Kate and I both attended Brigham Young University and the boys of our Alma mater beat Gonzaga last week, securing a spot in the Sweet 16. They take on the University of Florida this week- and guess where? The Big Easy. So of course we have to throw out a little Cougar-love on OBB! And if you’re not a BYU fan, no worries- I thought this was the perfect opportunity to show some things that can be customized for any school colors (High School Graduations are coming up!) and sports teams because it’s something we get asked about a lot.
But for us, it’s all about the Blue today. See that kid over there? (Oh my gosh, I just referred to a college student as a “kid”, I’m officially old.) That’s the Jimmer. I don’t know how anyone in the US right now doesn’t know who Jimmer Fredette is, but apparently they exist. A phenomenon known as “Jimmer Mania” is sweeping the country. Even President Obama loves the Jimmer! He’s the MWC’s all-time leading scorer, MWC player of the year, and in my husband’s humble opinion, the 2011 NCAA Basketball player of the year. All of that is just fancy talk for A-maz-ing. Grown men squeal like girls when they watch him play, and girls actually watch him play. But what I think is almost cooler than all of that is the fact that his name has become a part of the daily vocabulary of millions of Americans. As they just said on ESPN the other day, “Jimmer is a noun, a verb, and an adverb.” Want proof? His name has its own glossary. I’m pretty sure that’s a good sign that you’ve made something of yourself. Seriously. That’s so Jimmer.
Since we’re celebrating the Sweet 16, I thought a collection of sugary delights was in order. Have pizza for dinner and save room for the treats! (Okay, and hello- blue and white? Not too many options when it comes to savory foods. If your team is red or green you’re set. Us, not so much.)
You know how much we love our Sugar Cookies with Glace Icing. You can make just about anything your cookie-loving heart desires. But we also know that sugar cookies can be time-consuming and annoying sometimes too. So I will tell you a little secret.
Sometimes I cheat.
Not on important things like driver’s tests and board games, but on cookies? Yes. Sometimes. For a quickie thing like this I’ll just buy plain, un-frosted sugar cookies from the bakery at the grocery store. These cute basketball cookies took me 20 minutes start to finish. No joke people! And by finished, I mean dishes in the dishwasher and everything. Boo ya.
You could easily use your team colors and put player’s numbers on them too. There was a full-on battle at our house regarding who got to eat the Jimmer cookie. The kid who screamed the loudest won. Pretty sure it shouldn’t work like that, but at our house, sometimes it does.
Colorburst Cupcakes– also a great one to customize with team colors. You could get fancy and use our Striped Icing Tutorial , or just place 2 colors of frosting in your piping bag like I did here.
You’ll have to forgive the Carolina Blue (even though it IS my favorite color!) There’s only so much you can do with navy – shades of blue are okay in my book!
And if the rainbow version of these cupcakes seems labor intensive to you, a two-color scheme is easy breezy! You don’t even have to layer- I just spooned blobs of batter in the cups, alternating as they filled up.
For whatever reason, Dipped Pretzel Rods are always one of the first things to go when I do spreads like this. Kids especially love them, and they’re SO easy to make, and to customize. I used almond bark and blue candy melts, plus blue and white sprinkles to decorate these bad boys. Quick and easy.
Plus you can run around with them pretending they’re magic wands and cast imaginary spells on people. Not that I’ve ever done that, but it’s sounding really fun.
And hey- if you’re dippin’ anyway, toss some marshmallows in there too! You can never have enough dipped finger foods rolled in sprinkles. Seriously. The world needs more of that. Just like it needs more Jimmer.
Marshmallow Pops make me smile. They’re happy. They look cute all wrapped up if you want to give them out as favors too.
Here’s another trick- whenever I’m serving things on sticks, I like to use candies to hold them up in the container. I find that regular glass drinking cups are a great size for the pops, and colored jelly beans or M&M’s make the perfect base. Then people can eat those too! (If you don’t have anything fun and colorful for your cups, dry rice works great)
My last sweet is Fruity Candy Popcorn. One of my faves. There’s just one problem- the only flavor of Jello that doesn’t work (at least of all the ones I’ve tried) is blue. It actually looks okay when you first mix it up, but if you bake it, it’s turns green! Plus they usually only sell blue jello in the summer around the 4th of July. So to get around that, I cheated again. Man, I’m such a cheater. I made my favorite Caramel Corn recipe, but I used white sugar instead of brown. Then right before pouring the hot caramel on the popcorn, I added some blue food coloring. Worked great- just don’t bake it! The white will turn brown and the blue will turn green and suddenly you will be supporting the wrong team.
My other favorite table filler is M&M’s. You can usually find custom colors at good party supply stores, but if not (and you have a school with normal colors) you can always buy a few bags of regular M&M’s and pick out the colors you need!
And really, if you have some great food, you don’t need a ton of decorations. At the same time, a few things will really perk up the look of the food! So you definitely want a bit of both. My quickest and cheapest additions for parties are plain ol’ curling ribbon (makes anything look festive!) and computer print-outs.
I just printed those Y’s on regular paper, cut them out and scattered them. I’ve done hearts, flowers, stars, etc for other types of table spreads. Super easy and looks great!
So there you have it. Super easy, not too time consuming, and awesomely fun. Bust out your school spirit (whatever school it may be) and show some pride! It’s what The Jimmer would do.
Now I especially expect to hear from all my Cougar fans out there! Show some spirit by clicking the links below to share this post on Facebook and Twitter, or give it a stumble. And of course we’d love to hear a holla’ in a comment!
If you don’t bleed blue- give your own team a shout-out. Let’s see who’s got the loudest fans!
GO COUGS!
Even though I am behind the “ball” time wise and was sad to see BYU loose their momentum in the sweet 16, this post was so much fun! Jimmer is from the area where I live and my husband grew up knowing their family (more the older brother. there is that “old” word again). So it has been a blast to see the local news stations be oh so excited about our local star. And odd to see them cheering on my Alma mater… Oh and squeeling like girls. And I watched basketball for the first time ever (and still would be if they were still in). So weird and wonderful!
Even though we lost…thanks for the fun party ideas! We had neighbors over & I wasn’t planning on doing anything festive until I read this post. I hit up the candy isle at Target and found varieties of blue candy, dipped pretzels & marshmallows, and made the blue carmel popcorn. SO FUN!
My team is still in. I may have to throw a party.
I bleed BLUE!! You guys are so cute, the pretzels are beautiful!
Dont worry, that blue is the ORIGINAL BYU Blue. 🙂 BYU tried to be cool by ripping off UTAH STATE which is the TRUE BLUE!! So yes, I bleed blue…. but the true blue.
However, both of my parents were BYU alum, and I frequently woke up to “Rise and Shout the Cougars are out…” by my father. I’m not a Cougar hater. Too bad they lost.
Love the post. Love the whole blog.
My facebook profile pic has been Jimmer for over a week now, I’ve been Jimmerized! It’s 1/2 time and it’s tied couldn’t be more proud!!! GO BLUE!! Super Blue treats!!!
LOVE it!
5:27 cannot come soon enough here!! The Jimmer will prevail!! Choose ye this day who you will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Jimmer.
LOVE the school spirit!!! GO BYU
shout out to Cougar fans– I am too old to do it but I do want someone to teach me how to Jimmer– it is so fun.
Go COUGARS!!!!
Oh Yeah!! My husband is on his way to New Orleans as we speak! And I had to download “Teach me how to Jimmer” on my boys’ ipods this morning. Gotta love the Jimmer!
I have a few of these treats ready for tonight and now I’m actually as excited as my husband is for the game to start. I used the York Patty bites to fill the cups with. They are only blue and white and are cheaper than m &m’s and jelly beans. Now I’m REALLY hoping they win this game so I can do the rest of your goodies for Saturday’s game.
Jimmer grew up in a nearby town and we got to see him play when he was in high school. It’s definitely more fun to see him on the television and hear all the “hoop-la” about him now. Go BYU!!
Such cute ideas!! I just finished your blue and white cupcakes for tonight’s game!
We bleed blue over here! Jimmer Rocks! I’m totally motivated to make some treats for the game tonight!!!
I love it!!! True Blue through & through!!! I definitely know what I’m going to be bringing to our Jimmer Party this weekend!!!
We are HUGE BYU fans and are so excited they have come this far! Love Jimmer and the gang! Very cute and creative ideas for the “Sweet Sixteen” game. I think I will serve some of these on our BYU plates and platters.
LOVE me some cougars! Go Cougs..and go Jimmer!! love your ideas.:)
GO COUGARS!!!!! Thanks for such an awesome post. I am so excited to throw a BYU-themed party for my husband and kids tonight so we can watch Jimmer (and co.) waste Florida. You are the best!
The cookies are so cute and you are so smart! It took me 2 hours to frost the cookies!!! Apparently, I need lot of practice.
ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!! and for my hubby, but he totally doesn’t get all caps (hehehe!), hook ’em horns!
Awesome post and awesome ideas – thanks! 🙂 GO COUGARS!!!!
Teach me how to Jimmer, Jimmer. Teach me how to Jimmer… GO BYU!
Go Cougars!!! Yay Jimmer!
Go BYU! 🙂
Best post all year ;-).
Sweet 16! Oh Yeah.
These will look great for the game tonight!! Go Cougs!!
Reading all the comments has been the most fun I’ve had all week! Thanks for keeping the Jimmermania going. You gals are the best. GO COUGARS!!
Love it! And now that my hubby’s Texas Longhorns are out of the Big Dance, we can all cheer freely for my Cougars! (But hopefully I’ll get to use these ideas for orange and white next year, like when Texas plays BYU in football this September!)