Super Stupendous Seuss Slop

I know I said I'd post pictures yesterday of Brennan's party food, but yesterday was quite a day.  Jim was still super sick, my cat was sick, Cora woke up two hours earlier than normal in the morning giving me no time to get my bearings, my house was such a disaster that I spent ten minutes looking for Cora's missing barrette only to find it in a box of Ritz on the kitchen floor, and, to top it all off, I drove through a wicked wind storm / tornado warning and had a trampoline fly in front of my car and hop a fence.

Let's just say I was in full survival mode yesterday.

But here I am today, and things are much more under control.  Jim went back to work this morning, the house is a little more organized, the sheets have been washed, the streamers have finally come down and the piles of cupcake debris have been cleaned up.  I don't know about y'all, but when my physical life is in order, my mental state is in order.

So now.  Let's talk food.  :-)

Next to decorating for a party, creating a great display of food is my favorite part.  And a Dr. Seuss party gives plenty of opportunity for fun food options.

What Dr. Seuss party would be complete without green eggs and ham?  I made green deviled eggs and small ham sandwiches, but I was so busy I forgot to get a picture of them!!  Such a bummer because the green eggs looked awesome!

The rest of the menu included...

Red Fish and Blue Fish 

(from "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish")

(I forgot to get a picture of these, too, so I took a picture of the leftovers.  Sadly, the colors bled a little when they were on top of each other in the refrigerator.  The display on a giant white platter was much cuter.  Yet another blogger fail.)

Pretzel Turtles

("Yertle the Turtle")

A Crumb that was Even Too Small for a Mouse

("The Grinch Who Stole Christmas")

Cat in the Hat Parfaits

Pink Yink Ink Drink

("One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish")

 Thing One / Thing Two Cupcakes

("The Cat in the Hat")

I also had macaroni and cheese for the kids who didn't love ham sandwiches. (And I'm so glad I did.  We polished off three boxes of Kraft in the blink of an eye!)

*************************************************
Now that you've seen the final product, here are a few tricks / good-to-knows if you want to try to duplicate any of this menu:

1.)  It is really hard to find a fish cookie cutter.  I ended up ordering mine from The Cookie Cutter Shop and it was worth every penny not having to drive around looking for one.

2.)  If you don't regularly make Jello Jigglers, do yourself a favor and use this trick:  Line your pan with Press'n Seal and then spray it with cooking spray before pouring in your jello.  Then, when it is time to cut your jello, just lift the Press'n Seal straight out of the pan and set it on the counter.  The jello will sit on top of the Press'n Seal in a beautiful block, you won't have to use any hot water, and you will be able to just use your fingers to pick up your cutouts.  It is, in my opinion, the only way to do it.

3.)  It takes a LOT of strawberries to make Cat in the Hat parfaits.  If you're looking for ways to save money, opt out of this one.

4.)  Remember to ask about nut allergies if you make the turtles.  Brennan's preschool is nut free because of some life-threatening nut allergies, and I didn't want to unknowingly endanger any of the kids.

Turtle Recipe:

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, cover it in a single layer of pretzels, top the pretzels with Rolos or Dove caramel chocolates, and put them in a 300 degree oven for 4 minutes.  Pull them out and press a toasted pecan half on each.  

(No one will care that they are this easy.) 

5.)  For the Pink Yink Ink Drink (pink lemonade), I used Starbucks Frappucino bottles that my friend Gaylene and I had saved for a month or two.  A little Goo Gone and some adorable red and white paper straws from TinShins Cupcake & Company made these bottles irresistible.   I cut out the tags and attached them with glue dots so they were easy to remove when we were done.

(I've already run these bottles through the dishwasher and stored them away in my cupboard... Don't be surprised if they make a return appearance at another party or two.)

6.)  It is a major pain in the neck to find blue cotton candy.  I looked at Wal Mart, drug stores, Kroger, and Blockbuster.  In Nashville you can apparently buy it in two places: The Nashville Predators games and Chuck E Cheese's.

7.)  It is even more of a pain to keep cotton candy fresh.  A friend bought us two bags at a Preds game, and they turned into a solid rock after just one week with the bag tightly sealed.  (Jim made a run to Chuck E Cheese's the night before the party to buy two fresh bags.)

8.)  It is truly impossible to keep cotton candy fluffy on fresh frosting.  I frosted these cupcakes and topped them one hour before the party:

And this is what they looked like when the party was done:

:-(

As soon as the party started they were already little blue mounds, and not one party guest got to see them all soft and downy.  Apparently I should have frosted them the night before and let the frosting harden slightly.  I didn't do that because I wanted to give the cotton candy something to stick to, but that moisture worked like a tongue and caused the fluffiness to simply melt away.  So sad.  (Coincidentally, there are pictures of these cupcakes all over the internet, and no one else has mentioned this problem.  I don't know why I'm always the first, but don't say I didn't warn you!!)

And there, my friends, are more details than you ever wanted to know about the food at Brennan's Dr. Seuss party.  If you missed my last post about the decorations and games, be sure to click here.

Have a great Wednesday!!

***********************
I'm linking to Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge!