Highway To The Danger Zone

Over the weekend we threw out friend, Tim, a goodbye party. He is leaving to become a Navy fighter pilot. We are so excited for him since it's always been his dream as long as we've known him. It was a surprise party and I'm so happy that we actually pulled it off! We had everyone in on the secret! Even his sister who flew in from NYC!

The whole crew plus Tim in the middle.

When Tim walked in we were all standing around the table with the food. We turned on the lights, said "surprise" and blasted the song Highway To The Dangerzone from Top Gun (one of Tim's favorite movies... which we had playing all night too).  We gave Tim a superhero cape that he wore all night. 

I love themes so it was really fun for me to decorate for this party! I made some decorations, got some stuff from the dollar store and re-purposed it, a friend made the cute banner, and Tim's mom got the cake for the party. Actually, that was one of my favorite parts about the whole party. Tim's mom, who I have never met and who lives in Boston, called me up and said she really wanted to contribute to the party! She offered to find a baker, have them make the cake and pay for it! I was blown away! So generous and thoughtful! And I loved how touched Tim was too that she did that! 

Everyone was so helpful and also brought food to help celebrate! Thanks to Jason, Brandie and Kyle and Jon and Lauren! Believe me, none of this lasted very long! Look at the yummy set up we had:

So as far as the decorations go we went with a red, white, and blue/America theme. Here are some of the details:

I photoshopped Tim into some pictures, one shaking hands with Obama and the other as Tom Cruise in Top Gun. 

Made an anchor garland

As well as paper airplane garlands, put star confetti EVERYWHERE! I purchased some little plastic airplanes from the dollar store and spray painted them red and blue and left them lying around the house. We also used American flag bandannas on the tables as backdrops.

I made a ribbon garland as well...

Here is Brandie with her adorable banner that I LOVE so much!!

We put lights in the bushes in the back, placed flags in the ground, wore red, white, and blue (like my bow? haha) and had balloons and American Spirit everywhere!

We hung stars from the ceiling and all signed a card for him. 

It was a really fun night and we were so happy to celebrate Tim! We are so proud of him and are already bragging about all his achievements and what a wonderful pilot he is going to be!

All the boys!

Game Night

This past weekend we had a few couples over for a game night. Miguel and I had a lot of fun preparing all the food and setting everything up. We really enjoy entertaining and the night turned out to be a lot of fun filled with loads of laughter. We played Apples to Apples, Pictionary Telephone, and Jenga. 

We tried to shoot for a hot item, a cold item, a meat item, a veggie item, a green item, and a sweet item. We also wanted to choose things that would be quick and easy to eat since we needed our hands for games.

What we ended up with was: Tomato soup shots with mini grilled cheese sandwiches, veggies with dip (which included bell peppers, carrots, radishes, and celery), Seven layer dip, and peanut butter jelly sushi rolls. To see the inspiration for the grilled cheese and jelly rolls click here and here. 

We also made one of our go to appetizers, a caprese salad, but this time we made it much easier to eat thanks to this site. Miguel made some spicy sausage with sweet potato bites and lemon-garlic mayo... inspiration here. To top it off we served some brownies and popcorn. 

We decorated with some dice charms around the wine bottles and added as decor around the appetizers.   Red and turquoise were also sort of a theme. Also, we added some playing cards here and there to add some 'theme'. 

We had a really fun night! Can't wait to do it again!

Bayou Pork with 'Not Your Ordinary Black Beans'

I recently posted this recipe on another blog, oomy gooey goodness. Thought I would share it on here.

My husband comes from a Cuban family, so we often eat a combination of black beans and rice paired with a variation of protein. I love my hubby's black beans! Tonight we made the beans and rice and paired it with 'Bayou Pork'. 

Beans

You will need:

Goya black beans

Red Wine Vinaigrette

Basil Leaves

Cumin

Salt

Always start with Goya black beans. You can get them at the ordinary grocery, though sometimes only one store in your area will carry it... for example, the Kroger here doesn't have them, but Publix does.

Cook the beans in a small sauce pan. Add a few squirts of a red wine vinaigrette, two basil leaves, a dash of cumin, and a dash of salt. Stir beans periodically. We start the beans first and time them based on how long it takes the rice to cook. We cook our rice in a rice cooker. 

Bayou Pork

You will need:

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp rubbed dried sage

1/2 tsp garlic salt

1 1/2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil

4 pork chops

This recipe is a quick, four step process! Hooray for easy meals! 

Step 1: Combine all seasonings in a shallow bowl.

Step 2: Place pork chops in the bowl, turning over so each side gets coated in the seasoning

Step 3: Heat olive oil over high heat

Step 4: Turn burner to medium heat and cook the pork chops for about 10 minutes, turning over half way through. 

The pork is under 90 calories per serving. Don't judge me for the lack of greens in this dinner... oops.