Mom's Birthday

With all of the surprise birthdays my mom has helped us out with...we still somehow slipped this one by her! I wanted to keep the party small, just a few good friends & family...for the food I wanted to make it more chic/fancy but at the same time casual enough so people weren't intimidated. We ended up with a great selection and my wonderful grandmother made her famous meatballs and shrimp dip. I had a selection of gourmet mini burgers- blue cheese with caramelized onion & aged white Cheddar with caramelized onion, and because its now fall I slipped in some brie cranberry & turkey mini sandwiches. I did all the burgers & Brie sandwiches on profiterole rolls that were homemade, its such a simple recipe and they take no time at all. If your not familiar- this is what they call choux paste & the puffs it makes are what they use for cream puffs, you can also make them savory by adding herbs or cheese to them, in this case I made them mini burger buns! We had orzo Greek salad with chicken, herbs,salami & feta cheese. Tomato brucshetta & of course the cake! I made a dark chocolate spice cake...I basically added pumpkin pie spices to the mix which can add a great amount of flavor & change the whole cake into something a little more fall tasting! My sister made her cupcakes as usual but this time added edible flowers to the top so they look very shabby chic, they turned out great! For any of these recipes please e-mail me & ill be happy to send them or post them! Enjoy the pictures...

These burgers were so easy, you can sear them off early in the day & right before your guest arrive top them with cheese & onions and stick them under the broiler. They are so small it only takes a few minutes to get a perfect med- med/rare!


and here is what they look like in the mini buns......I always put signs by the food so guests know and they don't feel like they constantly have to ask.


















When I make my Bruschetta , right after I grill my bread I rub a garlic clove on each piece while its warm...you will start to smell the garlic then you know its melting into the bread. I only rub a bit on it and it just gives more flavor. The bread can be grilled ahead of time just make sure you spread them out on a big plate or sheet pan so they do not get soggy! I also mix the Brucshetta early in the day to.

I always say I like to have some sort of pasta salad for various reasons, you can make a huge batch for cheap & still make it fancy and delicious, its a easy way to fill up a large crowd of people, and if everyone is drinking its something they can fill up on before heading home! I love this version- orzo is a pasta that I think is very under-used, people always forget about this elegant pasta that can make a regular pasta salad look fancy. This Greek salad is so yummy and easy to make, you can add olives if you would like - I knew most of the people at the party did not like them so I omitted them from the dish.



These cupcakes were my mom's favorite-coconut, usually we just put shredded coconut on top but whole foods has these great edible flowers you can buy in a package-very shabby chic!
The Cake was covered in Fondant & painted Tangerine & Pink, I was going to paint flowers but had a minor mistake- that's the great thing about fondant is you can just improvise! I decided to make the whole thing tangerine & pink with a bow on top- like a gift!









All together the night was a success- my mom was surprised & we all had a great time! For any of the recipes, please e-mail me or comment & I will be more than happy to post them..... I wish I had pictures of the amazing meatballs my grandmother made but those were the first thing to go! Once one person said something, they were gone!