Shindiglet: Battle of the Batter

Shindiglet - Like a grand shindig, only a much smaller to-do. There are times, when even a small group of people getting together creates an occasion for celebrating with a theme. And if it is within my power, I always try to make that happen.

An across-the-miles triple throwdown baking challenge, for me, is such an occasion.

Over the past few years, my bestie, Toni, and I have exchanged recipes. A couple of times we've even tried new recipes at the same time and compared notes. That was fun. But recently, Toni kicked it up a notch, posting a challenge on facebook... challenging me, and another gal, Toni-Lynn, to a baking THROWDOWN! What was the objective? Molten Chocolate Lava Cakes. None of us had made them before, but we all exuded confidence. Check out our game faces:

Toni

Tanya

Toni-Lynn

What followed was some bakers' smack talk. After a few days of that, we separately conducted our baking experiment, using different recipes, of our own choosing. As the three of us live in three different states, we couldn't actually judge the recipes side by side. We would have to be the judge of our own creations, with input from friends and family all-too-ready-and-willing to sample the end product. :)

Here's how it went down for me.

I started with just a few ingredients: 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, 3 oz. milk chocolate, butter, cocoa, egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar.

I melted the chocolate and the butter together in a double boiler.

The egg whites were beaten together with the cream of tartar and sugar.

I folded the egg whites into the chocolate.

And then scooped the batter into the buttered and sugared muffin tins.

After about seven minutes, they came out of the oven like this:

They look good, don't they?!

Turned out onto a plate, aside a scoop of coconut ice cream, and dusted with cocoa powder, it looks like this:

Anticipating the molten chocolate that makes this dish "lava cake", I cut it open and mmmmmmm.........

Look how my youngest is eating it up!

OK, so I would love to just leave it at that and feel all proud of myself, but....

I kinda cheated.

I'll come clean.

My lava cakes ended up being not-so-molten. I'd describe them more like chocolate mousse cakes. Still completely delicious. And rich. And dangerous... because I couldn't stop eating after just one. Here's what it really looked like inside:

And my secret molten-ator?

Hey, living a stone's throw from Hershey, PA makes it all okay. :)

Be sure to check out Toni's and Toni's re-cap of this chocolate lava cake triple throwdown!

What will you Fuzzoodle?

Wow, it has been a while since I've written a post! What better reason to dust off the Shin-dig-it blog than to write about the latest shindig: A Fuzzoodles Fiesta!

Every guest to our Fuzzoodles Fiesta wanted to know: What is a Fuzzoodle? Before House Partypalooza sent me this product to experiment with, I didn't know what a Fuzzoodle was either. Fuzzy Noodles = Fuzzoodles. A simple, back-to-basics, creative product from Giddy Up! (think Blendy Pens, Surprise Ink, Water Wow...) that takes the classic pipe cleaner (or chenilles to you florists out there) to a whole new level. They are bendable like pipe cleaners, but these are so fluffy! And the kits come with accessories such as eyes, feet, noses, and mouths.

Before going into further detail about this product, I would like to talk about the theme development of this party. The Fuzzoodles were obviously the start of the show, but this was no ordinary party - it was a FIESTA! Not the most obvious choice for a fall party, but who doesn't love a fiesta, I want to know!? I used Punchbowl for my party planning and invitations. I love planning my parties using Punchbowl. The designs are top-notch and the options are so easy to use. My guests electronically received a realistic sealed envelope:

This envelope, once opened, revealed the invitation:

To decorate the party area, I set up a table for the food and covered it with a southwestern blanket. Guests munched on tortilla chips with salsa and queso, cocoa roasted almonds, and pizza. For dessert, we had fiesta cookies. Water and juice pouches refreshed the kids, while the adults enjoyed a sparkling blood orange beverage. The fuzzoodles and accessories were loaded into the brims of two sombreros in the center of the work table.

As soon as the guests arrived, the kids enjoyed figuring out just how the fuzzoodles worked. Each creation triggered new ideas, as the creatures developed into even more elaborate inventions.

I saw bracelets, glasses, headbands, door knob cozies, critters, and acrobats... yes, acrobats! The creative juices were flowing, and weren't just limited to the kids. The adults couldn't resist trying their hand at twisting life into the supplies. I seriously could not have predicted how much fun it would be to have a party around these fuzzoodles.

The festivities lasted about two hours, with the adults completing a survey at the end to evaluate the Fuzzoodles Fiesta experience. I was thrilled to be able to give away a $10 gift card to Toys R Us, which House Partypalooza provided, to a randomly selected guest!

You can find Fuzzoodles at many stores as well as online. Amazon has this large kit and Toys R Us also carries Fuzzoodles in store and online.

In exchange for House Partypalooza sending me this product, I agreed to invite other parents and children to my house for a product demonstration. I was able to keep the items our guests didn't take with them. The words and opinions in this review are 100% my own.

Valentine's Day Ladies' Tea - Invitation Reminder & Menu

The tea party is just five days away, and I'm in crunch mode!

I've got the rest of my week all mapped out with to-do's. So far today, I have managed to accomplish about 2/3 of today's list, and should still be able to finish it before the day is over. I finally decided to reveal the theme to my guests in the hopes that they'll want to fully participate. Here is the reminder/reveal email that I sent today:

Check it out, man!

The time period that those righteous brothers hit the charts with "That Lovin' Feelin'" was the mid-60's. So, if you're bold enough, dig out your go-go boots and miniskirts, or your bell bottoms and tie-dye garb, and we'll see you at the commune to celebrate love as inspired by the cultural events of the American 1960's!

Make love, not war.

Make tea, not love.

No, you don't *have* to come in costume. But at least be prepared with a hep catch phrase, or two. :)

I was at the grocery store today to get the ingredients for the food I'll start making over the next few days. I had to leave some items on my grocery list until later in the week so that they would be as fresh as possible. I am pretty pleased with the menu, which is as follows:

Fair Trade Organic Tea

Pita Chips (to munch on upon arrival)

Cheese Fondue (with bread and apples for dipping)

Iceberg Lettuce Wedge Salad and 3 dressings (homemade Green Goddess, Ranch, and Creamy French)

Chicken Salad Sandwiches and Ham & Cheese Dandy Sandwiches

Devilled eggs

Chocolate Intrigue Bundt Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Tang based fruit salad

Cookies - Heart’s Delight & Two-Tone Cookie Slices for guests to bag and take home

Yesterday, I received the two place setting of china that I needed since my party size seems to grow each year. I'm still waiting for a book that I bought on eBay that I planned to use as a prize. I just hope it gets here in time! Up next on my list is to finalize the two games we'll be playing at the party. Oh, and more cleaning (the never ending chore!)

Valentine's Day Ladies' Tea - More Theme Discussion

I've learned that sometimes you just need to step away from your party planning and just see how things shake out when you sit back down to resume planning. Last week, I was about to panic over my theme plans not gelling for the tea party next month. Fortunately, I had other commitments that forced me to put the party planning on the back burner, and when I came back to things this week, I found that some new perspective and thoughts I'd filed away really came together in a way that made me very happy.

I am now in possession of a Valentine's Day Tea Party theme inspired by cultural references of the American 1960s! Remember my angst over trying to develop the theme title That Lovin' Feelin' after I so hastily chose it to get the invitations out on time? Well, that Righteous Brothers' song topped the charts in 1965. Party game inspiration? It was in 1962 that "The Match Game" premiered on network television. I poured over footage of those old episodes on youtube and that really helped to frame the whole theme out in my mind. My menu will be inspired by the fare of the decade as transcribed by cookbooks of that period. Fondue, anyone? Now that these areas have been decided, I can design the rest of the party elements, such as party favors, with much more ease. And for the first time, I might be able to pull off an outfit that befits the theme, breaking from my tired, old habit of just wearing red or pink. Thrift shops, here I come!



There is one more thing that has fallen into place regarding the invitations. I had designed the invitation using Punchbowl before the date was set, and once I settled on the date, I hastily went in and sent the invitation without much revision. It wasn't until later that I remembered the functionality that allows you to edit the verbiage of the RSVP section. When designing, I had arbitrarily selected the "British" preset, where Abso-bloody-lutely = Yes, Pardon? = Not Responded, and Not My Cup of Tea = No. Well, it didn't take me long, once I had the sixties in mind for the theme development, to make a connection to the British Invasion phenomenon. Whew! That works. Granted, I could have created my own RSVP verbiage and been a little more Beatles or rock and roll oriented, but remember, this connection was realized after-the-fact, so I'm relieved at least. And I can almost pretend that I did it on purpose. *wink*

I do still have a lot of little details to work out, but the task is so much less daunting. I'm excited, though, as I've entered that phase of the party planning where I get to research and learn some new things. I've come to realize that really getting into the theme development is just my excuse to go exploring on the information superhighway (does anybody even call it that anymore??). I'm no longer a student in a formal house of education, but I do still enjoy learning a thing or two. Much of the information I glean in the party theme preparation will not be used at the party, but some of it will appear in the form of subtle references, or tidbits interspersed in party conversation. And besides, it makes me happy.

See how it is coming together?

Valentine's Day Ladies' Tea - Theme Discussion

OK. Confession time. When I designed and sent my invitations, I was going with a musical theme. I envisioned miniature musical instruments and scrolls made from sheets of music for the decor. And when trying to compose (see what I did there? :) ) the menu, I... well... I got stuck. Opting to skip that for the moment and move on to planning the games, I... well... I got stuck again. I wrestled with the idea of adapting a classroom music lesson to suit grown-ups, and could only find games using songs of the sort of Baa Baa Black Sheep. That just would not do. The clouds rumbled about my mind for some time before the realization began to dawn that I would probably need to change my party's theme.

But how could I do that since the invitations were already sent? "That Lovin' Feeling" clearly indicated the musical theme, did it not? Hmm... perhaps not really, after all. Perhaps I could focus on the year the Righteous Brothers song topped the charts. I immediately began thinking about a malt shop and golden oldies, and while looking it up on wikipedia, I was educated that this song is from the 1960s, not the 1950s. What do I know?

Alright then. So the song is associated with 1965. What else was going on in the world in 1965 that I could work with? Some good stuff and some not-so-pleasant stuff. Dang. What about the entire decade? Counter-culture, social revolution. Hmm... brownies (of the non-magical variety) would be a must on the menu! But I'm a little bit afraid of the games that might be derived from that theme.

But, really, why not just focus on the song itself? It's a great and memorable song after all. I, for one, have it forever ingrained in my memory from the movie Top Gun. Wow! OK, so now I want to center this party around Top Gun! Can I do that?

See how I torture myself over theme development? I should have just planned it out well before sending the invitations, but it really snuck up on me this year, and I had little time to spare to get the invitations out on time. And I'm still stuck on theme development. Maybe I should go back to the whole musical theme I had originally envisioned. *sigh*

Sixth Annual Valentine's Day Ladies' Tea: That Lovin' Feeling

It's that special time of year again... time to plan out the annual Valentine's Day tea party for my gal pals. I'll be sharing the details here - as long as those individuals on my guest list promise to take a hiatus from reading the blog to keep the details a surprise!

I'm using Punchbowl to help decide on a date, and the votes have already started coming in. So exciting! By the way, the Valentine's Day designs at Punchbowl are so beautiful. Although I blurred out some details concerning the date that haven't been finalized yet, here is a look at the invitation I was able to design.

Pretty, huh?

I am also excited to be able to use a new "Entertaining at Home" serving dish at the party. It was a prize I won thanks to two bloggers, Kristen and Toni. Details about that and more to come...

Punchbowl Party Planning Site

[Expired]

Once upon a time I was given a one year free Premium account at Punchbowl.com due to the nature of my blog. Well, I'm still using it and would be remiss if I didn't let Shin-Dig-It readers know that clicking here will get you your own FREE Premium Account at Punchbowl. The catch is, you have to act quickly!!! Here are the details:

Punchbowl Software, Inc., developers of the start to finish party planning site Punchbowl.com, announced that anyone who creates a new user account before 11:59pm PST on December 31, 2009 will receive a FREE Punchbowl Premium account upgrade. Valued at $29.95 (1 year subscription), Punchbowl will give away up to 10,000 Premium accounts by the end of the year. Punchbowl Premium provides users unlimited access to invitation and eCard designs as well as the ability to send advertising-free eCards and invites for one year. "Our site traffic has doubled in the last three months," said Matt Douglas, CEO of MyPunchbowl. "This is our small way of saying thank you for a fantastic year."

To claim your FREE Premium account, sign up for Punchbowl before the end of 2009.

** While I did previously receive a free Premium account from Punchbowl, this post is not being compensated. It is simply to pass along information that Shin-Dig-It readers might find beneficial. Any traffic Punchbowl.com receives following the provided link only goes to show how much interest my readers have in said company, and that my readers know how to plan a good party. OK, maybe I'm guessing on that last part, but I believe in you! **

Safe and Bright Holiday Decorating House Party

The House Party Company did it again!

I was selected to host another House Party Event, this time sponsored by UL (Underwriters Laboratories). The whole idea this time was to have a wreath decorating extravaganza while sharing safety tips that are especially important to remember this time of year. So, I invited my neighbors over for some festive fun. And, boy was it ever that!

I couldn't believe the size of the box containing the party pack when it was delivered! It was so exciting to open it up and inspect all of the contents. Included were: 15 individual 12" wreaths, 15 strings of UL certified lights, several packets of mini ornaments/decorations, a bunch of ribbon, and magnets with safety decorating tips. I purchased some additional decorative items at Dollar Tree including decorative birds, more mini ornaments, silk flowers, pine accents, pine cones, bows, and jingle bells. I also provided cinnamon sticks from my own supply. I set it all up on a table in the party room.

And although I hadn't begun decorating for Christmas yet in my house, I arranged a few painted wooden decorations around the room to get us all in the spirit. A little Christmas music, some munchies, and a few friends made for a completely enjoyable afternoon!

One of my guests is a seasonal florist, and has a great talent for turning ribbon into beautiful bows. She made and shared several bows for us. I may yet enlist her help in turning the rest of the leftover ribbon into bows for future use!

The kids at the party (including my own) were eager to join in the fun. With a little help in winding the light string around the wreath, they got right to work making their own creative wreaths. This one was made and proudly displayed by my daughter.

While decorating, we shared different holiday traditions that we each found special. From Christmas Eve road trips, to weather-inspired fun, there was no end to the engaging conversation. We did also manage to discuss the safety tips that were listed on the magnets, such as reminders about having smoke alarms on each level of your home, and the importance of turning lights and decorations off before bed. (My husband took some left-over magnets to work and handed those out too.) To go along with that, I downloaded a "Safe or Unsafe" quiz from the House Party site. When posed with a question like "You took the family out to pick out your Christmas tree. After three hours of 'too big, too small, kinda lopsided' you found the perfect tree. And, 'hurray!' the cut end of the tree didn't even have any of that sticky stuff on it that always gets all over the rug." you would of course answer "Unsafe" The reason being, "You can tell that a tree has been freshly cut if the cut end of the tree is sticky with resin and when tapped on the ground, few needles fall off. The most important factor in tree safety and fire prevention is freshness, so choose carefully." (source) It is such useful and practical information, you'll want to read more from UL when considering safety at home all year round.

I managed to snap a picture of only a couple of the finished wreaths amidst all the fun.

Here's wishing every Shin-Dig-It reader a safe, fun and memorable Christmas season!

** As customary with hosting a House Party Event, I received the party pack for free. However, this summarization was written of my own volition because I love to share theme party information. **

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Wreath Design Fun

I recently had a Christmas Wreath Decorating Party. Here, my 3 year old shows off the wreath that I made. Come back later for a full write-up on the party. It was so much fun!

And check out more of today's WW here and here!

And the winner is...

It's all yours, Toni! Congratulations!

Toni's comment earned her a FREE PREMIUM account at Punchbowl!

If you're in northwestern Indiana, you'll enjoy perusing Toni's blog where she is also known as Cheapo McFrugalpants. Follow ItsToni on Twitter so you don't miss out on those great local deals. Heck, even if you're not in northwestern Indiana (I'm not, and I still reap the benefits of her updates!), you'll be entertained and maybe learn a thing or two about being frugal, because her tips and advice know no boundaries.

Right now, Toni has TWO giveaways going on for the Chicagoland area. Enter by 9:00 PM CST on Thursday, October 22, 2009 to win FOUR TICKETS to see Disney Live! Rockin' Road Show and enter by 7:00 PM CST on Sunday, October 25, 2009 to win FOUR TICKETS to see Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus! You can count on Toni to get you hooked up with some great promotions!

If you meant to enter the Punchbowl account upgrade giveaway on my blog, but just never got around to it, I hope you learned your lesson! (just kidding)... don't despair! They are currently offering the upgrade to premium for $10 off the regular price. Now, go and get your party started!

Reminder: Punchbowl Party Planning Site - GIVEAWAY!

Come on guys, don't delay... enter now to win a Premium Account at Punchbowl. Just in time for Halloween, too. Punchbowl has lots of ideas for your Halloween party. Did you know that Halloween falls on a Saturday this year?

Be sure to enter on the GIVEAWAY post, not this one. :)

Wordless Wednesday: Me, 35 years ago today!

Check out more Wordless Wednesdays here and here!

Also, enter my GIVEAWAY here!

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter House Party

After the much lauded Domino's American Legends Pizza House Party I threw this summer, I was very excited to get a chance to host another party through the House Party website. This time, it would be sponsored by I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. No joke! How does one have a party based around butter (or "non-butter" as the case may be)? Well, it actually took the form of a bake sale planning party. What a cool concept! As President of my daughter's school's PTO, this opportunity fell into my lap at just the right time. Our PTO is launching some new programming and events, and a bake sale was a good start to fund our efforts.

The party pack that came in the mail contained enough material for 15 guests. My party ended up being much smaller, so there was plenty of stuff go around. Each guest got a tote bag with the ICBINB logo (and another one tucked inside the bag, too), a refrigerator magnet/notepad, a recipe booklet, 6 $1.50 coupons for ICBINB sticks, and entries for a sponsor-related contest to use and to share with friends. To this, I added $1.60 Nature Valley Nut Clusters coupons that I had received from Pssst... that I was supposed to share with friends. I also added a pen (that I got free from CVS with all of their back to school shopping deals!) to go with that fridge magnet list, and a Zobmondo coupon and AMC theaters popcorn coupons that I still had leftover from the Domino's House Party. Not a bad little reward for people coming together to plan a charitable bake sale!

I gave the guests a baking-related word search to do as people arrived. I also had a jar of chocolate chips on display for the guests to study and make a guess as to how many chips there were in the jar. EVERYone who took a stab at it guessed in the mid-300's. Well, except for my three year old who guessed that there were FIVE chocolate chips (we need to work on those counting skills, sweetie...). In reality, there were 700 chips in that little jar. The guest with the closest guess won the prize, which contained two coupons for free ICBINB and an ICBINB butter dish from the sponsor's party pack, and a candle holder with season-appropriate scented candles for it and hand lotion... you know, to moisturize after all of that baking and washing up. The supplements were things that I pulled out of the stash of things I've gotten for free with deal/coupon shopping.

In the midst of the bake sale planning, we enjoyed some light refreshments - cheese and crackers, chips, chocolate chip cookies the size of your head (!) and lemon squares. To make things interesting, I prepared one batch of lemon squares with real butter and one with ICBINB. I asked my guests to take part in the butter vs. ICBINB taste test, just for grins and giggles. My guests actually uttered the line "I can't believe it's not butter!" afterwards. And so, yeah... maybe I prompted them just a little to actually say the line... but the consensus was that the lemon squares I baked with ICBINB were better than the ones I baked with real butter!

In the picture, the ICBINB batch is in the foreground, real butter batch in the background. And now, a few notes about my baking experience. Working with ICBINB was just the same as using real butter. The real test was tasting the crust of the lemon squares. The ICBINB crust allowed easier removal from the baking pan, but the real butter crust actually crumbled less when biting into the squares. One guest thought the lemon flavor was more enhanced with the real butter squares, but she still preferred the ICBINB batch. I'm the type of gal who buys what is on sale for most things, which includes ICBINB from time to time. I was glad to have done a side-by-side comparison for this product.

And while we didn't actually set a date for our bake sale yet, we did talk about a lot of school related projects and camaraderie was enhanced. We have some details to check on and some avenues to pursue, and we'll be well on our way to having our "better bake sale." What fun!

While you're here, don't forget to enter my Giveaway for a Premium Account at MyPunchbowl! I reviewed MyPunchbowl here. Check it out!