Old Tin Cans and Oversized Rice Balls: Wedding Prep Commences

The other day, E and T came over to help make wedding decorations and test out some potential recipes for the day.  

A while back, on good ol' Pinterest, we found an idea for lanterns made from old juice cans and a few nails, screw drivers and a hammer.  They were quite lovely and I fell in love with the idea right away, so I got some of the good folks at work to start saving juice cans for me.

The idea is to hammer holes of different shapes and sizes into patterns in the can, and then place a candle or light inside to shine through the holes.  E and T did all the work while I cooked, the dears.  

As with many projects you come across on Pinterest and say, "hey, I'm gonna do that!," it wasn't as easy as we'd hoped.

It took a bit of trial and error, trying different sized nails, positions to hold the can in and so on, but the gals got the knack of it eventually and made a pretty great first lantern, I think!  Take a look:

I think with a few more tries we'll be able to elaborate on the pattern and come up with something downright gorgeous.

Wish I could say so much for the risotto balls I attempted to make.  Ugh.  Notice: there is no photographic evidence of them even ever existing.  It's for the best my friends, trust me.  

I'd made a lemon and saffron risotto the night before in anticipation of the food testing day, so that was my base.  Following a few instructions from a few different places, I added a beaten egg to the cold risotto and formed a number of balls with the mixture.  I poked holes in each one and pushed in cubes of havarti.  Then I rolled them in flour and bread crumbs and fried them in a large skillet in vegetable oil.  They pretty much fell apart.  In hindsight, I guess I made them way too big.  E and T and I all agreed that, though the taste was great, they were too large to both cook well and eat easily, so next time, smaller it is.  T also suggested a second coating of bread crumbs might hold them together better as well, so I figure I'll add an egg wash and more bread crumbs before cooking them in the next trial.  

Anyhoo, I feel good about it all, no matter how things turned out.  Little bits of planning and prep at a time and things will fall into place.  And they better!  Four months to go folks!  Time's a-wastin'!

Till next time!