Have a Hawaiian themed luau. Those are always fun, complete with Tiki Torches. You can get most of the food catered (depending upon where you live) but out here in California they have all sorts of Hawaiian restaurants that do Kalua pork with all the trimmings. Or you could have the meat part catered and the rest of it could be kind of an assigned potluck.
You can get a lot of the decorations right now at Big Lots and just borrow some tables and chairs from the neighbors and relatives, cover them with ocean blue or lime green plastic tablecloths, and decorate each with a big bowl with a pineapple in the middle surrounded by bananas and coconuts and oranges etc (all stuff that can be used and eaten later) Then rustle up some great Hawaiian music on i-tunes (or if your lucky, from a friend who already has a collection. Have everybody come dressed in Hawaiian print shirts or dresses. You can get cheap multi colored paper lanterns (with or without lights in them) to string across the back yard (from Big Lots or the 99 cent stores). Add candles to the tables if it’s at night (Also inexpensive glass candle holders and candles at the 99 cent store) Make sure that you, or one of your friends or relatives either makes a big yummy cake (or buys one) and buy or make her a lovely tropical flower arrangement.
Some ideas for the menu:
Macadamia Coconut Cake
Kalua Pork in a Slow Cooker
Hawaiian Style Macaroni Salad
Hawaiian Rice (or just make a batch of regular white rice in a rice cooker)
Teriyaki Chicken Wings
Aloha Coleslaw
Chicken Satay Skewers with Peanut Sauce
Hawaiian Salad or other green salad with Hawiian Ginger Carrot Dressing
Ahi Poke or this Hawaiian Tuna Salad or Grilled Chicken and Pineapple Salad
And here’s a couple of things of my own making:
I make a drink called “Hula Brew” that is literally half pineapple juice and half beer (I actually used non alcoholic beer for my drinks, use only light colored beer, though, not dark beer) Stick an umbrella in the side or a tooth pick with a fresh pineapple chunk and a maraschino cherry.
You can also make 2 big punch bowls, one with limeade (float sliced limes on the top) and another with Red Hawaiian Punch mixed with 7UP and float orange slices on top (preferably blood oranges)
And Hawaiian Skewers: use wooden skewers and add a chunk of fresh pineapple, a grape tomato, a marinated mushroom, and a chunk of Trader Joe’s Organic Baked Tofu (Teriyaki Flavor) and lay these out on a platter of lettuce leaves.
And you can serve those thick crunchy Hawaiian style potato chips with my “Volcano Dip”: which is one block of feta cheese, mixed well with one jar of adjvar or spicy eggplant dip from Trader Joe’s (which is the same thing) and a tiny pinch of cayenne pepper. The dip is so named because it looks like hot lava, but is not too spicy.
You can also set out bags of sweet Hawaiian bread and bowls of macadamia nuts.
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