Patriotic Pool Party

Today we're hosting a patriotic/Olympic pool party for 40 adults and kids.  We were excited to get in the red, white and blue spirit and a little nervous about how many people will actually fit in to our pool at one time!

To make party prep a little easier, I purchased yummy mini cupcakes and then rolled in red, white and blue sprinkles and topped a few with mini flags.

And each little party guest gets a goodie bag of golden sweets to take home.

"Thank you for playing today! All little athletes get a bag of gold medal goodies!"

Gold Medal Goodies:

We have a few Olympic 'games' to play.... hula hoop (how long can you go?), a balance beam made of 2x4s, water balloon toss, and balloon ping pong.  I saw this ping pong idea on pinterest (of course) and it is brilliant!  Tape a tongue depressor (or something flat to act as a handle) on to the back of a paper plate.  Now you have your 'paddle'.  Add some balloons and kids can bounce the balloons back and forth or see how long they can bounce their balloon without it hitting the ground.

And what party is complete without jello shots?  Okay, these contained no liquor due to almost more kids than adults in attendance. What they lacked in alcohol was made up for with patriotism! 

Now it is time to party!

Fried Chicken!

I have been craving fried chicken for weeks.  There is a famous fried chicken shop near our old house and I've been trying to figure out a reason or excuse to drive over there and get some.  Until today... I saw this fried chicken recipe on Yahoo and had to give it a shot. 

Great herbed coating, fairly easy frying, and the result was an extra moist meat with nice and crunchy exterior.  Everyone in my family enjoyed this chicken! 

All the herbs and spices ready to be mixed.

The oil heating up...

The mixed coating all ready to go.

And my chicken that had been soaking in buttermilk for eight hours.

After dredging the chicken in the herbed coating, I gently put the pieces in the oil and let 'em fry!

I'd show you a photo of the end result, but our mouths were watering and we couldn't wait to get this in our mouth!  Seriously, this is some awesome chicken.  You must give it a try.  I do suggest you go and buy a thermometer that clips to your pan so you can monitor the oil's temperature.  OR, use a deep fat fryer.  I actually have a fryer still sitting in it's box, so I'm going to have to try this recipe again!

Commerce Kitchen Fried Chicken (adapted from James Boyce)

Ingredients:
2 c. flour
2 Tbsp salt
2 Tbsp pepper

4 Tbsp paprika

1 tsp garlic salt

1 Tbsp dry mustard

1 Tbsp French thyme, ground

1 Tbsp dried sweet basil, ground

1 tsp oregano, ground

1 Tbsp Jamaica ginger, ground (regular ground ginger will work too)

2 c. buttermilk

2 2 ½- 3 lb. chickens, cut into 8 pieces each (I used 4 legs, 4 thighs, and 2 breasts cut in half)

Vegetable oil for frying (canola and peanut oil work too)

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl. Set aside.

Put chicken and buttermilk in two large plastic Ziploc bags or a flat dish and marinate in the refrigerator for at least two hours, turning every 30 minutes. This tenderizes the meat as well as removes any blood.

When ready to cook, remove chicken pieces from buttermilk, shake off excess liquid. Toss with dry ingredients. The chicken should be lightly covered, but it's okay if there are a few missed spots. You can also shake chicken with the dry ingredients in a large Ziploc bag.

Fill a large, heavy bottomed skillet or deep pot with enough oil to cover halfway up the largest piece of chicken. Heat oil to 325-350 degrees. If you don't have a cooking thermometer, wait for small bubbles to form.

Adjust heat so the oil bubbles are steady but not too rapid. Working in two or more batches, place the coated chicken in the hot oil. After about eight minutes, the chicken will be golden brown underneath. Turn over once and cook for an additional eight minutes or until nicely browned on both sides. The cooking process will agitate the pieces slightly, so you don't need to shift them around in the pan.

After frying, place chicken on a metal sheet tray covered in a paper towel and transfer to 200-degree oven to keep warm until serving. The chicken will stay moist for up to an hour.

* Boyce developed his succulent, crispy fried chicken by playing with traditional recipes and experimenting with the cooking process, eventually settling on a nine-spice blend and a slower fry. "What's great is how moist it stays," he says. "It takes a little longer but develops a beautiful crust and cooks evenly down to the bone." His method is especially appealing to home cooks who are intimidated by the idea of deep-frying. While you can use a screen to protect from splatters, Boyce says, "If your stove is getting covered with grease, your heat is too high."

Or click here for the electronic version of recipe.

1st Birthday Fun

Today is my niece Graecyn's 1st birthday party and everyone is excited to celebrate!  I had the honor of making cookies for the garden themed party as well as the fun ladybug invitations!

Last night I was busy putting finishing touches on the cookies and cookie pops.

For the party I put the cookie pops in a terra cotta planter filled with rice and topped with black beans (to look like dirt). 

 

And gotta love a pinterest idea put to great use at a party with lots of little kids and adults.  Individual servings of veggies with dip. 

And this cute pinwheel decoration is also the take home favor!  My brother in law drilled holes in to a 2x4 and inserted the pinwheel stems.  They then mounted to their deck rail. Clever! 

The invitations I created for Graecyn's party.  The ladybug's wings spread to show the party details.

Fun garden themed party hats made by Graecyn's mom and dad.

And a window frame with pictures on both sides.  Each pane represented a month of Graecyn's first year.

What an honor to be able to create the party invites and cookies for the big day! 

Raspberries!

Today we headed to Remlinger Farms to pick raspberries. I figured the kids would like it for about five minutes, but much to my delight they picked berries for almost an hour. 

We ended up with almost 6 pounds of berries.  This then leads to the dilemma of what to do with all the berries.  We ate quite a few right out of the box.  Some on yogurt, ice cream, cereal... then I found a recipe for raspberry (or blueberry) muffins and we gave it a try.

The muffin batter was so thick it didn't let the berries sink very far!

In to the muffin tins!

After they came out of the oven it was hard to resist eating one right away.  What a treat!

This was a great recipe for raspberries and I may try again with blueberries since they have been on sale at the market recently.  Enjoy!  Click here for the link.

Jean Makeover

My son rips the knee in his pants within record time.  We should buy stock in denim companies because at the rate he rips his jeans? Wow.... this boy plays hard!

I purchased some iron on denim patches at the fabric store and attempted to make 'cool' patches for the torn jeans.  While they did turn out great, B wasn't always too thrilled.  One pair had a star shaped patch, another had different size squares overlapping.  In fact, my daughter was so envious of his shaped patches that she begged for some.  I cut out two small flowers from the iron on denim and put them on a pair of her jeans!

But thanks to pinterest I found a cool idea for patching up a pair of jeans.  A montser patch!

Lay out your clean pair of jeans with tear and cut out a piece of thick red felt or wool fabric that is larger than the tear.  Giving a good 1" extra red fabric on all sides.

Place red fabric on inside of jeans and hand or machine stich the fabrics together.  Make sure you don't try to close the rip in jeans completely as you are sewing.  You want to let the red fabric have a little slack to accomodate for the knee bending.  

Red fabric is no sewn on to jeans.  Take a piece of thick white wool or felt fabric and cut teeth to fit the width of the jean opening.   

Tuck the teeth under the end of the tear and hand or machine sew through the denim, white, and red fabrics.

To complete the look, add a couple circles for silly or scary eyes!

Now you have an extra cool pair of monster jeans!

Garden

A little garden update.  Now that the sun is shining, the garden is growing!  The snow peas are really taking off and so are the carrots!

A broccoli floret.

Pretty snow pea flowers.

And our three raspberry bushes have been producing like crazy!

The corn is off to a slow start this year, but hoping the sun will stick around to really kick in a growth spurt.

And an onion bloom.  They are so pretty!

Linguine with Arugula and Fresh Crab

We went crabbing on opening day of crab season and came home with 11 biggies!  Thank goodness we have three licenses to make this possible... yes, that is me validating our catch in case anyone is wondering. :)

Ironically, my friend posted a crab pasta recipe on facebook today and I made it for dinner.  Refreshing, light and full of crab.  I'm not a big fan of eating crab mixed in with things... I prefer it straight from the shell or in a great crab cake.  But this pasta was a good option, Linguine with Arugula and Crab.  Add in some lemon and garlic and you're done!  You can substitute chicken or shrimp for the crab.

Click here for the link, courtesy of Tuesday Recipe.