Birthday cooking

My husband's birthday was the weekend before last and all our children and their families were here over the weekend.  Sometimes they overlapped and sometimes just one group was here.
It was fun weekend and of course,  there was food.

Daughter Nina made the birthday cake.  It was a 2 layer white cake with homemade lemon curd filling.
The G on top is for Grandpa.

I made 3 pinterest inspired recipes over the weekend. One was  Onion Cheese Rolls.  They were wonderful and would be good with other fillings like garlic and mozzarella 

or bacon as the son below suggested.  

I also made jalapeno cornbread poppers 

and a batch of the bacon pancake dippers.  They were a big hit but I prefer my bacon and pancakes separate.  If I do make them again,  I will use my from scratch recipe for the pancakes again and put the batter on the griddle first, then top with the cooked bacon slice.  These would be a big hit with teenagers who like to eat breakfast on the run.  

Bacon loving son Bobby provided and cooked the entrees for the Sunday lunch.  He grilled little tiny lamb chops and his specialty "chicken balls" 

he has a ladle to mold each chicken ball and he puts in 4 slices of raw bacon, criss-crossed on the bottom.

then he puts in a boneless skinless chicken thigh and 3 cubes of Monterrey jack cheese.

then he wraps the bacon all around so it seals in the ball.  I did not watch him cook them but I think he started them in the electric smoker and then finished them on the grill.

Sorry I don't have a cooked picture of them but they were prettier cooked and delicious!

One bacon wrapped cheese stuffed chicken ball is more than enough for a hearty size entree.  Certainly not for everyday eating- but great for a special birthday meal.  

Green eating and green trash

I know I post a lot about baked treats and we do eat desserts.  But we also eat lots of fresh produce.
This is what we bought Saturday and it should last us about a week and half or so,  some maybe longer.

3 kinds of onions, 2 kinds of lettuce, 2 kinds of mushrooms, 2 kinds of squash, 3 kinds of tomatoes, 3 kinds of berries, red grapes, 4 kinds of peppers, celery, peaches, plums, bananas, 2 cantaloupe, radishes, okra, broccoli, carrots

and a watermelon

Most all of it got washed and air dried, then packed in Tupperware Fridgesmart or zipper bags and put in the fridge until we need it.

I kept all the produce trimmings in a bowl that will go in the composter- not all of this is from Saturday's shopping, the bowl was already half full.  I keep saran wrap on top to keep away fruit flies, icky little things!

One more new step to deal with the shopping trash.  I collected all the paper, plastic and foam and put it in our brand new city-issued recycle bin!   See that pile on the top left?  that is one of the grape bags full of all the other produce bags just from today!  that amount really surprised me.

We have the big one that gets picked up and dumped by the automatic truck for a few years and just last week, the yellow lid one was delivered for recyclables.  

Both are the large size but I am going to see how it goes,  I know we can trade the 2 large ones and get 2 small ones that I think will be more than sufficient.  The small ones have a smaller monthly bill than the large ones too.  

Does your trash service do recycles?  This is new here and I am wondering how it is going to go......

down the baby bib memory lane.....

We have been blessed with 5 grandchildren in 4 years.  

I have sewn lots of bibs for them.  I found where I had blogged about some of them and had fun reminiscing about them.

bigger bibs

bibs

Bibs from funny retro fabric


more bibs


first batch of bibs

This week, I sewed 20 little bibs for sweet JJ, the youngest grand that is in a bit of a spit up phase.

I used flannel scraps from the last burp cloth project for most of them. The yellow and white ones are made from a never used Carter's reversible blanket that was just too small to wrap JJ.

I've used Velcro and ties and buttons to fasten bibs over the years. All have good and bad points. 

For most of these, I used sew on snaps.  I'll let you all know how we like that method. 

Pinterest caterpillars

Monday afternoon, grandson Gavin was in the craft-computer room with Grandpa and saw a bag of pompoms. He asked to make a craft with them and that was fine with me but I could not think of anything.

So before Gavin and cousin Elizabeth got here Tuesday, I looked on Pinterest for preschool pompom crafts.  I found lots of them and picked this simple one for them to do. 

Pompom caterpillars

I cut long shapes with a circle-ish end for the head from brown card stock. I drew a simple smile-y face with a black marker. 

The grands dipped the pompoms in Elmer's glue and lined up pompoms on the caterpillar shapes.

For dipping, putting a little glue in a cupcake paper liner works great for these preschoolers. 

Do you do Pinterest? It does have some flaws but it has become my go-to site whenever I need a quick answer or a tip or a recipe or ideas to entertain the grands. 

We still have lots of pompoms even after they both made an army of caterpillars. So I will be looking for more ideas there soon.

Candy cake will travel

Have you seen the candy cakes on Pinterest?
I never did until my daughter showed me the one she just made.

She made it for her teenage sister in law at the request of  her mother in law.
Both sister in law Hannah  and mother in law Patti are going with their church on a mission trip to Central America.
Hannah will have a birthday while they are out of country so Patti thought a candy cake- made with non-meltable candy- would be a good birthday treat that she could carry in her suitcase and surprise Hannah.

I really like this idea for teens but I don't have a clue how to make them.
If you want to make one,  look on Pinterest or maybe my daughter will add some instructions in the comments.


this is my daughter with Hannah 3 years ago and the mannatee cake.
I think this year's candy cake will travel much better than a big cake-cake.