Olympic Lunch Party

Decided today that we should do something fun at work after a long, hard week. We're having an "Olympic Lunch Party" tomorrow! Fast & simple, with pizza, salad, & cookies (none of which will be homemade). I threw together some decorations though. Limited budget, not a lot of time. Here's what I came up with, and I'm pretty happy with how it looks!

Flame Cauldron Centerpiece :D

 

Filled with Olympic Torch Favors.

 

"Gold Medal" Place Settings

...and Pinwheels!

We're ready to party! At least for an hour...

 

 

Olympic Torch

Olympic Fever Strikes!

We're having a fun "Olympic Lunch Party" at work tomorrow. I had one day to come up with some fun decor & favors. Something very quick, very easy. I went to a local party store (Zurchers!) and quickly scoured for ideas. I saw these favor boxes and immediately thought TORCH! So I found some tulle for a flame ribbon. I cut a strip of tulle, folded it in half, and cut flame strips...leaving the folded portion uncut so there were strips on two sides of my "flame ribbon."

I bought some gold Sixlets in bulk to fill the boxes, so they would look like a gold torch. They looked a little plain, so I added a cute "USA" sticker!

I made ten torches, then put them in a "flame cauldron" for the table centerpiece. I really like how this turned out with so little time to prepare! It was really fast.

Everyone will get their own Olympic Torch! And chocolate, which is just never a bad thing. Now that the torches are finished...I think they would be fun to use for LDS Young Womens too!

Cookies & Milk Party

 

Happy 80th Birthday to my wonderful mom! I am the 7th of 8 children, and we have an A-MA-ZING mom. We decided to throw an open house for her 80th birthday. She absolutely loves milk. Loves it. I don't think she goes a day without it. She's also a great cook, baker, & candy maker. One sister came up with the cookies & milk theme. One sister provided the venue and made assignments. One sister provided most of the decorations. I helped with invitations & tags. A brother brought his amazing DIY outdoor canopy. Lots of everyone elses baked cookies & brought milk. We're a pretty amazing group when we all get together!

I'm terrible at tutorials. I'm more of an "ideas" person/put it together person. Not the best teacher. So...here are photos of what we did at least!

COOKIE TAGS

I found the instructions to make these here: 

http://www.makeandtakes.com/patriotic-paper-lollies-perfect-for-july-4th

COOKIE DISPLAY

This was a combined effort! And...talk about sugar buzz...YUM!

THE MILK

 

We had whole milk, 2%, skim milk, chocolate milk, and almond milk. Who couldn't find a good one, really? Well, me. I don't like milk. I had water :D

MEMORY TABLE

We gathered photos, some mementos, a yearbook, a painting...and made a cute display of our mom. It was a lot of fun looking at little scraps of her life!

THE CAKE. CAKESSSS.

 

This was one of the most fun things ever! One of my sisters makes cakes. Wonderful, cute, beautiful cakes. She provided frosting, fondant, and patient instruction. My sisters and nieces all got together and we decorated 8 cakes for the party...one for every 10 years (or one for each child...we never really nailed that down). Here are the down & dirty photos:

Peanut Butter Finger Cookies

PEANUT BUTTER FINGER COOKIES!

If you like peanut butter fingers (you know, the lunch lady bars), you'll love this "cookie" version! My sisters and I did a Cookies & Milk Party for our Mom's 80th birthday, and we wanted all the cookies to be the traditional, round kind. Here's my version of a 'round' peanut butter finger. They were a big hit!

PART ONE - THE COOKIE

Peanut Butter Cookies (makes about 4 dozen)

1/2 cup butter (softened to room temperature)
1/2 cup Butter Flavored Crisco
1 cup peanut butter (crunchy or smooth, it's up to you)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Cream butter, Crisco, and sugars until smooth. Add eggs and beat until fluffy. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, & salt. Mix until just combined. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.

I LOVE using parchment paper on my cookie sheets, but it's not mandatory :) Form 1 1/2" balls of dough, or use a cookie scoop. Use a fork to lightly smash cookie dough in the traditional "criss-cross" fashion. My dough was pretty soft, so I dipped my fork in powdered sugar to keep it from sticking.


Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 minutes or until edges just begin browning. Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container.

PART TWO - THE FROSTING

These are double-frosted, just like the bar cookie. I found a good recipe for the peanut butter frosting, then I used store-bought milk chocolate frosting on top.

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
6 Tbsp milk

Mix all ingredients until smooth. If it's too runny, add a few tablespoons of powdered sugar at a time until you get a good frosting consistency. If it's too dry, add a tsp of milk at a time. Frost each cookie with PB frosting.

Milk Chocolate Frosting - I used store-bought frosting in a tub, but you can use any milk chocolate frosting you like. Warm the frosting in the microwave for about 30 seconds to make it easy to frost over the PB frosting.

S'Mores Bites

YUM! S'Mores have always been one of my favorite camping treats! I saw a post on Pinterest from Cooking Classy, and wanted to give the S'Mores Bites a try. Theirs are much cuter though, so you might want to check them out :D

I didn't have the right size circle cutter to make mine round and cute, so I improvised. Here's what I did... 

I used a regular graham crackers. I broke each cracker into it's four "pre-scored" pieces. Then, I carefully broke each of those pieces one more time, to make little squares. I lined a jelly-roll pan with parchment paper and placed the squares about 3/4" apart. (I LOVE PARCHMENT PAPER!) I didn't have any mini marshmallows (which is what I wanted to use), so I used regular marshmallows. I used my kitchen shears to cut each marshmallow into four pieces. TIP! Run the blades of the kitchen shears under water between each marshmallow you slice, and they won't stick to the blades. Put one piece of marshmallow on each little graham cracker square.
 

 

Preheat the oven broiler. I put the oven rack one down from the top slot. Put the pan in the oven and broil for about one minute. I turn the light on the oven and WATCH the whole time so the marshmallows don't burn. As soon as they are light-brown-toasty, remove from the oven. Quickly place a chocolate chip on each marshmallow. I used Guittard milk chocolate chips because they are YUMMY and they are a little bigger than the average chocolate chip.

These were FAST, FUN, and YUMMY! Perfectly bite-sized. Now that I know how easy these are, they will no longer be a summer-only treat. This may be dangerous...