Operation: Girls Night

Here we are in what seems like week 800 of COVID-19, and I am aching for life to get back to normal or even semi normal. I miss seeing my friends in person.  I miss having my kids at school rather than at home to learn.  I miss teaching my own students at work and not through the computer.  Overall, this distance learning has me STRESSED!  With all the craziness of distance learning right now, I am in desperate need of a girls night!  Hence...Operation: Girls Night!

Invite:  We used to play the board game Operation when I was a kid.  I thought it might be a fun theme to work with for our girls night.  Turns out it was just what the doctor ordered (yes...corny joke time).  I created the invite with the color scheme to match the game (the original version).  I added some of the game pieces into the text of the invite as well.

Party Details:  Due to COVID we are still on Zoom for these dinners, so I am not doing table decorations, but I still try to add fun party details to play up the theme.  For my mini wine bottles for each guest, I purchased tweezers from the dollar store and tied them with ribbon to the top.  This was to simulate the tweezers attached to the wire that are used in the game.  

I created a wine label using "Cavity Sam" just as he appears on the game box, but with one small addition -- I added a body part/game piece.  This was the wine glass where the mouth is.  It was so small on the wine bottle I am sure most of the girls didn't even notice, but it made me chuckle!  I think I should have just included the head-shot of Cavity Sam like I did here, so it would have been more noticeable.  Hindsight, I guess. 

I don't typically serve bottled water to my guests, but one of the Operation game pieces is "Water on the Knee" so I decided to this time.  Just made a simple label and glued it over the already existing label.

For the napkin, I incorporated two of the Operation game pieces.  The pencil which in the game symbolizes "Writer's Cramp" and a rubber band which in the game is the "ankle bone connected to the knee bone."  After making the tag, I hot glued the pencil to the tag and then used the rubber band to keep it in place on the napkin.

Menu:  Several of the game pieces already go perfectly with foods, so that part was really easy.  Others I had to be a little bit creative.  After coming up with a meal that matched with the game pieces, I designed a menu on Photoshop.

I served an apple and Gorgonzola romaine salad with candied pecans and dried cranberries to represent the "Adam's Apple" game piece.  Since these dinners were picked up "to-go" style, I put the salad in zip lock baggies to keep is chilled and away from the hot food.  For the dressing, I bought the Wishbone brand of Raspberry Vinaigrette dressing to represent the wishbone game piece.  I put some in a to-go ramekin for guests.

For the main dish, I smoked ribs on my Traeger grill....so easy and delicious!  I followed the 3-2-1 Traeger Rib recipe.  Of course, these ribs represented the "Spare Ribs" game piece in the Operation game.  Along with ribs, I served heart-shaped potato bites.  I make potato bites all the time, but this time I used a cookie cutter to have them shaped like hearts to represent the "broken heart" game piece.  They were too cute to actually break, but the idea is there.

I also made these cute mini baskets to hold a roll for each guest. The "bread basket" is what the game piece calls the stomach with a the game piece shaped like a piece of toast.  These baskets are a ramekin I bought 3 for a $1 from the dollar store and then a piece of red cardstock that I taped to the inside of the ramekin.

For dessert, I made meringue chocolate chip cookies, but shaped them into "funny bones" to represent that Operation game piece.  I did the shaping by hand so they definitely weren't perfect, but they were sweet and tasty.

Favor:  I like to include a parting gift or favor with my monthly dinners.  I used the "Charlie Horse" game piece as inspiration for this.  I already had a horse mold from a previous monthly dinner (Kentucky Derby), so I used that one to make chocolate suckers.  

I added a tag with a tip from Cavity Sam: Avoid a Charlie Horse and attend Operation Girls Night.  It won't cramp your style!  Pretty cheesy, but my friends are use to that from me!

The girls stopped by my porch to pick up their food and goodies for the evening.  We met on Zoom and had a great time talking, laughing, and eating this yummy food. Overall, this theme was easy to put together.  I would totally recommend it for a fun girls night (especially if you could play the game).  It makes a great theme for a medical school graduation party too!

Thanks for reading my blog!

"Booting Up" for Distance Learning

Teachers, parents, and kids are now "booting up" to start the 2020-21 school year distance learning.  As a teacher myself, and parent of 3 young ones, I definitely have a lot of anxiety about the how-to and best practices in navigating this new realm. I decided to embrace this time with a fun monthly dinner theme - "Booting Up" for Distance Learning!

Invite:  It was fun creating the invitation to look like a computer screen with pop up window.  I changed the pop up window buttons to read "Can't Make It" and "I'm There" just for fun.  I geared the text toward school language with "class session" but also tech-related items & text.  The invite was sent through email with the log-in information for our Zoom session.  

Party Details:  A glass of wine evenings after distance learning might be essential.  For this dinner I bought individual bottles of wine and created a label that read "Because Distance Learning." Just a funny way to laugh at the frustrations this situation puts on teachers and parents.

For a funny addition to a regular paper napkin, I made a sticker that spelled out Napkin in keyboard keys.  Above the keys, I added "Hoping Distance Learning Isn't Too Messy" to play off the fact that this sticker was attached to a napkin.  I truly am hoping distance learning isn't messy and that teachers, parents, and students can still thrive in this new dynamic.

Menu:  Distance Learning is all about technology, so I decided to make technology the inspiration behind my menu.  I went with technology devices/brands as these names are familiar and were easy to adapt.  I created the invite on Photoshop and tried to highlight the Tech names in a different color and used the would "bytes" instead of "bites" to match the theme.

The main dish was tri tip.  I called it DELL-icious tri tip, and it really was tasty.  I smoked it on our Traeger grill which is easy and always delicious. I love being able to put it on the Traeger and not worry about it while I prep everything else.  I also made homemade MAC and cheese using a friend's family recipe.  It was also tasty & my kids loved it too.  Lastly, I served roasted broccoli and baby carrots seasoned with Italian seasonings.  I called them Heartily Peppered Veggies to play up the HP (Hewlett Packard) link.  I had never roasted veggies like this, but decided to try it.  I may have to do this more often, as I thought they tasted great.

For dessert, I made APPLE pie bites.  This was a simple recipe with only two ingredients - sugar cookie pre-made dough and apple pie filling.  I drizzled caramel on the top as well, but it isn't mandatory.

I packaged these up for easy transport.

Favors: I put together two favors just because they were simple and easy.  I gave each guest an "ipad" which was a three notepad I bought three for a dollar.  I added an "i" to the front using my Cricut.  Definitely the cheapest ipad I've seen out there!

The second was a stress ball (thank you Leadership Inspirations) to help as the stress builds with distance learning.  I created a tag for the stress ball that was titled "Give Stress the Boot".  On the screen of the tag it read, "You've Got Distance Learning Under Control" with the control keyboard button instead of the word control.

We had a great monthly dinner even if it was from a distance. 

Best of luck to all the teachers, administrators, counselors, and parents acting as all of the above. I wish you all a stress-free distance learning experience!

Hamilton Themed Dinner

I have always wanted to see Hamilton in person, but never had the pocketbook to be able to afford tickets.  When Disney+ released the show this past week, I was super excited to finally watch it.  My socials were exploding with eager fans, so I knew it would be good.  I decided to host my monthly dinner with a Hamilton theme after watching the first part of the production and loving it.

With COVID-19 still threatening our communities unfortunately, "the room where it happens" had to be a zoom chat room instead of in person. It was still fun to put together and as usual, the girls and I had a great time catching up and chatting no matter where we were.

Invite:  I used various popular lines from the production in the wording of my invite, but kept the overall look of the invitation simple with just the Hamilton logo and poster as the background.  There are so many great lines in the production that it was fairly easy to include "Awesome. Wow." and others in the invite.  I used Tragan Pro as my font which is close to the Hamilton font on the logo.

Dinner Details: You could definitely serve Samuel Adams beer for this theme, but the girls and I are more of wine drinkers.  I bought individual bottles of wine and created a label to attach to them.  I used the popular line from the production "Raise a Glass to Freedom" on top of the Hamilton logo.  Hard to see, but I used PhotoShop to add a wine glass into the raised hand on the logo.

I bought gold napkins from the dollar store and used my Cricut to cut out the Hamilton logo on cardstock to glue to it. Simple.

I always have fun coming up with a menu to match the themes of my dinners.  The only challenge during COVID with this is trying to find something that I can make that will still taste good by the time the ladies eat it since we are not all sitting at a dinner table together as we normally would.  For some monthly dinners during this time I have delivered the meals and goodies to porch steps of my guests, but for this one, the ladies came and picked it up from my porch.  This helped with timing in that all meals were picked up about the same time, and could be eaten during the zoom call before they could get cold.

Menu:  With Hamilton as the theme, it was the obvious choice to serve ham.  I found this easy recipe for Ham & Swiss sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls.  They were delicious!  Even my kids liked them which is saying something!  I gave each guest two sandwiches.  Along with the ham & cheese sandwiches, I served oven-roasted baby peppers with balsamic.  I called these the Schuyler Sisters Trio as the peppers were in three colors.  These were tasty.  I would definitely make them again.

I served a side salad as well.  Just romaine, shredded cheese, tomatoes, bacon bits, walnuts, and sliced cucumber along with a side of ranch.  Those of us on Keto couldn't enjoy the sandwiches, so the salad was our meal with ham rolls on the side.  I also included the hot veggies in a separate foil packet for the Keto ladies.

For dessert, I made Aaron BURR-itos.  These dessert burritos were easy to make with a cinnamon cream cheese filling and sliced strawberries rolled inside and then lightly fried.  I found the recipe here.  The girls said these were tasty, but the recipe only made 7 instead of 8 for me, so I didn't personally get to try them.

The dessert burrito recipe said they could be served hot or at room temperature.  I made them around 3:00, so they were room temperature for my dinner.  I w"rapped" each burritos in parchment paper and tied a ribbon to secure the parchment.  Since Hamilton has so much rap in it's musical numbers, this was perfect.

Favor: It was fun making the favor for this dinner.  I made star-shaped cookies with yellow/gold frosting, and placed them in a bag with Hamilton shot glasses.  The plain shot glasses I got 3 for $1 at the dollar store.  I used my Cricut to put the vinyl decal on the glass before wrapping it and the cookie.

I created the tag that read "I'm not going to miss my shot...to thank you for your friendship."  Of course the "my shot" reference is a huge one in the Hamilton production.

I didn't snap any photos during the Zoom, but we had a great time as usual catching up.  This theme is super easy to do and a great one even if your guests have not seen the production.  Hope you enjoy reading this post!

Friendship & Starbucks - The Perfect Blend

I was driving the other day with my kids in the truck to get us out of the house for a bit during this time of COVID 19.  While driving past shopes, my daughter innocently asked, "Mom, is Starbucks really an essential business?"  I jokingly replied, "For some, YES!" before briefly discussing why Starbucks would be allowed to be open for business.  I am not even close to being a Starbucks regular and tend to brew my daily cup of coffee at home, but occasionally, we do stop in for some fun iced drinks. After this chat with my daughter, my mind started thinking about the fun and creativity I could have with a Starbucks theme.  Read on to find out how I "blended" the theme with my dinner and we had "grande" fun!

Invite:  I played with Starbucks-related words on my invitation which was fun.  "Brewing up Grande Fun" and "A Latte Laughter & Venti Size Fun."  I went with the shade of green and black of the Starbucks logo and the white of the cups, but added in yellow to add a little brightness.  Although some stores are starting to reopen during this time, I decided to keep this dinner on Zoom.  Even if we did feel safe enough to eat together outside, the recent looting and craziness in response to the  George Floyd tragedy caused curfews in some of the cities around Fullerton, so some of the girls would have had to stay home.  Zoom just seemed the easiest way for us all to be safe.

First step was redesigning the Starbucks logo to read "Monthly Dinner".  I did this on PhotoShop, and then printed it, cut it out, and used a dab of glue in the center to adhere it on the napkins.  Nothing fancy.

I could have served iced coffee with the meal but we always have wine with monthly dinners, so I purchased individual bottles of wine.  I again used PhotoShop to create a tag to represent coffee as the favorite AM drink, and wine as the favorite PM drink.  The girls got a kick out of these. 

Menu:  There are recipes out there that use coffee, but I let my creative roll in coming up with a meal that fit Starbucks more than just coffee.  Since this was a meal during quarantine, I had to make sure the meal could be compact and easy to transport/reheat if necessary.  This has been a challenge during COVID19 as I always like to make the meal match with the theme as well.

The frappuccino is a super popular drink at Starbucks (my kid's love the vanilla bean), so I wanted to come up with a meal item to represent that drink.  I decided to make a WRAPpuccino!  This was perfect because I served it as a cold wrap -- no reheating necessary.  I used a green tortilla, spread bbq sauce and ranch on it, then topped it with romaine lettuce, shredded cheese, diced rotisserie chicken, tomatoes, and corn.  I was planning to add black beans, but forgot to purchase them at the store (oops).  Three of us ladies are on the Keto diet right now, so for us, I bought cheese wraps to use as the tortilla and used a sugar free BBQ sauce. I also left out the tomatoes and corn on these.  I hadn't tried these cheese wraps before, but really like them. 

I asked my local Starbucks for some items for this monthly dinner, and they were nice enough to give me some items.  I used the logo bags they use for croissants to put the wrappuccino in once it was rolled like a burrito and cut in half.  To go with the wrappuccino, I made a simple garden salad - Green Tea-rrific Salad!  I mixed romaine and spinach and topped it with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, cheese, and croutons.  I included a ramekin of Strawberry Vinaigrette dressing.

For dessert I made these cute Mocha Frappuccino Cupcakes!  I used a Betty Crocker cake mix and followed the recipe on the box except for substituting strongly brewed coffee for the water.  They are topped with a buttercream frosting, mini chocolate chips, and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.  Yum!

Again, Starbucks was amazing, and hooked me up with the straws and cardboard wrappers.  I did have cut the top and bottom of the wrapper to fit better with the size of cupcakes I made.

Favor:  Even for these remote parties, I like to include a favor.  For this one, I got taster cups from Starbucks and filled each one with chocolate covered espresso beans.  These were super easy to put together with a tag to "espresso" how much these ladies mean to me.

The girls picked up their meal and goodies on my porch.

Then at 7:00, we met on Zoom to have a fun dinner and conversation.  It truly was "the perfect blend" and so needed during this time in our lives.


Hope you liked this post and this party!