A Tea Party for the Royal Wedding

In honor of William and Kate's Royal Wedding today I thought we would celebrate in English style.    As we watched the recaps of the Royal Wedding we had a Tea Party... Of course wearing pretty dresses and hats.

I wasn't planning on watching as much as I did.  But as I watched... the more I missed my grandmother.  My Grandmother would have loved today and it reminded me of the stories she would tell me (when I was a little girl) all about the Royal Family.  All she read were books on the Royal Family and Elizabeth Taylor.  And this became part of who she was.... And I so want to share with Ainsley who my Grandmother was.   

So I dressed her up in the dress Josie and Alex (our neighbors) gave her for Easter and we had a party.    
 

I then decided her hat was not a fascinating as those at the wedding so I went into my jewelry and grabbed some pearls and improvised to make her a fabulous and fantastic fascinator (sp?)!  

 

One of the shows we watched was Oprah.  She had a "Royal Party" today and one of her guest was a  Chef for the Queen and Princess Diana.  And he shared his recipe of a cake that he used to make for the Queens Tea.  This is also the recipe for Prince William's Grooms Cake. 

I just had to have it!  And I can't wait for my favorite baking friend, Leslie, to visit to make it!   

Chocolate Biscuit Cake

Recipe courtesy of Darren McGrady 

Oprah.com
April 28, 2011

Servings: Makes one 6-inch round cake (8 portions)
Ingredients

1/2 tsp. butter , for greasing
8 ounces Rich tea biscuits
4 ounces unsalted butter , softened
4 ounces granulated sugar
4 ounces dark chocolate , for the cake
1 egg
8 ounces dark chocolate , for coating
1 ounce chocolate , for decorating


Directions

To make cake:

Lightly grease a 6" x 2 1/2" cake ring and place on a tray on a sheet of parchment paper.  Break each of the biscuits into almond-size pieces by hand and set aside.  Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture starts to lighten.  Melt the 4 ounces of dark chocolate and add to the butter mixture while constantly stirring.  Beat the egg into the mixture.  Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.  Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake ring. Try to fill all of the gaps on the bottom of the ring because this will be the top when it is unmolded.  Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

To coat and decorate:

Remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of dark chocolate. Slide the ring off the cake and turn it upside down onto a cake wire. Pour the melted chocolate over the cake and smooth the top and sides using a palette knife.  Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature.  Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where the chocolate has stuck to the cake wire and lift it onto a tea plate.  Melt the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate and use to decorate the top of the cake.


You know... with all the horrible things happening in the world these days... it was so nice to watch and celebrate with the world this wonderful day.  I know a lot of people said it seemed silly... but I prefer the chance (for at least one day) to pretend to be British and have a proper Tea Party with my little girl than try to explain about all the war and destruction going on in the world!   

Ainsley's Photos Session

Unlike my sister who gets professional photos of her kids every other month... I try to take my own photos.  I love dressing her up and having a photo session...  Unfortunatly my equipment consist of my iphone or our Panasonic Lumix digital camera.  So I don't always get a great clear shot.  So when our friend Mildres (who also watches Ainsley) asked if her husband could take some photos of her I said yes!

Randy got some really cute shots...  

Please feel free to check them out!  http://www.mirapics.com/p336539540

Happy Easter!

It's hard to believe that it is Easter already.  We had our little Easter celebration in the morning before Kevin had to head off to work.  We found these two "Frog" easter baskets for Ainsley a while back. We decided to fill them with some of her snacks, a Toy Story ball, and a Frog buddy/ blanket.  I think she was more interested in the eggs that we put some of her snacks in.  After Kevin headed off to work we went to celebrate Easter with Faride and her family.          

Just Desserts...

For as long as I could remember my days include at least an hour or two watching the Food Network.  Well.... today... I found one I had to try.  So I loaded up the baby in the stroller and we headed to our favorite place... Target... and got ready for another "Cooking with Baby" segment.

Pineapple Blueberry Crunch Cake

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen
Cook Time:45 min

Level: Easy
Yield: 8 servings



Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, plus more for dish
1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, in juice
1 (20-ounce) can blueberry pie filling
1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 13 by 9-inch casserole dish.
Melt 3/4 cup butter in saucepan over low heat.
Pour the pineapple with juice into the casserole dish and evenly spread blueberry pie filling on top. Cover with dry yellow cake mix and top with pecans. Drizzle with melted butter and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.




THAT'S IT!!!!

OMG!!!!! This was amazing!  We will be making this again! 

Chef Ainsley - Making Baby Food



Ainsley's Finished Product



Today Ainsley and I went to Whole Foods. I wanted to get enough produce to make a weeks worth of Baby Food for Ainsley. After reading a few articles, talking with other parents, and that "Tapped" movie... We have decided that we really want to give her the best food possible. When we can I want to feed her Organic Fruits and Vegetables and "Hormone Free" Dairy and Meats.

My first worry was... the cost. I have heard that Organic food is more expensive than the regular version.  But at $.50 per jar of regular Gerber baby food how much more expensive would it be?  

To my surprise... it was actually cheaper!  It does take some time but within an hour and a half I had enough food for Ainsley for a week (25 servings) and at less than $.30 a serving. And it is all organic!  As exciting as finding out the final costs was it was more exciting to feed Ainsley samples of the combinations as I made them.  She was so happy to eat and was smiling every time I gave her another bite.  I think her favorite was the Acorn Squash and Pear combination.  I thought I would post the recipes here for future use. 

Recipes: 
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Bake in baking dish for 30 minutes.

Carrots, Parsnips, and Yellow Squash: 
(yeilds 10 servings at $.42 per serving)    
- 1 lb carrots (Peal and cut into pieces)- 3 medium parsnips (Peal and cut into pieces)
- 2 small yellow squash (Sliced)
       
Roasted Pears and Bananas:
(yeilds 5 servings at $.17 per serving)
- 1/2 Banana (don't peel)
- 1 Pear (Cut Pear in half and spoon out middle where seeds are)   

Roasted Acorn Squash and Pears:
(yeilds 5 servings at $.29 per serving)
- 1/2 Acorn Squash (seeded and filled with a bit of water)
- 1 Pear (Cut Pear in half and spoon out middle where seeds are)    

Roasted Acorn Squash and Bananas:
(yeilds 5 servings at $.20 per serving)
- 1/2 Acorn Squash (seeded and filled with a bit of water)
- 1/2 Banana (don't peel)