turkey hat day

Clementine and her friend, Addie, had a little turkey party yesterday. On the agenda: turkey hats, "turkey" snacks, turkey cupcakes, and a whole lot of gobbling.

Oh, turkey hats!

I searched online for some inspiration and came up with this.

The real feathers are my favorite part!

I had all of the pieces cut out and ready to glue. Since the girls are only two there is only so much crafting they can do.

They showed us where the google eyes and beak would go on the turkey face and then carefully chose each feather and placed it on the turkey body for us to tape down. Afterwards, I hot glued a piece of brown paper over the feather tips to cover all of the tape. The sides were stapled together at the appropriate head size and then red wings were glued over the staples to hide them.

g o b b l e .  g o b b l e.

And for the snacks?

Well, it wouldn't be a true craft party without some reference to Martha! Thank you, Sara Westbrook, for coming up with this clever idea as featured on Martha Stewart. Check out this link to see how it's done. It is VERY easy and so FUN!

No, I didn't make them.

Cupcakes were not on my list. You (I) can't do everything! These bright little guys caught my eye in the Whole Foods bakery display. Perfect finale for our turkey party!

bee-lated

Yes, I know Halloween was nine days ago but I thought I would still share this year's costume.

Just like last year, I found a costume at a store and added to it to make it a little better; semi-homemade.

I sewed this great sequined material onto black leggings and added a white with sparkly black polka dots tulle to the wings.

And of course, a string of tiny warm white lights to the inner tulle petticoat completed the look.

The mister was a good sport and wore a bee costume, too. We even found one for Weezie!

Me? Well, the beekeeper, of course!

mummy meatballs

A couple of years ago I made mummy meatloaf.  It's so fun, but so much food for two and a half of us. The solution? Mummy Meatballs!

(And if you're into gore, you could even say they are floating in blood! Ew!)

I have to admit I'm kind of overly pleased with myself right now. These were perfect! They are relatively easy to make and I actually like the idea of my pasta and meatball wrapped up in one little package.

Here's what I did:

Make meatballs.

While they are cooking make fettucini. It is very important that you do not overcook it. Al dente! Drain the pasta and arrange on a cookie sheet.  This makes it easier to work with.

I used pre-sliced and packaged mozzarella, cut it, and wrapped it around my meatball.

I wrapped one piece of the pasta around the meatball which then held the cheese in place.

Keep wrapping pasta around the meatball to form your little mummy.

Place on a baking sheet.

I put the tray in our toaster/convection oven at 400 degrees to melt the cheese.

Next, I used a toothpick to make indentations where the eyes would go. I placed peppercorns in the holes and the melted cheese held them in place. You could also use little capers.  Serve in a bowl of red sauce.

Why hello, little mummy.

Happy Halloween!

monster cupcakes

I came across a package of children's vampire teeth and a light bulb went off in my head:

Monster cupcakes!

They were purple and green and perfect.

Once I remembered that Wilton makes candy eyes my whole vision came together very quickly:

chocolate cupcakes

(Oh my! A new favorite recipe from the farm chicks blog. This will surely be my go to chocolate cupcake recipe; so moist! Next time I will add mini chocolate chips for a little more chocolate lovin'.)

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Fluffy white icing (that I tried to make orange)

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colored sugar

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Halloween FUN!

It was super fun to make these. The frosting is so light you can really pile it on your cupcake and then it just holds it's shape! Stick the teeth in (cut them in half to make a closed mouth or even just use one), add eyes, one or three or more, and sprinkle with sugar. Perfection is definitely not what you're going for; with these monsters the crazier the better!

Fluffy White icing recipe from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri

4 large egg whites

Large pinch of salt

1 Cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup of light corn syrup

Fill half a saucepan with water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Combine egg whites, salt, sugar, and corn syrup in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk by hand, just to mix together. Regulate the heat under the pan of water so that it boils gently and place the bowl on the pan. Whisk gently just to keep the mixture moving until it is hot (130 degrees F/55degrees C) and all of the sugar is dissolved. Place the bowl on the mixer with the whisk and whip the icing until it has cooled and become white and fluffy.

a bright baby shower

It's sometimes challenging to take good pictures of things as you're rushing around pulling a party together. Here are a few shots from late night cake pop preparation and alphabet cookies to the crazy hot pink and orange deviled eggs my mom made; the result of cake pop delirium and too much wine! They were something! It was a beautiful sunny day and we were able to have the party outside on my mother's deck overlooking the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains. Lanterns, sparkly letters strung and hung, a 'Baby Mama' banner which I found and fell in love with while searching on etsy, balloons, bright tissue paper flower garland, hot pink roses in blue vintage mason jars and orange marigolds from the garden, bright fabric, and modern fun blocks were among the decorations. The cake pops were inserted into styrofoam blocks that I wrapped in bright crepe paper and set upon the dessert table with the alphabet cookies and baby food jar cakes. The sunshine made the bright colors all the brighter!

make something: A-Z necessities for the new parent. Words of wisdom and keepsake book for the baby shower.

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We had an alphabet theme for my sister's baby shower (in case you haven't caught on to that by now!).  One day, while at Michael's, I came across a made-for-teachers bulletin board alphabet with green polka dotted trim. It was super cute and I liked the idea of bringing it back to elementary school and learning to write. Especially since my sister is a teacher. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with it when I purchased it but then it came to me.

I was going to make a book!

A book where guests can share their wisdom with the new parents in an A-Z format.

It is not only a great activity for the guests but a keepsake for the new mama.

Here's what I did:

Cut out each letter and pasted it onto a piece of lined writing paper, color photocopied each page to make it seem more finished otherwise the heavy cardstock of the letters was to weighty for the lined writing paper, made a front and back cover which I laminated, and then had the whole thing spiral bound. Pretty simple.

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On the back page we all wrote in our name and our guess for the baby's birth date and weight.

I think it was a pretty good idea!

A lot of times a shower invitation will contain a card that asks you to write something and bring it with you to the shower. I always forgot mine. Doing it right at the party seemed like a better idea. It's simple one word or short sentence format makes it an easy thing to do even as the presents are being opened.

Two other variations of this would be:

A photo book for a more finished version. Take pictures of all 26 letters, maybe from signs that you see around town or even from books or stencils. Make a photo book online putting only the letter photograph on each page and leaving the rest of the page blank for writing. You could mix in prego pictures of the new mama or the happy couple. Or even photos of the couple from when they were a baby!

Or for a more home made scrapbook feel, just paste letters to a pre-bound white page sketch book or small scrap book, heck, even blank pages in a three ring binder would do the job!

Pass it around and see just how clever your guests are!

colored cupcakes baked in baby food jars!

A while back I saw rainbow cake baked in a mason jar and fell in love.

At that moment I knew for my sister's baby shower I would attempt to bake cake in baby food jars. How appropriate!

Bright Pink, orange, and blue are her colors and with the help of the new neon food coloring on the market (gasp! sorry all-natural food coloring, you just didn't work for this party!) I was able to achieve just that. It was actually quite easy. Spray the jars with a non-stick baking spray and fill with batter. I layered my colors but didn't pay too much attention to being perfect. I wasn't looking for stripes just colorful fun cake. It's important to fill the jars just shy of the halfway mark to ensure that it doesn't rise up and leak over the sides while baking. That wouldn't be so pretty. I used 4oz jars which is the perfect snack size equivalent to a cupcake. After filling the jars, place on a cookie sheet, or in a cupcake pan, and bake. After they have cooled completely top with a dollop of frosting.

I like that the whole sweet treat is contained in the jar. You could even put the lid on, cover it with a coordinating piece of fabric, tie a ribbon around it and use it as a cute baby shower favor!

Ours were placed on the dessert table next to a pile of bright orange spoons (you need a spoon to eat the cake out of the jar) to enjoy while watching the big present-opening-event.