Bunkitty Bunko

On Monday night I hosted bunko at my house. Let me just say that "my month" had been hanging over my head for quite a while. I'm glad to have it behind me! It was really fun though. That was my third time to host bunko in the last few years. It's a lot of work when your turn comes, but it's always worth it. My first year to host in Irving, I was about a month away from having Jackson. I'm surprised it didn't send me into labor. We had just moved into our little house and I remember that the nursery door had to be closed because that room was still filled with equipment, wood, and saw dust. For my second year to host in Irving, my theme was "homerun bunko." I served hot dogs, nachos, giant pickles, and peanuts - stuff you'd eat at a ball park. I also had a cake made in the shape of a baseball. That was a lot of fun. I've wished so many times that I'd taken pictures that night. I miss all of those girls a ton.

I didn't have a theme to this bunko. It was just "Hurry up and get those naked walls covered before your friends come over bunko." I served Sunni's cheesy enchiladas. They're really good and you pretty much can't mess them up unless you let them cool off too much before you serve them. Which, of course, I did. We had them with salad and homemade ranch (from a packet - not truly homemade) and Mexican rice. I'd made strawberry cupcakes for dessert. I've been on a cupcake baking kick this summer. They're so much harder to mess up than a cake. The bunko gifts were jewelry from Aldo - several sets of bracelets, some earrings, and a necklace. I wanted to keep all of it for myself, but that's not how it works now, is it?

I got started playing bunko when Curt and I were newlyweds and we were working with middle school kids at HFBC. The youth workers had started a group years before to have a chance to fellowship with each other. The cool thing about bunko is that you move around to different tables and sit with different people all night. It's a fun way to get to know people. When we got married I became a sub for that group. Even though I was a sub, I was invited to play almost every month. Those ladies were so much fun. There were women of all ages and they were loud and crazy. That group stopped playing not too long after we moved to North Texas.

Once we got to Irving, some of the girls my age got a group started up. That was one of the main ways I got to know my peers since we spent so much time with the students. If you read my blog back then, you know how special all of those friends are to me.

After Curt and I moved home last summer, Courtney fired up the old youth worker group. I was pumped! What's so neat about this group is that half the group is my age and half the group is my mom's age. There are some stinking hilarious women who play. I didn't want to have any regrets this time, so I made myself annoy everyone and take pictures.

Here are the beautiful bunko queens.

Cyndi, Kay, Betty and Stephanie. Can you see the red toy crawfish we used for our traveling twos? That was one of the party favors from my friend Jen's daughter's first birthday.



Eileen, me, Nancy, and Linda/Mama Sproule.



Christine/Fitine, Courtney (who you definitely cannot tell is having a wee babe in several weeks), Michelle, and Dana.



I have some hilarious blooper pictures but I want everyone to still like me after this. This is as blooperific as I'll get. Here everyone is laughing because of everything we went through to get this shot. First we tried to take it using a timer. We never could figure it out. During our struggle, Curt walked in the door and saved us from ourselves. But when he went to take it, the timer started going off. And voila'!



Then we got the timer disengaged...just in time for the battery to die! I had a backup battery, so it was all good. Here we are with our prettiest bunko smiles.



My hair was looking really flat. That's the hazard of taking Jackson to his swim lessons. It's like a sauna in the covered pool and it always ruins my hair.

By the way, one of my groups spelled bunko with a "k" and the other with a "c." I can never keep straight which spelling I'm supposed to use.

Here's Sunni's Cheesy Enchilada Recipe. Thanks, sweet friend! You were with me in spirit and Velveeta!

Sunni's Cheesy Enchiladas

Ingredients:
(Half this recipe unless you're feeding a crowd)
24 flour tortillas
2 lbs. ground beef
2 lbs. Velveeta, cubed
2 cans Rotel tomatoes
4 (8-oz.) cartons sour cream
¼ cup butter
2 med. onions, chopped
1 dash garlic salt
Salt & pepper to taste

Brown meat with one chopped onion. Add garlic salt and salt & pepper. Drain. Coat large sauce pan with non-stick spray. Add sour cream & tomatoes, mix well. Add butter & heat on medium heat. Add Velveeta—stirring constantly. Add the remaining chopped onion. Turn heat to low, and simmer for about 5 min. The cheese/butter should be melted by this point. Add a portion of the sauce to meat. Spoon meat mixture into tortillas. Lay in casserole dish, seam down. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas. Cover and bake for 15 min. at 350 degrees.

*One time I forgot to put half of the onions in with the cheese and all the onion ended up in the meat instead. Curt is not a huge fan of onions, so we ended up liking it that way. I've also added some spinach in with the meat before and it was good. It might fool you into thinking this is good for you.