Charm & Whimsy

Marshmallow snowman ready for duty in your next hot chocolate.

I drew these marshmallow snowmen with food coloring pens while watching a movie earlier this month. Before I knew it I had gone through the whole bag. Cute, no?

They were part of holiday gift bags for friends and neighbors that included Truffle Hot Chocolate Bombs. Will need to post about those another time. I first saw the chocolate bomb idea here via Pinterest, although I ended up modifying the recipe after several trial runs (hmmm, delicious experimentation).

Just because the holidays are over doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a tasty hot chocolate with a cute snowman friend. Hope you try it!

Hold still. Hoooold stillllll…

And we’re spent!

Here they are, ready for service in a ziploc bag so they don’t dry out.

This was my first foray into food coloring pens (I used the Americolor Food Coloring Pens) and I must say they are pretty freakin’ awesome. All of the colors were rich and drew on the marshmallows nice and smooth.

Must find more things to color on and then eat. Any ideas besides cake pops?

Hershey's Kisses a la Aero Bar??! Hooray!

I saw these in CVS the other day and again today at the grocery store. My Mom is going to LOVE these. Must not eat all of them before sending some to her…

 

LOVE the packaging, especially in light of my fascination with dots and circles.

 

The chocolate tastes a little creamier or is it just me?

Hard boiled egg secrets. Perfect boil, peel, tiny square dice, egg salad and deviled tastiness.

I love hard boiled eggs. I like them in sandwiches, in salads, in whatever. I especially love deviled eggs... hooohhhhh. Must go boil some eggs now. No... must focus.

I'm going to share my eggy secrets with you, ok? Are you ready?

1. How to boil the perfect egg (no green!)
2. How to peel so the shell comes off smooth (no missing chunks of egg white!)
3. How to cut your egg into perfectly square, tiny dice
4. My favorite recipe for egg salad
5. My favorite recipe for deviled eggs

 

Let's get started -

Boiling the perfect egg is simple

Place eggs in the pot, cover with cold water by about an inch. Bring the water to a hard rolling boil - you want that water really moving. No wimpy little bubbles - you want big giant bubbles. Take the pot off the heat and cover. Set your timer for 12 minutes. Once your timer goes off, drain the hot water and replace with cold water and ice. Add fresh ice as the ice in the pot melts. When the eggs are completely cold you're ready for the next step...

Tips for the perfect peel (works most of the time anyway!)

First off - you want your eggs to be a little old before you cook 'em. Yes - old. I know that sounds funny but it seems to work. I usually try to buy the eggs a week or two before I'm going to cook them. The ice plunge after cooking above also seems to work. I believe it's because the egg white shrinks back from the shell. Crack the egg against the counter on the ends and then give it a light roll around the center. If you start peeling and you're taking off white chunks you can put the egg in the fridge and wait until it's really cold then try to peel the egg under running water (water may get under the shell making it easier to slip off). If you're still getting white chunks after that - make egg salad. No one will know the difference. Case in point below. :)

Tiny, perfectly square diced eggs (pictured above)

Once your egg is peeled, pull out your handy dandy egg slicer (I like this one because you can have straight or wavy slices - fancy!).

 

 

Start with your egg long ways and slice.

 

 

Then carefully turn your sliced egg 90 degrees and slice again. I find it helps to turn the slicer over in your hand while you are gently holding the egg. The next part is tricky because by now the egg is pretty chopped up but you can do it!

 

 

Now you want to rotate the egg sideways and bring the slicer down. Your egg is going to go all over the place so turn it upside down and let the egg fall right into the bowl as you make that final slice.

 

 

 

Push through any last bit of egg that is resisting.

 

Lightly fluff your perfect squares and admire your handiwork. Ahhh. Tiny square perfection!

My favorite egg salad recipe

Tiny eqq squares
Best Foods/Hellmans Mayo (I like the Light version)
Salt

That's it - what can I say I'm a purist. As for bread - I personally favor Milton's Multigrain bread. It's a nice texture against the silky egg salad and the flavor is delicious.

What do you put in your egg salad? Do tell.

My favorite deviled egg recipe

I wrote about it in this post - there are pictures and all. I also see I included tips on boiling a proper egg in there. Apparently these tips stemmed from The Supreme Leader. How could I forget!

Alright party peeps - you have been given the secrets - use them wisely. If you have secrets - spill 'em.

 

St. Patrick's Day themed Bunco party for my neighborhood ladies.

When we moved to northern Virginia last summer we were lucky enough to move into a super social and friendly neighborhood full of fun people who love to get together. In fact, we just came back from a neighborhood 40th birthday party complete with a bouncy Scooby Doo thingie where the kids and adults bounced away the afternoon (Happy Birthday Catherine!).

Every other month or so, the neighborhood ladies get together for some wild and crazy dice throwin'. I got to host my first one yesterday and I must say - I've been looking forward to it for weeks - you know how I like to throw parties...

 

 

 

I have a thing for little bites of food. So when I was jotting down intial ideas for the menu I wanted to go with mini corned beef sandwiches (although I LOATHE corned beef). Sweetboy insisted he could smoke it and it would come out delicious - and you know how the man can BBQ - so I said ok, he did, and now I have been converted to a corned beef lovin' lady.

Here is the final menu:

Savory

Mini corned beef sandwiches on home baked rolls, mayo & spicy mustard on the side
Egg salad triangles (one of my personal favorites)
Roasted fingerling potatoes with parsley, white & purple
Crudite with a peppercorn ranch
Wheat Thins with Boursin (very popular!)
Wasabi Peas
Veggie Straws

Sweet

Sugar cookie rainbows (didn't end up having enough time to ice more than a few)
Thin Mints (we have several Girl Scouts on our street, this was thankfully the last box)
Lindt truffles
Pocky sticks
Green grapes

Drinks

Malbec
Pinot Grigio
Irish Whiskey (planned for but never drank)
Sierra Mist
Diet Coke

 

For the 4 Bunco tables I had made little pots of gold ala make and takes. They were so easy - just paint little terra cotta pots with black craft paint (it took 3 coats for the coverage to be opaque), throw in some colorful pipe cleaners, some rolos or nuggets for the gold and voila!

 

We were short a player so The Boy's friend Rat graciously stepped in. Foksy was our Bunco tiara since I didn't have one. Rat rolled a Bunco at one point.

Planning

 

 

I find it helpful to write my initial menu ideas down and then edit as I go - Sweetboy makes fun of me every time I have a party. I think it's perfectly normal. I check off items once I've selected the platter. I struggled with the egg sandwiches and finally placed a piece of parchment on a green cutting board and arranged them in an alternating pattern. So 1950's Betty Crocker! I love it :)

 

I like to label my platters and serving pieces to visualize how the food will look. I want to make sure there is variety in size, shape and height. I think I read this in an old Martha or something. Over the years I've gotten the timing down. I even had enough time to get a pedicure the day of!! WooHoo!

How do you plan for your parties?