Sliders for Kids & Grown Ups

Hello, it’s been awhile!  The summer has been absolutely insane so I’m hoping I can catch up on some posts this week.

A couple of weekends ago I had a few cousins visit with their little kids, age newborn to 3.  Not being a parent myself, I wasn’t sure what to make.  I just knew that it had to appeal to both big and small people and wouldn’t take too long to set up since we were going blueberry picking right before lunch.  I also wanted the food to be fun and flexible.

I didn’t quite make the timing right (we ate close to 2pm) but at least it tasted good.  We were hit with a huge downpour right after we left the blueberry orchard so Hubby started these on an electric grill, then finished them outside when the rain slowed down.

Recipe for a Simple Slider Party

Protein (2 oz. each)

• Ground beef patties
• Ground turkey patties
• Black bean patties (I didn’t get a chance to make these; when I do I’ll put them in a later post)

Toppers

• Basil leaves
• Leaf lettuce, torn into small pieces
• Tomato slices (plum or cherry)
• Cheese (slices off a cheddar brick are the perfect size)

Condiments

• Ketchup
• Roasted red pepper mayo (I roasted a red bell pepper under the broiler, peeled the skin off, diced the pepper and mixed into light mayo)

Grill the patties and serve on slider rolls.  Wouldn’t you know it, they actually SELL slider rolls now??  I found out after I ended up making my own.  We also had corn on the cob (the right way if boiling is 3 minutes only!!!), and a great spinach and strawberry salad that my cousin made.

For dessert, I made peach yogurt popsicles.  Puree sliced peaches and whole milk yogurt with lemon juice and a little sugar.  Pour into molds, freeze, and watch the kids go nuts!

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It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Well, really, Christmas is over.  Happy New Year!  We really did celebrate practically 12 days of Christmas – with 12 houseguests, attended 3 parties, hosted another 3 parties, and had another 4 houseguests.

In 7 days we went through the following:

• 24 pounds of prime rib
• 24 croissants and Danish
• 24 spanakopita
• 20 bottles of wine
• 18 slices of Canadian bacon
• 16 cups of flour (I didn’t have time to bake cookies)
• 9 English muffins
• 9 loaves of bread
• 8 pounds of ham
• 6 dozen eggs
• 4 pounds of sausage
• 4 cups of arborio rice
• 4 cups of oatmeal
• 3 pounds of butter
• 2 quarts of heavy cream
• 2 quarts of chicken broth
• 2 pounds of asparagus
• 2 pounds of linguine
• 2 pounds of shrimp
• 2 pounds of ground turkey
• 2 cups of cocoa
• 1.5 boxes of clementines
• 1 quart of plain yogurt

…and 1…pound of peas!

I have to owe my sister a lot of the credit for the cooking, as I caught a cold from the other sister after Christmas and was rather incapacitated for our niece’s 1st birthday party.

The menus (what we made)

Christmas Eve:

Creme brulee with vanilla sugar (we brought to hubby’s uncle’s house, while my sister entertained 10 people back in our townhouse with sausage and peppers, and meatballs)

Christmas Day:

Brunch – Eggs Benedict, fruit salad, local pastries, homemade cinnamon rolls

Dinner – Rosemary prime rib with horseradish sauce, red wine risotto (Giada de Laurentis), salad with pistachios and clementines, glazed carrots, molten chocolate cake with strawberries

Niece’s 1st Birthday/Family Christmas:

Ham & cheddar pretzels, thinly sliced prime rib, glazed ham, shrimp and pea pasta salad…and oh yes, we served a Costco chocolate mousse cake.  Yes we did.

Pictures: Molten chocolate cake, 30% of the giant roast (which I expected to be 15-18 pounds and they gave me 24), perfect prime rib with rosemary, eggs Benedict (my Hollandaise was terrible – or rather, the recipe was), homemade ham & cheddar pretzels

What I learned

• You can poach eggs ahead of time and keep them in ice water – reheat in simmering water for 30 seconds before serving
• It’s worth the extra money ($1.70 per lb) to get a rib roast from the local butcher versus Costco
• Anticipate you will be gifted with lots of wine and cookies over the holidays if you are hosting so you don’t necessarily need to provide your own
• Catching a cold will slow you down – back up reinforcements are necessary!
• If you insist in homemade everything, make things that can be frozen and reheated (i.e. pretzels were baked and then frozen couple of weeks early, cinnamon roll dough and icing were frozen unbaked and later thawed)
• It’s ok if you mix fine china with paper napkins…really
  

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We are family, I got all my munchies with me

When my family gets together, we eat.  It’s like we’re Italian, but we’re really Chinese. 

Most of my family’s never seen our house, so a couple of weekends ago we had a big party with them and some close family friends – 30 people!  It was so much fun. 

We started off with cucumber slices with prosciutto and homemade chive creme fraiche.  Also: goat cheese and ricotta spread (like we made for Mother’s Day), a crudite dip (a la Martha Stewart), and homemade spanakopita.  I make it sound like it was all seamless, but in reality I got home from blueberry picking 10 minutes before everyone showed up and I was on my feet a LOT.

Hubby got all sweaty at the grill while most of my family hid inside from the heat.  He made his famous chicken breast with mozzarella and tomato, and flap meat (like tri-tip) we marinated in coffee and other stuff overnight.  Served with my mother-in-law’s potato salad, tomato and basil salad (basil from our association-approved “garden” – i.e. pots on the deck), corn from the local farm, and watermelon.  Also made some dill butter compote and horseradish cream sauce for the corn and beef.

I don’t have any pictures of the party, sadly, except for some of the desserts:

In the front are two Amish friendship bread loaves my mother-in-law made, chocolate and cinnamon – OMG.  So moist.  I will write a whole other post about my experience with Amish friendship bread – anyone got the urge to bake some gook in a bag?

I made a trifle with some vanilla cake, pastry cream, and whipped cream, topped with blueberries that I picked with my cousin and his 8-year-old son (from LA) right before everyone showed up to the party.  His son did a great job decorating it, yes?  I also made a chocolate angel food cake (The Cake Bible) that I topped with some melted chocolate ganache, and a nectarine upside-down cake (Baking Illustrated). 

Must remember: do not be gluttonous and put in two layers of nectarines, however pretty it may look going in.  You will just get a big gooey mess coming out of the pan.  Delicious, yes.  Pretty, yes.  Syrup all over the counter, YES.

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Wind Back the Clock

My obsession for crafty baking, cooking, and other stuff started in college, but didn’t really start getting to an unreasonably warped level until senior year.  I ended up with only one class spring semester, so let’s just say I had a decent amount of time on my hands.  And let’s just say I had ”ambition” to throw a formal dinner party for 25 of my closest friends at the house I was renting.  With formal invitations.  And a choice of entree and dessert.  With filet mignon, chicken marsala, chocolate mousse cake, and trifle.  Renting all of the china and purchasing white restaurant-style linens.  Plating each individual plate and thinking I could do it all myself.  Why my boyfriend, now husband stayed with me I have no idea. 

Now, in no way am I going to compare myself to some of the ladies on Weddingbee (even though I got married almost a year ago and shouldn’t be looking at wedding stuff anymore) or Etsy (crafty goodness), two sites I am absolutely obsessed with.  In fact, I’m going to add them to my blogroll, so you can obsess, too. 

Just did! 

Right now my primary crafting loves are gingerbread, cake decorating, and pastries.  Note that I’m long overdue for a physical to see how far along I am to going into diabetic coma.

Here’s some old eye candy for you.

Clockwise from top:

Vanilla cake with chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream icing; fresh fruit tart with pastry cream; chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse covered in fondant; chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse and raspberry jam, topped with poured chocolate ganache wrapped in chocolate transfer; vanilla cake with pastry cream and fondant; gingerbread carousel (my 1st gingerbread competition piece); vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream; picture of the local County Theater; gingerbread reproduction of the County Theater (my 1st gingerbread piece ever); vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant (Wilton course final)

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