Party Time!

Silly me! - I forgot to take a picture of the spread of food! I wish I could show you. This is all that's left... the plate on which my sweet neighbor Tina brought banana bread.

It was a busy week, and an even busier Friday and Saturday with lots of company, but it sure was fun! On Saturday, we celebrated our daughter's first birthday with friends and family. It was a gorgous night and we played outside with all the kids. I didn't actually "cook" anything except for the cakes. Here was the menu:

Drinks:
Lemonade
Water

Dinner:
Turkey and Swiss Rollers*
Cucumbers, Carrots, and Dip
Slow Cooker Baked Beans*
Pickles
Potato Chips
Banana Bread (compliments of Tina)
Cantelope
Watermelon

Desserts:
Carrot Cake Muffins*
Chocolate Sheet Cake*
Vanilla Ice Cream*


*Some notes:

The Turkey and Swiss Rollers are wrap sandwiches on a party tray from Costco's deli, sliced very prettily. They are not cheap, but I think are a good deal for how many people they feed and how good they are. They consist of turkey, swiss, tomato, green lettuce, and some kind of cranberry cream cheese-type spread in a tortilla, then sliced like a pinwheel so you see all the colorful food layered inside.

For the Slow Cooker Baked Beans, I just drained 8 cans of pork and beans, tried to pick out the pork, and dumped them in my large crock pot with a bottle of K.C. Masterpiece BBQ sauce. Then, cooked them on high for 4 hours. I liked that they were more spicy and bar-be-que-y than sweet.

I made a batch of the Carrot Cake Muffins with the cream cheese frosting from the recipe book, Deceptively Delicious. I honestly didn't expect them to turn out well, but they were OK. The healthnuts who ate them (myself included) liked them. The cauliflower does give them an earthy taste, somewhat. But they are still slightly sweet. I made these for my daughter's "cake". She devoured an entire one. I omitted the chopped apricots and prunes. The muffins aren't comepletely devoid of sugar (they contain some brown sugar and the frosting contains a bit of confectioner's sugar), but I thought were a good choice. I wanted to make something other people had a chance of liking.

I also made 2 Chocolate Sheet Cakes following The Pioneer Woman's recipe, minus the nuts. I think they turned out well. Except, the frosting dripped off of one of the cakes and all over my counter. So I licked it up. :) I have that same problem - messy countertop - whenever I make her Cinnamon Rolls, too. I guess I just need a larger, stainless steel workspace or something.

We also had plans to make homemade ice cream, but discovered earlier in the week that our ice cream maker no longer works. So that ended up being store-bought. We had so much other food, though, that it didn't get eaten!

Even though just about everyone came as planned, we had a lot of leftovers! That is better than running out of food, right? Actually, I already sent a lot of it away with relatives last night. And anyone who knows my husband and I knows that the rest sure won't go to waste! I'd venture to say we are pretty fit individuals, but we do love to eat.

All in all, it was a great weekend. Thanks, everyone! And Tina, I want that banana bread recipe!

-off to write some thank you notes...