I wanted to share a couple of the food/book combinations that we used at my niece's baby shower. I bought the baby a new bookshelf and we used books as the theme. We all had a great time and the new mom welcomed a great assortment of children's books to add to her bookshelf.
My niece is super smart and I credit some of that to the fact that her mom started reading to her as an tiny infant. I remember Jill perched in her mom's cross-legged lap, staring intently at the pages of the books my sister-in-law read to her. I think before she could even hold her own bottle, she tried turning the pages of the books. My sister-in-law set a great example for me. My girls were born after Jill and I knew immediately I wanted to start off reading lots of books. My niece, herself, suggested that instead of cards at the shower, we all give her children's books (since they are about the same price these days!) but we also decided to decorate with books. It was adorable!
I had a great time buying the books. I have favorites (which I used to read with great expression as my kids would laughingly tell you) and I tried to incorporate those books into the shower. I purchased most of my girls' books through Scholastic or Firefly since my daycare provider could get free books through that program. The books were reasonable and classics. I bought Jill's books for the shower mostly through Amazon as they have great prices and I could find the paperbacks that are a little less expensive. I chose my favorite of all time book to give to Jill:
You can find it at Amazon HERE.
OK... on with the food.
I made a favorite recipe for Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies cut in the shapes of little feet. I sprinkled with pastel sugars. This is the recipe I will share with you today. Beside the plate of cookies, I displayed the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. My family really loves this recipe for sugar cookies. My daughter, Rebecca, was so excited when she saw them. We've been making lots of other recipes for sugar cookies lately so taking a bite of these cookies brought back lots of memories for her. These cookies have hints of cream cheese and almond flavoring. A great combination for cookies!
I'm posting more picture of food/book combinations below the cookie recipe and I'll post more of the recipes for these dishes later on this week.
Here's how I made Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies AT HOME MY WAY:
Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies
- 1/2 cup real butter (soft, but not melted)
- 3 ounces cream cheese (soft)
- 2 cups flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- Colored sugars for sprinkling
Instructions:
Cream soft butter with soft cream cheese (I used a wooden spoon). Add in sugar and egg, cream well. Add in baking powder, vanilla, almond extract. Cream well. Stir in the flour until smooth. Form into a cohesive ball in the bowl. Cover the bowl and refrigerate at least an hour.
Preheat oven to 350.
Remove dough from the fridge and roll on lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Maybe a little thicker.
Cut with cookie cutters. Place on sprayed or parchment covered cookie sheet and sprinkle with sugars.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 11 minutes.
Let cool slightly and then remove to a cooling rack.
Here are more pictures of the books and food. My niece was so excited and we all had a great time looking through the books. Talk about memories! For us old moms, that's the best part (other than buying BABY things) about baby showers.
Pickle Roll Ups and Deviled Eggs with the
book, Green Eggs and Ham
Pigs in a Blanket (just hotdogs wrapped in halves of
canned biscuits) with the book, Three Little Pigs.
I also made a fruit baby. He turned out so cute!
We also served:
Baked Beans with the book, Jack and the Bean Stalk;
Moon Pies with the book, Goodbye Moon
BBQ Meatballs made with Easy Peasy Meatballs
with the book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs;
My sister-in-law also brought a pan of lasagna
so we displayed the book, More Spaghetti, I say;
which isn't exactly the same, but almost LOL.
Oh! Here's the cake:
And OF COURSE I insisted on having the typical shower food (for me anyway...) of PUNCH:
(Punch recipe coming soon this week...)
and of course, the
The Cream Cheese Mints and nuts.
There are lots of fun combinations for food and books. I think this would be a great little kid birthday party theme as well as a baby shower theme. Everyone loves new books and what a great way to provide a great resource for new parents.
Hope you enjoy the inspiration and the food!
Gina
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