This past December, after years of playing together, my bunco group decided to dissolve. It was so hard to see it end, since I had really grown to love every single one of the girls in our group and bunco was the only time I saw many of them each month. It was also difficult to see the group end, because we had such a great group dynamic and it was always a positive and uplifting atmosphere. The "chemistry" that we all had between all 12 of us was so great and a hard thing to match. It was such a sad, sad day. Even when I went to post the picture of us below that we took at my house this past April, it made me cry. I want all of you ladies to know how much I love every one of you and I want to thank you for letting me be part of this incredible group for the past 2 years. I can't tell you how much I will miss seeing you every month!!
My friends Marisa and Brittany and I decided that this could NOT be the end. I was scheduled to host Bunco in January and we decided that we were going to start up a new group and not skip a beat. You'd think that getting 12 women together for a bunco group would be an easy task. However, we didn't want to just gather any 12 at random. All three of us know many many incredible women that would be great to spend time with every month. However, remembering how great and positive our last group had been, we wanted to really take our time and make sure this new group had just the right combination to produce that same positive and uplifting atmosphere each month. We wanted to keep the group members within the same general geographical area so that traveling was kept to a minimum, but did not want to have many people from the same ward, to prevent familiarity with the same people...to prevent gossip from surfacing. We wanted a FUN group of gals with a variety of personalities so that it wasn't 12 crazy gals, but not 12 really quiet gals either, so that there would be a good group dynamic and balance. From the getgo, I was so excited to be able to have Richelle, Jackie & Emily join our group (Jackie missed January....WE MISSED YOU JACKIE!!!). So we started from there, with the 6 of us. We first checked with a number of gals from our old group to make sure that they didn't want to continue. And then slowly, but surely, we each added a few more incredible women to form our new bunco group....and one that I know will be absolute dynamite!! (P.S. Sorry Emily...I just noticed that I had you by the hair in this picture. LOL!!! Oops!)
I had been a little concerned about there being a possible awkwardness at the beginning with everyone not knowing each other and since I knew almost all of the ladies and knew just how incredible they were, I was hoping that they would all mesh quickly. I should have known better!! ;-) All of my concerns disappeared almost as soon as they started arriving. From the minute all of the girls in our new bunco group arrived at my home, I knew that it was going to be something pretty great! Everyone got along right from the start and didn't stop talking and laughing the entire night. :-) I have to admit, that it was slightly overwhelming to see so many women that I love, all in the same room at the same time, getting to know each other and seeing how well they all got along. Probably the first time I've gotten teary at bunco. ;-) Happy happy day! For dinner, I served one of my most requested meals, Crock Pot Cranberry Pork Roast, Lemon Butter Red Potatoes and a Caesar Salad. If you haven't pulled these recipes from my blog before, you NEED TO NOW! They are heavenly. This pork roast is absolutely delish.
Crock Pot Cranberry Pork Roast
1 pork loin roast (2 ½ - 3 lbs.)
(can be boneless or not)
1 can (16 oz.) jellied whole cranberries
1 C. dried cranberries
½ C. sugar
½ C. cranberry juice or ½ C. orange juice
1 tsp. dry mustard
¼ tsp. ground cloves
2 T. cornstarch
2 T. cold water
Place pork roast bone side down in a slow cooker/crock pot. In a medium bowl, mash cranberry sauce. Stir in sugar, cranberry juice, orange juice, mustard and cloves. Pour over roast. Cover and cook on high for 6-8 hours. If boneless, cook on low for 6-8 hours. Cook until meat is tender. Remove roast and keep warm. Skim fat from juices; measure 2 cups, adding water if necessary and pour into a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Combine cornstarch and cold water to make a paste; stir into gravy. Cook and stir until thickened. Season with salt. Serve with sliced pork.
Lemon-Butter Red Potatoes
10-15 red potatoes, quartered
1/3 C. butter (no substitutes)
2 T. olive oil
1/3 C. lemon juice
3 T. fresh chives, minced (or 1 ½ T. dried)
2 T. fresh parsley, minced (or 1 T. dried)
1 T. grated lemon peel
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. nutmeg
Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Cover the saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender. In a small saucepan, heat butter over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until lightly browned (the browning gives it the flavor). Remove from the heat; stir in remaining ingredients. Drain potatoes and toss with lemon butter. Serve and enjoy!
To go along with this meal, I usually make my most requested dessert as well...Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle. Again....DEEEEE-LISH! However, I was at a serious time crunch the day of and decided that instead of being the usual ME and pushing to make everything absolutely perfect, to the point that I get myself completely stressed out and uptight at the last minute, I decided that it was ok not to be perfect and decided against making the dessert. *sigh* What a liberating feeling...and another great and life-saving blessing of GoChi. In the end, I ended up getting Dunford Donuts instead. And if you have ever experienced a Dunford Donut (I say "experience," because you do NOT merely EAT a Dunford Donut!!), you can imagine how thrilled the gals were about having them for dessert. They didn't even miss the trifle. BUT...in case YOU would like to try the fabulous trifle.....I am inserting the recipe here!! ;-)
Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle
1 chocolate cake mix
1 pkg. peanut butter chips
4 1/4 C. cold milk, divided
1/2 C. whipping cream
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 small pkgs. Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix
1 small carton Cool Whip
8 Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Pour the batter into a greased 13 x 9 x 2” baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack. In a heavy saucepan, combine chips, ¼ milk and ½ C. cream. Cook and stir over low heat until chips are melted. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Place the remaining milk in a mixing bowl; beat in pudding mixes on low speed for 2 minutes. Place pudding in the fridge for 3-4 minutes to set up a bit.
To assemble, crumble half of the cake into a 4 qt. Trifle bowl or large bowl. Layer with half of the peanut butter sauce, pudding, Cool Whip and ½ of the crumbled Reeses Peanut Butter Cups; repeat layers ending with Cool Whip and remaining ½ of crumbled Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.
Those that were in my last Bunco group can attest to the fact that I always made sure that everything was perfect...even down to the table settings. I always used charger plates under our plates, had centerpieces and party favors. That was never "required," it was just "Me." But again...I just couldn't do it this time around. And normally, even with that feeling, I would have done it, not because others expect it, but because I expect it of myself. But this time around, I just decided that it wasn't necessary and surprisingly enough (because I have NEVER been able to feel this)...I was honestly and completely ok that it wasn't that way. (Thank you, thank you, thank you, GoChi!) And you know what? Everyone commented how wonderful everything was...and didn't even miss the "extras." :-) During dinner, we went around the table and had everyone introduce themselves and say how they knew either or both me and/or Marisa. While we were getting to know each other, we found out that there were some fun connections that we hadn't known about beforehand! Dinner was so fun. We talked and laughed so hard....it made my heart happy to hear everyone having such a great time!! As you can see, it didn't take long before everyone felt comfortable around each other. LOL! What a fun and great group of gals!!! I am SO SO SO excited about this new group.
This time around, I decided to make all of the prizes for Bunco. I started with the largest prize for the "Most Buncos," a large magnet board, and made it alongside a HUGE 3' x 4' magnet board that I made at the same time for my sister Jill for her birthday that same week. My friend Joanne's husband made the huge magnet board for me a while back and then I just belt sanded the edges, painted, sanded and stained it and made a set of black and silver button magnets to go with it. While I painted that large one, I also painted the large approx. 2' x 3' magnet board for "Most Buncos" (Steph..correct me if I'm wrong, since you won it. I can't remember the size!) as well. I also belt sanded the edges of this magnet board to make it a little more unique.
To finish off the large magnet board for the "Most Buncos" prize, I purchased a beautiful decorative wrought iron rod from Rod Works for the magnet board to hang from with mustard ribbon. It turned out so beautiful. YAY!!! Had a little bit of help with the two magnet boards and a picture frame while I was working out early in the morning the day after I had painted everything. I got home shortly after 6:30 AM and Seneca was up bright and early with a green paintbrush and had painted all of my black frames green. I just about screamed. I had been up until 2 AM in the morning completing the two magnet boards and then doing a variety of painting techniques on the 5x7 frame and came home to see that the frame I had worked so hard on was now green. I took her gently by the hand and took her into Chas and told him that she needed to stay in there with him for her own safety. LOL! I was really upset. But again, like with so many other things lately, I just took a deep breath, took pictures of the frames and then repainted everything.(Thank you GoChi!) Then, I went into our room and held Seneca and explained that what she did was naughty, but then snuggled her and told her how much I love her. It was all good in the end and my sister absolutely loved the huge magnet board that Seneca helped me make her for her birthday. LOL!
For the second prize, "Most Wins," I painted, sanded and stained a large 3 window frame for 3 5x7 photos. I belt sanded this frame as well and also knocked it pretty good with a wrench and some nails to give it a more weathered look. Then, I purchased another decorative wrought iron rod from Rod Works and hung the frame from the rod with cream ribbon.
The prize, for "Most Losses" is a frame that I am pretty sure that I have posted here on my blog before. This is just a 13" x 15" frame for an 8" x 10" photo that I hung from this beautiful iron leaf coil with sheer black ribbon.
In my last group, we did 6 large prizes and then 6 went home without a prize every month. In my first group, years ago, we had 4 large prizes and then everyone else went home with a $5 prize. We decided, that in this new group, we wanted to do it that way...so that everyone leaves with something fun. So since my fourth "large prize" for "Travel" goes along with the $5 prizes, I thought I would show them first. Part of
the fun of making your own prizes, is that you can take raw materials that cost WAY less than your budget and turn it into something that looks like it was OVER your budget. Love that. Happy day! For my $5 prizes, I made 10 approx. 10" x 12" frames that fit 5 x 7 photos for each of the "non-winners" (sounds much better than "losers." LOL!). I purchased the frames unfinished but pre-assembled and then took them home and belt-sanded the edges and dinged them up pretty good with a wrench and some nails. Then, I painted a few plain black frames and kept them black and then painted all of the other frames black FIRST (two coats) and then a top coat of a different color. I settled on a pretty mustard yellow, a deep crimson red and green for the frame colors.
After painting all of the frames black (two coats), I brushed on a crackle medium before painting the top colored coat. Some of the crackle took well and some didn't. But either way, it had kindof a cool effect over the black. After it had dried completely, I took it out and very lightly sanded all of the edges and the surface. With two coats of black underneath and by sanding lightly, it only sanded the COLOR off the edges to reveal the BLACK underneath....kind of a cool look! Love it!
After sanding the frames, I decided to spray a high gloss finish on them. The gloss finish generally deepens the colors you used and that's the look I wanted for these. And they looked really beautiful. I was SO SO SO SO happy with how they turned out!!! Then, after giving them enough time to dry so they didn't stink (LOL!), I tied a piece of raffia around them and they were ready to go. YAY! So, the "Travel" prize, the last of the 4 larger prizes was a set of these nice decorative frame mounts shown in the picture below and a choice of 2 of these frames to go along with them. I thought they were so fun and an easy way to really dress up your picture frames. Fun fun!
As we finished up 3 rounds of Bunco...which was SO MUCH FUN, btw....I went into my design room to get all of the prizes and Chas was in playing XBOX. I grabbed the prizes and must have had a big smile on my face because he smiled and said, "This is your favorite part of the night, isn't it?!" ;-) He's right. I absolutely loved sharing the prizes that I worked so hard on and had made especially for them. I had been excited about it all day. :-) It was so much fun to distribute the large prizes and then let all of the others choose from the $5 prizes (that ended up being worth so much more. LOVE THAT! HAPPY HAPPY DAY!!!!!). It makes all of the time spent on the prizes worth it and made me so happy inside that they loved them so much.
Overall, I can't even adequately describe just how much fun we had. Everyone hit it off so well and immediately. And I can just tell that this group will be just as much fun and just as positive and uplifting and AWESOME as the one we had before. I am so grateful for friendships...old and new and can't wait to get to know these gals even better!!! Here's to the birth of a new bunco group...and many new friendships that I am sure will last a very long time!!! Love you guys!
Heather, I just want to cry! It's not fair that I live so far away! Those frames are TO DIE FOR!! I ADORE the 3 frames - absolutely stunning! Wow.
And thanks for yummo recipes. I'm so excited to give the Cranberry roast a try!
Posted by: Bobbi-Jo | January 20, 2009 at 11:41 AM
Wow Heather. You really out did yourself this time. I'm sure the ladies loved it. I would hate to be the girl who had to do it next month though. You're a tough act to follow. Good luck with the new group!
Posted by: Kelly | January 20, 2009 at 12:03 PM
Who on earth wants to end a WAY FUN Bunco group? I just couldn't believe it when I read it. Most of us who follow your blog wish we lived closer so we could join in all the fun you are having.
Glad you got another fun group of ladies together:)
I read your blog and think you are truly a blessing in the life of your friends.
Lucky them:)
Posted by: Cherie | January 20, 2009 at 12:18 PM
Wow! The prizes are awesome and your group looks like lots of fun. I am glad you found another fun and exciting group. I am going to miss Bunco, the girls and the fun prizes! YOu out did yourself...again!
Posted by: Natalie | January 20, 2009 at 02:23 PM
Oh man, I wish I could get gals to do Bunco around here because I've only played once and it was so much fun. However, we do have book club, so I'll be satisfied with that! :o) However, I DO need to plan a day to come to your house and have you help me make frames like these!!! I seriously am always looking for nice frames for presents with pics of my kids in them and then, of course, the ones I took last fall I need to blow up and hang somewhere and I need frames to put them in. LOL Anyway, so I've decided someday you and I need to get together and do this. You can teach me how to buy matching rods and ribbon too. LOL You are so awesome and I really need to try GoChi because I don't think I could have held it together like you did about Seneca painting your frames. When my kids do stuff like that, I tend to lose it. Not good. :(
Posted by: Nikki Peck | January 20, 2009 at 02:47 PM
P.S. You posting these recipes reminds me I need to make those potatoes again. We love them and it's been ages since I've made them since I've been making mashed garlic red potatoes instead. But it's time to do the lemon butter ones again!! I need to try that roast too. It sounds very, very good!
Posted by: Nikki Peck | January 20, 2009 at 02:49 PM
Awesome REcipes!! THanks!
FABULOUS BUNCO PRIZES!!! My gosh! You make ALL of us want to be a part of your fun group!! LOL! Chas is so cute.....I think that would be the best part of the night for ANY girl there. : D You are SO talented. What a great way to remember the fun you girls have together....{just take a look at the prize that hangs on the wall and Heather D. White is NEVER forgotten. } : D
Posted by: lynn Crapo | January 20, 2009 at 04:29 PM
OK seriously! HOT! :) I love everything about this post...
But here's my not-so-smart-gotta-ask-anyway question: WHAT THE HECK DOES BUNCO MEAN? I'm assuming that twelve girl friends means, twelve lovely hostesses who cater a wonderful meal in their home, and host a party of some kind, with games/activities, and prizes for the other eleven guests- once a month per calendar year... Each one takes a turn, for twelve days out of the year {LOVE that idea by the way!} But how does the word Bunco come into play?? :P LOL
Sorry if I missed that boat! You are my CRAFT hero! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!! *That's it... I'm having sweet dreams about you and your abilities tonight...
Posted by: Cassie Paul | January 20, 2009 at 08:02 PM
I love it! If you ever need a sub let me know - I would love to play Bunko with a great group of girls!
When are you going to do your cook book? I am loving all the recipes you post --
Posted by: Raquel | January 20, 2009 at 10:22 PM
Very Cute...just like everything you make. Did you get the frames from wood connection?
I have to try your recipes they sound divine!! When is your cook book coming out by the way?
Posted by: trina | January 21, 2009 at 10:26 AM
Cute prizes! I'm glad you have a great new group! I'm definitely going to try making the roast.
Posted by: Tierney | January 21, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Had so much fun at lunch...and I hope you have a great time in TX.
Did you get those cool iron brackets for the black frames at RodWorks?? Too cool. REALLY like the way they look on the frames.
Posted by: amber m. | January 21, 2009 at 08:20 PM
I used to play bunco---did it for years. Things got a little bit too intense for me after awhile, girl-wise. We all just fell apart. I hope your old group dissolved with kind feelings still remaining! But what I really wanted to comment on was the dessert choice. I am really trying to teach myself to THINK about my decisions and to notice when my choices are making me stress too much (instead of life itself, you know?). I think stopping to think, and then chosing NO, is really a positive thing in your life. It's not even about being perfect or not perfect. It's just about keeping yourself sane. stress is SO hard on your physical health and some of it is just not worth the strain. Donuts it is!!! ;)
Posted by: AmySorensen | January 22, 2009 at 10:50 AM
I absolutely love everything you made. If I could ask, where did you get the rod iron pieces that you added to the frames? Did you also get them from Iron Works? Is that a local store there in Utah?? I need to get my hands on some of those.
Posted by: Debbie J. | January 22, 2009 at 12:18 PM
The frames are beautiful.....wish we had a Rod Works in our area. I made the Chocolate Peanut Butter Trifle for my family this weekend and it was SOOOO good! Thank you for sharing the recipe.
Posted by: Jenifer | January 26, 2009 at 07:41 AM
OK Heather--Hope you had a great vacation...have to tell you this is the first time I have ever seen these recipes for Pork and Potatotes. They were to die for! We have new family favorite. YUM! YUM! Thanks for sharing.
Ann
Posted by: Ann Snider | January 27, 2009 at 09:28 PM
That was SOOOO much fun! I feel so lucky to be a part of the Bunco Group! :D And oh happy day to win the big prize, especially with it being my first time ever playing Bunco. WOOHOO!! LOL. You are right the magnet board is 2x3 and absolutely Fabulous! I'm so glad my turn is later in the year. :p HE HE Thanks again!
Posted by: Steph S. | January 29, 2009 at 09:23 AM
Heather, way cute house. I called Lori tonight to have her come help me hang some pics and she said I needed to check out your blog for some ideas. Does your mother-in-law by chance make those shelves to sell?? I have a huge wall in my kitchen that I need one for. By the way...are you going to the spring retreat. I am pretty sure that I am going and it would be too fun to have you there! O Happy Day!
Posted by: Kam Wright | February 04, 2009 at 12:13 AM