Last year the party was called Murder at Mardi Gras and as you can probably guess the theme was under the sea...just kidding, we all know it was Mardi Gras. (That was my lame attempt at being funny but I am sure it failed once again...oh well). Click HERE for the link on Amazon.
I had a blast planning last years party. It was so colorful and fun!
Now, let's get to talking about the real reason we are all here...the FOOD!! Once again, like every year, we had a salad with several dressing options. I do this every year because it is easy and inexpensive to prepare and everyone for the most part likes salad and it fits with any theme. Moving on down the line (of the photo below) we had two different types of sandwich rolls. The small ones (in a line on the top) were a potato roll and the bottom, larger rolls, were a Ciabatta (I think) roll that is hollow on the inside. My aim was to have the fixings for mini muffuletta sandwiches. A friend of mine went to New Orleans several years ago and when she came back she talked for WEEKS about these sandwiches so, I wanted to try to mimic the style but in an affordable way that my guests would enjoy. I thought that the best way to do the sandwiches was to set out all of the ingredients and have each person make there own with the ingredients that they like.
On the deli platter there was mozzarella and provolone cheeses along with roast beef, ham, turkey and salami deli meats. There was also a cup full of green olives since a muffuletta sandwich is typically made with an olive spread. Several of my guests don't care for olives (myself included) so this was the easiest way to offer an option. (Fun fact: My youngest niece LOVED the olives and after everyone sat down with their plates of food she went back to the table, grabbed the cup, then sat in the floor and preceded to eat nearly the entire thing.) ☺ For side dishes, I decided to go extremely SIMPLE this year (since I have been criticized for doing too much in the past) and I purchased pre-made potato salad and macaroni salad (which I happen to LOVE)
I kept the dessert more on the simple side this year as well. We had the standard black cauldron full of Halloween candy and I also bought some cute little glass jars that have gold painted on the bottom that I filled about 3/4 of the way with green, purple and gold Sixlets candies. I made two Mardi Gra themed desserts (that were both delicious!!) The bottom dessert was a mock version of a traditional King Cake made out of cinnamon rolls, cream cheese icing and colored sugars. The cups on the top of the stand were a bananas foster banana pudding that was absolutely AMAZING and everyone wanted to take extras home! But, for the first time in the history of my Murder Mystery Parties, I didn't HAVE any dessert extras. See I told you I was improving. ☺ (Oh, and another fun fact: less than a minute after the photo was taken, someone bumped the table and that top pudding when crashing to the floor and spilled all over the carpet. That was such a pleasure to clean up, let me tell you).
Since this is the final post for the Halloween Murder Mystery mini series I also wanted to share with you the door wreath that I made to hang on my front door. In all honesty the first three ideas that I tried resulted in EPIC FAILURES so, I had to dig deep for an idea and in the end this is what came about. In hindsight I would probably go back and add a mask or something to the center to really drive home the Mardi Gra theme and make it look a little less light a random Christmas decoration.
If you have been following along with all of the posts of this mini series you will notice that I haven't posted a layout yet from the Murder at Mardi Gras party and that is because I haven't had a chance to physically make the layout yet. I have it all planned out but haven't yet had time to sit down and put it together. Also, the party this year is still up in the air...I have a few guests that have RSVPed but others refuse to get back. So....we will see what happens. I am trying not to dwell on it or let others actions bother me. (I am failing at both)
I will see you again on Monday with a SUPER card.
EDIT: Just after writing this post I finally heard back from one of the people that I was waiting on a reply from and they WILL be able to make it so the party is officially a go...oh man I have so much to do in such a short amount of time!!
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