blue cheese sauce for buffalo wings and what I love most in the world

You know what I love most in the entire world?
(Apart from my husband, the girls, sav blanc from the Marlborough region, the knock-off blue castello from Aldi and.... oh never mind....)

You know what I really like? Surprises.

This weekend we celebrated the girls' seventh and fourth birthdays with a cowboy-themed party.

Why a cowboy theme?
1) The Big Sister's current career aspiration is to be a cowgirl when she grows up, and
2) I'll actively encourage any party that doesn't involve a certain ice princess.

Saturday dawned and I had an army of happy helpers; Dad was icing the sherrif's star cake, Mum was doing her hundredth load of washing up and my father-in-law Howard said he was off to the shops. "Would I like anything?"

As luck would have it, I was out of icing sugar. So Howard popped off to the shops and fetched me a bag of white powder. I noticed that he disappeared again after that, but faced with a cactus cookie dilemma, I promptly forgot about it.

That was until, a red-haired cowgirl wearing cow print chaps appeared at our back door.

Surprise #1: Aunty Erin! All the way from Canberra!

I cried while the girls had a more appropriate reaction and cuddled her.

My sneaky father-in-law hadn't been going to the shops at all, but to the bus stop to pick up the surprise package. Turns out I'd thrown a spanner in the works when I'd taken him up on his offer.

Bearhands promptly put his sister to work on the mower and we continued cursing cactus cookies and creating campfire cupcakes.

Then, Mum drew the kids attention to the window. There appeared to be a horse in the paddock.

 Surprise #2: Uncle Ant had brought his horse Peppe to the party.

(I knew about this one, so I didn't cry but I did get a bit get a bit teary looking at the Big Sister's reaction in these photos.)

Uncle Ant took the Big Sister for a quick ride, then asked her to go back inside.

He had one more surprise. He'd spent the past weeks constructing a bucking bull for the party. Surprise #3: homemade bucking bull.

In my book nothing says love like a homemade bucking bull with false eyelashes and a red heart spray painted on it's rump.

The kids had a ball. 

Then after the kids went home, the adults had a ball. Keeping with the cowboy theme I served ribs and buffalo wings with blue cheese dipping sauce for dinner.

blue cheese sauce for buffalo wings

Ingredients:

150g mild blue cheese (I'm partial to the knock-off castello from Aldi)
½ cup (125g) sour cream
½ cup (125g) mayonnaise (whole egg please peeps)
2 cloves of garlic crushed
½ teaspoon Worchestershire sauce

Method:

Whack all the ingredients in a bowl and stir. Serve with buffalo wings and cold beer by the fire.

Surprise #4 came later, when I attempted to ride the bucking bull and it wiggled so much I fell off before I began. But Bearhands argues that came as no surprise to anyone!

do you love surprises?

any good on a bucking bull?