Baby Shower Success!

Many of you know I was hosting a baby shower for a dear friend of mine this week. I made the mistake of not making crucial decisions until too late in the process to ask for help, so I ended up doing the whole thing myself, at my house. Needless to say, it was exhausting. However, I must say, it was a success! I had fun, the guests had fun, and most importantly the guest of honor had fun.

I thought it would be fun to share some of the tasty recipes I used with you, as well as some ideas for the theme.

Since it was my friend's first baby boy, the theme was "Frogs and snails and puppy dog tails." My original intent had been to have the games, food, decor, and invitations all go along with the theme, however as the day came and I was pressed for time it ended up being invitations (pictured above) and decor only.

For the decorations I gathered stuffed dogs and frogs and used them as the centerpiece on the food table as well as on my mantle. The colors of the plates, napkins, cups and tablecloth went along with the invitations and her nursery. Blue and green. Oh, and I did have one itty, bitty, snail that I made with polymer clay awhile back set in some grass on the table behind the dogs and frogs. I didn't get any pictures of the table, bummer.

I had a few ideas for games to go with the theme, but none of them happened. Some ideas I thought about: pin the tail on the puppy and musical frog (pass a couple frogs around while music plays when the music stops whoever is holding it has to drink juice from a bottle, fastest drinker wins).

The game we actually ended up playing I tried to put a theme spin on, but failed. We played "name that tune." My thought was to find songs with the words, "frogs," "snails," "puppy," "dog," "tail," "baby," "boy," etc. in the title, however I did not find ANY songs with the theme words in the title in our iTunes. So I went for any songs with "boy," "baby," "son," "child," "brother," in the title. I told my guests, I realized that we have quirky taste in music and hoped they could figure out at least some of the songs. We ended up doing thirteen songs. They are:

• This Boy, The Beatles
• Mother Nature's Son, Cheryl Crow
• Hush Little Baby, Bobby McFerrin
• One Boy, One Girl, Collin Raye
• Boys Don't Cry, The Cure
• Danny Boy, Eclipse
• Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
• Real Wild Child, Josie and the Pussycats
• Mother and Child Reunion, Paul Simon
• Brother, Toad the Wet Sprocket
• Baby One More Time, Toxic Audio
• Ice Ice Baby, Vanilla Ice
• Venus (Baby, She's Got It), Bananarama

I knew it was pretty bad when I looked at their faces. The Beatles started singing and someone said, "This is before my time!" The Beatles aren't before anyone's time are they?!?! They're like the past, present and future music. Someone else said later, "Boy, you weren't kidding about the obscure music!" When all was said and done the highest number of correct guesses was 5! There were three people who got 5 right. We decided we must've made it a little too hard with our clips, if there's a next time we'll do more obvious clips.

At the end of the game I let them all know that they would each be getting the "soundtrack" from the evening. We made a CD with all thirteen songs as their favor for coming to the party. There is some really great music on that CD, so even though they thought I was crazy, I hope they enjoy listening to our great (and unique) taste in music. :)

OK, now for the thing that really made the night a success, the FOOD! I wanted to include the theme with the food. At first I planned to decorate a cake all cute with frogs, snails, and puppy dogs. I thought of serving little wrap/roll things so look like snails. I also thought it might be fun to just have little cards with titles for the food that would tie it into the theme like "puddle jumpers" for dip-ables and Texas mud pie for my dessert. But I ran out of time and went with the following instead. I served some easy, no prep things like chips and salsa and a vegetable tray from Sam's Club. I went to a great food blog I highly recommend called Our Best Bites and got a couple recipes that I hoped would impress. I'd never tried them before, so yes, I was taking a risk, but that's what I do. And it worked out great. The recipes and pictures from Our Best Bites are below.

Caramel Apple Cider

Recipe by Our Best Bites

1/2 gallon apple cider (64 oz or 8 C)

1/2 C orange juice, fresh squeezed or good quality bottled like Simply Orange

1 orange

8 cloves

2 cinnamon sticks (if yours are more than a year old- buy new ones!!)

1/4 t ground allspice

1/3 C jarred caramel sauce* more to taste if needed

optional: caramel flavored syrup sweetened whipped cream (or from a can is fine!)

*For a delicious twist, substitute maple syrup for the caramel sauce in this recipe.

Combine cider, orange juice, cinnamon sticks, and allspice in a medium-large stock pot. Heat on medium high. Poke cloves into orange rind and gently set in pot. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for about 1 hour. Add caramel sauce, stir to dissolve/combine. Serve warm.

I didn't serve mine with whipped cream, but people still seemed to enjoy it.

Caramel Toffee Fruit Dip

Recipe by Our Best Bites

1 8-oz. package cream cheese (you can use light cream cheese)

3/4 c. brown sugar

1/2 Tbsp. vanilla (you can add more to taste)

Toffee bits (look by the chocolate chips and try and find the chocolate covered ones if you can! Your dip won't be pretty, but it will sure taste good!)

Let cream cheese get to room temperature. Combine cream cheese, sugar, vanilla until creamy. Add half a bag toffee when ready to serve.

I made several fruit kabobs with green apples, grapes, and fresh pineapple for easy serving. The guests ate these right up. I had several ask for the recipe of the dip and many were surprised it was so simple. It was delicious! Try it and you won't be disappointed!

For dessert I made one of my very favorite treats! An old Pampered Chef recipe called Frosty Pumpkin Dessert. It was a hit with the guests as well! I had more requests for the recipe than I think I've had for any recipe! Nothing tells me people liked my food more than that. I also was able to make the recipe in advance, so it made my life much less stressful the day of the shower. I am notorious for decorating a cake up until the very.last.minute. Everyone thought it would be a great Thanksgiving treat, for the non-traditionalists. The first time I made it, was for a big Thanksgiving dinner with all my aunts, uncles, and cousins, so I have to agree! In case any of you are dying to try something new, here is the recipe and my own picture (sorry its not as good as the pros).

Frosty Pumpkin Dessert

Recipe by Pampered Chef

32 gingersnap cookies, finely chopped (1 1/3 cup crumbs)

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, divided

1 cup thawed frozen whipped topping

2/3 cup toffee bits

1 cup solid pack pumpkin

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

Combine cookie crumbs and butter, press into bottom of 10" springform pan (I actually doubled the recipe and used 2 9x13 pans). Place in freezer. Scoop half of ice cream into large bowl, let soften for 10 minutes in fridge. Combine ice cream, whipped topping, and toffee bits. Spread over crust. Freeze for 1 hour. Let remaining half of ice cream soften, mix with pumpkin, brown sugar, and spices. Spread evenly over ice cream and freeze over night. Set in fridge about 20 minutes before ready to serve.

The food didn't fit the theme, but it more than made up for it with the taste! It was a great night with lots of laughs, socializing, food, and good friends. I wouldn't change a thing!