Win a KitchenAid Food Processor

For my son's first birthday we hired Brian Samuels to photograph a portion of the event. Brian also writes a really great food blog called A Thought for Food that I love to read. I love anyone who is as obsessed with food as I am. But he hit on a memory for me last week when running this great giveaway and asked: "What would you make with this KitchenAid Food processor". 
I immediatley remembered that my husabnd bought me a food processor years ago as a gift. I loved it! And then when we were packing to move last time he accidentily dropped it and it smashed into too many pieces to mend. :-(
Before the accident, what I actually did many times with that food processor was make fresh breadcrumbs for some italian family receipes that had been passed down to me. Stuffed artichokes especially. Yum!

I love that this giveaway got me thinking about my family recipes so I thought that I'd share the link for all of you. What would you do with your winnings?!?!

Half-Birthday Colorful Butterfly Cake!

So I think half-birthdays are pretty fantastic. Especially around here when all 4 of our birthdays occur in one 30 day period. This make for an entire year of waiting for a birthday/cake obsessed 3 year old. So the end of last week we celebrated the much anticipated 3.5!! We did this by making a colorful butterfly cake together. 

I got the idea from my sister who had made rainbow cupcakes for A for her birthday.  Being that this was a spur of the moment decision to go from plain cake to awesome cake I didn't look up any "right" way to do it. So my method was just adding food color to the batter in batches--First blue, then added red for purple, and then GREEN!  All in the same bowl.

It was really, really fun for her. Really easy for me.  (If you want a real method for a Rainbow cake here's a cool one HERE.)

Or you can try our delicious, hodge-podge mystery cake! Cutting into was a surprise each time!

And for a 3 year old---its really just about the frosting and the candle. :-)

First Birthday Fun!

It's actually been almost 6 months since N's First Birthday party but I have yet to showcase the photos here. Since N is about to turn 1 and a 1/2 in a couple of weeks, I am feeling nostalgic.

This was a really, really fun party for me to plan and design. I went all out with the "Farmyard" theme and I was really proud of the way everything turned out. It was a beautiful end of summer day just like his sister's 1st birthday. Lots of friends and family were there to enjoy with us. I had so much fun with the cake and cupcakes and decorations and birthday "activities". The photos below are a perfect mixture of the work of my photographer sister Barbara Brush and Brian Samuels (of Brian Samuels Photography) who we hired for that day. Brian was amazing and blended right in to the action. He caught some great moments that I missed because, like most hostesses, I was in the kitchen for the first hour of the party.... Enjoy!

The decorations...

The food...

The cake (and cupcake garden!)...

The fun...

A few days before the party I thought of this idea--- Using pictures that I cut out of all of my extra invitation I made a "clothesline" type of thing and asked people to safety pin a message for N that he will read on his 10th birthday. It was a big hit! And really really sweet to read them all now from all ages that were at the party.

Face painting!

Happy Mardi Gras! (recipe for Jambalaya)

In honor of, well, February I guess, I decided to make Jambalaya for dinner this week.  This super simple recipe turned out great, although it made enough to feed a small army!

CHICKEN & SAUSAGE JAMBALAYA

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
½ red pepper, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon whole thyme
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 package sausage, sliced thinly
1 lb chicken, cut into chunks
½ cup white wine
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato Paste
2 cups white rice
1 large can chicken broth
¼ teaspoon salt

Heat oil in a large roasting or sauté pan over high heat. Add onions, peppers, celery, Creole seasoning, pepper, thyme, chili powder and garlic; cook for 5 minutes. Add sausage and chicken and cook an additional 5 minutes. Stir in wine, tomatoes, tomato paste, rice, chicken broth and salt, cover, and cook over low heat approximately 30 to 40 minutes, until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Salt to taste and serve.

If you are making it for two adults, I'd cut it in half. Its a little bit spicy so you can cut down on the Cayenne pepper to make friendly for all ages. Although my 1 year old did demand to try it and then ran off with the spoon to lick it clean!

lunchtime

So my fruit & veggie pounding baby has turned into an uber picky 3 year old. This is nothing but frustrating to me as I previously thought picky eating had to be a result of poor parenting. Alas, I was wrong. Again. Sigh.

So of course I am now reading all sorts of literature about how to handle it. And even bought The Sneaky Chef to see if I could make some seemingly yummy snacks that were sneakily hiding healthy things. At least to get us through this period of time. I haven't tried an actual recipe yet but will let you know when I do.

My latest idea, which came up spontaneously  is what I like to call my "Lunchtime Lecture Series".

My impromptu chart drawn on the chalk board in our kitchen describes any information I could remember from my middle school health class.  We had lots of fun thinking of things in each category and watching mommy try to draw them (we combined fruit and veggies into one). And now at meal times we look at our plate and decide which category each thing is in. There should be one thing from each group on her plate.  A challenge to A to eat them all. And quite frankly a challenge to mom to supply all four!



Doing a little more research I found a Nourish Interactive that has some great information and lots of printables for parents and kids.

Although its been a short period of time, I think its working! At least on the education side. Tonight we talked about all the parts of her pizza.....Ok. Maybe there is still work to be done. :-)