Saturday, February 17, 2007

3rd birthday party

Ulysses turned three years old on Friday, Feb. 16! We had a party on Saturday. Ulysses wore his birthday suit.

Click on the cake to see lots of pictures. I recommend you click on the Slideshow tab after clicking on the cake. It will take some minutes for the slideshow to cycle through, what with all the movies and all. Enjoy!

2007_0217 3rd birthday party


Le Menu

  • Corn Dogs
  • Macaroni and Cheese
  • Pepperoni Pizza
  • Birthday Cake


Everything made from scratch, of course.

The culinary theme was kid food. We wanted to serve food that U would actually want. The only thing he ate all evening, though, was a PBJ. And cake.

Corn Dogs

We worked on this recipe for days! We were so far off at first that we decided we'd better eat corn dogs at every meal until we got it right, so we wouldn't run out of time. That's a lot of corn dogs. We started out with a recipe from a book called "Street Food" that we got at a yard sale a summer or two back. Great book, goes international! Can't find it on Amazon, or I'd give the link.




The final version included stone ground corn meal (gives a nice crunch), masa harina (gives a nice fresh-tortilla-like scent) and flour. The dogs are speared with a craft stick, then dusted with cornstarch and dipped in batter made with the dry ingredients above, plus a bit of salt and baking soda, an egg, and our wonderful homemade buttermilk. Macaroni and Cheese: We used a recipe from the April-May 2005 issue of Cooks' Country, the new publication from the makers of Cooks' Illustrated. Love it, love it. The recipe was a low-fat version. Boy, was it good, and luscious and filling, too! Where it said skim milk, I substituted whole milk. It didn't seem quite cheddary enough, so I doubled the cheddar. The crumb topping didn't seem buttery enough, so I doubled the butter. The white sauce didn't seem to call for enough butter, so I doubled that from the start. That sure was great low-fat mac 'n' cheese!




Pepperoni Pizza

Don made this. We've used lots of recipes; this one was also from the glorious "Street Food." Started with flour, yeast, warm water, olive oil, salt, made dough, let rise. Used pizza sauce we had frozen from a month or so back, made with I don't even remember what. Some form of tomatoes in a can, seasonings, salt. Topped with shredded mozz and sliced pepp. What else do you need?


Birthday Cake

I worked from The Cake Bible for this one. Fabulous cake -- yellow with chocolate frosting. I've never eaten better cake in my life. I plan to post separately about the cake adventure.

We also planned to make guacamole and serve Breyer's vanilla ice cream in cones, but people were somehow too stuffed.


The culinary theme was kid food. I wanted to serve food that U would actually want. The only thing he ate all evening, though, was a PBJ. And cake.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Glossary

What does Ulysses say? Here's a glossary, in approximate reverse order of development. That is, the higher up on a list the word appears, the more recently it's appeared.

Word                          Translation (as needed)
/First appearance

Feb 07

cake                 
         frosting, sweet treats

nana
                         any food on a stick
                                 (extension of "ice cream" meaning)

mamo
                          mambo

cold

geghh
                        pig

bowl

ho-tch
                       hot

cake

ha-tch
                       hat

Eh...eh-cue!
                  Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!

(siren wailing)

(airplane motor humming)

us-sai down
                  upside down

(vacuum cleaner humming)


Jan 07

Mac
                          Max (from kid show Max & Ruby)

Buh-tch
                      Buzz (Lightyear)

ko-ket
                       chocolate

ee-MOKE
                      remote control

nana
                         ice cream (replaced "neen")

shoe

I you!
                       I see you!

No go!
                       Don't go!

moo
                          cow mooing (replaced "moo-ah")

(duck quacking)

(horse whinnying)


Dec 06

booo-k
                       book

cheeza
                       pizza

cheee
                        cheese

Eh! Keekee!
                  ?????

neen, I neen
                  ice cream

nana
                         banana

buh-bol
                      bubble

you're welcome

abble
                        apple

akuka
                        yabuka (Serb. "apple")

moo-ah
                       cow mooing

Help! Me help!
               Help me!


Nov 06

Mama

boo-boo
                      any spot that got hurt

fish, shish
                  fish

Here go
                      Here you go


Sometime 06

choo-choo

(Train on tracks: "chika-chicka-chicka...")

(tickling: "ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka...:")

Po! Po! Po! Poke! Poke! Poke!

(during poke and tickle play)

All gone (replaced "ah gum")

All done

Ook! Atah! Look! (?????)

cookie

Yay!

ah-tah
                       hot dog

How do? How do you do?

doll

hello

(blowing)
                    hot, fire, candles

Ta too!
                      Thank you

omomo
                        ajdemo (Serb. "let's go")

akika
                        patika (Serb. "slippers")

(cat meowing)

(mouse squeaking)

(fish saying "blub-blub-blub")

(dinosaur and big cat roar)

Eh, teh, go!
                  Ready, set, go!

Go!


Sometime 05

Oh, no!

dai-dai
                       bye-bye

ook! look

ah gum
                        all gone

uh-oh

(blowing)
                     too hot to eat

Dada

no
                             (replaced "note")

note no

cracker