Plan Something: Jason's Big 3-0

Jason's 30th birthday was this past weekend.  If you remember from last year, we haven't done much to celebrate birthdays for the past several years.  I made an exception for his 29th and his 30th, because I figured they needed to be celebrated appropriately.

I spent the last 8 months (seriously I started the week after I finished the bar) planning his 30th extravaganza.  I knew I wanted to go all out.  It took a little while to figure out where I wanted to do it, but once I learned that Rahr Brewery has private party rentals, I knew that was the way to go.

When I was designing the invitations I wanted them to be something unusual and fun.  I initially contemplated mailing out beer bottles, a la this party I found on Hostess with the Mostess, but ended up deciding the hassle of shipping wasn't worth the effort.  Finally I stumbled on the idea of using coasters as the invitations and attaching them to cards with the additional information.    I ordered enough for all of the invitations and then a couple dozen extra so that I could give them to Jason at the party.

Full post on the invitations coming soon.

Next up I had to decide on party favors for all of the attendees.  I knew that Rahr would give everyone a pint glass to take home as part of the party, but I wanted to give everyone something from Jason and myself.  Koozies are always a good gift in Texas, but I wanted everyone to be able to use the koozies during the party.  This in turn led to the great pint glass kookie search fest.  It took me forever to find someone who could custom print pint glass koozies and who produced quality products.  But I finally stumbled across Logo It an Austin based company that was SO great to work with.  The koozies turned out exactly like I hoped and they arrived early.  I do not hesitate to recommend Jim and his company and will definitely use them again in the future.

After those details were nailed down I had to decided on food and decorations.  We kept the decorations fairly simple; we were in a brewery after all.  But I made a couple of things to spruce up the food tables.

Jason gave me a copy of the Smoke cookbook that I have been wanting since we ate at Tim Byres's restaurant, Smoke.  (If you are in Dallas you MUST eat there.)  The cookbook is filled with tons of BBQ and sides and I knew a couple recipes were a must.  First of all, I made a batch of his bread and butter pickles.  I don't really like bread and butter pickles, but these are fantastic!  They were so delicious paired with the slightly fatty pork shoulder.  I also made a BBQ sauce from the cookbook and highly recommend it as well.  Other foods included sausage balls, potato salad, PJ's Polish Gold homemade sausage (amazing), soapilla cheesecake and various chips and dips.  I farmed out the cupcakes to Sprinkles (ain't nobody got time for baking) and picked Bourbon Vanilla Bacon and Bailey's Irish Cream cupcakes.  They were amazing and I didn't have to touch a single cupcake tin, which made them all the better.

Lastly music.  There is a great story behind the musician, Michael Prysock.  Last summer he was scheduled to play a show at Klyde Warren Park as part of their summer concert series.  I wanted to go so I played Jason a couple of song intros to see if he would be interested.  Jason was.  big. time.  Since then he's been trying to remember Michael's name and all the while I've been secretly emailing him since August.  Sneaky sneaky.  Jason randomly was talking to his sister about Michael the day of his party about how much he wanted to figure out who he was.  And then lo and behold, who's playing when Jason arrives at the party.  When I asked Jason what his favorite part of the day was he instantly replied, the live music.  So a HUGE thank you to Michael for playing for us.

I want to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped me plan, prepare, cook, distract Jason, and attend his party.  He was so incredibly happy and I am ever so grateful to everyone who helped bring him into his 30's in style.

Cook Something: Spiked Hot Chocolate and Homemade Churros

For a perfectly cozy evening or a late night Christmas treat, I highly recommend some steamy hot chocolate and homemade churros.I made these a couple Fridays ago on a particularly dreary and frigid night and they were the perfect way to spend the evening.

The churro batter is very similar to a French pate a choux, albeit thicker.  Making churros is a lot less intimating than it sounds, but a couple words of advice. Watch the temperature of your oil.  If your oil gets too hot your churros will burn before cooking on the inside.  If the oil is too cool, your churros will be greasy.  Use a thermometer and keep your oil as close to 350 as you can.  Secondly, invest the $8 in a pastry bag.  Most recipes will say you can use a gallon bag with the corner snipped off.  This. Is. A. Lie.  This batter is thick.  If you try to squeeze it out of a gallon bag the bag will split open and you're going to end up with a huge mess all over your counter.  I bought my pastry bag at Michael's of all places, but you can find them at any kitchen wares store and possibly Walmart (if your Walmart has a cake decorating section).

For the hot chocolate, I used this recipe and to be honest I didn't love it, especially because it required a decent amount of work.  Whatever hot chocolate you decide to use make sure it's super thick and decadent.

Churros
Adapted from here.
Ingredients:

• 8 cups vegetable oil or other frying oil
• 1 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon.  Mix together in a gallon size ziploc bag and set aside
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 cups milk, at room temperature*
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature*

*To bring to room temperature quickly, microwave the milk in 30 second bursts.  Be careful the milk doesn't scald.  Place the eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes.

Instructions:

• Add oil to a heavy bottomed pot and bring to 350 degrees.  I prefer using my LeCreuset dutch oven for frying.
• Bring milk, butter, salt, remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar, cinnamon stick, vanilla, and nutmeg to boil on medium-high heat in a large saucepan.  Turn off heat once boiling and allow to stand for 10 minutes so the flavors infuse in the milk.
• Discard the cinnamon stick.  Bring the mixture back up to a boil then add the flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until a smooth dough forms.  This is going to take a bit of muscle.
• Transfer dough to a large bowl and allow the mixture to cool for 5 minutes, stir periodically to help with the cooling.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated before add the next egg.  
• If you do this by hand there will be a moment when you think everything has gone terribly wrong.  The dough will somehow look curdled.  Fear not!  Just keeping beating and like magic the dough will transfer back to a homogenous mixture.
• Insert a star tip into the pastry bag and add the dough into the pastry bag.  I like to use a chip clip to close the top of the bag to prevent any of the dough from squeezing out the back.
• Pipe the dough into the hot oil in 4-6 inch long pieces.  Pinch the dough of with your fingers or snip with scissors.  Fry up to 6 churros at a time for 3-4 minutes until a beautiful golden brown.
• Quickly roll the cooked churros on a paper towel and then toss in the bag filled with the cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Enjoy while warm!

Merriest of Christmases to those of you who celebrate!

• 
  

Friendsgiving 2

This past weekend Jason and I hosted our 2nd Annual Friendsgiving.  If you remember from last year, we hosted the inaugural Friendsgiving outside, and I had every intention of doing so again this year.  Mother Nature, however, had very different plans.  It was cold in Texas this past weekend, very very cold, especially for Texas.  So Jason and I had no choice but to move Friendsgiving inside.  We are fortunate enough that by clearing every. last. piece of furniture out of our living room and dining room that we had just enough room to fit the 26 people who had RSVP'd for the event.  We were fairly concerned about space, and although it may have been a little snug, it was a perfectly cozy way to spend a very dreary and frigid night.

So without further ado, the details from Friendsgiving 2.

I was adamant about using real plates and silverware this year.  I picked up the plates from the Dollar Tree (for a $1 a piece, which is crazy because I actually like them more than my actual plates) and the silverware was leftover from my sister's graduation party.

Jason rented tables and chairs from our trusty rental place and I decorated each table with strands of bittersweet and white candles.

Each table setting had a mini-pumpkin pie thank you gift that I made (completely from scratch, crust and all, which is kind of big deal because I am certainly no baker).  Friendsgiving is a party that requires you to bring food, so I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to make and attend the party and to thank all of the great friends we have in our life.  Thanksgiving so often gets overlooked and I particularly love this event, because it's simply a chance to say thank you to everyone who helps enrich our lives.

I downloaded the "thank you" calligraphy from here and sized it down in Photoshop to about 3"x2".

For beverages I made spiked apple cider and unsweet tea.  And everyone brought beer and wine to share.

Jason and I were fairly concerned about squeezing 26 people into our 1200 square foot apartment.  We knew in advance that the tables and chairs would fit, because we did the same thing for my graduation party, but that party maxed out around 20 people and we had a solid 6 more coming to Friendsgiving.

My idea to help work with traffic flow was to create a "photo booth" in this weird area that connects every room in our house, but isn't really a room itself.  It's kind of like a foyer, but smack dab in the middle.  I decided to set my camera up on a tripod and let people take pictures in front of a backdrop of streamers that I saved from my mother's fiesta party.  The lighting wasn't great in that room, and I'm working on fixing the white balance.

I spatchedcocked the turkey again, using Kenji's method.  This is my second year doing this and I firmly maintain it is the easiest, fastest, and most full proof method of cooking a turkey.

Me shaking "Bertha's" wing.  Yes, I named the turkey.

And this is what you get.  A house full of good food and better friends.  A pretty enjoyable way to spend an evening.

And me the next morning...thinking about how much clean up I had to do.

*Thanks to Tiffany and Keith for the awesome mug.*

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!  And a huge thanks to everyone who helped make Friendsgiving a success!

Brunch: Poached Eggs with Corn, Chorizo, Basil, and Brioche Croutons

I am always on the look out for brunch food.  Brunch in Dallas and Texas in general is kind of a big deal, and although most of my friends prefer to while the day away on a patio somewhere (which don't get me wrong is pretty fantastic), I tend to spend my Sundays on my front patio because that requires neither makeup nor shoes.

This brunch recipe from The Food Lab's post on perfect poached eggs is pretty much perfect.  It includes crunchy brioche croutons, crispy Spanish chorizo (and for those of you in Texas, it's different from Mexican chorizo), slightly blackened corn, and a delicious butter sauce.  Add that perfect poached egg and it's one delectable meal.  

Truth be told, it's an involved meal.  And this is coming from someone who barely blinks an eye at involved meals and instinctually distrusts recipes that are overly simple.  That said, it's not difficult, just don't expect to get it on the table lightning fast.

But make sure it gets to your table because it is damn good and so worth the time.

I poach my eggs using my sous vide, which is as easy as dropping the eggs shell and all in the equipment and letting them swim for about an hour.  Then you drain off the thin white part and give them a quick dunk in gently simmering water.  That process is ridiculously easy and your eggs both look and taste spectacularly.

Kenji gives a lot of details on creating the perfect poached egg, both with a sous vide and without so scoot on over there and read it.  Your brunch menus will thank you.

Then whip this baby up at home and enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Lawyered.

It is officially official.  I passed the Texas Bar Exam!!!!!

 And in two short weeks I will be sworn in as an attorney.  It's been such a long process and I am over the moon excited that I finally made it.  My boss let me leave work after results posted so I spent my first day as a real life attorney hanging out at Klyde Warren Park enjoying champagne and the lovely fall weather.  It was pretty much the perfect day.

Painting Party

Two posts in a row! What what!

Last weekend we celebrated by friend's birthday with a night at Painting with a Twist, which is an instructor led painting session and you can bring in snacks and wine.  So basically it's most of my favorite things rolled into a 2 hour party.

I call myself the traveling party, because more often than not my trunk is filled with a variety of party essentials: platters, decorations, you name it.  But this party takes the cake in the traveling department.  I knew I wouldn't be able to get home and back to the painting place before the class started and have time to set up so I left home with a cooler filled with cheeses, snacks, and wine and trunk full of platters and plates...and carried it into work.  It's days like those I'm thankful that I have my own office to hide random things in.

Snacks included Marcona almonds, brie, the most delicious blue cheese ever, and a sharp white cheddar, some fruit, and various crackers.

A huge shout out to this Whole Foods for carrying a gluten free chocolate cake!  Jennifer can't eat gluten and this is the first time I found a gluten free cake.  ...my baking skills are not quite ready to tackle that feat.

 The beginning on our painting adventure.

The end.

Also, unrelated to the painting party, but I made this as a gift to one of my coworkers for her 10th anniversary with my firm.  I call it crafting: attorney style.

If I finally upload some pictures from my real camera, I may make it three days in a row!

State Fair Themed 18th Birthday Party

Well I'm back.  My apologies for the delay; I've been finding it rather difficult to find a time to blog with working full time.

A couple weekends ago, I threw my cousin a State Fair Themed 18th Birthday.  The State Fair is her favorite thing and it seemed only logical to kick off fair season (her birthday was the week before) with a little State Fair inspiration.  The Texas State Fair is deemed the Fried Food Capital of Texas so I knew a majority of the food needed to be fried.  We picked up most of the food pre-made, but I was determined to homemake the corn dogs. (They're her favorite food).

Frying 24 corn dogs wasn't very difficult, although it was slightly time consuming.  My advice for any sort of frying is to be diligent with the temperature of the oil.  Too hot and your oil will burn and your house will smell like a McDonald's.  Too cold and your food will come out greasy and oily.

We kept the decorations fairly simple and went for a country, Texas theme.

*Sorry for all of the terrible quality photos.  I left my real camera at home and had to rely on my iPhone for photos.

The party itself was a complete surprise and I really have to commend her friends on keeping the entire thing under wraps.

I made the banners by cutting bandanas in half and hot gluing them to jute.  And yes, I burned the devil out of my fingers, twice.

Food included: fried corn dogs, "gas station" sandwiches (it's a family tradition), buffalo wings, fried jalapeño bottle caps, mac and cheese cakes, mozzarella sticks, and assorted popcorns.

Jason hand squeezed 20 lemons to make the lemonade (he's a keeper that one) and we enlisted one of Sarah's friends to make cake balls, in lieu of cake.

We had a made to order funnel cake station.  I fried individual portions of funnel cakes for the kids and we had a variety of sweets to top them with.  The empty bowl eventually had powdered sugar in it...after my Gram saved the day and made a last minute hail mary trip to the grocery store.  

 Little Dolce enjoying the party, by staying far away from everyone.  (He's actually sitting on an outside table.)

Happy Birthday SK! Love you.