Brookie's Bountiful Baby Shower

No one is more deserving of a beautiful baby shower than my cousin Brooke. Whenever it comes time to host a shower or party, she's always there giving her 110% to make it as special as can be. So when it was my chance to help host a shower for her, I was nothing more than thrilled.

At first we looked into hosting the shower at one of our hometown cafes, but when plans changed and we decided to host the shower at my Dad's house, my foodie ears perked up and my catering gears kicked in. I love food; I love to plan; and I definitely love to cook! I am more than proud to say that we had one heck of a spread.



The salad-bar style menu dolled up in a catering-worthy display of Crate and Barrel serving pieces (yes, had to throw in that I FINALLY got to bring out my serving collection) and fresh flowers was more than enough to make our shower efforts a success. Not to mention, we did a pretty dang good job cooking. I personally whipped up a strawberry spinach salad (recipe here), Asian slaw and Memaw's infamous layered punch cake (gluten-free style). The full spread was as follows:

Rotisserie Chicken Salad

Asian Slaw

Broccoli and Cauliflower Pasta Salad

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Turkey, Ham and Cheese Sliders

Assorted Pinwheels

Assorted Fruits (above); Gluten-Free Punch Cake and Turtle Cheesecake Truffles (below)

  

While I'd like to pat my own self on the back for a tasty job well-done, I'd really like to pat everyone else on the back as well. It's not too often that people walk away from a shower asking for recipes. Way to go group!

But now that I've gloried in our homemade catering success, let me give the real praise to our precious cargo's carrier that brought us all together in the first place.

Brooke's he/she-to-be (as noted by a both boy and a girl outfit in the picture above) is literally just right around the corner, and we are all so excited to meet him or her! It's been a while since we've had a new baby Gunn in the family.