A Bit of This and A Dash of That: The Big One!

The official celebration was today but we had the big party over the weekend. Yes, my little peanut is one! I cannot believe it. How has a year already passed? Don't get me wrong it was a very exciting day; however I am also a little sad that my little baby is growing up so quickly.

This past weekend was crazy busy trying to get everything ready for the party. We held the party at my parent’s house since it is much more conducive to holding 70 people than ours. We would have had to invite people in shifts if we wanted to try and fit that many people in our house in one day. I decided a while ago that I was going to make most of the food for the party, however by Saturday afternoon I was second guessing that decision. Thankfully I had some assistance with a few of the dishes so I didn’t have to do everything myself.

It seemed like everyone had a great time at the party and enjoyed all of the food despite the extremely hot temperatures. We appreciate all of our friends and family coming to celebrate with us. I tried to document my recipes as I was cooking, however I did got a little sloppy as the day progressed.

The inspiration for the party was Sophie la girafe. S loves Sophie! The invitation had a giraffe on it and I had the same giraffe put on her cake. I put sunflowers on the tables since they were the same color scheme as the giraffe. I was super excited when I was able to find an outfit for S that even had two embroidered giraffe on the top. The unfortunate part is Sophie is currently MIA. I am hoping she was just misplaced and that we didn't actually lose her. Especially since we already lost bath time Sophie when our dog decided to chew off her feet!

My foodographer got a little pre-occupied entertaining at the party so some of the pictures are of the leftovers. Sorry!

The Menu

Appetizers

Pico de Gallo

Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa

Guacamole

Blue Corn and Stone Ground White Corn Tortilla Chips

Beverages

Skinny Girl Margaritas

Estancia Chardonnay, Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, Apothic Red

Pacifico, Stella Artois, Bud Light

Iced Tea, Raspberry Lemonade, Pop

Lots of Water

Main Course

Fried Chicken

Pulled Pork Sandwiches with Coleslaw

Greek Pasta Salad

Fruit Salad

Warm Potato Salad with Arugula

Deviled Eggs

Nanny’s Baked Beans

Sliced Tomatoes with Basil

Dessert

Birthday Cake – Yellow cake or Chocolate cake with Strawberry Filling and butter cream frosting

Rhubarb Bars

Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Bars

Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa
Clean the ears of corn by removing silk. Be sure to keep the husk attached as this will help with when grilling. See the details of how to grill corn on my Father's Day Dinner post. I actually omitted the soaking in water step and it still turned out really well. Once the corn is cooked, let it cool a bit and remove the kernels from cob. I used 6 ears of corn which yielded about 3 1/2 cups of corn.

In a mixing bowl add the following ingredients:

2- 15 ounce cans of black beans rinsed and drained

3 1/2 cups of roasted corn, cooled.

1 roasted poblano pepper let cool and remove skin, remove seeds, dice.

Diced tomato, approximately 4-5 roma tomatoes

Chopped fresh cilantro, approximately ¼ cup of chopped

Make a vinaigrette by whisking together the juice of 4 limes and approximately 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt, pepper and ground cumin.

I made this recipe a day ahead of time and refrigerated it. Just be careful that your tomatoes don't get soggy.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

I made approximately 30 lbs of pulled pork which is insane. It was very difficult to find a place to cook this much meat. Due to the fact that I had such large pieces of port shoulder I actually ended up having to cut them into smaller pieces so I could fit them into my pan.

In a dutch oven, heat approximately 1 tablespoon of olive oil, season pork shoulder with Montreal Steak Seasoning, Paprika, Ground Cumin and Garlic Powder. Sear the pork shoulder on all sides in the olive oil. Once all of the sides are browned, carefully pour about 1/4 cup of Makers Mark Bourbon over the top. Let the alcohol cook off. Be sure not to drip the Bourbon over the side of the pan as it is highly flammable. I have made that mistake one too many times in the past. Once the Makers Mark has cooked down, add the meat to crock pot and cook on low for at least 8 hours. You want the meat to just fall apart when you use a fork to shred it. You can cook the meat for longer just be sure to cook it at a low temperature. Before adding the barbecue sauce, drain off most of the juice from the pork cooking in the crock pot.

This is where we run into recipe documentation issues. I made my own barbecue sauce. I started with 24 oz of ketchup, 1 ½ cups yellow mustard, 1 ½ cups of brown sugar, ½ teaspoon of ground yellow mustard, 1 ½ cups of apple cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons of minced garlic, 1 tablespoon or Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons of honey and dash of cayenne pepper.

Then I added molasses, karo syrup, and exotic juice. I didn't measure any of this. I just started adding it until it had the taste and consistency I was looking for. I will tell you that I felt like I needed quite a bit of it to cut the vinegar taste. So next time around I might just use less vinegar to start with.

The buns I used were dinner rolls from Costco. I was looking for a soft bun on the smaller side as opposed to using a hamburger bun.

Coleslaw

2 heads of cabbage

1 large green bell pepper

1.5 bunches of green onion

2 large grated carrots

½ of bottle of Hendrickson’s Original Sweet Vinegar & Olive Oil dressing

Greek Pasta Salad

I made 4 pounds of bowtie pasta. Cook the pasta noodles according to the directions on the box. As you are draining them run them under cool water and continue to drain. Add the following chopped vegetables to the drained pasta noodles: Cucumber, Tomato, Yellow and Red Bell Pepper, Red Onion, Pitted Kalamata Olives, Feta Cheese. I used Kraft Greek vinaigrette as the dressing. You can make everything a day ahead of time but wait to add the feta until about an hour before you are serving the salad.

Warm Potato Salad and Arugula

Thanks to my sister, Becky, for making this delicious salad and the Pico de Gallo. The recipe is from Food and Wine magazine, Warm Potato Salad and Arugula.

Deviled Eggs

Thanks to my mom for making the deviled eggs. Poor Chris was really excited about these being on the menu and they were gone before he had the chance to get any. This recipe is simple. Hard boil eggs. Let cool. Slice the eggs in half lengthwise and remove the hard yolk. In a food processor combine the hard yolks, mayonnaise, yellow mustard, salt and pepper. Process until smooth. Fill the egg halves with a dollop of the filling. Sprinkle ground paprika on the top of the eggs.

A view of the whole spread

Fruit Salad

I included all of Stella's favorites in the fruit salad. Watermelon, Honeydew, Cantaloupe, Blueberries, Strawberries, Kiwi and Red Grapes.

Sliced Tomatoes and Basil

The tomatoes were fresh from my parent's garden. We simply sliced the tomatoes and seasoned them with a little salt and pepper. Then drizzled them with a little olive oil and topped them with chopped fresh basil.

Nanny's Baked Beans

These were straight from Nanny's kitchen. You can view the recipe on the Father's Day Dinner post in June.

My mom made the Rhubarb bars and my mother-in-law made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Rice Krispy bars. Here is the link to the Rhubarb bars and I will post the Rice Krispy bar recipe as soon as I find it (sorry). I ordered the cakes from Ingram's Busy Bee Bakery in Downers Grove. They have delicious butter cream frosting!

S loved her smash cake. If I would have left it on her tray she would have kept eating it. She was a little disappointed when we took it away from her.

To celebrate this evening my we had our parents over for leftovers and we got Stella her first cup of ice cream from Oberweis. She loved it! But who doesn't love ice cream.