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Fun-tivities

It’s All Happening at the Zoo

More fun than a barrel of monkeys … at least a couple of turkeys anyway!  FUN-TIVITY Recipes included

One of the highlights (there are so many) of our Fabulous Fun Days (that’s what we nicknamed our fun-tivities) was when I arranged for a petting zoo to be  brought into my house.  I did an online search using terms like “petting party” — that reminded me of high school, so I quickly changed my search terms.  I tried zoo (makes sense), pets, animal demonstrations and a couple of other keywords.  Didn’t take me too long until I came upon JungleJill.com.

When I called Jungle Jill to reserve her for the party, she commented that she’d never done an event for adults before, that it would be fun and different.  She promised to bring some of her more unusual pets.  One thing I insisted on –  no scorpions; we have enough of those around here naturally!

Go for drama

I had Jill show up around 4 p.m., before my gals did.  I closed off the view to the yard so the ladies couldn’t see the setup.  Very important note here: you MUST have hors d’oeuvres, wine and soft drinks to kick off the festivities.  I didn’t want any low-blood-sugar attacks.

Once Jungle Jill was ready, I swept open the curtains, like you see at the theater.  To everyone’s surprise, there was a whole zoo on the deck. We spent the next 1.5 hours learning about each animal, petting and sometimes holding the menagerie. Though, I admit, not many of us wanted to hold the snakes.

Among the animals she brought were snakes, a black throat monitor (looked like a lizard to me), a miniature goat and a huge black (gorgeous, by the way) turkey.

I had prepared a dinner to fit the theme.  I tend to get into a theme in a big way.  I served an entirely “wild” animal dinner.  We started dinner with alligator bread, turtle soup and “lamb tongue” salad, then progressed to ewe blue soufflé accompanied by antelope, buffalo and alligator sausages.  I made my favorite truffle and cherries sauce for the sausages.  We finished with a dessert of ice cream (OK, it’s not wild, but it did come from a cow!).

I admit, this is a lot more work than we usually put into one of these parties, but then, like I said, I tend to get into it.  We each chipped in $50; we had five gals that night.  That’s less than sushi and a martini where we live.  And what you get with the martini is just the turkey – sometimes.

Have some fun with your fun-tivities.  If you have some fun ideas or activities send me an email or post it here.  We’re always looking for the next fun thing to do together.  Linda

Easy recipes from the party

Souffle

Find a cheese soufflé on foodtv.com or Martha Stewart or anywhere.  Substitute ewe (female sheep) cheese for whatever cheese the recipe calls for. You could use any blue cheese, but then it would lose its cachet. I use goat and sheep cheeses because I’m allergic to cow dairy (except when it comes in the form of ice cream).

Lamb Tongue Salad

Lamb tongue is actually a soft and delicate lettuce shaped like a little tongue, hence the name. Use a light salad dressing.  Drizzle a little olive oil, some white balsamic vinegar (find it at Trader Joe’s) and a fresh herb.

Truffle and Cherries Sauce

This sauce is easy enough to make.  You can use truffle oil or truffle salt in the sauce.  Get a can of black cherries in light low-sugar juice.  Use a blender to puree them.  In a sauce pan, combine the cherries and truffle product.  I personally prefer truffle oil and butter. Or butter, olive oil and truffle salt. Add chicken or turkey broth concentrate.  Cook until the sauce clings to the back of a spoon.  It could take awhile.  Keep the flame low and check it regularly.  Better put a timer on if you are anything like me; I tend to wander and forget the stove.

Note: The concentrate can be purchased at Trader Joe’s (where else, they’re good for at least 80 percent of the ingredients I use to cook).  If you don’t have concentrate, use canned or boxed broth and reduce it to about 1/4, then proceed with the recipe.

Meat Course: Wild Sausage – antelope, buffalo and alligator

Any unusual sausage or even turkey and chicken work.  I didn’t hand-make these. Fortunately, at the time we had a local butcher who could order them for me.  If you’re interested, do a Google search or go to igourmet.com for what you want; they always have unusual products that fit almost any exotic or daily menu.

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The (new) time of your life

How to reengage, revitalize and reinvent your life through fun activities shared with good friends

Fun-tivites (phun-tivutees) activities that are designed to produce a fun and exhilarating outcome.  A learning experience shared by good friends.

A few of us girls were sitting around and started to talk about how bored we were.  Can you imagine not having anything to do?  Moms will probably roll their eyes at that!

What we decided to do was come up with some creative activities that we call Fun-tivites.  Here’s the game plan.

  • Each member of your group (I suggest no more than 6 because it gets very difficult coordinating schedules) comes up with an idea for something to do that no one in the group has done.  At least most of them haven’t!
  • On a weekly (probably too often), monthly (that worked for us), or quarterly basis each of you will arrange your fun-tivitie that the whole group will participate in.
  • The fun part is that no one else in the group will know what they’re doing that month except you. Create some diversions for the group.  Pretend you’re going to the beach, tell them to bring towels and bathing suits. In fact you maybe going to a beading class.
  • Set a maximum amount per activity that you’re all willing to spend.  Some of the best fun-tivities were the least expensive.

We had such a hoot doing this.  We skipped planning during holiday months and on occasion you may need or want to team up depending on group dynamics and the time that each of you have to devote to the planning.

One rule I have – NO bar hopping.  You can always do that and besides have you ever really had fun in the bar scene? Well maybe, but that’s not part of this plan.

Here’s what will happen.  First you’ll all say ‘shoot I don’t have any imagination,’ or ‘let Linda do it, she’s always good at this sort of thing!’ Stop right there.  Everyone can plan a small fun-titie.  It just takes a little thinking.

Pick out something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t because you didn’t have anyone to do it with.  You now have play pals who will do it with you.

Next, do a little online research for the resources.  For instance, I always wanted to learn how to play african drums.  I’m thinking ‘sure, I live in phoenix where am i going to find something like that?’ To my surprise there is even a business that formally teaches drumming.  They brought the drums to my house and voila – drumming lessons.  One of the instructors teaches african dance so he put on a show for us.  It was so much fun.

I have a ton of ideas and will list some of them here.  Tell me what you’ve always wanted to do and I’ll add it to the list for inspiration to others. Remember that not everyone will always like the activity but it will at least they can take it off their bucket list.  And for those who do like it, it just might be the start of a new hobby.

Our list:

  • Beading
  • Glass fusing
  • Poker lessons in my house with a professional player
  • Drumming lessons
  • Polo
  • Horse races
  • Pie making lessons (I am a notoriously bad baker)
  • In home petting zoo with wild food dinner
  • Photography lessons
  • Dance lessons
  • At home wine tasting with professional sommelier
  • Star gazing (my least favorite event)
  • Painting class
  • Bird watching
  • Chocolate yoga (yum for sure and a nice way to wind down)
  • Make over – makeup
  • Make over – clothing
  • Backstage meeting with the actors after a performance – music or theater
  • Skeet shooting
  • Target practice – hand gun and arrows
  • Self defense
  • King Fu, jujitsu
  • Farmers market then make a group dinner from all the findings
  • Arrange for special food and wine tastings at your fav restaurant
  • Read local magazines (yes paper ones) for local happenings
  • Art walks
  • City shopping tours – rent a limo and plan to visit boutiques and consignments stores

The activities on the following list are probably not good ideas for the reasons listed:

  • Botox party – it’s invasive and not everyone has wrinkles
  • Anything that could result in injury unless you have prior buy in.  For instance sky diving, horse back riding etc. Poll to group when you begin for limitations or approval. Then you’ll all know in advance what’s OK.
  • Anything that may challenge the group with physical, medical or allergic reactions

Always remember the adventure begins with you!

It’s All Happening at the Zoo

More fun than a barrel of monkeys … at least a couple of turkeys anyway!  FUN-TIVITY Recipes included

One of the highlights (there are so many) of our Fabulous Fun Days (that’s what we nicknamed our fun-tivities) was when I arranged for a petting zoo to be  brought into my house.  I did an online search using terms like “petting party” — that reminded me of high school, so I quickly changed my search terms.  I tried zoo (makes sense), pets, animal demonstrations and a couple of other keywords.  Didn’t take me too long until I came upon JungleJill.com.

When I called Jungle Jill to reserve her for the party, she commented that she’d never done an event for adults before, that it would be fun and different.  She promised to bring some of her more unusual pets.  One thing I insisted on –  no scorpions; we have enough of those around here naturally!

Go for drama

I had Jill show up around 4 p.m., before my gals did.  I closed off the view to the yard so the ladies couldn’t see the setup.  Very important note here: you MUST have hors d’oeuvres, wine and soft drinks to kick off the festivities.  I didn’t want any low-blood-sugar attacks.

Once Jungle Jill was ready, I swept open the curtains, like you see at the theater.  To everyone’s surprise, there was a whole zoo on the deck. We spent the next 1.5 hours learning about each animal, petting and sometimes holding the menagerie. Though, I admit, not many of us wanted to hold the snakes.

Among the animals she brought were snakes, a black throat monitor (looked like a lizard to me), a miniature goat and a huge black (gorgeous, by the way) turkey.

I had prepared a dinner to fit the theme.  I tend to get into a theme in a big way.  I served an entirely “wild” animal dinner.  We started dinner with alligator bread, turtle soup and “lamb tongue” salad, then progressed to ewe blue soufflé accompanied by antelope, buffalo and alligator sausages.  I made my favorite truffle and cherries sauce for the sausages.  We finished with a dessert of ice cream (OK, it’s not wild, but it did come from a cow!).

I admit, this is a lot more work than we usually put into one of these parties, but then, like I said, I tend to get into it.  We each chipped in $50; we had five gals that night.  That’s less than sushi and a martini where we live.  And what you get with the martini is just the turkey – sometimes.

Have some fun with your fun-tivities.  If you have some fun ideas or activities send me an email or post it here.  We’re always looking for the next fun thing to do together.  Linda

Easy recipes from the party

Souffle

Find a cheese soufflé on foodtv.com or Martha Stewart or anywhere.  Substitute ewe (female sheep) cheese for whatever cheese the recipe calls for. You could use any blue cheese, but then it would lose its cachet. I use goat and sheep cheeses because I’m allergic to cow dairy (except when it comes in the form of ice cream).

Lamb Tongue Salad

Lamb tongue is actually a soft and delicate lettuce shaped like a little tongue, hence the name. Use a light salad dressing.  Drizzle a little olive oil, some white balsamic vinegar (find it at Trader Joe’s) and a fresh herb.

Truffle and Cherries Sauce

This sauce is easy enough to make.  You can use truffle oil or truffle salt in the sauce.  Get a can of black cherries in light low-sugar juice.  Use a blender to puree them.  In a sauce pan, combine the cherries and truffle product.  I personally prefer truffle oil and butter. Or butter, olive oil and truffle salt. Add chicken or turkey broth concentrate.  Cook until the sauce clings to the back of a spoon.  It could take awhile.  Keep the flame low and check it regularly.  Better put a timer on if you are anything like me; I tend to wander and forget the stove.

Note: The concentrate can be purchased at Trader Joe’s (where else, they’re good for at least 80 percent of the ingredients I use to cook).  If you don’t have concentrate, use canned or boxed broth and reduce it to about 1/4, then proceed with the recipe.

Meat Course: Wild Sausage – antelope, buffalo and alligator

Any unusual sausage or even turkey and chicken work.  I didn’t hand-make these. Fortunately, at the time we had a local butcher who could order them for me.  If you’re interested, do a Google search or go to igourmet.com for what you want; they always have unusual products that fit almost any exotic or daily menu.