Have you ever wanted to throw a party where everybody brings a dish that they eat at home but would never serve to company? Where you dress in your pajamas or old yard comfy clothes? Where you could “let it all hangout”?

Well, the Thoroughbroads did.

Here are a few tips you can use to throw your own event.

1. Send invitations on a paper towel concealed in an envelope inviting guests to participate by coming in something they would never wear out in public and bring a favorite dish they would never serve company..preferably in a container like the saucepan it was cooked in, aluminum foil, plastic leftover containers, etc.
2. Decorate your entertainment area with large trash cans turned upside down serving as tables, use an ironing board as a server for paper plates, plastic utensils and plastic cup, leave igloos out to hold ice, beverages, etc. Hang clean laundry on a rope across an entry to a bathroom or the entertaining room, use ladders and 2×4 boards to hold desserts, appetizers or extra dishes. You get the idea.
3. Give out a great prize for the worst dressed and for the best worst dish.
4. Buy cheap wines and some bottles of very good wine. Play spin the bottle by placing a bottle of cheap wine on the floor and spinning it. Whoever the screwed on top bottle points to has to open it and take a swig, if they like it they can keep it, if they don’t then give them a piece of paper to write their name on for a drawing of good wines when the game is over.

Our party was a “white trash” event and we did all of the above. The women came  pregnant & barefoot, with teeth missing and hair in curlers and one came in a burlap sack tied to her bra straps! She also carried a BIG clever in one hand and a roll of uncooked cookie dough and shared slivers with everyone. (She was the wife a a bigwig at GE and shocked us all and declared immediately our winner for best outfit. She went home with a cheap aluminum sauce pan and was thrilled.)) Many of the men came in their boxers or bathrobe with black socks and flip flops. One gentleman had made an appetizer extravaganza by mounting toilet plungers upside down on a plywood base. The plungers were filled with chips and dips and the contraption also had a square mounted stand for the aerosol cheese spreads he brought…needless to say, he won a prize for his inventive idea..the biggest jar of dill pickles we could find.

For an ice breaker we played a game. Dollar store items were placed on a table and everyone was asked to tell us what a redneck would use them for…to our amazement our local police officer got them all right!  He won two redneck recliners… two webbed strap chairs bought at a yard sale. When we asked him how he guessed correctly on each item, he reminded us that as a police officer he had seen it all.

Instead of providing you our recipes  we are referring you to this Great resource material! Hilarious and most of the food is good believe it or not…. we used it for a number of the dishes. Just remember that the serving dish you use is imperative to the white trash theme…sauce pans, aluminum foil, Tupperware or paper plate adds to the ambiance of the evening.

Casual dress is required.

Adult beverages are best served in a bucket and sharing out of your own glass a must.

Aerosol cheese is a delight.

who knew?

A funny anecdote:  Some of the guests rode together and in full “trash” attire, stopped by a home for sale that was having an open house and they all went in together. They told the homeowners and realtor that they were relatives of the neighbor down the street that was hosting a family reunion party. Scarlett, the hostess, nearly died when she found that out.

It truly was a fun evening and after she recovered from the night of fun, she didn’t even mind picking up all of the empty beer cans the boys had thrown out the front door in this classy neighborhood…after all, she had distinguished herself as the perfect hostess by placing two big truck tires at the edges of her driveway entrance and filled them with pansies and had hung the clean laundry between two trees in the front yard signifying that this is where the “trash” are partying tonite.

Do let the grass and weeds grow up a bit before your event. That way your decor fits right in with your theme. Oh, and be sure to invite the neighbors so they don’t call the homeowner’s association on you!