A Birthday Celebration! Low Country Boil, Vanilla Cupcakes and other goodies…

My family seems to have birthdays in waves…the first wave starts in January with my grandfather and ends 6 birthdays later at the end of February with my daughter Gina. The next wave is late summer with my brother, my son Sammy, my niece and my dad all within 2 weeks of each other. Yesterday we celebrated Birthday Wave 2 at my house. Unfortunately my dad wasn’t able to come, that is the price of owning a family restaurant, it’s so hard to get time off, but we made sure he got his cupcake sent home to him. This birthday celebration was extra special because it was my adorable niece Chloe’s First Birthday! It was a great afternoon of splashing in the pool, and of course eating.

I’ve been wanting to try Paula Deen’s Low Country Boil for quite some time now. It seemed like a good way to feed a crowd and is fairly easy as far as preparation. We all love shrimp (except my mom, but she wasn’t able to come either) and really enjoyed this. I can’t wait to make it again! You can find the recipe in her original Lady and Sons cookbook as well as her Paula Deen Celebrates cookbook.

Low Country Boil
Recipe by Paula Dean

1/4 lb fully cooked smoked sausage per person, cut into 1″ pieces (I used Turkey Kielbasa)
1/4 cup Old Bay seasoning, or more to taste
2 small new potatoes per person
1 ear fresh corn per person, shucked, silked and broken in half
1/2 pound large fresh shrimp per person, shell on (I used frozen shrimp and they were great!)

Fill a LARGE pot (I had to use 2 pots – I’m in the market for a very large pot now!) with enough water to cover all of the ingredients. Add the sausage and Old Bay seasoning and allow to boil for about 20 minutes so that the sausage can flavor the water. Taste, and add more Old Bay if you think you need more. Add the potatoes and boil for about 15 minutes. Add the corn and boil about 10 minutes more. Finally add the shrimp and allow to cook for 3 minutes. Taste a shrimp and if it is cooked through, drain immediately and serve on an oversize platter.

We served ours with cocktail sauce and tartar sauce.

In addition to the shrimp boil, my sister brought some delicious salads – a guacamole salad and a honey mustard coleslaw…I am trying to get the recipes from her so I can share those. We also had the Three Bean Salad I made the night before.

I made some ribs too…I’m pretty novice to making ribs, this is my third time. Before making them the first time, I did a lot of research on the web to learn different techniques. I settled on slow cooking them in the oven and then finishing them off on the grill. I put a rub on them made of chili powders, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper, place them on a rack in a roasting pan and pour a bottle of beer in the pan. I seal them tight with aluminum foil, then bake at 225 for about 2 hours. I then take them out of the oven and let them sit for a while longer in the sealed pan. When we are ready to throw them on the grill, I baste them liberally with our favorite BBQ sauce then grill both sides till the sauce caramelizes. They have come out great every time but I want to hear about your favorite way to make ribs!

Of course, we needed some cupcakes to finish off our celebration. I chose a simple Vanilla Cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food and topped it with Cinnamon Vanilla frosting. I decorated using sugar crystals…Orange and Blue for Saturday’s Gator victory and a pretty Purple for our sweet Chloe!