Remembering Prince

With the passing of musical icon Prince this past month, the radio stations have been playing a lot of his music.  Hearing it brings me back to lip sync contests, dance team performances, and other fond memories from my junior high and high school days. I decided, Remembering Prince, would make a fun monthly dinner theme as well.

Invite:  A quick invitation I crafted on Photoshop.  I just learned how to make my font in glitter, so that made me super excited!  The Prince font is "Chunk Five Ex", and the Purple Rain font is called "Still Time".  Both are available for free download.

Decor: I initially  made this giant sign for my entry door, but decided instead to place it on my beverage table.  The metallic purple background is wrapping paper I found at the Dollar Tree.  The gold glitter letters and the purple Prince symbol I cut using my Cricut. The text is the opening lyrics to "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince.

For the main table, I used a purple tablecloth with some old-school records I borrowed from my dad spread along the center to act as a table runner. Some wooden music notes and the Prince symbol were the centerpieces.

The music notes actually belong to my dad who has used them with the Community Concerts Association for years, but my talented (and helpful) husband made me the Prince symbol.  I traced it onto a piece of wood, and he cut it out!  I then spray-painted it purple.  After the second coat of paint, I added the purple glitter to make it really sparkle.

I added bright yellow napkins for color and used my Cricut to cut out the Prince symbol to place on top.

For place cards, I found images of Prince album covers online and added each guest's name as "background vocals" or "guest artist".  After printing the covers out, I backed them in purple card stock and placed them in CD cases. Add a burned CD of some great Prince songs inside to be a fun parting gift for guests.  Here's some of the other fun covers I used...

For wine charms, I again used the Prince symbol cut out of card stock.  I used various shades of purple for the symbols to distinguish the glasses.

I made wine labels on Photoshop.  Prince doesn't have any popular songs with White in the title, but he did have a song called "The Gold Experience", so I used that as inspiration for the white wine label.  Then "Little Red Corvette" for the red wine.

Not all my guests are drinking wine at this time (yeah for babies and soon to arrive babies!), so I also made purple Kool-Aid to drink.

Menu:  To decide my menu, I pulled up a list of Prince songs and tried to find ways to creatively craft my menu around them. I started with an alphabet soup after Prince's song "Alphabet Street."  I found the recipe for this healthy soup at Food.com here.  I made some variations to the recipe (on accident mostly), so mine did not come out with as much broth as the original recipe which made it thicker.  Sometime I'd like to try the recipe again exactly the way it is written.  For the breadstick, I bought Crazy Bread from Little Caesars Pizza (no prep for me!).  This went with Prince's song, "Let's Go Crazy."

I grilled BBQ chicken for my main dish, but instead of using a normal BBQ sauce, I found a recipe for Raspberry BBQ sauce on SmokingPit.com. It was super sweet with our first taste test, so my friend added some extra spices which made it taste perfect. This represented the song "Raspberry Beret."

I dyed mashed potatoes purple for "Purple Rain."  We shaped them into rain drops for added fun.

For dessert, I bought Dove ice cream bars for the song "When Doves Cry."  I don't know that I have ever had a Dove ice cream bar before, but those things are tasty!  I feel a bit guilty not hand-making the dessert, but it definitely was easy just purchasing them at the store and having dessert taken care of!

Favor:  I made Hershey Kiss cookies for a parting gift.  These are one of my favorite cookies, so it worked out perfectly that it went with Prince's song "Kiss."  I wrapped 4 cookies in a baggie and designed a tag using the lyrics from the song (with only minor alterations).

Hope you enjoyed this Prince-inspired party!

Baseball - Opening Day Party!

Believe it or not, in nine and a half years of monthly dinners, I have never done a baseball theme!  This month's dinner fell on Opening Day, so it made baseball the perfect theme.  There are a ton of ideas out there on the internet, but as usual I wanted to make up some of my own.  Check them out and let me know what you think!

Invite:  I created the invite on PhotoShop.  The fonts I used were BOSOX font, Candy Inc., and Marcelle font/Marcelle swatches.  These fonts are available for free online.

Entry Decor:  I made a sign for the front door using foam board and scrapbook letters cut using my Cricut.  I borrowed a plastic Angels helmet from a neighbor and the blow up bats from another friend.  My PE teacher husband already had the giant baseball, so I added it to the decor as well.

Inside Decor:  I set the table with a green tablecloth, and put a home plate base in the center.  On top of that, I had a vase filled with small baseballs.  I borrowed the Angel helmets to place on both sides.

On the table, I also filled small vases with peanuts and added a baseball to the top. 

I know that you can buy paper plates that look like baseballs, but I decided to create my own using my nicer dinner plates for a more formal look.  I used my Cricut machine to cut red card stock to make the lacing.  I used a dab of scrapbook glue on each end to adhere it to the plate so it wouldn't fall off.  We just pulled the paper off when it came time to serve the food.

I also borrowed mini plastic baseball helmets from friends to place next to each plate. My original plan was to serve a salad, ice cream, or some part of the menu in each hat, but instead I just used them for more fun visual decor.

I created a baseball card of each guest for my place card.  These were intended for laughs.  Some of my favorites were me as Pitcher holding a "pitcher" of juice and my friend Maria as the "Designated Reader" (instead of hitter) since her photo is of her reading a book at an Angel game. Other funny ones...my friend and her boyfriend kissing as "First Base", another friend doing a yoga pose as "Center(ing) Field", and another with a dazed look as "(out in) Left Field"!

I used scissors and cut my napkins to look like home plate bases.  I bought mini foam fingers off of Amazon to use with my silverware.  If you buy these, take them out of the package as soon as you get them to air them out.  They were kinda stinky, but super cute!

For wine charms, I printed off the logos of various MLB teams.  I used a circle punch to cut them and then attached them to the wine stems.

I created wine labels which played off team names to distinguish the red (Cinncinati Reds) from the white (White Sox) wines.

Here's what the entire label looked like.  If you want either of these images, just comment below, and I will email them to you.

Menu: At first I was planning to have a hot dog bar as my main course, but if you know me, you know that that would be too simple!  I always try to come up with something a little more creative.  Here's what I came up with...

Slider = one of the more popular pitches in baseball, so why not have sliders to eat!  I made mini cheeseburger sliders in the oven...didn't even have to slave over a grill = super easy!

Ingredients:

• 2 pounds ground beef (I used 80/20)
• 1 Tablespoon dried minced onion
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 6 slices american cheese
• 12 dinner rolls

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° F.  In a large bowl combine hamburger meat, onion, seasoning salt and pepper. Mix to combine. Press mixture evenly in the bottom of an un-greased 9x13 inch baking dish.  Bake, uncovered for 25 minutes or until meat is no longer pink in center (the meat to shrink a little).  Remove from oven and then carefully pour out the grease in the pan. Place cheese slices over the top of meat. Place back in oven for 2 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Cut meat into 12 equal size squares. Place each square of meat in the center of dinner roll. Serve with your favorite cheeseburger toppings! (Ketchup, mustard, pickles, etc).

Foul ball = "Fowl" ball chicken wings!  These were Asian BBQ chicken wings I made mostly in the slow cooker.  These were AMAZING! I found the recipe at Valerie's Kitchen.

Spitball = another pitch.  For me, this was Spitball Veggies, I cooked over a spit fire. I chose red and orange peppers, red onion, yellow squash, and zucchini to give it color.

Bunt = when a batter gently taps the ball with the bat, so it is difficult for the infield to get to it.  I decided to make red velvet Bundt Cakes!  These were super yummy.  The photo isn't very good of these (sorry), but they had a cream cheese frosting.  I added a white chocolate baseball in the center.  The lacing was drawn with a red food coloring pen.

Favor:  As a parting gift, I packaged some peanuts with a box of Cracker Jacks - the typically "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" gift. I displayed them in another Angels helmet next to my Angel gnome!

I designed the tag on Photoshop using some typical baseball terms.  They came out pretty cute!

All in all, another fun party!  Hope you enjoyed my post and can use some of these ideas on your next baseball bash!

3.14 = Pi Day!

We had to delay our Monthly Dinner by a week, and it just so happened to fall on March 14th (3.14).  The date was so perfect I just had to make my theme Pi Day!  And to be honest...who doesn't love pie?

Invite:  I created the invite on Photoshop. If I were mailing invitations, I would have made the strawberry pie so that it could rotate and reveal the party details as you rotated it around clockwise.  That was my original plan, but with time constraints, I just created this one to email out.

Entry Decor:  I made a simple sign for inside the front door using form board and card stock.  The numbers/letters I cut out using my Cricut. It look a bit of time to glue on all the border numbers, but I finished it (barely) in time for the party.

Table Decor: I went with a color palette of red, yellow, black, and white for my decor.  I wanted to incorporate both the mathematical sign Pi as well as Pies in my decor.  The table runner I made out of card stock.  I taped black card stock together and them cut the white Pi letters out of my Cricut to glue on.

For the centerpiece, I used the red cake stand I made for my son's birthday party last June.  I made a pretend apple pie to place on top.  I bought 3 fake apples from the Dollar Tree and cut them in half.  I put red tissue paper inside the pie pan and placed the cut apples in it.  Then I cut some tan felt into 1" strips and wove them on the top before tucking them into the pie pan.  No gluing at all.  A quick and easy centerpiece.

For my napkin holder, I made a pie box out of card stock.  I found the template for this online here.  I added a slit on the top of the pie box big enough to slide my rolled napkin inside. The tag I made using Photoshop and then tied it around the napkin.  I served dinner in pie tins, so these napkin holders I placed inside each tin.

For a place card, I used the same Pi/Pie image I used on my invitation.  I simply added the guest's name, printed them, and then backed them in card stock.

For wine charms, I used my Cricut to cut out the Pi symbol in various colors.

Menu:  I started with these adorable cheese and cracker pies.  They were super easy to make and so cute.  I think they would be a great appetizer around Thanksgiving since they look just like pumpkin pies.  To make them, you need:

• Triscuit Thin Crisps (they are shaped in triangles so they are perfect)
• Cheddar Cheese block
• Chicken in a Biskit crackers for the back
• Wavy stick crackers from a bag of Chex Mix
• Whipped cream cheese

The cream cheese is your "glue" to hold the crackers/cheese together as well as the "dollop" on the top. I got this idea from the website She Knows.  The photo at the right is from her finished product.

I made a simple green salad with mushrooms and red and green peppers.  To fit with the pie theme, I served them in mini pie tins.

For the main dish, I didn't want to go with the standard Chicken Pot Pie or Shepherd's Pie. I decided to make this Three Cheese Italian Rigatoni Pie just because it looked cool!  I love how it came out, and it was tasty too.  You make it in a spring-form pan and then just remove the sides when ready to serve.   I found the recipe here. It's a simple pasta dish, but served in neat way.

With it I made pie-shaped bread sticks out of pizza dough.  Just baked the dough, added butter and Italian seasoning, and then cut into triangles before serving.

The pasta pie keeps it's shape quite nicely.

For dessert, I wanted something light.  I decided to go with an easy to make lemon pie.   No baking needed on this one either!  It was creamy and delicious with only 4 ingredients:  graham cracker pie crust, 8 oz cream cheese softened,  2 cans sweetened condensed milk, and 3/4 cup of lemon juice. I garnished with a slice of lemon and whipped cream.

Favor:  I saw a recipe for mini blueberry pie bites forever ago on Pinterest, and decided this was the perfect time to try them out.  I made them using the recipe found on Sugar Dish Me.  I put 10 bites into a bag, tied them with a ribbon and tag, and made pie boxes out of card stock to place them in.  Here's a close up...

These taste amazing to just snack on, but they are also really good as a topping on vanilla ice cream. 

                                    We had a great time celebrating Pi Day!  Hope you did too!