alice in wonderland party: the menu

My übercreative cousin Amy put together this brilliant Alice in Wonderland birthday party for her daughter Audrey over the summer.  I'll be sharing the fantastic wonderland that Amy dreamt up in three different posts.  Today's post is all about the whimsical menu: Mad Hatter tea sandwiches, Jabberwocky salt & pepper wings, caterpillar kabobs, mini "eat me" cakes, The Queen of Hearts raspberry tarts, Cheshire Cat tails, wushrooms (Audrey's favorite!), snacks served in flower cups and more toothsome edibles befitting a delightful tea party.

sailboat favors

I didn't get a chance to post these sailboat snack cups that I made last month for a church event and later, a play date.  They were inspired by this Paper Source nautical sailboat kit.  I tried to make sure that each step was photographed and visually represented, but feel free to leave a comment if there are any questions.  These cups can spruce up the nosh table at your next play date, or they can serve as favors and/or place cards at your next birthday party.  Just add a tiny flag at the top of the mast where you can write each child's name--I used the adhesive part of super sticky post-it notes to make it a snap.

coffee + pie night

Coffee and pie night took place last weekend.  We had a few good friends over to share some savory appetizers and of course, pie--the perfect fall dessert.  We had two pies--an apple crumble pie from Susiecakes and a maple custard pie from The Pie Hole.  Both were sublime in their own ways.  Susiecakes' apples were seasoned perfectly and topped with a crisp, sweet crumble.  The Pie Hole's maple custard had an amazing and rich eggy custard and a beautifully sweet maple caramelization.  Both pies had buttery flaky crusts.  The drink of the night was pour-over coffee with beans from Portola Coffee Lab, thoughtfully brewed by our friend Joel.  The wonderful food, dessert and drink paired with familiar and enjoyable conversation made it a simple and relaxed evening.

This gathering is the third in our Noshing with Friends series.  Be sure to check out the first in the series, an afternoon of honey and cheese, and the second, a summer party.

lately lily day

Recently, The Land of Nod at South Coast Plaza had a terrific event: Lately Lily Day!  Amongst the fun activities were decorating the Traveling Girl's sunny yellow suitcases, taking photos "Lily style" with Smilebooth, temporary tattoos, face painting by Lately Lily artist Micah Player, mini doughnuts from local Sidecar Doughnuts, a lively performance by Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam Band (check out their new single "Thingamajig") and the cutest t-shirt pop-up shop ever!

Lately Lily + The Land of Nod make a perfect pair!  Hats off to Lauren Baker of The Land of Nod, the Lately Lily team and everyone else who had a hand in putting together this wonderful event!  Can't wait to see more collaborations between the two in the future!

roasted peach caramel popsicles

Ingredients

Peaches (I used organic yellow peaches from Ferraro Farms)

Trader Joe's French Vanilla ice cream

Fat Toad Farm goat's milk caramel

Trader Joe's Speculoos cookies

Brown sugar

Sea salt 

Directions

When I first started thinking about what kind of popsicles to make for our summer party, I looked through so many delicious recipes and ideas (and pinned some to my Summer board on Pinterest) and eventually decided on a peach and caramel popsicle.  I knew I wanted to use Fat Toad Farm's caramel, but couldn't find an exact recipe for the popsicle.  I eventually found this apricot salted caramel popsicle from Johnny's Pops in Vancouver and later received this recipe in an email newsletter from Fat Toad Farm.  After doing some more reading about other people's experiences with homemade peach ice cream, I went on to experiment.

I sliced the peaches, sprinkled them generously with brown sugar and roasted them in the oven for 30-40 minutes at about 350 degrees.  Also, based on some friends' advice, I sprinkled the peaches with some sea salt, which enhanced their flavor.  While waiting for the peaches to roast, I set out the ice cream to let it soften a bit and also smashed the Speculoos cookies into crumbs in a ziploc bag using a heavy ice cream scooper.  After the peaches were done, I peeled and chopped them and put them in a small bowl.  I poured some Fat Toad caramel sauce into a sandwich-sized ziploc bag and snipped off a corner to get it ready for piping.  I found this great tip for filling a ziploc bag for piping using a glass--I don't remember the original website, but here is another reference.

WIth all the ingredients ready, I scooped a thin layer of softened ice cream into a big bowl, mixed in some chopped peaches and drizzled the caramel sauce over all that.  Then I spooned the mixture into 3 oz. Dixie cups, sprinkled Speculoos cookie crumbs over the top, packed the crumbs in a bit and inserted a wooden ice cream spoon halfway into each cup.  I repeated the process a few times until I had enough popsicles for the party.  I let them freeze overnight, but depending on how cold your freezer is, at least 24 hours might be best to give the popsicles enough time to solidify.

A few notes: I read somewhere that fruit tends to lose its sweetness after being frozen and definitely found this to be the case.  Next time, I will probably use more brown sugar while roasting the peaches.  I chose Trader Joe's ice cream to use as a base for the popsicles because it is dense and doesn't have a lot of air in it (compared to some other brands), kind of like gelato--that was the kind of texture I wanted the popsicles to have.