Party Favors

I think this is the last post about Owen's party. I couldn't resist some food pictures though! The kids took home some construction rubber duckies but I wanted the adults to have something too so I made these Brownie Peanut Butter Cups. I think they were best a little warm from the oven but were still good later too.

The Elements!

Some decorations...


The cupcakes-these looked alright but were a bit messy to actually eat. The crumbled cookie fell right off.


The sand table-the picture is from before the kids started playing. We kept it hidden from Owen until the guests arrived! He actually spent a lot of his time playing with it but hasn't really touched it since.


Definitely stole this idea from somewhere on the internet--little "Dig In" signs.

Victor modeling one of the activities. Construction scenes with stickers...not that big of a hit...I think it was too late and there was too much going on for the kids to really want to concentrate on one thing.

The Party!

We decided to have a small party for Owen this year (a good size for our small house...) and everything fell together at the last minute. I chose a construction theme and then looked it up on the internet and combined a bunch of stuff I saw so I don't take too much credit for the elements that made up the party but I think the birthday boy had a great time! Again, I failed to get pictures of everything and everyone, I really need to start budgeting for a photographer for these events...
I'll put up some pictures of the food and decorations next time I post!

Playing at the sand table


Some very cute guests with their construction hats


Family

Officially 3!

Today was Owen's 3rd birthday! We had a small party for him yesterday (details/pictures next time I post). Today we took him to the mall to get some pictures taken, ate lunch and Owen rode the train. Then we did some more celebrating after dinner with cupcakes and more presents and lots of playing!

The cupcake!


Getting ready...


Tricky candles!

Almost 3!

Owen will be 3 tomorrow!!! We've been trying to build the excitement for a week or two now so I'm pretty sure he can't wait to find out all the exciting things that will happen (party! presents! junk food!). It's time to see how he's grown!
Click here for Year One
Click here for Year Two

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Crescent Rolls

These crescent rolls used the same dough as the wheat bread I made last week and the recipe was from the same book. They made the house smell great while they were baking and tasted pretty good too. Some sort of glaze was supposed to accompany these and I'm sure it would have made them even better. Next time!

Before baking...


Owen showing me what to photograph...


Ready to eat!

Brussels Sprouts = Yummy?

No. Not really. I did burn mine instead of "carmelizing" but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have mattered. They weren't as bad as I was expecting but they weren't good enough for me to want to try again...although I'm not sure I've ever gotten excited about a vegetable...I'll have to think about that one. By the way, apparently it's "brussels" and not "brussel" which still seems wrong but I looked it up. So it must be right. Right? I won't bother putting up the recipe for you. You don't need it.

Bread

This bread is the master recipe from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. There are lots of variations in the book but I decided to start out with the most basic recipe and it came out really well. I'm pretty sure everyone should own this book or Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day which also is amazing. Bread baking can sometimes be so intimidating/time consuming but this makes it super easy!

For those of you that know French - I have no idea what this plate says other than something about beef (which probably makes it inappropriate for a bread picture...).

The Bad...

These are just a few of the documented cases of food failures from 2009.

Honeycomb Candy - This failure was due to my lack of candy thermometer. I thought I could just watch it and figure out when to pour it in the pan. Despite its lovely golden appearance it was horribly burnt. Straight into the trash can!


Black Bean Soup-Why did this seem like a good idea? I think we took one bite, laughed and then threw it out. It also forever stained my crockpot! Not cool.


Roasted Vegetable Couscous - This took a lot of time to make and no one would eat it! It wasn't so horrible that we immediately threw it out but it was bad enough that no one would eat leftovers. This just reconfirmed that when I make something new I should always cut the recipe in half.


Carrot Soup- Lovely color...horrid taste.

Apricot Bread-The taste was actually alright but I was supposed to use self-risnig flour which accounts for the bread looking like bricks.

And Desserts...

After putting up all those pictures yesterday I felt like I owed the desserts a turn! Maybe next I'll put up all the failures from 2009.

Vanilla Bean Meringue - I used vanilla beans for the first time in 2009 and I can't remember if this was the first or second thing I tried with them. These were really good and flavorful.


Double Apple Bundt Cake - Very good and super moist. Makes for a pretty picture too.


S'more Cookies - Ah yes. I'm pretty sure I only talked about these a billion times. Fantastic. Maybe the best discovery of the year.


Sweet Potato Bundt Cake - this was supposed to have some sort of glaze on it which I'm sure would have made it look prettier. It was really good and very light. The kind of thing you want to eat when you want dessert but you're pretending this doesn't count.

Chocolate Chip Pretzel Bars - I'm pretty sure I won't make these again even though they were very good. They really just tasted like butter and chocolate with some crunch thrown in and everytime I went to eat some I felt horribly guilty and like I should go run a few miles. That didn't stop me from eating them all though...it also didn't motivate me to run those miles...

Tofu Cookies - Probably won't make these again either but they were fun to try. They wouldn't have tasted like anything if they had been missing the chocolate chips.

Where's the Food!?

Remember back when I used to make food? And not just desserts but actual dinners for my family? I know...it was so long ago...I'm pretty sure they don't remember either... Well, I'm going to start doing that again! And I'm writing it here so that I will be shamed into following through. Here are some of my favorites from last year (after removing desserts and utter failures). I'm pretty sure all of these pictures have been on the blog before.

Lemon Pasta. I'm not sure if this was the first time I made this or not. But I love this and there was a picture of it in my photos from 2009 so there it is.


Stuffed Eggplant. I don't consider this a failure even though no one else would eat any of it. I swear it was good! And it took a considerable amount of time to assemble so that counts for part of it!


Calzones. Made with homemade dough and lots of random, fun ingredients.


Carrot Cake Pancakes. Anytime you can pretend that pancakes are healthy because they have a vegetable in them is good. Then you can use that as an excuse to eat them for dinner...if you even really need an excuse to have breakfast for dinner. I don't.

Grilled Pizza. More homemade dough. Lots of work but well worth it in the end!

Pasta with asparagus, peas and cherry tomatoes! Not sure what the official name was for this recipe but it tasted as good as it looked.

Ham Sammies! Super easy and super tasty.

Tofu Lasagna Rolls. Another fantastic revelation. You really can't tell it's tofu, I promise. Everyone liked them so you know I'm not making that up.

Happy New Year!

We counted down with Owen a couple times last night before he went to bed and clinked some water glasses together! He thought it was fantastic but got a little confused about counting backwards and kept trying to go forwards again:) He had just as much gusto as I've seen anyone have about New Year's Eve though so it made the whole thing very exciting!

Video message from Owen: