It's Carnival Time!

My sister's 22nd birthday was last week and we had a carnival themed party for her. The main reason we chose this theme was because she has a huge love for cotton candy and funnel cakes and the second reason may shock you! haha At the age of 22, my sister is the world's youngest Elvis fan. She LOVES him and she has ever since she was a little girl. As a result of this love, she is always trying to get her friends and family to watch old Elvis movies with her. There is an Elvis movie called "Roustabout" that takes place at a carnival so we decided to surprise her and have a carnival themed party and eat her favorite carnival foods all while watching "Roustabout"! It turned out to be a lot of fun!

We had some really heavy foods at the party so we decided to make some of the treats miniature so we could still enjoy the taste of a carnival without feeling sick! haha Here are our precious mini cotton candy bags...

We also made mini carmel apples. We used crabapples and cocktail toothpicks to make them mini and them we dipped them in regular melted carmels. I LOVED these!

For dinner, we had corn dogs and onion rings with pink grapefruit sodas. We put it all in little baskets so we could eat while we watched the movie.

And her birthday cake was, of course, a funnel cake!

We found mixes for the corn dogs and funnel cakes but we made the onion rings from scratch! Here's the recipe we used (from a Southern Living cookbook):

Beer-Battered Onion Rings

3 large Vidalia onions

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 t. baking powder

1 t. salt

1/4 cup yellow cornmeal

2 cups beer

1 large egg, lightly beaten

vegetable oil

Directions:

Peel onions; cut into 1/2 inch thick slices, and separate into rings. Place rings in a large bowl of ice water; let stand 30 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients, stir well. Add beer and egg, stirring until thoroughly blended and smooth. Chill batter for 15 minutes. Dip onion rings into batter, coating both sides well. Pour oil to a depth of 2 to 3 inches in a dutch oven; heat to 375 degrees. Fry onion rings, a few at a time, 3 to 5 minutes or until golden on both sides. Drain well on paper towels, serve immediately.

**********

And for your viewing pleasure... the inspiration behind the party and the title of this post :)

Haha! Happy Friday, everyone!! :)

Fresh Tomato Salsa

I have SO much to catch you guys up on this week... last week was CRAZY... but also very fun. Last Sunday, Evan and I woke up to a broken air conditioner (for the second time in a week and the third time this year). We ended up having to purchase a new unit and the company that installed it was SO busy in this hot Arkansas weather that they couldn't get to us until Wednesday. So, once again, we had to live with my parents... for four days!! The crazy (and fun) part was that we weren't their only guests for the week. They were also keeping these precious kiddos while their friends (the kids' parents) were on an anniversary trip.

Lucy

Brandon

I have several kid friendly recipes that I will be sharing this week that we made for Lucy and Brandon last week... so get excited about those! :)

Then, last Thursday, I packed up again and headed to Hot Springs, AR, for the wedding weekend of one of my best friends. On Thursday night we had a lingerie shower/bachelorette party for her so I will also be sharing those pictures this week and maybe a few recipes too!! :)

And because I am too tired to actually blog about any of the things that I just told you about, here's a delicious salsa recipe that I made during our first extended stay at my parents' house (when we cooked through the July issue of Southern Living magazine, remember?)... haha bless their hearts! I am sure they are glad to have their house back! :)

Fresh Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

3 cups seeded and diced tomatoes

1 large avocado, diced

1 small jalapeno pepper, diced

1 (2.25 oz) can sliced black olives, drained

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 1/2 t. balsamic vinegar

1/2 t. seasoned salt

table salt to taste

Directions:

Stir together diced tomatoes and next 7 ingredients. Season with table salt to taste.

(I also added fresh garlic)

***************

Happy Monday!!!

Fun Lunch

Here's a recipe (if you can even call it that) for something fun that Evan and I love to have for lunch. We call it a tomato bagel... but that's not very creative so I'm open to a new name suggestion! :)

Tomato Bagels

Directions:

Slice an "Everything" bagel in half. Drizzle each half with olive oil and top with tomato slices and cheese. Sometimes I add a pinch of salt and pepper to the tomatoes and sometimes I don't... it depends on the flavor of cheese that I'm using! Some cheeses that I like to use are: pepper jack, provolone and mozzarella. Then I put the bagels on a baking sheet or stone and pop them in the oven and broil them on high until the cheese is hot and bubbly. Then I sprinkle some fresh Basil on top. Delicious! :)

That's all for tonight...

but I'm starting something new and fun tomorrow so come back and check it out!!