Tag: cooking

Posted in All Posts, Events

a year of events: 12 events to plan in the next 12 months

Posted on by allybro96

People are going back to spending time with each other which means HOSTING EVENTS. Hosting is one of my favorite things in the entire world! I am a firm believer that anyone can host and entertain. It just may require training and practice. This blog is to help you plan events from start to finish! I want people to finish reading a blog post and say, “That was not as hard as I thought it would be!” This is a round-up of 12 events that you can host for a year of events. Make it a goal to have people over at least once a month to have fun and laugh!

01 | January: New Year, New Skill

Start off your year of events with a one-of-a-kind event where you get your friends together to learn a new skill. There are millions of videos on YouTube dedicated to you learning a new skill. So, start off the new year by improving yourself. Do you want to learn how to cook or bake? Get a recipe book, and make a recipe together with your friends. Are you interested in learning a new language? Get the Duolingo app to start learning the new language and practicing together. Have you always wanted to be able to draw or paint? Look up some basic tutorials on Pinterest or TikTok, and try to all create the same piece in your own style. Are you trying to learn how to host events? Well, you’re already in the right place, so read this blog post!

With an event like this, all guests are together trying to learn something new. As the year goes on, this can be a reoccurring event to make sure you are all growing in the skill. Furthermore, you can hold each other accountable for growth. You can practice and compete with one another to get better at your new skill. Let this new year be a year you learn something new.

02 | February: Kitchen Competition

I love kitchen reality shows, and it can be a really fun event to host one of your own! As kitchen space is often limited, I suggest hosting the first part virtually through FaceTime, Zoom, Google Hangouts, or another video conferencing service. Then, you will all come together to eat everyone’s great creations.

a. Chopped Competition

There will be a few ingredients that all need to be included in the dish. The ingredients should be based on the skill level of your competitors. As I doubt that you are competing against a group of only professional chefs, I would not have a time limit. Inform your guests of the required secret ingredients in advanced, and have a time where you will all come together to bring your dish together. Then, everyone will vote on their favorite secretly.

b. Star Ingredient

Based off of Beat Bobby Flay’s first round, you will have one ingredient that you need to show off. This is similar to Chopped, but you will have only one required ingredient. With Chopped, there are many ingredients, and none particularly have to be the star. But with this variation, you want your main ingredient to be obviously and creatively displayed. Everyone will make their own dish, and they will vote on which is the best.

c. Recipe Roundup

With this competition, all of you will be given the same dish which you have to make your own. For example, everyone may be told to make macaroni and cheese. It will be up to the competitors to be unique in coming up with ways to create a delicious and one-of-a-kind macaroni and cheese. You will all eventually come together to vote on whose is the best.

d. Full-Course Champion

Bring your appetites for this variation. You are going to have people go head-to-head for various courses in a meal. There will be at least two people per round competing to make foods for their assigned course for people to vote on whose is better. You will have two-people making appetizers, entrees, and desserts. People will vote on each round on which dish was better. You better not eat before this one because you’ll be eating a lot of great food.

03 | March: Game Night

The classic game night is a quintessential event when thinking of a way to bring everyone together. The healthy competition and hearty laughter is something that is always welcome. Game nights are my favorite things to host, and I love hosting them all year round. March is a perfect time for one because the weather is slowly beginning to get warmer, and you could have a nice game night either outdoors or indoors. You could do a combination of both.

If you are at a lost for how to host an unforgettable game night, check out this post that I made to teach you my method.

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04 | April: Craft Night

I LOVE CRAFT NIGHTS! To me, they are basically just hanging out with your friends while doing crafts. It’s been a while since my last craft night that I have hosted, but they are essentially just nights where people get together working on whatever creative project they would like. I could be working on a painting, another friend could be doing crotchet, another friend will be knitting, and another friend could be writing a story. Each friend is doing his or her own creative project, but everyone is together doing it with their loved ones around.

If you would like, you could have extra crafts for people to work on individually. But the beauty of this is that it is very LOW-MAINTENANCE. It is important in hosting a year of events to have events which require little effort from you. You could even have a movie going on in the background while each of you is being creative.

05 | May: Karaoke Night

There aren’t many events that are funnier than a classic karaoke night. Embrace your voice, especially if you’re not a professional singer, with this event and a cheering audience. Whether you are virtual or in-person, this event is bound to be loads of fun. There are videos, like those on Sing King’s YouTube Channel, that makes hosting karaoke nights super easy. But, what are some ways to mix up your classic karaoke night to something more memorable.

a. Song Association Challenge

The Song Association Challenge is a challenge popularized by ELLE where contestants are given a word. Then, they have 10 seconds to sing that word in a song. That word must be said in the 10 seconds in order to get the point. One channel on YouTube, Song Association Words, has made a lot of videos that just has the words and the countdown. So for your karaoke night, make sure that you try this out for size. Check out the current 4 seasons of Song Association on ELLE’s YouTube Channel. (Season 1) (Season 2) (Season 3) (Season 4)

b. Harmonizing Challenge

The Harmonizing Challenge is, just like it sounds, a challenge where you and your loved ones try to come up with a good harmony. It has a few different formats, to be either competitive, cooperative, or a mix of both. This challenge was created by Cimorelli, one of my favorite groups of all time. Only do this one if you are a more musically inclined group because this is such a hard thing to do, but it can be super fun even if some harmonies are disastrous.

  1. Working Together: As an entire group, you will select a song from a hat. After getting that song, you will start singing a part of the song trying to come up with good harmonies. Here are some examples of Cimorelli doing this variation:
  2. Versus: In this variation, two teams will compete against one another to come up with harmonies for the same songs. You may want a judge to be a party to decide which team did better.
  3. Recorded: For this variation, you will be recording all of the parts to a song to make creative harmonies. You will need an audio recording app where you can record various parts. There is a free one called Take that I have been using for years, but it will limit you to only 3 parts (one of which I assume would be the melody). Spire Song Maker is another app which has gotten good ratings for being able to do similar functions. Watch the Cimorelli version for an example.

06 | June: Binge Watch Party

Does anyone else feel like they are behind on a television show? Glad, I’m not the only one. Chances are that your friends are also behind on your favorite television show, so what is better than to plan an event for all of you to catch up together. Grab your friends together for a night (or day) together watching, reacting, and discussing all the best moments from your favorite television shows. Are you all caught up on your shows? There are thousands of shows to pick from on the various streaming services that exist.

It is not hard to plan a Binge Watch Party. All you need is a television, a streaming service subscription, some snacks, and all of your loved ones. Just like that, you have an event for this month. Are you watching a long-television show? Split it between various nights. Pick a night of the week where you guys meet weekly to watch a couple of episodes. If you do not want the brunt of the hosting on you every week, swap houses each week to give everyone a chance to host the television show. Come up with creative ideas for each of you to make it your own. Looking for tips on hosting a successful binge watch party, check out our post here. After this is over, you have made it halfway through your year of events.

07 | July: Cookout

A cookout seems rather obvious because it is the middle of the summer! (Plus, it has Independence Day if you live in the States.) The weather is warm, and it is the perfect time to grill out with all sorts of food. There are various creative summer recipes that you can try for food and drink. And, you finally can dust off your outdoor games like cornhole and ladder ball.

But, you can make your cookout next level with a few small additions! Have a themed-cookout where all the decorations, foods, and outfits match the theme. It could even be a simple color theme, where everyone comes in the same colors for a picture perfect moment. You can easily buy colored plates and napkins from Wal-Mart to go with the theme.

Plan for a few stations at your cookout! Cookout food pairs well with different sauces, so you can have a sauce station. This can be made into a competition where people combine various sauces and spices to try to make the BEST ORIGINAL SAUCE that they can. Or you can try to recreate your favorite restaurant sauces, like Chik-fil-a sauce.

Create a question and answer station as an icebreaker. Find colored paper that goes with your theme, and make small sheets of paper with good get-to-know you questions. Guests can write their answer to the questions, and put it in a container. Later on in the night, gather everyone together to get people to guess who said what. Check out my blog post on the best question book ever and how to use it for fun games.

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08 | August: Photo Scavenger Hunt

When was the last time you did a scavenger hunt? Photo scavenger hunts take your normal everyday scavenger hunts to the next level. They also only require cell phones and the scavenger hunt sheet. Plan a time for everyone to meet at a predetermined space with their charged cell phones. Everyone will need to be in separate groups with a scavenger hunt paper for each group.

On the scavenger hunt paper, there will be a list of pictures that they have to take. All group members, except maybe the one taking the photo, must be in the picture. These will contain various poses and locations for people to take the photos. Different photos will have different point values. Closer spots and easier photos will have lower point values whereas more difficult locations and photos will have higher point values.

There will be a time limit, so make sure all groups arrive on time or they lose. The group to have the highest point value in the time assigned wins. You want it to be a short enough time for groups to have to make decisions on if they are going to go for more pictures of smaller point values or the fewer pictures with higher point values. Ultimately, this is a fun an innovative activity having people run around taking photos at various locations. You have some great photos with friends, and a lot of fun competing with others.

09 | September: Movie Night

Movie Nights are the coolest! Two hour movies in a dark theatre are not my thing, but a movie night is so much better. You can sit on your super comfortable couch with your friends, under the comfort of a nice warm blanket eating popcorn that is not super expensive. For half the price, you can have an amazing experience, customized however you want it.

If you have a projector, this is the PERFECT opportunity to host an outdoor movie night. September is not too hot and not too cold, so an outdoor movie is perfect. Plus, it is a last ditch effort to use the grill before fall is in full swing. But in case of inclement weather, it can easily be moved indoors to your living room. Make whatever foods you feel like having, and make the space perfect for your movie watching experience.

How do I make this movie night different from any other movie night? As long as your hosting it for the people you love, any movie night you have will be amazing. But if you are looking for ways to make it stand out a bit more, have a critic’s panel. Have sheets with a grading rubric for how you would rate the movie and the various aspects. Talk about characters, development, predictability, set design, costumes, engagement, and re-watch-ability (if that’s even a word). Discuss with one another why you gave the score you gave and what they could have done to improve to you. If you are an creative bunch, write a new ending for the movie and vote for your favorite. However, you cannot vote for your own! Whatever you choose to do, a September Movie Night is 100% the way to go.

10 | October: Murder Mystery Dinner

This is the event that no one ever thinks to host, but if implemented correctly, it can be a huge hit. This requires the most planning out of all of the events, especially because you DON’T want to split the work between various people! You are the host and the only one that knows all of the information going in. If other people help, that will ruin the surprise which is the key element to a Murder Mystery Dinner. Mystery is literally in the name!

When you send out the invitations, you will provide your guests with a character name and description. Give them a few days to practice getting into character: finding outfits, practicing character choices, etc. When they arrive to dinner, give them an envelope or booklet with all of the information they will need for the night. But, they cannot open it until directed by you because it will hold secret information for each character! Make notecards or sheets that each person will grab at random when coming in (also to be kept secret) on whether or not they are the murderer.

Planning a Murder Mystery Dinner can be a lot of hard work (and I definitely want to make a blog post devoted to just this event in the future). In order to lessen the work load on you, check out Broadway Murder Mystery which has cheap kits to make it a whole lot easier on you for planning.

11 | November: Friendsgiving Potluck

Potlucks are the best events to host because it requires the less work than many others. You cook one dish because everyone else is also bringing their own foods. You do not have to make an entire elaborate feast by yourself, nor should you have to. Create a sign up form with Google Docs or Google Slides. Collaborate with everyone to make sure that they know what they are bringing. Keep food allergies in mind to keep everyone healthy. If you are having outside of the home, make sure someone knows to bring plates, utensils, and napkins! Then, everyone will bring their dishes to the venue for a nice dinner together with friends.

Now, you know that there is going to be people who have dishes that they will want to make for themselves. So, make sure everyone brings a few copies of the recipe for everyone to take home and make for themselves. You can check out our editable recipe pages and cards, right here. (If you’re not a subscriber to Noteworthy, check out the bottom of the Noteworthy page for our newsletter archive for the password. Then, subscribe so that you do not miss another freebie!) This way everyone has a chance to make their new favorite recipes at home. You have new recipes to make with your family. If you do not know what to make, we’ve got you covered because we have a crowd-pleasing recipe that friends of all ages will love. Make adorable mini cheesecakes for everyone to enjoy.

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12 | December: Christmas Party

There’s nothing better than a quintessential Christmas party. There are so many variations to this classic event which cumulates all the skills from hosting your year of events. Host a Christmas Movie night where you and your friends watch a classic Christmas movie, such as Home Alone. You can opt for the traditional Ugly Christmas Sweater event (or it’s classier cousin, making an Ugly Christmas Sweater look good). Go with another potluck for a Christmas feast because everyone knows that you cannot diet in November and December. If you haven’t planned a game night in a while, do one while everyone is in town for the holidays with some Christmas-themed fun! Do another karaoke night but with Christmas music only, or go caroling around the town. Plan a Secret Santa or White Elephant with your loved ones.

Or do my favorite… COMBINE THEM ALL FOR A END OF YEAR SPECTACULAR! You have practiced, and you are ready for the biggest event of the year! Have everyone come in their Christmas attire bringing one of their favorite dishes and a gift. Start with a bit of light competition with a game of sorts with the winner being the first to choose their present for White Elephant. After presents have been opened (and wrapping paper has been cleaned up), it’s time to enjoy your Christmas feast! Play some Christmas music in the background, so your musical friends can jam out. When everyone is stuffed to the brim, cool down with a nice Christmas movie. And there you have it; a complete Christmas event combining many events from the rest of the year! This will be a great end to your year of events.

Final Thoughts

An entire year of events for you to plan may seem like a lot, but I hope this post took some of the fear out of it. At least, it is to give you some ideas of what you can do. If you want to only host games nights for your year of events, you should do it. But make it your goal to host something each month, even if it is with the same group of people each month. Twelve events may seem like a lot, but it is worth it to find new ways to laugh and have fun with your loved ones.

Do you have ideas for other events that were not mentioned in this post? Please leave a comment sharing your ideas with others. I would definitely love to get new ideas for things to host!

Until Next Time,

Posted in All Posts, Products

6 reasons to buy a Ninja Foodi today

Posted on by allybro96

Flashback to January 2020: I had just moved into the condo that I am living in. It was everything that I could ever dream of and more. This condo was in the perfect location. It was less than 3 miles from work and half a mile from church. Plus, It had ample space for a good price. There was only one hiccup. When I moved in, the oven was not working.

As someone who cooks all of my meals, this was something that was a bit of a travesty. I could microwave food, but in terms of making things that requires more than a microwave, it was not going to get anything done. I was going to be unable to bake until I got a new one. This was difficult because baking is what I love to do in my sparse free time. But fortunately, there was one newly purchased device that helped me from that time. It was my Ninja Foodi.

About a month earlier, I purchased this product, and I did not set it up yet because I knew I was moving. It was a God-send as this multi-purpose kitchen device allowed me to make all sorts of meals without needing my oven. After using it, I became obsessed with my new favorite kitchen gadget as it does everything.

When I first started this blog, I was a graduate student blogging for fun, and for those of you who have been with the blog since then (before I took an extended break to focus on my teaching career), you know how much I loved my rice cooker. I have a few old posts on recipes that you can make with a rice cooker.

My Rice Cooker and Air Fryer were tools that were huge in my kitchen, both physically and metaphorically. The Ninja Foodi allowed me to consolidate both of those gadgets into one device which was perfect since I moved into a place with slightly less counter space.

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The Ninja Foodi is a multipurpose gadget with great functionality to prepare a large variety of dishes through various means. Even looking at the featured image, you should be able to see various different options which I can use in order to prepare almost any sort of food you can think of. (Go ahead, look at the image. I will wait.) I am sure that you can now see how much of a useful gadget this was when I did not have a functioning oven. It could even replace features that I still had access to such as the stove (which was interestingly enough still working, but only 1-2 of the burners). As I have been using it religiously for the past year, I wanted to give a few reasons why this kitchen gadget deserves a place in your kitchen now.

1. pressure cooking and steaming

I think that the main functionality of this device is pressure cooking, but perhaps, that is because that is how I use it the most. In many ways, the pressure cooker feature has made my life so much easier. Going on Pinterest, you can find hundreds of thousands of Pressure Cooker Recipes. This whole world of pressure cooking was opened to me. It did not matter to me that I no longer had a rice cooker because with the pressure cooker feature, I was able to make rice that was just as good as before.

The other recipes that I made were not impossible either. Additionally, I could make many other recipes such as perfect appetizer meatballs, the best meatloaf I have ever eaten, chicken recipes, easy spaghetti, and so much more. It is so easy to do as well. I experiment all of the time with the pressure cooker feature, and it typically goes well when I try new things in the pressure cooker.

As for the steamer option, it is so astronomically easy to steam things. A few weeks ago, I impressed all of my coworkers with my completely homemade steamed dumplings recipe. The rice cooker meals that I made are essentially able to still be made with these two functions. Steamed shrimp has become a staple that I add to my pasta dishes because it is something that is so simple, but it adds so much. These functions give me so much more time because I do not have to be constantly hovering over it. I can come when I hear the beep indicating that the food is done giving me more time to do other things.

2. air frying

“My air fryer has changed my life.” This is an excited exclamation from my coworker from a conversation that we had last month.

I love air frying so many foods. It is simple. It doesn’t really need oil making the foods much healthier. And, I makes the foods so crisp with a nice crunch. I would be lost without my air fryer, so I was more than happy to find out that this device also allowed me to air fry foods. It was so amazing to be able to try out so many awesome recipes. Air fried shrimp is a special treat. (This may be the point where you realize how much I love shrimp.)

My air fryer that I had before was great, but like the rice cooker, it took up so much space. I was so excited to consolidate these two gadgets into one device that adds so much to it. Air fryers are amazing! I even use them for frozen fries which makes them so crispy. Let’s not forget bacon. Cooking bacon becomes a breeze with the Ninja Foodi air fryer. You get super crisp and tasty bacon with little work

3. searing and sautéing

No longer will you worry about cleaning the oil popping from cooking something on a stove top with the sear option on the Ninja Foodi. This is an amazing replacement for using a frying pan on a stovetop. Many times when I want to cook something (like shrimp) on a stovetop with butter or oil, I will simply do this in the Ninja Foodi. What I love most about this feature is that, unlike a frying pan, it has very tall height which helps protect from anything popping out towards you. It is so great for browning meats too. I have made taco meat completely in the Foodi using this feature.

It takes 4 easy steps with the Ninja Foodi in order to make mouth-watering tacos in minutes.

  1. Press the sear/sauté button and set the temperature to High.
  2. Add a bit of oil and the meat into the Ninja Foodi.
  3. Break up the meat and stir, allowing the meat to brown completely. While it is cooking, add whatever seasoning you wish. You can add taco seasoning if you would like, but I prefer to stick with salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, and garlic powder.
  4. When the meat is brown, drain it, and serve with either hard or soft shell tacos.

After you have made this dish, all you have to do is clean the Ninja Foodi pot and whatever you used to drain the excess liquid from the meat. An entire meal, made so simply in the Ninja Foodi.

4. slow cooking

This is a fabulous feature which lets me throw some stuff in a pot and walk away for a while. I have even left the house while food was slow cooking before. It is so fun to do very little for cooking and have such an amazing result. I have put meatballs in their with sauce for 4-6 hours and just let them cook without doing much of anything afterwards other than maybe an occasional stir.

To make my easy appetizer meatballs in the Ninja Foodi, follow a few easy steps.

  1. Add frozen meatballs into the Ninja Foodie.
  2. Add 2 cups of barbecue sauce and 2/3 cup of grape jelly.
  3. Turn on slow cooker, and let it cook for at least 4 hours.
  4. Stir after 2 hours or so to make sure everything has been covered.

The meatballs are frozen, so as some of the ice crystals melt, that creates more liquid to maintain a sufficient amount of liquid in the Ninja Foodi. You can alter the amount of sauce and jelly that you include, but there should be a base amount of liquid in order to make sure that the meatballs won’t burn. The heat will cook the sauce which will cook the meatballs. As time goes on, it seems to work similarly to a steamer. Therefore, those meatballs on top are also getting cooked. But, they may not be absorbing those same flavors from the sauce, so make sure to get any that are not covered in the delicious sauce.

For those who are learning how to slow cook, this recipe is a perfect way to start. It is hard to mess up, and it is such a hit. People love these delectable appetizers whenever I host a small event with people. I serve them right out of the Ninja Foodi.

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5. keeping warm

After a food finishing cooking for certain options, the Ninja Foodi will automatically move to keep warm. This is perfect for when I am slow cooking, pressure cooking, or steaming. It turns down the heat, and it keeps the food nice and warm. Sometimes, I get wrapped up in a task while food is cooking, so this is perfect when I am working when food finishes cooking.

If there is a food that I am making for an event that I made in the Ninja Foodi, this is such a great tool because it stays nice and warm until I am ready to serve it. I mentioned the meatballs above that I make for some of my small events. I leave the keep warm feature on and serve it from the Ninja Foodi because I know regardless of when someone gets food that it will still be warm.

6. baking and roasting

Interestingly enough, this is one of the features that I have not tried, but I have done much research on. If you type in “bake/roast in Ninja Foodi” in Google, the first few options that appear are all pot roasts. Pot Roasts are something that I eventually want to try, but I have never felt the need to prepare much to make one. After all of my research, this would have been the perfect when my oven was not working. I have seen so many pictures of delicious looking rotisserie chickens, roast beefs, and other meat-related dishes. I really think that there is something to be said for this feature. This would be perfect for making something for a larger family gathering. I can imagine having family over and making a nice pot roast for them or rotisserie chicken which will serve a family of 8.

need to try dehydrating

There is one feature on the Ninja Foodi that I have yet to try, dehydrating. I have never found a need to use it, and I have never been brave enough to experiment. It seems like such a cool feature though, so if trying it out is something that you are interested in, share and comment letting me know to give you recipes using the dehydrator. I can imagine using it to dehydrate fruit for decoration. For example, you could dehydrate lemon slices to add to the top of a lemon cake.

final thoughts

This device lets me see that we truly are living in the future. We have devices that do most of the cooking work for you. I think that the Ninja Foodi belongs in every household because it is truly a technological wonder. I have been able to cook while lesson planning on my couch because the Ninja Foodi makes cooking so easy. If you are just learning to cook, this device is for you. Even my brother who does not cook would be able to make culinary masterpieces with the Ninja Foodi. I have been using it for over a year, and I have no plans to slow down using it now. What are you waiting for?

Buy your Ninja Foodi on Amazon here.

Until next time,

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Posted in All Posts, Featured, Products, Recipes

ninja foodi: 6 reasons why you need to buy one now

Posted on by allybro96

Flashback to January 2020: I had just moved into the condo that I am living in. It was everything that I could ever dream of and more. It was in the perfect location. It was less than 3 miles from work. It was half a mile from church. It had ample space for a good price. There was only one hiccup. When I moved in, the oven was not working.

As someone who cooks all of my meals, this was something that was a bit of a travesty. I could microwave food, but in terms of making things that requires more than a microwave, it was not going to get anything done. I was going to be unable to bake until I got a new one, and if you have been on this blog for any extended amount of time, you should know that baking is what I love to do in my free time. But fortunately, there was one newly purchased device that helped me from that time. It was my Ninja Foodi.

Continue reading “ninja foodi: 6 reasons why you need to buy one now” →