A Super Nerdy Baby Shower!

My friend J is due to have a baby in November, so I hosted a baby shower for her at our house earlier this month.  J is a chemistry professor, and I'm a geologist, and we're both giant nerds, with a bunch of nerdy friends.  J is going to be having a beautiful baby girl, but since neither of us are girly-girls, I wanted to avoid the pink-plosion and keep things more fun and less gender-specific. And thus, the Super-Nerdy-Baby-Shower was born.

Mini Reese's "pies", Nerds in test tubes, "Sucrose" Candy, and a print of this book that doesn't exist but totally should, which went home with the mom-to-be.

I wanted to encompass a wide array of nerdy themes, because we are all-inclusive nerds.  It doesn't matter your particular brand of nerd--you are welcome here.  Star Wars, Trekkies, scientists, comic book hoarders, book lovers, and gamers unite!  ...but in a relatively laid-back, low-maintenance kind of way, because I'm still in the process of moving, and planning my own son's birthday party, on top of work and all that jazz.  Life is crazy, yo.  So let's have a fun gathering and play some fun games and eat some fun food that's got a nerdy spin to it.  

DECORATIONS:
I bought a large blank banner to create a high chair decoration for Lil' Man's birthday party, and saved the rest of it for this party.  After much ponderance of the periodic table of elements, I was able to spell a word that was *mostly* composed of periodic elements (alphabetic order cheat sheet if you need it).

New element #110: Gr ..."Growinapersonium"?

Then I borrowed a few labels from my office to give the house a touch of a "laboratory" feel.

In the event my boss reads this post--yes, I returned all of the labels unharmed for use on actual projects.

FOOD:
I probably had the most fun with this element.  There were so many great ideas out there, it was really hard to whittle things down. But ultimately, I went with a lot of pre-made foods, because I knew I was going to be limited on time.  Then I added fun nerdy themes to those food trays.

Cake truffles from AmyCakes in a nod to Star Trek.

Technically, it was a 5 Leia dip, but whatevs.  Also, pita chips for "KRUNCH!", DNA pasta helixes, and Element #111: Ch (cheese).

Lemon Oreo "Coins" and Super Star suckers.  Templates for the cubes here.

The "POP" station, and some "PUNCH" (ginger ale, orange juice, Orange Crush, and pomegranate juice). Free printables for comic book word bubbles here. 

Since J is of Jewish heritage, I also decided to make hamentashen cookies.  Not inherently "nerdy", but I thought it would be cool to throw some culture up in this party, too. I was a little nervous about making this recipe, since it's not my heritage, but the mom-to-be told me they turned out great, so apparently this Gentile can cook some decent cookies (with the help of a recipe provided by the mom-to-be).  (Note: recipe at the bottom of this post.)

GAMES:
I've been to a lot of baby showers in my day.  And I've played a lot of baby shower games.  Most of which were either: 
a) gross ("Guess This Melted Candy Bar in a Diaper" or "Taste this Baby Food", for example), 
b) involved way too much physical activity ("Chug this Beverage from a Baby Bottle", "Lick This Ice Cube & Yell 'My Water Broke'", "Toilet Paper Diaper Race", etc.), or 
c) were potentially insulting to the mom-to-be (i.e. the "Guess Mom's Waist Circumference" game, which seems totally inappropriate in ANY situation, let alone around an uncomfortable, hormonal woman).  

We'll have none of that, thank you very much. Rather, how about a skill that might actually *help* the mom-to-be, and that other moms at a baby shower might have some experience with?  Like...say...

THE PRICE IS RIGHT: BABY EDITION!

I'll say right now: I totally stole this idea of Pinterest.  But come on--Price Is Right has a good ol' nostalgic feel--who hasn't stayed home sick from school and yelled "ONE DOLLAR!!!" at their TV screen?  The mom-to-be and all the other attendees get to try to assign the prices to each baby-related item.  The guest who gets the most right wins a door prize, and the mom-to-be gets...A NEW CAR!!!  Okay, no.  But she does get to keep ALL of the items on the table.  So there's that!

And of course, because J is one of my friends from our old Wednesday night trivia team (TheBomb.com), a round of baby-related trivia seems appropriate.

I also appropriated baby photos from each of the guests who attended ahead of time, and put together a "guess who's who" game.

Here's a hint---this one is me.

If you're interested in throwing a similar party, I got all of my fonts from FontSpace.com (In Particular: Star Jedi, Montalban, Trek Arrowcaps, Chemistry, BPMolecules, and Super Plumber Brothers.)

Now...I promised you a recipe, didn't I?

Hamentashen Cookies 

(makes about 2 dozen)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup margarine (or light butter)

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 Tbsp orange juice (no pulp)

1.25 cups white flour

1.25 cups wheat pastry flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

jam for filling (I used raspberry jam since it was the mom-to-be's favorite, but you could do just about anything)

Directions:
Combine the butter and sugar, then add the egg & orange juice and mix well.  Mix in the baking powder & cinnamon.  Now start adding in the flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, alternating between the white and wheat. 

Refrigerate for about an hour, or up to overnight.  When ready to bake, heat the oven to 350F.  Then roll out on a well floured surface and cut into 3-4 inch circles (I used a small glass).  Place the circles on a greased or silpat-ted cookie sheet.  

Place a small dollop (about a teaspoon) of jam in the middle, and then fold into a triangle, using a "pinwheel" type pattern (think of folding a box so that the flaps keep the top shut rather than having to tape it), so that one end of the flap is on top of the previous, but the other end of the flap is tucked under the next flap.  Then pinch the corners a bit so there's a good seal.  This will help keep the cookies from opening up while baking so the filling doesn't leak out.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, so that the cookies are nice & golden, but before the filling bubbles out.

Jalapeno Bacon Deviled Eggs

Our friends recently decided to host a throwback 50s style cocktail party, and it was SERIOUSLY fun.  We got a babysitter for the evening so we could live it up like some wild & crazy kids! 

As part of the plan, all attendees were required to dress in their 50s finery, bring an appetizer, and a bottle of booze so we could craft classic cocktails (more on that later...probably on a Thursday?) 

I'm so proud of my group of friends--we went all out with the period-appropriate appetizers.  There was a pineapple-shaped cheese ball, puffed pastries, a crock full of meatballs, even a seafood aspic terrine (aka "meat jello").  

One of the tastiest cheeseballs I've ever had.

We were all a bit intimidated by the terrine--myself because I'd sworn off aspic after working with them at Martin's in New Orleans.  However, I decided to be brave--and I'm glad I did because it was a truly tasty work of art.

Be brave, H & C!

For our part, I used my mom as inspiration--and deviled eggs are always her go-to.  But, we decided to mix it up a bit, and make jalapeno bacon deviled eggs.  NOTE: We have a few friends who are vegetarian, so I made half the batch sans bacon, and topped these with sliced pickled okra to separate them from the bacon-laden ones.

Seriously wish I had one of those old-skool deviled egg trays!  Might have to see if I can track one down at the thrift shop.

We got a ton of compliments on these, so I'm thinking it might now my MY go-to gathering fare.  Our recipe was "pinspired" by this recipe, but I tweaked it a fair bit so my recipe is below.

INGREDIENTS:
1 dozen large eggs, hard-boiled, cut in half
3/4 cup Light Miracle Whip
1/4 cup yellow mustard
8-10 pickled jalapeno rings, seeds removed, minced
1-2 tsp brine from pickled jalapeno jar
1/2 tsp sugar
6 pieces bacon, cooked (I used thick cut applewood smoked bacon) NOTE: If you decide to make half your batch vegetarian friendly, only use 3 slices of bacon.
1/2 tsp smoked paprika, plus more for decoration
1 thin/young green onion, minced for decoration (I used a young shoot from my windowsill green onion jar)
2 pickled okra, sliced (optional, use for decoration if you're making half the batch vegetarian)

DIRECTIONS:
Remove the yolks from the halved eggs, and place into a small bowl.  Then add the Miracle Whip, mustard, brine, sugar, and paprika, and whip until smooth. Tweak spices to taste--I like my deviled eggs to have a good "twang" from the mustard.  Now add in the minced jalapenos and stir until well combined.

Cook the bacon, pat off any excess grease, and then crumble, saving 12-24 larger crumbles for decoration (depending on whether you make the full batch with bacon or not).

If you're making only half with bacon, then at this point, scoop half of your mixture into a ziploc bag, and then snip off the end to use it as a piping bag.  Pipe the mix into half your egg halves.  If there's any leftover in the bag, place it back in the bowl.

Now add in the crumbled bacon (except what's reserved for decoration) and mix well.  Place all of the remaining mix into the piping bag, and finish filling the rest of the eggs.

Now top the bacony eggs with a piece of bacon (you could also add an extra slice of pickled jalapeno if you like), and top the non-bacon eggs with the slices of pickled okra.  Dust the entire tray with paprika and minced green onions.

If you don't have a fancy deviled egg tray, you can use a 8x8 or 9x11 pan and place paper towels in the bottom.  The towels will absorb any excess moisture and keep them from slipping around in the pan.

P.S. A bonus shot of that seafood aspic...because I know you wanted a close up. ;P

Crab, shrimp, corn, tomato, avocado and cilantro.  It tasted similar to ceviche so I actually loved it.