You Only Turn 7 Once

Had a great time tonight celebrating Future Farmgirl’s 7th b-day. We had a nice mix of crazy wild kids and their cool parents.

The highlight of the evening was sitting by the fire ring out back enjoying the company and sugaring up on the s’mores buffet…with every marshmallow & chocolate combo I could think of. From giant Campfire marshmallows to red, white & blue marshmallows and minis roasted and mashed with Hershey bars, York Peppermint Patties, Reese Peanut Butter Cups, Ghirardelli dark chocolate/raspberry and waffle chips. Delish.

For the main course, we did our best to offer up a kid-friendly spread that would also be satisfying for the adults.

And, while it wasn’t perfect, I was pretty pleased with the results. By not perfect, I mean that it’s clear that when you throw a party on a Friday night, two pitchers of Cava sangria isn’t enough, even with a cooler full of Abita.

I was also worried we’d run out of lasagna (a favorite of Garfield & Future Farmgirl). That wasn’t the problem, though I miscalculated and threw in a third tray of lasagna w/Italian sausage. But what was really in demand was the rainbow pasta lasagna with butternut squash sauce.

The kids ate up almost a full tray of cheesy lasagna (even though it was full of zucchini…sneaky, I know).

Because we picked up our CSA share yesterday, I had a whole lotta veggies. I sliced up some heirlooms and added a little olive oil, sea salt and basil from out back.

But my favorite were the carrots. I sliced them up thinking I’d serve them raw. No dice. They were too bitter. So I found this recipe for blanched, then marinated cold carrots. I just loved these and will definitely make them again.