Friendship & Starbucks - The Perfect Blend

I was driving the other day with my kids in the truck to get us out of the house for a bit during this time of COVID 19.  While driving past shopes, my daughter innocently asked, "Mom, is Starbucks really an essential business?"  I jokingly replied, "For some, YES!" before briefly discussing why Starbucks would be allowed to be open for business.  I am not even close to being a Starbucks regular and tend to brew my daily cup of coffee at home, but occasionally, we do stop in for some fun iced drinks. After this chat with my daughter, my mind started thinking about the fun and creativity I could have with a Starbucks theme.  Read on to find out how I "blended" the theme with my dinner and we had "grande" fun!

Invite:  I played with Starbucks-related words on my invitation which was fun.  "Brewing up Grande Fun" and "A Latte Laughter & Venti Size Fun."  I went with the shade of green and black of the Starbucks logo and the white of the cups, but added in yellow to add a little brightness.  Although some stores are starting to reopen during this time, I decided to keep this dinner on Zoom.  Even if we did feel safe enough to eat together outside, the recent looting and craziness in response to the  George Floyd tragedy caused curfews in some of the cities around Fullerton, so some of the girls would have had to stay home.  Zoom just seemed the easiest way for us all to be safe.

First step was redesigning the Starbucks logo to read "Monthly Dinner".  I did this on PhotoShop, and then printed it, cut it out, and used a dab of glue in the center to adhere it on the napkins.  Nothing fancy.

I could have served iced coffee with the meal but we always have wine with monthly dinners, so I purchased individual bottles of wine.  I again used PhotoShop to create a tag to represent coffee as the favorite AM drink, and wine as the favorite PM drink.  The girls got a kick out of these. 

Menu:  There are recipes out there that use coffee, but I let my creative roll in coming up with a meal that fit Starbucks more than just coffee.  Since this was a meal during quarantine, I had to make sure the meal could be compact and easy to transport/reheat if necessary.  This has been a challenge during COVID19 as I always like to make the meal match with the theme as well.

The frappuccino is a super popular drink at Starbucks (my kid's love the vanilla bean), so I wanted to come up with a meal item to represent that drink.  I decided to make a WRAPpuccino!  This was perfect because I served it as a cold wrap -- no reheating necessary.  I used a green tortilla, spread bbq sauce and ranch on it, then topped it with romaine lettuce, shredded cheese, diced rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, and corn.  I was planning to add black beans, but forgot to purchase them at the store (oops).  Three of us ladies are on the Keto diet right now, so for us, I bought cheese wraps to use as the tortilla and used a sugar free BBQ sauce. I also left out the tomatoes and corn on these.  I hadn't tried these cheese wraps before, but really like them. 

I asked my local Starbucks for some items for this monthly dinner, and they were nice enough to give me some items.  I used the logo bags they use for croissants to put the wrappuccino in once it was rolled like a burrito and cut in half.  To go with the wrappuccino, I made a simple garden salad - Green Tea-rrific Salad!  I mixed romaine and spinach and topped it with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, and croutons.  I included a ramekin of Strawberry Vinaigrette dressing.

For dessert I made these cute Mocha Frappuccino Cupcakes!  I used a Betty Crocker cake mix and followed the recipe on the box except for substituting strongly brewed coffee for the water.  They are topped with a buttercream frosting, mini chocolate chips, and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.  Yum!

Again, Starbucks was amazing, and hooked me up with the straws and cardboard wrappers.  I did have cut the top and bottom of the wrapper to fit better with the size of cupcakes I made.

Favor:  Even for these remote parties, I like to include a favor.  For this one, I got taster cups from Starbucks and filled each one with chocolate covered espresso beans.  These were super easy to put together with a tag to "espresso" how much these ladies mean to me.

The girls picked up their meal and goodies on my porch.

Then at 7:00, we met on Zoom to have a fun dinner and conversation.  It truly was "the perfect blend" and so needed during this time in our lives.


Hope you liked this post and this party!

Bingo Game Night (Virtually)

It is May, but we are still amid stay-at-home orders for COVID-19.  I miss seeing and chatting with my girlfriends in person, but I am so thankful for technology that makes us able to see and chat virtually.  I am also thankful that I am still able to do a bit of the creative details for these dinners as they are a fun outlet for me, and with my teaching life so stressful right now...I need those outlets! For this month, I decided to have BINGO theme and play a little virtual bingo along with our conversations on Zoom.

Invite:  The invite was fun to create. I wanted to display the information in a Bingo grid, but make it easy to read for guests.  This is why I stuck with just black and white with only a small amount of color.

Bingo Activity: Playing bingo is a fun game to play even over Zoom. My husband picked up this Bingo game at a garage sale, and it was perfect.

When I dropped off the food to each of my guest's, I included a bingo card.  For those guests that lived farther away or out of state, I snapped a photo of one of the cards and sent it to them to print out.  Throughout our dinner party, we played 3 games.  At the end of each game, we all used Venmo to send $2 to the winner!

Fun Details: I made Bingo ball napkin rings out of wooden balls (1.5") that I purchased from Michaels Craft Store.  My husband drilled a hole through the middle, I painted them white, and then I used my Cricut to add vinyl letters and numbers to them.  The balls were cute, but it was quite a challenge to roll the paper napkin small enough to fit through it.

We typically drink wine at my monthly dinners, so I decided to send a mini bottle of wine with each guest's meal.  I created a label to look like my invitation - BINGO - WINE-O.

Menu: I always like my menu to fit with the theme.  For this reason, I tried to think of foods that started with each letter of the word Bingo.  Of course, this task was made more difficult because I like my foods to go together AND I was delivering to the guest's houses since we couldn't be together so I needed easy to prep and transport.  As you can tell from the menu, some letters were more difficult than others (hence the M&M images).  The B's of bread, bacon, and boiled eggs wasn't so hard, but the N's for nuts and nice wine was about all I could come up with! Basically my menu was a Chef's Salad. I sent this menu to that ladies ahead of time, so that if they did not want something on their salad, I could leave it off.

I bought to-go containers from Target, and arranged each salad topping around the ramekin of Italian dressing.

This menu was very easy to prepare because I baked the chicken and boiled the egg the night before.  That morning I made the bacon.  Then I just had to slice and assemble it all.

For dessert, I made Bingo balls out of Rice Krispie Treats.  I shaped them into balls and then dipped them in white chocolate.  I melted some black chocolate and carefully painted the letters and numbers on each ball.

Favor:  The party favor also served as the Bingo game pieces.  Guests used these to mark their squares in the game.  I created the tag to match the invitation.

Once everything was assembled, it was time to deliver the meals!  I mapped out the drive and delivered the meals and goodies to each guest.  I left the items on their doorstep, and then texted them to let them know they were there.

This was so much fun!  Can't wait to play another virtual Bingo game with friends!

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.

Cactus Themed Baby Shower

With one of our monthly dinner girls about to give birth to her first child, I decided to theme our monthly dinner in her honor with a little baby shower.  She and her husband are decorating the baby's room with light pink and cactus (inspired by Palm Springs), so I went with this theme for the evening.

Invite:  The party decor and invitation used shades of greens and pinks.  I created the invitation on Photoshop with cactus images I found for free online.  I love that they look like watercolor, and they are soft colors.  Seemed perfect for the arrival of a little baby girl.

Decor: I made this easy cactus banner with my Cricut.  I just taped the cactus onto a pink ribbon.  I switched out the "O" of my HOME sign with a ceramic cactus I found at Michaels.

I had some fun creating the centerpiece for this party because I don't own any cactus plants (real or artificial), and large cactus are a bit too expensive to purchase, so I made them myself.

I started with a diaper cake made to look like a cactus.  This was quite a challenge to figure out how to do, but I think it turned out cute. I rolled 4 diapers for each section and put a skewer in the middle to keep all the sections together and in a straight line.  The green ribbon hid the rubber bands I used to keep each bundle together.  I stuck a skewer in each side and slid a single diaper (rolled up) for the arms of the cactus.  The homemade pink fabric flowers are attached to hair clips, so they can definitely be used for baby Cora in the future.

Next I made cacti out of cardstock.  I used my Cricut to make two types of cacti and pink flower pots for them.  I filled a small bowl with tissue paper and topped it with rocks for the inside.  I also made the sign with the cute saying on Photoshop to add to the table decor.

For placecards, I made these rock cactus flower pots. I bought the pots and the rocks at the dollar store.  The pots were 3 for $1.  I painted them white and then painted the larger rocks three different shades of green.  Once they were dry, I added the white paint.  The name card I designed to look like the invitation.

For the napkins I cut out a cactus and pink flowers and just set it in on each folded napkin.

Wine labels are always fun for me to design.  It was a little hard to come up with ideas to combine cactus, babies, and wine.  These are the best I could come up with, but they made me smile.

For wine charms, I cut various types of cactus out of cardstock and lightly glued them onto my wine stem.  Simple and cute.

Menu:  We started with chips and salsa.  I bought a cactus cookie cutter and cut green tortillas into cactus shapes before baking them to make some cactus-shaped chips to place along with the black tortilla chips.

The mom-to-be is a on a special diet with gestational diabetes, so the main dishes needed to be something she could eat.  After asking her husband for suggestions, I found out that my friend had been craving lettuce wrapped tacos, so that is what I decided to serve.  We served this dish buffet-style, so guests could put whatever toppings they personally wanted on their tacos.

I roasted some peppers and green beans to serve as a side, and heated some black beans for those guests that could have them.

My friend's husband also said she had been craving cheesecake.  I looked up several recipes for cheesecake that was Keto friendly (no carb).  I decided to make these, but I made them without the sauce and only a strawberry cut like a flower on top.  I didn't do the sauce because I put them into these cupcake wrappers.  I printed the cactus pattern on green cardstock and then cut them out and assembled them.  I used a cardstock stand to hold them up high, and I knew it would be too messy with the sauce, so I just left that out.  The guests really liked them.  Just a tip if you are planning to make these...use cupcake liners.  I didn't the first time as it wasn't mentioned in the recipe, and I couldn't get them out of the pan!  I had to make a second batch with cupcake liners.

Favor:  I originally ordered cactus candles to give as a parting gift, but they were too small for the dollar store pots, so I went to my local nursery and bought live cactus plants.  They were a bit more expensive that I normally spend, but a cute party favor.  I planted them in the dollar store pots I painted light pink.

It was fun to come up with the sayings that matched for the cactus/baby theme as I wanted each one to be different.  My favorite was "Sometimes I wet my plants" and "I will never desert you."

What a great time we had showering Maria and her baby with a little love.  Can't wait to meet Cora!