3 Ukuleles + Spam + Scotch = a damn good Birthday Party

The birthday party was a major success. It was small, mellow and just all around a great time. The food was fantastic and the cake was a hit!

And above all, 4 people tried Spam last night for the first time. And they liked it! Spam Musubis were the hit of the party.

Spam Musubi

We also have yummy chicken katsu rolled with spinach and Bull-Dog sauce. As well as beef bulgogi rolled with cucumber. Both were so delicious that Keldon had to make another round for people to snack on.

Katsu, Spam Musubi, and Bulgogi

The green salad with frisee and zucchini was overwhelmingly good. As were the cucumbers and green onions. I was pretty skeptical of the green onions, but I would definitely make them again.

And…. for the cake! For Keldon’s birthday this year, I made him a ukulele cake! (Please note: if you are clutzy like me, do not – I repeat DO NOT – attempt to use black food coloring.)

Keldon with his three ukuleles

the ukulele cake

Recipes coming soon for everything.

Birthday Surprise: Spam Cake!

No, this cake is not actually made with Spam (that would just be too much fun, though). BUT! the cake does sort of look like Spam on the inside – all mottled and pink to replicate the mystery meat that Spam is.

I made this cake a year ago for Keldon’s surprise birthday. Since he’s from Hawaii and loves Spam, what better way to shower him with birthday surprises than a Spam cake?

Let’s not be too judgmental when taking my decorating skills into account here. It’s the idea that counts, right? Right. I had some major challenges with the frosting.

In any case, this was a basic white cake blended with some red food coloring (although not blended all they way to give it the distinctive Spam look) with white frosting blended with red, yellow, and blue food colorings.

Korean/Japanese Birthday Fun Tonight!

Today is my boyfriend’s birthday. And for such a celebration of him turning the ripe old age of 26 (a youngin, I know!) we’ve taken the day off from work. We’re having a couple friends over tonight for some Korean/Japanese food.

Keldon is from Hawaii, so we *must* have Spam! Did you know Hawaii is the largest consumers of Spam? Thank you, WW2 & Hormel.

Plus, with this menu we can use a lot of the great produce we got at the Kingfield Farmer’s Market this Sunday: cucumbers, zucchini, green onions.

This is what we’re planning:
Korean Beef Bulgogi rolled up maki style

Chicken Katsu rolled up maki style

Spam Musubi (hooray! it’s Spam!)

Kim Chee

Green Onion Salad

Zucchini Ribbon Salad with this Asian Dressing

Cucumber Salad

I suppose I’ll be making some sort of guava or passion fruit martini to go along with this, but I have yet to come up with something. Stay tuned.

And of course, I have to rival the Spam cake I made last year…. so there will be a surprise revealed later.

All the weird stuff happens in Wisconsin…

Back in the summer, I was shocked to read this story about a man in Appleton, WI – my college town – who covered himself in BBQ sauce to hide from the government.

Now my sister tells me about a different man in WI who tried to steal….get this….$625 worth of lobster and steak from a grocery store. At least he has taste.

Weight Watchers Cards 1974

Are you ready for this? A coworker just shared this hilarious site with me that shows recipe cards from Weight Watchers from around the year of 1974.

I’m not sure who thought these would taste good, let alone help you lose weight (well, maybe you lost weight because it looks so gross you don’t want to eat it)….

How does Mexican Shrimp-Orange Salad sound? I mean, c’mon! What IS that in the middle? And don’t ignore the creepy porcelain knickknacks standing close watch.

Or how about the Bean Mushroom Salad? This was Henry’s favorite…it looks like brains.

And my last favorite: the Celery Log, cause who doesn’t need one of these?

Check out the other ones. The write ups are hilarious!

Recipe: Pirate’s Bounty Cupcakes

A friend of mine had a birthday last week and as part of my baking ventures this year, I decided to go conceptual again (after the wildly successful Spam cake). There’s a back story about he and his brother’s saying the word “bounty” in a low, deep voice that makes it too hard not to laugh.

Either way, I came up with what I thought to be a hilarious birthday cake concept: a pirate and his bounty of treasures! How perfect, right? And then! I come to find out that the special saying of the word “bounty” came out of Pirates of the Caribbean. Who knew? And how perfect!

I found a recipe on bettycrocker.com for Pirate’s Hidden Treasure cupcakes. Chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter cups inside. YUM! But mostly I liked the decorating, so I used parts of that recipe. The actual cake and frosting recipe is a mix of 2 other recipes too. I’ve made the cupcakes and the frosting before, but I’ll include the recipes here just in case (since this recipe is a conglomeration of 3 recipes).

continue reading for the recipe

Up North on the Cooking Team!

The creative department of the advertising agency I work for just took a trip up to northern Minnesota right by Lutsen and Tofte on Lake Superior at Bluefin Bay. Friday – Sun. It was a blast! It was great to experience the area I grew up in with people who had never been there before. The lucky folks in my car got the low down on the local news in the area.

But to top it off, I got to be part of the Cooking Team for the weekend. Holla! We ate like queens and kings. Feeding 23 people for an entire weekend is no small feat. Thankfully there were 4 of us taking care of everyone.

A rundown on the menu:

Friday Dinner
Grilled BBQ rubbed Pork Chops
Grilled BBQ Chicken Breasts
Grilled Chile Pineapple
Greek Salad
Roasted Baby Red Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary
Strawberry Whipped Cream Cake (holy motherload this was delicious)

Saturday Dinner
Grilled Steak with Roasted garlic and thyme butter
Grilled Lemon Dill Salmon
Roasted Vegetables
Israeli Couscous with Roasted Tomatoes and Olives (YUM)
Peach Brown Betty

Friday & Saturday Breakfasts
Scrambled Eggs
Potato Hash with jalapeno, onion, and garlic
Bacon
Fruit
Yogurt
Granola

Twin Cities Fresh Taste Festival

The Twin Cities Fresh Taste Festival is a community event that features organic and sustainable food & wine.

Sunday, August 17, 11 am – 5 pm
Nicollet Island Pavillion (40 Power Street, Minneapolis, MN see map)

From the Twin Cities Fresh Taste Festival site:

Join us at the inaugural Twin Cities Fresh Taste Festival, a day-long event to celebrate the best in organic, local and sustainable food products and wines.

Set on the beautiful picturesque banks of the Mississippi River at the Nicollet Island Pavilion, the festival will be filled with organic food and beverage vendors – from many outstanding local restaurants and food producers. Sample from 100 organic wines from national and international wineries. Plus, learn from local chefs as they prepare some of their best signature organic dishes.

Tickets:
$55 before day-of
$65 at the door

NOTE: you can receive $3.00 off a ticket with your Minnesota Public Radio Member Connect Card

Wine with dinner…or grocery shopping and wine tasting?

Minnesota has been trying to pass a law that would all grocery stores to sell wine and beer. (Currently Minnesota has an asinine law that grocery stores can only sell 3.2% beer.) Wine With Dinner has not quite made it through legislation, but on a recent trip to Chicago, IL, I discovered something at Whole Foods that completely blew my mind.

Wine tasting in the grocery store! Check this out (sorry for the blurry pic):

You put money in (somewhere – I didn’t look for it), and you can select which wine you’d like to try. Whole Foods provides real wine glasses (ain’t no plastic waste in Whole Foods), and they display the price for a 1 oz. pour. I think there are about 12-15 wines at this kiosk.

Pretty cool. I was tempted to try some, but after all the karaoke singing the night before, I didn’t think 1pm on a Sunday was a good idea.

Gourmet Club: Take 1

It seems like my friends and I have been talking forever about starting a gourmet club. You get a group of people together, everyone cooks, you drink wine, and have a great time. I know, it sounds like every weekend with my friends. But honestly, this is different!

Last fall we finally got our shit together and decided to schedule the first one in January. Ten people decided to join, which includes 4 couples and 2 singles so we paired up into groups of 2. Nicole’s boyfriend wasn’t interested, so she and I got paired up.

The idea is that whoever hosts that night chooses the theme and main course. January was the month of Gascony, France. Home to luxurious ingredients like foie gras and duck confit, as well as fishing, wine making and brandy distilling. The host decided to make duck confit and sent us info on Gascony.

I was responsible for the third course and it turned out that would be salad for the evening. First course was hors d’oeuvres, second course was garlic soup (YUM!) and the last course was dessert.

So the evening turned out pretty nice. Until the oven broke. Hahahah. I know we’ll look back in a couple years and say, “Remember our first gourmet club and Molly’s oven broke? And we had to use her upstairs neighbor’s? Ha!”

We went through plenty of wine and plenty of food…

First Course
Radishes with chive butter
Warm olives with rosemary, garlic and lemon
Escargot in herbed cream served on crostini
Paired with Nicolas Feuillatte Brut Champagne 2004

Second Course
Garlic Soup with truffle oil (yeah, forgot the truffle oil, woops!)
Paired with Chateau Grande Cassagne Rose – Costieres de Nimes 2006 (I’ve had this rose many times and it tasted absolutely scrumptious with this soup!)

Third Course
Baked Goat Cheese Salad
Paired with Villa Burdigala Bordeaux Millesime 2004

Fourth Course
Duck confit with cinnamon sauteed apples and carrots
Paired with 100% Cab Franc – Chinon Les Petites Roches 2006

Fifth Course
Apple Brandy Tatin
Paired with Larressingle Armagnac and Dow’s 10 Year Tawny Port

recipes after the jump