My 30th Birthday – Part 2 (The Food)

I have never been a big party planner, as I have usually lacked the time, energy and creativity to do anything out of the ordinary. However, as fate would have it, I joined the site Pinterest a couple months before my birthday and it became almost entirely responsible for everything that I consequently planned to include in my birthday bash. It was wonderful, because I didn’t have to come up with any amazing ideas all on my own – Pinterest just fed them to me & made it so easy for me to put together the fun party I was dreaming of.

First of all, there was the food. Now – I’ll be the first to admit that I have no problem asking people to help out & since there ended up being around 60 people who attended my party, I had no shame in asking people to contribute a little something. So several people brought chips, pop, and other appetizers such as veggie & dip trays, bread & spinach dip, egg rolls, a meat & cheese & pickles tray, etc. etc. The spread was absolutely fabulous! And since I didn’t have plates for the appetizers, I bought a bag of small plastic bathroom cups that worked perfect for people to put their various dips in – I would definitely recommend this little tip, because I thought it worked out really well.

But there were a few specialty items that I wanted that I made special requests from my dear friends.

A big shout out to my friend Stephanie who took on the challenge of creating this adorable watermelon hedgehog that I found on Pinterest! I sent her the website with the tutorial on how to make it and she totally made it happen! He was so cute and everyone loved him! As you can see, he was half devoured before we could even get a picture of him. (Another special shout out to my friend Byanka who took most of the pictures at my party for me, so that I could focus on being the hostess and birthday girl)

Another item I found was rainbow fruit skewers, which my lovely friends Rebecca, Paige & Melinda created for me. They were another hit and disappeared so fast! I also made a quick and easy fruit dip out of whipped cream and yogurt – yum!

Another big hit was the rhubarb slushie punch that I made. This idea I actually did not get from Pinterest and I sadly don’t have a good picture of the finished product, but it is soooo good! Here’s the recipe:

8 cups sugar
4 cups water
32 cups (8 L. or quarts) rhubarb juice
3 cans frozen pink lemonade concentrate
4 cups pineapple juice

My mom gathered a butt load of rhubarb from both a friend’s garden and her own garden and then we cut it all up into 3-4 inch lengths and put it in her largest canning pot. I can’t remember now exactly how much rhubarb we used, but I think it may have been around 24 cups? We then covered it with water, which was probably around the same amount as the rhubarb and cooked it until the rhubarb was really mushy – about 30 minutes. It’s amazing what happens to that rhubarb! All the juice and color cooks out and all you’re left with is this gross green globby mush. So you strain out all that and we ended up with almost exactly the 32 cups of rhubarb juice that we needed!

You then combine your 4 cups water and 8 cups sugar and boil it hard for about 10 minutes or until the sugar is fully dissolved. Add this to your rhubarb juice, along with the pineapple juice and frozen pink lemonade. Then you freeze it all – I filled up one ice cream pail, a 4 L. milk jug, and probably half a dozen or more margarine containers (several of which are still in my freezer)! When you’re ready to serve it, thaw it partially and combine with your clear bubbly pop of choice (we used 7-UP) at about a 1:1 ratio, or more or less to your own taste. Yum, yum, yum!

For supper, I got the idea to do a taco bar, which I really loved! This was also an easy thing for people to contribute to, as I had several of my friends bring the various items – tortillas, cheese, lettuce, Spanish rice, sour cream, guacamole, etc. I supplied most of the meat (taco seasoned beef), refried beans and salsa. The meat, refried beans and Spanish rice we kept warm in several slow cookers and then had a buffet for people to help themselves and create their own tacos – so much fun!

Last, but certainly not least was the idea for a rainbow colored candy bar for dessert! This was another hit, especially with all the kids and with my dear fellow pregnant momma. I hit up the bulk store and blew most of my party budget on candy – lol. But it was worth it! I also used a template for some fun rainbow paper cones for people to dish their candy into, which worked out really well. And in case you haven’t figured it out yet, I sort of had the rainbow theme going on throughout the whole party.

And we absolutely cannot forget to mention the Timbits from our beloved Canadian Tim Horton’s, especially since I just found out they cost my dear mommy a very pretty penny, as she got nailed by a speed trap on her way to get them. Thanks mom!!!

As I was planning all the food out, I did get a little stressed out about having enough, but everything turned out absolutely perfectly and we had such a great time filling our bellies with all the goodies! Thank you to everyone who came and contributed and helped make it such a success!!

More yet to come…