Some Enchanted Gleevening

I should mention that I have a minor obsession with details. If I'm going to do something, then by gum, I am going to do it RIGHT! Especially when food or Glee are involved. When those two things merge--well, suffice it to say, things tend to get a little out of hand. When my friends came over for Glee night, we couldn't just watch the show and eat popcorn. I would always have an assortment of show-inspired snacks to serve. Cupcakes, slushies, donuts, Sour Patch Kids, soft pretzels, I'm Sorry cookies, celery, dip (I prefer to think my lovely Puck refers to chip dip rather than the other kind), and cheese puffs all made appearances, among others. I drew the line at Sue Sylvester's master cleanse and wine in a box (I don't drink alcohol and prefer not to drink sand)! But it was fun coming up with something different each week and it became a bit of a game--my friends would look at what I had on the table and try (usually in vain) to place the reference.

When the finale rolled around, I decided to go big with a dinner party. The theme? Breadstix. I reviewed "Hell-O" and "Home" to get an idea of the interior and recreated it the best I could in my kitchen and living room. I don't have a lot of space, and the floor plan is open, so my first order of business was dividing the kitchen from the dining area. I put up a curtain to divide the space, and constructed (translation: cobbled together with a hot glue gun) a screen out of 12x12 tiles and photo frames to sort of block the kitchen from the living room (at least so people couldn't look in to the sink). In a fit of passion, I actually put up window dressings in the living room (THAT only took 6 years), and had Barry install dimmer switches so I could control the ambient lighting. Yeah, I know. But at that point I was just going for it.


I took down all of my regular decor and replaced it with props. You gotta love the dollar store, because I found tons of stuff there, including the posters and small framed prints I used on the wall. I also picked up a bunch of fake grapes and vines, as well as battery operated tea lites and white Christmas lights. I couldn't believe I actually had to BUY Christmas lights--who doesn't have white lights lying around? Me, it turns out. I must have been feeling extraordinarily festive when I hit the after-Christmas sales, because I had probably ten boxes of colored lights and not a single string of white. Curse you, Past Me.


Like I said, I'm a details person. I also love making props and custom items. So I sort of had a heyday with this. I bought steins at Savers and painted them with a crackle finish to make the bread stick mugs. The napkin rings had quotes printed on the inside. I spent a few hours putting together pearl necklaces for the guests. The best part was the table tents, which hubby very generously designed for me. I gave him the text and an idea of what I wanted them to look like, and he did the rest. They turned out so amazing!

The tagline reads, "Where the joyful and urgent break bread".

Thank you, Finn, for loving pizza and not something gross!

For dinner, I made spaghetti and meatballs, and one of my sisters and a friend brought pizza (Hawaiian and pepperoni, naturally). We had Shirley Temples and sparkling cider to drink. I asked everyone else to bring their favorite Glee-related goody to share.

My sister, Shannon, made these tasty little morsels.

My boys were surprisingly excited to help out with serving so I could enjoy the meal with my friends. They answered the door and escorted people to their seats, then made sure everyone got pearls to wear. Hubby dished up the plates in the kitchen and then they brought everything out, even offering to grate fresh parmesan cheese over the pasta! I had them hide plastic mice on two of the plates and the people that found them won a prize (Glee gum). It was so wonderful to have helpers! I don't know how I managed to not get a picture of Barry--he actually drew a mustache on himself. Again, I'm blaming it on that sloppy Past Me.


Everything was very well received. There was ooohing and ahhhing and lots of laughter and good conversation. The funny thing was that the majority of my carefully executed references went right over most of the guests' heads. It turned out that many of them weren't even aware of Breadstix, much less the fact that Brittany allegedly found a mouse in her pasta, or that Sue wore a string of pearls with her tracksuit when Will stood her up. Heck, they didn't even recognize most of the quotes on the napkin rings *gasp*! I'm still trying to figure out if my friends are remiss in their fan duties or if I'm just way over-the-top nuts. Maybe a little of both? Whatever. At any rate, I had a blast planning and pulling everything together. Now I can start thinking about what to do for the Season 2 premier! I'm thinking something with Christmas lights...