Mad Men Party Anyone?

Why is it that our best ideas always occur too late? For example, why did I not throw a party for the premiere of Mad Men. I love the show and I love to party plan. It would have been perfect! I guess I will just have to save these awesome recipes/ideas for another day. That is okay though, because I will be able to look at my Grandma's cookbook from the fifties/sixties. It has all of these tips on how to be a good housewife that make the cookbook awesome on its own, but the recipes are even better. I could take the easy route and recreate the recipes from Betty's around the world party, but I think some of these retro dishes would be way better. I thought that I would share them, before I forgot them all. Hopefully, you will read the post that recaps all of these dishes and my super party soon.

We would have lots of finger foods. We would start with rumaki, polish mistakes (okay these are actually one of my favorite foods) and a jello mold. Does anyone else think there are olives in this one?

I would also serve chips and french onion dip, Utz of course. This dish would be dedicated to Pete Campbell ( I think there's an episode where he talks about getting a chip server for a wedding gift or something). I would also serve deviled eggs and a cheese ball.

I don't drink, but no Mad Men party would be complete without an array of mixed drinks. These would include Old Fashioneds (for Don) and Vodka Gimlets (for Betty).

I might change my mind though and serve a real meal of these retro classics: Beef Wellington and Chicken Kiev.

For dessert, I would love to serve Baked Alaska, but would probably be better off just making a bundt cake. This pineapple-upside down one looks pretty appropriate to me.

So there you have it, my great ideas for a Mad Men party. Maybe I can throw one for the season finale. You might want to eat a snack before you come though...

S'more Cake!

I have always been a huge fan of s'mores, but not a huge fan of camping. Actually, I hate camping. In recent years, I have taken to going to the campground just for a s'more and then heading home. Well friends, my camping days may have officially ended with the discovery of this s'more cake. It is delicious! Two layers of graham cracker cake with marshmallow fluff and chocolate glaze. Yum!

Step-by-Step Instructions for S'more Cake:

S'more Cake

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 cups graham cracker crumbs

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs, separated

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup milk

For the filling:

Marshmallow Fluff

For the chocolate glaze:

8 ounces milk chocolate, finely chopped (I used chocolate chips)

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

For decoration:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup marshmallow fluff

3/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons heavy cream or milk

Chocolate chips

Crushed graham crackers

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 375 degrees. You will then need to line the bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper, you will also need to grease and flour the sides of the pans. Set them aside.
In a medium bowl add all of the dry ingredients (graham cracker crumbs, baking powder and salt), stir to combine and then set aside.

2. Beat the egg whites with the whisk attachment to your electric mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form (see below).

Okay, I over beat them just a little bit but this is an idea of what your egg whites should look like. When you lift your beaters from the bowl the batter should follow it and form a slight peak, but since it is a soft peak it will fall over a bit. A stiff peak will continue to stand straight up. Transfer your egg whites to a different bowl and set aside.

3. Now cream together the butter and sugar for about two minutes or until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg yolks. Once they are well integrated, stir in the vanilla extract.
4. Begin adding the other ingredients alternating between the dry ingredients and the milk. Fold in
a portion of the egg whites using a rubber spatula. This will lighten the batter. Gently fold in the rest of the egg whites. Your batter should look something like the above picture.

5. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan. If you have a wire rack you can transfer the cakes to it at this time in order to finish cooling. I found that this was a delicate cake, so be careful with the transferring.

6. Once the cake has cooled, transfer to a cardboard cake circle or just place on the serving platter. Spread the marshmallow fluff over the cake. Believe it or not this is a bit difficult. The fluff is super sticky and the cake is really delicate. A pastry bag works well, but is a lot of trouble. Either way you need to leave at least 1/2 inch of space between the fluff and the edge of the cake (the cake is heavy so the fluff will spread out). Add the top layer to the cake and put the whole thing in the fridge for about 1 hour.

7. Now it is time for the chocolate glaze. The best way to do this is to set a heatproof bowl on top of a pot of simmering water, this way the chocolate will not scorch. Add the chocolate, cream, butter, and corn syrup to the bowl. Heat until the chocolate has melted. Then whisk the ingredients together until smooth. Pour glaze over the top of the cake. It is okay if it runs down the sides in some places (it makes it look more s'more like).

8. It's time to decorate! Obviously, this is just how I did it. Matt did not want anything super fancy since we were feeding it to his friends. So I decided to make it look a bit messy and delicious looking. To make the marshmallow icing combine the butter and marshmallow fluff and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the powdered sugar. Stir in the cream or milk to make the icing more fluid. If you need more liquid you can add it. Transfer the icing to a pastry bag (if you don't have one just use a ziplock baggy and cut off a tiny bit of one corner). I then drizzled it all over the cake. I covered it with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows. I then did another layer of marshmallow icing. I finished the cake by sprinkling it with graham cracker crumbs!

*If I had a kitchen torch, I would have just covered the top with mini marshmallows and browned them. So you still had the look/taste of a real s'more. I am going to try it someday.

Source: Adapted from Annie's Eats

First Dinner Party

Tonight was our first dinner party. I think it was a success! There were six of us, five of whom were boys so this dinner party consisted of "man food". Matt requested strombolis. We also served a salad, chips and white pizza (they ate it so quickly that I did not have time to take a picture!). For dessert we had S'more cake (post coming soon). We made both meat and veggie strombolis.

Strombolis

Ingredients

1/2 lb. ground beef

1/2 lb. sausage

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 tablespoons green pepper

3 oz. tomato paste

1/3 cup water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon oregano

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

4 oz. sliced/shredded mozzarella cheese (I usually use more)

Pepperoni- optional

Loaf of French bread

Brown meat and drain. Add onion, pepper, tomato paste, water, salt and oregano. Simmer 1o minutes. Add Parmesan cheese and mix well. Slice bread lengthwise, scoop out some of bottom loaf. Sprinkle some cheese on the bottom loaf of bread, add meat mixture. If desired add pepperoni at this time. Cover it with cheese. Put on top 1/2 of loaf. Wrap in foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 10-15 or until cheese is melted.

*You can make a vegetarian version by substituting 1 can of mushrooms (drained) for the meat. You may also want to increase the onions and green peppers.

Source: First Presbyterian Cookbook, courtesy Sarah Lee