Fourth Fun-ness

Fourth of July was fantastic!

My shirt was amazing, and Emma and I may have been the best dressed and most patriotic there.

 
 

Even though I wasn't able to live up to the saying on my shirt, I did do my part and had a beer and a jello shot when we first arrived. :p



















I seem to always make the mistake of over-cooking, so there was some left overs, but for the most part, it was a hit.

The cornbread was the biggest favorite of the crowd. Everyone really loved that I put just a bit of sugar in the batter, so its not just a heavy brick of bread. My cornbread seems to come out very moist and crumbly as well, also a plus in my book.

The butter went hand in hand with the cornbread, and the coleslaw was the iffy addition. I guess no one had ever had a vinegar-based coleslaw, so it was a new taste to the palate. It took some getting used to, but once everyone had a taste of all the sweet BBQ, sweet cornbread, sweet drinks, etc... the tangy coleslaw came in handy.

The jello shots were insanely loved by the adults, and  I can't quite tell you how long those lasted. once the kids had eaten and were chasing each other around the yard, the adults put the bucket of jello shots on the table and a game of dominoes begun. I don't think they lasted long, as it almost seemed that as a domino was picked up, a shot was thrown down.








Emma and her cousins in Uncle Mike's truck, ready for fireworks!

The fireworks too were lovely, although I see fireworks almost every day at Disney, there's just something about 4th of July fireworks that are so special. With every good experience, comes a bad though...with all the kids loaded up in the bed of the truck, we lit off our first firework, when it ignited and flipped itself over and began to shoot out towards everyone! it was so scary, Flo and I had immediately dove over Emma, and our friends also grabbed and dove over their kids. After the firework was over, we were in a symphony of crying kids who thought the night was ruined. It was all fixed with some juice and hugs, and the firework show commenced.

I was so dang tired from working that morning from 2am-10am, that by 11:00 pm, I was laying on the concrete listening to the fireworks with my eyes closed.

All in all, it was a great night, complete with good food, friends, fireworks, and festivities.

Emma and her cousins Laila and Elijah enjoying a hot dog

Emma and I in our 4th of July outfits

Happy Fourth of July!

HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY!

I finally got all the baking and food prepped done yesterday after I got off of work, and its all ready for today!
-63 mini cornbread loafs-
-cinnamon honey butter-
-50 red, white and blue jello shots-
-BTR slaw-

and I feel like a million bucks! Now all I have to do is take a nap and shower, get ready, gather the family, take pictures and head over.

I'll make sure to post later tonight with the pictures of all the festivities :)


In the mean time, I'm going to go take a power nap since I just got off of work and I'll be dead tonight if I don't get even a little rest.

Please everyone make sure to have fun tonight, but be safe! There are tons of families out celebrating today, and lives are way more important than fun!!!



Post coming soon!

XOXO
-C

Pre-Cooking Time!

Today is the day I typically start all my shopping and pre-cooking for the 4th, so my favorite store Winco welcomed us with open arms this morning!

Last year we didn't really do anything to celebrate, as a matter of fact, I don't even think Flo was with us. We had just finished our camping trip, and he had went back to Long Beach, and I went back to Menifee with Emma. I think I created my "American-Style 4th of July" playlist, blasted it while my Dad and I bbq'd, cooked and drank about 15 lime margaritas (each!) to ourselves.

This year will be different, though. Although I really love and adore my parents, Flo, Emma and I are going to go to a good friend of ours house so Emma has some kids to play with, and we have some friends to wind down and relax with. I don't think they were expecting us to text them this morning with the list of things we're going to bring, but nonetheless, I don't think they're complaining either.

Contribution this year:

• BTR Slaw (making dressing today, adding to the cabbage on Friday night)
• Mini Cornbread muffins (baking on Friday)
• Honey butter (making on Friday)
• Celebration Jello Shots, which I found here on pinterest (making today)
• and some dry rub for the meats that they have, that of course, we'll be barbequing :P (been made, dry rub lasts forever!)

I'm really excited for this year, it's really the first year Flo and I can contribute to whoevers house were celebrating at.

Emma's all set with her American flag dress that were going to puffy-paint some silver stars on, and I'm almost equipped with my "Time to get Star Spangled Hammered" shirt, which I saw online, but was unable to order it in time, so I too, am puffy painting it onto a shirt!

We're all patriotic this year, so much fun!


When I complete all the recipes, I'll be sure to make a completion post with pictures...or I may just edit this post if I feel lazy. :p

<3
-C

BBQ TIME...Slaw Style

Tomorrow is the first of July, which only means 3 things: Heat, sun and barbeque! With fourth of July being only 4 days away, what better way to start the party than with some BBQ recipes! Since I work at the best bbq restaurant in the Happiest Place On Earth, I often get asked for some tips and recipes from the Ranch, however, I would be reeeeeeally unprofessional and not very cast-memberly like if I gave those out, so I can't...however, I can give out what was already given out :D I had googled a picture of Big Thunder Ranch BBQ slaw to show Flo a picture of a slaw that wasn't mayonnaise-based, but rather vinegar based, and while I did find pictures (below) I also found the recipe (and yes, it is correct). The original post is from the Disney parks blog to which the Chef of our restaurant willingly gave out to desperate Guests. Crank up that smoker, get the ice chests ready, and break out the fireworks while you enjoy the wildest slaw in the wilderness! *Cue Big Thunder Mountain ride...no? Okay, enjoy!

Big Thunder Ranch BBQ Slaw
Serves 6 to 8

• 1/2 cup white-wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 pound shredded green cabbage (about 1/2 large cabbage)
• 1 pound shredded purple cabbage (about 1/2 large cabbage)
• 2 carrots, shredded

1. Combine vinegar, oil, sugar, salt, celery seed, paprika, black pepper, and cayenne in a large bowl, and using an immersion blender, blend together until emulsified. *Alternatively, combine in a blender, and slowly add oil while blending.
2. Combine shredded cabbage and shredded carrots in a separate large bowl. Add dressing, tossing to combine.
3. Refrigerate for a minimum of an hour in order for slaw to get "soggy" and absorb the dressing.

**Beware, very tangy!

BTR Slaw photo courtesy to Disney Parks Blog

Here's the exact link to the Disney Parks Blog with the BBQ Slaw recipe. Keep up with them for more Disney-related recipes as well! 8(:-D

-C

Late Merry Christmas

Sorry everyone, for the late holiday wishes. Emma and I have been extremely busy, keeping two sides of families with smaller pockets of families content with visits from the munchkin. Also, the fact I don't have my computer makes blogging a bit harder. I want to take a second to thank everyone (The Bakers, Pouliots, Ciccozzis and Sapersteins) for the amazing gifts that were sent to the house for Emma. This Christmas was truly a magical one with your help. This year, Emma was able to grasp the meaning of Christmas and all is traditions, and thanks to both of my grandmothers, I was able to make it so Emma could see both of her families for Christmas. Thank you everyone again, and have a great 2014!
Pictures coming soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I saw a quote on Pinterest the other day that I thought would be lovely to say at the dinner table tonight, but the family didn't do the whole 'what are we thankful for this year round-the-table' thing. It was pretty much once the last dish was put out, a race to get to them. Jeez.

Anyway, the quote was, and I'd like to share it with you all, while pretending that you're all sitting here with me, so keep that in mind.

"I'm thankful for the food before us, the friends and family beside us, and the love between us." 

Awe.


I'm not really allowed to 'touch' Thanksgiving yet...no one seems ready to hand the reigns over for the biggest food holiday of the year, but I was allowed to contribute. I admit, I procrastinated a lot on coming up with what I wanted to make this year. It couldn't be a pie, we have 8 already. An appetizer would get lost among one of the 16 side dishes were going to have, so that was a no also. A drink? Well yeah, but what does that show? And everyone is going to be drinking anyway...lame. and then it hit me: chocolate. We don't have any type of chocolate anything on Thanksgiving. That was it. I came up with my dish, a Chocolate Peacan tart, sometime after 10 last night, and went to Stater Bros to get the ingredients. I didn't want to wait until this morning for a few reasons:

Late night baking session

1. Who wants to go shopping on Thanksgiving morning? The parade is on!
2. Even if I did make it to the store this morning, 99% of their stuff would be gone because of all those other last-minute shoppers.
3. Tarts require baking, cooling, and baking again. I want this to be ready to go when everyone is finished eating, not later.
4. We have TWO 15 lb turkeys and a 14 lb ham. All of our ovens would be in use all day, so if I wanted to do it, I'd have to bake the tart in the wee hours of the night. (see my other late-night baking creation, and it's outcome in my post, "Sco-nonos")

After being so frustrated with my scones, it was a breath of fresh air that this tart turned out nicely.

It was good. plain and simple.

The finished tart. PS, did I mention it's all Ghirardelli?

I cut them into bite size pieces for on-the-go hands.

Here's some Thanksgiving pictures, from my family to yours.

"Come on down, mommy! The parade is on!" - Emma

"Cheese!"

My Mom, Dad and Uncle at the carving station.

My plate. Turkey, Ham, Rolls, Gulliver's Corn, Harvest Potatoes, Deviled Eggs and a Dr. Pepper

My Dad's plate. That's some steamy goodness.

Here ye, Here ye!

Hello everyone!

 I am so excited to finally get a blog up and going. I've always wanted to, but never really felt 'worthy' after looking at all the other food blogs out there! 

To sort of break the ice, it's almost THANKSGIVING! I am so excited that this year I have a little more schooling under my belt and will really be able to impress the guests! Speaking of impressive, today in school, my team and I successfully assembled (and hand-painted) our first pastillage showpiece. 

For those of you who don't know, pastillage is a sugar paste, kind of like fondant, that when rolled quickly and thinly, can be formed to make any shape. While drying, it hardens to the point where it resembles porcelain. This dough is tricky, because it begins to 'dry' while rolling it out, and cracks to the point of uselessness, but it isn't fully dry for anywhere from 3 days to a week. Our team had a lot of problems with our showpiece, which we insisted take of the life of a cornucopia in the spirit of Thanksgiving. Our first attempt was to cut strips of the dough and basket weave them and then cover our cornucopia mold with it and let it dry. That was a complete let down. By cutting the dough into strips, we gave it more surface area, making it dry and crack ten times faster. We had to start over...there was no saving those strips.

Our next attempt was to roll out a large sheet and press a real basket into the dough to imprint the weaves onto the actual dough, which when dry, isn't edible, so rolling a real basket on it wasn't too far fetched. This worked to an extent. The surface started to dry that the basket didn't fully imprint, so we wrapped the dough around our mold, shaped it, and decided to take a risk and cross our fingers.

Our cornucopia took a week to dry (along with pastillage leaves we also made) and when coming into school today, we were determined to assemble it and make it look as realistic as possible.

We originally planned on airbrushing the leaves to give them a soft color, but with one airbrush, and a class of 30 people, we had to come up with a plan B - hand painting them with gel colors and water. This was actually fun, and a lot less stressful than working with the actual dough. We sat there and painted these leaves for 2 hours, ensuring they looked real. We also brushed the cornucopia with a gold and highlighted the basket weave lines with a darker brown. We 'glued' the leaves to the mouth of the cornucopia, transferred it to our cake board, and were finally given the opportunity to stand back and see it in it's entirety. Low and behold, it was amazingly beautiful. Not only were we quick to take pictures, but the rest of the class and our Chef were already forming a line to snap a pic. You know it's good when the teacher wants to document it.

Our beautiful hand-painted Cornucopia

The Cornucopia, and our sister-team's Thanksgiving-esq showpiece

Our cornucopia, along with another team's Thanksgiving-esq piece just seemed to get ya ready for this Thursday, and thus, was placed in the schools main display case! This was so exciting to the team and I, as we had never created a featured piece before, and we rushed to the case after class to take cheesy pictures of us pointing at our showpiece. I think I got the taste of having featured work, and I like it...I like it a lot. :]

The display case. Front and center baby!

Beautiful featured art