This salad is a favorite in my family, and it’s always a crowd-pleaser. There are many variations on this salad floating around out there, and it’s likely your family has it’s own version. However, for us it’s such a staple—at showers, picnics, dinners, you name it!—that I thought I’d share it with you all, on the off-chance that you’ve never had the pleasure of tasting it!

Bok Choy Salad

This salad calls for full heads of both Bok Choy and leaf lettuce—it makes a LOT of salad. If you’re short on time (or just don’t feel like chopping), or wish to make a half-batch of this salad, you can substitute bags of classic salad mix (with lettuce, carrots, and cabbage) for the Bok Choy and lettuce. Use 32oz of mix for a half-batch of salad, or 64oz for the full recipe.

1 head Bok Choy, washed and chopped

1 head Lettuce, washed and chopped

8-10 scallions, washed and chopped

2 pkgs ramen noodles

2 oz sesame seeds

2 cups slivered almonds

4 T butter

Dressing:

¼ cup red wine vinegar

½ cup sugar

¾ cup oil (your favorite for dressings)

2 T soy sauce

In a LARGE bowl, combine the Bok Choy, lettuce, and scallions, set aside, or store covered in the refrigerator. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Break apart the ramen noodles into small pieces, leaving some larger hunks (about the size of a lima bean), save the flavor packet for another use. Add the ramen noodles, sesame seeds, and slivered almonds to the skillet, and sauté them in the melted butter until they’re golden brown. Set them aside on a paper towel to cool, and then store them in an air-tight container until you’re ready to use them. While the ramen topping is cooking, combine the dressing ingredients in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and cook until the sugar dissolves. Cool the dressing and then store it in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. 

When you are ready to serve the salad, combine the lettuces, the ramen topping, and the dressing in a LARGE bowl. Toss the salad until everything is coated well in dressing. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

I’ve shared many delicious food recipes with you, but I’ve just realized I’ve yet to offer you something to drink! Let’s rectify that, shall we?

Here’s a good, old-fashioned, standard punch recipe—no frills, no frou-frou ingredients, just a straight-up delicious party beverage. It will do your punch bowl proud.

Party Punch

1 (12 oz) can frozen Orange Juice concentrate, thawed
1 (12 oz) can frozen Fruit Punch concentrate, thawed
1 (12 oz) can frozen Lemonade concentrate, thawed
1 (12 oz) can frozen Raspberry Juice concentrate, thawed
1 (2-liter) bottle ginger ale (or club soda)

In a large container (or two pitchers, divided) combine the juices with 8 cans of water. This mixture can be refrigerated until you’re ready to serve your punch. To serve, fill your punch bowl half-way full with the juice mixture, and fill the remaining half with ginger ale. Stir to combine, and add ice or an ice ring if you’d like.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

Steal the show with this super trendy personalized Mommy-To-Be Sash. This sash is one of our best gifts for baby showers, very cute! Baby showers are the perfect reason for people to celebrate! So, why not stand out and make the mommy-to-be look her best with a beautiful personalized sash? Fashioned in crisp white satin with brown satin trim, this baby shower sash is sure to be a hit!

Over the years, we have been making the best, most versatile, baby shower stuff out of every company. We have these  adorable Lollipop Bouquets that are absolutely perfect for a baby shower favor, or a gift for the new parents. Not only do they serve as a great decoration, they are also incredibly tasty! Amazingly cute product!:)

My daughter turned four a few weeks ago, and she requested a garden party to celebrate the event. My menu-planning mind immediately switched into tea party mode and I started dreaming of delicate finger sandwiches and petit fours…and then I remembered half of our guest list were men who probably would be less-than-thrilled to see platters of teeny-tiny fancy food, delicious or not.

I had to find a happy medium. My goal was to offer some substantial snacks, while staying true to my bite-sized, simple finger food, original vision. I finally settled on a few different varieties of tortilla wrap sandwiches, sliced into (not too) thin rounds. These ham, spinach, and herbed cheese wraps were a big hit! They’re stuffed with plenty of ham and cheese so they’re satisfying, and I tucked some delicate green spinach leaves inside and cut the slices on the diagonal so I still ended up with a beautiful platter to fulfill my “fancy” vision.

Ham and Spinach Rolls

Of course, these rolls are highly adaptable—swap any of the components for your favorite ingredients. Have fun being creative…you guests will love you for it! The cheese I use here is found near the deli in most major grocery stores, but you can certainly make your own version using any soft cheese and your favorite herbs and seasonings.

 1 package 8-inch tortillas (I like whole wheat because they add a bit of sweetness)
1 lb deli ham, sliced thin (I used applewood smoked—yummy!)
1 package Original (Garlic and Herb) Boursin Cheese
2-3 cups washed baby spinach leaves, stems removed

Spread a thin layer of cheese on a tortilla. Layer on 2-3 slices of ham, overlapping to add some bulk to the wrap, leaving a small (1/2-inch) sliver of cheese exposed along one edge to help seal the wrap when you roll it up. Add a layer of spinach leaves, completely covering the ham. Roll the tortilla up, beginning on the side opposite from the exposed cheese. Roll the tortilla fairly tightly and set it aside, seam side down, to rest while you prepare the remaining tortillas.

Continue assembling the tortillas until you’ve used all your ham and cheese (you should have enough for 6-8 tortillas.) At this point, you can store the tortillas in the refrigerator until you are ready to place them on your platter—they’ll keep overnight, but I wouldn’t store them much longer than that or you risk the tortillas becoming soggy.

When you’re ready to serve the wraps, cut each slice at a 45º angle, “discarding” the ends (By discarding, I mean “eat them for lunch.”). I cut them about ¾-inch thick—you should cut them to your desired size. Then: devour!

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

Well, if you’re gonna have a party, you should probably have some good food on hand. And if you’re going to have good food on hand, you better have some fun-looking plates to eat it of off. And you’ve got some fun plates, you really ought to have some fun cups. And fun forks, spoons, and knives. And napkins.

And if you’re going to have all that, you should probably have a fun table cover. And a table skirt. And streamers. And balloons!

To sum up, if you’re going to have a party, you need party supplies. If that party happens to be a baby shower, SimplyBabyStuff.com has got you covered. They’ve got complete lines of party supplies to coordinate with an array of matching baby shower party themes. From placemats to name tags, everything you need is just a few clicks away. These high-quality party supplies will all but guarantee a memorable event.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

While decorations shouldn’t be the focus of the baby shower you’re throwing (there’s usually a soon-to-be mama involved), great visuals do make things a lot more fun. Decorations set the mood and help to make sure everyone’s ready for a good time. And it’s always so fun to see each guest’s reaction as they walk into the room you’ve gussied up for the special day.

Banners are always a great way to make a statement (literally!), but never underestimate the power of a great centerpiece. And if you happen to have balloons that match your banners and centerpieces (and your tableware, name tags, and party favors), well, then you’ve gone to decoration heaven.

SimplyBabyStuff.com has spent a lot of time thinking about decorations, and they’ve worked hard to develop great options for just about every decorative element you could think of. If you wanted, just about every inch of your party room could covered in super cute decorations. We’re not saying you should actually wallpaper the room with well wishes for the mother-to-be…but isn’t it nice to know you could?

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

All you moms out there are probably familiar with the excitement of your first ultrasound—a pregnancy milestone you never forget. It involves lying on a weird bed-like recliner thing and having a gallon of gelatinous goo globbed onto your belly, after which an ultrasound technician gently jabs said belly with a sensor thing and may or may not ask you to empty “half of your bladder” so they can get a better picture. Yes, it’s truly a magical experience for a mother-to-be.

Luckily, on a small-ish computer screen, you get a first glimpse at your (very) little baby and you might even get to see his or her (very) tiny heart beating. And you’ll probably get to take home a few printed pictures of the little person inside you. Then the real fun begins as you explain to all your friends and relatives that, yes, those fuzzy blobs on the printout are in fact your offspring (pre-spring).

Well, why not turn all that fun and excitement into a baby shower game? That’s exactly what SimplyBabyStuff.com did with their Itty Bitty Baby Parts Baby Shower Game. If you’re planning a baby shower, it’s a safe bet your quests will never have played this particular game—or laughed so hard while playing any shower game.

The Itty Bitty Baby Parts Baby Shower Game is a guessing game where players must figure out what baby part they’re looking at from a set of ultrasound pictures. Those ultrasounds can be pretty hard to decipher, and as you can imagine, many of those little parts look like other parts—thus the big time laugher.

For only $13.95, this one little baby shower game could be the least expensive yet most memorable part of your whole shower. You get 12 ultrasound cards, enough blank answer sheets for 25 guests, and of course, directions and the all-important answer key.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

It’s strawberry season! Hooray! I’m a big fan of berries, and I think strawberries top my list (particularly if they’re involved in some sort of shortcake/whipped cream concoction…). They’re so versatile—they can be incorporated into everything from a yummy spinach salad to creamy strawberry soup to sparkling beverages to a simple dip in chocolate. If you’re hosting a baby shower this summer, be sure to incorporate this delicious fruit into your menu…even if it’s just by offering a bowl of fresh juicy whole berries.

This delicious recipe is a perfect way to showcase the gorgeous strawberries to be found this time of year. A take on strawberry cheese cake, these “one-bite” morsels are pretty much perfect as is…or you can gild the lily (highly recommended) by dusting the filled berries with graham cracker crumbs or grated dark chocolate. Or dip them in chocolate! Or place them on small baked rounds of delicate puff pastry! Or…you get the picture. 

Stuffed Strawberries

1 pint fresh strawberries

1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened

½ cup powdered sugar

1-2 tsp pure vanilla extract (or almond extract)

Wash strawberries well and lay them out to dry. Meanwhile, combine the remaining ingredients with a mixer or a food processor until its smooth. Place it either into a piping bag with a large tip (a star tip is pretty!) or into a plastic sandwich bag with the corner cut off. Refrigerate the filling while you prepare the strawberries.

To assemble, cut the tops off your strawberries so you can stand them upright on the cut side. (Alternately, if your strawberries have pretty stems and leaves, or if you plan to dip them, leave the tops on and just lay them on their sides after they’ve been filled.) To open up the inside of the strawberries for filling, cut either a small wedge shape out of the tip of each berry, or make two intersecting (criss-cross) cuts from the tip to about ¾ of the way toward the now-bottom of the berry and gently fan the sections out a bit to create a pocket for the filling. Squeeze some filling into each strawberry, ending with a pretty dollop on top of the berry, and place them on a platter.

Cut berries tend to weep a bit of juice, so if you’d like to fill them way ahead of time, I’d suggest storing them in a paper towel-lined cake pan and then transferring them to your platter when you’re ready to serve them.

Enjoy!

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger

When my daughter walked for the first time, it was a beautiful summer day. My husband and I sat across from each other in soft green grass and took turns alternately holding her up and encouraging her to walk the three small steps over to us. Eventually, magically, she took those steps, and we all beamed at each other and gushed over how brilliant she was.

Such is life with your first child.

My son took his first steps the other day. I think. I mean, when I looked in to check on him in the family room, he was standing there grinning at me from near the coffee table, at a completely different angle than he would have been if he’d simply been leaning on the table. And he was a foot and half or so away from the table too—so I’m pretty sure he walked there. Or maybe he just stood up without holding onto anything? That would be a first too. Well, either way, he almost definitely had some sort of first that day. And it only took me until the next night to remember to tell my husband about it, at which point we beamed at each other and gushed over how brilliant he is.

 Such is life with subsequent children.

Posted by Shannon, a Dot-arilla Blogger