Salsa Verde

So I made salsa, and I didn't take pictures. *GASP* I know, it's tough to believe. Time was kind of a factor though. About a week ago, we had a sudden cold snap that resulted in a hard frost that prematurely killed my garden. Excuse me while I take a minute to go sob in a corner... See, what you have to understand was that I was extremely proud of my garden, because it's the first real one I've had - I'm talking plants in the ground and a fence and everything. Did I mention I started it all from seed? If you know me at all, you know I don't have much luck with seed starting, and that usually results in a trip to the garden center to buy transplants. And when a freak hail storm in early spring destroyed my newly transplanted seedlings, I raised replacement plants from seed all over again. I was amazed at the success I had this growing season. Anyway, the god-awful frost froze my plants solid, and so I was left with a bunch of green tomatoes and half-ripe tomatillos on dead vines. Fortunately, I could spare the fruit, but I knew they wouldn't last long unless they were processed immediately. A quick internet search brought me to a recipe for salsa verde made from green tomatoes. I figured I could use this same recipe for both my tomatillos and my green tomatoes, and turns out I was right. It rendered a delicious batch of salsa verde that I will proudly serve at my upcoming Day of the Dead-themed pumpkin carving party (more on that in a later post).

So here's the recipe, copied from Ball's Fresh Preserving Website (link above):

YOU WILL NEED:

• 7 cups chopped cored peeled green tomatoes (about 12 medium)
• 5 to 10 jalapeno, Habañero or Scotch bonnet peppers, seeded and finely chopped
• 2 cups chopped red onion (about 2 large)
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 1/2 cup loosely packed finely chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 6 Ball® (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands 

DIRECTIONS:

1. PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil.  Wash lids in warm soapy water and set bands aside.
2. COMBINE tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic and lime juice in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Stir in cilantro, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.
3. LADLE hot salsa into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
4. PROCESS filled jars in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Quick Tip: Use from 5 to 10 hot peppers to reach the level of heat you desire. When cutting or seeding hot peppers, wear rubber gloves to prevent hands from being burned. 

A little info about my process: I didn't seed my jalapenos. I like medium to hottish salsa, and jalapenos for the most part don't contain that much kick to me. If you like a mild salsa, you absolutely MUST seed your peppers. You could also try using bell peppers in place of hot peppers to help turn down the heat. Also, I tried the little trick where you blanch the tomatoes first and then dunk them in ice water to help with the peeling process. I don't know if it was because the tomatoes were green, but it didn't really work as well as it does with ripe tomatoes. Just be aware that you may have to pull out our vegetable peeler for this one.

I also made a batch of red salsa, but I had to supplement with canned, diced tomatoes from the supermarket because I didn't have enough homegrown, ripe tomatoes. I used the same recipe I blogged about a couple of years ago. That blog has pictures, for all you visual types! Later, taters!

Ladybug Birthday Party

Continuing the theme of birthday party ideas, I'd like to share with you the first themed birthday party I ever did - my little one's Ladybug 3rd birthday party. Since my daughter was a baby, she has always loved ladybugs. This led my mom-in-law to start calling her ladybug, and it also inspired me to try this party.

As far as parties go, this one was pretty simple. The only party decor I made myself were the neon colored ladybugs. I ended up tracing, cutting, and coloring the dots on neon poster board to make about 50 ladybugs. I combined this with polka-dotted balloons from Walmart, and flower-shaped fan foldouts from Oriental Trading.

The food was standard party food: pizza, chips, fruit, etc. Instead of a cake, I did cupcakes which I decorated with ladybug and flower-shaped candies (the kind you get in the cake decorating isle.) I then arranged them to look like a field (in my mind, anyway.)

For favors, each kid got foil crowns and bubbles in ladybug bottles. The kids loved the bubbles, and even the adults got in on the fun. Between the bubbles and the balloons that I left on the floor for the kids to play with, I didn't even need any party games. It doesn't take much to entertain a toddler, apparently.

It doesn't take much to entertain teens, either.

Were I doing this party today, I probably would do a few things differently. I'd probably have made the flower ceiling hangers myself instead of buying them. I would have planned a couple of simple party games. I would have done more themed food. I would have used a piping tip to make the green frosting on the cupcakes look more like grass. I would have put more flowers and ladybugs on the cupcakes. In the end, however, those things are just for my satisfaction. My daughter had a blast at this party, and so did the other littles that came. 

It doesn't take much to make a kid's birthday special. Whatever party you want to do, just go for it. They'll love it!

How to Train Your Dragon Birthday Party

These ideas are from my nephew's party two birthdays ago, but I decided to share them with you now because How to Train Your Dragon 2 was released earlier this summer, and some of you might need some ideas! Note: I can't take credit for these ideas; they were all my mom-in-law's.

My sister-in-law claims to not have a crafty bone in her body, so when her son wanted a How to Train Your Dragon birthday party, she turned to her mom for help with the games. The movie focused on two things - how to fight dragons, and how to befriend dragons. With this in mind, my mom-in-law came up with two games.

The first game was a bean bag toss. My mom in law is quite good at painting, so she took the side of a refrigerator box and painted a three-headed dragon. After cutting out the dragon's mouths, she then sewed bean bags into the shape of fish. At the party, the kids did their best to feed the dragon by tossing the fish into his mouths.

As an added bonus, the dragon's mouths turned out to be a pretty good photo prop as well:

Now surely you're seeing those nifty shields and wondering what that's all about. My mom-in-law cut all those shields from cardboard, gave them a faux wood paint treatment, and gave them to the kids so they could defend themselves in the next game. The dragon, played by one of the adults, hurled fireballs made of red and yellow satin tied around balled up newspaper at the kids, and they had to use their shields not to get hit. We played this game several times.

 The kids really loved this one, and at the end, they all rushed the dangerous dragon to slay him!

As part of their training, our young vikings also tested their strength in tug of war. This was a game that was specifically requested by the birthday boy.

Then it was time to feast and have cake. My mom-in-law had a plan for that too. She made signs and came up with clever names to turn party food into HTTYD themed food. We had Dragon Egg grapes, Dragon Scale doritos, Dragon Wings chicken wings, and Dragon Teeth bugles.

The cake was also quite lovely because of a HTTYD edible cake decal my sister-in-law applied.

As favors, each child got a viking helmet, the shield mom-in-law made for them, and several HTTYD coloring pages that were found free on the internet. It was a great party!

A Nyan Cat Birthday

I promised you a while back I would tell you about my little one's party this past November. Well, today I'm going to share that with you.

Do you know Nyan cat? If you don't, check this out:

Well, there you have it. That's all it is. Not much to go on for a party, huh? Yet, this video consists of a cat, a pop-tart, stars, a rainbow, and an annoying-yet-catchy tune. This is the stuff my little one's dreams are made of, and so this is the theme she picked for her fifth birthday.

I started off with the cake. A Google search led me to this, which I set out to copy, sans the flowers. Not to brag, but I think I might have nailed it :).  My next idea was to expand on the Nyan cat theme by combining ideas for rainbow parties with ideas from kitty cat themed parties. This is what I came up with:

The large Nyan Cat was drawn on a grid-lined poster board (which helped immensely with the pixel look). The letters I cut out by hand from some colored cardstock. The blue star balloons, blue table covers, and streamers I purchased from our local Party City.

To create the rainbow ceiling decorations below, I purchased small diameter dowels, cut them to size and then glued streamers to them in ROYGBV order. The star dangles were purchased from Walmart.

The centerpieces I made myself. I couldn't find any satisfactory ones at the time, so I found a picture of Nyan cat online, printed it, cut it out, and attached it to a bamboo skewer. I then put that skewer in a small cup filled with quick-setting concrete, along with some curled pipe-cleaners. After the concrete was set, I tied some blue cellophane around the cup with some prismatic silver curling ribbon, and attached some silver star stickers to the side. That, along with some star confetti was the perfect decor for my tables.

For favors, I made kitty ears out of colored headbands and felt. The other thing I did was make a basket of kitties that were "free to a good home." They were made of cardstock and had different designs for the kids to take home and color. As an added bonus, they also had Pixy-Stix whiskers. I also bought a few random party favors to give out after the games. The winners of each game got a big treat bag filled with several prizes, while everyone else got to pick one toy from the prize box.

This year, I kept the games simple. We played "Pin the Rainbow on Nyan Cat," a variation of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." We also did musical chairs to the Nyan Cat theme, but for the adults' sakes, I used the slightly less annoying piano cover :). Musical chairs was such a hit, the kids asked if they could play it twice. You can tell by the blurry, yet smiling faces below that everyone had a good time.

The food was simple and delicious. As with everything else, I stuck with either a rainbow or cat theme. The tent labels for the food I made with Microsoft Word. I printed out the labels and glued them to folded cardstock. For the rainbow fruit, I chose red apples, peaches, dried pineapple, green grapes, and blueberries with a lovely whipped fruit dip. To make the fruit dip, all you do is combine 8 oz. of softened cream cheese with 8 oz of Cool Whip and a 7 oz jar of marshmallow creme, and beat until fluffy. My daughter loves cheese, so I had a plate of colby-jack cubes that I called "mouse bait." Another idea I had was to use a cookie cutter to make fish-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or "peanut butter and jellyfish" sandwiches. Since, you know, cats are crazy for fish. I also made a veggie and cracker tray with a buttermilk ranch cheese ball that I made to look like a ball of yarn with some cream cheese and a flat cake frosting tip. Of course, we also had pop-tarts in several flavors! However, I think my absolute favorite themed food from this party was the chocolate mice. You heard right, mice.

I got my idea from this pin. However, my little one doesn't eat cherries or almonds, so I needed something else that would work. What I found was Walgreen's Good & Delish Mini S'mores. Wanna make these? Gather mini s'mores, fudge stripe cookies, Hershey's kisses, and chocolate candy bark. Carefully melt the chocolate bark in the microwave ten seconds at a time. Spoon the melted bark into a piping bag with a small round tip (I don't know what number tip mine was, honestly). On a sheet of wax paper, start piping as many pairs of ears as you will need. While those are cooling, pipe some chocolate onto the bottom of the mini s'more, then attach it to the cookie. Then, pipe a small tail coming from the edge of the mini s'more. Once the ears have hardened, they can be carefully peeled from the wax paper. To attach the ears to the head, pipe a small amount of chocolate onto the Hershey's kiss, then stick the ears on. After that, pipe some chocolate onto the mini s'more, then attach the head to the body. You may have to hold the head in place for a second while the bark hardens. Repeat until you have the desired number of mice. Note that you might need to reheat the chocolate bark as you're working with it. This can be done by making sure the piping bag is sealed, and dipping it into a bowl of hot water (just uncomfortable to the touch, not boiling).

Well, there you have it, a Nyan Cat birthday party fit for a five-year old. As always, you can check out my Party Ideas board on Pinterest for more stuff to make your next party spectacular. See you next time!

Westward, Ho!

So, I know I haven't talked much about it, but I thought I might share some photos from our journey westward to Big Sky Country. I didn't get a lot of photos because I was driving, but I got enough to sum up our journey.

This is my little one pretending to drive while we were stuck at the auto repair place in Augusta, GA. Word to the wise, rent something other than a U-haul. I won't go into detail, but suffice to say, after about 12 hours on day one, we'd only covered a distance that usually takes just two hours. Not a good way to start the trip. Fortunately, there weren't anymore problems once we got back on the road, but by then, I was already pretty frazzled.

Day two began with us in Monteagle, TN. We woke up to LOTS of fog - like all the cliches about pea soup and hands in front of your face were completely true. While we waited for visibility to improve, we had a leisurely breakfast at the Rocky Top Restaurant. If you ever find yourself in Monteagle, you owe it to yourself to stop here. There's very good country cooking, friendly staff, and reasonable prices.

More pics from day two: the Nashville skyline, farm life in Kentucky, my tuckered out crew (traveling with a five year-old, a dog, and a cat isn't easy), and the St. Louis arch. We covered as much ground as we possibly could on day two in an attempt to make up for lost time on day one. It was pretty hard, but I really wanted to get to Montana as close to on-schedule as possible. My husband had been in Billings for the last two months, and we'd missed our 10-year wedding anniversary, Halloween, my husband's birthday, Thanksgiving ,and our daughter's 5th birthday together. When my mother in-law offered to help me move out so we didn't miss Christmas together too, I was grateful, and I didn't want to wait any longer than I had to in order to finish the journey.

 When the St. Louis arch came into view, I was a happy camper. I'd been excited to see it since I found out we'd be passing by it on our trip. However, today, the "gateway to the west's" beauty signified something else: our day of driving was nearly done, and better yet, we were halfway to Montana. Twelve hours and four states later, we stopped on the west side of St. Louis and rewarded our monumental driving efforts with dinner at Steak' n Shake.

Day three had us driving through a whole lotta nothin'. To the right is a pic of my little one at a rest stop in Iowa, getting a preview of the snow we had to look forward to. We had to trek the rest of the way across Missouri, into Iowa, and then across the vasty nothingness of South Dakota. To illustrate how little there is in South Dakota, my mom-in-law's husband, in spite of our warnings, decided to forego stopping for gas in Sioux Falls. When we began looking for gas, we finally found a little place several miles off the interstate. This town was so small, the gas station was also the town's grocery store and pizza joint!

On day four, the final day of our journey, we started out about two hours from Rapid City, SD. Over to the right you can see that vasty nothingness I was talking about. Once we got to Rapid City, we took a detour to go see Mt. Rushmore, because coming so close and not seeing it seemed like a crime. After that, we had lunch in Sturgis, SD, where my mom-in-law picked up some souvenir t-shirts at the Harley Davidson shop for her nephew and his wife, who are avid bikers. From there, we made the final push across Wyoming, and I tell you, it was beautiful. The snow on the landscape looked like someone had dusted powdered sugar over a giant donut. There were mountains, antelope, bald eagles, and more deer that I've ever seen in my life! We even got to see Devil's Tower, which is fantastic, because it is literally the only thing around for miles. I'm telling you, if you ever have the opportunity to drive across Wyoming, DO IT! Just fill up on gas first, because if you don't, you might find yourself surveying the landscape on foot with a gas can in one hand.

 This picture doesn't do them justice, but here are some of the Bighorn Mountains (I think). And to think this scenery is practically in my backyard! Anyway, after stopping in Sheridan, WY, we got back on the road and finally arrived in Billings at about 8PM. WHEW! Even though I was sleeping on an air mattress because our stuff was still in the truck, I've never slept so hard in my life.

So there you have it. Our four-day driving marathon across the ol' U.S. of A.

Cookie Dough Yogurt

So I'm trying to convince myself to that I need to eat healthy again. I got pretty good at it a little while ago, but I let that slip by the wayside, and I gotta tell you, it's tough breaking bad habits. Anyway, I was browsing Pinterest (big surprise, right?) when I ran across this link for healthy, natural, cookie dough-flavored yogurt. I'm thinking "Nuh-uh, there's no way it tastes anything like cookie dough." However, my local Harris Teeter was running a meal deal that included Greek yogurt, so I thought that I might as well give it a try. It's very good! It actually tastes a good deal like peanut butter cookie dough. And it was so simple to make! You guys really have to try this stuff.

Potatoes and Tusks

Fierce!

This week is the week of deliveries. Yesterday, I got my troll tusks from the wonderful people at Medieval Collectibles. I'm getting pretty excited about my costume now. Aside from the makeup, I now have all the elements of the costume that I myself am not going to make. I'm also expecting my friendly neighborhood UPS guy to bring my patio storage bench that I ordered from Amazon. Hooray for more storage space!

This week we've been blessed with beautiful weather. I have to tell you, after the crazy winter we've had, I'm thankful for some calm spring-like days. All this has got me looking outside in anticipation of gardening. A few days ago, my little one and I started some tomatoes, tomatillos, sweet and hot peppers, and zucchini seeds indoors. I was curious how this would go because the tomato seeds were some I saved myself a couple of growing seasons ago, and the peppers and zucchini are close to 3 years old. I honestly didn't expect any of them to sprout, but sure enough, the tomatoes and zucchini are.

Yesterday, we headed outside to plant some Dutch iris bulbs in a little, neglected garden bed under our tree. I found that daffodils and grape hyacinth were previously planted there, so that was a pleasant surprise. The grape hyacinth seems to be making a run for it though, because I see blooms popping up in the grass up to ten feet away from the bed. I weeded, put down ant killer and fixed the rock ring around the bed. We also planted some zinnia seeds in my umbrella stand planter and began a potato tower. I have a lot of plans in store for my yard, and a lot of work ahead of me to get it done, but I'll be glad to be outside. Who knows, maybe I'll even get a tan this year.

Fishy Fun Party

So, my little one just turned four, and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of how her party turned out. One day she was sitting on my lap while I was browsing Pinterest, and together we saw this awesome fish cake from Cupcakes Take the Cake. My little one loved this cake so much that right then and there she decided she wanted a fish-themed party. With the help of Pinterest and Oriental Trading, I was able to come up with some pretty nice stuff.

The cake ended up being super adorable. The mama fish was chocolate cake, the babies were yellow cake, and all of them were frosted with a homemade cream cheese frosting. One of these days, I'll learn how to frost without making a complete mess of the cake board, but eh, I don't think too many people noticed. There was one alteration I made to the original cupcake design, and that was to add a fruit slice for the tail. I was going to include fins by cutting a fruit slice in half, but alas, there really wasn't room on the the cupcakes. A word to the wise, if you end up doing this, you won't need NEARLY as many M&M's as I bought. I got three bags, and in hindsight, I probably could have gotten away with one.


A lot of the food was just a matter of creative labeling. For example: carrot sticks were crab legs, bell pepper sticks were calamari, cheese cut into triangles became shark's teeth, and regular old cucumber slices became sea cucumbers. Potato chips and Goldfish crackers were arranged next to each other with a sign that read, "Fish & Chips." PB and J sandwiches became starfish with the use of a handy, star-shaped cookie cutter. Cheese puffs in Dixie cups (turned into buckets by the addition of a pipe-cleaner handle) became "live bait."

Other foods took a little more effort. There was my little squid, relaxing in a tub of ranch veggie dip. He helped make the bell pepper calamari appear a little more convincing. It was super simple, all I had to do was sink a baby bell into the dip upside down, use some gel frosting to make a face, and slip in eight pepper sticks for the legs.

Next were submarine cakes. My daughter has a video called "The Big Submarine" from Little Mammoth Media (they make wonderful educational videos for kids, please take a minute to check them out). I bought it for her so that she could see what life was like for Daddy when he was at sea in the Navy. Little did I know that she would love that video so much. When she saw these, she nearly deafened me as she pointed at the screen and shouted, "MOMMY, CAN WE HAVE THOSE AT MY FISH PARTY?!!" These were made with chocolate filled Twinkies. Yes, we ate collector's items, and they were delicious.  All I did was use frosting to "glue" on the M&M windows, and insert trimmed-down bendy straws at one end. If you absolutely love this idea, but fear paying $500 a box for Twinkies, DO NOT FRET. Little Debbie makes Cloud Cakes. I've noticed they're a little harder to find in stores, but you won't spend your child's entire college fund to get them.

I also made oyster cookies. The hardest part of this was finding something to use as pearls. Luckily, my local Hobby Lobby had shiny, white Sixlets in the wedding section. After that, it was a matter of coloring some frosting, frosting the bottom of a Nilla Wafer, adding the Sixlet, and then topping it all with another Nilla Wafer. I don't even like Nilla Wafers or Sixlets, but these cookies were tasty. Something about the flavor combo made them really, really good.

Last, but not least, is the Rice Crispy treat sushi. This was as simple as making Rice Crispy treats, making them into patties, wrapping them with Fruit by the Foot, and topping them with a fish-shaped candy. I did have to use frosting to make the fish candy stick, but I consider this a success, because a lot of my family told me this would be the only sushi they'd ever eat. (My family isn't terribly adventurous when it comes to cuisine.)

Now, you may have noticed the cute little labels I made for the food. That wouldn't have been possible without my mom's Cricut machine. Well, it would have, but it would have taken ten times as long and been a lot more work. Actually, I made quite a few decorations with Mom's machine. I made seashells and starfish to scatter on the tables, as well as fish and seaweed to hang from the ceiling. Speaking of decorations, I thought the room looked fabulous:



Thank heavens for my parents, my MIL and SIL. I would never have gotten all this set up in time without them.

We also played several games the kids thoroughly enjoyed. For the first game, the kids got to go fishing for fish-shaped goody bags filled with bubbles, stickers, and necklaces. In the next game, the kids became the fish and had to catch gummy worms hanging from strings with their mouths. As is expected with young children, chaos and hilarity ensued.

When the party was all over, we sent everyone home with favors that I got from Oriental Trading. These little water-filled games were so cute, and my little one loved hers almost as much as she liked her presents.

All in all, I felt it was a big success. It was a lot of work and a little bit stressful, but my philosophy is that eventually, there will come a time when my baby will no longer think my ideas are all that great, and so I might as well go all out while I can. The little one has already informed me that she wants a kitty party next year, and so I will be keeping my eyes open for more good ideas. If you'd like to check out my Pinterest party board, you can do so here: http://pinterest.com/am_crittenden/party-ideas/. Happy party planning!