Red, White, & You - A Tasty Tribute to Rhyming Words

With fourth of July in a few days, I decided to theme my monthly dinner around this holiday, but with a twist.  I hosted a Red, White, and ________ Party where everything from decor to food to attire was supposed to rhyme with blue.  It was so much fun to put together, all the food was delicious, and the girls really had some fun with their rhyming "blue" attire.

Invite: I chose a simple patriotic bunting to top the invitation and then used red, white, and blue throughout.  I wanted guests to understand the idea of this party and that the "blue" would be replaced with another rhyming word.  I tried a spinner wheel, but that didn't look right on the invite.  I ultimately decided on a drop-down menu to show guests that it could be red, white, and "BLUE" or "YOU" or "CREW," etc.  I used this drop-down menu throughout many of the party details.  On the invitation, I also tried to incorporate some more words that rhymed with blue such as "rendezVOUS," "VENUE," and "VIEW."

I thought it might be fun to ask guests to dress in attire for the party that rhymed with blue.  I gave them some examples on the invite, but also let them know that they could just wear blue if they couldn't think of anything.  Pictured above you see a boy named SUE, myself dressed with a patriotic TUTU and a HAIKU on my shirt, and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss.

We also had two guests who wore items from their recent trips to OAHU, a guest with a BLUE dress and fun HAIRDO, and a BARBECUE chef among other rhymes.

Decorations: I used a red tablecloth and white plates and created a centerpiece with items that rhymed with blue.

I started with the board from a game of CLUE.  I bought red, white, and blue fake flowers and placed them in "vases" of RAGU pasta sauce,  a bottle of SHAMPOO, and a bottle of Mountain DEW.  Yes, I wasted the pasta sauce in that I just threw it out after the party, but I thought the jar looked better full of sauce than empty.  On the table, I also had a box of TISSUE and a bottle of GLUE that I made labels for.

For place cards, I came up with a CLUE that described each guest with a rhyme rather than just listing names.  Each guest had to figure out which rhyme matched with them to figure out where to sit.  It was fun to come up with fun or funny short phrases for them.

With the napkin, I made a napkin ring with Red, White, and the face of PIKACHU.  Kinda silly, but it rhymes with blue!

For the wine labels, I tried to think of even more blue rhymes.  I designed the label for the white wine with the same drop-down menu idea from the invitations inviting guests to "chase the red, white, and BLUES away with some chardonnay."  For the red wine, I came up with a simple rhyme "A rich bold HUE to bid woes ADIEU."

For wine charms, but printed off various brand logos or things that I could think of that rhymed with blue.  For my dinner, these included: igloo, Shamu, Hulu, Subaru, Pooh, Yahoo, Taboo, Clue, Peru, and zoo.

Menu: The menu (notice even menu rhymes) I chose for this dinner was delicious!  For these dinners I more often than not, try new recipes.  I don't get to do that very much with my own picky family, so monthly dinners give me that opportunity!  This dinner was no exception as all the menu items were recipes I had not tried before.  I started with a blue cheese dip for Red, White, & FONDUE. If you like blue cheese, this dip was amazing.  If you don't like it, then this recipe is not for you.  I found the recipe at Dash of Sanity.  The only change I made to the recipe was that I used smoked blue cheese instead of regular (as I love smoky flavor) and because it was a fondue, I served it with French bread cubes.

For the main dish I served Red, White & BARBECUE Chicken.  I wanted to make my own bbq sauce and tried the recipe from All Recipes for Best BBQ chicken.  The marinade paste and the sauce were easy to make and could be made ahead of time.  The only changes I made to this recipe was that I served chicken breasts instead of drumsticks, and I used apple cider vinegar instead of white wine vinegar because that is what I had in my cupboard.  My husband volunteered to grill the chicken and baste it as it was grilling.  It was so good.

As a side dish, I made Red, White, & BREW (beer) potatoes.  I found the recipe for these Beer Potatoes at Cookist.  These potatoes were easy to make and tasted great.  

Another side was a pasta salad I titled Red, White, & CORKSCREW Pasta Salad.  I found the recipe for this Tri Color Pasta Salad on Food, Folks, & Fun.  Having a pasta salad I could make the night before allowed me to have more time with my friends rather being stuck in the kitchen doing prep. I followed this recipe, but also added garbanzo beans.  

I titled my dessert Red, White, & TIRAMISU.  I went the easy route and just purchased an already made tiramisu from Costco instead of making it myself.  Only challenge was getting it out of the package and having it look nice on the plate!  It was really tasty though and not something I usually serve at my monthly dinners, so it was a nice change.

Party Activity/Game:  Before we had dessert, we played a couple rounds of TABOO which was really fun.  We didn't have teams or anything, we just sat at the table and everyone guessed.  Then we took turns with who was the clue giver.  

Favor: With the 4th of July later in the week, I decided my party favor would be patriotic TATTOOs.  I found really inexpensive ones on Amazon.  

The first ones I bought arrived and they were very dark colors, so I returned those and purchased a couple of this set of 8 sheets.  The were bright and festive, and since the party was prior to July 4th, the guests could easily use them to celebrate the holiday. I used the same drop-down idea and was able to include a thank YOU and tribute to this Monthly Dinner CREW.

We had a great time at this dinner and it was really fun to put together. I got most of my ideas after looking up rhyming words on the internet and then figuring out how I could incorporate those words.  The challenge was fun.  Happy 4th Everyone!

Duct Tape Dinner

My daughter used to love making bags and purses out of duct tape years ago.  I recently came across one of them as I was spring cleaning, and it gave me the idea of hosting a duct tape themed dinner.  There are so many creative things you can do with duct tape, so it made crafting the party details super fun.

Invite: Found the image of colorful rolls of duct tape online and crafted my invitation around that.  Invited guests to "stick" around for a night of fun, and the evening really did turn out to be a lot of fun catching up with my best girl friends.  

One fun aspect of the party, was that I asked guest to arrive with an accessory made out of duct tape.  We had hair bows and flowers, and many guests had earrings or bracelets.  There are a ton of tutorials online for all kinds of things from easy to more time consuming.  It think it only took me about 5 minutes to make my braided bracelet.

Decorations:  Of course the decorations were either made with duct tape or were duct tape rolls.  For the table, I took a plastic light blue tablecloth I already owned added stipes of colorful duct tape down the middle that I purchased from Amazon.

For the centerpiece, I made roses out of duct tape.  I used plastic straws as stems that I wrapped with green duct tape, but I would suggest using pencils instead.  Maybe because I used bendy straws, but the roses were not as strong as I think I would have liked.  I followed a tutorial for making these on Pinterest.  I rounded the edges of mine.  Some tutorials don't have you do that as it was an extra step, but I think it made them look more like real roses.  I added duct tape around the vase, and placed a couple rolls of duct tape leaning up against the vase as well.

I also made bowls out of rolls of duct tape to hold small snacks.  To make the bowl, I cut a piece of duct tape that fit across the roles diameter.  Then I flipped the roll over and placed a cupcake liner inside the roll.  The duct tape held it in place and the cupcake liner helped the snacks stay inside.  

I served light snacks: goldfish, M&Ms, chex mix, Reeces Pieces, chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate covered almonds.  If you stack the rolls, make sure some of the heavier snacks are not the bottom.

For place cards, I printed the guests names on card stock and then decorated each edge of the folded place card with patterned duct tape I already owned.  I tried to think of creative duct tape related slogans to put before each guest's name.  Some examples were: Duct Tape Diva (name), Sticky Situation Solver (name), Adhesive Admirer (name), Stick Together Champion (name), Wrap Star (name).

I used another patterned duct tape for napkin rings.  I cut toilet paper rolls the height of the duct tape and then wrapped it with the duct tape so the napkin could slide out easily and not be ruined.

For wine charms, I used various colors of duct tape to make flags.  Simply wrapped the tape around the stem, lined up the edges and stuck them together. and then cut a wedge at the end.

I designed my wine labels on Photoshop to match the theme as well.  For the white wine, I created the saying, "Stick with Wine: The Duct Tape of Life" and photoshopped the two of the rolls of duct tape from my party invitation around the stem of a white wine glass.  The background behind the middle image was standard grey duct tape with added photoshop details.  For the red wine, I found the saying online, "Wine is like duct tape, it fixes everything" and created a label around that slogan.

Above the beverage/appetizer table, I also make a simple banner with duct tape and string.  Took me no time at all to make.  For my HOME sign, I replaced the O with two rolls of duct tape.

Menu: As usual, I tried to incorporate the party theme into my menu as well.  We started with chips and salsa which I called an Adhesive Appetizer.  I served the salsa in a ramekin that fit in the center of a large roll of duct tape.

For the main dish, I served Wrap & Roll Burritos.  Guests put what fixings inside their burrito they wanted, wrapped and rolled them up, and then I grilled them to get the outsides crispy.  I served: ground beef, cheese, refried beans, black beans, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, olives, and guacamole.  I made flags like the wine charms on toothpicks for guests to use to mark their burrito.  That way they didn't get mixed up when I was grilling them.

With the burritos, I made Sticky Cilantro Lime Rice.  I've made this for multiple dinners and it is always a crowd favorite.

I went easy with the dessert and purchased a Cinnabon Cinna Ring which is a ring of pastry topped with Cinnabon's famous cream cheese frosting. I designed a label "Duct Tape Dessert" for the middle to make it look similar to a roll of duct tape.  I usually hand make all aspects of the meal, but it was nice this time to just have a dessert already done as it just needed a quick heating up.

Activity/Craft: With May being the month of Memorial Day, I decided to have a craft that guests could make while we chatted and waited for everyone to arrive.  

We made patriotic wreaths out of duct tape.  I bought the red, white, silver, and blue duct tape at the Dollar Tree.  The flag duct tape I purchased from Walmart, and the 12" foam rings I purchased from Joann's.  I found the idea for this at DIY Candy.  Duct tape is so sticky, this wreath is definitely a challenge and you have to be okay with wrinkles, but when it's finished, it is really cool looking.

Favor: As a parting gift, I used a raisin box that I covered in colorful duct tape.  I emptied out the raisins and cleaned the inside of the box to get rid of the raisin smell, and then I filled the box with M&Ms. Why a raisin box you ask? No reason other than I wanted that size of box & I didn't want to spend a ton of money and raisin boxes are cheap. I used the owl duct tape from the napkin rings and a solid yellow duct tape for one pattern.  The other was the patterned duct tape from the place cards with a solid orange duct tape. I painted a small clothespin for the top and made a tag that read: "Thanks for being like Duct Tape - Strong & Reliable."

This was a fun theme to work with, and if you are crafty, it is pretty easy to pull off. Hope you enjoyed this post and try a duct tape party of your own with some of these ideas!

 

Celebrating Black History Month

February is Black History Month, so I decided to theme our monthly dinner around amazing African-Americans that have influenced our history in film, sports, politics, and just life in general.  From Muhammad Ali and Jesse Owens to Kobe Bryant in sports and Martin Luther King Jr. to Amanda Gorman in inspirational speeches and writing, it was neat to celebrate America by incorporating as many names as I could into our evening meal and details.

Invite: I designed the invite with black, red, yellow, and green as these are the colors associated with Black History Month.  I added a few photos of some African-Americans that are inspirational to me to the invite as well.

Party Details: As stated above, I tried to creatively link the names of famous African-Americans in our culture to party details.  For the napkin, I focused on Thurgood Marshall.  Thurgood Marshall was the Supreme Court's first African-American justice, so for my "Supreme" napkin, I made sure to note that tethe napkin was Thur(oughly)good to Marshall a mess.  A bit cheesy I know, but it's the thought that counts!

For my wine labels, I designed a label for red wine and one for white.  

For the white wine label, we celebrated Barry White an American singer and songwriter. I altered the title of his hit song, "Can't Get Enough of Your Love Baby" to be "Can't Get Enough of White Wine Baby."

For the red wine, I celebrated Ida B. Wells a journalist and leader in the civil rights movement.  The label read "Ida B. Wells (I'd be well) if you'd give me a glass of red wine."

Menu:  It was quite a challenge to come up with a menu, but also fun.  Again because of COVID, my menu needed to be packaged in to-go containers and easy for my guests to pick up and then eat at home/reheat if necessary.

I started with a green salad I called Muhammad Ali's Knockout Salad.  It was romaine lettuce, grape tomatoes, sunflower seeds, sliced black olives, and cheese.  I sliced the cheese and cut boxing gloves out of it by hand for the "knockout."  Along with the salad, I served breadsticks I named Jackie Robinson's Bread Bats.

For the main dish, I made a chicken with rose wine. It was delicious!  I called this dish Cicely Tyson chicken with Rose Parks wine. Cecily Tyson was a famous actress who only recently passed away.  Rosa Parks was civil rights activist.

For sides, I served mashed potatoes and broccoli.  I titled these Malcolm X-cellent potatoes and Barack-oli Obama.

For dessert, I made angel food cake that I packaged with blueberries and sliced strawberries.  I called this Maya Angel-foud for Maya Angelou (love her writing), and I called the fruit MLK's "dreamy" toppings.

Favor:  I really enjoyed Amanda Gorman's reading of her poem at the inauguration, and I decided to incorporate some of her words into my monthly dinner.  I purchased mason jar candle holders from the dollar store and put a tealight inside.  I created a sticker for the front with the last lines of Gorman's poem. "There is always light. If only we're brave enough to see it; if only we are brave enough to be it."  This is a great message for our world.

I was happy to celebrate these Americans for Black History Month.  There are so many of people who are influential in Americans growth.  I hope you enjoyed this post!  Thank you for reading.