I love a good party: He's Three!

"Happy birthday to you"


It was all trains for Pete's third birthday party.

The cake was a success (and the frosting, too, which I find utterly miraculous). I am not good at decorating cakes. Like those little roses and writing and, well, creating anything with frosting that is supposed to look like something? Not my forte. I had to be outside the birthday cake mold on this one.


It was to be a mountain cake with a train comin' round it.


Do I think too much about this stuff? Last night, I was thinking, what if I had a boss who told me that I had to do this stuff as part of my job. I would think she was totally nuts as she explained: "So, tomorrow, I need you to figure out how to make a mountain cake...you need a domed cake mold, but don't pay a lot of money for it. Just find a cake mold for, hmm, maybe one dollar. And then, in a couple weeks, figure out how to make your newborn look like a banana..." More to come on the banana baby later. I just keep telling myself: I'm using the same skill set as my former professional, blow-dried, black-suited, put-together self. It's just a different application of my skill set. Right? riiiight?



Anyway, I found my one-dollar domed cake mold. I baked the cakes a few days earlier and froze them (using this favorite cake and frosting recipe which I will now always use for yellow cake and chocolate frosting)
Why pay for one of those white-noise machines when you have a perfectly good KitchenAid?

I then left the actual construction up to my very capable husband. Shaner is a procedure man; one who has sutured and poked and extracted. I leave the fingernail clipping, the bath giving, and the cake constructing up to his steady hands. The results were my vision realized! I patted myself on the back for delegating this task to just the right hunk of burning love.



And the only thing left to do for Pete and I was to adorn our mountain with little lego pirates and knights and trees and horsies. I call this cake a success!

Ok, so maybe not suitable for the cover of Martha Stewart Living, but Pete thought it was awesome.

We had a modest spread of train-shaped pb&js, popcorn, and crackers with apple juice. I tried to keep it all low-key this time around, given the recent events (that is, bringing baby brother to this world a couple weeks earlier. oh man.)




And, for party favors, I found these little engineer hats and train whistles at Oriental Trading. Pete likes his homeboy style.

I love a good party: Happy bouncy ball birthday, buddy!

I do love a good party, and I especially love a good kids' party. Kids really party hearty. And Petey's second birthday party did not disappoint--it was raging! In all the parties I've given over the years, Pete's second birthday party goes down in the books as my favorite. " What? A room full of toddlers is a good time?" you ask? When it's a certain special toddler and his very special friends, I can't think of one place I would rather be. Especially when you have a room full of bouncy balls.

I'm usually not one for high-maintenance invitations (evite) but I saw this idea here and thought it was something I'd like to get in the mail.


I used these balloon lanterns for our decorations. I might just keep them there for a while.


As a last-minute, right before bed thought, I did this little flag streamer. I ironed the fabric on some interfacing and glued the flags on. It was cute, and maybe next year I'll give myself more time to make a great big one. It's a nice way to use up some fabric scraps.


I had some high cake anxiety, but, as usual, the cake was fine and the frosting was a nightmare. That blasted frosting...so finicky, so demanding, and then, after my great display of love and concern, it self-distructed on me. I should have suspected this frosting recipe was not normal after putting 8 sticks of butter in the kitchenaid, one little cube at a time. That frosting was always up to no good...
[SO MUCH BUTTER]

A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. I do try to keep things homemade, but Pilsbury Creamy Supreme was a much better option this time. Frosting! You dominated me!

The little colorful blobs are supposed to be bouncy balls. I'll never be a cake decorator, but Pete's excitement level was at a 10+ when I brought this out with two sweet candles on top.


For food, I had to go with Pete's faves:

a gargantuan bowl of assorted crackers. (for the adults, we had a more civilized spread of crackers with brie, apples, and pears)


and quesadillas.

I cooked a bunch of cheese ones for the kiddos, and made some suped-up quesadillas for the grown-ups. I couldn't help myself.

Here's my Saturday Night Quesadillas: 

(Saturday night, because come Saturday, this is as creative as our dinner gets. And it's a good fridge-cleaner dinner.)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
olives (the kind that you put on your fingers for thanksgiving), chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
coarse salt and pepper
canned green chilis
[any other random veggie that might taste good--for example, diced sweet potatoes, squash, mushrooms]
cilantro chicken sausage, diced
3/4 cup white cheddar cheese

1 can of refried black beans 
12 tortillas
1 tablespoons vegetable oil

Cilantro, optional

Salsa Verde

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat.  Saute onion and peppers until soft, about 5 minutes.  Add chili powder, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and stir to coat.  Add olives, chilies, and sausage, and continue to saute until heated through.  
2. Put mixture in a bowl and let it cool slightly.  Meanwhile, wipe out saute pan, and heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add cheese to mixture and stir to combine.  Spread refried beans over one tortilla, top beans with 1/3 cup of mixture and another tortilla.  Gently press top tortilla to bind it all together.
3. Place the quesadilla in the pan and brown each side, approximately 2 minutes per side.  Keep a close eye on it--it can progress quickly!  Let cool a bit and use a pizza cutter to slice into wedges.  Top with chopped cilantro, and serve with salsa.

And here's what my bedroom looks like after throwing all of Pete's furniture in there right before the party. It was totally worth it.

I love a good party: General Conference PARTAY

I love General Conference. I come away inspired every time. Listening to Conference has changed substantially in the last couple of years: less note-taking, pondering, reflecting, and much more chasing, disaster preventing, and redirecting little bodies away from the laptop. It's always nice to hang around in our loungers and nestle in for a long stretch of great talks. I remember, as a kid, watching conference was kind of magical--you mean, we watch church at home? Woah!  Many times during my childhood, my family would go to my grandma's house to watch conference; the adults watched the talks on tv and we ran around, like the crazy kids we were. Then, we had a very traditional Sunday supper prepared by my Grandma. This last weekend, I invited some friends over for the Sunday afternoon session and dinner afterwards, in honor of those family memories that come with Conference weekend.



Really, what would a family Sunday dinner be without the old pot roast in the slow cooker all day? Here's the recipe:

Italian Pot Roast

3 pounds beef chuck roast, trimmed and halved crosswise

4 garlic cloves

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Coarse Salt and Pepper

1 large onion, cut into 8 wedges

1 1/2 pounds small waxy potatoes

1 can whole tomatoes in puree (28 ounces)

1 Tablespoon Fresh Rosemary, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried and crumbled)

1.  With a sharp paring knife, cut 4 slits in beef roast; stuff slits with half the garlic. Generously season beef with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. In a large skillet, heat oil over high heat, swirling to coat bottom of pan. Cook beef until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.
   
2. In a 5-quart slow cooker, combine beef, onion, potatoes, tomatoes (with puree), rosemary, and remaining garlic.  Cover; cook on high setting until meat is fork-tender, about 6 hours (do not uncover while cooking).  
3. Transfer meat to a cutting board; thinly slice, and discard any gristle.  Skim fat from top of sauce, and spoon sauce generously over deliciously tender meat and veggies.

Also, we inhaled these these biscuits. For extra tastiness, I added 1/2 cup of fresh thyme, rosemary, and parsley.

And friends brought salad and a pumpkin pie. A pie, do you believe it? I finally got to eat a slice of pie that I didn't have to make. It was delicious.

I love a good party: Harvest Baby Shower

Yes, it is baby shower season. Along with the ripening apples and pumpkins, it seems as though my good friends' babies are ripening up too, getting ready to come into the world! My beautiful friend Tammy is expecting in October, and I thought that an autumnal shower would help her ease into this new season filled with great things to come.

I have made so many pies, and felt like trying something else. I was really pleased with how this Apple-Cinnamon Upside-Down Cake turned out.

I also made a Pumpkin Cheesecake, which was so easy but, then again, so NOT! The actual mixing of ingredients and putting in the oven was a cinch. I was pretty smug as I put the cake in the oven, thinking "what is the big deal about cheesecake? What's all the hype about?" But, I learned as I followed the rest of the recipe, that it's not really about the baking that makes the cheesecake. It's all about the cooling of the cheesecake that makes it a labor of love. Two hours in the oven, then four on the countertop, then four in the fridge. No problem, if you make it in the morning, but I started this journey at 7:00 pm. At 9:00, when I was pulling it out of the oven, I had major crack anxiety. Not crack cocaine, but cheesecake crack. If I had put the cake in the fridge, my cake would have instantly cracked and all of my beautiful cake aspirations would be dashed in one second. I decided to leave the cheesecake out on the countertop and take my chances. No biggie, right? But, my nice husband knew about all this and woke up, out of his own concern for me, at 1:30 am, just to put the cheesecake in the fridge. Now that, my friends, is true love. I woke up to a beautiful, flawless cheesecake in the morning, and gave my husband a hundred kisses. In retrospect, maybe I should've started the cheesecake the morning before, so we wouldn't have had to tend to it like a newborn baby.
I was about to take pics of these nice cakes and then "ding dong"! My first guest arrived a full 30 minutes early! I put her right to work, helping me cut fruit.

Tammy has spent a lot of time in Italy, and she is a world-famous opera singer, so Italian food seemed to be most appropriate. My prosciutto-wrapped melon was not the most popular, but maybe my favorite thing that I served. I love prosciutto, and it was different and adventurous, and, well, in Italy we were always eating weird food combinations like this, so I liked feeling kinda sorta Italian. I got my old faithful olive salad and bocconcini from Liuzzi's Market, one of my favorite places, some Italian soda, bread and cheese, and had some friends bring a few other things to round it all out. We had quite the crowd to rally around Tammy, and plenty of adorable little baby things to help us all remember how sweet life can be when blessed with a new little one.

I love a good party: Baby Shower Brunch

A very dear friend is expecting a baby and the first thing I said after she told me that she was pregnant was "Can I throw you a shower?!" I love to celebrate babies most of all. Becoming a parent has stretched me in such unexpected, good directions, so seeing such a fantastic person on the verge of parenthood is exciting indeed!

Mindy and I have been running buddies over the past couple of years, and most days we run, we end at my place with a big breakfast. I thought a brunch shower would be appropriate, since so many great Mindy memories are associated with breakfast. We had crepes with plenty of toppings. This is my go-to crepe recipe. It has never failed me:

Vanilla Crepes:

1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons melted butter
vegetable oil, for brushing pan

1. Place milk and vanilla in the jar of a blender. Add yolks, sugar, salt, flour, and butter. Blend on high speed 30 seconds. Scrape sides of blender; blend 30 seconds more. Transfer batter to an airtight container; refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Brush a non-stick skillet with oil. Heat on medium until just starting to smoke. Remove pan from heat; quickly pour 2 tablespoons batter into middle of pan. [note: the first crepe is usually a disaster and makes for good scraps for the cook to munch on while making the rest.]

2. Quickly (in 2 to 3 seconds) tilt pan in all directions so the batter covers entire bottom in a thin layer. Return pan to heat for about 1 minute. Jerk pan sharply back and forth to loosen.

[not the prettiest picture, but it's hard to tilt the pan and take a picture at the same time. Hopefully, you get the idea of what's supposed to go on here. You can do it! Just keep twirling the pan!]
3. Lift edges with a spatula; if underside is golden brown, turn by using two spatulas or by flipping crepe with a toss of the pan [a much more exciting option, if you can do it with confidence]

[this is what the crepe looks like when it's ready for the flip.]
4. Cook about 30 seconds more, or until brown in spots. Slide crepes onto a plate. Grease pan again with oil, heat to just smoking, and repeat process with remaining batter.


For chocolate crepes, substitute 1/4 cup sifted cocoa powder for 1/2 cup flour.

For the fillings, I took advantage of summer's bounty: fresh peaches and berries, along with sauteed pineapple, sliced bananas, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and my beloved lemon curd. Here's the recipe, and seriously, try it:

Lemon Curd:
3 large egg yolks
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice [sorry, but this time, it really should be fresh lemons, rather than the juice in the green bottle]
6 tablespoons sugar

1. Combine yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and sugar in a small sauce pan; whisk to combine. Set over medium heat, and stir constantly with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom of pan. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, 5 to 7 minutes.

2. Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring with the wooden spoon until mixture is smooth.

3. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool; refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour, up to 2 days.

My husband always tells me that I'd be less stressed out if I didn't try out new recipes when I'm entertaining, which I believe to be true. But, tell me, when other time would a strata be appropriate? Maybe you all are cooking stratas for your husband and two-year-old sons all the time, but I haven't been quite so motivated. A party, on the other hand, is a perfect venue for such fanciness, and, although I was nervous sticking my Canadian Bacon Strata in the oven. But, hooray, I was pleasantly surprised to see it in all of its puffy, eggy majesty as I pulled it out. Thank you, strata, for making me look good. Unfortunately, there are no pics of this one, since the strata finished cooking ten minutes into the shower.

oh la la, I was not the most organized lady on shower day, and, fortunately, everything came together just as the first guest arrived. But, you know, the lesson learned during this party, as well as other entertaining ventures I have tried is that people don't particularly care about the food or the table or the fussy stuff that the hostess cares about. When someone comes to a party at my house, they just want to have a great time. The details can certainly add to a party, but if I'm stressed, my guests will feel it and worry. So, you see, when I have a party, I throw it for me too. So, once the party started, we certainly celebrated Mindy and her baby girl and all the great hopes and dreams that come to mind when a new person is about to be born.


Here they are--a sweet mama with a sweet little girl inside! Doesn't Mindy have the prego glow to outshine them all?! Here she is, showing us the baby quilt I made for her (aw, shucks!) More to come later on baby quilts :)