Retro Game Show Date Night Playlist
Click below to stream this month's date night playlist!
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Date Night Challenge: Relationship Trivia
Together, come up with four of your relationship trivia categories. It could be things like “dates we’ve been on” or “places we’ve visited together” or anything else you can think of.
Once you have your four categories, have you each take a piece of paper and cut our 20 squares (5 for each topic). On one side of each of the cards, write the relationship categories.
On the backside, it’s your job to come up with a trivia question about that topic to try and stump your partner. The only rule is that it must pertain to the category on the front. Once you have written down all your trivia questions, flip the cards back over and apply a dollar amount to each card. All your cards must add up to $2,000, but you can distribute the amounts strategically. For example, if you came up with a great question you think you can stump your partner on, you can apply more dollars to that question.
Once you both have your 20 cards all filled out with dollar amounts applied, set them up on the table. Have you each choose one of your partner’s cards one at a time to answer it. If you get it correct, you get to keep the card. At the end of the game, the person with the most “dollars” accumulated from correctly answered questions wins a date night planned by the other!
Why are we doing this?
This is a fun activity to do if you want to reminisce on some of the fond moments you’ve had together. Or, it can be a great way to be reminded of those times if you have forgotten. Discovery when it comes to your partner isn’t always about finding new things about each other, it can also be about remembering and appreciating your journey together all over again!
Featured Recipe: Sock Hop Jello Cake
Okay, so we wanted to come up with a recipe this month that was 50’s themed. We did a lot of research and came across this recipe from Jello called the “Crown Jewel Cake,” which was initially published in a Jello recipe book from the ’50s. We also wanted to bring our flare to it, so we decided to change it up to use “poodle skirt” colors (black, pink, and white).
Now, fair warning. This dessert tastes…interesting. If you like Jello, you’ll probably like it, but it’s definitely out there! So, because we had a lot more fun creating the dish, we designed our recipe to be as quick and affordable as possible, condensing a few steps from the original recipe.
We also decided to turn this recipe into an additional challenge for you both to make your very own customized Sock Hop Jello Cake!
Ingredients You’ll Need:
- One package of the type of cookie that best describes your relationship (we chose Oreos)
- Two packages of pre-made, refrigerated Jello cups (one flavor that best represents you each)
- One tub of Cool Whip (for some extra nostalgia)
- Food Coloring – two colors (one to represent each of you)
- One 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk
- Three 1/4 -ounce packets of unflavored gelatin
- ½ cup of cold water
- 1 ½ cups of boiling water
- One tablespoon of melted butter
- Cooking Spray
- One 4-inch springform cake pan (recipe will make enough for an 8-inch pan, though)
Instructions:
Start by boiling 1 ½ cups of water. While that is boiling, pour ½ cup of cold water into a large bowl, adding your packets of unflavored gelatin on top. Pour in your sweetened condensed milk and boiling water, then mix until everything is dissolved. Set that bowl aside and wait for it to cool down to room temperature (about 30-40 minutes with the last 5 minutes in the refrigerator).
While the cream gelatin mix is cooling, take your cookies, place them in a gallon-sized bag and crush them into superfine pieces, then mix in your melted butter. Spray your springform pan with cooking spray and add enough crushed cookie to the bottom to cover up about ¼ of an inch. Use a measuring cup to press down and compact your cookie crust.
Now, take a break! You’ll need to wait until the cream gelatin mixture is completely cooled, or else it might melt the Jello and be too runny.
Once the cream gelatin has cooled, take out a cup of each personalized flavor of Jello and cut them up into cubes. The easiest way to get them out is to run a butter knife along the edge, turn it upside down, and tap a few times until the cylindrical Jello has popped out. Add a mixture of your colored cubes of Jello to the springform pan, enough to fill most of your pan. Then, pour the cooled cream gelatin mix into your pan to fill in the rest. Place in the refrigerator and allow to set for 4-5 hours or overnight. You could probably get away with 2-3 hours, but you want to make sure the gelatin fully sets.
Once it has fully set, take your tub of Cool Whip and add a few drops of each of your food colorings. Use a whisk to mix the Cool Whip. What color did it create? Take the Jello Cake out of the springform pan by running a butter knife along the edge before lifting it out. Transfer your cake to a serving plate, then cover with your colored Cool Whip.
Cut off a slice and look inside! If you’re brave enough, try a bite!
Things we learned:
- We tried making our own Jello from the powder but found it much easier to use the cups, and it saves a ton of time.
- The cream gelatin mix can taste pretty bland, so we added some vanilla extract to give it a little more flavor.
- Transferring the finished cake from the pan is pretty easy if you’re using a 4-inch pan. You literally can pick up the entire cake with one hand without it falling apart. If you are using a larger pan, you may need to flip it upside down on a plate and then onto another plate.