The 1st of April goes a-somethin like this

We had a busy day yesterday.  We had 4 families over for dinner.  Most of them had no idea we were setting them up for an April Fools Dinner.  Good times.  Here is what was on the menu:

It was embarassing, really.  Everyone got here and dinner was still in the oven and looked like it needed more time.  SO we started with dessert. It was April Fools Day after all…

Probably my worst decorated meatloaf and mashed potato cake ever as it was having some issues. You can see I did the same thing in a cupcake version in the background.  Those were more popular with the kids.  Here is a better looking cake from a few years ago. People kept asking me what kind of cake it was (still had no clue) and I just had to smile and grin and say that it is a very special recipe that we only do once a year!

 

Served with our signature punch.  Raspberry, Cherry, or Strawberry Banana Jell-O.  This one really got people.  Even when you carry it you don’t notice it right off.  I’ve read some where people will put just a tiny bit of juice on top after it has solidified to make it look more liquidy but it worked fine without.  We also served rolls and corn but I didn’t do anything weird special to them. Oh and Mac N Cheese for the kids, just in case they didn’t like the cake.

The kids loved eating the Jell-O with their straws.  They managed to keep their dessert conversation overflowing with jokes such as, “Hey, you have a monkey on your face…. APRIL FOOLS!”  I had to remind them to eat their dessert so they can have dinner….

… and I had to remind the adults to save room for dinner.  Because it was awesome.  We had roast turkey.

This is a turkey cake, complete with white and dark “meat” (vanilla cake and applesauce spice cake) and rice krispie drums and wings.  I put it in the oven before guests arrived so I could pull it out later.  I’m going to have to do a separate post for how I constructed this beast.  There weren’t a whole lot of helpful tutes online so my contribution to society will be a set of my own with tips on what I will do differently next time :) so look for the tutorial soon. BTW I found most people that made turkey cakes make them for Thanksgiving. It was insane cutting into the cake, I felt like I was carving a turkey.

And thanks to a fun idea from a friend we served peas and carrots on the side.  I got lazy and just made excess rice krispies into cupcakes and frosted them, topped with quartered orange Starbursts and green Sixlets. 

And the mashed potatoes, gravy and butter was a nice compliment to the cake.  Vanilla ice cream, yellow Starbursts, and caramel sauce.

Hope your April the 1st was just as silly!

Happy 4th!

I realize I have loads to catch up on but that’ll have to wait for another rainy day I suppose… We are having a rainy 4th here so not much going on but in an attempt to make my day a little more patriotic, I’ll post this.  Luckily I had a little 4th of July fun previously otherwise I would feel put out! 

A hostess gift using some of my favorite jars and tootsie rolls and topped off using this tutorial.  I actually used a 4x6 flag for the material and thought it was cute but then I wonder if that is unpatriotic of me to cut up a flag, no matter how cheap it w as…

Red, White, and Blue Deviled Eggs.  It just might become a tradition here!  Shell the hardboiled eggs and empty out the yolks and dye the egg whites in water and food coloring.  Real quick!

Happy Independence Day to you!

Go for Gold! Or Green!

Whew - I'm gonna take a quick break from writing my talk for a church related event this Sunday to tell you about the prize for our Chinese Food Olympic Event that ends one week from today! So before I said that I would choose something Chinese for the prize but I wanted to give something that would be usable more often than times you might eat Chinese food (unless you are me and that might be a few times a week). I decided to go 'green' and offer up something cute to boot.... So without further ado, I present to you, the gold medal prize for the Chinese Food Olympics: your choice of one (1) reusable/compact/lightweight grocery bag from the Envirosax Mikado series pictured below. Thanks to la fuji mama for the idea and recommendation. These have more of a Japanese look but they, as with most things nowadays, are Made in China so we're good.

Again, you get to pick which one of these your little heart desires if you are the lucky Olympian whose name will be drawn by judge Aedan and just to be fair we will be excluding ourselves from the drawing. Aedan does take bribes in the form of cows milk, Disney Cars toys, or Wii games (still no Wii Fit! Arrggghh). So check out my previous post for the food event rules and email me before midnight of the closing ceremonies. I have to tell you we have been enjoying the many official (and our non-official) events and I'm still flipping out over Phelp's wins. Incredible.

To give you a taste of what we've been cooking up over here, I will show you our adventures in Spring Rolls last week:

The filling makes a yummy addition to stir-fried noodles as well. I could eat this stuff straight up.

Don't waste your time with the wraps you get at your local grocer - they soak up oil and lack the elasticity or when cooked, the light crispiness that these ones have. I got these at our local asian grocery and it comes frozen. Keep it frozen until maybe the day you plan to use them. When you do use them, keep them under a damp cloth while you are wrapping spring rolls so they do not dry out.

People think these need to be fat - keep them tight, small, skinny, and I like to make mine on the flat side so that they are easier to turn when frying. They seal up nicely with plain water. This is origami at it's finest right here...

I promoted my fabulous dishwasher to a temp cooking position. This is a rare sight so I had to take a picture :) To save ourselves from a deep-fried smelling home, we used the range on our outdoor grill to heat up the oil and it worked nicely. Neal was even able to slip a couple spring rolls through the fence to our neighbors...

And the results were tasty goodness wrapped in a crispy packet of bliss.

And Sweet and Sour Sauce for a condiment. Really, it is almost embarrassing to tell you how simple this is. I'll later post another recipe using this sauce.

Spring Rolls

Half of head of medium-finely shredded cabbage

3 or 4 carrots, peeled, trimmed, and shredded

4 or 5 cups bean sprouts (look for firm, white, crisp ones)

1 lb ground pork

sesame oil

soy sauce

salt and pepper

40 spring roll shells, thawed (almost 2 packages)

canola oil for frying

In a wok, brown ground pork in a couple tablespoons of sesame oil. Drain the grease and cook further with a couple tablespoons of soy sauce - you don't want excess liquid here, just enough to lightly flavor the meat. Set aside to cool.

Stir fry the cabbage, carrots, bean sprouts, salt and pepper to taste, in a couple tablespoons of sesame oil. You are going for a light stir-fry (a few minutes) with the vegetables still crunchy, not limp. Remove from heat, mix with the pork, and put mixture in a colander to drain the liquids. Let cool in the refrigerator completely (still in the colander with a bowl underneath to catch liquids) for a couple hours or even overnight.

Fill and fold wraps, sealing them off with water. Fry in oil, making sure to turn for even cooking. Remove from oil when it is an even golden brown. Place on paper towels to remove excess oil. Serve hot with sauce on the side.

Sweet and Sour Sauce

from Chinese Cooking Made Easy by Wei Chuan's Cookbook

1/3 cup ketchup

1/3 cup vinegar

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

3/4 tsp. salt

1 T. cornstarch

a few drops of red food coloring

Mix all ingredients in a small saucepan. Heat until boiling, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. Remove from heat. Allow to cool slightly before serving.