Backwoods Birthday Party

We threw a backwoods-themed birthday party this past weekend. Had the weather cooperated, it would have been a flannel-filled gathering around a fire pit in the backyard. But we instead brought the PBR and Jack in from the rain. And thanks to a great crowd, a drum circle with pots, an old door turned into a beer pong table, balloons, noisemakers, and a pirate pinata, I think it was a hit.

I found absolutely no help online when looking for a backwoods party theme. I looked at camping, outdoor, survivalist, cabin, and lumberjack websites-- but ultimately I had to go it alone. We kept it simple with about a dozen pint-sized Mason jars, a checkered picnic tablecloth, and paper bags torn open to act as craft paper on which to serve the food.

The menu (some recipes to follow):

Pulled pork sliders with mustard-based barbeque sauce

Mini beef empanadas with roasted red pepper sauce

Chili in a bread bowl

Hilarie's famous crab dip

K-ster's white bean and arugula dip

Indoor S'mores

The pulled pork sliders were actually made with my dad's pulled pork that he had brought up to us on his last visit. So I can't take credit and I can't give the recipe. However, I did call him for his mustard-based barbeque sauce recipe, which is very easy to replicate.

Start with yellow mustard (gauge the amount to the approximate amount of sauce you'd like to make). Then add about 1/4 that amount of Worchestershire sauce to get it close to the color seen in this picture. Cooking on a low heat, stir in brown sugar slowly to allow it to dissolve. Keep adding sugar and sampling the sauce until you reach the desired flavor. Before the sugar is added it will be very, very sour, so it will take more brown sugar than you think.

After the sauce was ready, I let it sit on the heat for a bit while I toasted small rolls and defrosted my pulled pork. I put some sauce in with the meat, then used a barbeque brush to spread the rest on the toasted buns. Mustard-based barbeque sauce originates in the Midlands region of South Carolina and is an alternative for barbeque lovers or people who don't like the typical tomato-based sauces.

The mini-empanadas were the riskier party dish. I decided to make them from scratch, having before just bought some from Juan and Maria's and warmed them in the oven. I have little to no baking expertise, tools, or experience really. I just followed a recipe for a basic dough, then filled it with a filling of ground beef, cooked with onions and corn, spiced with garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, and garam masala.

The dough:

1 egg

1 egg white

1/2 cup cold water

1 tsp. vinegar. Mix all those in a small bowl.

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. salt

Mix these two in a large bowl. Then cut in 3 tablespoons of shortening (I replaced this with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, but the shortening will make the dough flakier).

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the liquid mixture in. Blend with a fork until it's stiff.

Remove the dough from the bowl, placing onto a clean, lightly floured surface (I ran out of flour and used corn starch to keep the dough from sticking to the counter). Knead until you form a ball. Wrap in Saran wrap. Refrigerate at least an hour. (Make your filling in the meantime).

Put dough back onto floured surface and roll out with rolling pin. You want to get the dough as thin as possible. Cut circles with a biscuit cutter (or rim of a glass) depending on what size you want your empanadas to be.

To bake, grease a cookie sheet. Put dough circles on and fill with filling, then fold over and crimp closed with a fork. You can brush the tops with an egg wash or melted butter if you'd like. Cook at 375 for about 30 minutes.

You could also deep-fry (the traditional route I may try another time). You want the oil to be heated to about the same temperature as the oven would be. Drop them in, flipping them over once, until golden brown.

The roasted red pepper sauce was extremely easy and I can see it making a great pasta sauce in the future. Slice 3 red peppers, place the strips on a pan with olive oil and garlic. Broil them until they start to turn black. Then dump them into a blender with about 1 1/2 teaspoons of both balsamic vinegar and lime juice (or more to taste). I added cayenne and black pepper for more zing at the end, then topped with some fresh chopped cilantro.

The indoor smores were a creation of necessity. Two days of raining = no fire for S'mores. So I mixed a jar of Fluff with a tub of Cool Whip and about 1/2 a jar of Nutella. Swirled some dark chocolate syrup on top of that and served with graham crackers for dipping. Not the prettiest dessert, but it got more positive reviews than I was expecting.