Thank You for Being a Friend - Golden Girls Theme!

The world was saddened by news of Betty White's passing New Year's Eve.  She was an iconic superstar with an amazing sense of humor.  As a child, I loved watching The Golden Girls, and she would crack me up with her silly responses as Rose.  I decided The Golden Girls would be a fun theme for our monthly dinner and it truly was fun to put together.

Invite: I designed the invitation on Photoshop using some images I found online.  I incorporated some iconic phrases and lines from The Golden Girls episodes to add to theme.  With the surges in COVID cases, we decided to host this dinner on Zoom rather than in person.  I would have loved to have had the chance to decorate the table Miami-style with some afghans around the room for fun, but we decided to be caution and keep it virtual.

Party Details:  I created the mini wine bottles labels to match the invitations with the four main character faces along the top.  For the white wine, I used Sophia's iconic phrase "slut puppy" with the words Drink Up above it.  For the red wine, I used a phrase that Dorothy said to Rose, "Go to sleep, sweetheart and pray for brain."  I just added "or red wine" to the end of it.

For my napkins, I used another famous quote from Rose that makes me laugh.  Rose says, "The older you get, the better you get...unless you're a banana".  I designed a tag with this quote and wrapped a bright pink napkin around a banana to give to guests.

Menu:  The character Sophia in the series consistently speaks of her younger years being raised in Sicily.  She likes to good Italian food, so this is what I decided to serve for our dinner.  I created this menu to put on top of the boxed meals so guests would know how the food related to theme.

I started with a salad I called Blanche's "You look like a Prostitute" Slutty Salad.  This comment was said by Sophia to Blanche in one episode, and it is so reflective of both of their characters.  This was a simple green salad with diced red peppers, cucumbers, croutons, and Italian dressing on the side.  I used a lip-shaped cookie cutter to cut one large red pepper for lips as well.

I found an easy lasagna recipe online to make for what I termed Sophia's "Picture it...Sicily 1922" Lasagna.  I found the recipe here.  It was tasty and not difficult to make once you have all the ingredients.  I was able to serve the nine guests as well as my family.  Alongside the lasagna I served a bread roll pretending it was from St. Olaf Bakery.

Cheesecake is the obvious choice for dessert, since The Golden Girls are always eating cheesecake during their late night chats.  I cheated this time and just purchased a cheesecake from Costco which I never do.  I just added some raspberries and called my dessert "RaspBETTY White Cheesecake."

Favor:  When I was thinking about what to make for a favor for this party, I ran across this cute purse pattern on Etsy.  I printed the purse on photo paper, cut it out, and folded it to create this purse.  I wonder if it would look better and fold better using card stock, but my printer prints pretty dull on card stock, so I opted for photo paper.  I filled the purses with gold Hershey kisses for The Golden Girls.

This would be a great theme for a Golden birthday.  I had so many ideas for decorations and other things that I was not able to do since we had the party on Zoom.  Either way, it was a fun theme and spending time with my friends is always Golden!