Last year I threw my mom an ‘Ina Garten Dinner Party‘ for her birthday. This year I went cajun style and served up some very creole treats…

On the menu:
Muffaletta sandwiches
Sweet Cornbread muffins
Crab salad stuffed tomatoes
Red beans & rice
Sweet Potater Tots
Jambalaya
Pecan Praline cupcakes

When I started planning the lunch I drew up some thumbnail sketches of what I thought would go well together. Turns out I made ALL of the dishes. Yikes. I can’t help myself. But I planned everything out so there was no panic and everything was ready right on time.

I have to say the sweet potater tots were a HIT. They were amazing and creamier than the regular tots I had made recently, not to mention I used a fryer this time which made a big difference.

I’ll start posting the recipes over the next few days. For now, I’m takin’ a break from the kitchen…and eating. Whew, I’m stuffed!

**Sorry for the horrible pics. It was really rainy and dark that day. Bad for picture taking, good for eating!

First birthdays are the best – over the top fun! I made 100 cupcakes for the Sweets Table and what a sweet table it was – look at that candy!

Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting dipped in lavender and soft green sanding sugars – to match the birthday colors of course – and some in lovely folded parchment cups with just a few lavender sugar pearls on top. Divine.

Can you believe it was storming torrential rain as I drove up with these? Poor little cupcakes. They survived though!

Happiness to the birthday girl!

I received a few emails about what to make for a party since it seems ya’ll are doing something on Sunday…football..what? So I thought I’d put together a list of really tasty, fun and EASY party food. These are tried and true that I’ve made over and over. What are you making for your Superbowl party on Sunday? Have fun!

Bacon Wrapped Smokies
Brown Sugar Meatballs
Easy chicken chili
Spam Musubi
Brownie cupcakes
Ice cream Jello (in team colors!)
Watermelon Ice Cream bombe

This is the happiest little cake Darth Vader has ever seen. Why I combined rainbows and Darth Vader for the Kid’s birthday, I don’t know – doing a dark chocolate would be too easy, right?? But the Kid LOVES Star Wars and hey – he’s 6, so let’s celebrate! A perfect cake for the dark lord in all of us. This was fun and tasty and I love that the candle is a lightsaber, hilarious!

ingredients:
white cake batter
(this Very Vanilla Cake works well – if you decide to use box mix, UGH, just don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.)
5 different colors of gel food coloring

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prep two round cake pans by lining the bottom with parchment and buttering right on top of it, doing the sides of the pan as well.

I used the Very Vanilla cake recipe and divided the batter into 5 small bowls. You should get about 1 cup in each bowl. I dyed each of the bowls of batter a different color. Gel dye is the best because you need very little of it.

What you are going to do is make two round rainbow cakes, so the batter will be divided equally into two pans – follow? Probably not, that’s why I tried to take pictures. Let’s just hope for the best.

Now pour HALF of one bowl of batter – let’s say blue to start – right in the center of the first pan. The rest will go into the center of the second pan.Then take the second bowl, green, and pour half of that RIGHT into the center of the blue. Go on, don’t worry. The batter will spread all on it’s own. IT’S LIKE MAGIC. Or not. Then take the orange, pour half THAT right into the center of the previous color, and so on and so on.

Eventually you will have TWO pans of cake batter ready to roll that look like this:

Bake for 18-20 minutes depending on your oven, until your cake comes out nice passes the toothpick test perfectly. Let cool in pans, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

They look like targets, but when you slice into it, trust me, it will all come together. I stacked the two cakes (with frosting in between, of course) and I just frosted this with a tinted blue vanilla buttercream.

Just for kicks and cause the Kid loves them, I and added a few Godiva White Chocolate Balls around the edges. If you want to see how SUPER EASY it is to stencil lettering onto a cake (for all of you scared of fondant) go HERE.

Darth Vader LOVES rainbows. I’m sure your kids will love this cake too.

*How I frosted the lettering in the Star Wars font (it was easy): Stencil Lettering how-to, here.

For a little girl’s first birthday I made 100 cupcakes – 50 chocolate ganache, 50 brown sugar. It’s getting to be where 100 cupcakes is a breeze. That’s a scary thought…

The theme was pink and brown…and butterflies! The mom bought these cute little EDIBLE butterflies. They looked so real it was kind of freaky! They sat atop the cupcakes quite nicely and everyone was surprised that you could eat them – definitely great for a garden party!

Brown Sugar cupcakes recipe, here.

I love Greek Salad – it’s the feta. I wanted to make a lightly dressed salad that would be good as a main dish OR a side dish.

ingredients:
1 (16 ounce) package tortellini
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/8 cup lemon juice
1/8 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons minced garlic
salt
freshly ground pepper
1 cup cucumber – cubed
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup pearl tomatoes
1 cup black olives

I like to use tortellini cause of the size and the filling adds a lot to this recipe. You can use other pastas if you want, the taste will definitely vary a bit.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the tortellini, and cook according to the package directions. Drain well.

In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, parsley, oregano, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

In a large bowl toss the tortellini with the dressing. Set aside.

Add in the cubed cucumber, feta, tomatoes and olives. Toss and refrigerate. I like this dish served cold, right out of the fridge. The crunch of the cucumbers and the flavors of the dressing and feta go really well with the pasta. It makes a great main dish or a nice side to chicken!

I wanted an edible favor for a floral themed baby shower that I was hosting. I sketched this idea out and it turned out just as I had hoped. Beautiful for party tables and sooo tasty. It’s hard to resist pretty chocolate cupcakes.

ingredients:
chocolate cupcakes
ganache
sugared flowers
cleaned flower pots

You can make these with any chocolate cupcake, you just want to get a ‘dirt’ like look for the top. So I used a Chocolate Chip Mascarpone Cupcake with a chocolate ganache. The ganache is perfect, not only in flavor, but for setting the decorations on. I didn’t want the flowers to get lost in a mass of frosting.

You can hand pipe all the flowers, which I was going to do, but instead I went to my local cake and candy supply store and happened upon the most perfect sugar flowers ever – which gave just the right look for a garden of a variety of flowers. They also had leaves which were made of wafer cookies!

After you dip your cupcake into the ganache, apply the flowers and simply place them into a clean flower pot. I didn’t paint mine, because I really wanted them to have a realistic garden look. If you bunch a few of these together, they’d make a fantastic centerpiece for a shower!

These cupcakes are surprisingly light and the chocolate chips give just the right surprise bite inside. The chocolate ganache…well that puts it over the top and makes this one of my favorite cupcakes to serve.

cupcake ingredients:
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons coffee
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Ganache ingredients:
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Line a muffin pan with liners.

Combine the chocolate chips and milk in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir constantly and eventually the chocolate will melt. Whisk in the coffee and the mascarpone cheese until the mixture is smooth. Set aside and let cool for a few minutes.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla. Stir in the mascarpone mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, and chocolate chips. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture. Stir until just blended.

Pour the batter into the prepped cupcake liners. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a tester inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Cool completely – on a wire rack.

While the cupcakes are cooling, make the ganache. In a small saucepan heat the chocolate chips, heavy cream and vanilla on low heat. Stir constantly until it all comes together. There’s nothing quite as beautiful as watching ganache suddenly turn into that familiar glossy chocolate.

Take the cooled cupcakes and dip the tops into the ganache. They are ready to eat, decorate or keep in the fridge. You could even make flower pot cupcakes…!

For that how-to, go here.

I am very excited to say that I was one of the 24 people chosen to participate in Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 . Foodbuzz selected 24 bloggers from around the world and had them write about their unique meals – all within a 24 hour period.

My proposal revolved around something I truly believe in: buying local produce at farmer’s markets and making healthy meals for your kids. The Kid has been asking for cooking lessons, but since losing my job, expensive classes just aren’t in the cards right now. So I thought, why can’t I do it myself?

The Kid has always taken great interest in watching me put together meals. At just 5 years old he already knows his way around the kitchen. We started off by planning a menu and came up with recipes that incorporated a lot of fruits and vegetables, then headed off to the Farmer’s Market.

My favorite Farmer’s Markets are the Santa Monica and the Hollywood. They are two of the biggest markets in the city. At the Hollywood you might run into celebrities, at the SaMo you might run into famous chefs – everyone in this town loves fresh produce, folks. Both markets are large and carry a diverse number of produce vendors. We started off with our ‘menu’ and went up and down the stalls looking for what we needed.The Kid has been my littlest sous chef on many of my meals, so I got him started washing and separating what was needed. I also tried to choose things that were easy prep and incorporated different cooking techniques for him to learn. Something in the oven, something on the stove, something on the grill. Perhaps a bit ambitious, but he was very excited to give it a go. Here’s a rundown of our menu, and what we bought for those recipes specifically from the Farmer’s Market:
Creme Fruit
strawberries, apples, grapes

Broccoli Salad
broccoli, red onion

Avocado + Grapefruit Salad
avocado, oro blanco grapefruit, ruby red grapefruit

Potato/Sweet Potato Fries
potatoes, sweet potatoes, lemon, garlic

Lettuce Wraps
garlic, ginger, carrots, green onions, mushrooms, lemon

Grilled Shrimp with homemade Tzatziki sauce
cucumber, dill, lemon, garlic

Cherry Buttermilk Ice Cream Sandwiches
Cherries, lemon, ginger

O.G. who was front and center for this meal, and in her O.G. ways – complained that “Food today is so fresh. We always used to cook it until it was completely limp and colorless. I like it like that.” Ok…well that ain’t happening at this meal, sorry. For the recipes I put together for this particular meal, most of the fruits and veggies are ever so slightly cooked, or not cooked at all. All the nutrients and it makes for a much fresher tasting meal. Unless you like lifeless broccoli – then head over to O.G.’s house.

I know we are lucky to live a place where food is colorful and available year round, but cooking seasonally can be a lot of fun wherever you live. The kids play a major part in my meal planning, because I like to make sure they are always trying different foods, testing flavors and seeing what they truly like to eat.Cooking doesn’t have to be a chore if you pick simple, fresh recipes. Fresh produce was a major part of this meal but what the Kid enjoyed most (so he said), was spending time working in the kitchen with me.

You can find all the recipes here:
Creme Fruit
Broccoli Salad
Avocado + Grapefruit Salad
Potato/Sweet Potato Fries
Lettuce Wraps
Grilled Shrimp with homemade Tzatziki Sauce
Cherry Buttermilk Ice Cream Sandwiches

And see all the photos, here.

Part of Food Buzz 24, 24, 24: Cooking with Kids and the Farmer’s Market

This was originally a Neely recipe, but I changed it up jesssst a touch. I’m not a fan of overdoing it with cheese, but I’m sure that’s just me. This salad is a BIG hit at parties, but isn’t anything with bacon?

ingredients:
6 slices bacon
2 broccoli heads or 8 cups
1/2 red onion, sliced very thin
1/3 cup jack cheese, grated
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Fry your bacon, and let drain. Crumble into pieces and set aside.

Ready an ice bath. Cut the broccoli into florets. Blanch in boiling salted water very quickly, only about 20 seconds. Take them out and put them directly into the ice bath. This will stop the cooking and keep a nice bright green color. Drain well.

In a bowl, combine the cheese, mayo, sour cream, celery seed, salt and pepper.Fold in the broccoli. Then add the onion and the bacon. Fold together until everything is combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Chill in the fridge to let the flavors set until you are ready to serve.