Ice Cream Theme Birthday Party

I know this post comes to you a little late, considering my daughter’s birthday party was held in mid-July, but I loved the theme and wanted to share it with all of you.  Better late than never, right?

My daughter, Kelly loves ice cream (who doesn’t right?) and therefore, the theme was an easy pick.  It was great for the kids.  They had a blast building their own sundaes and snacking on ice cream themed snacks all day.  Not to mention, it was the middle of summer and it just so happened to be one of those days you can’t eat your ice cream quick enough before it melts all over the place.  It was a perfect day for ice cream and everything cold.

We held it in in the back yard and set up activities for the kids to play, such as a water sprinkler, bubbles, sandbox, fishing pond, water table, balls, and toys.  And as far as the decorations and food went, I was inspired by Pinterest once again.  There are so many ways to search for things on the internet and yet, I still find the most creative and inspirational ideas through Pinterest.  Check it out if you haven’t already!  It’s a cataloging site so you can easily find and ‘bookmark’ where your favorites are in cyber world.

Decorations: I stuck to pretty basic pink decor (table clothes and streamers).  However, instead of just having helium balloons around, I added a cone to the base of each balloon with brown packaging paper to transform the balloons into ice cream cones!

Food: We simply ordered pizza for the main course of the day and then splurged on the sweets!  Of course…it was an ICE CREAM party!   For a snack I had chopped fresh fruit stuffed in waffle cones and for cake I made a cake out of cupcakes in the shape of an ice cream cone as well as a special cake for the birthday girl.  And if we’re gonna load them up with sugar, why not go all out with a full fledge sundae!?  I laid out bowls with different toppings for the kids’ ice cream and they went to town decorating their sundaes.

  

 

Favors:  This was one of my favorite things from the part and I completely forgot to get a photo before handing them all out.  Go figure.  I found fun ice cream sundae plastic glasses and filled them with ice cream themed candies and toys.  I also included a tooth brush .

Not only was this theme easy for  a mid-summer birthday party, it was fun for the kids too.  I was surprised at how many ice cream themed toys, treats and activities there are in the stores during the summer months.  It certainly made this a very easy party to put together.  There were so many other ideas I wanted to incorporate however, I did my best not to go overboard.

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Tomato Pepper Salsa…A Must Try!

A little over a week ago I visited the Red Deer Farmer’s Market.  My husband and I took our daughter and were more or less just looking for something to do on a nice and sunny Saturday morning.  We were just about to exit the market and stumbled upon this booth where they were selling fresh picked peppers (jalapeno, bell peppers, Thai peppers, and so many others).  We are big fans of fresh mexican fare (which is extremely hard to come by around here), so we looked into purchasing some peppers to add to our home cooked mexican dinner we had planned for the week.

When we were browsing the peppers a little closer, we realized the vendor had variety bags of peppers that you could purchase for $5 and his own personal salsa recipe was inside for your convenience.  What a great idea!  So, we jumped on it and bought a bag for $5.  A week went by and I finally got around to making the salsa.  It made 12 cups!  So, we shared with a couple of friends and so far, it’s gotten rave reviews.  The man at the market definitely knows his salsa!  This recipe is a perfect sweet and spicy blend.  It’s DELICIOUS!

I shared a batch, kept a batch in the fridge AND froze a batch.  Highly recommend all you local folks visit him at the Red Deer Farmer’s Market (unfortunately, I didn’t catch his business name).  Here is the recipe for your enjoyment:

Tomato Pepper Salsa

8-10 C Peeled, chopped Roma Tomatoes

5 Sweet bell peppers; He recommends 2 green, 1 red, 1 orange, 1 yellow

2 C chopped onions

1C chopped Jalapeno peppers (approx 8)

WEAR GLOVES TO CHOP HOT PEPPERS!!

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 C vinegar

1 5.5 oz can tomato paste

2 T sugar

1 T salt

2 t paprika

1 t dried oregano

Put all ingredients into a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil, stir often.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring often, until thick enough to coat spoon.  Fill and seal in sterilized jars.  Process in boiling water bath for 20 minutes.  Single batch makes approx. 12 cups.

The “Big Cook” is a Mommy Lifesaver

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We have all been there before.  Whether you’re eight months pregnant or have your hands full with extracurricular activities and busy kids at home, we can all benefit from a “Big Cook!”  Not only is a Big Cook a great excuse to get friends together, but by the end of the day you have a fully stocked freezer of ready to pop in the oven meals.  Personally, I know there are several days where I get busy during the day and realize around 3 o’clock that I forgot to pull something out of the freezer for dinner.  Then I’m stuck quickly de-frosting something in the microwave or calling my husband and suggesting it’s a good night to eat out.

I had the opportunity to join some girlfriends yesterday for  a Big Cook.  It was my first experience doing one, but some of the girls were well seasoned in this area.  One of the girls emailed us a grocery list a couple of weeks in advance and we were all assigned items to bring the day of the Big Cook.  We met at 10a.m. and had successfully prepared 80 meals by 4p.m.!  BBQ Pork, Tricolor Chicken and Pasta, Taco Toss, and Zippy Pork Chops were just a few among our menu.  Our day began by organizing all of our ingredients into one area.  Then we came up with a game plan as to what we were each going to be doing.  I browned 15 pounds of hamburger, while some were mixing the sauces for the burger meals and others labeling the bags the meals were being placed into with the meal title and cooking instructions.  We continued this system through the pork and chicken dishes as well.  Throughout the day, we took turns washing dishes and dividing the meals among everyone.  At the end of the day, we each had 10 different dishes and 20 meals for four people (two of each dish)!  When it was all complete and clean up was over, we sat down with our receipts and added all the expenses together and divided by how many people were taking food home.  The average cost came out to about $9 per meal.  Not too bad when you consider the fact that each meal is for four people.  That’s about $2.25 per person per meal!

The idea for The Big Cook came from three busy mom’s named Joanne Smith, Lorelei Thomas and Deanna Siemens.  They decided one day to get together and cook in mass in order to prepare meals to freeze for future evenings.  They developed fast and healthy meals that could easily be frozen for future use.  The idea took off and in 1997 they published the cookbook titled The Big Cook.  This is one of those products I saw and said to myself, “Why didn’t I think of that!?”  It’s such a great idea and there is an enormous market of mothers and fathers that would benefit from this style of cooking.

My husband and I are pretty adventurous with cooking and I wouldn’t go as far to say that we will rely on this method completely, but for those days you really just don’t feel like cooking or don’t know WHAT to cook, it’s great to know you have meals ready to go in the freezer!  Another great thing about this style of cooking is it allows us to focus more time and energy on the side dishes that surround the entrée.  For me, I usually spend most of my time preparing the entrée and then add simple vegis and rice or potato with it.  With The Big Cook in my life now, I can focus more on some new side dishes.

Overall, The Big Cook is a great concept for any family.  I am already looking forward to the next event and I hope that you adopt the idea among your friends and family and give it a try.  So fun and so easy!  Happy cooking!