Rainbow Dance Party

We decided to throw the girls a birthday party last weekend because we will be in NY state for their real birthdays at the end of June. We wanted a chance for us all to celebrate them turning 1 and 3 with friends here in Phoenix.

Our toddler chose the theme of a Rainbow Dance party, and over the last month or so we had a lot of fun plotting decorations, food and fun.  Here are a few photos of our celebration:

W set the Rainbow Dance Party mood by hanging balloons from the ceiling in the playroom.

We decided to make the party from 10:30-12:30 to catch everyone in their best moods. We served bacon and cheddar quiche, Kale and Gruyere quiche, bagels with the works (a nod to NYC), fruits and veggies. The toddler and I had lots of fun picking out a rainbow of fruit. We had nectarines for orange, but they didn't ripen in time to make it on the platter.

Blue and purple veggies can be hard to find. Wanted to get purple cabbage and carrots, but we struck out the day we went shopping. No worries - the boiled beets were perfect for the babies at the party.

The toddler was reading the NY Times magazine and saw a rainbow cake. She was sold. She said, "That's the cake I need for my party." We normally try to keep things pretty healthy, but for a birthday party we decided to loosen the rules. My husband and I had fun making the cake. IT WAS A HUGE HIT. Lots of recipes say to use gel coloring. I couldn't find any easily, so we just used regular food coloring and slightly reduced the liquid . About 45 drops per layer, and we were really pleased with the results.

So many times at birthday parties, the children are sent home with little tchotchkes. I was racked my brain for something that would fit our theme, and be a fun dance tool. Landed on rainbow hand kites. Sometimes they are on wooden rings, but I chose to put them on hair bands so that the kids could hold them or wear them on their wrists. This photo doesn't really do it justice. The ribbons are 20 inches long (once folded in half) so they look great flowing and twirling around.

Last but not least the girls needed clothes worthy of a Rainbow Dance Party. The baby has some rainbow striped pants, so she was all set, but I wanted something special for the toddler. Searched on Pinterest and decided to make a no-sew skirt. Super easy! I literally didn't sew it because I just used safety pins on the waistband to keep it adjustable. Ripped the strips of fabric. Once I decided on the length and size, I finished the rest of the skirt in one hour of TV watching.

 We were so pleased with how the day turned out. My biggest worry was that the girls would get overwhelmed with all the guests, but they both had a great time. I think the toddler was pleased to see her ideas come to fruition.

What about you? Any party successes? disasters?

Tomato Sauce

Our kitchen counter was starting to disappear. The tomatoes from our farm share were taking over the kitchen. Our efforts at putting fresh tomatoes in every dish imaginable was not keeping up with supply. It was time to take action. It was time to make sauce.

People are really passionate about their tomato sauce recipes. They will defend their method like their lives depended on it. I won't claim that this is the best way to make sauce. It's just one way to make it, and the method I chose this time around.

I can only remember making sauce from fresh tomatoes once before. It was years ago, and that time around I chose to ignore the directions to remove the skin and seeds from the tomatoes. I thought it seemed like a big hassle, and didn't believe it would make much difference in the flavor. The resulting sauce was really thin and low on flavor. It took me a long time to admit it, but I do think removing the peels and seeds makes a difference. Removing the seeds also removes the excess liquid which helps produce a thicker sauce.

This was my first time removing tomato skins. I have read about it in cookbooks and blogs, but had never tried it myself. They all assured me that it was a really easy process, but I was skeptical. You know what? They were right! It was a little messy, and it took a bit of time, but it was easy.


Core the tomatoes.


Score an "x" on the bottom of the tomato.


Carefully lower tomatoes into boiling water. When skins begin to split (30 to 60 seconds), use a slotted spoon to transfer tomatoes to ice water.


When tomatoes are cool, peel off the skins. Halve tomatoes. Remove seeds with a spoon, and discard. Finely chop tomatoes.


Saute some onions and garlic until softened. Add the tomatoes and cook the sauce for about 1.5 hours.


Here is the finished sauce.

Tomato Sauce

5 - 8 lbs tomatoes (we used a combination of heirloom and cherry tomatoes)
1/4 C olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, smashed
Coarse salt and ground pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and prepare a large bowl of ice water. With a paring knife, core tomatoes, and score an X on the bottoms. Carefully lower tomatoes into boiling water. When skins begin to split (30 to 60 seconds), use a slotted spoon to transfer tomatoes to ice water.

When tomatoes are cool, remove skins. Halve tomatoes. Remove seeds with a spoon, and discard. Finely chop tomatoes.

In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and garlic and cook until tender, stirring frequently (about 4 to 5 minutes). Add tomatoes, and stir to combine. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat to medium-low. Cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and saucy, about 1 1/2 hours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

We froze a jar of sauce, and set aside a bowl to use tonight.

Thank you to everyone that voted for me in Project Food Blog. The competition was stiff, and only 400 participants made it in to the next round out of 1,800. I am not in that group of 400, but I look forward to following the rest of the competition.

Steak with Scalloped Potatoes

I am participating in the Foodbuzz Project Food Blog challenge. If you like what you read, please vote for me by clicking on my profile in the right sidebar and following the directions.

The other day my husband asked me, "How many apartments do you think we have seen since moving to New York City?" The answer is somewhere between several and A LOT. When we moved here two years ago, we sublet an apartment off craigslist that had beautiful photos. We were told it was furnished with cable TV, internet, and a fully stocked kitchen. It sounded great! When we arrived, we found a mattress on the floor, a TV without cable (which means we only got NY1), no internet, a bathtub coated in mildew, and a kitchen that was far from fully stocked. Although, it was so dirty that I didn't want to do any cooking in there anyways. Luckily we had only rented it for five days, and after seeing it we were bound and determined to have a new apartment at the end of that five days.

We looked at several apartments in Cobble Hill, several in Chinatown, several in the Lower East side, and finally ended up just North of Little Italy in Manhattan. Last year, we thought about buying an apartment and we looked at a bunch of places. We ended up deciding against buying a place. Once our lease was coming due, we thought about renting a bigger apartment. We looked in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but our landlord decreased our rent and then nowhere else could compete. This year we have looked at apartments in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, and the time for a decision is almost here. We love our little apartment in NoLIta (North of Little Italy), but it is really small and we would love to have more space. We will let you know what we decide.


The other night we had steak, scalloped potatoes and salad for dinner. It was our totally local dinner. The steak was amazing. My husband declared that it was the best steak he had ever eaten. It was a local, grass fed rib steak and it had a great beefy flavor. We don't have a grill, so we just cook steak in a cast iron pan on the stove top. Warm up the pan, add a drizzle of oil, and add the steak that has been generously sprinkled with salt and pepper. We cooked it for 5 minutes per side, but cook yours until it's to your liking. We had a simple salad with greens and cherry tomatoes from our farm share and our house vinaigrette. Here is the recipe for our take on scalloped potatoes:

Scalloped Potatoes
2 leeks, whites finely sliced and rinsed
2 medium red potatoes, scrubbed and thinly sliced
1 T oil
2 T butter
salt and pepper

Heat up a large skillet, add some oil and add the potatoes and leeks. Add a quarter cup of water and cover. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Uncover and let the rest of the water evaporate. Remove from the heat and add the butter. Salt and pepper to taste.

I used cultured butter and Himalayan sea salt. The butter had a delicious rich flavor. I used Himalayan sea salt because it is full of beneficial nutrients. They are both new splurges.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop, Works-For-Me Wednesday and Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

Burgers and Greek Salad

I have been trying to avoid gluten for a few weeks. It's a bit of a dietary experiment. I haven't noticed any differences, but I haven't been a purist for too many days in a row. Tonight's dinner was a relapse into the world of gluten, but it was worth it. We had a Greek diner inspired dinner of burgers with fried onions and Greek salad. It tasted really good. Our burgers were made from some grass-fed ground beef we found on sale at Whole Foods, and they were seasoned with sage, garlic and a bit of Old Bay (my husband made them). These flavors combined beautifully with some melted cheese and the sweet, smoky onions. Delicious! The salad helped us eat up some of our CSA bounty. The dressing was a real success. The recipe is below.



City Share Burgers
1 lb ground beef
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 T sage, chopped
1 T Old Bay
1 large onion, sliced
Cheddar cheese, sliced
oil

Combine the meat, garlic, sage and Old Bay, and let sit for 30 minutes. Heat up a cast iron skillet, lightly oil the pan and add the onion. Cook until tender and browned. Remove the onions from the pan. Form the meat mixture into small patties and place them in the hot pan. Cook to your liking. Top with cheese shortly before done cooking and cover. Top with onions to serve.

Greek Salad Dressing
2 T Greek yogurt
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped and smeared
1/8 t dill

Mix the ingredients and let sit for 30 minutes.

We served the dressing over a salad of greens, radishes, golden cherry tomatoes, red onion, corn and feta.

This post is part of Simple Lives Thursday at GNOWFGLINS, Pennywise Platters Thursday at The Noursishing Gourmet, Tasty Traditions at Coupon Cooking, and Things I Love Thursday at The Diaper Diaries.

Oven Roasted Tomatoes

Yesterday I wrote about the delicious sage polenta with fresh corn. Mmmm, it was so good we could have eaten it by itself, but we didn't stop there. We topped it with some sauteed chicken breast and a quick sauce of garlic and oven roasted tomatoes. Sun dried tomatoes or oven roasted tomatoes are like nature's candy. They have a really intense sweet and tangy flavor, and pretty much improve anything they accompany.

We got two pints of cherry tomatoes in our farm share last Saturday. I was worried we wouldn't eat them all up in a week, and the weather had cooled for a couple of days. I decided take advantage the cooler temperatures and roast one of the pints. Here are some photos of the process:


One pint of tomatoes awaiting their fate.


I covered a cookie sheet in foil to help prevent sticking. Drizzled it with olive oil. The tomatoes were sliced in half and spread out on the cookie sheet.


The tomatoes cooked for about 3.5 hours at 200 degrees. I stirred them after the first and second hour, and then every 30 minutes. (I became a little neurotic that my precious roasted tomatoes would burn.)


I put the roasted tomatoes in a glass, and had to take a photo by the other pint of tomatoes next to them to show how much they shrank.

This post is part of Simple Life Thursday at A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.