Mocktails and Dips - Cooking Play Date

EVENT-PLANNING + MOTHERHOOD. NOT THE FINAL FRONTIER, BUT THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER.

As one of the many hats I've donned in my life experience, event planning & the torrid love affair I have with it, has a way of secretly re-surfacing in my life at the oddest times just when it seems my love tank needs a refill.  I love it. I just really do. So, the minute Takisha asked if I'd mind stepping up to host "Mocktails & Dips 2013" the YES was already "out" & all the party details began floating in my head & the list making started in my mind from that minute on.  What fuel can be added to make event-planning even MORE extravagant? Motherhood. Is it not true we will move heaven and earth for our darling angels?  I explain all this to say, Takisha tells me the DAY before the party to not "go crazy". Too late. When everyone arrived, we had nametags so we could all feel comfortable learning each others names.  Everyone was greeted with a warm smile & welcomed to the event with general "housekeeping" instructions like where to put the entourage of bags we mommies travel with, where the bathrooms were, how to operate the dang trash compactor, etc... Then they were shown the presentation example & instructed to snag their child's bucket (Can you say play date favor?!) with all the play date gear in it & create their own mini-bar & sampling station how ever they saw fit.  

Next began the introduction of Hummus makers, Wendy & Logan, Annabelle & Sam. They set out to inaugrate my professional Ninja by making smooooooth hummus. They added Tahini paste, chickpeas, garlic, lemon, olive oil & salt. It was so tasty, so fresh! Really. All of us devoured it (and personally if I had to pass out a Mohan 5 star rating for my favorite, it was definitely the hummus!). Even the kids came back for seconds...& thirds! Smothering fresh veggies & organic chips, the hummus was gone instantly! While the hummus was being sampled, Colleen & I quickly chopped up some bananas to throw in the freezer later to go along with the caramel sauce. I began making sandwich wraps in the middle of my sweet Emilie having her roughest day in the history of her short 11 month life! Boo! 

Marie, Danie & Henry managed our guacamole creation using fresh avocados which had been purchased on Monday and were placed in a paper bag for ripening.  To the delicious bowl of avocado, they added fresh onion, salt, cilantro, tomatoes, garlic, red chili pepper & limes. The texture they were striving for was the PERFECT blend of smooth & chunky......the metal bowl was the secret weapon along with the fork!

Clare was a great taste tester walking around the kitchen sampling everything!  After the guacamole, we decided to move the caramel dip to the end because by this time in the playdate mommies were also

  getting hungry & thirsty.  We set out a variety of blackforest ham & cheese, turkey & cheese & veggie wraps for the mommies to eat while the drinks were being made. We even took care of our friend, Wendy by making her a fresh salad! We turned the bar-tending part of the play date over to Marie (who was ALL too familiar with serving up some Shirley Temples)!  Axel was mostly interested in exploring the cabinets, carrying the racket & just looking innocently laid-back & adorable (can you say future ladies man?). Marie gets an extra shout-out because she went to a lot of trouble to hunt down a small, yummy, but pricey $7 jar of maraschino cherries that did not contain disgusting dyes!  So sweet how our mammas watch out for each other and their kiddos, right?!  Well, the Shirley Temples were a cinch to make. It took ginger ale, grenadine syrup, lime & cherries.  

Picking up the pace, I made the Strawberry Daiquiri from a simplified recipe I sampled in a store at home in Indiana.  I took a carton of strawberry puree, blended it with ice, added a splash of ginger ale & boy was it sweet! I squeezed in 1 lime to balance the sweetness & served it up in a cute white cup with an umbrella, paper straw & a fresh strawberry sliced on the side!

The strawberry daquiri was quite tasty & a big hit among the older kids! 
While mommies mixed and mingled,
the kids were mostly interested in playing in the den aka designated Thomas the Tank Engine tent area just off the kitchen & downstairs in our Montessori-inspired classroom.  In spite of the kids re-surfacing at times to restock on the goodies, the laid out chef's coat (pushed down below the attached human body felt board) & learning tower remained untouched throughout our cooking time. A mom can only ask so many times, right? I mention this to point out that while we would have loved for the older kids to be more interactive with the cooking, we maintained flexibility and rolled with it... especially when it comes to the kids and the play dates!

Soon, our tummies were feeling quite satisfied & while we were ready for Pina Coladas, darling John was still napping on his mommy, Takisha, so we let him!  Colleen and Katie took to putting their cooking skills to the test by making the caramel sauce for their first time ever!  They began with boiling the water, salt & sugar, using a candy thermometer.

In another saucepan, they combined the butter & cream.  When all temperatures were reached, the caramel was blended & served up!  We dipped it in apples.  We dipped the bananas in it. We dipped our fingers in it. We slurped it out of the sample cups...and the next night I warmed the extra up & drizzled it over my popcorn. YUMMY!  Since caramel is my all time favorite, the hummus had serious competition!  Also, while a lot of us enjoyed the caramel, Annabelle, in particular who is not a fan of caramel, braved the sample, which I was so proud of her for!  Even tho it wasn't her taste, we made it up to her by not counting how many dark chocolate Godiva's she ate (yes, again, over-the-top hostess thought every mamma braving a cooking play date deserved spoiled with chocolates!).

Next, once Takisha's angel woke up from his nap, she threw him on her back & they gave us the 411 on how to pick a fresh, ripe pineapple & cut it.  She even wowed us with using her fancy pineapple corer gadget!  She combined ice, fresh pineapple, coconut milk & limes to serve up a refreshing Pina Colada!

 While that wrapped up the cooking part of the play date, we lingered, cleaned up, relaxed & chatted while kids played & babies slept, ate & needed diaper changes.  Some mommies stayed & some mommies left when they needed to. Unfortunately, a cloudy, milder temperature day spoiled the chances of us hopping in the pool, but promises were made to have those meet up times later when the weather was more cooperative!  Final farewells were said around 8 pm & all in all it was the perfect day because event-planning + motherhood is truly the ULTIMATE frontier!