Rose and Mint Ice Cubes

This past weekend we celebrated Keanna’s 8^th birthday with a princess tea party!

My precious babe is eight already!

We had cute little cucumber sandwiches, ham and cheese wraps, chocolate-dipped fruit, and deviled eggs.  To drink, we had tea and lemonade.

Robbie made the lemonade this year.  It was so good!  (You can find our recipe here.  And also be sure to check out our strawberrylemonade recipe.)  And since it was a princess tea party, I wanted to do something extra special when serving the lemonade—rose and mint ice cubes!

All you do is stick a rose petal or mint leaf in your ice cubes before freezing them—it’s that easy!

As far as the flowers and leaves go, you don’t have to stick with rose and mint.  Just about any edible petal or leaf will do.  Edible flowers include carnations, geraniums, marigolds, roses, pansies, nasturtium, white clover, red clover, and dandelion.  For leaves, think herbs:  sage, mint, and lavender.

One thing to be cautious about is pesticides or herbicides.  Be sure your petals and leaves haven’t been treated with anything that can be harmful if consumed.  I get my rose petals and mint leaves from our own front yard.  We do not spray our garden with anything other than soapy water because we feed our tortoise from it.

Also be sure to wash your petals and leaves before putting them into the ice cube trays.  You can either use produce wash or a few drops of dish soap in a large bowl full of cold water.  Rinse them thoroughly.

Rapunzel gave an etiquette lesson.  If you are in the East
Bay and would like a princess to go to your party, you can
find her at Little Princess Wishes.

Colored Sugar and Patriotic Strawberries

The 4th of July is coming up and if you're looking for some festive food ideas, here's one you can try!  It involves colored sugar, which you can buy, but you'd be paying a lot for it.  The good news: it's easy to make at home and pretty much costs the same as sugar.  You can use food coloring or food dye, although the food dye does give the sugar a more vibrant shade than the food coloring. Colored sugar can be used to decorate cookies or other confections.

Colored Sugar
Sugar
Food coloring or food dye

In a bowl, place desired amount of sugar (I used 1/4 cup of sugar in each bowl).  Add food coloring a couple drops at a time until desired shade is reached.  After each addition, mix the sugar with a spoon, pressing the sugar against the sides of the bowl using the back of the spoon to get out clumps and to evenly spread the coloring.  Alternatively, use desired amount of food dye instead of the food coloring.

Colored sugar using food coloring.

Food dye.

The sugar will clump up, but will go away if you press the sugar against the sides of the bowl using the back of the spoon.

Colored sugar using the dye.

Patriotic Strawberries
Strawberries
White chocolate chips
Shortening
Blue colored sugar (see recipe above)
Blue food coloring

Wash strawberries; dry completely.  Line a platter or cookie sheet with wax or parchment paper.

Place desired amount of white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe dish, with approximately 1 teaspoon of shortening per 1/2 cup of white chocolate chips.  Adjust shortening amounts to reach desired consistency of chocolate.  Microwave for 30 seconds; stir and continue to microwave in 30-second increments until it is completely melted.  Dip the bottom two-thirds of the strawberries in white chocolate, leaving the top third red.  Spoon blue colored sugar over the bottom part of the white chocolate, leaving a strip of white between the blue and red.

Instead of using colored sugar, you can dip the strawberries in white chocolate, and refrigerate until the chocolate has hardened.  Once hardened, melt white chocolate with enough shortening for it to reach a drizzling consistency; add blue food coloring.  Drizzle blue chocolate over white chocolate.  Alternatively, you can leave strawberries undipped and drizzle with blue and/or white chocolate.  Be creative and have fun!!!  Also, check your local grocery ads to see if strawberries are on sale.  I know there's a store near me that has them for 99 cents/lb this week!

Bapa's New Year's Bean Dip

Our family doesn’t have a lot of holiday traditions, but we do have one for New Year’s Eve.  It’s a simple (and somewhat unusual) tradition, but we love it!  Growing up, we only had fires in the fireplace twice a year – Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve.  With each fire came a special treat.  The Christmas Eve fire was accompanied by hot fudge sundaes and the New Year’s Eve fire was paired with our dad’s (Bapa, to our kids) famous bean dip and chips.

It’s a very basic bean dip recipe.  I know there are a myriad of bean dip recipes out there, many of them fancier than this; but in this case, we really like the simple ingredients.  It’s a recipe that our dad originally got from Kraft Foods but has adapted into his own creation. 

Bapa’s Bean Dip

16 oz. can refried beans (you can also use homemade refried beans)

6 oz. Velveeta cheese, cubed (or other brand American cheese block)

¾ cup salsa (we use Pace picante)

¼ - ½ tsp cumin (optional)

In a saucepan over medium-low heat, combine beans, cheese, and salsa. 

Cook, stirring constantly until beans are warm and cheese is melted. 

Add cumin if desired; mix well. 

Serve hot with tortilla chips.

For other variations, you can add hot sauce or garlic powder (or any other flavors you desire).  You may also garnish with shredded cheese, sliced green onions, cilantro, or sour cream.

Throwing a Party on a Budget

A couple weekends ago, we celebrated my daughter's 2nd birthday with a Goldfish-themed party.  We are on a limited budget, but decided to throw a party anyway.  Now I understand that a birthday party for a two-year-old is definitely not a necessity, but planning her birthday parties is a lot of fun for me.  It's almost like my hobby, but I only get to do it once a year, so I take advantage of it!  Even on a limited budget, it is possible to have a fun party!  Here are some ways I was able to save money:

1. You don't need to provide a whole meal.  I knew we wouldn't be able to afford to feed everyone lunch, so we started her party at 2 in the afternoon and had snacks, drinks, and dessert.  For a few weeks leading up to her party, I watched the grocery ads for good deals on snack foods and drinks (i.e. 2-liter bottles of soda, chips, pretzels, Goldfish Crackers - a must for a Goldfish party!).  I was able to combine some of the sales with coupons I had to get much of the food quite inexpensively.  If your budget is really tight, you can have a dessert party and just provide various baked goods.  Just make sure you mention this in the invitation, so your guests know to eat before they come.

2. Make your own veggie platter.  I wanted something healthier than just chips and crackers, so I made my own veggie platter.  By making my own, I was able to save quite a bit of money.  I bought carrots, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, broccoli, and a cucumber.  Again, I scoped the grocery ads the week of her party to see where I could get veggies at a low price.  I cut all the veggies the morning of her party, so that I wouldn't be rushing around at the last minute to get it done.  With the veggies, I served Ranch dressing that I had in my pantry and homemade hummus. 

3. Make as much as you can yourself.  I didn't have to buy a whole lot for her party, because I made a lot of things myself.  For invitations, I cut fish out of yellow constructions paper.  On one side, I wrote, "Swim on over to Hannah's 2nd Birthday Party!"  On the other side were all the details - location, time, date, etc.  For even cheaper invitations, you can always opt for the free method and use an invitation website like Evite.

I also made the party favors myself.  Favors aren't a necessity, but since I was able to make them with things I already had on hand, I went for it!  I made goldfish sugar cookies and packaged them in cellophane bags, then tied them with a ribbon.  I didn't have a fish cookie cutter, but my sister did, so she let me borrow it.  However, even that wasn't the exact shape I wanted, but I was able to adapt it to make it what I wanted.  The cookie cutter had fins on it, but since I was going for the Goldfish Cracker look, which doesn't have fins, I simply cut the fins off the dough after I had cut the cookies.  Voila!  A simple fix!

4. Make your own cake.  Cakes can be expensive - especially if you want it to have a specific theme.  Making your own cake will save a lot of money.  Your cake doesn't have to be extravagant or fancy; a simple cake will do.  In a future post, we'll be writing about how to make cakes at home along with some of our favorite cake recipes!

5. Use things you already have on hand.  I like to stock up on things when they're on sale or clearance.  After Easter, I bought a few bags of Dark Chocolate (yum!) M&M's on clearance.  They were only about 25 cents each and I knew I'd be able to use them, whether it be for company, in baking, or just to eat.  I pulled out a bag for Hannah's party and no one seemed to mind that they were pastel!  Also, I wanted to have a Goldfish Cracker "buffet" with several different flavors of Goldfish.  I wasn't sure how I was going to serve them, since I don't have any nice little bowls (let alone 6 of them!).  One day, it hit me!  For our wedding, we had little vases that looked like fish bowls with little fish swimming around in them and flowers in the top. I thought it would be cute to serve the Goldfish in little "fish bowls."   I still had one vase from our wedding and I was hoping I'd be able to find more at a decent price, so the hunt began!  I knew the vases from the wedding were from Michael's, so that's where I started.  I couldn't find anything online, but I was able to find them at the store and they were only $1 each!  I was thrilled, so I bought a few more and the Goldfish looked so cute in them!

6. Be creative.  In addition to the cookies for favors, I wanted to make some smaller goldfish sugar cookies to serve at the party.  I didn't have a small fish cookie cutter, so I made one!  I'll post how I did that in the near future, so be on the lookout!