Salsa Party

This weekend I was invited to my friend Hallie's salsa party. Before you start to conjure images of me swinging my hips and having fancy foot moves, this wasn't a dance party. (Have I mentioned I have no rhythm and can't dance AT ALL?)

Every year Hallie gets a group of people together to make salsa and can it. Originally it started with just Hallie, her husband, our friend Claire and Claire's two kids. But each year Hallie has invited more people and she's increased the number of jars she makes.

I've wanted to go to her party for several years but every year there is a conflict. I've had the pleasure of eating Hallie's famous salsa at several parties but this was the first year I was finally able to attend the party and see the production.

This year there were about 14 people. Hallie asks you only to bring hands willing to work. She supplies all of the ingredients, canning supplies, pizza and drinks.

She set out this year to make 120 pints of salsa but we ended up making 164 pints!

First, we were all assigned jobs. There were buckets and buckets of tomatoes to be gutted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomatillos to be peeled and cored

 

 

 

 

 

 

onions to be peeled and chopped

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

garlic to be peeled and chopped

 

 

 

 

and limes to be juiced

 

 

 

Everyone set to work on their assigned jobs, taking breaks where needed. 

 

 

 

 

 

Imani moved to a few different jobs. She started out juicing limes and then moved on to coring tomatillos and finally, gutting tomatoes.  She was one fantastic little worker!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since I was one of the only people who doesn't get watery eyes from peeling onions, I spent most of my time peeling and chopping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I was happy to see lots of buckets for composting (especially after finishing "Garbology.")

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once everything was prepared, the tomatoes and tomatillos would be grilled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After they were grilled, the would be placed in a measuring bowl and delivered to the food processing area

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, they would be chopped up in the food processor and placed in a pot, along with the onions, garlic, chipotle, lime juice, and salt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the pot would be cooked and placed in sterilized jars, lidded and sealed in boiling water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was quite a production but Imani and I had so much fun helping out (even Noah joined us later and helped by pushing the button on the food processor to grind up the grilled tomatoes and tomatillos).

And I could do a whole blog post on how awesome Hallie's house is. She lives in a log cabin in the woods about 10 minutes outside of town. It's like a little retreat . . . Fully equipped with a giant aquarium that had Noah mesmerized for hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until he discovered a little something he found even more fascinating

 

 

 

The party's was a fun way to reconnect with old friends, meet some new friends and learn a new recipe! Hallie gives everyone several jars of salsa as a 'thank you' for their hard work.

Here's the recipe in case you want to have a little salsa get together of your own (or if you want to make a batch without the socializing, I won't judge you - even though I am a very social person).

Hallie's Grilled Salsa

1/2 gallon of tomatoes

1/2 gallon of tomatillos

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1/4 c pureed chipotle in adobo

3 Tbsp chopped garlic

2 cups chopped onion

1 cup lime juice

This recipe yields 7 pints

(we canned 164 pints!!)

Enjoy!!

 

 

 

 

And here is my little Instagram vignette of the party.  Are you following me?  If not, join in the fun.  I'm participating in FatMumSlim's photo a day challenge, and you'll get to see lots more pics of Imani and Noah! 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and in case you're wondering where Jason was - as much as he LOVES salsa (anybody remember the Mexican Fiesta party I threw for his birthday?!), he is busy at work on this project at our house. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

Fun, Fun, Noah Turns One!

This past weekend, we celebrated Noah's first birthday.  I cannot believe a year has already passed!  It seems like just yesterday, we were bringing him home from the hospital.

And showering him with kisses.

As much as I wanted to stop time weeks before his birthday, I knew I couldn't.  So instead, I channeled my emotion into creating his first birthday party.

I spent many late nights pinning ideas on Pinterest and finally decided to throw Noah a Dr. Seuss-inspired birthday.

I found inspiration from several different websites, including this one at "Hostess with the Mostess" and this one at "Annie's Eats."

Our invitation looked almost identical to the ones at "Annie's Eats" except we changed the wording a little, since it was Noah's first birthday.

I used my Silhouette cutting machine and Jason glued all the pieces together.  The invitation read

"It's hard to believe Noah is already turning one! 

Come one, come all, and join in the fun! 

Whether it rains or if it is sunny, we will have lots of good fun that is funny! 

You should not, would not want to miss a birthday celebration quite like this."


The color scheme was similar to that in "The Cat in the Hat."  All decorations were red, white and aqua.  I used a big piece of red and white polka-dotted fabric that I purchased at JoAnn's Fabric as a tablecloth for the food table.

I also purchased red and white vintage paper straws online.

Dr. Seuss books were placed around the house as part of the decor.

We served food inspired by Dr. Seuss books including Green (deviled) eggs and ham and cheese sliders (which were absolutely delicious!)  You can find the recipe for the ham sliders here at "Annie's Eats."  

We also served "Oodles of Noodles" (Pasta Salad)

The dessert table featured Oreo truffles, which were not inspired by a Dr. Seuss book but are incredible and were gone in less than 15 minutes.

In addition to the Oreo truffles, the dessert table also had Pink Ink Yink Drink (Lemonade punch),

Truffala Tree Cupcakes (cotton candy on pretzels for the trees),

the Cat in the Hat Cake & Strawberries on sticks (dipped in white chocolate and blue sprinkles).

For favors, guests received "WhoFoo Fluff on a Stick" (marshmallows dipped in blue white chocolate and sprinkles and wrapped in cellophane).  These were tied with a string and a note was attached that read:

"Today was good, today was fun!  Thank you, thank you, everyone!"

Imani and I made big tissue balls to hang over the dessert table in red, white and aqua (I should have removed the bronze wall hangings . . . oops!)

Noah wore a "One Fish Two Fish" shirt that we found at Target.

I made his party hat using my Silhouette machine.

I also made his birthday banner using the Silhouette.

We made a timeline highlighting pictures from Noah's first year.

There was a table set up that had Dr. Seuss' "Happy Birthday to You" book for guests to write a little birthday message to Noah that he can look back on when he is older.

We only played one game, which was to guess the number of blue gumballs and red sweedish fish in jars.  The winners got to take the candies home with them.

Overall, the party was a lot of fun.  There is so much you can do with a Dr. Seuss theme and it was hard to narrow down all the ideas online.

Most of all, I think we discovered that Noah loves being the center of attention!  I was nervous about how he would sit still opening all of the presents, but he enjoyed every bit of it:

Trying on his first camo hat and making faces for the camera,

and hugging bears in a book.

He especially enjoyed when everyone sang to him and he got to eat his  Truffala Tree cupcake!

He even shared with his sister!

Happy Birthday Noah!

Crushing on Valentine's

This is Imani's last year in elementary school, so it will likely be the last time her class has a Valentine's party.  We have always made homemade Valentine's and this year I was looking for something extra special, since it might be the last year she actually hands out Valentine's cards to her friends.

I am obsessed with Pinterest and found the cutest idea on there the other day for Valentine's.  Do you follow my pins yet? If not, click the button on the top right of my blog!  I've been pinning for each room in my home, every holiday, and every craft I hope to do in my lifetime.

Source: designaglow.com via Stephenie on Pinterest



 Isn't it super cute?  The only problem is that Imani's school would never allow glass bottles in school and I'd feel terrible if a kid accidentally broke it and cut himself so we had to settle for cans. 

Admittedly, cans are not as visually appealing- but the idea is still cute nonetheless.

So we bought two twelve-packs of Cherry Crush in cans.

Then I edited Imani's photo using Picnik. 

And then we printed them off on regular paper.  I didn't have any cute polka dotted paper like the one on Pinterest but I did have an abundance of red card stock from homemade Valentines in the past, so we decided to use that instead of spending more money.

We glued the pictures to the red background.

Next, we hole-punched the photos and tied them onto the can tabs using a ribbon.

And Imani carried a big box to school today.  I'm sure her teacher will be thrilled with kids drinking soda along with all of the candy they receive!

Happy Valentine's Day!