Manicures & Mimosas

 After almost an entire year in this year in this Pandemic, I am going a bit crazy.  Missing my friends and our monthly dinners together, but thankful we can at least see each other once a month online.  For this month's monthly dinner, I wanted to support one of my good friends (and monthly dinner ladies) who sells Color Street nail strips.  I decided to make my theme Manicures & Mimosas.  Honesty...who doesn't love a mimosa at any time of day!

Invite:  I found a simple image of a mimosa online that I really liked and designed my invitation around that. Nothing super fancy with this one.

Party Details:  At a Manicures & Mimosa party, you of course have to serve mimosas.  I bought some mini bottles of champagne and mini bottles of orange juice to give each guest.  I created a label for the orange juice that matched the invite.  I added a fun message to the label encouraging guests to get "on a juice cleanse...drink mimosas!"

I gave each guest a plastic champagne flute, but dressed them up a little by folding a yellow napkin inside and crafting a paper orange slice to garnish the rim.  I used my Cricut machine to create the orange, made a cut with scissors in the middle, and then slid the slice on the rim of the glass.

Menu:  Mimosas are most often served with breakfast and brunch, so that is the menu that I designed even though this was for dinner.  It was all delicious no matter what time of day we ate!  

We started with a Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Strata.  I found the recipe here.  We really enjoyed this recipe, and I loved how easy it was to make.  I used a large uncut loaf of herb seasoned bread instead of a baguette.  I also added more bacon than it says, but I love bacon.  Otherwise, I stuck to the recipe.  Loved that I could make this a day ahead, leave it in the fridge, and then add the toppings and bake it right before the party.

I served a fruit salad on the side.  The fruit salad had watermelon, blueberries, green grapes, cantaloupe, and strawberries.  It was a nice light addition to the meal.

For a breakfast "dessert," I made Cinnamon Roll Muffins.  I followed this recipe here.  These were tasty.  I tried to follow the recipe exactly, but honestly had trouble with the cinnamon swirl.  I am not an expert baker or anything, so maybe most people are able to do exactly what the recipes says, but I found my mixture thick and not able to swirl at all.  The recipe says to heat it more if this is the case, but that didn't work for me.  I even added a little more butter, but it was a very similar consistency.  I think my cinnamon rolls cupcakes looked fine and tasted fine, they just didn't have the swirl look as much as the original photos in this recipe show.

I wrapped up my muffins since these Pandemic dinners have to be online rather than together.  I placed each muffin on a lemon coaster.  I picked these up years ago in the Target dollar bin and new I would use them someday! 

I created a tag for my muffins and sealed the bags with a fun yellow ribbon.

Favor: My good friend that sells Color Street nail strips donated all the items for the favor.  She included a scratch off discount card, two sample pairs of nail strips, a nail file, and two tools that are perfect for applying Color Street.  I created a fun tag - "A Mimosa a day keeps the worries away. A manicure every weeks helps too!"

We had a great time on Zoom together to end the night showing off our nails & laughing with friends.  It has been of year of these dinners on Zoom rather than in person.  Hoping to get back to in person events in the near future.

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.  

Finally '21 - New Year Themed Dinner

2020 was definitely a year unlike any other.  I am not really a fan of the "new normal". Like many of you, I am anxiously hopeful 2021 can bring us back to life as we've known it prior to COVID.  To have a little fun with a 2021 New Year's theme, I decided to host an alcohol inspired - Finally '21 -- dinner party.  Taking it back to when we were excited to be turning 21 and legally able to drink, but without the nasty hangover aspect of it all!

Invite: I love the black and gold color-scheme of new years, but wanted to add a bit of other colors into the fun.  I designed my invite with a background of generic alcohol bottles and drinks.  I pulled in a few alcohol names, like Gin and Beer, in my invitation details for added fun.  With COVID, we are still on Zoom for our dinners.  I package up all the food and goodies, the girls drive by my house to pick them up, and then we eat together at our own homes over Zoom.  I miss our time together in the same room, but love at least having this time we all chat each month.

Party Details: How fun are these napkin rings?  I found a pack of these mini solo cups at the dollar store and bought them not knowing what I would use them for.  When I started brainstorming how I could incorporate them, I came up with this napkin ring idea.  All I had to do was use an exacto knife to cut out the bottom and then place a napkin inside.  So fun!

As usual, I had a bit of fun designing wine labels for my mini bottles of red and white wine.  For one of them, I played off the popularity of alcohol wipes and hand sanitizer in 2020 and how they were/are so hard to find in stores.  The tag read "2020 Taught Us Alcohol Kills Germs" inside of a wine glass.  I used the same alcohol bottle background as my invitation.

For the second wine label, I used the phrase: 2021 Forecast: 100% Chance of Wine.  Wine/alcohol consumption were definitely up in 2020 as people worked from home and were doing less driving.  With California still in quarantine for 2021 so far, I guarantee there is a 100% chance of wine in my future!

Menu:  Turning 21 is a time when many try out various alcohols and have not yet settled on their likes/dislikes yet.  I wanted my menu to reflect this same variety.  There are definitely a lot of dishes that can be made with alcohol, so I picked a few to make for our dinner party.

The main dish was Chicken au Champagne.  This is a tasty, fairly easy recipe to make.  I used an inexpensive bottle of brut and chicken thighs.  The thighs I found were skinless and boneless, but the recipes calls for skin on.  I may have to try it that way the next time I make this just to see if there is any difference in taste.  Along with the chicken, I served Maple Bourbon Glazed Carrots.  These were also simple to make.  I couldn't really taste the alcohol on these (which is honestly great since I am not a big bourbon fan!)

I made Beer Bread to serve with the meal. I couldn't find a mix at the grocery store, so I just looked up a recipe and made it myself.  Everyone enjoyed the bread.  I liked it, but felt it definitely needed butter spread on it to really make it great.  It was super simple to make, so that was good too.

For dessert, I chose to make a Baileys Oreo Tart.  This was easy to make and also tasty.  I made the crust the night before and finished the rest the morning of the party.  Baileys is a strong flavor, but it was not overpowering in the dessert which was nice. I would make this again.  As you can tell from the photo, I am not a professional photographer (or chef), so they don't look great, but they tasted good!

I made a simple tag to go on the top of the dessert container as well.

Favor: For a parting gift (and to use with their wine bottles when they brought their meal home), I made these cute wine glasses.  I used my Cricut to cut out the phrase Sip Sip Hooray for 2021 on gold vinyl.  The craft store I went to did not have a ton of choices for gold vinyl (and I wanted gold), so I ended up purchasing a foil vinyl with matte finish. It looked really cute, but I am not sure how it will stand up with washings, etc. I wish I could have found a permanent vinyl.

Snowman Themed Dinner Party

We are in the last month of 2020, and at least here in California, we are still in quarantine-mode with stay at home orders.  I am definitely ready to be back at work and life with people in general, but for now, my monthly dinner parties are continuing to be virtual.  For a little December fun, I decided to have a snowman theme for my monthly dinner.  I know...not a whole lot of snow to be found in sunny Orange County, but it was a super easy and fun theme to put together.

Invite:  I wanted to tie in that this is the last month of a hard year with COVID-19, so I decided to title our dinner, "SNOW, MAN I am glad 2020 is almost over" because I am SO glad it is almost over even though it's hard to see the new year changing much at least for a while.  I kept the invite simple and used a fun snowy font that was still easy to read.

Party Details: As this was a virtual party, I did not decorate my house or table as I normally would, but I did create some touches to give to the guests when they picked up their meal.  My party favor was my favorite! (I know I don't usually talk about the party favor until the end of my posts, but I am just too excited about this one!). Since toilet paper is in such high demand right now because of COVID, I thought it would be fun to incorporate it into the party.  I made snowman favors out of it!

It is fairly simple to make these, and I love them so much I think I may make them for my kids' teachers at school to put with a gift card or even for neighbors.  A gift that is cute, but also able to be used after the holidays!  To make these, I used 2 rolls of toilet paper.  I put a piece of packing tape on top of the bottom one and one brown pipe cleaner across before adding the second roll so they were at least loosely attached. I tied a ribbon around the middle as a scarf and added the face and buttons.  I cut these out with my Cricut and just glued them on.  For the arms, I used a second brown pipe cleaner, wrapped it around the other pipe cleaner once and cut it to be the length of fingers I wanted.  For the hat, I bought mini plastic cups (8 per pack) at the dollar store and spray painted them black.  Then I attached them to the top of a black circle of cardstock.

The tag for my favor played off the COVID hoarding of TP!

Another party detail was for the wine.  I designed two wine labels - one for red and one for white.  

The label for the red wine matched the party invitation and read, "Let it Snow and pour the Merlot."  The white wine label also had a snowman.  It read, "Let it Snow and let the wine Flow."

To spice up my napkin, I simply added a snowman eyes, nose, and smile using my Cricut and cardstock.  These were so easy because I already had the parts for my party favor.  I just needed to resize them and glue them on.

Menu:  I had a bit of simple fun creating a menu to go with a Snowman theme.  I stayed simple since the meal is "to go" style and needed to be easy to transport.  We started with Snowman Stew.  This was delicious and very easy to make.  I made it on the stove and then baked it in a casserole dish.  

I baked the snowman separately and then added them to the top.  Here is the recipe.  I doubled it for 10 people, and there was zero left.  Wish I would have tripled it for leftovers.

1.5 pound ground beef
1 package (16 ounces) frozen vegetables
1 can (10-1/4 ounces) beef gravy
Potatoes (prepared with milk and butter)
Whole black pepper for the eyes

Instructions:  Brown the beef in a skillet on medium heat until pink.  Drained it and add the frozen vegetables.  Be sure to take out the number of peas and carrots you want to use to decorate your snowman before you add the vegetables to the beef.  After the vegetables thaw, add the gravy and mix well.  Then, pour the mixture into a casserole dish and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.  You can top it with your snowman mashed potatoes before you bake it or bake them separately.  I did them separately because I needed to transfer everything after baking.  To make the snowman, I used an ice cream scoop for the lower portion and a butter scoop for the head.  I baked them at the same temp and time as the stew and then added 3 peas for buttons, 2 whole black peppers for eyes, and a sliced carrot from the frozen veggie bag as the nose.  You can add a red pepper or ketchup to make a scarf, but I ran out of time to do this.

I also served a salad that I called a Deconstructed Snowman Salad. It was lettuce topped with 3 mozzarella balls, sliced olives, sliced carrot noses, and pretzel sticks.  The pretzels were like croutons and gave the salad a yummy crunch. I served the salad with a creamy bacon ranch dressing.

For dessert, I made Snowman Bark.  This was so cute & would make a great gift for neighbors, friends, etc.  Super easy.  Here's is how I made it:

1 package while chocolate almond bark

30 (or so) candy eyes

Red M&Ms

15-16 miniature peanut butter cups, cut in half

Black edible marker to draw arms

Melt the almond bark on the stove according to the directions on the package.  Then pour it into a lined baking sheet.  Smooth it out.  Then place candy eyes, three M&M's for buttons, and the halved peanut butter cup as a hat.  After this hardens and cools, use the black edible marker to add arms.  Then heat a small knife to cut the bark into pieces to separate the snowman.  Go slow and be careful.  Some of my snowman didn't make it as the bark cracked and decapitated them or they lost an arm!

Everything was super easy and fun for this dinner party theme.  We had a great time on Zoom eating our meal and sharing our lives with each other.  Of course, it is more fun to be together around a table, but that time will come again soon.  For now, I am grateful to be able to at least see my friends briefly when they pick up their food and then on Zoom.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday season!

Election Themed Wedding Fun

One of my best friends and monthly dinner girls is getting married on Saturday.  She and her fiancé had their first date on Election Day years ago, and she follows politics closely, so I decided to have a bit of fun combining an election theme and a bridal celebration/wedding!  It was so much fun to plan!

Invite:  I designed a fun invitation to look like a formal political candidate dinner.  I started with a bit of fun using the word BIDEN and the word TRUMP in my opening lines.  No divisions politically in this dinner party....all of us were supporting Nazly/Ed!  I tried to stick with political wording by calling our dinner a "rally" even though we were again on Zoom. My guests were "campaign supporters."

Party Details:  To hold a red napkin, I folded a piece of typing paper to look like an envelope.  I put in the napkin and designed an "Election Ballot" to put inside.  I added my friend and her fiancé to the ballot along with Biden/Harris and Trump/Pence.  I used the same wording as my official absentee ballot for the signature box to make it look a little more official.

I designed Nazly/Ed 2020 buttons for each guest to wear for our dinner.  I found the buttons at Michaels Craft Store and just popped in the design I created.

I also made small Nazly/Ed signs for each guest to hold during our dinner rally. I taped tongue depressors to the back, and we had fun showing our support for our candidates throughout our dinner!

For the wine, I designed a label to be like the gillions of political pamphlets we have all been receiving these past few months.  It let everyone know that Nazly/Ed support the Red, WINE, and Blue!

As a little gift to our bride-to-be (or candidate), I collected money from the girls and put together a nice wine and a wedding themed Home Depot gift card for our friend to use on their new home.  The tag read, Happy to celebrate your Red, White, & I DO!

Menu: Since we are still on Zoom with COVID-19, the girls are picking up their food and we aren't able to eat together.  Finding a meal that will travel well has been a priority these past months.  As usual, I tried to come up with a menu that relates to elections.  

We started with a green salad with cranberries.  To have it match politics, I called it "Lettuce Wrap Up the CRAN-paign."  Along with the cranberries, I cut cheese into small stars and added sunflower seeds.  I served it in a baggie for easy transport and put in a ramekin of raspberry vinaigrette. 

For the main dish, I served pulled pork sandwiches I made in the crock pot.  I called these "Polled" Pork Sandwiches.  I followed this recipe which was super easy and very tasty.  I used Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce and added a bit of coleslaw to the top of the meat before serving.  For buns, I used ranch rolls.

I also served Right and Left Wings - chicken wings in two flavors!  I made a batch with buffalo sauce and a batch with parmesan garlic sauce.  Each guest got one of each to represent both "wings" of government.

The final side dish was a potato medley of red, white, and blue potatoes.  I followed my mom's recipe that I normally use for baked potato bites which is just adding butter and seasonings before baking them in the oven for 35 minutes.  These are delicious!

For dessert, I made a chocolate chip and M&M cookie pie.  I used red, white, and blue M&Ms and sprinkles, so the cookie looked festive.  A bit of whipped cream on top with a few more sprinkles just made it festive.

Favor: I went easy with my party favor and bought trail mix already made to wish our couple well on the Campaign Trail (Mix).  I swapped out the M&Ms included in the trail mix with patriotic M&Ms to make it match the theme.   

It was fun to celebrate this amazing woman (and her future hubby) as our candidates for 2020. 

Wearing buttons and holding our signs made for a fun Zoom evening!  I wish only the best for these soon-to-be Newlyweds.  They definitely got an unanimous vote!