Party Time

I'll start by apologizing for the length of this post, but I haven't blogged in a while.

So this year I'm taking an event planning class and pretty much it's awesome, every week we have had a class party and that's pretty much what it consisted of. This week was my groups turn. I had the best group EVER, pretty much we're really cool. We had to plan a family themed event so we had a Surprise Birthday Party for my teacher(it wasn't really her birthday but it was definitely a surprise!) I was in charge of the food. For it I made Homemade chips and salsa (I spent two hours frying the chips but they were delicious)

 To make the chips I just fried the corn tortillas which a cut into 8 pieces in vegetable oil and then salted them, and I LOVE making homemade salsa it just tastes SO much better. I have to force myself to eat store bought stuff aka Pace. A lot of people assume Salsa is complicated, that is false. 


1 14 oz. can plain diced tomatoes

1 14 oz.can fire roasted tomatoes

1 4 oz. can green chiles

2 cloves garlic (diced)

1/4-1/2(depends on the size of the onion) of a yellow onion (chopped) 

1/2-1 bunch of cilantro (chopped) [it depends how much cilantro flavor you want. I like a whole bunch]

Use emulsion blender or food processor to blend to desired consistency. Canned tomatoes freak me out so mine is pretty blended.

Season to taste. You can start by using about 1/2 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. pepper, 1/2 tsp. salt, but I just eyeball it. If I want it spicy I use a couple dried chili tepin (a very small, round, hot pepper), you could also put a little bit of fresh jalapeno.

I feel like salsa making was a tradition at my house growing up, I have a lot of good memories growing up so I can't say that it's my favorite but it's up there. We would make it together and my Dad would initially season it and then ask us what flavor was missing and that's how he taught us to season the salsa. Growing up we also used oregano, however, I'm not a huge fan of oregano so it's a toss up of whether I put it in. 

 I also made mini cheese balls, I got the recipe from Food Network magazine. I used sharp cheddar as my 'hard' cheese and I also added a little more Worcestershire sauce and a little hot sauce. I rolled them in sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and smoked almonds. The smoked almonds were that favorite, which makes sense because smoked almonds are delicious. I also made pigs in a blanket and ants on a log. But I forgot to take pictures of the food before it was eaten so here is what was left.

To drink we had cranberry lemonade [my favorite drink], if you haven't had it (which most of you have since it's mostly my family that reads my blog) you need to go get some cranberry juice concentrate and lemonade concentrate make the juice and add some sprite, you won't regret it. I love it even more than raspberry lemonade and that's saying something.

The party was monkey themed so we played pin the tail on the monkey and musical chairs and they have to act like monkeys as they go around (pretty sure that already happens when people play musical chairs)

AND

We had a monkey cake. I also didn't get a picture of it and I made 2 even. They were really cute and it pretty much looked like this, except I used chocolate chip black bottom cookies that I got from the vending machine because I forgot to get the cookies before hand.

For the event we also had to choose a leadership book to read, and present how it helped with how we planned the event. My group read Inch and Miles a children's book by John Wooden. It is on his Pyramid of Success. I know I've said it before but John Wooden is such a role model, and it was fun applying his Pyramid of Success. His two cornerstones of the Pyramid are Hard Work and Enthusiasm (GO COUGS!) and we definitely had a lot of both of them preparing for the event.

This class has also been helpful in my every day life. On Sunday my apartment hosted Ward Dessert Night, and it was a blast. I put butcher paper on the table so people could draw on the table and label the desserts they brought. We had cream puffs(of course, would it be a dessert party at my house if there weren't any), muddy buddies(Katie's favorite treat to make), popcorn, oatmeal cookies, pecan pie, and grapes. Somebody pulled out Katie's guitar and started playing and after a while the guys in my ward who live across the street brought over a Cajon (a peruvian drum, Boyce Avenue uses one) and a bass guitar and there was a jam sesh. I feel like half of my ward are music majors and so it was pretty legit. We also got to show of our new apartment decorations, which include Christmas decorations, it makes me SO happy.

When we finish decorating I will have to make another post, hopefully it gets done before the end of the semester which is coming up pretty quick. 15 days until I fly to Arizona, I'm SUPER excited. I fly into Phoenix, so I can see my Grandparents and actually go to the Thude Family Christmas party.