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!

Fake an Injury Party...SOOO Fun!

A good friend of mine, and one of our amazing monthly dinner girls, just had major surgery on her ankle, so I thought I would choose a theme in her honor.  Didn't want her to feel alone with her wheelchair and cast, hence...a Fake an Injury Party!! This party was a lot of fun to host, and you could host this theme for many occasions such as a welcome home from the hospital party, a congrats on your graduation from nursing school, a funny birthday party playing up the "you're old" idea, or a party for watching your favorite medical drama TV show!

Invite: Start off with a hospital themed invitation.  Maybe an admittance form to the Emergency Room or a prescription note.  Another idea would be to slice open a gauze pad wrapper (neatly so you cannot tell it is open), and slide in a note with the party details. Or...send a box of band aids and write one party detail on each band aid inside.  The possibilities are endless.  Just make sure you ask guests to come dressed up with an injury for this Fake an Injury party.  This just adds to the fun!

Decor: The decor for this theme started at the street in front of my house where I placed handicap parking signs at all the places my guests would park.  The girls got a kick out of this.  At the entry door, I borrowed a manikin from a colleague and gave it some simple injuries -- bandaids, Ace bandages, cast on the leg made of toilet paper (it's cheaper than gauze).  I placed a walker I borrowed from my mother-in-law in front of her.  A sign on the door read Emergency Room.

The table was set like an medical exam room.  I bought a plastic bluish/teal tablecloth from Party City and made a runner with exam room paper down the center of the table.  I just asked my doctor if I could take 13 feet of this paper, so this didn't cost me anything.  I also asked my doctor for the pinkish maroon paper exam gown they give to patients. I cut this up into rectangles to use as napkins and wrapped a band aid around to enclose the silverware.  I used the board game Operation as my centerpiece.  I also borrowed some hospital pitchers from my parents and served red and white wine in them.  I wrapped each chair with an Ace bandage just for fun.

 For place cards, I created a prescription slip using Microsoft Word.  I marked each prescription according to the guest's personality/lifestyle, so guests received prescriptions for items such as a "stiff drink" or a "day off".

I also created prescription bottles for each guest.  This is a scan of the label, so the colors as not as vibrant here.  The bottle of pills could be your favor, but I used it as a place card.  I designed the label again using Microsoft Word and modeled it after a prescription label I found online.  The prescription number was the date of the party.  I bought empty pill containers from a local pharmacy and adhered the label using Mod Podge. I filled each prescription bottle with Mike n Ikes because they are shaped like little pills.

From the ceiling, I dangled medical gloves filled with air (actually my hubby did which is why there is blue tape and not a clear tape that wouldn't show!). The gloves I had were too heavy for helium to make them float, so I just used air.  Just make sure you knot them (which is difficult).  Those I did not knot and just tied tightly with the ribbon lost all air.  I also posted some xays up as more decor.

Menu:  I started with a simple green salad and fixin's.  I served this in a hospital urine (new of course!).  I got 10cc syringes and put the salad dressing in these.  A bigger syringe would have been better for this, but I got the syringes for free from a colleague, so I couldn't be picky.  This size was a little difficult to get the Italian seasonings out of though.  The Ranch dressing worked fine.

For the main course, I made Chicken Parmassan. I served this with roasted asparagus and spaghetti. To tie in the hospital theme, I served the spaghetti in a hospital bowl and the spaghetti sauce in a syringe (I chose this meal mainly so I could have something red in the syringe).  The syringes I used for this were made for taking alcoholic "shots", so they had a bigger opening.  I purchased them at Party City.  Note: I did have to put the spaghetti sauce in the blender to make it thin enough to work.

When I was thinking about what to have for dessert, I thought of the slogan for Rice Krispies -- Snap, Crackle, Pop -- and thought this idea went well with my theme!  I looked on the Rice Krispies website and found this yummy recipe that incorporated both the cereal as well as strawberry topping which could look like blood.  I made Rice Krispie treats according to the general directions, but then pressed them into a 10 x 15 x 1 inch pan. I didn't have a circle cookie cutter big enough (3"), so I used an empty can of pears with the lid cut out.  Then just make a normal sundae.  I used fat-free vanilla yogurt.

As usual, we had a great time at this party.  If money is not an issue, you can order all these things online and save yourself a lot of time. Money is ALWAYS an issue for me, so I handmade and borrowed a lot of the items.  Would love to hear your opinion about this party or hear how you've incorporated these ideas into a similar party.  Just comment below.

Bad Luck Bash

Our monthly dinner was going to fall on the 13th for that month...so I thought I would play off that idea with a Bad Luck Bash.  Everyone loves these crazy superstitions right? The set-up and invites are easy...think of every omen of bad luck you can and decorate with it!  For an invitation, you could purchase inexpensive umbrellas and write the party details on the inside. That way guests have to open the umbrella (and they will probably be inside) to read the message -- bad luck. Or...send each guest a salt shaker with the party details on a paper rolled inside.  Guests are bound to spill the salt as they retrieve the paper -- bad luck!

 Outside the front door, I drew cracks on the sidewalk with chalk and a sign that warned guests about stepping on cracks.  I also set up a ladder at my door, so guests were forced to walk under it to enter. A stuffed animal black cat greeted guests as they entered & they had to cross it's path.  Open umbrellas were spread throughout my party area.  On the table I had mirrors I bought at the Dollar Tree with hammers, salt shakers already tipped over, and upside down pennies. I also placed a number 13 (made using my Cricut) on each guest's napkin.  As placecards, I used the Cricut again to create 8 balls with each guest's name.

My menu was not all that special at this one, but I did use a cookie cutter to make black cats out of brownies and served these with ice cream.  We also played a short game where guests had to balance a salt shaker on their head in a relay.  It made for some fun laughs.

I didn't want the guests to leave the party with bad luck, so their parting gift was a mini box of Lucky Charms with a lottery ticket attached.  Unfortunately, I didn't hear of any mega money winners...or at least they aren't sharing with me!!