You all know how much I love Jessica Foster’s truffles (remember this editorial?) and now she’s offering hot chocolate bars for weddings and events. With Valentine’s day around the corner I thought it would be fun to show two different ways you could style a hot chocolate bar. This version, is my “manly” version, lots of brass, decanters and, of course, vintage 60′s glasses. (And yes, there will be cocktail ideas with hot chocolate, check back on Friday for those ideas).

Vintage heart shape plates from Tricia Fountaine, layered with mid-century glassware and of course a few of Jessica’s truffles make for one delicious looking plate.

For this setup, Jessica made a spicy dark hot chocolate and we kept it warm in a copper round chaffing dish from Town & Country Event Rentals.

And of course what hot chocolate bar would be complete without marshmallows? These are made by Jessica and are so light and airy they’re like eating a cloud. Stay tuned for the “lady-like” version of a hot chocolate bar next Monday and of course cocktail ideas this Friday.

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I’m so excited to share this merry floral crown idea that is featured in the current issue of Flutter Magazine. You can check out the feature here and here’s how to re-create the look yourself.

First up, lets assemble the materials. You will need:

- straight wire

- floral wire

- pretty ribbon

- floral tape

- floral shears

- flowers, I’m using red dahlias, orange ranunuclus and dusty miller

Begin by making mini bunches of flowers and tie them together with floral tape.

Take the straight wire and cut to about 9″. Attach ribbon with a glue gun on either end so you can tie the floral headdress around your head.

Then, working in one direction, attach you flower bundles until you’ve completely covered the wire.

And ta da! You’re done, now you can sport flowers in your hair whenever you feel like. Enjoy!

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Today I’m super excited to welcome Camille of Modern Day Designs to Santa Barbara Chic! Camille was kind enough to design this soft wintery blue tablescape featuring peonies, succulents, astrania, and muscari. Patrick Moyer came out to capture the pretty on film, Town & Country set the table with their pretty rentals and Florabundance provided the pretty blooms.

Camille used a soft palette of peach with touches of blue and white.

A glass dome held a succulent in a footed silver container.

White peonies and chocolate queen anne’s lace created texture in the arrangement. For the place setting, Town & Country’s provence china and pearl handled flatware created a slightly French feel.

My white garden chairs just happened to work perfectly with Camille’s design!

Containers were a mix of silver and glass and held gorgeous winter white peonies from Florabundance.

My personal favorite, muscari, was arranged simply in a glass vase.

And finally a single strand of Astrania was placed at each place setting. Thank you, Camille for desiging this pretty winter table just for Santa Barbara Chic!

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I’ve been a big fan of Tara’s work at Ink & Wit for a long time, and its my yearly ritual to purchase one of her beautiful letterpress calenders. This year’s is no exception and was inspired by some of the most stunning places in the world like, Machu Pichhui in Peru and Joshua Tree in California.

I’m seriously in love with the way Tara creates a three dimensional feel via geometric patterns and her color choices are always spot on (an aqua Emu? sign me up).

They’re available for purchase right here, better hurry she always sells out!!!

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Its that time of year, Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away and it can be daunting to figure out the decor for your table in the midst of food prep and family arrivals. So to get you inspired, I used rentals from Town & Country’s new Santa Barbara location for those who want to add a bit of pizzaz to their celebration. But honestly, the best part of renting china/flatware/glassware? You simply have to rinse your plates, throw them back in their crates and Town & Country will clean up for you (heck while you’re at it, you might as well rent platters and serving utensils and really make a dent in your dishes pile).

For the table, I used their vineyard table, which has a rustic wood plank topic which is perfect for the season. For the centerpiece, the vineyard oblong wood bowl holds persimmon branches, dusty miller, bittersweet, whole persimmons, brunia, orange dahlias, and ranunculus (all flowers from Florabundance). The vineyard cane back chairs add a hint of elegance to the look.

I placed the  burlap wing backed paris chair to cap each end of the table.

At each place setting I used a Provencal plate (no need for a charger for a casual dinner), Riedel stemless wine glasses, fleur de lys glasses for water, and coppery Morocco flatware. Simple linen napkins in oyster are folded casually and placed under the flatware. And finally, a simple sprig of bittersweet graces each plate.

I then used some leftover bittersweet and ranunculus to make an impromptu mini garland.

Then I stuck a leftover ranunuclus in my hair and lit the silver and gold mercury glass votives from Jamali Garden. And stay tuned, tomorrow I will show you how to recreate the centerpiece for your own Thanksgiving table.

 And here’s a cheat sheet of all the rentals you’ll need for a party of 6:

2 Paris high backed chairs

4 vineyard cane backed chairs

6 provencal dinner plates

6 of each,salad fork, dinner fork, dinner knife and spoon in Morocco

1 6′ foot vineyard table

6 oyster linen napkins

6 fleur de lys water glasses

6 stemless riedel glasses

1 oblong bowl (for centerpiece)

Happy party planning!

*Town & Country, Florabundance & Michael & Anna Costa are sponsors of Santa Barbara Chic.

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In honor of Halloween and the ridiculous amount of sweets I’ll be eating this week, I thought I’d highlight my absolutely favorite chocolatier on the planet, Jessica Fosters Confections. I’ve been obsessed with Jessica’s choclate well, for years now, and I wanted to capture her art in action. Josh Gruetzmacher was in town for a wedding and captured these gorgeous images on film…

Jessica specialized in handmade truffles indused with a variety of unique and unexpected flavors.

Some of my favorite flavors? Milk chocolate madras curry, and dark chocolate earl gray…

Unlike most chocolate you buy at the store, all of Jessica’s chocolates are based on 3 simple ingredients, cream, butter and chocolate.

Aside from traditional truffles, Jessica also makes mint infused truffle sticks that are super refreshing and very addictive (Josh and I may have had a few during the shoot…).

The sticks are made be pouring out white chocolate and letting it set, then the choclate is cut into sticks. The white chocolate sticks are painted with milk chocolate and tossed in granulated sugar.

On the market for homemade carmels? How about ones made with no corn syrup? She makes those too. And her carmelized almonds dusted with coco powder are way too good. They never last more that an hour in my house.

Intrigued? Well we’re GIVING AWAY one of Jessica’s 8 piece truffle boxes! Just leave a comment below with your favorite flavor (check out the list here) and we’ll randomly select a winner on Friday, Nov 2nd (contest closes at 5pm PST).

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Today we’re in the kitchen once again with Duo Events and this week they’re cooking up duck breast with panisse crouton, bloomsdale spinach and blood orange and sage demi glace, how good does that sound?

Let’s get started:

Ingredients:

6 7-8 oz Duck Breasts (source from a reliable butcher or specialty market)

*****

2 cups Panisse (Garbanzo Flour) – Polenta is a good substitute

6 cups water or chicken stock

2 Tbl of chopped shallots

1 tsp of picked thyme leaves

*****

6-8 cups washed spinach (roughly 2 bunches)

2 cloves garlic (sliced)

Zest and juice of 1 small lemon

2 Tbl Olive Oil

2 tsp of Butter

*****

1 cup Veal or Duck Demiglace (homemade or sourced through a specialty grocer)

2 Tbl diced shallots

1 clove sliced garlic

6-8 Sage Leaves

½ cup of Blood Orange Juice (Pomegranate Juice would also work well)

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Serves 6.

Procedure for Panisse:

1. Sauté shallots in 2 tbl of olive oil in a large saucepot until translucent (2 minutes).
2. Add 6 cups of chicken stock (or water) to the saucepot and bring to a boil.
3. Add Panisse and reduce heat to a simmer.
4. Stir in the chopped thyme.
5. Cook until Panisse is thickened and pulling away from the pan.
6. Pour the mixture into an oiled baking pan and allow to cool.
7. After cooling, cut the Panisse into 1×4 inch rectangles.

Preparing the duck:

1. Score the skin of the duck breast. (Cut a crosshatch pattern into the skin of the duck taking care not to slice into the flesh of the duck).
2. Heat a heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat.
3. Season the duck with salt and pepper.
4. Place the duck into the pan skin side down.
5. Reduce heat to a medium low flame and cook until the skin has darkened to a rich brown color and has crisped somewhat (this may take 4-5 minutes).
6. Flip the duck and continue to cook for 2 minutes more (be careful not to over cook the duck- you are aiming for medium rare).
7. Remove the duck from the pan and allow to rest while you prepare the remainder of the dish.

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