Sarah and I hosted a baby shower for our sister Libby last Sunday. Mom-and-Dad-to-be have decided on a sock monkey theme for the nursery, so we just had to build off of that for the shower. We did the luncheon table in brown with red and white polka dot napkins. Fruit and veggies were served in coordinating baskets, and the rest on white platters. You can’t go wrong with white platters; they always look great, especially against bold or rich solid colored tablecloths. 

At first, before we knew about Libby’s wonderful sock monkey nursery, I thought we’d do a tea party. But there was a little problem—the guest of honor doesn’t like tea fare!  When we host parties at home Libby always sneaks to the kids table to see what they are eating, so we felt a comfort food menu was in order.

We wanted the food to be easy to eat while visiting, so we decided most the menu would be finger food. Sarah works for a wonderful gourmet food shop in Alameda called Culina, so they prepared a batch of fried chicken drumettes.  Sarah then prepped an eye-popping assortment of vegetables for the crudités, it was stunning!

We made mac and cheese from scratch, wrapped cocktail sausages in puff pastry and made egg salad sandwiches as well. A basket of strawberries satisfied the sweet tooth until it was time for dessert.

We extended the mini-portions to the dessert table too. Instead of serving a cake, we opted for a more bite-size approach. We did make cupcakes, but just the mini-size: red velvet with cream cheese frosting on a tiered wire stand, and a plate of chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting on another plate.

If you weren’t in the mood for cupcakes, we also had chocolate chip cookies on hand. We took a cue from Amy Atlas and Mom filled petite popcorn boxes with caramel corn.

Candy buffets are all the rage, but you really have to be hosting a huge event to make it worthwhile. Instead we did a candy tray with movie theatre candy, and filled little take-away boxes with the remainder for party favors. All the treats had a nostalgic feel to them, inspired by the sock monkeys on the table.

So, it’s a food blog so I blogged about the food, but the best part of the shower was catching up with family and meeting the new babies and toddlers—it was a day of little ones! In about a month we’ll have another little one to welcome, I can’t wait to meet him!