Easy and Elegant LE’s Fifth Birthday Dinner Party Menu
Jul 7th, 2010 by lane
The title may be a tad bit misleading, as I’d guess most people wouldn’t call this party an “easy” menu for a child’s 5th birthday party, but I’d say it was certainly elegant. Since I’m just rolling from one party straight into the next, LE’s Fifth birthday party was a combination of two events in one. Earlier in the year, I entered a Williams-Sonoma-Calphalon-HouseParty.com Easy and Elegant Dinner Party contest. When I entered, I had no idea we’d be moving that week or that any of our other life chaos would be occurring. I simply had to commit to finding 15-25 guests to come over for a dinner party and try out some cookware and a few encouraged recipes. I’d say we had over 50 people, at least 25 children and 35+ adults. My sister, Amelia, was an enormous help, being my photographer, Vice-President of Food Presentation, Director of Floral Arrangements, sous-chef, all around super helper and last man standing. LE’s Dallas Godparents handled the entertainment, going above and beyond providing the world’s most amazing waterslide bounce house contraption, as well as helping me with all the heavy lifting since Cory was in Europe the 10 days prior to the event, coasting in just as the party started as one parent aptly described looking straight out of Miami Vice. Williams-Sonoma, Calphalon, and HouseParty.com underwrote part of the event by supplying cookware, some funding, and recipe ideas.

The children certainly had a fabulous time as did the adults. I just love a family backyard party. Part of my entry response to the contest was detailing how much I love home entertaining and preparing food for guests to enjoy and celebrate together. I love watching children have a fantastic time, while the grownups get to imbibe an adult beverage and spend time mingling and simply enjoying the moment.

Menu
Appetizers
Crostini with Goat Cheese and ‘wichcraft Tomato Relish
Caprese Salad Crostini with Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette
Frozen Green Grapes
Mains
Seared Pork Tenderloin with Lime-Cumin-Corriander Marindade
Citrus Marinated Grilled Chicken with Fresh Herb Sauce
Ripe Watermelon Balls
Strawberries and Raspberries with Fresh Mint Garnish
Sugar Snap Peas with Homemade Buttermilk Ranch Sauce
Sliced and Seasoned Kirby Cucumbers
Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Goat Cheese, and Almond Slivers
Dessert
Chocolate Cake with Espresso Buttercream and Dark Chocolate Ganache
Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
The items with links have already been featured on dinnerandconversation.com and helped make this party great. Those with out, barring the raw foods, will be featured over the next week or so. Part of home entertaining, especially in the summer in Texas, requires cold raw foods, so that’s part of why those were included. The other reason is in my personal food philosophy. Blessedly, I have children who will eat darn near anything. I don’t prepare separate children’s meals, partly of course because we don’t have toddler food wars, so I wanted to include a variety of fruits that I thought even picky preschoolers could enjoy before indulging in a dessert sugar high.
All in all, I’d call it a grand success. As I individually break down the recipes, I’ll give some tips on how I go about planning quantities and portion sizes for large gatherings. Salud to the home party!

In the last three weeks, I’ve moved. My husband started a new job. I lived without cable, internet, or home phone service for 16 days. I’ve registered my baby for kindergarten, watched and participated in two kids learning to swim, fretted and nested over the impending birth of our best friends’ new baby, celebrated my mother’s birthday, my parents’ move to Texas, breathed a huge sigh of relief for all the miracles that have occurred, took two baths my *brand new* bathtub, grown my food business, served as a single parent for 9 days due to European business travel, and planned a birthday party for my super amazing 5 year old. Plus I’m sure I’m missing a few things. Whew. So what did I do in response? I learned to drink Chardonnay. Yep, an odd reaction. I get it. Did I really need to learn to take on another form of alcohol? Probably not. But I’ve ranked Chardonnay right up there with mayonnaise. At a luncheon someone might serve me a chicken salad sandwich. And being a polite and well meaning guest, I’ve had to learn to refrain from acting like a 5 year old, umm… can you cut the crusts off, too? On the upside, Chardonnay turns out to be less painful than mayonnaise. So, Go Me. Maybe next year bananas and I will finally come to terms.
Frankly, I haven’t felt this elated, happy, and on the right path since I had L.E. five years ago. I’m crazy superstitious and always petrified to jinx my good fortune, but I don’t want for a moment anyone to think I’m not glowing super happy at the moment. To my Austin friends and readers, I’m Sorry. I Tried. We tried. Again and Again. In the end, the powers that be stuck a glowing, 24-7, huge neon billboard in our life and said – YOU Belong here. In Dallas. Right now. In this moment. So we’re here, happy, and pursuing options with a vigor that has been totally inaccessible since having two teeny tinys so close together.
Some potatoes au gratin recipes are cheeseless – simply potatoes made in a cream sauce. When I hear potatoes au gratin, I really hear melted cheese disguised as a vegetable. I always feel robbed if I order them, and the cheese is mysteriously absent. This recipe is adapted from my
You strawberry souffle, are my nemesis. Damn it. I’ve been attempting to make strawberry souffles as a custom dessert order for Kari. I can count on one hand the things I’ve cooked in the last five years that have been inedible and strawberry souffles count for two of them. Technically, John and Kari ate these souffles, but I think it was purely out of pity. I have never seen such a hideous dessert in my entire life! I can’t figure out what in the heck went wrong, so I’m blaming the recipe. It simply must be faulty. They appeared to be perfectly on target, beautiful, puffed, lightly golden, but then pouf. Classic. Souffle. Failure. Within 30 seconds out of the oven they turned into the disaster shown here. Flat, mushy, ugly.
The $100+panini maker is one specialty appliance I refuse to own. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t own one if you so choose, but I am applianced out and a good grill pan will work just fine. Between the stand mixer, the blender, the food processor, the waffle iron, the coffee grinder, the coffee pot, and the number of specialty pans I own, I might explode with another single product appliance! A good grill pan is a necessity for any kitchen and will present delectable paninis. If you want to go crazy you could use a bacon press to weigh down your sandwiches or some foiled bricks, or just your arm and a spatula. How’s that for simplicity? Not often I recommend you *not* purchasing cookware. The trickiest part of paninis on a griddle is turning them without spilling your sandwich. The aforementioned squishing with a spatula will help the cheese to contain the ingredients, and you can do it with a spatula on bottom and a fork on top or two spatulas, but a good set of tongs provides me with the most control.
A recent client inquired about mini key lime tarts. Last Christmas my brother-in-law requested individual tarts with assorted fruit fillings for dessert. At the time, we laughed at him, but now he’ll probably get his wish. It seems the universe wants me to learn how to create mini desserts. Still high off my mastery of molten chocolate cakes prepared in advance, refrigerated, then rewarmed but still molten; I set out to research individual tarts. I’ve discovered the best pan is the
When I moved to the great state of Texas, I came from deep in the midwest, with southern roots and southern parents, but absolutely no idea what life had in store for me. My parents always wanted me to go to school in the south, they would wind up here , dang it, and so would I. I met my husband the very first week of college at the University of Texas. He didn’t know he’d become my husband, but I did. I grew up with a mind for fairy tales and princes and happy endings, not because I was taught to, but on my own because, seriously I was born this way. Life should be roses and bridge clubs. I’ve wanted to do a million things in this world, but everything in my dreams had a big family at it’s center.
This recipe came from FIL, even though it’s not his exact method (my grill leaves much to be desired.) He’s made it for us many times, and everyone loves it. Thanks FIL for the great recipe, and I will be forever touched by the way that you accepted me so gracefully without question.
I may be perfecting the ultimate pizza crust recipe for the rest of my life. I feel it’s critical to document my experiments and successes so that hopefully, I will one day achieve the
For simplicity, the sauce I used on this pizza was Nona Caputo’s Homemade Spaghetti Sauce. Who is Nona Caputo? I have no idea. It may actually be homemade. I suspect it came from Jimmy’s Italian Market as it was a part of the gift basket SMIL bought for me at the Dallas Food and Wine Festival’s Silent Auction. I’d imagine you could use any high quality spaghetti sauce with similar results or just your regular grocery’s jarred pizza sauce.
One of my Blogger friends, Monet of Anecdotes and Apple Cores, had a recipe for
So back to the olive bread. My reason’s for attempting this bread were three-fold. One, I still have a large quantity of white whole wheat flour on hand just begging to be baked. Two, I’ve had a couple of catering related questions on bread, and I want to hone my skills. And three, SMIL just won a wonderful bottle of olive oil for me (in a huge gift basket) in the Dallas Food and Wine Festival’s silent auction benefiting the Farmers Market. It’s delicious and perfect for dipping. And of course the OLIVES. Unlike my sisters or Monet, I truly believe olives make everything taste better. Happily, I discovered my MIL has a large rosemary bush in her front yard, resulting in my having all the necessary ingredients on hand! I used Nicoise Olives in my bread, which in retrospect the slightly tarter flavor of the Kalamata’s would probably be better – or maybe even green olives! Yum!
This tomato tart recipe might also be called a quiche. It came from a now out of print Williams Sonoma Entertaining Cookbook – where it is deemed a tart. I’ve made a few adjustments to the recipe – the largest of which is that it takes at least twice as long to cook as the original instructions say. I first made this quiche for a back yard brunch and play for some neighbors and their children. It was very well received. Kathleen has since asked me several times for the recipe. It only took me 2 years ; ) but I finally remembered which book contained the recipe.

