Welcome to Hollywood on the Upper East Side!

This year, I've been part of a Gourmet group and the dinners so far have been incredible!

The standards were set high!

My partner, Anne, and I choose a Hollywood-Glam-Chocolate and Cheese theme for the night!

It was so fun coming up with the ideas!

Coco Cheese 2012!

These letters turned into this wonderful creation for the table!

(Inspired by this)

I'm excited to use these molds again!

The Chanel 'C' logo in flowers - thanks to my very talented friend, Emily!

 We started out the evening with cheese fondue!

 Blue cheese and Gouda cheese fondues 

served with fig bacon crisps (read: absolutely amazing!!!! Anne's own creation!), 

rye and sourdough bread, baby potatoes and farmer's market apples!

Gorgeous floral designs by Emily dressed up the evening! She's so amazing!!

Thanks to Nicole's classes - I designed all of the invites, tags, place cards and graphics in Illustrator! 

 You can tell I'm my mother's daughter because I couldn't resist buying cookie cutters and pans

in all sorts of star shapes to enhance the Hollywood-glam theme! Good finds at NY Cake!

 The gorgeous table all ready for our guests!

 These women are all so talented in the kitchen so the pressure to impress was on!

 First up at the table - I made Goat Cheese Tomato Soup! Mmm.. I'll be making this one again!

(We put lots extra goat cheese in :) 

Strawberry Spinach salad with Feta Cheese and Dark Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette!

The Parmesan star crisp definitely added the perfect touch!  

 

Anne whipped up a Coco crusted beef tenderloin with Mascarpone cheese mashed potatoes for the main course! Amazing!!!

Followed by a cheese tasting platter! 

 And then a White Chocolate Soufflé with homemade caramel sauce!

Then the lights went dark in the kitchen as we transformed it into

THE CHOCOLATE LOUNGE 

for the Aprés Party! 

 The chefs getting the final course ready!

My Raspberry Refresher with Milk Chocolate shaving was a hit! 

I'll be making that again!

The Vietnamese Cinnamon Fried bananas wowed our guests!

Especially when double-dipped in the homemade caramel and chocolate fountain!

Enjoying our drinks and taking a breather

with our 'Red Carpet' aprons!

My FIT class is paying off already! And thanks to the Bernina Ruffler 

foot - I ruffled 9 yards of brown velvet ribbon to trim the skirts!

Anne loved them!

 

 It will be hard to go back to Kraft marshmallows after Anne made these!

 The Gourmet Group! Plus a few special guests!

Cheers to a great night!
Anne is so talented in the kitchen!
I learned so many great techniques from her!

Whew! I'm headed here today to relax :) 

Thanks to reflexology!

Friday hasn't felt this good in a while!

Happy weekend!