Party Tips/ Good Foods to Try.

Party Tips.....

• Offer 3 to 4 types of hors d' oeuvres and figure each person will eat about 10 pieces in 2 hours (fewer if you are serving cheese).

• To keep the food flowing, prebake the hors d'oeuvres then reheat them when the guests arrive.

• Use the oven for the crispiest results. Even if the instructions offer the option of microwaving pastry hors d' oeuvres, don't do it.

• Skip the full bar and prepare 1 or 2 drinks-in bulk ahead of time. Before the party, pour them into glasses on trays and place pitchers next to them, so guests can refill themselves.

• Put out cold foods, like vegetables and dip or a platter of cheeses, at the start of the party so
people have something to nibble on if the hot hors d'oeuvres are not ready.

• Serve the hot hors d' oeuvres yourself. It will allow you to mingle with your guests. Ask helpers to focus on keeping the cold-food tray full and clearing plates.

• How about a wash tub iced to serve cold beverages? This works great for an outdoor, casual event like Father's Day.

• Place single flower stems of varying heights in individual bud vases, votive candle holders,
anything that can hold water. Group them in the center of tables to create a casual centerpiece.

• Create short, round bouquets of large-bloom flowers such as peonies and line them down the center of tables.

• When folding napkins for a party, tuck a fern frond or a flower sprig in each roll and secure with ribbon.


Now, some good recipes for y'all to try...

Cream - Filled Strawberries

These plump berries tilled with a creamy pudding mixture are so elegant-looking and luscious tasting that they are perfect for parties and springtime gatherings.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 18

18 large fresh strawberries
1 cup cold fat free milk
1 ( 1 ounce) package sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix - Use the whole box.
2 cups reduced-fat whipped topping
1/4 tsp almond extract

Remove sterns from strawberries; cut a deep X in the top of each berry. Spread berries apart. In a bowl, whisk milk and pudding mix for 2 minutes. Fold in whipped topping and almond extract. Pipe (which works better) or spoon cream into each berry. Chill until serve time. If the filling gets to soft, put it back into the fridge to get firmer.

Banana Smash Punch

4. cups granulated sugar
6 cups water
5 ripe bananas - Almost to a black color. If you want to have them ripen faster, throw them in the freezer fora few days.
2 T fresh squeezed lemon juice
Place the sugar and the water in heavy bottomed saucepan. Boil 5 minutes and let cool.
While cooling, process the bananas with the lemon juice in a blender. Add to the cooled water and
sugar mixture.
2 ounces fresh squeezed orange juice
36 ounces pineapple juice
Mix together and freeze solid.
Fill container 3/4 full. Pull from the freezer and serve when in slush stage. Mix with 2 quarts chilled ginger ale or clear soda.

Cranberry Cocktail Meatballs

A flavorful appetizer meatball, baked then kept warm in the slow cooker. If you need something quicker, combine your own favorite meatballs with the sauce ingredients, and then cook on high in the slow cooker for about 2 hours.

2 pounds ground beef
2 eggs
1/3 cup ketchup
2 T soy sauce
l/4 tsp pepper
12 ounces chili sauce
2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup corn flake crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup minced onions
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 can (16 ounces) cranberry sauce
1 T brown sugar, firmly packed

In a large bowl combine ground beef, corn flake crumbs, parsley, eggs, ketchup, onion, soy sauce, garlic powder and pepper. Blend ingredients well and form into small balls, about %inch diameter. Place in a casserole or a baking pan. Heat oven to 300. While meatballs, combine cranberry sauce, chili sauce, brown sugar, and lemon juice in a saucepan. Cook, stirring over medium heat until mixture is blended. Pour hot sauce over meatballs and continue cooking for
a total cooking time of about 45 minutes. Transfer to Crockpot and keep low for serving.
About 4-5 dozen meatballs, depending on the size.

Eye Drs. & a 2 ½ year old don’t mix!

Morning came and we arise to a major event today. Today was Austin’s checkup at the eye doctor. We spend the morning getting ready, eating our breakfast together at the table and we even managed to squeak in a few sessions of Winnie the Pooh on the computer before it was time to leave.

Austin cooperated very well with me through this whole process, and when it was time to get ready to leave, he obeyed me without any hesitation. In the car we go, and were off and running by 7:00 a.m. Through the traffic we go, waiting on the road due to slow pokes and mommy missing the exit and having to back track, we finally arrived at the clinic at 7:40 a.m. just in time for our appointment.

We get out of the car and I have Austin’s complete cooperation. We go and check in. The lady behind the counter says do you have a co-payment? I said, yes, and handed her my Bennie Card, and off comes $22.00 of the debit card. I love the Bennie Card! Basically it’s $250.00 of “Free” money to help cover medical expenses. Who wouldn’t love that!!

Up the elevator we go, and we sit down in the waiting area. As we wait for the doctor, I think to myself, okay, this is starting off rather well. Austin’s being a good boy so far, but can he hold out for the visit? We wait for about 10min for the nurse to call our name. All of a sudden, I hear “Austin Carr” I wheel the stroller in, past the doors and of course, Austin’s now throwing his normal fit. “AH CRAP, this is going to be a bad visit”.

At this point I am completely embarrassed because he’s throwing this fit. The nurse asked me to sit in the chair and hold him, so she could take a look at his eyes. Yeah right, this is going to work out well. He’s now screaming and unwilling to participate. The nurse doesn’t get any cooperation from Austin, so she can’t get a good checkup on him to see how he’s progressing so we basically get nothing accomplished with her.

The Doc comes in, and she tries to do a procedure on him. She tries to put this prism looking thing in front of his eye. All it does is help magnify the eye, to see if one is dominating his vision over the other. Lone and behold it’s the same old process!! Screaming and unwilling to participate. UGGH CHILD!

After coming to the conclusion that since Austin’s wearing his glasses, were basically doing all we can for him at this point. Until we can get him to cooperate with us more at the clinic, were not going to be able to get much more out of him at this point. The Doc suggested for us to come back in 3 months for a re-check and see if we can have better success next time.

As were leaving the clinic, I made a statement to Austin saying that here we are, we paid this $22.00 for him to see the Dr, and he’s not cooperating. The Dr. heard my comment, and she said, you could stretch it out to 4 months if you want, but nothing too much longer than that.

I think to myself, I just spent $22 on this visit, over 1hr 45 min driving to the eye Dr. for Austin today and now I am completely frustrated because we got no results from this visit and now, we have an appointment to go back again in 4 months just to do it all over again, and for what? The same results? Absolutely nothing?? UGGH you have got to be kidding me!

I head back to work after this visit. I am completely frustrated, discouraged, and upset, but I think I have now figured out a solution to our next visit. Solution for next visit: Bring along another family member, hold Austin down with force, and basically tell the Dr. they need to get a read on his eyes, or coming back to these visits is basically point less. Until Austin can cooperate fully and to the extent that’s needed for them to get the information they need this is just a big waste of my time and money.

Weekend To Do List:

The things in bold are the things I actually got done this weekend.

1. Get the hubby fitted for a tux for his friends wedding in June.
2. Rake the front yard.
3. Mow the yard.
4. Clean the inside of the house, which includes:
5. Bathrooms, Basement, Bedrooms, Living room, Kitchen
6. Pull the weeds from the tree rings outside, and replace the wood chips with rock.
7. Pay the rest of the bills
8. Look at finding AP an outfit for the June Wedding
9. Get Mike/Elizabeth a wedding gift.
10. Clean the inside and outside of the cars.
11. Go grocery Shopping.
12. Finish the laundry
13. Spend time with my family, and relax when this list is done!

My trip to Austin Texas

My first day consisted of us leaving MSP at about 4:55 and arriving to Austin TX at about 8:30 p.m. We had a slight lay over, but nothing to terrible. When we arrived, the weather was warm in Texas, and I couldn’t wait to start the vacation process. Then, we had to go and get our rental car from ALAMO. The selection of cars was few and far between, as it was late in the day, and only a few were available. We ended up with Nissan Rouge.

Now that we got part done, we just had to find our way to the hotel. I must say the lady at the rental car place gave superb detailed directions. We were able to find the hotel with no problems. I must say that the roads in Texas are quite interesting. They don’t believe in the whole on and off ramps like we have here in MN. They have what I called an express lane. They are located on the right or left hand side of the freeways. You can enter onto the freeway from the express lane just fine, but getting off the free way can be a challenge if you don’t have an exit ramp to get off onto.

We arrive at the hotel late in the evening, and just decide to crash. After a long days work, I was beat, and needed my rest.

The adventures consisted of the following:

Thursday:

• LBJ Museum. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library holds more than 45 million pages of manuscripts, an extensive audiovisual collection, and oral history. There were so many amazing things in the museum; we were there for several hours.

• Texas State Capitol: The Texas Capitol is an extraordinary example of late 19th century public architecture and is widely recognized as one of the nation's most distinguished state capitols. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986 for its "significant contribution to American history." This was an amazing site to see, if ever you’re in Texas, make an effort to go see it.
  
  
• Downtown Austin: We spent the rest of the afternoon traveling down town Austin to see all of the different amazing things there are to see.
  
  
• Dinner with family at the Oasis on Lake Travis: Let me just first start out by saying this place has an amazing view! The OASIS also provides a spectacular view of Lake Travis and the surrounding hill country. It is a must-see for out-of-towners and a reprieve for locals -- the perfect place for groups of up to 500 for parties, weddings, corporate events and any other special occasion you want to celebrate. In 2005 there was lightning that struck The Oasis and the resulting fire claimed 80% of the decks. They then had to re-build their outdoor seating and now there is three stories, more deck space, an innovative convertible indoor/outdoor live music venue. With seating capacity for over 2,000 people, and more indoor space than ever, and is now a top-destination restaurant. Their food is absolutely delish! We had chips and salsa for an appetizer. I tried their Fish Taco’s which were a bit on the spicy side, but good. My Hubby had their Chicken Wrap which was absolutely fabulous, and then we added a few cocktails, good conversation, and family on to the side, on top of a $300.00+ tab for all, we had a perfect meal.

Friday:

• San Antonio: The travel to San Antonio was quite interesting. Paul decided to drive, and I must warn you that he’s an easily frustrated person when driving. He ended up missing the turn onto the off ramp for San Antonio, and then got completely in an uproar about it. Instead of calming down and taken a breath, and getting us on the straight & narrow he got in a tizzy. I was just sitting in the back seat, pretending to sleep, as I didn’t want to be in any part of that discussion. Uggh the fun of traveling in a new town.

• River days: River days took place on Friday, so there was a huge parade going on, which made parking a huge challenge. We ended up having to pay out $20.00 just to get a place to park, but after driving around for over an hour we though, bite the bullet and just pay it, this is insane.

• The Alamo: After all the Alamo is what most people think of when they think of Texas. Originally it was built as a Spanish mission; the Alamo was the site of one of the most infamous battles in North American history. I found it to be interesting, and was glad I had the opportunity to view the site.

• The River Walk: This reminded me of a long strip mall with lots of shops, hotels and eatery places. Down the middle of the road was the river which was a nice touch to add some scenic attractions to the river walk. It was interesting to see all the different things that were located along the river, and what was available to people.

• 6^th Street: The Hubby and I decided that we would take a stroll down to see 6^th street. OMG talk about difficult parking? We had ended up finding a spot to park in a ramp and paid $8.00 to park. Okay, now talk about a challenge. We had the most difficult time trying to get out of the ramp. We went up and down each end of the ramp, and came up empty. We eventually did end up finding our way out, but OMG difficulties! We strolled along the streets, checking out the souvenir shops, and then of course the hubby wanted to go and check out Coyote Ugly. I was up for it, as he bought me a free beer, so I couldn’t really turn it down. Talk about loud! Now I know why I don’t go to clubs anymore.

Saturday:

• The wedding: What more can I say? This day was fabulous. The wedding service took place at the University Christian Church. The service turned out to be lovely, and there were a large amount of folks who were able to celebrate with Tiffany & Tanner. The reception took place at the Omni Hotel in Downtown Austin, and was outstanding. All around good food, conversations, drinking and dancing. The party was a great joy to be at, and I was so blessed to be a part of the day.

Sunday:

• Brunch with the family. Brunch was provided by my uncle & law, and his wife. The whole family was invited to partake and it was a fun way to end the celebration weekend.

• Schlitterban Water Park. My husband insisted that we go and check out Schlitterban Water Park in New Braunfels Falls, TX as it was opening weekend. When we got to the park, the weather was a bit on the chilly side, but we decided that we would go and partake in the water park. Here I thought that the park would be just swamped with folks, but there really weren’t all that many people there. I must say I was fairly pleased with the park. They had a few good water slides, but damn the water was freezing. Talk about a chill up the spine!

• Dinner with family: We went to a small join in Downtown Austin for supper. The food was good, and OMG, we had this amazing dip thing for chips and dip. It was to die for! I have to find out what was in that dip.

Monday:

• Bob Bullock History Museum: We spent most of the day at the Museum. Myself, Brent, Phil, and Paul went to the museum. The Museum is a dynamic educational institution that engages visitors in the exciting Story of Texas through a variety of programs and exhibit experiences in Austin. The museum has a total of 4 levels of history to go through, and it can literally take you all day to get through if you look at each thing in the museum. It truly is something amazing everyone should go and see.

• Lunch/Dinner w/Family: For lunch and dinner, we were able to spend some good quality time with the family. We went to a restaurant in downtown for lunch, which is the same thing we went to on Sunday night, but that’s okay, because they had good food. For supper, we ended up at the Texas Road House. It’s got good food, and yet we have one in Minnesota. Go figure.

Tuesday:

• Last day in Texas. We spent out last day going shopping, seeing the things we wanted to see one more time, and just took it easy. We ended up back at the Capital, 6^th street, and then went and saw the Driskill hotel. We then headed off to the airport for are arrival back to MN. There were a few layovers at the airport but all in all it was a good flight, and we were glad to be back home.

I must say this was a way over due vacation, and I am glad that I had a chance to experience it with my loved ones. This was my first trip in the last year, and consisted of me and my husband without our 2 ½ year old and me taking off 8 days of work. It was well worth the wait, and I couldn’t have enjoyed myself more than I did. It had plenty of entertainment, exciting, peace and quiet, celebrating and plain overall fun.