A Flu Season Soiree

It is never fun to have the flu, but it sure was fun to throw a flu themed dinner party! This flu season was no joke, and it went around our house and made us miserable.  When it was monthly dinner time, and we were finally all healthy, I decided it would make a fun theme, and it did not disappoint.  It was a great evening of laughter and fun with with my girlfriends.  

Invite: I found this cute image of a girl with the flu and designed my invitation around that.  Tried to pull in some flu-related terms like "sick" of winter, "coughing up" fun, and "spreading" great company. I asked guests to come in pajamas or comfy clothes like they would if they had the flu.  The girls loved this idea.

Decor:  This was a super easy theme to decorate for because I already had so many flu-related items in the house.  For the centerpiece, I used tissue boxes in matching colors and added fun sayings to the front of them.

I also set out Theraflu medicine boxes and Halls cough drop bags.

Along the table, I also spread cough drops like confetti.

For placecards, I made thermometers out of cardstock using my Cricut.  Instead of a temperature, I put the guest's name and used a font that mimicked the typical font on a thermometer.

Next to each thermometer, I crafted a card to match the designs on the invitation.  Each one had a different saying that pulled in flu-related terms.

As usual, I designed wine labels to match my theme. For the cabernet, I found a Flu Fighters logo that had two syringes meeting at the top, and used Photoshop to replace the syringes with wine glasses and the company logo with the sick girl image from my invitation.  I changed the wording to say "flu fighters favorite."  For the chardonnay, I created a symptom checklist with white wine filled glasses instead of check marks. I went with the saying "Sippin' Through the Symptoms" to pull in some alliteration.

Just for fun, I filled some fake syringes with wine. I already had these from my Fake an Injury theme monthly dinner back in 2012.

For wine charms, I found various images related to the flu and fighting the flu.

Menu:  Home sick often means a bowl of chicken noodle soup, so I decided to have fun with this idea with my appetizer.  I served a "dose" of chicken noodle soup using the mini plastic measuring cups that come with cough syrup.  

I heated a single can of soup and poured it into these for a fun shot or "dose" for each guest.

Have you heard of the BRAT diet?  The BRAT diet is a bland diet that is easy to digest, and it is recommended for during the stomach flu.  The letters stand for Banana, Rice, Apple, and Toast. I incorporate each of these as a menu item although I didn't go in order of the acronym.

T = Toast, so I made Toasted Bruschetta as an appetizer.  I cheated a purchased a jar of pre-made bruschetta from Trader Joes.  I sliced a loaf of french bread, broiled it briefly to toast it, and spooned the bruschetta on top.  I added some Italian seasoning on the top of each. Easy and delicious!

A = Apple.  We had an apple, walnut, and goat cheese salad with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing from Trader Joes.

R = Rice.  For the main dish, we had rotisserie chicken and wild rice.

B = Banana.  I made a Banana Cream Pie for dessert.  I used this recipe from Cincy Shopper.  For how easy it was to make, I was surprised how tasty it was.  We all really enjoyed it.

Favor: As a take home gift for guests, I had three items.  I had gift bags for guests to put them in with a tag on top that I designed to match my invitation.  It read "It's Flu Season.  Friendship is the Best Medicine."

A neighbor gave me empty pills bottles that I designed a label for using PhotoShop.  I added the warning labels to the label design like you see on some pill bottles.  My warnings were a glass of wine icon with "Should be Taken After Girls Night" and a smiley face icon with "Known Side Effects Happiness." I filled each bottle with Mike n Ike candies.

A second part of the favor was a mini packet of tissues.

The final part was a mini bottle of hand sanitizer. I designed a label for it with the sick girl graphic from my invitation and a saying that read "Sanitize to Be Flu Free and Fabulous."

Although a bit of a random theme, it was all in all a fun and funny night.  Hope you all stay healthy this flu season!

Operation: Girls Night

Here we are in what seems like week 800 of COVID-19, and I am aching for life to get back to normal or even semi normal. I miss seeing my friends in person.  I miss having my kids at school rather than at home to learn.  I miss teaching my own students at work and not through the computer.  Overall, this distance learning has me STRESSED!  With all the craziness of distance learning right now, I am in desperate need of a girls night!  Hence...Operation: Girls Night!

Invite:  We used to play the board game Operation when I was a kid.  I thought it might be a fun theme to work with for our girls night.  Turns out it was just what the doctor ordered (yes...corny joke time).  I created the invite with the color scheme to match the game (the original version).  I added some of the game pieces into the text of the invite as well.

Party Details:  Due to COVID we are still on Zoom for these dinners, so I am not doing table decorations, but I still try to add fun party details to play up the theme.  For my mini wine bottles for each guest, I purchased tweezers from the dollar store and tied them with ribbon to the top.  This was to simulate the tweezers attached to the wire that are used in the game.  

I created a wine label using "Cavity Sam" just as he appears on the game box, but with one small addition -- I added a body part/game piece.  This was the wine glass where the mouth is.  It was so small on the wine bottle I am sure most of the girls didn't even notice, but it made me chuckle!  I think I should have just included the head-shot of Cavity Sam like I did here, so it would have been more noticeable.  Hindsight, I guess. 

I don't typically serve bottled water to my guests, but one of the Operation game pieces is "Water on the Knee" so I decided to this time.  Just made a simple label and glued it over the already existing label.

For the napkin, I incorporated two of the Operation game pieces.  The pencil which in the game symbolizes "Writer's Cramp" and a rubber band which in the game is the "ankle bone connected to the knee bone."  After making the tag, I hot glued the pencil to the tag and then used the rubber band to keep it in place on the napkin.

Menu:  Several of the game pieces already go perfectly with foods, so that part was really easy.  Others I had to be a little bit creative.  After coming up with a meal that matched with the game pieces, I designed a menu on Photoshop.

I served an apple and Gorgonzola romaine salad with candied pecans and dried cranberries to represent the "Adam's Apple" game piece.  Since these dinners were picked up "to-go" style, I put the salad in zip lock baggies to keep is chilled and away from the hot food.  For the dressing, I bought the Wishbone brand of Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing to represent the wishbone game piece.  I put some in a to-go ramekin for guests.

For the main dish, I smoked ribs on my Traeger grill....so easy and delicious!  I followed the 3-2-1 Traeger Rib recipe.  Of course, these ribs represented the "Spare Ribs" game piece in the Operation game.  Along with ribs, I served heart-shaped potato bites.  I make potato bites all the time, but this time I used a cookie cutter to have them shaped like hearts to represent the "broken heart" game piece.  They were too cute to actually break, but the idea is there.

I also made these cute mini baskets to hold a roll for each guest. The "bread basket" is what the game piece calls the stomach with a the game piece shaped like a piece of toast.  These baskets are a ramekin I bought 3 for a $1 from the dollar store and then a piece of red cardstock that I taped to the inside of the ramekin.

For dessert, I made meringue chocolate chip cookies, but shaped them into "funny bones" to represent that Operation game piece.  I did the shaping by hand so they definitely weren't perfect, but they were sweet and tasty.

Favor:  I like to include a parting gift or favor with my monthly dinners.  I used the "Charlie Horse" game piece as inspiration for this.  I already had a horse mold from a previous monthly dinner (Kentucky Derby), so I used that one to make chocolate suckers.  

I added a tag with a tip from Cavity Sam: Avoid a Charlie Horse and attend Operation Girls Night.  It won't cramp your style!  Pretty cheesy, but my friends are use to that from me!

The girls stopped by my porch to pick up their food and goodies for the evening.  We met on Zoom and had a great time talking, laughing, and eating this yummy food. Overall, this theme was easy to put together.  I would totally recommend it for a fun girls night (especially if you could play the game).  It makes a great theme for a medical school graduation party too!

Thanks for reading my blog!

Connecting Amid Corona

I have been hosting monthly dinners for 13 years, so when COVID-19 shut down schools, events, and all other gatherings I needed to think creatively.  I still wanted to get together with my friends as we usually do every month, but I knew we couldn't do that in person as we always had.  I decided to host our dinner virtually, but did not want to leave out all of the creative aspects that make these dinners fun.  Read on to hear how I adapted...

Invite:  This virus is very serious, and I know that we are all constantly on edge about the dangers and the statistics in the news.  I wanted this dinner theme to play with the lighter side of this pandemic to bring smiles to my friend's faces rather than so much grim.  I designed the invitation with a Corona bottle with a surgical mask on and used green/yellow virus images.  As stated on the invite, I dropped off meals to each guest along with the other goodies I created for them.  Then we all got on Zoom to eat and swap stories as we normally would at monthly dinners.

Fun Details:  One of my favorite details of this dinner was my napkin.  I used empty toilet paper rolls and wrapped 6 squares of toilet paper around each one.  I secured it with a graphic I made that said "All I Can Spare'" Napkin.  With everyone freaking out about running out of TP and stores selling out, I thought this would add a bit of humor to the situation.

Another thing I created for the meal was a blow up of my guest's face and a surgical mask for the to-go container that had their meal.  I bought large to-go bowls at Target, measured the inside of the lid, and then used PhotoShop to manipulate each guest's photo to fit.  After printing, I cut them out and placed them on the lid.  I made the surgical masks with blue card stock and rubber bands.  The blue card stock was hard to fold and manipulate because it is thick, but it is all I had at home to use.  I would recommend using tissue paper or regular blue typing paper instead if you have it, but I didn't have these at home, and we are trying to stay inside during this quarantine.

Menu:  I wanted to serve a simple one-dish meal since I was dropping it off on each guest's porch. I decided to make chicken bowls.  I seasoned my chicken with a Corona-Lime marinade.  I used chicken thighs for my bowls because they are easy to keep tender even in reheating.  I marinated the chicken for about 8 hours, then placed it on a baking sheet.  I put it in the oven at 425 for 30 minutes.  I made cilantro lime rice (bottom of bowl).  The yellow onion, red, yellow, and orange peppers I also put in the oven for 30 minutes (same temp).  When assembling the bowls, I added black beans, cheese, avocado, a ramekin of pico de gallo, and a ramekin of sour cream.

I am currently on the Keto diet and two of my guest's are as well.  For these guests, I put a baggie of spinach/romaine salad (so they could take it out to heat the rest of the meal), baked chicken without the Corona-Lime marinade. and then the peppers, onions, cheese, and avocado.  The pico de gallo and sour cream they could include if they wanted.

For dessert, I made Corona Lime cupcakes.  These were pretty easy to make.  I couldn't taste them because of my diet, but the girls said they were super tasty.

For a favor, I was going to give hand sanitizer, but I couldn't find it on my one trip to Target.  I went with bars of soap instead as it is so important to wash your hands during this time.  I created a cute tag with a silly little poem -

Although we must be far apart

You monthly dinner girls are in my heart.

Can't wait to see you tonight on Zoom

So wash your hands & join our chat room!

Once everything was assembled, it was time for delivery. I mapped out my drive to try to be as efficient as possible delivering to 5 cities and 8 houses. I left the items on their doorstep and texted them as I left to let them know it was there.

Did you know Corona also makes hard seltzers?  I didn't, but I discovered this at the grocery when I did all the dinner shopping.  I gave these to the Keto girls as they have zero sugar or carbs.

Then it was 7:00 and time for our Zoom meeting of this monthly dinner!  We ate, we chatted, we laughed, we all had a great time.  Not as great as in person, but still great.  We even had one of our monthly girls who moved to Texas be able to join our chat and catch up.

Grateful for the ability to spend moments like these with my friends even amid this terrible pandemic.  Keeping connected is so important to bring joy in times of stress and anxiety. Be sure to call or video chat will all those you can during this quarantine.