Postcards from the Mediterranean

Yes! It's true! I will travel for pastries!!!!

This is a simple snack while waiting for our train to Rome....that center pastry is hand folded with about a thousand layers.....a time honored process that just brings me to my knees. From the Civitavecchia Port the train into Rome right by the Vatican is around 9 euro round trip.

In Sicily these fresh made right there gelato sandwiches are very popular for a late, weekday breakfast, beat that cheerios 

 the aux de province farmers market in France prompted a picnic, just a 60 euro / 20 minute taxi ride from the ship port in Marseilles, this is an area I've returned to several times. The people, the food, the charm are all pretty incomparable. From there Casis is not far (also by taxi) and a world class seaside resort I also adore. The seafood is so sweet...

Cheeses and charcuterie in an open air market in the south of France

Handmade chocolates, fruit jellies and marzipan in Barcelona

In Spain every imaginable fruit is fresh squeezed and ready to carry away 1.5 euro

Tapas in Barcelona

a booth in Mercat La Boqueria in Barcelona, one of the largest, most spectacular food markets in the world

Lynette on a camel in Tunis, weeeeeee! This man offered Patrick 3 camels for me, can you just imagine me in a Muslim country?! Yikes, don't think they'd let me stay long.

Patrick Ward and Lynette in the Tunisian Marketplace, this is a very foreign country! The tip of Africa, it had changed very much in the last 8 years, the new President has made it far more user friendly and taking the train from the port into the marketplace is a fun adventure. 

A video clip of a few gondoliers in Venice, they are mesmerizing....did you know only 2 or 3 new licenses for operating a gondola are given out a year? with over a hundred applicants it's a very coveted and honored profession in Venice. We stayed three lovely days at the Hotel Rialto overlooking the canal and of course the Rialto Bridge then a train to Genoa where we boarded a MSC cruise around the Mediterranean.

De Poire, The Pear

Pears are the flavor of fall, available year round but not even close to the same fruit you will find in the fall. They come into their own and can take over a salad with such aplomb you'll wonder why you never noticed them before - alas, they've simply entered their time. For Local produce seasons and other ideas see our Inspirations

Try Wedges of Pears wrapped in Prosciutto instead of the traditional melon, Pear Nectar Mimosas, Pears in Salad of Winter Greens with Blue Cheese and a good Tempranillo Wine or a Savory Pear and Stilton Tart with a Walnut-Pepper Crust. I leave for Europe in a few days and I can't wait for relaxing fall picnics following the local outdoor markets. A simple combination of pears, cheeses, breads and wine....ummmmm

Wedding Ceremony and Reception Pictures

I just got the most adorable wedding reception and wedding ceremony pictures from photographer Baron Spafford, see more used on our new site SantaBarbaraVenues.com inspirations section

Our Favorite Non Profit

Every year we help with the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network Fundraiser, it's a lovely event hosted on the Channel Cat and we've always done the food at cost and the staff donates their time. This year we were able to write a check to the organization. We hope next year to do more, we're all giant animal lovers here & so grateful for all they do! Big thank you to the Pure Joy Staff members who volunteered their Sunday this year; Danny Jack, Hayley Mac Nab and Jerry Wilson.

Comfort food, Pure Joy Catering Executive Chef

(Delicious Photos by Loree Gold, see entire article in upcoming Food & Home issue) 

The term "comfort food" (added to the Webster's Dictionary in 1972) is defined as foods consumed to achieve some level of improved emotional status, whether to relieve negative psychological affect or to increase positive. Comfort foods are also considered very trendy and are pretty darn hard to resist! They warm the hearth & the cockles of most mortal souls. You can tell if food is “comfort food” if your eyes close when you taste it (or sometimes even when you just think about it!). I love serving them in miniature so they don’t feel quite so naughty; they can be utterly adorable and just plain yummy!

Macaroni & Bay Scallops with Gruyere and Cheddar

Serves 6 – 8

Oh yea! Grown up mac & cheese; yes! You can have gooey and sophisticated at the same time and it’s oh so lovely.  

12 oz. macaroni, boiled in salted water till tender, drained & rinsed to stop the cooking

2 oz. butter

1/3 of an onion, diced

“Shy” 1/2 cup flour (take off about 1 Tb.)

Salt & pepper to taste

1 qt. milk, hot

2 pinches nutmeg

1 tsp.dry mustard powder

1 dash Tabasco sauce

1 lb. grated good cheese (gruyere, cheddar, etc.)

For the scallops:

1.5 oz. butter

½ lb. bay scallops

For the Topping blend together:

1.5 oz. melted butter

1.3 cups bread crumbs

¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Melt the butter & over medium heat cook the onions till tender but not browned. Sprinkle in the flour and salt & pepper, whisk till sandy in color. Slowing whisk in the milk, nutmeg, mustard and Tabasco. Lower heat & simmer about 10 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat & stir in the cook macaroni & grated cheeses, taste and adjust seasoning.

Sauté half of the scallops in butter about 5 minutes till cooked through then stir them into the macaroni and cheese, pour into a casserole & sprinkle with the topping. Bake at 350° for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown. Sauté the other half of the scallops in the butter and pile them on top of the golden casserole to serve.

LAUNCHED!!!! SantaBarbaraVenues.com

Oh Yea! Ah huh!! We did it!! OMG it was a load of work but our new sweet baby website is stuffed with oodles of info; 84 fab venues all in all, from Malibu to Santa Ynez and a gallery of inspirations and many more to come!! If you need an event venue this genius site by Citrus Media Group is your one stop shop, see it, check it out, ask your Q's and book it. Let the festivities begin!!!

Great Food, Great Weddings

Farmer's Market is at it's peak right now; just spectacular produce.

We just did another weekend of fabulous weddings! This was their place cards at Godric, how adorable?! They also had a Raw Raw Raw! Oyster and Scallop on the half shell bar at appetizer hour and that was a huge hit, with four delicious sauces; Classic Mignonette, Ginger Mignonette, Sesame Chili Sauce and Sake Lime Sauce, the crown went wild! The bride is a butcher and actually hand cut all of the beef for her guests as well, each cut was grilled there to perfection and the seafood option was Pan Sauteed Halibut with Red Wine Butter Reduction.

Then back into the offices we have completed work on our new web site for venues and will be doing a soft launch today!!! It is just an awesome tool for event planning and we couldn't be more excited. We'll be at the Bridal Fair this weekend at Earl Warren showing it off for the first time.

Then just to put the cherry on our magnificent wedding season we were awarded 5 stars from WeddingMapper and another surprise huge vote for Pure Joy Catering was revealed to us and will be announced publicly in October

Style me Pretty

We are now listed as one of the Best Wedding Vendors in the Style Me Pretty Little Black Book!! A rare honor. Thank you to all of our beautiful, blissful brides for your recommendations we wish you a very Happily Ever After

Fabulous Firestone Wedding

Another one of our Firestone weddings was highlighted on the SantaBarbaraWedding blog. This one was for a adorable bride and groom; they just glowed with joy and that dress made me cry! They had a beautiful, elegant set up and then a plated Duet of Halibut & Braised Chicken Provencal; the Red Wine Reduction on the Halibut is musical with the deep flavors of the chicken, very yummy together and then all the bride needs is a vegetarian count so the week before the wedding is a bit easier on her with the duet instead of the preselected dinner choice, also of course theres no worry about guests changing their minds last minute. The groom is a dentist so - of course - a candy station was a de rigueur tongue in cheek addition that everyone just loved.

Pure Joy invited to be part of a "refreshingly couture wedding resource"

We just got an exciting and quite flattering phone call today! Pure Joy Catering has been formally invited to be included in the Style Me Pretty Little Black Book!!
The E mail they sent after the call said;

Why have we selected you?

Because we genuinely admire the high quality of your catering, Lynette, your expertise in the following areas has impressed our team:
--exceptional customer care
--superior design style
--the continual honing of one’s craft
--a genuine interest in fostering a relationship with the client
--highly recommended by colleagues and clients

How good does that feel?! Honestly I think this is my favorite week ever (so far)...

Also just got some photos back from Photographer Alex Neumann of a Pure Joy event with Chef Manned Pasta Station, Cosmos of Salads and Grilled Bites, Sushi Rolling Station, Shake Shake Shake Martinis and it was yum & so fun for the lucky guests up on the top of the Santa Barbara Riviera.

Happy Groom!!!

What a lovely & gracious man wrote this review of Pure Joy. I'm sure he has a wonderful Mother & now a very lucky Bride!!! It's so warming to read his kind words, Patrick, our Operations Manager & his whole staff are beaming and will for a while. Some day ~ if you haven't already ~ you must see our bathroom downstairs (really!) it is wallpapered with thank you notes, and for us it's like getting a great big hug going in there and seeing thousands of kind words and knowing people noticed our work on the busiest, happiest days of their lives. Makes these 14 hour days all the more worth it!

More reviews on us appear on weddingwire and on projectwedding

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