The Big 3-0

This was a big birthday for Sam. He doesn't really want to talk about it (too much, anyway), but he has moved on to a new decade. On the Fourth of July, Sam turned THIRTY. It's very exciting (at least I think so!). For years I've known this needed to be a big deal (but birthdays are always a big deal to me). The tricky part of having a holiday birthday is that everyone leaves town and has their own plans-- it's not particularly conducive to partying. But I knew I wanted to have a small fete for him, so I schemed. I toyed with several ideas before settling on a last-minute, Saturday-before gathering. It had to be small because our apartment is miniscule, but it would be awesome.
So now comes the exciting part.  On Friday night before the party, there was a storm. I didn't even know it was supposed to rain until . . . oh hey! Our power's out!! It was about 10:30 pm, Sam was at work, and I was just happy I had already baked the cupcakes. I went to bed assuming the power would be back on when I woke up. But I was wrong. The next morning our power was still out, and the apartment was getting warmer by the second. The high for the day was over 100. Our cell service kept cutting out, but through a couple sneaky texts, my dear friend katie offered to let us bring the party to their powered house. That's a good friend who will offer up her house for a party with only two hours notice. (And not only that, we hung out there all day until our power came back on that night.)

Now, onto the spread.


Watermelon, strawberries, chips and salsa, and now the exciting things:

Fresh Corn and Avocado salsa

Chocolate malted cupcakes, the same as last year.


Ultimate fluffer-nutters: Sam has been dreaming about creating these for years. I want to Le Pain Quotidien and cleaned them out of brioche, then created a triple-decker of peanut butter, nutella, marshmallow fluff, and fresh strawberries.


Grilled Corn and Crema Mexicana Crostinis: sliced baguettes toasted then topped with crema mexicana, grilled corn, lime, cilantro, and chili powder. I'll post the recipe soon.



And, finally, 30 different root beers and sodas in glass bottles, for sampling.


My original vision was 30 root beers, but this proved difficult, as it is challenging to find single bottles of root beer, and I wasn't about to buy 30 6-packs. So I found all the root beers I could (which did include buying a couple 6- and 4-packs), and then I supplemented with other sodas in glass bottles. I found the most success at World Market, and then supplemented with finds from Giant, Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Harris Teeter. And it was a huge hit! I had small plastic cups, and people just started opening bottles and sampling. It was such a fun way to party. One of the favorite root beers was called Pop Shoppe (though Virgil's and Sprecher were also favored), and some of the more interesting sodas included chocolate, cucumber, key lime cream, and coconut. Bria was on cloud 9, since even she got to join in the fun. She actually favored some of the darker root beers (I should not be surprised). We are still swimming in root beer (from those handful of 6-packs), but Sam is not complaining. It was a huge success!

Time to Party

So my darling girl turned FOUR years old last month, and we had a party. It was delightful little event with plenty of Bria's friends running around. I tried to keep the food simple, since life was a little crazy last month, and it turned out just right. We had watermelon and strawberries, chips and salsa, pigs in a blanket, and sandwiches. I made the same ones as last year: cream cheese & cucumber and roast beef with horseradish mayonnaise, with the additional ham with brie this year. And at 10:30pm the night before the party, I decided to scratch the homemade bread and use baguettes from Target: one of the best time-saving decisions I've ever made.

The cake went much better than last year. Bria and I brainstormed the perfect cake, which mostly means she came up with crazy impossible ideas, and I steered her towards something I thought I could pull off. I used a vanilla buttermilk cake recipe (take a look at that thing-- you don't cream the butter and sugar first and then add the eggs. I double and triple and quadruple checked that thing before proceeding very cautiously. but it worked!). Then we layered it with vanilla pudding and macerated strawberries, all topped with a strawberry cream cheese frosting. And it was totally, completely awesome.

Move Over, Joey Chestnut

*caution: do not read directly before or after eating.

I am now going to tell you about something a bit gross. It involves a lot of hot dogs.
You may be aware that on the 4th of July, in addition to being Sam's birthday, is the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. Sam has always had a fascination with competitive eating, so we decided to attempt an at-home eat-along this year.
Without thinking, I had created an awesome birthday breakfast, all ready to eat just two hours before the contest. No matter. We pressed forward. We boiled up a bunch of dogs and prepped the eating station.
The contest lasts for ten minutes, during which time you eat as many hot dogs (and buns) as possible. If you, ahem, toss your cookies, you are disqualified. We set some goals-- Sam: 10 Courtney: 2. And then we began.
I started slowly and finished slowly. Two hot dogs was definitely gross, but I didn't feel in any danger of my stomach exploding. I took the rest of the time to bask in my achievement and document Sam's journey.
Most competitive hot dog-eaters dip their dogs in water to help them move on down the gullet. (Nathan's Runner-up, Patrick Bertoletti, dips his in fruit punch.) If the whole thing weren't nauseating already, the thought of eating a soggy hot dog bun is enough to make me dry heave.

And just like that it was over. I chowed down my two with ease. Bria ate 1.5 (we didn't encourage speed with her, since we weren't keen on doing the heimlich). Sam dominated with a hefty SIX hot dogs. To say we all felt a bit disgusting is an understatement. I'm not sure I'll be able to eat a hot dog for another year or so.
But now let's ponder the reigning champion, Joey Chestnut, who pounded 62 hot dogs in ten minutes. SIXTY-TWO.

I'm sorry for ruining your appetite.

The Cake

Several weeks ago, I emailed Sam a list of possible cake options for his 4th of July birthday. He took a couple days to decide, but predictably went with The Cake that Shouldn't Be Called Cake-- a white cake with a sweetened sour cream filling and sour whipped cream topping with chocolate shavings.The only difference from this cake and the ones I've made before is I made the actual cake from scratch, rather than from a box-- obviously it only made it more delicious. We had a couple friends over for cake, ice cream, and You Don't Know Jack to help Sam ring in the big 2-9. The gathering was probably more for me than for Sam, but it doesn't feel very practical to make a huge cake for three people (especially when one of those three can't even eat a whole piece).The remaining cake stayed in the fridge for another two days while we sneaked bites here and there until the whipped cream was past its prime. I've really gotta learn how to make things smaller. Throwing away 1/3 of a cake just makes my heart hurt.Also, having a birthday on a holiday means this isn't the only dessert we were eating all weekend. Maybe I just need to learn how to stuff more sugary things in my stomach without passing out. Yes. That is a much better aspiration.