Red, White, and Blue Through and Through - Part II

Part II of Red, White, and Blue Through and Through is a party I hosted on December 7th, 2010. Since the Monthly Dinner party fell on this date, I decided our theme would be Remembering Pearl Harbor. I asked guests to dress in Navy or Nurse attire or to wear red, white, and blue.

Decor:  I used a red tablecloth and set up my old Hasbro Battleship game as the centerpiece.  I draped the game with white pearls and added small American flags. The runner and napkins were made with patriotic fabric found at Joanns.  The place card at each setting was a dogtag I bought at Party City and then wrote each guest's name.  I also printed out Japanese flags and wrapped them around shot glasses to serve kamikaze shots.

Menu:  I wanted to make sure the menu somehow went with my theme, but I was having difficulty deciding.  I finally decided to serve a simple chicken dish over rice, but it serve it in MRE kits.  I used tinfoil to create origami boxes with lids and added a label on the front. I served the food in these.  I bought peaches already packaged in individual plastic containers to serve as my fruit.

My favor for the evening was homemade caramel corn that I shaped into balls and wrapped in tinfoil to look like bombs.  I added a paper fuse and a tag that read "Thanks for making this dinner the BOMB.  Hope you had a BLAST!"  Anytime I can be cheesy, I usually am!! 

 Caramel Corn

2 ½ quarts popped corn (10 cups)

2 ¼ cups brown sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

½ cup water

½ cup butter

2 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon vanilla

1 cup salted peanuts

Keep popped corn crisp in oven at 300-325 degrees.  In large saucepan, combine sugar, syrup, water, butter, and salt.  Cook over moderate heat stirring occasionally until syrup reaches soft crack stage (290 or 270 degrees).  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

In large buttered bowl/pan, mix nuts and popcorn.  Pour syrup in a fine stream over mixture.  Working quickly, mix well until coated.  Spread out on thin buttered cookie sheet.  Quickly separate into bite-size clusters with two buttered forks. Cool. Makes 3½ quarters.

Again, I want to thank those that serve in our armed forces at home and abroad this Veteran's Day weekend.  To the many Veterans including my dad, thank you for your dedicated service to our nation.