Another year... another birthday for my gramps. This year he turned the big 90!!! Almost a century old. My PaPa started from the bottom and is now livin' on top. It amazes me to think he's seen so many changes, from indoor plumbing to Skype! It is because of him I have the Lotto app on my phone! He might not like being on the computer (what he said about using Skype) but he does love it's convenience. Initially he was adamant about not having a party. But, when you turn 90 decades young people gonna turn up and do it big. In the end it was just family but, my family is BIG...the final headcount was 57 people!

As usual I was in charge of baking the cake. I started looking up recipes and decided to do a tea flavored cake. My gramps loves a cuppa tea- specifically Black tea with citrus. So I did some research (thanks Google) and found out the BEST way to infuse tea flavor is to steep it into the butter. But, if you use a recipe with milk you can also steep the tea in milk. BUT, the catch is to make it concentrated. So double up on those tea bags buddy! As the plan for this non-party changed and more people from both sides of the Mason Dixie line RSVPed we figure one double decker 9 inch cake couldn't cut it. So I put that cake batter into muffin tins and made cupcakes instead. Then I called Sam's an order a full sheet cake.

I also made my two favorite non-alcoholic summertime drinks: vanilla lemonade and ginger limeade. A simple syrup is this crafty mofos best friend! How do I make it? Simple a 1:1 ratio of sugar and water. Add flavor (ginger slices, lemon/lime rind, vanilla bean, etc.) and set it on the stove at medium low heat. Let that sucker simmer for about 20 minutes. Boom! Flavored sugar water LITERALLY!!!

But we cannot live on baked goods and citrus drinks alone. This meant it was time for tapas/appetizers/horsedevous. As you may no I never ever do anything nice and easy... I like to do it nice and complex! So I took some in season ingredients and some old flavor favorites of my PaPa and but a twist on them.

• corn and zucchini fritters with jalepeno infused cream dip
• black eyed pea dip
• baked ravioli squares with marinara dipping sauce

My apologies folks... I didn't do this spread justice with photojournalism. I was too busy having a not-party party to take a bunch of foodie pictures. There was so much family and a lot of gossiping catching up to do!

I have an awesome friend. She works for the Michigan Brewers Guild. She has a really funny husband who also enjoys beer. I have another friend who was willing to drive 2+ hours to go drink tasty craft beer. All of these people came together for a day of fun in the Grand Rapids area. Sometimes things come together and make life wonderful. 

Anyone who's been to any event based around beer drinking- be it a Superbowl party or  the opening of the latest brew pub- knows that having good salty snacks is helpful. A favorite of many a beer festival goer is the pretzel necklace. For many this DIY treat is created by stringing pretzel twists onto some twine. I took things a step further an made pretzels to use in my necklaces. I used Alton Brown's recipe for my savory sticks. I didn't even need to double the recipe - I needed 4 necklaces- since I was making "sticks" instead of twists.

After adding the dry ingredients let the dough rise for 2 hrs. I learned somewhere that the best place to let dough rise is in your oven with just the oven light on. It's a warm dry place where the yeast likes to party. I now do this every time I make a yeast dough and it hasn't failed me (yet). Once the dough has just about doubled in size take it out and knead it till smooth.






Pre-drilling holes into the pretzel rods made assembling the necklaces a breeze! Just cut some twine and hang them pretzels on down the line. [Ugh, I'd never make it as a rapper].

Here's some pictures of us Beer Festin' in action!

The Superbowl... It's a party right? I'm not a sports fan at all. I don't know any of the rules of football. But, I do love hanging out and having tapas! That's what a Superbowl party is right? Snacks=tapas? That's the way I interpret it at least. I hung out with a friend who's an actual football fan for Superbowl and I brought snacks since I couldn't offer any meaningful commentary. I actually tried for a couple minutes... However my friend was not impressed with me enthusiastic "he's happy because he pushed that other guy down!" and "he touched the ball so now he's gonna slap that other guy's butt!" comments. I can wax poetic about many things but football is not one of them.

GREEN SAUCE

My friend Devin makes this wonderful cross between salsa verde and guacamole that I love. I can say it's my fried chicken. I love dips. I love chips. I love avocados. This green sauce is like a trifecta of all three things in one! What's not to love. So for my Superbowl get together I decided to try to make my own version of a green sauce. I think Devin's has tomatillos in it... I didn't go that route. The end result was refreshing and "more-ish."

MORE-ISH (adj)- So delicious that one can't help but eat more, and more, and more....

• cilantro
• parsley
• garlic
• onion
• avocado
• EVOO
• jalapeno
• salt
• pepper
• lime juice

Special tool- food processor. Basically I put all that stuff in the food processor and pulsed it til I got the consistency I wanted. Although in the end I used it as a dip- as the name implies- it's more like a sauce. Loved it! Later today I will make a hasselback potato and pour the leftovers on top!

MEDITERRANEAN TURKEY MEATBALLS

I'm not 100% sure why but I associate meatballs with sports watching. In my mind's eye it's usually old school crockpot meat balls of the Swedish variety. I, of course, couldn't just do that. I had to make it kind-a fancy. Once again I got the recipe from TheKitchn. The dipping sauce is a basic Greek yogurt dip and the meatballs are leaner with the use of ground turkey and lentils as a filling base.













Once mixing the ingredients together you let the flavors meld for 15minutes... also known as preheating your oven time. Shape the meat mixture into spheres and bake at 375 for about 20min.