Murder at Mardi Gras- Food Table and Door Wreath

Happy Friday and welcome back! Today is the last day in the Halloween Murder Mystery mini series that I have been sharing. After today we will be all caught up on my previous parties.

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!! 

Lethal Luau- Food Table

In 2016 the theme for the Halloween Murder Mystery party that I did with my family and friends was HAWAIIAN. The name of the game was Lethal Luau and can be found HERE on Amazon. (I was fortunate enough to find this particular game at my local Good Will for about $2) This particular year was a BLAST! It seemed like most people enjoyed this one a bit more than the previous year. I don't know if that was because of the theme, the game itself or just everyone's overall mood coming into it.

When I was in College (getting my Culinary Degree) I had a class where we actually operated a restaurant one day a week. Each week focused on cuisine from specific regions of the country. The menu was planned by the student who was the leader for that particular cuisine. Lucky for me, when it was my week I was assigned Hawaiian cuisine, so I had had to put a LOT of thought and effort into foods from that region in order to create a menu. So, when I saw the theme for this particular Murder Mystery was Hawaiian I grabbed my old notes and set to planning.

For the entree part of the meal we once again had a salad, but this time it was strictly made of spinach and arugula leaves with several dressing options. Next, we had some Hawaiian sweet rolls and barbecue pulled pork. You could either make a sandwich or eat them separately. We also had coconut shrimp (my FAVORITE) with a side of cocktail sauce, french fries in both regular and sweet potato varieties and lastly, a bowl full of amazing corn in a cream cheese sauce. Not to toot my own horn, but this menu tasted AWESOME!!

OH, I know that it is hard to tell but the platters that the rolls, pork and shrimp are on are actually shaped (and decorated) like surfboards.

DESSERT time, who else looks forward to this part the most? This year I allowed myself to ONLY make three things. ☺ Hey, at least I am TRYING to limit myself. For the first dessert I recreated a cookie treat that I found on Pinterest using Nutter Butter cookies, cookie icing and some sugar pearls to make these adorable flip-flops. Next, I made some mini pineapple upside down cakes in a muffin tin. I left out the cherries since I know that some of my guests don't like them, but I did place a bowl of Maraschino cherries next to the cakes in case people (like me ☺ ) wanted to add a cherry to theirs. Lastly, I made some coconut cupcakes. Looking at the pictures of all of these great desserts is making me SO HUNGRY!! 

Roman Ruins- Food Table

I am back with another post about FOOD!!! Today I want to share with you the foods that I made for my second Murder Mystery Party back in 2015. The mystery was call Roman Ruins and you can find it on Amazon HERE if you are interested in checking out the game. 

I got a LOT of flack the previous year about how much I made food wise for the party and knew that I needed to dial it back a bit. The problem is, that once again, I struggle with narrowing my focus. I have so many ideas that flood my head because I get so excited that I find it hard to pick only a couple. So, although I tried to scale it back with this year's food, I still had guests telling me that I did too much...oh well, at least we all enjoyed it. 

Once again, lets start off with the actual meal. Shown below are the two different salad blends (one is a simple iceberg blend and the other has baby spinach and arugula) a couple of different salad dressings and some salad toppings. I kept the bell peppers, bacon crumbles, tomatoes and olives in separate bowls because I wasn't sure who would like what. Next to the salad is a cheese and cracker tray with four different kinds of cheeses and four different kinds of crackers. 

Not shown in the photos, we also had a LARGE pot of spaghetti with meatballs, three pizzas from Little Caesar's (because they are the closest) and garlic bread.

Now on to my favorite part....DESSERT!!! Once again we had a bowl with Halloween candy and some chocolate covered popcorn. I placed some almond and chocolate biscotti into the black cauldron that I used the year before for the candy. Next to those are some mini cheesecake bites (that come in three flavors) from Sam's Club. Then lastly, I made my two favorite Italian desserts; a replica of Olive Garden's lemon cream cake and mini tiramisu cups.I actually made two varieties- the traditional ones with the the lady fingers dipped in coffee and another batch with the lady fingers dipped in hot chocolate- there wasn't too much of a flavor difference thought.)

For some reason, that I tried not to take personally, some of my guests didn't eat hardly anything this year. I later found out that two of them don't like spaghetti and had eaten pizza for dinner the night before and two others had eaten before they came even though all four new we were having a meal and what the meal would be. I have to admit, I was EXTREMELY hurt!!

Unfortunately, halfway through the party my older niece (who was five) got sick and threw up all over her daddy so they had to leave early. 

And, later that night, my friend was sitting on the couch and her wedding band fell off and disappeared somewhere deep inside the couch. We worked for five hours to try and recover it but in the end we never did find it. At about the four and a half hour mark my friend ended up saying that it was okay the ring only cost $10 on Amazon, she could get a new one. I don't know who was more upset at that moment, my friend for loosing her ring, my dad because he had been lifting the couch and crawling on the floor or my mom because we had to untack part of the liner at the bottom of the couch and bang it around an potentially damage it all for a $10 ring. 

It was sure an interesting year but at least it left some fun stories to tell later. 

Murder on the Grill- Food Table

Hey guys, happy Friday. I hope that your week has gone well and that you have some exciting plans for the weekend because I don't lol.

I have actually been feeling pretty blah all week. My back is still hurting from my all day card-a-thon last Saturday and it has made my stomach hurt as well. Oh well, let's start discussing something that ALWAYS makes me feel better...FOOD!! (Namely dessert but food works as well ☺)
I mentioned earlier this month that I would spend a couple of days solely focused on the food that I made for my different Halloween Murder Mystery Parties. The first party was from back in 2014 and was called Murder on the Grill.  If you click HERE you can check it out on Amazon if you are interested.

Before we begin discussing the food that I prepared for the party I want to start off by saying...."Hi my name is Ashley and I have a problem deciding between ideas, so I just MAKE THEM ALL!! I had enough food for 25 people easily....and I only invited 8." Please, no judging.
Since the theme of the party was a 1950 barbecue the actual food portion was pretty simple. We grilled hamburgers and hot dogs outside on our gas grill (because the weather was actually nice enough to be outside in October, which is rare). I forgot to grab a picture of the burgers and dogs before my hungry guests started shoveling them into their mouths. We also had a large bowl of salad with several different kinds of dressing. Three different kinds of chips (Fritos, Cheetos and Tostitos) as well as a Croc-pot full of chili to add to either the chips or the hot dogs.

Now dessert is where I lost it a bit...okay A LOT!! I couldn't decide between all of the 1950's themed desserts and Halloween related ones. Since this was the first Halloween related party that I had ever had, I wanted to include some treats that represented the holiday but also represented the theme of the overall party. Why not do a mash-up? It works with music, what could possibly go wrong? 

Let's start with the Halloween treats. I made both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that I frosted with vanilla buttercream that was dyed black and orange and then  swirled together. Then I had THREE different kinds of cookies. A mint cookie that I bought to make into witches hats but ran out of time. Fudge striped cookies because....I don't remember why and finally a homemade sugar cookie that I again dyed black and orange and then swirled into a pinwheel before baking. (with the leftover dough from the sugar cookies I simply cut out some pumpkin shapes.)

I also had a plastic cauldron full of leftover Halloween candy (all chocolate), a bowl full of Hershey kisses that I had bought for the witches hat cookies and a large bowl full of Skittles simply because I like them. Are you feeling overwhelmed yet?? Because guess what, we haven't even talked about the 1950s themed desserts that I made. 

I made some personal sized pies (both apple and cherry of course) using a muffin pan. I also made TWO trays full of brownies for some strange reason. Then (not pictured) I made some Jello shots (that did NOT have alcohol) in about 4 different flavors (because one is just not enough) with some store bought whipped topping. I had also purchased some ice cream and root beer to make Root Beer Floats but unfortunately the freezer that I had the ice cream in when out and it all melted. Lastly, I made some truly ADORABLE milkshake cake pops that I saw on Youtube. They were probably everyone's favorite thing that I made!!

By the way, my grandpa had had a severe facial surgery for skin cancer just a couple of days before the party so I had been out out town helping to care for him. I only came back home on Friday night and the party was set to start at around NOON on Saturday and the ONLY thing that had been made was the sugar cookies and the store bought extras! I started cooking the SECOND that I walked through the door Friday and only took an hour off to sleep before I was at it again. If it wasn't for my mom's help the party never would have happened!! 

Flower Power Pudding

You would think by now that I would be better about posting things that fit into the SWEET part of The Sweet Scrapper, but I seem to often times forget to share the food (often desserts) that I have made. Let's make that one of my new goals (as if I don't already have enough) going forward: Make and share more sweet treats!

In order to meet this new goal (that I created today) I thought that I would share these super cute flower pots that I made for Easter a couple of years ago. While shopping at Michael's Craft Store I came across these super cute silicone flower pots. They are designed to bake cupcakes in and I just HAD to buy them and create a Springtime treat.

Now, confession....I am not the most....organized person in the world. After I brought these fun molds home, I...misplaced them and forgot about them until two days before Easter when my mom said something that reminded me that I had them. By that point I didn't have time to whip up a batch of cupcakes but I still wanted to use them....what to do?

When I was kid, my mom used to make a simplified version of a dessert called 'Dirt Cake" made with pudding and crushed Oreo cookies. Lucky for me, we had both items to make these dirty goodies in the house. I alternated layering the pudding and the crushed Oreo's until I reached the top and finished with the Oreo 'dirt'.

I also had some Wilton candy melts (which is often called fake chocolate and usually tastes like vanilla) on hand, so I made some candy melt flowers (using another mold that I have that I forgot about) to add to the flower pots for a more realistic look. Lastly, I made a quick run to the grocery store to get some candy decorations. As you can see in the photos, I bought gummy worms, jelly bean eggs, a candy coated leaf thingy and a box with mini rabbits filled with caramel.

I have to say that for a quick last minute dessert these flower pots turned out pretty great. They were a bit messy to eat though since the flower pots were made of silicone instead of the more rigid traditional tara cotta, so they wanted to collapse inward as you ate them. But, they were still DELICIOUS!!

Hot Cocoa Mugs

I saw a tutorial for these cute mugs made of cardstock on Pinterest and YouTube and thought that it would be a fun craft idea to make for my family this year for Christmas. For the past several years we have decided not to exchange gifts because of the overall expense and our growing family (there are 10 children under the age of 6.) Instead we do activities together, like building a gingerbread house and decorating Christmas cookies and voting on who had the best ones. I always seem to loose, even though I have a document (aka a DEGREE in baking) that state that I know what I'm doing. LOL.

Sometimes though, it is fun to bring a little something that none of them expected. Since these fun mugs didn't cost me much to make, they fit the bill perfectly.

My plan WAS to fill each mug with either a packet of hot chocolate or a K-Cup of coffee and some various candies. But, unfortunately I was sick with a fever last weekend when my family got together for Christmas and I was unable to attend.

Does your family have any Christmas traditions?

-When I was a kid we would always open our presents at home Christmas morning but then we would have to hurry up and pack everything into the car to head off to my grandparent's houses. Back then it used to make me upset because I would get all these cool toys but I couldn't play with them until we got back, which was sometimes several days later. Now, looking back, I miss those days. Now a days Christmas morning is still the same, unwrapping presents with my mom and dad. But, usually by the afternoon we are going stir-crazy so we head out and go see a movie at the theater with my aunt and sometimes with my cousin, his wife and kids. I am sure that there are more traditions but I can't think of them right now. My head is still foggy from being sick with the flu.

Traditional and Oreo Truffles

For Christmas this year my mom wanted to give the people that she works with a nice holiday gift so she asked me if I would make some homemade truffles, of different flavors, that she could give to them. Of course, I said yes and I ended up making a varity of five different traditional chocolate truffles.

The green Christmas trees were milk chocolate and mint flavored.

The snowmen were vanilla and white chocolate.

The candy canes were filled with a gooey caramel.

Finally, there were two different types of gingerbread men. The first batch was simply dark chocolate and the second batch were made with hazelnut and dark chocolate. I made two separate batches because at least one of the people my mom works with has a nut allergy. I made the plain dark chocolate truffles first and completely packaged them and stored them in another location before I made the hazelnut tuffles, which were my mom's favorite.

I also made a LARGE batch of Oreo truffles to take to our family Christmas, I have made them for several years now and they are definitely a family favorite! The only thing that I did different this year was that I shaped them into molds instead of making them into round balls and dipping them into the chocloate. 

    

EDIT: Unfortunately, I got sick and was unable to go to my families Christmas party and thus my family didn't get to enjoy any of these yummy goodies. 

What is your favorite Christmas treats (or winter time treat)?

- I would have to say that these Oreo truffles are my favorite! The only time that I make them is for Christmas. My favorite winter beverage is peppermint hot chocolate. Have you tried the Junior Mint K-Cups? They are pure heaven!!

Another Thanksgiving Dessert (Day 2)

The other dessert that I made for our family Thanksgiving this year was also found on Pinterest. Each year my Aunt hosts Thanksgiving for our family and gives me only two rules about dessert- there MUST be something chocolate and something with peanut butter.

I found this super simple recipe for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Mini Cheesecake and knew that this would have to be a winner (even if it failed) because it ticked off both of the necessary requirements.

My cousin and his kids were eyeing the plate of these cheesecakes from the minute they walked in and they could barely wait until the meal was over before diving in and shouting about how good they were. I think that by the end of the night we had to hide them because the kids wanted to go back for more. I would call this one a Thanksgiving dessert SUCCESS!!

Thanksgiving YUMMYNESS Day 1

Double.

Chocolate.

Bread. (which is actually not bread but instead a rich, fudgy chocolate cake)

Pudding.

Need I say more?

When I was in Culinary school this amazing dessert was one that we were fortunate enough to learn and I have made it several times over the years to much applause. No matter where I take this gooey pile of delicious chocolaty goodness everyone raves over it! No the picture above definitely does NOT do this dessert justice. (Oh, and I forgot to get an actual picture of the pan of decadence, so this is just my serving, LOL) 

To accompany this rich chocolate explosion I made a recipe that I found on Pinterest for a no churn cinnamon ice cream. It turned out awesome! My grandpa is in love with it and pondered over how it could remain so solid yet creamy for so long when out of the freezer. I will definitely make this again and it pared well with the chocolate pudding and helped balance out the richness. 

I hope that you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and I will see you again on Tuesday. 

Galaxy Mirror CAKE

This past week (Sunday June 4- June 8) was Vacation Bible School at the church that my mom works at. Each year I help out by doing the attendance and helping out where I can. The theme for this year was Galactic Starveyors, so it was all about space. I wanted to do something special to mark the end of this galactic journey so I thought that I would make a cake, something that I enjoy doing but rarely blog about.

I found the directions for how to make this cake on YouTube and all in all I think that my attempt turned out pretty good. I ended up make two of these galaxy cakes, one to take to our family reunion tomorrow and the other for my grandpa's birthday cake. I made my cakes larger than the cake that was made in the video because I know that they each need to be able to feed a number of people. 

Grandpa's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!


If you haven't guessed it already, today is my grandpa's birthday. He turned 89 years old today and he wears it well. Looking at him you would never know that he is 89, he is always so active, whether it is from bowling on a league or mowing grass all summer he keeps himself busy which in turn keeps him looking young and healthy.

In honor of my grandpas birthday I wanted to share the birthday card that I made for him this year as well as the one that I made for him last year that for some strange reason I never posted.

This first card is actually the card I made for him last year, and it was made to celebrate one of his favorite things: COOKIES!!


And now the card for this year. I wanted to include a vintage mustang on his card this year because he has spent the better part of the last year trying to restore an old mustang into working condition.