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| 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.
