batter is much larger than it appears.

All in all, I baked 400 crunchy, buttery cookies with a  sprinkle of silver sugar.  I used the Crunchy Sugar Cookie recipe from Fine Cooking, which I highly recommend (there's a chewy version, too, if you prefer that texture). Paired with a glass of milk, a sugar cookie is such a classic comfort. 

Sara and her amazing husband, Tony, got married exactly one year ago. Thinking back on this baking experience, I laugh a little at what I mess I was in the kitchen. My rudimentary calculations to increase the recipe. How I just crossed my fingers that all the ingredients would fit in my mixer. But they did! Cookies were baked, bagged and tied with a white satin bow. And Sara and Tony had the most memorable, romantic, and moving wedding I've ever had the honor of attending.

Happy anniversary to my dear friends! Cheers to many more years of happiness with each other.