Death and Taxes Party!

Taxes are due in a few days, and what better way to celebrate the hassle associated with tax season than to host a themed party!  Hence...A Death and Taxes Party!

Invite:  Create a fake refund check made out to each of your guests.  Give party details on the back & let them know they have to attend the party in order to get this year's tax refund!  The text on my invite read:

 
 April 15th is coming soon...

but we're moving tax day up a few days

and "Turbo"ing into Tax Day with a

"Death and Taxes Party!"

All your hard work can be "taxing", so come hang out 

with the girls and relax for a few hours.  

"IOU" a great dinner & then maybe

you'll "return" next time!

Decor: You could do a red, white and blue color scheme for a regular tax day party, but I chose green and black to play up the "money" and "death" theme of the evening.  As guest's entered, I set up tombstones like a cemetery.  Use funny money related epitaphs like "Owen Moore", "Bill M. Lader", "Will B. Owen", and "M.T. Wallet".

My table was set with newspaper instead of a tablecloth.  The newspaper was a mixture of Wall Street Journal pages and obituaries to play up both sides of the theme.  For the centerpiece, I borrowed a white piggy bank from a friend and set up a Turbo Tax box next to it. I scattered chocolate gold coins and fanned dollar bills around the table.  If I were to host this theme again, I would add a mini gravestone in the middle as well.  Another thought would be to create a small money tree spray painted black like death.  You could dangle the fanned bills and gold coins from it like ornaments.  I also taped 1040 Tax forms and funeral forms to the walls.  The tax ones are free from the Post Office.  You can find sample funeral records free online.

For my place card, I printed off million dollar bills from an image I found on the Internet.  I then found a facial photo of each guest and cut/glued it over the President's face.

Menu: I had a hard time deciding what to serve for this party, but I eventually decided on a foods that I could relate to the "Boston Tea Party" idea.  I served a Boston clam chowder, "tea" sandwiches, Boston Baked Beans, and finished the meal with a Boston Cream Pie.

Crockpot Boston Clam Chowder

4 potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch chunks

1 large onion, chopped

1 (8 ounce) can chopped clams, drained

3 large celery stalks, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup clam juice

1 teaspoon fresh thyme

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 quart half-and-half cream

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

2 tablespoons of butter

First sauté the celery, onions, and garlic with butter in a skillet.  Add all ingredients into the crockpot and pour in the sauted mixture.  Stir the ingredients around and cook on low for 8 hours for a very delicious New English clam chowder. 

Boston Cream Pie

Cake Ingredients:

1¼ cup sugar

¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2 cups cake flour (not self-rising)

2½ teaspoons double-acting baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

¾ cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter and flour a 9½ inch springform baking pan.  Combine the butter, sugar, and vanilla in a bowl.  Cream together using an electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Beat the eggs in thoroughly one at a time.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Combine with the first mixture and milk.  Pour batter into the prepared pan. Bake in the middle of the oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan on a rack.

Custard Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1 cup milk

3 large eggs

½ cup heavy cream

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Combine the cornstarch, sugar, milk, eggs, cream, vanilla extract, and salt in a saucepan.  Bring the custard to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly.  Continuing to whisk, let the custard boil for two minutes.  Remove from heat, and whisk in the butter.  Set custard aside to cook, continuing to which occasionally.

Glaze Ingredients:

6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened)

3 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 ½ tablespoons light corn syrup

¼ teaspoon salt

In a double boiler, melt together the chocolate, water, butter, corn syrup, and salt stirring until smooth.  Remove top of double boiler from heat.

Putting it Together:

Remove the cake from the pan and cut it in half horizontally with a long serrated knife.  Place one half of the cake on a plate. Top with custard.  Place the other half of the cake on top.  Coat the top of the cake with glaze allowing it to drip down the sides.

This cookie photo is not my photo.  I did not take a photo of the cookie from my party

Favor:  I baked foot shaped cookies with beige icing and wrapped them in a cellophane bag.  I cut the cookie a little bit near the big toe before baking so that I would have a place to tie the tag from the morgue. I found the tag online and just added the name, date, cause of death, and parting message.  A bit of a morbid ending to the evening, but super fun!!

Hope your taxes don't cause you stress as the deadline approaches. Of course, if they do....host a Death & Taxes party to bring in some fun!

Rendezvous with Recycling: Trash to Treasure Party

With Earth Day and Spring cleaning as my motivation, I decided this month's monthly dinner theme would be A Rendezvous with Recycling: Trash to Treasure party!  I decorated with all recycled materials so it was a very inexpensive party, and because we did a trash to treasure exchange, I got rid of some items I don't use anymore and picked up some "new" fun things.

Invite:  Use the backs of old birthday/holiday cards or old postcards to give out your party details. Or simply send your invitation by Evite to save on postage, paper, etc.

Decor: I created a banner using newspaper and letters cut out from my Cricut machine (sorry, no photo of this).  I set the table with a blue cloth tablecloth and green cloth napkins to tie in the Earth tones and to keep with the earth-friendly idea of no paper products.  I cut the top out of a 12-pack of canned Pepsi to use as a flowerpot, and cut flowers out of cereal boxes, cookie boxes, etc.  I used the caps of milk jugs as the center of each flower. (You'll see how I used the rest of the milk carton later in the post.)  This was my centerpiece which I placed on top of 2 squares of newspaper.  I also used two empty Coca Cola cans as candle holders and placed a tea-light on the top.

At each place setting, I used a piece of newspaper as the placemat, and recycled cups from various hotels, etc. as glasses.  I made a silverware holder out of paint swatches I had from trying to decide what color to paint my son's bedroom.  Just stapled two together and placed the silverware inside.

On a side table, I used empty beer bottles filled with water as vases for roses cut from my front yard. I also had the handmade gift bags and the cupcakes out on this table.  To elevate the cupcakes, I recycled a cereal box placed on an open magazine.

Menu: After getting the invite, many of my friends joked that we must be having leftovers at this monthly dinner. I decided to play that up a bit, but still stick with my menu with was centered around being "green".

I started with a green salad with green papers and broccoli along with some other goodies.  I served these in empty milk jugs that I cut and fashioned into little boxes.  A simple Velcro tab held the lid down until guests were ready to eat.  Here are the directions:

Step 1:  Mark a one-gallon milk jug as shown.

Step 2:  Cut along the lines.  You can then make the crease lines by using a thumbtack to pierce a row of dots at 1/4-inch intervals across each side of the jug, 1 3/4 inches up from the bottom. I did this with one of mine, but found I didn't need to spend the time, so my remaining jugs were just folded on their own.

Step 3:  Fold the flaps down and adhere with an adhesive-backed Velcro dot closure.

These don't hold too much, but they were perfect for the salad. You can also use them as a children's lunch box, but I was not able to serve my whole meal in them.

I served the main course in leftover containers I bought at a local Chinese food store.  These were perfect because they were already sectioned into three (and they made less dishes for me to wash after the party!).  I wanted to serve "green" food, so I made a chicken with a pesto gravy, white rice with peas, and green beans.

For dessert, I made trashcan cupcakes to go with our Trash to Treasure theme. My nephew had these at his last birthday party, so I totally stole the idea.  I baked cupcakes with silver liners which I frosted with grey icing and dipped in crushed oreos and sprinkles so it looked like "trash".  The trashcan lid is a cookie frosted with grey icing. To fully cover all parts of the cookie, I used edible spray paint.  This is SUPER expensive, but enables you to get the bottom and sides of the cookie. I then used a tip to pipe the black lines on the top of the cookie to complete the look.

Activity:  The girls loved the activity from our Rags to Riches party over a year ago, and they wanted to do it again.  It seems to go well with this theme.  I asked the girls to go through their closets, clean out those drawers, and bring 3-5 (or more if they wanted) items to recycle amongst friends.  We drew numbers and went "shopping".  Our trash became one girl's treasure!  Anything not taken at the end, I took to Goodwill.

Favors: I made each guest a newspaper necklace out of magazine pages. All you need is two colorful pages from a magazine (ads work best), hot glue gun, eye pins, and jump rings to make these.  They do take a little time, but they are very easy to make.  I found a bag of jump rings and eye pins at Michaels for $1.99 and it had a bunch of them in it.  

I gave these necklaces to the guests in gift bags I made out of newspaper to keep with the recycling theme.  These are very easy to make.  I followed the directions from How About Orange, but you can make your bag with whatever dimensions fit the gift inside. 



Sorry for the long post, but this was a very fun party and it was nice to find creative ways to use materials rather than spending a ton of money purchasing decorations. I think we all need to do a little bit more conservation of materials.  Finding ways tor reduce, reuse, and recycle was fun, and there are plenty more ideas out there.  Hope one of you can "recycle" this idea for your next gathering!!

Minute to Win It Party

If you haven't seen the television show, Minute to Win It, you definitely need to watch it at least once.  It is a game show where contestants must complete random tasks that involve household items, and they have only 60 seconds to do so.  When I was looking for a theme for my next monthly dinner, my cousin recommended this show.  It was such a fun party!! It would be great for a birthday party, couples dinner, or just as excuse to have a party.  Below is how I put my spin on the theme...

Invite:  Create an invitation informing guests that they have been selected as one of the next contestants for the show.  I asked my guests to pair up in a team of two and come dressed in a matching color.  There are some cute invitations (for a birthday with this theme) on the internet for purchase as well.  I found one site that will give you a template for free as well, but I didn't do this, so I don't know how great it is.

Decor:  The show colors are royal blue, red, and white, so I went with that color scheme.  At the front door, I had a table set up with a first game just to enter.  It is called Breakfast Scramble and guests had 60 seconds to put together the front of a cereal box cut into 16 rectangles.  I set out a sand timer for guests to time themselves.

I set my table with a red tablecloth, white plates, and royal blue napkins.  I put two 12x12 pieces of card stock in the center to add color, and then I created a smaller version of the Stack Attack game as my centerpiece. I am providing direct links to these games in case you want to look them up for your party.  I also added some dice to add to the game feel of the table.

At each place setting, I created a label for a water bottle as my place card.  This is not a high-tech label.  I just created it on Microsoft Word.  I can email the template to you if you want to use this for your party.  There are websites that will sell professional-looking labels, but my monthly dinners attempt to be budget friendly (and my friends don't care how cheesy my additions look!).

Menu:  I created a menu card at each place setting so guests could see how I played up the "minute" theme of the night.  We started with a yummy "Minute"-strone Soup as an appetizer.  I served this with a buttery pita bread which is easy and delicious.

My main course was Minute Steak, Minute Rice, and "Minute"-ture Peas! The only issue I had with this choice of meal was the timing.  Some of my guests arrived super late, and this meant items cooked for longer than I intended. Unfortunately, I felt like the Minute Steak was a bit tough and not as tender as it should have been because of this. You may want to think about giving yourself even more time that you think you will need to prevent this from happening.

For dessert, I wanted to serve something with Minute Maid orange juice because this was the only thing I could think of that would still relate to the theme. I searched the internet for something, but couldn't find much.  So...I invented my dessert, and it turned out pretty good.  I have always loved 50/50 bars and shakes, so I decided to make this into a pie.  Yum!  Another thought would be to alter a dessert name like "Minute" (as in Mint) Chip Ice Cream if you wanted something simpler.

Games:  I looked at the Minute to Win It website and tried to choose games I thought looked fun, and that I had the supplies for.  I didn't want to have to spend too much money.  For the games I chose, I did have to purchase some items, but I found everything I needed at the Dollar Tree.  If you are thinking about doing this party, check out the Level for each game to make sure it isn't too advanced - especially if this is for a little kid's party.

To explain the rules of each of the games, I downloaded the blueprints.  The blueprints are the 30 second explanations for each game. I put them all on a DVD in the order of my party along with the 60 second countdown.  I found all the videos on YouTube for free.  One of my old students actually put the DVD together for me, so I am not exactly sure how she did it. Hopefully, you are more technically savvy than I am, and you can figure it out!!

Game #1:  Chocolate Unicorn

Stacking 7 Ding Dongs on your forehead.  They must stay there for 3 seconds.

Game #2:  Tear It Up

Shooting rubber bands at toilet paper attached to an empty soda can.  First team to break the toilet paper wins.

Game #3: How's It Hangin'

Contestant attaches a banana on a string around his/her waist so it dangles 12" from the ground in front of them. In 60 seconds, they must move an orange across the room and into a hula hoop using only the banana. This is another funny one...lots of thrusting!

Game #4: Ready Spaghetti

The pair of players must work together to transfer 3 empty soda cans to a nearby table using only a spaghetti noodle and their mouths. Try this one out before you do it. We had trouble with the weight of the cans breaking the spaghetti noodle. I would probably use a thicker noodle if I did this again.

Game #5:  Junk in the Trunk

Attach an empty rectangle tissue box around the waist and fill it with 8 ping pong balls.  Contestant must shake their rump to get all the balls out in 60 seconds.  This as hilarious! I've done this game at a high school assembly, and it was a hoot! (Note: I did cut a larger opening in the box just to make it a little easier.)

Game #6: On the Rebound

This is a partner game. One partner ties a clipboard around his waist and stands behind a small trash can. The other partner throws ping pong balls attempting to bank the shot off the clipboard and into the trash can. Team must get 5 balls in.

Game #7:  A Bit Dicey

Contestant must balance 6 die on the popsicle stick held in their mouth.  Stack must stay for 3 seconds.

Favor:  As a parting favor for all guests, I found another Minute to Win It Game, Mega Bubble, and centered my favor around it.  I created a tag with instructions for the game.  Then I just put the supplies, a jar of bubbles and a plastic cup, inside a favor bag and attached the tag.  Simple, but cute.

Again, this was a super fun party and would make a great theme if you are looking for an active party with a hilarious element to it!  I made a scoreboard to keep track of points throughout the evening. Give your winning pair Hundred Grand candy bars or a silly trophy made from household products!

A Groundhog Day Dinner

Dinner parties that celebrate holidays are fun, but celebrating the odd holidays is even more fun.  Groundhog day, February 2nd, is no exception.  I just love every year when the movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray is played (over and over) on the television. This is why, in 2009, I decided to theme my dinner around this holiday. I kept it simple...

Invitation:  Burn a CD with I Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher.  This is the song that is played on the radio each morning when Phil wakes up in the movie.  If you are good with editing, you can even add in the weather broadcast just like the movie.  Create a cover of the CD with all your party details. Or, instead of a weather broadcast, record yourself giving the party details as the music fades.  You can even make several tracks of the same song, so the CD is full of I Got You Babe!  I also asked guests to dress in Groundhog Day colors -- green and white.

Decor:  I bought an inexpensive bright green plastic tablecloth, and created a burrow underneath it in the center with a towel.  I placed a groundhog beanie baby on top as if he just came out of the burrow.  I also used two other groundhogs/squirrels on the table next to bowls of mixed nuts.  I served green punch to keep up the color scheme. I also had the movie playing in the background.

At each place setting, I included a card with trivia about Groundhog Day.  I was initially going to create a game with it, but decided to stick with just an information page.

Not a great photo...sorry!

For my place card, I used a simple craft for kids that I found online on DLTK.  Go to this link for all the directions as well as the template for cutting out the pieces.  I followed the directions and just added each guest's name on the belly of the groundhog.  Even if you are not throwing a party, this is a super cute and easy craft for kids to celebrate Groundhog Day.

Menu:  For my dinner menu, I tried to choose all green or nut-related items.  I also served the appetizer both at the beginning AND the end since Groundhog Day repeats itself!!

Cheese Onion Appetizer

1 cup mayonnaise

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

½ cup chopped green onion

¼ cup parmesan cheese

Triscuits

Mix first four ingredients.  Spread on Triscuits.  Broil until lightly browned.  Serve immediately.

Green Salad

Nut-Crusted Chicken

6 chicken breasts

1 tablespoon olive oil or cooking oil

1 clove garlic, minced

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup slivered almonds

1/3 cup pine nuts or slivered almonds

1 teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon coarsely ground pepper

¼ cup orange marmalade

Fresh thyme sprigs (optional)

Combine oil, garlic, and salt.  Brush over chicken and set aside.  In a blender or food processor bowl, blend almonds and pine nuts together just till finely chopped.  Place nuts in a small mixing bowl; stir in coriander, cinnamon, and pepper.  Set aside.  Brush surface of chicken with orange marmalade; sprinkle nut mixture over the chicken, pressing gently so nuts adhere.  Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and garnish with fresh thyme sprigs.

 

Green Beans

For dessert, I made these groundhog cupcakes which were a huge hit!!  Here is the recipe I found online.  I  only made one change to the recipe for my groundhogs.  I did not use jelly beans or watermelon candy. I just used decorator's frosting in white and pink.  This worked fine for me.

Groundhog Cupcakes

Cupcake Mix

Almond Joy candy bars

Chocolate wafer cookies

Remove a piece of cake the width of an Almond Joy candy from the center of a baked cupcake. Spread a layer of white frosting on the cupcake,

and then set the candy upright in the hole.  For the groundhog's eyes, trim the ends from a white jelly bean, stick them in place with frosting, then dot them with black decorators' gel. Add a tiny triangle cut from a watermelon slice candy for a nose, brown M&M Minis for ears and cheeks, and a tiny rectangular piece of white jelly bean for teeth. Sprinkle chocolate cookie crumbs around the partially emerged groundhog, and he's ready to greet his fans.

This is a super easy theme if you are looking to host a party near February 2nd.  Have fun!

Having Fun...Dr. Seuss Style!

Who doesn't love Dr. Seuss books and all the fun rhymes? It makes a perfect theme for a birthday party, graduation party (with Oh, The Places You'll Go), baby shower, and so much more.  These photos are from the March monthly dinner in 2010, but I am seriously thinking about using this theme again sometime.  I may even incorporate some of these ideas into teacher appreciation gifts when my kids are in elementary school.  This theme is so much fun!

Invite:  The wording on your invite should definitely be inspired by Dr. Seuss.  You can easily use lines from his books.  For my invitation, I used some lines from his books mixed with some created by me:

You could not
would not
want to miss
a celebration such as this!

It's...
"Dinner with Dr. Seuss"
Come dressed up for this fun show
in one bold color from head to toe
Tell us in the RSVP what color you'll be
Come on ladies...it's super easy!

A Dr. Seuss dinner can be so much fun
You definitely don't want to miss this one.
One week away, so hurry and reply
That's all I have to say...Good-bye!!

Decor:  I talked to my librarian at work, and she let me borrow several Dr. Seuss stuffed animals to help decorate for this party.  I set the table with a Dr. Seuss hat I bought at the dollar bin at Target flanked by Yertle the Turtle and a Sneech.  I also placed little bowls of multicolored goldfish crackers for guests to munch on before dinner.

I themed each place setting after a Dr. Seuss book.  I printed off 8x10 pictures of the book cover (found on Google), and adhered them to 12x12 scrapbook paper.  I didn't laminate them because I didn't care if they were ruined, but at a kid's birthday party, you could laminate them for kids to take home.  Using my Cricut machine and cardstock, I scrapbooked a  place card to match each book.

I used Dr. Seuss books I checked out from my local library to decorate several side tables with more stuffed characters.  I borrowed a Fox in Socks Dr. Seuss puzzle from my step-daughter to place on my coffee table.

To display my menu without giving away exactly what I was serving, I printed off book covers and taped them to the wall.  Not very sophisticated or cleverly done, but it served its purpose.

Menu:  I don't think you can have a Dr. Seuss party without serving green eggs, so I made deviled eggs and died them green.  One of my friends refuses to eat anything with food coloring in it, so this is why the middle ones in the photo are yellow.

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is one of my daughter's favorite Dr. Seuss books. Everyone loves finger jello...even adults I have come to learn!  I bought a fish cookie cutter from Calico Cake Shop to make these.

As my main dish, I decided to serve Poppy Seed Turnovers, but shape them like turtles for Yertle the Turtle.  Poppy Seed Turnovers are a favorite dish of our family.  I normally shape them into semi-circles, crinkle the edges with a fork, and freeze them for days I don't have a dinner planned.  Making these into turtles was time-consuming, but they received lots of compliments.

Poppy Seed Turnovers

Filling:

1/2 cup minced onions

2 pounds lean ground beef

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

2 (10.5 oz.) cans cream of chicken soup

Crumble Beef in frying pan.  Sprinkle with onions.  Fry over medium heat until beef is cooked, drain off grease into a can. Add other ingredients and cook until liquid is absorbed.  Cool slightly before filling pastries.

Pastry:

4 cups flour

1 cup + 1/3 cup + 1/4 cup shortening

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup cold water

1/4 cup poppy seeds

Combine flour, salt, and poppy seeds in large bowl. Cut in shortening with pastry blender until shortening is the size of small peas.  Sprinkle with water, tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with a fork until flour is moistened.  Gather dough together with fingers to form a lump.  Divide dough into 16 equal pieces.  On a lightly floured board, roll each piece into a circle about the size of a saucer, 1/8" thick.  Place 1/16th of ground beef mixture on half of the circle.  Fold dough over and use a fork to press the semi-circle closed.  Repeat until 16 are made.  At this point, turnovers may be frozen or baked.  Bake in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes (30 minutes if frozen).      

I also served a green salad along with the meal which went with The Lorax book.

For dessert, I made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes from The Cat in the Hat.  I bought red cupcake holders, and made the signs on card stock.  The cupcakes were really cute, but I had trouble with the cotton candy.  I put it on directly before serving them because the ones I did prior to the party melted.  It didn't last long at all. I think if I were to host this party again, I would copy what Katie from Good Life Eats, Etc. did with her cupcakes....

Favor:  As a small gift to guests, I bought crazy colored socks from the dollar bin at Target and packaged them with a cute rhyme from the Fox in Sox.  This photo was just quickly taken to give you the idea. I forgot to take photos of the actual favor (which were super cute!).

There are so many great ideas for a Dr. Seuss party on the web.  My son is only 8 months, but he may have a Dr. Seuss birthday party in his future...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!