Recipe for a Party

1 heaping cup of good food

2 tablespoons laughter

1 pinch of games

1 bunch of friends

Combine all and mix until a great party forms.

Brought to you from Miss B's Bistro.

She entered double digits! *GASP*

I know I am always lamenting the growing of my children, but sheesh!

I suppose for fun I could write stuff like, "It has taken FOREVER for her to get this old! It seems like an ETERNITY of waiting and waiting and waiting..." But really nothing has ever been further from the truth. Watching children grow is synonymous with blinking. And it's fun because they learn new things and grow their own little personalities and you get to watch as they do amazing things, but equally hard because ...well I can't adequately put into words the multitude of 'hard' feelings that I feel. They range from feeling old, to feeling less in control of their lives, to mourning time not spent well enough, to wondering if I have ruined them yet and do I have time to fix it, to feeling old again. (I guess I just did put it into words, eh?!) Anyway...bittersweet I tell ya! And now I have whiplash from thinking of all those emotions.

Ahem... sidetracked once again. Back to the matter at hand.

There was a fabulous cooking/baking party for the evergrowing Miss B. Here are the aspiring chefs.

We made some extremely simple and easy aprons out of leftover fabric for each guest as well as a chef's hat from strips of poster board taped to an upside-down grocery sack.

For the party, we cooked, prepared, baked, rolled, spread, stuffed and sprinkled. I put the girls in stations to spread out the work. Some cut up veggies and assembled the salad. Some read directions to recipes while others gathered and mixed ingredients. Another station consisted of making ranch dressing and one of preparing garlic bread. They took turns wonderfully and helped each other. Once when Miss B tried to put 1/2 cup salt into the calzone dough instead of the 1/2 teaspoon called for, her friend jumped in to correct her before it was too late. They all helped clean up their stations quickly and happily and listened as I discussed the difference between a T. and a t. and why we let the dough sit after adding yeast. I also taught them how to flick a little flour on your face to make it look like you've been working extra hard.

Ahhh, what a lovely sight. A party is happily in process behind me and dinner is being cooked and prepared all at the same time, albeit by 9-10 year olds, but still I take what I can get...and I smile about it...with my hands on my hips.

The finished product. My calzone was stuffed with mozzarella, olives and a hint of pepperoni. 'Twas tasty.

An array of jam tarts...

Miss B asked for floats instead of cake, so I bought mini cups, tiny straws and various sodas and we sat to work after dinner sampling all of the different flavors until parents came to pick up their darling daughters.

Each guest went home with their apron, a wooden utensil, a dishtowel and a recipe book with some of the recipes of the night as well as space to add more.

And I know it's been a year of parties...but I can't help myself, nor can I promise it will be the same next year. One must rest, after all.