Category: Party Ideas

Edible Specimins

Before we begin, let’s be clear about what we’re trying to accomplish, with a few ground rules for the project:

1. What good is a specimen jar if you can’t serve it at dinner?The contents of the jars should be genuinely edible, made out of real food. Plastic snakes and spiders are right out.

2. Make it tasty. While the appearanceof the specimen jars may cause loss of appetite, the scent, by contrast, should be simply mouth watering. There are many ways to get there. Specimen jars can be prepared as an antipasto course (e.g., with preserved vegetables), as a soup appetizer, as a palate cleanser between courses, or a dessert course, depending on the ingredients chosen.

3. Work within the comfort zone of your guests. If your guests are super-omnivores, eager to eat the most challenging ingredients that you can get your hands on– whether that’s brains or balut or something far worse –then go right ahead. However, the point of this project is to make a dish that looks intimidating but actually consists of friendly ingredients. It’s possible to make a truly scary looking set of specimen jars that is (for example) strictly vegan or passes the even stricter dietary requirements that your child may present.

Cake Batter Crispy Treats

3 tablespoons butter

1 10-ounce bag of mini marshmallows

1/4 cup yellow cake mix

6 cups rice krispies cereal

1 1.75-ounce container of sprinkles

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. Stir until they begin to melt, adding in cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined. Stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture. Sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix. Press into a baking dish (any size will do) and top with remaining sprinkles. Let sit for about 30 minutes before cutting. I find spraying a knife with nonstick spray helps to cut them.

via

Chocolate Covered Frogs

They’re not REAL frogs….

Melt your chocolate in a double boiler. It needs to be real, pure chocolate. We like Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chips. They’re readily available, not too expensive, and have excellent texture. You’ll want just enough to coat your frogs. Too much chocolate with a finite amount of crunchy bits will leave a poor crunch density.

Add the Pop Rocks and stir them into the chocolate. Use lots of Pop Rocks; As many as you dare. They’ll crackle a bit when you stir them in, but don’t worry, there will still be plenty of crunch.

Coat your frogs and place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. A chocolate fork works great for this, but regular forks work, too.

Chill in the refrigerator until they solidify, preferably in a sealed container to prevent condensation issues.

great idea via