The Grounds Crew Takes on Golf

In this new series, a sister/sister team of creatives will share weekly DIY projects and recipes to make all of your wildest sports theme parties come true.

We’re a sister/sister team of creatives who will share weekly sports-infused DIY projects and recipes. Writing now is Melissa Grounds. I’m the hands-on, DIY, and writer half. Alli Grounds, my sister, is the chef. Together, we’re the Grounds Crew!

Alli and I have always been creative, and though we’ve both based our careers on that passion, we ended up on opposite ends of the creative spectrum. I’m a hands-on, “creative jack-of-all-trades.” I recently started my own creative production company, mod.creative, where I bring photos of items to life, creating a process and handcrafting pieces that clients need for parties and events. Alli graduated from Johnson & Wales with a baking and pastry degree and is currently a chef and kitchen manager. In the day-to-day production of our craft, we have zero overlap. However, it turns out we work insanely well together brainstorming and executing food and decor ideas for themed parties. But enough about us. Let’s get started!

This week we’re lookin’ at you, golf! From among the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, SENIOR PLAYERS Championship, and the 2016 U.S. Open this month, you have plenty of opportunities to throw a golf-watching party. Golf is already a thrilling sport (especially as of late). Throw in our recipes and DIY ideas, and it’ll bring the excitement to an entirely new level.

In the beginning, we were aiming to create a golf course made entirely of veggies. We built it, we hated it.

We built it again, we bought more vegetables, we got asked why we were making a veggie platter with only green vegetables. We told that person it was supposed to be a golf course; they said it just looked like a green vegetable platter. Alli got bored, carved an alligator out of cucumber and placed it in the guacamole to surprise me. Even the guacamole alligator wasn’t enough to keep our spirits up (though I loved it so much I had to include it in the picture at the top). This went on for countless hours before we realized that if people set out to make this monstrosity, the frustration from the construction of it would ruin not only their day, but possibly their lives. So we regrouped and switched gears. Both of the recipes this week were inspired by the golf ball. They’re quick to make, require very few ingredients, and definitely fall under the category of fancy-pants.

Fruit Rounds in Simple Syrup

Ingredients:

3/4 C. Granulated Sugar

1/2 C. Water

1/2 C. Grand Marnier

Fruit (We used watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew but the beauty of this syrup is that it can be poured over any fruit you enjoy.)

Directions:

1. Cook the sugar and water over medium heat, stirring until it has a syrupy consistency.
2. Take syrup off the heat and let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes on the stove.
3. Mix in the Grand Marnier and pop it in the fridge to cool.
4. While the syrup is cooling, take a melon baller and go to town on your fruit. If you used fruit that doesn’t require a melon baller, great! You saved yourself a ton of time! (Full disclosure, while we were making this recipe Alli was screaming from the kitchen that “the melon baller wasn’t working!” Either she was out of practice or the dollar store isn’t the place to buy a melon baller.) Throw all the fruit into a bowl.
5. Before serving, toss your fruit in the Grand Marnier simple syrup and you’re done!

Grape and Goat Cheese Truffles

Ingredients:

1 Bag of Red Seedless Grapes

16 oz. Goat Cheese Log

10 oz. Unshelled Pistachios (I will take full blame for purchasing a bag of pistachios with the shells on. As much fun as it was to lose 30 minutes of my life unshelling a bag of nuts with my sister, I will never make that mistake again.)

Directions:

1. Set the goat cheese on the counter to soften (it makes it easier to work with).
2. Wash your grapes and set them aside on paper towels to dry.
3. Put the pistachios in a food processor (or chop them if you don’t have one) until they’re coarse. Pour them into a bowl.
4. Slice the goat cheese about 1/4" thick, place it in the palm of your hand and flatten it a bit. (Alli wore gloves, which is suggested if you don’t want to carry the aroma of goat cheese around with you all day. Unless you love the smell of goat cheese, no judgments.)
5. Place a grape in the center of the goat cheese round and wrap the goat cheese around the grape. Roll it around in your hand. (The same action as rolling meatballs.)
6. Once the grape is covered, roll it in the bowl of coarsely chopped pistachios.
7. Repeat with the rest of the grapes. When you’re done, put them in the fridge until ready to serve.

That’s it! Easy-peasy, right? Now on to the crafty compliment…

Golf Flag Toothpicks

What You Need:

Scrapbook paper

Scissors

Roll of glue dots or double-sided tape

Toothpicks

1. Fold each piece of scrapbook paper in half.
2. Cut triangles out along the folded side.
3. For each triangle, put one glue dot in the fold to hold the toothpick in place and a second dot to the right, to hold both sides together.
4. Press the two sides together and voilà! Colorful double-sided toothpick flags for your hors-d’oeuvres!

To introduce the final project in our adventure together, let’s picture where we are so far. You’re eating Fruit Rounds and Goat Cheese Truffles with fancy little flag toothpicks. The energy is through the roof. Everyone at the party is going wild after someone on television with a golf club hit a ball that sailed through the air and landed on the grass. You reach down for the margarita you just refilled and see three other glasses around it. Wait…is that your glass? Or is it that one? Your friend Jess is sitting next to you cheering and coughing, unsure if she has allergies or whooping cough, and you can’t risk getting sick before your big presentation Wednesday. The horror of wasting full drinks because of this exact scenario is a thing of the past with this next DIY!

Golf Ball Wine Glass Charms

What You Need:

Package of Hoop Earring Wires

Beads that look like golf balls

Beads in a variety of colors

1. Feed a few of the same color beads onto the hoop.
2. Add the golf ball-shaped bead.

3. Repeat the same pattern of beads from Step 1 on the other side of the golf ball-shaped bead.

4. Repeat Steps 1–3 for each color you have.

Note: If any of the hoop wires keep popping open (spilling beads across your living room floor), take a pair of pliers (tweezers will work too) and bend the tip of the wire up so it can’t move out of place. I had to do this for a few of the wine glass charms after nearly recreating the scene from Home Alone where Marv and Harry slip on marbles.

…and it’s as simple as that! Everything you need for this can be purchased at a craft store like Michael’s in their jewelry/bead section. On top of that, they always have tons of bead strands on clearance, so it’s a wildly inexpensive project. The only regret I have is not ordering actual tiny golf ball beads from my beloved Amazon Prime.

And with that, we conclude our first week of projects. We hope you enjoy creating these golf treats as much as we did, and we’d love to see the pictures of anything you decide to create! (Tweet @TheRelishSports)

Enjoy your wild and crazy golf parties! Until next time…Bye from the Grounds Crew.