Cheeseburger in Paradise

I just saw JIMMY BUFFETT in concert! I don't go see a lot of concerts, but I LOVE Buffett and have seen him four times in concert. Now, Buffett is a lot like a football game; a bunch of fans who know all the stats (aka latest songs) as well as the classic plays (the oldies). Now, all good football fans tailgate, and Buffett fans are no different.

And my family are the reigning monarch of wonderful tailgates. The Buffett concert tailgate has to be one of the best so far. We have tons of food, and great friends to eat the food. We had pork roast, chicken salad, clams, fruit kabobs, veggies, hummus, cheese. The food menu was endless.

One of Buffett's most famous songs is "Cheeseburger in Paradise." The song's chorus says:

I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and french fried potatoes
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer
Well good god almighty which way do I steer for my cheeseburger in paradise!

I used that song as inspiration for one of my two desserts for the tailgate. My first dessert was a margarita cake, and I used a box mix. Instead of water, I added margarita mix to the funetti cake mix. The cake has a nice lime taste that went great with butter cream frosting. It also had a Margaritaville vibe!

The second dessert were Dessert Burgers complete with lettuce, ketchup, and cheese.

Aren't they cute?? Everyone LOVED them; even random people came up to steal one or two! hehe. They were super easy to make too. I used white cake box mix and regular brownie mix to make the bun and burger. The bun is a cupcake cut in half and the burger is brownie shaped with a circle cookiecutter. I followed the box directions and didn't do anything fancy or added to them. The only "special" thing I did was not fill up the cupcake compartments to the max. I wanted to make sure they stayed relatively flat to give them a more burger effect.

The cheese is yellow colored marzipan, which was rolled out very thin and then cut into a square that overlapped the edges of the brownie to make it look like it had melted. The lettuce is shredded coconut mixed with a touch of icing to make it clump; the the mixture was dyed green. A s-curve of red-dyed icing mimicking ketchup completed the burger illusion.  

Even with very full bellies, we rolled over the concert where we danced the night away as we sang along with good ol' Jimmy, who didn't fall off the stage! He did not disappoint. Great songs were sang, moves were busted, and happiness was boundless.

I have been to other Buffett concerts before, but not with godparents, god-brothers, best childhood friend, parents, and husband. I did not know one night could contain so much hilarity.  My god-brothers busted out stick on mustaches for everyone, along with glow and the dark leis. We danced, sang along, determined I was the woman to blame! (Heck my shirt even said its, I couldn't deny it!) My father and godfather danced around with glow sticks. My godmother was her joyous, care-free self, and had the best smile all night. (Hard to believe those boys have grown up; I can tell some pretty embarrassing stories about them!) The whole concert ended with tried, happy Parrotheads playing ring around the shark and quoting Monty Python (Your mother smells of elderberries!) Enjoy some of the concert pictures!!

Duck led the way to the concert!!

We have pencil thin mustaches so we can solve some mysteries too!

We finned to the right, finned to the left

I've known her for 16 years and we are growing older but not up!

My hubby dancing with his other woman!

God-brothers! They are all grown up, but they are the people my parents warned me about!

TWINS!

My wonderful parents

I don't know, I don't know where I"m gonna go when the volcano blows!

My fantastic godparents!

I made that! I can cook and craft!

We are the knights who say.....