Rylee's 3rd Birthday Party

 Rylee's 3rd Birthday Party

I'm still trying to play catch-up with the blog, but the important thing is that I made the post, finally. 

Our little girl turned three! And what an adventure it was that week! 

The party was on a different day than her actual birthday, so we made her a small cake at home to celebrate. I cheated and did a box cake, but I let her pick it and the icing out. 

The rest of the week I spent prepping food for the party. I like to do everything as from scratch as possible for the parties, and this time I decided on homemade baked spaghetti and lasagna.

I did one giant casserole dish of both red sauce baked spaghetti and alfredo baked spaghetti. For the spaghetti sauce, we used the kind Mom and Nene made this past year from the tomatoes in Papa and Nene's garden. I think it took 5-6 batches of pasta to make enough noodles. And since I don't have pasta drying racks, we had to get creative with drying the pasta. 

I also did one casserole dish of red sauce and one of alfredo sauce for the lasagna. To make it a little extra special, I made regular noodles, basil laminated noodles...

and spinach noodles for color and flavor!

The kids and I even went to the dairy and picked up a gallon of fresh, unpasteurized cow milk so that we could make homemade ricotta cheese for the lasagna. 

For appetizers, us girls got together and put out a giant charcuterie board on the island for people to pick from. Not only was it pretty, but people seemed to like it and actually ate from it! So that was good. It may look fancy, but really we just bought affordable cheese and meats and then arranged them in a fancy way (cheating, I know). 

And besides the cake of course, I made Palmier Cookies for dessert. One batch was too few for Will Will's birthday party, so I made three batches which was way too many. These cookies take about 6 hours to make since I make the pastry dough from scratch, but it's totally worth it!

At the start of the party, all the kids got together and made Christmas ornaments. I had already made all of the pieces, so really they were just assembling them--which worked out great! Rylee had a lot of fun.  

Then for the actual birthday cake, Aunt Rachel made two 8 or 9 inch round chocolate cakes, and Auntie Tay cut, assembled, and decorated them to look like a dinosaur. 

The leftover cake we turned into "dinosaur egg" cake pops. Which were DELICIOUS! Luckily, we started early enough on these because it took us several tries to get it right. 

Overall, it was a blast. A nice, homey birthday party with the people we love. 

Recipes from the party: 

PASTA DOUGH

-makes 1/2 - 1 box of pasta per batch

Ingredients: 

160 g 00 flour (or all purpose flour)

70 g semolina flour

3 eggs

Instructions: 

1. Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a smooth ball. 

2. Allow the dough to sit for 10-15 minutes. You can skip this step BUT you will end up having to add almost another cup of flour to the dough to get it dry enough to not stick to the pasta roller. 

3. Use the dough laminator to roll the dough flat. Start at 0 and work your way smaller and smaller. Run the pasta through, fold in half, run it through again. Increase the number (which decreases the thickness of the dough). You will know immediately if your dough is too wet because it will stick to the laminator and not go through properly. Add flour a little at a time until you can run it through smoothly without problems. 

4. I believe I went to a 4 or 5 for the lasagna thickness and a 6 for the pasta thickness. Once the thickness is correct, lay the dough flat on a surface and cut to desired shape and size for lasagna. For the spaghetti, I have a kitchen aid attachment which makes either alfredo or spaghetti noodles. 

5. To cook, simply boil the noodles for about 4 minutes for the spaghetti. 

RICOTTA CHEESE

-from Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carrol

-makes 1 1/2 - 2 pounds

Ingredients: 

2 ice cubes

1 gallon whole milk

1 teaspoon citric acid dissolved in 1 cup of water (can substitute lemon juice, but it takes A LOT)

1 teaspoon cheese salt dissolved in 1/2 cup of water

Instructions: 

1. roll the ice cubes around the pot until it feels cold to the touch from the outside. 

2. Pour in the milk, add the citric acid and salt solutions, and mix well without touching the bottom of the pan. 

3. Heat the milk to 185-195*F; do not boil. At 180*F, stir occasionally to prevent a skim coat from forming on the top. 

4. As soon as the curds and whey separate (this step took about an hour for us because we used vinegar and lemon juice instead of citric acid), turn off the heat. If need be, add more acid a little at a time, stirring gently until you see a clear separation. Allow to sit for 10 minutes undisturbed once the heat is off.

5. Gently ladle the curds with a slotted spoon into a colander lined with cheese cloth. Tie the corners of the cloth and hang for 20-30 minutes, or until the cheese reaches your desired consistency. 

ALFREDO SAUCE

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

1 package of Neufchatel cream cheese

2 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 - 2 cups of milk

6 oz of parmesan cheese (or 1/4-1/2 of small bottle)

black pepper and rosemary to taste

Instructions: 

1. Melt butter in a medium sauce pan

2. Add sliced cream cheese and stir until smooth. Add garlic powder. 

3. Stir in parmesan cheese and whisk until smooth. 

4. Add milk until reach desired consistency. 

5. Add pepper and rosemary/ 

Notes: 

-if sauce is too thin, add more parmesan cheese. If sauce is too thick, add more milk. 

-regular cream cheese will take longer to milk and doesn't mix as well. For a smoother sauce, use the Neufchatel. 

HERSHEY CHOCOLATE CAKE

Ingredients:

2 cups of sugar

1 3/4 cup + 2 TBS flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 cup boiling water

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Line 2 8 inch round cake pans with parchment paper and coat with melted butter or oil. 

2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 

3. Add eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Mix until well combined. 

4. Stir it boiling water. Batter will be thin. Pour into cake pans. 

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes. 

BUTTERCREAM ICING

Ingredients: 

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 TBS milk

food coloring if desired. 

Instructions: 

1. Cream the butter until smooth and fluffy. 

2. Add the powdered sugar and the vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. 

DINOSAUR EGG CAKE POPS

Ingredients: 

left over cake

left over icing

almond bark (we tried white chocolate chips, and it didn't work)

cake pop sticks

Instructions:

1. Crumble the leftover cake in a bowl. 

2. Add icing until you can form the cake like playdough. 

3. Form the cake into egg shaped, bite-sized balls. 

4. Stick a cake pop stick in it, place on a plate so not touching other pops, and put in the freezer for 10-30 minutes. The longer the time, the less likely the cake pop will fall off the stick. 

5. Melt the almond bark in the microwave or on the stove in a double boiler. 

6. Dip the cake pops in the almond bark and place back on the plate to cool and harden. 

 

SALT DOUGH ORNAMENTS

Ingredients: 

1 cup flour

1/2 cup salt

1/4 cup water

food coloring

cookie cutters

drinking straw

ribbon

paint

parchment paper

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together

2. Cut to desired shape

3. Use a straw to cut out a whole at the top of the ornament to put ribbon through to hang once complete.  

4. Place the ornaments on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 2-3 hours at 200*F. 

5. Paint, attach a ribbon, and hang on your tree!

Pax Domini cum spirito tuo temper sit,

Torey, Sam, Rylee & William

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