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.)

Teddy Bear Mille Feuille

Having grown up in Montreal, I have developed quite the healthy sweet tooth. One of my favourite French desserts is called Mille Feuille, which translates to 'thousand sheets.' It is a delicate and delicious layered dessert of puff pastry, custard and whipped cream...sometimes with strawberries mixed in. My Grandma had an easy casual no-bake version of this recipe made with graham crackers, custard and whipped cream topped with chocolate striped vanilla glaze. She used to make this for New Years Day.

Sharl and I had a craving for an easy homemade dessert last night, and once we crave something there's no stopping us. We didn't want to drive to a supermarket or stray further than the convenience store or Kitchen Table down the street to pick up ingredients.
I cannot believe that we couldn't find graham crackers anywhere!! We did find teddy grahams though, so we made our own version of my grandma's mille feuille.






Ingredients
1 box of teddy grahams
1 package of instant Jello vanilla pudding
250 ml whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp icing sugar

Directions
1. Prepare pudding according to directions
2. Whip the cream with electric beaters until soft peaks form (about 2 mins). Add vanilla and sugar to the whipping cream and give one last quick beat.
3. Line teddy grahams at the bottom of a square baking dish (Sharl called this the 'teddy bear death camp' LOL!)
4. Pour vanilla pudding over the teddy grahams.
5. Layer the whipped cream over the pudding.
6. Top with another layer of teddy grahams.
7. Refrigerate for an hour or more so that the cookies become soft and the pudding sets.

We couldn't wait an hour so we ate this with the cookies still crunchy and it was still so delicious. I didn't bother to add the icing because the teddy bears looked so cute on top! Enjoy!