A Tale As Old As Time

The title "A Tale As Old As Time" seemed fitting since this party happened longer ago than I care to think about it.  In fact, I think this was a Disney party to celebrate my 29th birthday.  Wow.  I'm a little behind! This is indeed a tale as old as time.

 

It will be a miracle if I can even remember what all I did for this party!  Luckily, I have a decent memory and lots of photos to help me out.  Since it was my birthday, I decided I wanted to do something fancy, so I brought out the fine china and we had a fancy French meal for our Beauty and the Beast party.

The following was our menu for the night:

Ashley's Birthday Dinner

Saturday, September 07, 2013

Soup Course

French Onion soup with Le Gruyere

Main Course

Boeuf Bourguignon with a side of

Provencal French Beans and

Potatoes Gratin Dauphinois

Sorbet Palate Cleanser

Cheese Course

Semi-Soft White Stilton Cheese with Blueberries

Hard Goat Cheese Log

Semi-Soft Feta Sheep's Milk Cheese, and

La Tur-Three Milk Soft Ripened Cheese

Dessert Course

Chocolate Mousse followed by a showing of

Disney's Beauty and the Beast with

White Cake in Cream Cheese Icing and

Vanilla Ice Cream 

Beginning with the soup course, we had my favorite French Onion Soup.  No one does it better than the Pioneer Woman.

 

It's making me crazy that it won't let me rotate my pictures!

The soup course was followed by Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon with Barefoot Contessa's french beans and potatoes gratin dauphinois.

 

The sorbet cleaner was just a standard lime sherbet and the cheese course was a variety I found at Kroger.  Though I did read that you should aim to get one cow, one goat, and one sheep's milk cheese for a true cheese plate.

  

The dessert was a chocolate mousse, though I have no idea what recipe I used.

 

Which leaves only the grand finale.  The most fabulous cake you have ever witnessed.

 

There's a stinking rose in a thing like the movie!  I can't even word and sentence right now because three years later I am still in awe of this cake.

We ended the night by playing a game and doing a craft project.  For our game, the sisters decorated plates like the china in Beauty and the Beast, and we had to balance a ball on the plate and pass it around the circle.  It was pretty fun.  Look how teeny weeny the Bean was!  Adorable!

 

Then for our craft project, we all made our own magic mirrors.  Look how not teeny weeny I was!  It's been a long three years!

It's crazy to think how much has changed since then.  It seems like only yesterday that we were doing these parties and getting ready to go to Disney World!  Life has changed drastically since then, but as always, I'm still here and I'm still behind.

Godspeed.

 

Heartbreak

Heartbreak is a funny thing.  There are so many things in life that break our hearts.  It happens over and over and over again.  Sometimes we break our own hearts.  Sometimes something as simple as a youtube video can break your heart.  Then, you get to that point where you think you're at the bottom.  Your heart is as broken as it can be.  And somehow it heals.  As time passes, it hurts less and less.  But then all it takes is one little thing, one little reminder, and you realize that it never actually healed.  You just stopped noticing the pain.  Isn't it strange how it hurts?  I mean, it physically hurts.  Sometimes you wonder if you're having a heart attack because surely a metaphysical pain can't hurt like that.  Can you literally die of heartbreak?  I read a study that says that you are more likely to have a heart attack within a week of losing someone close to you.  But it mostly hurts emotionally.  You somehow feel like less than you were.  Like a piece of you is missing.  Even if you can see it standing on the other side of the room.

And somehow, even when it's so broken you think it can't break any more, it does.