Birthdays, what's not to love? Okay, sure, fine. There's the whole aging thing, but why dread the inevitable? As my best friend says: "none of us are getting out alive, anyway." She's right you know, so why not revel in the pageantry of birthdays each year! There's presents, adorned beautifully I might add, cake, high calorie meals and you may have missed me the first time so I'm going to repeat: CAKE.
This year, for one of our closest friends, we got together with more of our closest friends and thought: How can we honor [insert name of friend here]?
We heard a "Ding!" in the air when we recalled said friend's love of cheese. Our creative juices started going and, thanks to the power of the internet, we had our theme.
Grilled Cheese Party.
If you're ever bored, do yourself a favor and research "grilled cheese bar" you won't be disappointed.
Welcome to our masterpiece:
All of the sauces & fixin's you can dream of! We had siracha, marinara, raspberry jam, pesto, stone ground mustard, tomatoes, green apples, green chilis, pickles, artichokes, a magic thing called "jalapeno dip", greens, diced bell peppers, pre-roasted garlic bulbs!
Then the main attraction:
Cheddar, swiss, gouda and havarti!
Not to mention, meat! Glorious meat!
This year, for one of our closest friends, we got together with more of our closest friends and thought: How can we honor [insert name of friend here]?
We heard a "Ding!" in the air when we recalled said friend's love of cheese. Our creative juices started going and, thanks to the power of the internet, we had our theme.
Grilled Cheese Party.
If you're ever bored, do yourself a favor and research "grilled cheese bar" you won't be disappointed.
Welcome to our masterpiece:
Then the main attraction:
Not to mention, meat! Glorious meat!
With 2 types of bread to choose from:
We had a great big George Foreman grill to help us melt our creations into ooey-gooey delectables
Someone at the party was smart enough to divide their first sandwich into 2 so they could make 2 different taste combos, brilliant. We ate so much. SO. MUCH. But we weren't done -
Remember the most important part of a birthday?
CAKE!
We asked the internet for "Grilled Cheese Cake" and the internet delivered. The instructions I was working from came via Food Network. I tweaked a couple of items to arrive at the final product:
I almost destroyed it when I put the baked and cooled cake back in the oven "to toast." Turns out I actually placed it in the heating element part of the oven instead of the part of the oven you're supposed to put food in.
Fret not, the gnarly black top sawed right off nicely and left the rest of it looking grilled. Serendipity! Best part? The cake was delicious! Everyone loved it! Whoo hoo!!
We watched our friend open presents, played a few party games and then headed out to catch a movie. All in all: a fantastic birthday celebration!
