Puzzle Party - Piecing Together Great Times

The monthly dinners are a fun evening each month with 10 of my close girlfriends, and they are a chance for us to catch up, laugh, and just have a good time together.  The monthly dinner for this month fell only a week after the passing of my dad, so it came at a time when I needed a little joy and friendship.  I wanted to find a small way to honor my dad with this month's dinner theme, but to do so in the positive spirit and joy typical of my monthly dinners.  I decided to host a jigsaw puzzle themed dinner as my dad was a huge fan of puzzles, and I loved doing them with him and my mom.

Invite: I found an image of a heart puzzle and designed my invitation around that.  I added words on each piece that I associate with our monthly dinners and came up with "Piecing Together Great Times" as my slogan for the evening.  The puzzle piece graphic at the bottom I used to include the details.  For this dinner I thought it might be fun to do a puzzle swap, so I asked guests to bring a new or used puzzle with them to the dinner.

Decorations:  I used the colors of the invitation as my party colors.  I had a red tablecloth and used yellow accents.  

For the centerpiece, I put together a 300 piece puzzle to use as a base.  Then I purchased two puzzles from the Dollar Store and used these pieces to fill vases and added fresh flowers.  I didn't include any water, so I did have to take the pieces out and add water after the party.

Alongside the vases, I placed boxes of puzzles I already owned to add to the decor.

As place cards, a friend of mine agreed to use his amazing woodworking skills to cut out puzzle pieces and stands and include the guests name on each piece.  It is so nice to be surrounded with talented people that are willing to help at every turn.  Check out his website: johnscustomww.com

For napkin rings, I glued 3 small puzzle pieces from the Dollar Tree puzzle to a piece of cardstock to wrap around the napkin.

It was fun designing the wine labels for this dinner. For the red wine, I found a puzzle of a red wine bottle and glass.  I put this in the center and added text around it: One Piece = One Sip?  I am always bargaining with myself when I do puzzles to complete a certain number of pieces to earn a reward, and I am sure I am not the only one that does this!  For the white wine, I used the text "Chardonnay...An Essential Piece that fits with any meal."  I designed  two puzzle pieces with a white wine bottle, a glass, and lips to show that these 3 things fit well together.

For wine charms, I used PhotoShop to create puzzle pieces in various colors, and put each guest's name on them.  I had to play with the size a bit to make sure it fit on the stem of the wine glass without falling off, but it worked.  At first I used real puzzle pieces, but decided that no one was really going to remember which random piece was theirs, so I needed to have names on them.  That's why I went with this idea instead.

Menu:  Instead of having menu tags to label each dish like I usually do for my monthly dinners, I decided to make each item a puzzle.  Each guest paired up with another guest to put together a puzzle of part of the menu.

We started off with a pear salad.  I used this recipe for the salad and dressing from Gimme Some Oven.  I loved the dressing and the salad with the gorgonzola, fresh pears, avocado, and candied walnuts.  Will definitely make it again.

For the main dish, I served Pork Tenderloin with a Balsamic Glaze.   I mostly used the recipe from Primavera Kitchen, but I put the foil wrapped tenderloin outside on the grill instead of heating up my house with the oven.  

As side dishes, I served steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes.

My dad loved ice cream, so since I was honoring him with this dinner theme, I decided to have a simple ice cream bar for our dessert.  We had vanilla or chocolate chip ice cream, cherries, nuts, sliced bananas, whipped cream, caramel syrup, and chocolate syrup.  

I also used a chocolate mold to make colorful puzzle pieces for guests to eat or put on their sundae.

Activity:  I didn't get a chance to set up the activity I had initially planned for this monthly dinner, but wanted to include it here because I think it would be a fun idea.  Often my parents and their couples group at church would host puzzle parties.  They would have several card tables, each with a different puzzle, and guests would rotate around the room at times to work on different puzzles and converse with different guests.  A cool idea if it works for your group.

Favor:  I had fun making the parting gift for my guests.  I created a collage on PhotoShop of images from the invitations from the last two years of monthly dinners, and made a puzzle for each guest to take home.  Instead of putting them in a bowl, I used a puzzle. Here is what the finished puzzle looked like when put together. 

I designed it to be 5x7.5", so it would fit perfectly onto 11 wide popsicle sticks.  After printing the image, I lined up the popsicle sticks and taped the back to keep them in place.  Then I used modge podge to adhere the design to the sticks and to cover the design in a gloss to protect it.  Once dry, my husband used an exacto knife to slice apart each stick.  I put them together randomly, tied them with a ribbon, and attached a puzzle shaped tag I made on PhotoShop.  

It was another great dinner with friends, and a beautiful way to celebrate my dad's love of puzzles.

Red, White, & You - A Tasty Tribute to Rhyming Words

With fourth of July in a few days, I decided to theme my monthly dinner around this holiday, but with a twist.  I hosted a Red, White, and ________ Party where everything from decor to food to attire was supposed to rhyme with blue.  It was so much fun to put together, all the food was delicious, and the girls really had some fun with their rhyming "blue" attire.

Invite: I chose a simple patriotic bunting to top the invitation and then used red, white, and blue throughout.  I wanted guests to understand the idea of this party and that the "blue" would be replaced with another rhyming word.  I tried a spinner wheel, but that didn't look right on the invite.  I ultimately decided on a drop-down menu to show guests that it could be red, white, and "BLUE" or "YOU" or "CREW," etc.  I used this drop-down menu throughout many of the party details.  On the invitation, I also tried to incorporate some more words that rhymed with blue such as "rendezVOUS," "VENUE," and "VIEW."

I thought it might be fun to ask guests to dress in attire for the party that rhymed with blue.  I gave them some examples on the invite, but also let them know that they could just wear blue if they couldn't think of anything.  Pictured above you see a boy named SUE, myself dressed with a patriotic TUTU and a HAIKU on my shirt, and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss.

We also had two guests who wore items from their recent trips to OAHU, a guest with a BLUE dress and fun HAIRDO, and a BARBECUE chef among other rhymes.

Decorations: I used a red tablecloth and white plates and created a centerpiece with items that rhymed with blue.

I started with the board from a game of CLUE.  I bought red, white, and blue fake flowers and placed them in "vases" of RAGU pasta sauce,  a bottle of SHAMPOO, and a bottle of Mountain DEW.  Yes, I wasted the pasta sauce in that I just threw it out after the party, but I thought the jar looked better full of sauce than empty.  On the table, I also had a box of TISSUE and a bottle of GLUE that I made labels for.

For place cards, I came up with a CLUE that described each guest with a rhyme rather than just listing names.  Each guest had to figure out which rhyme matched with them to figure out where to sit.  It was fun to come up with fun or funny short phrases for them.

With the napkin, I made a napkin ring with Red, White, and the face of PIKACHU.  Kinda silly, but it rhymes with blue!

For the wine labels, I tried to think of even more blue rhymes.  I designed the label for the white wine with the same drop-down menu idea from the invitations inviting guests to "chase the red, white, and BLUES away with some chardonnay."  For the red wine, I came up with a simple rhyme "A rich bold HUE to bid woes ADIEU."

For wine charms, but printed off various brand logos or things that I could think of that rhymed with blue.  For my dinner, these included: igloo, Shamu, Hulu, Subaru, Pooh, Yahoo, Taboo, Clue, Peru, and zoo.

Menu: The menu (notice even menu rhymes) I chose for this dinner was delicious!  For these dinners I more often than not, try new recipes.  I don't get to do that very much with my own picky family, so monthly dinners give me that opportunity!  This dinner was no exception as all the menu items were recipes I had not tried before.  I started with a blue cheese dip for Red, White, & FONDUE. If you like blue cheese, this dip was amazing.  If you don't like it, then this recipe is not for you.  I found the recipe at Dash of Sanity.  The only change I made to the recipe was that I used smoked blue cheese instead of regular (as I love smoky flavor) and because it was a fondue, I served it with French bread cubes.

For the main dish I served Red, White & BARBECUE Chicken.  I wanted to make my own bbq sauce and tried the recipe from All Recipes for Best BBQ chicken.  The marinade paste and the sauce were easy to make and could be made ahead of time.  The only changes I made to this recipe was that I served chicken breasts instead of drumsticks, and I used apple cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar because that is what I had in my cupboard.  My husband volunteered to grill the chicken and baste it as it was grilling.  It was so good.

As a side dish, I made Red, White, & BREW (beer) potatoes.  I found the recipe for these Beer Potatoes at Cookist.  These potatoes were easy to make and tasted great.  

Another side was a pasta salad I titled Red, White, & CORKSCREW Pasta Salad.  I found the recipe for this Tri Color Pasta Salad on Food, Folks, & Fun.  Having a pasta salad I could make the night before allowed me to have more time with my friends rather being stuck in the kitchen doing prep. I followed this recipe, but also added garbanzo beans.  

I titled my dessert Red, White, & TIRAMISU.  I went the easy route and just purchased an already made tiramisu from Costco instead of making it myself.  Only challenge was getting it out of the package and having it look nice on the plate!  It was really tasty though and not something I usually serve at my monthly dinners, so it was a nice change.

Party Activity/Game:  Before we had dessert, we played a couple rounds of TABOO which was really fun.  We didn't have teams or anything, we just sat at the table and everyone guessed.  Then we took turns with who was the clue giver.  

Favor: With the 4th of July later in the week, I decided my party favor would be patriotic TATTOOs.  I found really inexpensive ones on Amazon.  

The first ones I bought arrived and they were very dark colors, so I returned those and purchased a couple of this set of 8 sheets.  The were bright and festive, and since the party was prior to July 4th, the guests could easily use them to celebrate the holiday. I used the same drop-down idea and was able to include a thank YOU and tribute to this Monthly Dinner CREW.

We had a great time at this dinner and it was really fun to put together. I got most of my ideas after looking up rhyming words on the internet and then figuring out how I could incorporate those words.  The challenge was fun.  Happy 4th Everyone!

Bridgerton Ball

Part 1 of season 3 of the popular Netflix show Bridgerton was recently released with the second half set to stream this week.  I have enjoyed watching this show as I always love period dramas and over-the-top love stories, and this show has both.  I decided it might be fun to host a Bridgerton themed dinner for this month's monthly dinner, and it did not disappoint.  We had a great time dressing up, eating delicious food, and laughing at some of the party details I put together.

Invitation: The Bridgerton family is often seen in purple and lavender flowers adorn their home, so I wanted to incorporate these flowers into the invitation.  I also incorporated a Lady Whistledown image into the center of the invite. I found some of these images online and just adapted them to fit with the look I wanted.  I tried to use regency era wording like "soiree" and "finest frock" as well as some others.  I mixed fonts between a font like the Bridgerton logo for the show and a fancy script to match the time period.

The ladies and I had fun dressing up with our fancy jewelry and dresses for this dinner.  It wasn't full costume or anything as I didn't want my guests to have to purchase items.  The girls did a great job adding fun jewelry, fancy gloves, and hats to their dresses.  I borrowed my dress from a neighbor, and it was perfect for the regency era.

Decorations: Oh what fun I had finding decorations for this dinner.  Every ball or dinner party in the show is elaborate with gold, candles, and flowers everywhere, so I definitely wanted to try to recreate that for this dinner.  

I purchased fake flowers to lay out as a table runner and a gold bow decoration from Michaels.  

I borrowed the gold candle sticks, candelabra, and vases from a neighbor and used Ikea plants I already had around the house to place inside those vases.  The white pillar candles I already had from previous parties.

I borrowed my mom's fine china for the place settings, and they were perfect - pastel flowers and many with gold trimmings on the edges.

On each place setting I wrote a Lady Whistledown issue about our party and our party guests.  I tried to think of gossipy things about each guest.  It was super fun to write (with some help from ChatGPT on some of the entries), and the party guests got a kick out of reading the silly happenings or habits.  Here is a sample of part of one of the entries with the last name changed:

"Meanwhile, it has come to this humble writer’s attention that our very own Lady Smith  has been engaging in activities that would surely cause a raised eyebrow or two among the ton. Sightings have been reported of her indulging in a glass (or perhaps bottle) of boysenberry wine, savoring its rich, tangy notes well into the night. What, you may ask, has been keeping our night owl’s attention? None other than the charming escapades of Neal Caffrey in the delightful series “White Collar.”

For place cards I made Dance Cards like the unmarried ladies wear at the balls in the Bridgerton series. I designed the front and back on PhotoShop using a Bridgerton family crest with the bee and found flowers in pink and purple shades to match my table.  I used my Cricut to cut out the circles as well as the filagree frame, glued them together, and added a purple ribbon for around the wrist. I placed these on flowered napkins I purchased at Daiso.

I designed my wine labels on PhotoShop with Regency era backgrounds and designs.  Lady Whistledown is known for "spilling the tea" or writing gossip in her columns, so I used that phrase to encourage guests to "Spill the Tea, but Drink the Wine."  For the white wine, I simply called it Lady Whistledown's White Wine to play with alliteration and added that it was "the delight of the ton."  For those that aren't familiar with the show, the "ton" refers to the elite class of British society during the Regency era.

For wine charms, I made silhouettes similar to the heading of Lady Whistledown's writings for each guest.  I tried to find a silhouette that looked like the guest, added the word Lady with the guest's name below, and then Society Pages just as is written on Lady Whistledown's issues.

Menu:  I wanted to serve very elaborate foods at this dinner since Bridgerton Balls are very elaborate.  This did cause me to spend quite a bit of money on groceries, but everything was delicious and liked by all.  I named each menu item after a character in Bridgerton and added a common adjective often used on the series. I started with an appetizer I titled Queen Charlotte's Brilliant Brie and Berries that I designed to look like Queen Charlotte who is known for her high and elaborate wigs.  I used the round brie for her face placing doilies under the bottom half for a royal collar.  Then I used blackberries and edible flowers to create her wig.  I used my Cricut to cut out a gold crown to add as well. 

With it being summertime, I decided to serve a light summer salad I called Simon's Swoonworthy Salad. It was simple to make and delicious. I will definitely be making it again.  You can find the recipe here at Simple Joy.  The salad included romaine lettuce, raspberries, blueberries, goat cheese, walnuts (I candied them), and was topped with a lemon poppyseed dressing. I left out the radishes from the recipe as I am not a fan of their taste.

For the main dish, I made beef wellington which I called Lady Whistledown's Wondrous Wellington. I chose this recipe because it had fewer ingredients than many of the others I found.  It is somewhat time consuming to prepare and not much can be done in advance, but it was very tasty.  I tripled the recipe which was a good call because it really does only make 4 servings. 

Alongside the beef wellington, I made duchess potatoes.  These are easy to make and can be prepared sightly ahead of time, so that was helpful.  I love that they look regal which fit the theme.  I called these Penelope's Picturesque Potatoes.

I also served asparagus which I called Anthony's Alluring Asparagus.

For dessert, I made individual Chocolate Lava Cakes.  I was able to make these ahead of time and had them sitting in the refrigerator until it was time to put them in the oven.  They took longer to bake than the recipe said, but were very good.  I served them with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and called them Daphne's Dazzling and Decadent Dessert.

Favor: Bath and Body Works currently is selling a line of Bridgerton candles, soaps, and sprays.  They happened to be running a sale on the soaps, so this became my party favor.  Guests could choose between the Diamond of the Season, Wisteria Garden, Bridgerton Study, or Queen Charlotte's Tea scents.  

I added a tag to each bottle in Lady Whistledown language which read, "Your attendance enhanced the evening's allure and added a touch of refinement and delight to the festivities.  Yours Truly, Lady Whistledown."

This was a super fun theme with Bridgerton music in the background, an elegant table, and friends laughing at our dresses and accessories.  Not all of the guests had watched the show (although a few binged watch a bit before the party), but it was totally not necessary for the evening and we all had a great time.  Guests loved the Lady Whistledown issue, so if you don't have a huge guest list, I would definitely spend the time crafting that as it was a big hit.  I love you enjoyed this poist, and if you are a Bridgerton fan...this might be a fun theme to host for your next gathering!

Yours Truly,

Lady Casto