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Apricot Dream Cream

Zola Gorgon on

Party Hardy

The partying has not ended at our house. In fact, in my mind, this is party season -- starting now. We have the Golden Globe Awards coming up this weekend. That’s closely followed by the Oscars. Then there’s the Super Bowl too. And St. Patrick’s Day is a good excuse for a party around my house. Valentine’s Day even. All of these make great party themes and a reason to gather with friends and family.

This past weekend my husband and I came up with a whole other excuse to get a sizable group of 30 together. We had a party we called 20/30 Martinis and Magic.

What happened is we realized we have quite a few friends who are in their 20’s and 30’s. Many of them are new to the big city or are always looking for an excuse to mingle and build new friendships. So we decided to get them all together and have a party.

Since the idea was to mix them up so they met new people (that’s the magic) we designed a scavenger hunt/trivia contest. I thought I’d explain to you how we put that together so if you want to use it as a theme for a party at your house you can borrow the ideas.

For this party, (because so many didn’t know each other), we used sticky name tags. We went ‘old school’. Each name tag had a number written in the corner. The numbers corresponded to teams. We had six teams of approximately five people. So before we started the hunt we had them gather into their groups. Their team leader was the person whose birthday landed closest to mine. (Mine is January 10). I gave the team leaders each a bag with a set of the questions/tasks, and a pen. There were no couples or relatives on the same team.

I read the rules and we set a timer. Here are the rules. You can adjust them for your use. They are meant to be fun and a bit funny.

You and your team have 45 minutes to complete the list of tasks and questions. When you hear the whistle blow, come to the living room even if you’re not finished. If you finish sooner just come to the living room with all of your items gathered and your questions answered. You can have a drink and wait for the others. The group that scores the most points wins. There are points for each item so depending on how successful you are with each section the group done first might not be the winner.

You can use your cell phone. You can Google anything or anyone you want; including us!

At the end of 45 minutes we will gather your bags with your items and we’ll read off the answers and check out each other’s pictures. We’ll tally up the scores. There ARE prizes.

Like mom would say...no running.

Group leader is the person with a birthday closest to Zola’s (January 10).

Fill out everything on the form that you can. We gave you a pen. No excuses like “I knew that. I just didn’t write it down!” Pictures can be taken on multiple phones. Just don’t forget who has what pictures. Maybe write that down too.

Don’t expect that having a family member on your team gives you any advantage. They never listen to us anyway.

Don’t try to bribe people on other teams for your missing answers. This is a fight to the prizes!

Good luck and may the group with the keenest eyes and clearest heads win.

And then they were off!

Some groups gathered in hushed corners and set about answering the trivia questions. I’ll give you examples of trivia questions we used, but frankly it’s easy to go to any trivia question site on line and pick through to find ones you like. You can also include trivia questions about your family, your town or anyone at the party. Frankly, the trivia questions are the easiest, so those scored the lowest number of points. Most were just two points each. Most of them could be easily Googled but you have to be ready for that in these electronic times. So we just made sure there were plenty of questions. That ate up some time and people loved looking them up as well as guessing. They felt accomplished.

Here are trivia question examples:

Trivia: What is the name of chef Jamie Oliver’s first cookbook? Two points

Trivia: Name our three cats. If you know one you probably can nail all three. Two points

Bonus Trivia: One of the cats is a mix of Asian leopard and Abyssinian. What is the breed called? Two points

Trivia: What are the top three comfort food snacks? Two points

Trivia: What are the four Cs in discussing diamonds? Two points for each

 

Trivia: What percentage of people dream in black and white? Two points

Trivia: Who recorded the song Unchained Melody from the movie Ghost soundtrack? Two points

See? You can make the questions personal, professional or just plain fun. We had trivia in there about us and our cats. You could add questions about your children or whatever suits your fancy.

Everyone in their 20s and 30s walks around with their phones (some older people too) so incorporate them into your scavenger hunt and give them a reason to use them. The hot thing to do is make them use their phone for tasks. No one had to go outside the house to complete this entire trivia hunt/scavenger challenge. It’s cold outside in Chicago right now but if you do this in the summer you might include your yard. No reason to drive around town though.

Think of things you can have them find in your house and have them take a picture of a team member who has located the item and have the item in the picture. We had them locating paintings that had a clue theme and take a pic in front of the painting. Or we had them find a certain book or a food item. Here are a few of the tasks. Most of the tasks we had them do are very specific to our home but I am giving you a few examples for your own inspiration.

Task: Find me. I’m wearing a top hat, I’m green and I float. Put me in your bag. 10 points (This was a tub toy we had them find. I’m sure you have things like that too). Only one team could win the points on this one.

Task: Cuties are for Kids. What is a Cutie? And put a Cutie in your bag. Five points (I had a whole bowl of Cuties in the kitchen).

Task: Zola has a collection of paperweights. They are scattered throughout the house. One of them actually peers back at you when you look at it. Take a picture. 10 points

Task: Finding a needle in a haystack can be difficult but finding a safety pin should be a piece of cake. 1 point for each one in your bag at the end. (I had scattered safety pins in not too hard to find places). No one had to open a drawer to find anything so no one was snooping in our ‘stuff’.

There was one task we had everyone do. In order to be eligible to win they had to take a picture of their team in a fun pose of some kind. Those were hilarious. The winner was chosen by us as hosts, and it scored a whopping 25 points.

There was another task that was optional but also scored big. I have an affinity for sheep, so the group that had someone do the best imitation of a sheep and did a phone video of it won another 25 points. Those videos had everyone laughing. Maybe you have a hobby or interest everyone could be inspired to imitate?

The winning group scored 139 points! Very impressive. You decide how big you want your list of questions to be and how long they will have to attempt to complete them. The 45 minutes was enough to get them to know each other a bit better but also left plenty of time for getting a plate of food at the buffet as well as conversation around the house after the hunt was over. Party started at 7 p.m. Scavenger hunt/trivia began at 8 p.m. and party wound up not long after midnight.

I’m thinking I can use the exact same list of questions with our older friends too, and duplicate the party. I had one thank you email already from a young man who’s wondering when the date of the 2nd Annual Martinis and Magic party will be. I guess it was a hit.

Apricot Cream Dream

Ingredients:

4 packets (4 tsp) of Truvia (divided)
1 pint fresh apricots (or canned) (Cut the apricots in half and take out the pit.) Cut the apricots into chopped bits.
8 oz cream cheese, room temperature (Light or regular will both work.)
2 heaping Tbl sour cream
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Before you begin you need to prepare the apricots. Put the cut apricots in a bowl with 2 packets of the Truvia. Stir them around so you are coating the apricots. Let this sit on your counter or in the refrigerator for about two hours. This process is called macerating. You're getting the apricots nice and sweet.

In a medium bowl, put in your cream cheese, the sour cream, the vanilla and the other two packets of Truvia. Beat until fluffy.

To assemble, drain the apricot bits and toss out the sweet juice. You won’t need it. Combine the apricots and the creamy filling. Put scoops of the mixture into your dessert bowls. In this case I used teeny martini glasses for a fancy party. This made mini desserts. I piped sweetened whipped cream on top.

Chill until ready to serve. Keep leftovers in the refrigerator.

I multiplied this recipe by three so make 24 small desserts. This should make approximately eight portions of a regular-sized dessert.

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola


 

 

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