Photo Bomb

When we get all dressed up and fancy without our kids, as in never, I usually try to take at least one photo to remind myself of my youth, and to use as a totally realistic Facebook profile pic.  I know I'm not alone.

So for Adam's birthday party, I got to work making a photo booth, so that everyone could get a pretty shot of themselves dressed up. I didn't have a professional photographer, and I had to combat the nighttime lighting which can be either too dark or stark/artificial, so I had to think through the easiest way to make it work. I thought I'd share some tips for making a photo booth for evening-time soirees. Academy Awards party?

1. Keep the back ground simple. I love the tutorials for hand painted back drops for daytime parties, but at night, either shiny metallic, sequined or lustrous velvet looks best. This is because of lighting, and formality. I layered three party store gold curtains against a white wall for my booth, inexpensive and easy.

2. Lighting.  It cost me $35 to rent two lights, on stands with umbrellas.  I sourced them from my local camera store. Direct the light at chest height so that it will bounce up to the face. If you do not intend to have a dedicated camera, ask for lights that just remain on, without a strobe.

3. Use Instagram.  Here's why: you can create a hashtag, so that everyone at the party can take their own pictures, pictures that they are happy about and want to share.  At the end of the night you have a cache of party photos of everyone looking their best.  Also, no one has to man the camera, and the tripod won't take up any space/get knocked into.  

4. Suggest a pre-selected filter and hashtag.  For Adam's party, I told everyone to use the X-Pro II, because it made the gold pop, and gave a nice complexion.  The pictures look cohesive, like they were taken with the same camera. I assigned the hashtag #adamis40, and voila.

5. Props. Not everyone has to use them, but they do encourage people to have fun. I'm always a fan of glasses and staches on a stick. Here's my tutorial from last Valentine's day for making your own.  

And there you have it, party on.

 

Muppet of a Man

We threw our final bash in Oakland this weekend with a Muppet Movie Night to celebrate Jasper's 6th birthday and to say our farewells to our friends and neighbors.  I invited his entire  Kindergarten class and his teacher so it was a full, albeit empty house.  The kids enjoyed Oakland's finest, Lanesplitter pizza, cherries, frozen grapes, and lemonade out on the deck, followed by a chocolate Muppet cake and red velvet woopie pies. I set up some play space for the younger guests including a Swedish Chef kitchen. We managed to get about half of them to sit down and watch "THE MUPPETS" projected onto our living room wall, the other half, including the the birthday boy spent the remainder of the party playing out back in our hilly yard of trees and rocks.  I had to apply several band aids and Jasper got a half dozen mosquito bites, but everyone had a great time.  The favors were little sacks of red licorice sealed with Kid Made Modern multicolored tape; on the back of the sacks I stuck an address label for our new house in Petaluma and encouraged the kids to send him a letter this summer. 

We leave town on Friday! This morning we took our final trip to our Farmer's Market and picked up a bounty of early summer produce.  Since my glue gun is packed, this week I will write up my favorite recipes featuring summer squash, corn, fresh peas and padrone peppers.

Pigging Out

Today is the Teacher Appreciation Day Banquet at our elementary school. I'm the daughter of a teacher, I'm also married to a teacher turned principal, and therefore an authority on what they like, and I will tell you, all teachers like buffets.  

I will also tell you that nothing says "thank you" like pork.

Here's my simple crock pot recipe for barbecue pulled pork sliders, perfect for teachers and potlucks everywhere.

Pulled Pork Sliders
Feeds a village


6-7lbs of boneless Pork Butt (stop laughing)or shoulder
3 diced carrots
1 diced yellow onion
2 diced celery stalks
3 cloves of garlic, smashed
16 oz vegetable stock
16 oz sweet, tangy barbecque sauce
salt + pepper
Slider buns (I found mine at Trader Joes)
Peppers (I like sliced pickled jalapenos)
 
For this, I make coleslaw simple and without mayo (sits out well)
See recipe below.

Salt and pepper the outside of the pork, I'm pretty generous with the salt.

In a large pan or cast iron skillet brown the pork on all sides to seal in the juices.

Put the pork in the crock pot, adding the vegetables and stock, cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, if you have less time, cook on high setting for 6 hours. The less meat you have, the shorter the cook time.  The important thing is that the pork breaks down and shreds softly.


Once it finished cooking transfer the meat to a grooved cutting board and using two forks, gently pull the meat apart until it looks like this:

At this point you can do a few different things.  If you do not like barbecue sauce slathered all over your pork, I suggest draining part of the liquid (skimming the fat) from the crock pot and returning the meat to stew, using a slatted spoon to serve.


If you do like barbecue sauce on your pork, discard all but 1 cup of the juices, mix in 16 oz of bbq sauce and return the meat to the crock pot.  


You can serve directly from the crock pot or put the pulled pork in a covered serving dish for the table, or you could assemble the sandwiches and serve on a platter.


If you have leftovers, may I suggest taco night?




Coleslaw

1 head of green cabbage, finely shredded
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
Pepper to taste

Whisk dressing ingredients until emulsified, toss with cabbage.