First birthday party menu and treats!

Q's first birthday party is done, which means I finally get a break from the kitchen.  Between lunch and sweet treats, I've lived in the kitchen for the past month.

Menu:
Pulled BBQ chicken with peach barbecue sauce
Homemade meatballs and "gravy" (for all you non-Northerners, that's tomato sauce)
Homemade mac and cheese (thanks, Mia!)
Corn and blueberry salad
Pasta salad
Dips, dips, and more dips - homemade guacamole, homemade hummus (thanks, Jill!), salsa, veggie dips
Veggie tray

Cake and favors (check out sweets and stuff for recipes!):
Hello Kitty cake
Strawberry lemonade cupcakes
Hello Kitty cake pops

Crock Pot Bolognese Sauce

I hope to try this next weekend!

Stuffed Cabbage and Baby Red Potato Salad

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm hopefully back to cooking regularly!

Trying this tonight:
 Stuffed Cabbage
and this:
Baby Red Potato Salad

I'm trying to use up what we have in the fridge and pantry.  We got cabbage in our Produce Box this week, and I bought a big pack of ground turkey to make lunch patties for Q.  We also got garlic that looks like scallions, so we'll try them in the potato salad.

Hopefully, it will all be tasty and I'll have wonderful pictures to post...fingers crossed!

Moroccan Pork Ragu

Matt made this Morrocan Pork Ragu, all by himself!  I was such a proud Penguin Mama!

Morrocan Pork Ragu Recipe

Carrot Cake to Carve

Looking for a good carrot cake recipe to use to make a carved first birthday cake.  I'd really like for it to be a little lower in sugar, but I don't want to sacrifice taste/texture/firmness. 

Anyone have any recipes?

This is what I've found:
Carrot Cake Recipe

Corn and Blueberry Salad

I can't wait until we start getting our Produce Box, and we start getting blueberries and corn on the cob.  Q LOVES blueberries - hopefully, she'll like this salad, too!

 

6 fresh sweet corn, husked 
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cucumber, sliced 
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion 
1/4cup chopped fresh cilantro
1jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped 
2 tablespoons lime juice 
2 tablespoons olive oil 
1 tablespoon honey
 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

In Dutch oven bring salted water to boiling. Add corn. Cook, covered, 5 minutes, or until tender. When cool enough to handle, cut corn from cobs.

In a serving bowl combine corn, blueberries, cucumber, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno. For dressing, in screw-top jar combine lime juice, oil, honey, cumin, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Cover; shake well to combine. Add to salad; toss. Cover and refrigerate overnight (up to 24 hours). Makes 6 to 8 servings.

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