Gnocchi and Cheese

Gnocchi and Cheese

Ingredients:
1 pound purchased or homemade gnocchi
2 Tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup shredded Gruyere cheese
1/4 cup shredded fontina cheese
Salt and white pepper to taste
1/3 cup shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375. Prepare gnocchi according to package directions. Drain and place gnocchi in a single-layer in a 1-1/2 quart shallow baking dish that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.

2. Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Whisk in flour until it thickens and bubbles, then whisk in milk and Dijon. Continue to whisk mixture and cook until slightly thickened, about 3-5 minutes.

3. Combine Gruyere and fontina, then add by the handful to milk mixture, stirring until melted before adding the next handful. Once all cheese is melted, season sauce with salt and pepper.

4. Pour sauce over gnocchi and sprinkle with Parmigiano-Reggiano over top. Bake gnocchi until they puff and the cheese is golden and bubbly, about 25 minutes. Let gnocchi rest for 5 minutes before serving.

33 Beers Birthday Party

Here’s another blog entry for an event from last month!

My husband turned 33 and it had been a while since we’ve thrown a big party in his honor. I got the idea of a beer party when I came across the beer journal “33 Bottles of Beer.”

Thus began the planning! I wanted the colors to be “manly,” so I stuck with black, brown, and gray/silver. And I wanted the food to be a different take on bar food.

There was one specific beer I wanted to focus on: Rolling Rock. Their bottles have the mysterious number “33″ on the back! Originally, I wanted to get a keg, but we couldn’t find a distributor. So my sister-in-law ended up buying all the Rolling Rock in our city! I’m serious.

To go along with the beer journal, my SIL and I visited a couple stores to select 33 different/interesting beers for everyone to sample. We had domestics and imports. Darks and lights. Sorghum and seaweed.

After all 33 beers were sampled, those who finished the task were asked to decorate a paper plate to be displayed on our mantle! Total plates: 4.

DECORATIONS:

I made a banner using brown stencils glued onto black cardstock…attached to wool yarn.

I wrapped black yarn around 2 beer bottles and attached a square of burlap with “33″ written on it. The bottles held bunches of dried wheat.

FOOD:

Galvanized buckets with snacks: Cracker Jack, Bottlecaps candy, Chex Mix, Gummy Cola Bottles.

Store-bought giant pretzels with honey mustard dipping sauce.

Beer Cheese Dip (no picture)

Buffalo Chicken Dip (no picture)

Blue Moon Cupcakes and Guinness Cupcakes

Non-alcoholic drinks: Lemonade and Lime-infused Water

Everyone had such a blast! And my husband had an awesome time with his friends and family!

Vacation Bible School Crafts

I know, I know…I’m WAAAY late on posting on VBS week! I’ve been so caught up with life and therefore too preoccupied.

Back in June, my sister-in-law and I volunteered to take on 19 second- and third-graders at our church. My mother-in-law chipped in, and we had 3 teen helpers.

The theme for this year’s VBS was “Sonrise National Park.” Each class had to choose an animal, color, and national park. Our choices: Owls, Orange, and Grand Canyon.

We had 2 classrooms to work with. One was for the lessons, the other was for crafting.

We turned our classroom into the Grand Canyon! We covered the walls with brown paper, had the “Colorado River,” and there was a setting sun with a condor.

We made a poster to present the Grand Canyon:

My SIL had a great idea to give the kids a canvas backpack and have them decorate a VBS patch for each day, which we ironed on:

DAY ONE:

We crafted toilet paper roll owls and sponge boats. Our snack was Babybel cheese boats with goldfish.

DAY TWO:

We crafted skill-stick baskets and snacked on PB&J on fish-shaped bread. We also made our owl masks!

DAY THREE:

We colored compass watches and made owl signs. Our snack was pudding cups made to look like the desert!

Also, we made pine cone bird feeders:

DAY FOUR:

We made cotton ball sheep and hand flags. Snack was watermelon and blueberries for Red White and Blue Day.

DAY FIVE:

We crafted rock/nature frames and ate owl s’mores! Also, my SIL and I made owl wings for all the kids for their class presentation!

We had a ton of fun and were absolutely exhausted at the end of each day! Can’t wait for next year!

Derby Day

We had some friends over to enjoy all that is the Kentucky Derby. My plan was to serve traditional food, so I did some research. I figured I wanted everything to be bite-sized…because the race itself lasts 2 minutes!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of any food…except one! As soon as they hit the table, they were gobbled up!

I got some recipes from the Kentucky Derby website (with links):

Brie Delight
Benedictine Spread
The Early Times Mint Julep

Then there were the easy foods:
Fruit tray w/ cream cheese dip
Veggie cups w/ Ranch dressing
Chicken Salad (a friend’s recipe)
Banana Nut Bread (from a box…shh!)
Sweet Tea
Bloody Marys

The ONE thing I got a picture of:

No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Bites
Ingredients:
2 cups chopped strawberries
1/4 cup sugar, divided
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 Tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup Cool Whip Lite
30 Mini Fillo Shells

Method:
1. In a container, combine strawberries and 1/8 cup sugar. Stir well. Cover container and set in fridge.
2. In a bowl, add cream cheese, remaining 1/8 cup sugar, and vanilla.
3. With a hand mixer, beat on low until mixture is smooth.
4. Add Cool Whip and mix until well blended.
5. Fill shells with mixture and set in fridge for an hour.
6. Before serving, top with strawberries.

I’m pretty sure that was all the food we had!

For entertainment, we had a horse raffle: put in $5, randomly select a horse’s name out of a cup, the winner gets the money!

I won! (Even though my husband drew the most favored horse!)

We all enjoyed the race even more since we were financially involved! There was lots of yelling and jumping! Mostly from my husband because his horse was in the lead the whole time…until my horse came up from the pack!

I think we’ll keep the raffle a tradition from now on!

I’ve added The Kentucky Derby to my bucket list…but not necessarily the $1000 Mint Julep

Congrats to “I’ll Have Another” and his owners and jockey! It’s great to see a debut horse win!

Homecoming Housewarming

Our family moved into our new house this past spring.  It was a fixer-upper, to say the least!  We wanted to have a housewarming party, but we wanted to get the house “mostly” finished.

Mostly = finished downstairs, arranged upstairs, and clean!

We gave ourselves a deadline of October 1st, which is when we planned our party.

My husband came up with the idea of a Homecoming party because we moved back to the city where he grew up.  The problem was, where he went to high school and the high school we are currently zoned for are not the same.  In fact, they’re rivals!

To be fair, we went tied in the colors of the school we were zoned for.  One day, we may be donning the purple and gold colors with pride because it’s where our daughter will go to school!  (If we still live here in 15 years!)

THE DECOR

To decorate the mantle, I made a quick banner using felt squares and stick-on letters.  I found some paintable foam fingers at Michael’s and personalized them to my heart’s content!

I made these bullhorns using the paper-mache Christmas trees.  I cut off the tips and painted them in purple and gold.  I finished them off with a glitter spray.

Instead of making full-sized pennants, I decided to make Pencil Pennants.  I cut a purple foam sheet into triangles, punched holes in them, decorated them with puff paint, and put them on yellow #2 pencils.

For a little extra decor, I placed some folded paper “origami” around the living room.  I made a fortune teller, a note to my husband, and some rings.  (Originally, the rings were folded out of dollar bills, but I didn’t want to leave money around my house!) I also had a bunch of squishy footballs, just to tie in the Homecoming feel!

Because I know you want to know what the note read:

Classy.  But he still hasn’t answered….

When I first thought of hosting for a high school homecoming-themed party, I thought of the food.  The first food I thought of was cartons of milk.  (FYI: actual cartons with milk in them are hard to find.) I decided, though, that I didn’t want to have the typical high school cafeteria fare…but I wanted to incorporate it. So, to include milk cartons, I made a banner with milk cartons that I folded out of cardstock.

 

THE FOOD

Pizza

Food that I commonly associate with high school is PIZZA.  I had originally planned on getting squares of pizza, but as I mentioned before, I wanted to play off the idea.  Enter: PIZZA DIP.

Pizza Dip
Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 cup mozzarella, grated
• 1/2 cup parmesan, grated
• 1 cup pizza sauce
• Preferred pizza toppings, optional (pepperoni, green peppers, olives, etc.)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F
2. Mix the cream cheese, sour cream, mayonnaise, 1/2 of the mozzarella, and 1/2 of the parmesan. Spread it across the bottom of a pie plate.
3. Spread the pizza sauce on top.
4. Sprinkle with the remaining cheeses.
5. If desired, add pizza toppings.
6. Bake until the cheese is melted and bubbling. (About 20 minutes.)
7. Serve with crusty bread or Triscuits.

French Fries

Potato Planks

Ingredients:

• 1 pound potatoes
• vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp dry mustard
• 1/8 tsp garlic powder

Method:

1. Set the oven to Broil.
2. Do not peel potatoes. Cut them lengthwise into thin slices.
3. Place potatoes on ungreased pan; brush with oil.
4. Mix the salt, sugar, paprika, dry mustard, and garlic powder in a small bowl.
5. Sprinkle the potatoes with half of the seasoning mixture.
6. Broil the potatoes for about 10 minutes.
7. Remove the pan, then turn the potatoes.
8. Brush with oil, then sprinkle with remaining seasoning.
9. Broil for 5 minutes, until potatoes are golden brown.

Salad Bar

No party is complete without a veggie tray!  This was our “Salad Bar.”  Funny enough, the biggest consumers of this dish were the toddlers at the party!

Sack Lunch

Of course, not every kid in school bought cafeteria food.  Some brought their own lunch.  Most popular sack lunch item: Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich.  I turned it into a simple dessert!

PB&J Cobbler
Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups crunchy peanut butter
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups strawberry preserves

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350 F.
2. Place butter and sugar in mixer with paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high until mixture is fluffy, about 2 minutes.
3. On medium speed, add eggs and peanut butter.  Beat for 2 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together salt, baking powder, and flour.  Add to the mixer on low speed.
5. Add vanilla.
6. Transfer 2/3 of the batter to a 9×13 greased dish.  Spread evenly.
7. Spread jam over peanut butter mixture.
8. Top with remaining peanut butter mixture.
9. Bake until golden, about 45 minutes.

Ice Cream

Who doesn’t love ice cream!  My favorite ice cream novelty in school was always the classic ice cream sandwich.  This is a very simple recipe!

Ice Cream Sandwich Dessert
Serves 12

Ingredients:

• 12 ice cream sandwiches
• 12 ounces Cool Whip
• 12 ounces hot fudge topping

Method:

1. In a 9×13 dish, arrange 6 ice cream sandwiches.
2. Spread half of the Cool Whip over the sandwiches.
3. Spoon hot fudge topping over the whipped topping.
4. Arrange remaining 6 sandwiches over the fudge.
5. Top with remaining Cool Whip.
6. Cover and freeze. (Can be frozen for up to 2 months.)
7. Remove from freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Vending Machine

If you were like me in high school, you lived off of junk food courtesy of the vending machine!  I offered up bagged chips and bite-sized candies.  (Thank you Halloween candy section!)  I grabbed some dark chocolate Hershey’s Kisses and almond Hershey’s Kisses to keep within the purple-and-gold color scheme!

For our beverages, I made my orange dreamsicle punch.  (Vanilla ice cream and orange soda.)  The original plan was to spike the punch (with vanilla vodka from the “Teachers’ Lounge” bar) after the kids left, but there wasn’t any punch left to spike!  Oh well!

I had a blast hosting this party, and I thank each and every person that showed up!  It was so much fun that I didn’t get a chance to snap any pictures of us hanging out, giving tours of the house, playing on the piano, building a fire in the firepit (thanks to my assistants “Jonny Rags” and little Anna Grace), and drinking “Apple Pie” that my brother made!

Can’t wait to do this again!