Host a Galentine’s Day Party!

We are big lovers of Valentine’s Day over here! Valentine’s for what it is at its core, a day to celebrate love, to be present and show the people in your life how much you appreciate them—granted, your significant other comes to mind. This time however, we want to talk about your other loves: your friends, your girls, #girlgang

We don’t ever need too much of an excuse to throw a party, but we’ll certainly take Valentine’s as one to gather our best gals for the prettiest, pinkest party ever—sold! We put together a super fun gathering to help you get inspired and celebrate with your friends. We’ve got you covered with a menu, decor inspiration, a playlist, and some fun downloadable party games we will be releasing on Instagram soon. So, grab a glass of rosé, press play on our playlist below and gather your girls to start planning!

Decor

Boy did we play with roses for this gathering! Roses are abundant this time of year for obvious reasons but they can be expensive in the week(s) leading up to Valentine’s day. So don’t be afraid to play with more greenery or more simple, girly blooms like wax flowers, carnations or lilies.

It was so fun to make a menu with that consisted of naturally pink foods! Blood Oranges are in season during Valentine’s so they were a great fit and being in the Pacific Northwest, salmon was also a no brainer. You will also find dishes with beets, rose and radicchio to round out our girly theme! Check out some recipes below and make sure to let us know if you try them!

Menu

° Salmon Spread with rustic baguette, endive and radicchio

° Beet hummus

° Artisan cheese and dried blood oranges

° Rose, pistachio and cacao nib bark

° Blood orange olive oil cake

° Meringue

° Lots of rosé!

Rose, Pistachio, Cacao Nib Bark

This beautiful bark is seriously the prettiest and easiest thing you’ll ever make! It is a perfect show-stopping dessert or the cutest take home gifts for your girls. The combinations are endless and it’s pretty much foolproof. For this one, we bought a high quality white chocolate and melted it in 30 second batches until it was stirred smooth. Then we spread it onto a parchment lined pan into about a 1/4 inch thickness. We topped it immediately with dried rose petals, crushed pistachios, cacao nibs, and Jacobsen Salt Pinot Noir Salt. Then we just let rest until hard.

Other combinations we’re feeling:

° Dark chocolate with candied blood orange, crystalized ginger and toasted slivered almonds

° Milk chocolate with coconut flake, matcha and cacao nibs

° Dark chocolate with dehydrated strawberry and vanilla bean

Smoked Salmon Spread

• 8 ounces smoked salmon, sustainably caught, skin removed (if you need help making an informed seafood choice, please visit Seafood Watch)

• 4 ounces cream cheese

• 1/2 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream)

• Juice of 1/2 lemon

• 1 tbsp fresh dill

• Salt to taste

Add all ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Serve with crackers, baguette, cucumbers or endive.

Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake

• 1 1/2 cups flour

• 2 tsp. baking powder

• 1/2 tsp. salt

• 1 cup plain greek yogurt

• 2 tsp. blood orange zest

• 1 cup sugar

• 3 eggs

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• 1/4 cup fresh blood orange juice

• 1 tbsp. poppy seeds

• 1/2 cup olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 8 1/2” x 4 1/4” loaf pan and set aside.

Sift dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar, yogurt, eggs, blood orange juice, zest and vanilla until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until combined. Fold in the oil and poppy seeds until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake 50-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Adapted from Ina Garten’s Lemon Yogurt Cake recipe. Thank you for the forever inspiration, Ina!

After we finished our delicious food, we danced a little and we laughed as we tossed some super fun rose confetti our friend, Heather of Sea of Roses made for us. Thank you, Heather for dropping it off and allowing us to get the prettiest portraits of our fabulous friends!

Our dear friend, Mélissa of Suzor Wines joined us and kept us all happy with their amazing rosé! We are seriously in love with their wine and dedication to creating something that brings people together.

In our industry, it is so incredibly important to support others, to give back more than you take, and to foster community over competition. We are so proud to be in a surrounded by amazing women who work hard at what they believe in, kick ass while doing it, and do an incredible job of supporting those around them. What is better than that?! Check out their beautiful and infectiously joyful portraits below, and visit their websites for a glimpse of the amazing work they all do! Lena, Chloé, Stephanie, Valerie, Alba (who was behind the camera taking these beautiful pictures), and Mélissa: I heart you more than words can say.