Monster Mash Dinner

For a little spin on a Halloween-themed dinner party, I decided to theme our October dinner around the song Monster Mash.  The song is full of classic monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, Igor the Mad Scientist, etc, so these characters and the laboratory became the inspiration behind my decor and menu.

Invite:  I wanted to keep my invitation classic monster, so I found an image online of these classic monsters and built the invite and color scheme around that image.  The main font I used was Spooky Monster, but I also used Viner Hand and Animal House.

Decorations: The Monster Mash song centers around a science laboratory where an experiment is taking place, so I decided to incorporate that into my centerpiece.  I borrowed various size beakers from a science teacher at my school and filled them with water and drops of food coloring.

I found black netting, small fake bones, spiders, and the plastic bone hands at the dollar store.  Added tapered candles to the centerpiece as well.

RIP plates from the dollar store added to the Halloween theme.

Simple red napkins that I created a mini tag similar to the invitation to place on top.

For place cards, I created coffin-shaped tags made to look like old-time dance cards.  I tied a ribbon like the dance cards ladies use to wear on their wrist. Next to the "first dance" wording, I added each guest's name.

I purposely paired each classic monster on the coffin place card with one of my guests.  I tried to pick out aspects of each guest's personality and paired it with the monster's personality/trait. For example, a friend that never answers her phone or texts, was the GHOST -- since she is always ghosting us.  For my own place card, I was a ZOMBIE = Dead tired, but still Going!  On the back of each place card, I had a brief explanation for the pairing.

Kept my general Halloween decor for my beverage/appetizer table.

Inspired by Dracula, I designed my red wine label with a classic image of him.  I called the wine Dracula's FANG-tastic Cabernet.  The label background was a collage of potions and coffins.  The white wine was inspired by The Bride of Frankenstein.  I called it The Bride of WINE-kenstein letting guests know "it was alive" with flavor.  I found an image of the Bride of Frankenstein and just photoshopped a white wine class into her hand.

For wine charms, I used the monster images from my invitation and from my place cards to craft into wine charm images.  Guests chose the charm that matched the monster on their place card.

Menu: As with the decorations, I themed my menu items each after a different classic monster.  We started with ZOM-BRIE.  I baked the brie, then cut out zombie-like eyes and a nose.  I filled the cut areas with red pepper jelly and had the jelly drip from the eyes like blood.

A second appetizer was GHOST cheese and crackers.  A mini ghost cookie cutter on white cheese slices.

Once all the guests had arrived and it was time for dinner.  We started with a green salad which I called IGOR'S Experiment #31.  I wanted the salad to be somewhat dark in color, so I used spring mix, blackberries, candied pecans, and goat cheese. I used mini beakers that I filled with raspberry vinaigrette dressing to go with Igor as a mad scientist.  I also added candy eyeballs to some of the blackberries for added fun.

Along with the salad, we had small Transylvania Twist breadsticks with poppy seeds.  The Translyvania Twist is a dance the monsters do in the Monster Mash song.

For the main dish, I made MUMMY meatballs.  I bought frozen meatballs, cut strips from crescent rolls, and wrapped them around the meatball.  After baking these in the oven, I used a small amount of ketchup to add two eyeballs. I served these with marinara sauce.

You can't have a Monster MASH party without serving Monster MASH-ed Potatoes.  These went well with the meatballs and marinara.

I found the recipe for these amazing Frankenstein Cheesecake Bars for dessert!  They turned out so cute and they were tasty too. The design was made by piping on melted chocolate.  The bolts are pretzel sticks srayed with edible silver.

Favor: Didn't want to forget about the classic monster Wolfman, so I decided to incorporate him into my parting favor.  I made a yummy Werewolf Munch from this recipe.  I didn't include the almond slices, but followed the rest of the recipe.  Pretty sure my ghoulfriends liked it!

Another great dinner and a super fun Halloween theme that was not too difficult to pull off.  Happy Halloween everyone!  I hope you think of this party every time your hear the Monster Mash song this season!

20 Questions - Guess Who? Party

Hard to believe, but our September monthly dinner marked 20 YEARS of monthly themed dinners together! That's 240 total dinner parties which seems insane!  Such amazing memories we've had and friendships we've built over these years together.  For a little nostalgia and to fit with the "20" theme, I decided to theme this dinner around "20 Questions" using the Guess Who? board game as inspiration.

Invite: I found a clipart image of a Guess Who? game board, and used it as the focal point for the invitation image.  I used AI to create Guess Who? style characters out of my guests' faces, and added these to the invitation.

Decorations: Red, yellow and blue were the main colors of my decorations to match the board game colors.  I found a used Guess Who? game at the thrift store for $4 which made the perfect centerpiece.  I printed my guest's faces for some of the images in the game and spread the playing cards out around the game.  Added a small sign and a red vase with flowers.  Elevated the entire centerpiece a bit with an upside down serving tray.

For place cards, I printed the images of each guest from the invitation and adhered them to a Guess Who playing card.

At each place setting, I created a Guess Who? style question.  We took turns asking these questions throughout the dinner which created some fun stories and laughter.

An added touch to the napkin was a small tag with the party theme of Guess Who? - 20 Years; 20 Questions.

For wine labels, I decided to design them with more questions to ask guests.  For the red wine, I asked a question for the flexible person that says "why not" (changed to "wine not") and goes for it regardless of risks.  Those guests drinking red wine shared with the group something risky they have done.  Those drinking white wine, answered the question about a white lie they have told.

I kept the wine charms simple by just designing a small tag with a question mark and switched up the color of the question mark.

Menu: It was fun to come up with a menu that fit this theme. We started with a green salad I titled "Lettuce Reminisce."  The salad was romaine lettuce, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, shredded cheese, cucumbers, and croutons.  The question on the menu label was "What is one monthly dinner memory you'll never forget."  It was so much fun hearing the girls responses on this one.  A few of the favorites of the girls were May-Pole Day, Survivor,  Rags to Riches, and Squid Games.  Check them out if you have time.

For the main dish, I served Grilled BBQ chicken with the question, "Who in our group would make a good interrogator & get a culprit to confess?"

The vegetable side was peppers and peas.  I called it Easy-Peasy Veggies.  The question was, "Who in our group is the most easy-going? Who is easiest to talk to?"

The cornbread I called "All Ears" Cornbread.  The recipe I used had whole corn in it.  For this question, we reflected on the many conversations we've had together over the past 20 years.  It was "What is a monthly dinner conversation that was so captivating you couldn't stop thinking about it afterward?"

My amazing friend baked and decorated the cake for this dinner.  I called it "Piece of Cake" Dessert, and the question was about the sweetest memory they had made within this group.  I printed the image from the invitation of board game with all of our faces to put as a cake topper.

Favor: I feel so lucky to have these amazing friends that make an effort to come to these dinners each month, so I decided to have my favor reflect that idea.  I decided on Scratchers! To pull in the 20 Question/Guess Who theme, I created a pocket to hold the scratcher with the text, "Guess Who Won the Friendship Lottery?  No question about it..WE DID!"  One of the guests even won $20 on her scratcher!

Not all of the girls could make this dinner, but those of us that could had a great time reminiscing on our moments together.  So grateful to have these amazing women in my life! 

Where's Waldo Dinner Party

This party was the beginning of August, so there was just one week until I would back to teaching. I love being a teacher, but I do love my summer free time!  For August's monthly dinner theme, I went with something fun, but tied in the school year beginning as well.  It was a Where's Waldo theme! I asked the girls to come dressed in stripes and jeans, and they did not disappoint!

Invite: To match Waldo, the party and invite colors were red, white, and light blue. I found images of Waldo online and designed the invite around that.  I kept it simple with the tag line of "Before you get LOST in the school year, come FIND your favorite people."

Decorations: I set the table with a blue tablecloth and found some red and white 12x12 strapbook paper in my stash to lay out as a table runner.  I borrowed some Where's Waldo books from some neighbors to set on top of the striped paper.

I ordered a Where's Waldo hat and glasses from Amazon for the centerpiece and added a red and white striped ribbon to a dollar store vase that I spray painted red and placed fake white roses inside.

In the frame was a Chatgpt created image with my guests inside.  I found unique photos of each guest, then asked Chatgpt to create a Where's Waldo scene with each guest somewhere in the scene as well as Waldo himself. The guests were easy to find which was perfect as it just served as a quick and fun activity. I added a couple Waldo images cut out with my Cricut machine around the frame.

How did the guest's know what to look for in the created image?  I created their place cards with the original photos I gave Chatgpt to create the scene. Instead of Where's Waldo, I photoshopped the logo to replace the Waldo text with each guest's name.

I found striped napkins at Michaels Craft Store which fit perfectly with the theme.  Just set a pair of Waldo glasses to the front cut out of card stock with my Cricut.

I designed my wine labels to match the theme and party colors.  For the white wine I photoshopped Waldo with a glass of white wine inside a magnifying glass with the text "Found It! Waldo's White Wine."  I used a red and white striped background.  For the red wine, I used an image of Waldo holding a sign.  On the sign, I designed the logo to say Where's Waldo's Wine? and added the phrase "Searching for Sauvignon."  The background was an image from a Where's Waldo puzzle.

I kept the wine charms simple by just finding images of Waldo in various poses.

Menu: I brainstormed red and white food or striped food to create my menu. We started with a Wandering Waldo's Wedge Salad. I LOVE wedge salad, and I think in the almost 20 years I have been hosting these themed dinners, I have never served one! The salad has red tomatoes and white (blue) cheese along with red onion and bacon.

Next was chicken parmesan (red spaghetti sauce and white cheese). I wish I had purchased thinner chicken breasts or pounded them a little as they were each a big portion, but they were tasty.  I served the chicken over spaghetti noodles with additional sauce.

Along with the chicken, I served striped breadsticks.  I followed this recipe, but just used generic store bought pizza dough rather than the brand in the recipe. I didn't shape them into candy canes since this was not a Christmas party.  Reminder: wear disposable gloves when you dye the dough unless you want red hands!

For dessert, I made red and white striped jello cups topped with a dollop of whipped cream.

Favor: I purchased red and white striped popcorn boxes from Amazon (stripes are going the wrong way, but oh well). I filled them with popcorn and red and white M&Ms from Michaels.  FYI - the M&M's were SOOOO expensive even with a coupon. If you ever think you'll do this theme and want a favor like this, try to purchase the M&Ms around Valentine's where you can get red and white M&Ms for much cheaper.

The tag I designed for these pulled in words like search and find to fit with the Waldo idea, but linked it to friendship - "You don't have to search far to find the sweetest part of life...good friends."

Only a few of the girls were able to attend this month, so it was a smaller group than usual, but it was no less fun.  We used the paper glasses from our napkins for a fun photo.  Yes...I have the most amazing friends!