The Hiatus is Over! B's 40th Birthday!

So I know I've been MIA for nearly a year, but life got hectic with my two best friends' weddings last fall as well as my own wedding in March... But I'm back!!!

My wonderful hubby turned 40 a few weeks ago and I wanted to celebrate this milestone. Since he's not a big fan of being the center of attention, I knew a surprise party was out. Instead I wanted to keep it simple and have a low-key party that incorporated some of his favorite foods- BBQ and cupcakes. I found my inspiration from this blog.

I wanted to send out cutie invitations to capture the theme and I found them here.

 

I only did a few small craft projects for his birthday, including staining some wooden crates that would serve to hold the barbecue platters on the food table. I got these crates at Michael's for about $4 each and also found a spray paint stain for them- on clearance for only $2! Below are the before, during, and after pictures of the crates. They looked pretty good and they were super simple with the stain spray. 

Another project I created was a Happy Birthday banner. I liked the idea of using burlap in a couple different places in the decor so I found a huge roll of burlap to cut out the parts of the banner. B's favorite color is navy so I used navy scrapbook paper for the letters and navy ribbon to hold the banner together. So it would hold together, I made each word a mini banner. Below is the final product. 

I also decided to bring the burlap theme into the food labels and found the cutest squares of burlap at Michael's, then layered them with the navy scrapbook paper. Since I didn't have enough of the squares of burlap, I also made some larger ones without the burlap. Below are the food labels.

Since B saw me working on a lot of the projects, the only surprise was the photo collage. B's parents and brother were able to make it down for the party, and I know they all got a kick out of seeing all these photos. 

To make life easy, I had the BBQ catered from 'cue barbeque (cuebarbecue.com) and just had a bunch of side dishes to go with BBQ including a Mac and cheese bar, bacon-wrapped green beans, baked potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw, veggies and fruit.  

       

Some photos of the spread.

And of course, who can forget dessert. I got cupcakes from the same place we got them for our wedding- Jilly's Cupcakery (jillyscupcakery.com). B loves rice Krispy treats so I also had to make a few batches of those. The desserts were a big hit, as usual! 

B had a great time and it was so wonderful for our friends to come and share in his special night.

The food spread with B's banner 

Me and the birthday boy! 

My wonderful in-laws!

And some photos from the rest of the night!

Later in the night, we had to bust out some beer pong and flip cup!

All in all, it was a great night and we so appreciate everyone who came out to celebrate!!

Until next time (I promise it won't be another year!)
Cathy

Linens and Liquor Couple's Fiesta!

The past few weeks have been super busy preparing to host a couples shower for my friends Jodi and Matt who are getting married in October. Last weekend was the culmination of a LOT of planning and too many trips to Target, Wal-Mart, Party City, Hob Lob and Michael's.

My inspiration for the party started by finding this pin on Pinterest. I always make Paula Deen's chicken empanadas for parties so those were the starting point for the menu. I really wanted to create a fun party since Jodi and Matt are such goofballs (in a good way of course)! They are people that are always laughing and having fun so I wanted this party to reflect that. Jodi had two bridal showers planned so I also wanted to incorporate couples into one of the functions.

I found a lot of inspiration from Pinterest such as this photo garland as well as inspiration from this blog. Below are some highlight pictures from the evening.

The invitation!

Jodi and Matt's Photo Garland!

To make it a true fiesta, there had to be margaritas. There were three flavors that I made: traditional, blue lagoon and strawberry. Apparently I should have been taste-testing while making them since they were quite potent.

 Most of the recipes I used were Pinterest- found. I have included links to the recipes below the picture of the item.

The spread - Mexican Mac 'N' Cheese, Spinach con Queso dip, Mini Beef Taco Cups, Skinny Taco Dip, Chicken Empanadas and a veggie spread inspired by this.

http://www.willcookforfriends.com/2012/02/macaroni-con-queso-mexican-mac-and.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/mini-taco-cups_n_1052913.html

And the dessert spread!

 The vanilla fruit dip recipe can be found here and the cake batter rice krispie treats recipe can be found here. All the food got eaten up pretty quickly, so I guess everyone enjoyed everything!

Since it was a couples' shower, I wanted to keep the games to a minimum since I figured guys wouldn't be too willing to play the traditional shower games. One of the games that I found was for a Honey Do Fund. Each person had to wear a name tag with an item that could be used for checking off the honey do list. If anyone said a person's name instead of the name on their tag, they had to put a little something in the honey do jar. Turns out the moms were the worst at this game :) Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the name tags themselves, but you will be able to see them in the pictures of some of the party attendees.

The other game we played was a Battle of the Sexes. We split everyone into two groups of girls and two groups of guys. The teams had 4 minutes to answer as many questions as possible. I used questions from here and here to create the game.

One of the guys teams concentrating hard.

The other guys team

The winners of Battle of the Sexes trivia!

The other girls team.

Something that is often seen at showers is wedding advice. I wanted to incorporate the opportunity for guests to leave marriage advice for Jodi and Matt; however, when left a blank piece of paper to do so, I can never think of anything good to write.  I also wanted something more casual and fun to reflect the general mood of the entire party. I saw several instances, such as this, of people doing Mad Libs for shower and even at weddings, so I decided that would be perfect so I created a "Jodi and Matt Libs" (pun credit goes to Brett).

The Jodi and Matt Libs! I found the fabulous yellow and gray paper and green linen paper at Michael's to incorporate the wedding colors!

After food was eaten and games were played, it was time to kick back, relax and enjoy the margaritas and beer. 

You can also see some of the name tags I made in the following pictures. I got the name tags here- they are actually supposed to be food labels, but the fit on Avery 5160 mailing labels that I used later for the party favors. They were also some of the wedding colors (emerald green, yellow, and gray) so they were perfect to use for name tags!

The Bride and Groom to be in their matching sombreros! 

Myself, the bride to be and Katie, a co-worker of Jodi's (and my former co-worker)

My handsome fiance, Brett, 3 former co-workers, and Greg, Katie's man

The groom and some of his college friends

Some of the gentlemen of the late night crew.

After most of the guests had left, a group of us ended up playing Catch Phrase, enjoying some of the liquor that was given to the couple and sharing a lot of laughs. The bride-to-be also got curious as to the gifts she and Matt had received.

There was a lot of tissue paper!

Loving her veil!

Finally, as guests were leaving they could grab either a mini bottle of tequila or a Corona that were personalized for Jodi and Matt's fiesta. I found this awesome site where you can create your own beer labels. I basically took the label I created there and shrunk it down to fit on the mini tequilas. This was one of my favorite parts of the shower, creating these labels and the favors.

Close up on the bottles.

The other side of the tequila bottles with a picture of Jodi and Matt.

The favors- a bottle of beer or a mini bottle of tequila and a margarita glass!

All of the party favors!

The thank you sign for the favors.

All in all, it took a lot of work to plan this party, but it turned out great. I think all the guests had fun considering we didn't go to bed til  the wee hours of the morning.

Until next time,
Cathy

30 Sucks!

So last Friday a co-worker of mine turned the big 3-0! Since she was celebrating her birthday on vacation, we didn't have a chance to celebrate in the office until she got back on Tuesday. I had seen an idea for milestone birthdays on Pinterest and the original post can be seen here so I thought it would be fun to try this idea out.

I ended up just remembering the gist of how the gift looked and created it my own way. I found a cute cup (at CVS for $2.49!) that had a Hawaiian feel, which was perfect because she had just returned from a meeting in Maui!  Instead of using floral foam, I just layered the lollipops to create the shape. In her card, to give her a hint, I said that this was a little something "in case 30 sucks" :) She really liked the gift and it was super simple to do and something different to give!

Lighter Chicken Spaghetti

So, I love cooking Paula Deen recipes...but I don't love all the fat and calories that usually come along with them. I normally try to lighten up the recipes as much as I can by using less butter, less fat milk, etc. This recipe was originally in Cooking with Paula Deen and the original recipe can be seen here.

I used extra virgin olive oil instead of butter to saute the onion and celery, 2% shredded cheese and cut out the sour cream all together (it saved calories yet didn't lose any of the delicious flavor!) I used low-sodium chicken broth and Healthy Request® soups to also cut down on calories.

Chicken Spaghetti (adapted from Cooking with Paula Deen)
Makes 10 to 12 servings

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 (14-ounce) can low sodium chicken broth
1 (10.75-ounce) can Healthy Request® cream of mushroom soup
1 (10.75-ounce) can Healthy Request® cream of chicken soup
1 (10-ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chilies, drained
1 teaspoon salt
31⁄2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 cups shredded 2% Cheddar cheese
1 (16-ounce) package angel hair pasta, cooked according to package directions
3⁄4 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 350˚. Spray a 13x9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. 

In a medium skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion and celery; cook for 4 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

In a large bowl, combine onion mixture, broth, soups, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, sour cream, and salt. Stir in chicken and cheese. Add pasta, tossing gently to coat. Spoon mixture into prepared baking dish.

The chicken spaghetti before adding the bread crumbs!

Melt butter in skillet used to saute vegetables. Add bread crumbs and mix well until slightly browned.

Sprinkle evenly over casserole. 

Before being put in the oven!

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until hot and bubbly. Serve immediately. 

Fresh out of the oven!

The final product- ready to eat!

Although this meal does take some prep work and a number of different steps, it does fill up a 13x9 dish pretty, leaving plenty for leftovers! I served this with a nice salad to get some veggies with the dish!

I've made this recipe both with the original ingredients and with the lighter ones and it is difficult to tell a difference using the lighter ingredients!

Bon Appétit!