Suessical Party!!!

We threw the boys a joint birthday party in August (I know, their birthdays are in July, but Punk knew he got to go to school as soon as he turned 5 and there was just no way we could throw a party in July and deal with him asking if it was time to go to school yet for 6 weeks).  I'm just now getting the pictures put up...sorry.  I should note that my super awesome friend Chelsea from Chelsea Heap Photography did the photography (her sweet son was one of our guests as well)...it's so awesome to have known Chelsea since she was just a little older than our boys are now and to see what an awesome talented woman she has grown into...okay, enough of that.

Knowing that this was the last year I was going to be able to pick the boys theme for their party and knowing that the rest of the parties I throw them are going to have to be super heroes and exclusively 'boy' stuff because my boys are really turning that corner into 'boys only' territory, I picked Dr. Seuss as the theme because I've been dying to throw a Dr. Seuss party for a couple of years.  I made crayon rolls and I Spy Bags again for the guest take aways.  We made a Lorax, decorated a bow tie (like The Cat In The Hat wears), we ate things like Oobleck Dip, Pulled Roast Beast, and Cold Who Hash.

My boys had fun and so did their guests!  We love throwing parties, I'm going to have to find some more excuses to do just that!

Punk at our "photo wall" with mommy made Truffela Trees.

All the pictures in our home where taken over by Dr. Seuss wisdom!

Bug concentrating very hard on making his bow tie "just so"!

Some of our great guests!

Punk working on his bow tie (blue OF COURSE!).

My photographer's cute son modeling his work of art!

These are the men of the party all cutting out pieces for our Lorax game...

...and cutting...

...and cutting!

Food table.

"Green Eggs and Ham" (that's green deviled eggs with a piece of crispy bacon...so good!)

"Apples Up On Top Salad" (Snickers and apple salad)

"Oobleck Dip" (Spinach dip and a bounty of veggies)

"The Eye Salad" (That's frog eye salad, and I didn't make it, my awesome friend Autumn did and it's so good!)

"Go, (Hot) Dog, Go!" (hot dogs)

"Moose Juice"

"Moose Juice and Goose Juice"

Bug on the run!

Bug on a bike!

All that cutting the men did going to good use...

...the kids had a blast making a Lorax...

...well maybe not this kid ;)...

But look at the concentration on this one...

...and this one.

And awesome handmade work bench with tools from one of their awesome friends
(and that friend's mommy and daddy who are so creative!)

Presents...

...and more presents.

Strawberry cupcakes with white chocolate cheesecake frosting (dyed blue)
Punk told me EXACTLY what he wanted...who am I to argue?!

Peppermint Marshmallows

Let me start out by saying that I kind of hate marshmallows.  Really, unless they are in cocoa (and I prefer whipped cream anyway) or in s'mores (there is no better substitute in s'mores) I stay far away from them.  I even prefer Scotcharoos (not made with marshmallows) to traditional Rice Krispie Treats (made with marshmallows).  So, why on earth would I learn to make marshmallows?  Well, really, it is because I am hoping that we will someday be able to throw a beautiful s'mores party for all of our friends and/or family (like the ones we've all seen on Pinterest) and how much more impressive and fun is a s'mores party with homemade fun flavored marshmallows?

I have been making marshmallows for a little over a year now.  I make them in all kinds of flavors, vanilla bean, chocolate, banana, orange cream, toasted coconut, apple, and peppermint.  You can make them in pretty much any flavor you can think of (and that you can get extract or flavoring oils in).

In case you've been living under a rock, hurricane Sandy is heading towards the east coast (where I happen to live right now), and bringing with her lots of wind and rain...and much cooler temperatures this coming week, so it's looking like hot cocoa weather and these peppermint marshmallows are excellent in hot cocoa. Plus, I was going through my pictures on my laptop the other day and Punk saw this picture:

Homemade peppermint marshmallows top hot chocolate on a stick.  Great for gift giving and super yummy.

He immediately asked if I would make him some "red square marshmallows".  I told him I would make them as soon as I could.  I then realized that I didn't have gelatin (which is strange, because I usually DO have it, but since we moved I hadn't picked any up yet).  Punk eats these out of hand, I love them in cocoa, it works out for both of us.

So, tonight I made yummy marshmallows and thought to myself when I taste tested them as I was putting them in the pan "Man, if people knew how easy and how yummy homemade marshmallows were, it would put Jet Puffed right out of business."

What you need:

A stand mixer with a whisk attachment (please don't try to do this with a hand mixer it will likely blow out your mixer).
A candy thermometer (again, don't do this without one, marshmallows are candy, they need to be cooked to a specific molten lava-esque temperature you can't guess at this)
A saucepan
9x13 pan
Cooking spray (I use regular Pam)

3 small envelopes of unflavored gelatin (I've never used flavored and, no, I wouldn't recommend it or try it)
1 cup of very cold water (divided)
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/4 tsp kosher salt
flavorings of choice (for peppermint I use 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract)

"Marshmallow Dust"
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Empty your three envelopes of gelatin into the bottom of your stand mixer bowl.  Add 1/2 cup very cold water, stir together and set aside.  In a saucepan place 1/2 cup water, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1 cup corn syrup, and 1/4 tsp salt, stir together and place over medium to medium-high heat.  Clip candy thermometer to side of saucepan.  Cook to 240° stirring occasionally.**

While you are waiting for the mixture to reach 240°:

Mix your corn starch and powdered sugar together (I call this "marshmallow dust" and just keep a container of it in my baking stuff).  Spray your 9x13 pan with cooking spray and coat with "marshmallow dust" (just put a few table spoons of the mixture into the pan and bump the pan around until your pan is coated then shake the rest out), you will need some of your marshmallow dust to coat the top and sides of your marshmallows after they are cut so don't use it all here!

Place your whisk attachment into your mixer.  Once your sugar has reached 240° turn your mixer on it's LOWEST SETTING and SLOWLY add your molten sugar mixture into your mixer with the gelatin (you won't get it all out, that is okay, don't try to get every drop, just pour it until it won't pour anymore, you don't want to risk touching this ish).  Once all of your sugar is in the bowl cover your mixer with a towel (so it doesn't splatter) and turn it up as high as it goes.  In a few minutes (my mixer takes about 5 minutes, but less powerful mixers can take longer, up to 15 minutes) you will have white, fluffy, luke warm, marshmallow yumminess.  When you have a white fluffy mixture you can add in your flavorings and any coloring you might want to use and mix them in using the mixer thoroughly.

Now you want to take a spatula sprayed with Pam and put your fluffy yummy marshmallows into the prepared pan.  You aren't going to get every bit out, it's okay, that's the part you just sacrifice, get what you can out and move on.  Once you have your mixture in the pan you want to wet your hands a little (yes YOUR HANDS they are often your best tool in the kitchen) and use them to smooth your marshmallows into the pan, if your hands stick they aren't quite wet enough.  Once you have the marshmallows smoothed out set them aside for about an hour.  Then you want to sprinkle the top of your marshmallows with marshmallow dust.

Wait at least four hours (I usually just wait overnight) then you can cut your marshmallows however you like. I am fond of just cutting mine into 1" squares using my pizza cutter, but you can use cookie cutters if you want to make fun shapes.†  After you have cut your marshmallows dust the cut sides with marshmallow dust to keep them from sticking.

These are NOT like store bought marshmallows, but they will last almost as long.  I've had them stay good in a ziplock bag for over 6 months.  They make a great addition to a cocoa gift for friends, neighbors, or co-workers.  And since you took all the time to make marshmallows don't feel bad giving store bought cocoa!

**240 degrees is MOLTEN HOT, please do not touch it, please do not let your children anywhere near it.  I do this when my kids are either in bed for the night or taking a nap, I just can't risk them grabbing this off the stove.

† If you use cookie cutters don't throw away the scraps, cut them into funky shaped mini marshmallows and dust them with marshmallow dust to use in your cocoa or let your kids eat them out of hand like I do!

Due to lots of requests for this recipe I'm going to post this blog before I take pictures of the marshmallows I made tonight, but I'll add in pictures tomorrow (or as soon as Sandy lets me!).

Punk is going to be so happy to see these in the morning!

Buffalo Chicken Cups with Celery Blue Cheese Relish

Ever have a recipe just wander around in your mind and never really work it's way out?  Well, I've had this one going on for a LONG TIME.  The other day Bobby emailed and said that we would be attending a "Hail and Farewell" (my first) in a couple of weeks.  The invite says "bring an appetizer or dessert to share", so I decided it was time to get this recipe out of my head and see if it works.  It does.  I don't know if this will be what I take to the party but I'm glad I figured out that this works and is yummy so that I can make it again and so that I could share it with you!

There are pictures with this recipe, but they are courtesy of my phone so they are not excellent quality, I think you can see what's going on though.

What you need:

Pre-baked mini phyllo cups (my box had 15 and since I was just making them to try this was enough)
2 stalks celery, cleaned, dried
1 1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/2 cup bottled blue cheese dressing (use the stuff in the refrigerated section, I used the WalMart brand)
3 Tablespoons whipped cream cheese (cold)
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup cooked shredded chicken
1 Tablespoon cream cheese (whipped is fine)
1 Tablespoon butter
1/4 cup of Frank's Hot Sauce (more to taste)

How to proceed:

Pre-heat oven according to directions on your phyllo cups.  Dice celery very small (almost a brunoise).  Put celery in a bowl and add in red wine vinegar, toss to coat.  In a separate bowl combine dressing, 3 tablespoons cold whipped cream cheese and garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.  Pour dressing over celery and stir to combine.  Add chicken to the bowl you made your dressing in (no need to clean it) add in cream cheese and butter, microwave 30 seconds, stir, if needed microwave another 30 seconds and stir again, you want the chicken, cream cheese, and butter to be well combined.  Add in the hot sauce, stir, taste, add more hot sauce if desired.

Place phyllo cups on a baking sheet, fill each with chicken mixture (enough to fill, but not over fill the cup).  Bake according to package directions (mine said 5-8 minutes).  Remove from oven and top each cup with a generous helping of your celery "relish".  Serve immediately.

These were super easy and super yummy.  Even my two year old Bug liked them...of course he will kind of eat anything...My husband liked them too and he's more picky (and doesn't really like blue cheese like I do).

Party Part Two: The Favors and Some Thank Yous

I don't know what possesed me...something over at Pinterest I think, but I decided to do not one, not two, but THREE handmade sewn party favors (well, two and a reversible cloth drawstring bag to put them in) along with a table full of handmade goodies at Sarge's for our party go-ers to take home with them.

I'm not sure I'll do it again, but I am sure that if I do the favors will have to be done and sitting in a box AT LEAST a month before the party happens...I just can't be finishing sewing at 03:00 on party morning ever again...

So here is what I made:

Crayon Rolls (I got the pattern from this blog here):

I changed her pattern just a smidge.  I found after I did the first few that I needed another .25" on my fabric, so I cut everything 16.75" long instead of 16.5".  I also did away with the button she applied in her final step and just used the elastic to wrap around the crayons.  Honestly, I didn't have time for buttons, but I also felt like it was just one more thing for the parents of our youngest party go-ers to worry about them detaching and eating.

I also made these:

My mother and I had seen these (well, something like this) a couple of years ago and I bought the stuff to make them and then never really did.  I decided now was the time.  I took the pattern my mom and I had used (we did make a couple but never used all the supplies or made them for what we intended them for), this pattern from the same blog I got the cupcake recipe from, and some ideas I had rolling around in my head and mixed them all together to come up with this idea.  The dimensions on my finished bag are 5"x7" the window is about 2.5" x 4.5".

They are traditionally called "I Spy Bags", but in going along with my theme, I made them "Mater's Fishin' Bags".  I even added a Lightning McQueen to the list of things to find (as Mater is always fishing Lightning McQueen out of the brush), for my Lightning, I just printed a bunch of Lightnings out on photo paper, cut them out, laminated them and cut them out again.  They aren't two sided though and I think if I do something like this in the future they will be.

If you are looking very closely at this list you will see it says "Golf Leaf"
what is actually in the bag is a GOLD leaf, but I didn't notice the typo
until all the bags were made, so they went out like that, and I'm okay with that.

 Because I did have quite a few young guests (Punk is only 3 you know) and I knew i would have non-readers (like my own kids), I decided to add a picture of the things inside the bag.  I just took a picture of all of the stuff in one of the bags and printed it out, I laminated it to the printed list of things to find so that the list is two sided, one side for readers and one side for non-readers.  (The picture is not completely accurate for every bag as the colors of some of the items varies and the style of the army man varies, but I decided that was just okay).

There were a few other things in the drawstring favor bags as well.  I picked up Cars pencils and erasers in a clearance section of Walmart and Cars notebooks in the $1 section at Joanns, I also picked up some super cute Cars stickers at Oriental Trading Company.

This is a picture of the bags (they were reversible so there is one showing each side) and what was in them:

I made the bags too...here is the link to the tutorial online.

After I handed out the bags the children were encouraged to take their parents over to visit "Sarge's Surplus of Sweets":

There were Dum-Dum suckers, individually wrapped Twizzlers, Fruit Gems and an array of things I made for the table.

Dipsticks: (Pringles makes honey butter flavored cracker sticks, I dipped them in chocolate and packaged them three to a package in cellophane pretzel bags).
Hubcaps: (round pretzels (mine are Rold Gold Butter Flavored Pretzel Checkers) with Hershey's kisses centered on them, then placed in a 275 degree oven for 3 minutes, when they come out immediately press an M&M into the center of them), I found the idea on Pinterest, but it links back to foodgawker and I couldn't find the original blog they came from so if anyone finds it let me know and I'll link it here).

Traffic Lights:  Scotcheroos (with peanut butter chips substituted for the butterscotch chips, personal preference) with red, yellow and green M&M's pressed into the chocolate and cut into long rectangles.
Tires:  Chocolate glazed mini donuts (I didn't make them, Hostess did), I melted the chocolate on the donuts a little by just touching them to a warmed saute pan to make them stick together.  I didn't get a good picture of them, but there are four of them, three tires laying on top of each other and one standing on the stack of three, just like you see at Casa Della Tires in Radiator Springs.
Rocky Road Pops: I got the idea from this blog here, but I used two marshmallows and a combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate to dip them in.

So, when all was said and done the guests left with a little bit of fun (the cars they "painted" at Ramone's), some of my handiwork (the Fishin' Bags, Crayon Rolls and Drawstring Bags), something useful and fun from the piñata, and a whole bunch of sugar (although there was a lot left at Sarge's when we were done and I sent it all to work with Bobby this morning).

I have to thank Bobby for being so patient with me through the planning and execution of this thing, my mom and April for sending crafty stuff from Phoenix so I didn't have to purchase it again, Pinterest (and my friends there) for so many awesome ideas, Casie who helped in the week before the party and was my kitchen helper at the party, Kristin who did an AWESOME job putting together the posters and banners I printed out but would never have gotten together otherwise, and Eric and Kristi for helping set up and clean up this mess.  I also want to thank everyone who brought their kids and had a good time.  That's really what it's about and I hope your kids remember us and the fun we've all had together for a long time to come.

The Party is OVER!!!

And I couldn't be happier about that fact!

I had a blast planning and getting ready for the party, but by the end I was just kind of stressed out.  I didn't get to do everything I thought I wanted and I didn't take the best pictures ever (in fact they are kind of awful).  I'll tell you what I learned.

First off.  If I am going to go all out on a party for my kids, I need to give myself a few months to get it together instead of a few weeks.  Second, I need to take help when it is offered.  If I would have taken a little sewing help on the favors I would have had them done a week before the party (instead of mere hours before) and I could have focused a little more on some of the other stuff.  Third, I need to make a list of everything I want to get pictures of prior to the party, then I need to use that list.  I only got about 5 pictures of Punk and none of Bug (going along with this, I need to have the party set up and ready to go at least an hour before so I can take before pictures of the party, then I need to take a minute or two to take after pics before clean up starts).

There were really four basic parts of this party: decorations, activities, food, and favors.  I am going to post decorations, activities, and food in this blog and give favors it's very own post (although, I may get that post up tonight as well, since both my kids are in bed already).

Decorations, Food and Activities:

When you arrived you saw this:

You got your food from "Flo's V8 Cafe":

The food was fun (and I didn't get any great pictures of it).  It consisted of "Wheelie PB&J" (PB&J cut and pressed with a Pampered Chef Cut N Seal), Chicken "Dipsticks" chicken sticks served in a cup so that BBQ sauce could just be added to the cup for easy carrying/dipping/eating, Veggie "Dipsticks" also served in a cup so that Ranch dipping sauce could be added the same way, "Rims and Cheese" wagon wheel shaped macaroni with Velveeta cheese sauce again, served in cups for easy portioning and eating and these:

I don't know if you can see them, but they are apple slices with grapes held in by toothpicks as wheels, I thought they were so stinkin' cute!  I also had green chili burros for the adults, no cutesy anything to call them, just food for the grown ups to enjoy.  I served the green chili with tortillas, chips, salsa, cheese and sour cream (nothing fancy, I didn't even make my own salsa).

You went over to this drink table to pick your drink:

You could pick from "Fillmore's Organic Fuel"

The favorite "Fillmore's Organic Coolant" (in your choice of Cherry or Tropical Punch flavor):

Or an array of other products all of them sponsors of Piston Cup Drivers.  Here are the two favorites Dinoco Dr. Pepper and Rusteze Pepsi:

We also had Vitoline (Root Beer) and N2OCola (Sierra Mist, it reminded of "no 2 cola").

We had an early party (we stared at 10:30), but everyone seemed to be ready to eat, so we started with the food.  When everyone was done eating we had a couple of activities for the kids.

They could head on over to Tractor Tipping:

Where they were encouraged to set up dominoes with tractor stickers on them and knock them down.  The kids were slow to try this but really had a lot of fun with it once they got into it.

Or they could head on over to "Ramone's House of Art":

Where they could use the provided crayons to color their choice of Cars themed coloring pages (found online here) or where they could use markers to color their very own wooden cars (I had small ones purchased from Oriental Trading Company here and larger ones that I just lucked into at our local Goodwill for a steal).  Even the grown ups really got into coloring and creating designs on their wooden cars (and I didn't get any pictures of the fun at all...my mother-in-law thinks she has a few and I'll share them when I get a hold of her camera).

We were going to break that piñata that I made a month or two back and I filled it full of these goodies:

Goldfish, Cars fruit snacks, and
YES that is Kleenex, who doesn't need Kleenex?

And we hung it up:

But when we went to move it so the kids could take a whack at it...it broke all on it's own.  The kids still had fun picking the stuff out of it and they liked my sort of strange choices for piñata fillings.

Then we sang Happy Birthday and we ate cupcakes:

I used the cupcake and frosting recipe found here.  They were fabulous, but I did have a hard time piping the frosting.  Apparently my white chocolate did not melt all the way and I had very small chunks of white chocolate running through the frosting, not a problem for taste at all, but it made piping VERY frustrating.  When I make these cupcakes next time (and I will they are fabulous) I will make some changes to the frosting recipe.  I will melt the white chocolate over a double boiler then I will add the cream cheese and melt them together.  I will then add the warmed cream and proceed from that point.  I think this will keep any chunks of white chocolate or cream cheese from getting in the way of piping.

I actually took two not so great pics of the cupcakes so here they are again:

I made the cupcake toppers myself too.  I just printed out pictures of a bunch of the Cars characters and punched them out with a 1.5" circle punch.  Then I punched red and black 2" circles with another punch and glued the characters to a circle, I then attached the circle to a toothpick with double sided tape and added a second blank 2" circle to the other side (to hide the toothpick) they turned out really cute.  I had some help putting them together and they aren't perfect, but we were slapping them together right before the party started (next time cupcake toppers is something I will have done WEEKS if not months in advance).

After we had cupcakes (and ice cream that I also served in those same clear cups we talked about earlier) then Punk opened his gifts.  I do actually have a few (really bad) shots of him opening his presents, I am only showing you them in hopes that you can see the super cute shirt I bought him.  It is navy blue and has a "3" appliqued onto it in Cars fabric, I picked it up from this Etsy shop here.

Then I passed out favor bags and the kids all went to visit Sarge's Surplus of Sweets....but that's another post.