I know I have been super behind on my blog posts lately… like not even posting a meal plan for last week or this week yet… but I wanted to share what was made for Adele’s second birthday party. She is obsessed with the show Sheriff Callie’s Wild West so naturally, that is the theme we went with.
There was a lot of planning and time spent in the kitchen to pull everything off. My poor pregnant feet hated me for it. It was totally worth it though and every scrap of food was eaten!
Jump to First Recipe
The main dish was pulled pork. I have had this easy recipe written in my cookbook since I first bought it. I think it actually might have been the first thing that went in it.
First, you chop one whole onion and place in the bottom on your crock pot. Then put your pork roast on top. Chop up another onion and put it on top of the roast. The last thing to go in is one cup of ginger ale (or root beer for a sweeter flavor). Turn your crockpot on low for 10 to 12 hours.
Remove the roast from the crockpot and shred. Using a strainer, drain the liquid from the crockpot leaving the onions to put back into the pot. Once the pork is shredded, put back into the crockpot and add BBQ sauce. Stir and cook on low for a minimum of two hours.
Oh my, your house is going to smell so amazing! Just look at this savory goodness! We served this with Hawaiian sweet rolls to make mini sandwiches. This makes quite a bit so it is great for parties or potlucks. We use it throughout the week to make other dishes, like quesadillas. I just made another batch last night and will be freezing some for when we have our newborn home!
We also served Chick-fil-A nuggets because who doesn’t love those!?
For sides, we made fruit salad, a veggie tray, and potato salad. We had a lot of people at the party say that they don’t usually like potato salad, but they LOVED the one I made. I found the recipe on Pinterest and it is courtesy of Kelly at Wildflour’s Kitchen Cottage. Here is the link to the original recipe: http://wildflourskitchen.com/2015/06/12/dill-potato-salad-freaky-friday-summer-edition/
I did a couple things differently from the original recipe (besides double it). Greek yogurt was used instead of sour cream and I chopped up some dill pickles and tossed them in at the end. It added a nice crunch and enhanced the dill flavor. The recipe card below is a reflection of the way I made the potato salad; not the original recipe.
I prepared everything the night before so that all of the flavors could meld together. Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of the steps because I was multitasking so much, but you get the idea 🙂
My husband, Kyle, had a lot of fun helping me with the fruit salad. We wanted to keep with the Sheriff Callie theme so he carved the watermelon into a cactus bowl. I walked into the room at one point and he said, “this is my jam!” 😛
Making the desserts was, of course, my favorite part. I discovered a new brownie recipe to make the “mini cow pies” with and it is TO DIE FOR! I got the recipe from Ashley at Baker By Nature. Here is the link to the original recipe: https://bakerbynature.com/baked-brownies/
This recipe takes a bit more effort than your run of the mill brownie recipe, but it is so worth it. PLEASE try these brownies! It calls for 11 ounces of dark chocolate. I decided to mix a few different chocolates to enhance the flavor. I am SO GLAD that I included dark chocolate with sea salt. The little bit of saltiness made these brownies AMAZING! I had people comment on how they could taste some salt subtly and how much they loved it.
First, you whisk together the flour, salt, and cocoa powder.
Then, create a double boiler by placing the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder (or instant coffee, that is what I used since I did not have instant espresso) over a simmering pot of water. Stir occasionally until chocolate and butter are melted and smooth.
Turn off the heat and then stir in sugars until completely combined. Take mixture off of the heat and let it get to room temperature.
Add three of the eggs to the chocolate mixture, whisking until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. DO NOT OVER MIX.
Sprinkle flour mixture over chocolate mixture and stir using a rubber spatula (NOT a whisk) until just a bit of flour mixture is visible.
Pour into prepared pan or cupcake pans and smooth the top. I made mine in mini cupcake pans to make “cow pies”. 🙂
Here is the Sheriff Callie birthday cake I made. I was in a hurry (running behind as usual lately) so I wasn’t able to smooth the frosting. My picture isn’t great either because people were already there so I was in a terrible spot for lighting. I am definitely happy with the way it tasted though! It was a lemon blueberry marble cake with lemon frosting. I will share the recipe in a different post. This one is already waaayy too long and waaayy too late!!
Oh! Here’s a funny little story/thing about the party decorations; I went to 5 Below to get some things, including the birthday banner. We were blowing up the letter balloons in order to hang them up and did not notice until we were putting the banner together that there were no Ys!! They were replaced with Ts! LOL. So her banner read: HAPPT BIRTHDAT. We kept it up because it was hilarious. Here it is:
We had so much fun at this party and we hope that you can use these recipes for a gathering of your own!
My due date is super close! Just a little over a week… hoping he comes a little earlier. I will really try to keep up better with my posts, but I can’t make any promises. They should not be nearly as long though 😀
Crockpot Pulled Pork
Ingredients
- 4 Lbs Pork Roast Butt or Shoulder
- 2 Large onions
- 1 Cup Ginger ale or root beer
- 18 Oz Bottle favorite BBQ sauce or to taste
Instructions
- Chop up one of the onions and place in the bottom of the crockpot. Lay pork roast on top. Chop the other onion and put on top of roast. Pour ginger ale into crock pot. Set to low for 10-12 hours.
- Remove roast from crockpot and shred. Using a strainer, drain liquid from crockpot to reserve onions.
- Place shredded pork back into the crockpot with reserved onions. Stir in BBQ sauce. Cook on low for a minimum of 2 hours.
Notes
Dill Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 3 lbs. red potatoes
- 1 cup mayo
- 2/3 cup greek yogurt or sour cream
- 2 Tbl. dried dill weed
- 4 large green onions snipped
- 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp. course ground black pepper
- Chopped dill pickles to taste
Instructions
- Scrub potatoes and place in a large pot. Cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot and cook until potatoes are tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool in an ice water bath until potatoes are cold, about 5 minutes. Leaving skins on, cut into bite-sized pieces and place in a large bowl.
- Combine mayonnaise, sour cream, dill weed and green onions in a bowl and stir until blended. Season well with salt and pepper. Add chopped pickles to taste. Pour mayo mixture over potatoes and toss until evenly coated. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or overnight. Stir before serving. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Notes
Baked Fudgy Brownies
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cup All-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
- 11 ounces dark chocolate chopped
- 1 cup unsalted butter 8 ounces cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- 1½ cups granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 5 eggs at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a 9×13-inch baking pan. Line the pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, salt, and cocoa powder together.
- Put the chocolate, butter and instant espresso powder in a large bowl and set it over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and smooth.
- Turn off the heat, keeping the bowl over the water and add the sugars. Whisk until completely combined, then remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be room temperature.
- Add 3 of eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
- Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate mixture. Using a rubber spatula (not a whisk), fold the flour mixture into the chocolate until just a bit of the flour mixture is visible.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake in the center of the oven for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out with a few moist crumbs sticking to it. Let the brownies cool completely, then lift them out of the pan using the parchment paper. Cut into squares and serve.
- Store at room temperature in an airtight container or wrap with plastic wrap for up to 3 days.
