Zach's Graduation and Bon Voyage Party

Grandson Zach graduates on the 10th of June and leaves for Australia on the 15th, so we had a little family party here on June 3 to celebrate both events.

The ten guests were greeted with an Australian flag as they entered the front porch and a sign on the door to set the mood for an Aussie-themed party.

National flag of Australia.

Welcome to the Outback sign on door.

When Marcia and I were over at Southern Season the other week, I found some pretty lime green and some yellow paper plates so I used a green, yellow, melon color scheme.  I made this party as easy as possible---had barbecue and all the trimmings catered by Cooper's Barbecue---and used disposable plates, cups, and napkins.

"Green" table in dining room.

My friend Helen who is an avid scrapbooker made the little kangaroos attached to the cups that served as place cards. 

That left just the dessert for me to make and I made macadamia nut, chocolate chip cookies (Macadamia nuts are native to Australia.).  Dan prepared a fruit salad of cantaloupe and kiwi which matched the color scheme perfectly.

Macadamia nut, chocolate chip cookies.

Fruit bowl of cantaloupe and kiwi.

To make preparation even easier, I had flower arrangements prepared by Kelly Odom Florist.  (Kelly and Brian are our neighbors here on Davis Street)  Their floral designs are widely acclaimed, and the arrangements they prepared for this party were stunning.

Arrangement (by Kelly Odom) in living room.

Arrangement (by Kelly Odom) for "yellow" table in living room.

Arrangement (by Kelly Odom) for dining room table.

Dessert table arrangement.(by Kelly Odom).

I gave a quiz to determine the guests knowledge of Australia.  Claire's mother, Jeanette, is a native Aussie, and she helped me check the quiz answers to determine who had the most correct answers.  Michael won first place, a gift certificate to the Outback Restaurant, and Patrick was second and won an Aussie bush hat. 

Gifts of Aussie-style hats were presented to Jeanette, Claire, and Zach for their upcoming trip to Australia.

Jeanette, Zach, and Claire.

Zach and Claire with their Aussie-style hats.

It was a fun party!!!!

Macadamia Nut Cookies for an Aussie Themed Party

Macadamia nut, chocolate chip cookies.

I recently gave a little dinner party for family and friends, some of whom will be traveling to Australia this summer.  Although the barbecue and trimmings were catered, I wanted to make a dessert that would fit into the Aussie theme for the party.  I understand a traditional dessert in Australia is pavlova, but I wasn't keen to experiment with that. (However, my interest in this dessert has been piqued, and I plan to try making this before the summer ends.)

Pavlova, a popular dessert in Australia and New Zealand. (Photo from Wikipedia.)

Since macadamia nuts are native to Australia (not Hawaii as many believe) I decided to make macadamia nut cookies.  Here's the recipe I found from Taste of Home. 

Ingredients

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 teaspoon salt ( I omitted the salt, because the macadamia nuts I used were salted.)
2 jars (3-1/2 ounces each) macadamia nuts, chopped 
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips 
1 cup (6 ounces) white baking chips  

Directions 

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. 

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture and beat for 2 minutes. Stir in nuts and chips. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

 Drop by tablespoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on pans for 1 minute before removing to wire racks; cool completely. Yield: about 6 dozen.

Chill in refrigerator for a few hours.

 

Drop by spoonfuls onto baking sheet.

 

Cool on rack.

Ready to serve.

 These are easy to make and are quite delicious.

Kangaroo Wobble Place Cards

Cup place card with kangaroo for Aussie theme party.

My good friend Helen is an avid scrapbooker and a very creative one too.  When I was thinking of place cards for a graduation/bon voyage dinner that I'm giving for my grandson Zach and his girl friend Claire, I immediately thought of Helen.  After graduation, Zach and Claire are traveling to Australia for a few weeks with Claire's mom. I'm using an Aussie theme for the dinner party, and I wanted to have stickers representing Australia on the plastic cups that will serve as place markers on the dinner tables.

Helen came up with a cute idea of a kangaroo affixed to the cup with the name card placed in the kangaroo's pouch.  She has all the bells and whistles to make these in the craft room at her house.

Helen's well-equipped craft room.

After finding a template of a kangaroo, she used her Cricut machine to draw and cut out the kangaroos according to input from the software on her computer.  The software allows one to adjust the size and location on the paper for each cut.

The paper ready to go into the Cricut.

Templates set up on computer.

Paper goes into Cricut for drawing and cutting.

Kangaroos drawn and die cut on Cricut.

Kangaroos ready to be peeled off.

Small hearts were cut to fit into the pouch of the kangaroo, and names of the guests were written on the hearts.

Kangaroos ready to attach to cups.

The kangaroos were attached to the cups with wobbles (a scrapbook "tool" that allows the attached item to wobble back and forth).

Wobble.

Wobble attaches kangaroo to cup.

Helen with finished cup.

Cup with kangaroo to use as place card at dinner party.

Thanks Helen.  These are so cute!!!!  Now to get all the other things ready for the party.  Stay tuned.