Soul Movie Monthly Dinner

 

I really enjoyed Pixar's new movie Soul.  It was a cute movie, and it made for a fun family movie night.  I decided to use this movie as inspiration for our April monthly dinner.

Invite:  I used the Soul movie poster as background for the invitation, so I went with blues, whites, and yellows as the color scheme.  We did this dinner on Zoom again as we wait for everyone to be vaccinated.  I would host it outdoors at my house, but we are currently redoing our backyard, and it is a disaster zone of construction.  Hopefully in the future we will be back to in person dinners.

Party Details:  Some of these party details you won't understand unless you have seen the movie, but many of the party details are iconic parts or references.  The premise of the movie is a man named Joe Garder who is a middle school band teacher, but wishes to be a famous jazz musician.  Right as he is about to get his big break into the music business, he accidently falls into a manhole and his "soul" is separated from his body.  The adventure continues from there.

Joe Gardner is a piano player, and he has great passion for Jazz music.  I created piano napkins to represent this passion.  I bought plain white napkins and then used my Cricut to make the keys.

For my wine labels, I played off some popular quotes and symbols from the movie that stood out to me when I watched it.  In the movie, all souls start in the "Great Before" where they must earn/discover passions to fill their badge spots.  When they find their "spark" the badge is complete and changes into an Earth Pass which enables them to start their lives on Earth.  To play off this concept for my red white label, I created the blank badge and filled it with images of wine and wine bottles.  I added the words "Wine...definitely my Spark!"

Also in the movie is a character named Terry that counts souls to send on to the "Great Beyond."  In the movie, Terry is obsessed with the count and when this count is thrown off by Joe's escape, he is desperate to set it right.  For the white wine labels,  I created an abacus like the one used in the movie for counting souls, but changed the dots to white wine glasses.  I used Terry's line from the movie "Umm...That's weird. The count is off" and then added "Guess I'll have another glass" to the the wine label.

Menu:  You could definitely serve soul food for this theme, but I went with a easier menu.  New York pizza plays a role in the movie for it's taste and smell as one of the characters, 22, comes to Earth for the first time.  I decided to make individual pizzas for each of my guests.  Guests had the option of toppings: pepperoni, sausage, green pepper, mushrooms, olives, and mozzarella cheese. 

You can order pizza boxes off of Amazon.  The ones I ordered ended up being too small, but I went to a local pizza parlor near my house, and they were kind enough to give me 8" pizza boxes which was perfect.  I designed a label for the front of the box with the pizza parlor scene from the movie.  I chose to incorporate one quote from the movie "You can't eat dreams for breakfast," and then I added "but you can eat pizza."

I also served a green salad with grape tomatoes, feta, bacon, egg, and sunflower seeds.  This was my "sign-spinning salad" after the Moonwind character in the movie.  I find this character hilarious, and love that when he is on Earth, he is a sign-spinner for a store - 50% off Everything!  I used PhotoShop to create a image of Moonwind for the top of the salad container and made a sign (50% off Salads) that I attached with a brad, so it could spin around.  Just a little fun detail.

For dessert, I made meringue cookies with chocolate chips.  I added a tiny bit of teal food coloring to the mixture before baking to have it be the color of the "Great Before" and the souls in that realm.  These are tasty and super easy, so it was a good fit.

Again, the tag was made on PhotoShop. I included the line from the movie, "You're really great at jazzing," but added "and friendship and eating dessert" to match with my menu and theme.

Favor:  When the character 22 is on Earth, she begins to collect things that have meaning to her and make sure smile.  I packaged some of these things for the favor.  I gave guests a mini bagel and a red tootsie pop which are two of these items.  I also took an empty spool of thread and made a yarn tag around it.  This is another item that helped 22 find her spark while on Earth.  The tag read "Your Friendship is my Spark and Purpose" just to use some of the language of the movie.

This theme was fun and would be great for a viewing party or birthday party.  All was easy to make and yummy to eat! Nights with my friends fills my "Soul" and this was another great dinner.

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!