Father's Day 2010

I had SO much fun putting together a fun Father's Day luncheon this year. My inspiration was dessert inspired burgers and fries from Bakerella. They had templates and everything to make this a sure fire cake-walk! 

I was chatting with a friend Friday night (yes Nicole, that was you, hehe) and told her I felt bad I hadn't posted these brilliant ideas BEFORE Father's Day, but my thought is this....I don't want to promote something if I don't know how it will turn out. So, the idea is I will post things I've DONE and try to provide any and all information to help make it a success for you. Sorry if the fun ideas get to you after the holiday.

Moving on to our fabulous Father's Day celebration...I mentioned the dessert burgers were the inspiration, as well as the mini-toolboxes I had made previously. Red, white and blue seemed to be the logical color scheme, which I think proved to be quite a success....judge for yourself:

My biggest hurdle was a centerpiece. Guys aren't frilly, right? I thought this was sort of in between. Holiday oriented, but still adorable. I wrapped craft paper around 3 stemmed glasses spelling out the word Dad. I filled them with those rock gems, which helped the gerber daisies stand upright. I was thrilled to find this radiant color at our grocery store! The food was easy thanks to Allie and her yummy blog. I made her Root Beer Pulled Pork Sandwiches along with a salad and some fruit. It was divine.

As I mentioned, I followed the burger instructions almost to a tee from the bakerella link above. Let me tell you a few changes/discoveries I made along my way:

• Instead of green icing for the lettuce, I did coconut thrown in a ziplock with green food coloring.
• Red food coloring and I do NOT get along (hence the "pink" ketchup). I still don't have a solution to this one except maybe try the americolor red suggested in the bakerella website. Let me know if you find a solution.
• I used a shot glass to cut out the brownie "burger patties". It was the perfect size!
• My mom inspired me to come up with creative place cards her creativity from Mother's Day. I came up with the idea of a receipt, you know, since it looks like a fast food meal. I typed up some creative Father's Day content to include. Here's a male and female example. 

• I cut the French fries VERY thin (about a 1/4"), put them in the freezer for about 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then had to bake them for almost 15 minutes to achieve the "golden" fry color. Bakerella said for about 5-7 minutes. Then rolled them in sugar. The other idea I had was to put red frosting in a small cup to look like ketchup to dip the fries in. But alas, my aforementioned issue with food coloring made the idea a bust. But thought I'd mention it in case it works for you. =)

Happy Father's Day to my father (whom I will be celebrating with later this week), my husband, and my father-in-law. I'm spoiled to have such stellar examples of capable men in my life. Hope you had a great Father's Day celebration.