Sesame Street Birthday Brunch

I had a Sesame Street birthday brunch for my daughter's 2nd birthday and thought I'd share some of my decorating and food ideas. I had so much fun preparing everything...cooking, crafting and decorating...all of my favourite hobbies put to use for my favourite little girl.

It all started with a few (okay a lot of) printed images of Sesame Street Characters. I even found some of the old school characters that used to be on when I was a kid...(Guy Smiley, the yip yips...) It was fun finding these characters.
You can make a lot of inexpensive decorations with the simplest supplies.

I made this cute little birthday banner with some sticker letters and clothes pins.


I also printed the same Sesame Street images on labels and stuck them on clear plastic cups (in which I served Yogurt Parfaits).


Since I had some left over images, I just cut them out and stuck them on the walls, hung some balloons...et voilà!


I found the idea for these cute party hats on etsy. If I had orange paper, I would have made Zoe and Ernie as well...but alas...i had to make do.


Et la pièce de résistance...Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes.


Here's what I served for the birthday brunch:

Fruit skewers (green grapes and strawberries)
Yogurt parfaits (layered vanilla yogurt, mixed berries and granola)
Ham and Broccoli Quiche (recipe below)
Spinach and Artichoke Quiche (recipe below)
Hashbrowns
Sausages
Cupcakes


Quiche 2-ways (Spinach Artichoke and Ham, Mushroom and Broccoli)
2 pie shells, thawed
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 pkg spinach thawed (squeeze as much water out as possible)
1 jar marinated artichokes, drained and chopped
100g black forest ham, chopped
1 cup broccoli chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 1/2 cups shredded cheese
6 eggs
2 cups milk
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Directions
Prick pie shells all over and bake for 15 mins at 400F. Allow to cool.
Beat eggs, milk, cornstarch, salt and pepper until blended.
Fill one pie shell with spinach and artichokes and half of the cheese
Fill other pie shell with ham, mushrooms and broccoli and the rest of the cheese.
Divide the egg mixture between the two pies and place pies on a baking sheet (to prevent spill-over in your oven while baking!).
Bake at 350 for about 35-40 mins or when egg is set.
(You can test by inserting a knife and if it comes out clean, it will be ready.)

Apple and Spice Baked French Toast

I had this delicious make-ahead brunch dish at a neighbour's house, and decided to make it when my bffs came to visit. It was tasty and the best part was that there was no fussing about in the kitchen in the morning. Just made this the night before and popped it in the oven for 50 minutes and voilà!

Ingredients

1 large loaf of French or Italian bread

8 large eggs

3 1/2 cups of milk or light cream

1 cup of sugar [ I used 1/2 cup plus 2.5 tbsps sugar]

1 tbsp vanilla

3 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

6-8 medium sized cooking apples (Cortland, Macintosh, Granny Smith)

[I used 5 Red Delicous apples]

1/4 cup of butter

Directions

Slice bread into 1 1/2 inch slices. Spray 9x13 glass pan with oil or non-stick spray. Place bread in glass dish, placing tightly together.

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, 1/2 cup sugar [this is where I cut the sugar to just 2.5 tbsp], milk and vanilla (by hand with whisk for about 30 seconds).

Pour one half of the egg mixture over the bread. Peel, core and slice apples. Cover bread with sliced apples.

Pour balance of egg mixture evenly over apples.

Mix remaining 1/2 cup of sugar with cinnamon and nutmeg and sprinkle evenly over top of the apples and dot with butter.

Bake in oven uncovered at 350 degrees for 60 minutes.

Remove from oven and allow it to rest for 5-10 mins before serving.

Banana Muffins

Ever since I've developed an allergy to bananas I've missed them terribly. I couldn't resist buying them when I saw them in the supermarket. LUCKILY, I can eat cooked bananas, so I let them ripen on my kitchen counter waiting to turn them into a delicious baked good. It was torturous waiting for them to turn brown. Does anyone know of a way to ripen them more quickly? Anyway, I decided to bake banana muffins since I had company coming over the weekend and also wanted to bring in a breakfast treat for my dance team.

Ingredients

3 large ripe bananas

1/4 cup butter

3-4 tbsp plain yogurt or sour cream

1 egg

1 tps vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Directions

1. Mix bananas, butter, egg, and vanilla with a fork or hand mixer.

2. Add flour sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir until just combined.

3. Spoon batter into 12 greased or paper lined muffin cups

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes in 350 degree oven until risen and firm to the touch.

5. Cool and top with icing if desired.

My friend Nicole had made LOTS of extra cream cheese icing at our house so I decided to make use of it. I added 2 tbsp peanut butter to a cup of icing and iced the muffins. Was so delicious!

Oat and Apple Crumble-Topped Muffins

I meet with all of the stay-at-home moms and dads on my street every Thursday morning and they always seem to serve muffins. I decided to bake some since I hosted our get together last Thursday. Since apples are in season (49 cents a pound at Loblaws!), I decided to try out this recipe from Canadian Living.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 cups quick rolled oats

1 3/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 1/2 apples peeled and diced

Crumble Topping

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 tbsp melted butter

1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Topping:

In bowl, stir sugar, flour, butter and cinnamon; set aside.

In large bowl, whisk all-purpose and whole wheat flours, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt.

In separate bowl, whisk milk, oil, egg, sugar and vanilla; pour over dry ingredients. Sprinkle with apple; stir just to blend.
Fill paper-lined or greased muffin cups three-quarters full. Sprinkle with topping. Bake in centre of 375°F (190°C) oven for 25 minutes or until tops are firm to the touch. Let cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes. Remove to rack to let cool completely. (Make-ahead: Store in airtight container for up to 2 days or wrap individually in plastic wrap and freeze in airtight container for up to 2 weeks.)

Creamy Scrambled Eggs on English Muffins

Scrambled eggs are probably one of my favourite ways to cook eggs. The perfect scrambled eggs are creamy with large soft curdles and just set. The key to cooking them just right is to not over scramble them and to not overcook them. You can put whatever herbs you like in the egg mixture but I prefer when they're not over seasoned. In this recipe, I used fresh dill. It would have been lovely if I had some smoked salmon to top this with, but smoked salmon is off the list of pregnancy-appropriate foods. I thought this tasted great on its own.



Ingredients
4 large eggs
1 tsp butter
4 tbsp milk
handful fresh dill chopped
cream cheese
2 halved english muffins, toasted

Directions
Melt butter in a skillet on medium/low heat (should not be hot enough to allow the butter brown).
In a small bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until combined. Season with dill, salt and pepper.
Pour egg mixture into skillet, and allow to set for about a minute. Slowly drag your spatula across the bottom of the pan to form soft curdles. Once the eggs are set and done to your liking, divide into four portions and remove from heat.
Spread cream cheese on English muffin halves and top with scrambled eggs.

Pancakes

Sharl says he loves my pancakes because I make them from scratch. I don't know why people bother to use mixes because there is ABSOLUTELY nothing hard or time consuming about making pancakes from scratch. I got this recipe from this old school Good Housekeeping cookbook my mom found at a used book store and it has EVERY basic recipe you could need.
My version has cinnamon in the batter and it serves 2 (about 6-7 pancakes).



Ingredients
1/2 cup flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1/4 cup of milk (or add more if you like thinner pancakes)
1 egg
1 1/2 tbsp melted butter

Directions
1. Mix all ingredients in a medium sized bowl. The mixture will be slightly lumpy, which is all good, but it should be thin enough to spread out easily in the pan.
2. Ladle portions into a hot slightly greased pan or griddle. Once bubbles form on the tops of the pancakes, it's time to flip. Both sides should be golden brown. I usually put cooked pancakes into a warmed oven at 150F until I finish the entire batch. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

French toast with Banana Rum sauce for Valentine's day

I was going to get Steve something for Valentine's day but there is really nothing he would appreciate more than food. :)

So, I decided on making french toast with a banana rum sauce. The sauce was amazing and I would like to try it on ice cream.. banana foster? The smell was amazing!! I'm sorry Kimmeh. I know you can't eat bananas. :( But I bet the recipe would work with strawberries too. That tastes soo good.. strawberry sauce on waffles..

The french toast didn't work out as well as I wanted too. I didn't have butter in the house and it stuck to the pan. I actually didn't realize how long you have to cook it.

Banana Rum sauce:

• 2 bananas sliced
• 2 tablespoons of rum
• 2 tablespoons of sugar

I know the recipe called for butter but we didn't have any and it tasted just as good. I poured the rum and sugar first and then put the bananas in and simmered for about 10 minues. It was delicious.

Dave Lieberman."French Toast with Rum Bananas".<http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/french-toast-with-rum-bananas-recipe2/index.html>. February 2009.