The Suburban Cook

Thank you Edgewood Bakery

It was supposed to be a little birthday party for my daughter.  She turned 2.  Two year olds don’t even remember their birthdays. They certainly don’t understand making a wish and blowing out candles.  So, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to have a huge party to celebrate.  However, I survived the last two years, so isn’t that worth a party?  Yes, it is.  Just not this kind of party.

I bought 8 invitations.  Turns out she had 12 kids in her class.  She’s 2.  How can there by 12 kids in the class?!  Ok, fine, I invited the kids.  And their siblings who shared a class with my son.  Yikes.  Can’t forget the family.  And the neighbors.  Um, ok, this got a little bit bigger than I thought.  I need another table.  And 8 more chairs.  And we need some kind of fence to keep them from falling off the 6′ drop off into the woods.  Oh, and food.  We need lots of food!

Having done some entertaining, I know there a few tricks to feeding a crowd.  First thing, find cheap meats and cook them low and slow.  I got a huge pork shoulder, bone and skin still on for super cheap ($13 total).  It was too big to fit into my crock pot, so I had to do some cutting.  I cut out the bone and cut off the skin.  It took me about 20 minutes but for someone who has never de-boned anything, I think I did pretty good!  I covered the meat in a store bought pork rub, because if you need that much rub and don’t already have the spices, you’ll spend a ton on each spice.  Just easier and cheaper to use this for something so low key.

Come and get it!

I put it in the crock pot at 11pm the night before on low.  The party was at 11am.  When we woke up, the house smelled heavenly.  I imagine heaven must have pulled pork.  My heaven anyway.  By 10, I shredded it by just turning it over with a spoon.  I’m not kidding.  I used a ladle to pull out all the juice (and fat) and let it cook down another 30 minutes.  Then I added a 1/4 cup of store bought bbq sauce.   Hello, Love on a fork.

I made little sandwiches for the kids.  Peanut butter and jelly for some and ham and cheese for everyone else.  We sliced apples and served with Apple Crack.  You’ll understand why I call it that after you try it.  I reserved part of the batch for myself for later.

I made the  Baked Crab Wontons below and served with store bought sweet and sour sauce.  I made cole slaw with store bought cabbage, but the dressing below.  There was a cheese and sausage plate and fruit salad.  Finally, I made my mac and cheese.  The only difference was I doubled the recipe and I added more than usual milk (about 2.5 cups total) so it was super creamy after baking 25 minutes.

The kids had a fantastic time.  The parents had a good time, but keep in mind, we were chasing after 10 kids under the age of 4. After everyone left, I slept for 2 hours straight and then enjoyed watching my football team win a great game while eating all the leftovers.  Ah, Saturday.

Baked Crab Wontons or Crab Rangoon

• 1 pkg cream cheese 8 oz, softened
• 1 can canned crab 5.5 oz, drained
• 2 tsps soy sauce
• 1/4 sweet white onion (I had onion, I didn’t have scallions, turns out onion is good)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 pkg wontons
• 2 tbsps butter, melted

Mix the first 5  ingredients together with hand mixer or stand mixer. Place wonton on a greased cookie sheet or on a silicon mat on a cookie sheet (my preferred method).  Scoop a 1/2 tsp of the mixture into 1 wonton.  Brush the edges of the wonton with the melted butter and press together to seal (should look like a puffy triangle).   Brush the top with butter.  Repeat until you have filled a tray. Bake at 350 F for 12 minutes.

Cole Slaw Dressing

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1 cup cider vinegar

Mix well.  Empty bag of store bought cole slaw mix into bowl and pour dressing on.  Mix well and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. (The longer it sits, the better it tastes, but eat within 4 days.)

The cake pictured above can be made from Edgewood Bakery.