Hobbit Activities

For our Hobbit party we made hobbit-hole cakes and decorated them like gingerbread houses.  These turned out better than I could have ever imagined.  I found a small ball pan by Wilton and it was perfect, 1 cake mix made 18 mini cakes.  I bought various toppings in a bulk foods candy section, frosted with chocolate or cream cheese frosting, and sprinkled with green-dyed coconut.  It was a fun activity for everyone. 

We had a photo booth where with costumes and props (swords, bow-and-arrow, fake beards, hats, cloaks) that was a lot of fun.

We made dragon eye magnets and origami dragons and answered the Riddles Gollum and Bilbo swapped in the book.

And to top it off we watched a DVD of the 1977 cartoon version of the Hobbit.

For decroration we traced a large version of the "Lonely Mountain Map" as the photo booth backdrop, and I made a garland using Hobbit posters I found on pinterest, the "No admittance except on party business" sign, lembas bread leaves, and rings I took out of a Lord of the Rings board game.

Hobbit Recipes:

Here are the delicious recipes from the Hobbit.  Sorry not all have pictures, I was having too much fun at the party to remember to snap them!

Honey and Goat Cheese Apple tarts (from the Hunger Games, by Laura) recipe can be found here.

Roast Beef Au Jous
(by Jill's mom)

3-5 lbs Roast
1 pkg dry onion soup mix (1/4 oz)
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp oregano
2 (10oz) cans beef broth (I had a 3lb roast so I used 1 1/2 cans)
12 oz coca-cola
2 garlic cloves (2 tsp minced garlic), finely chopped

Place roast in crockpot.  Stir together in a separate bowl all other ingredients.  Pour over roast and cook on high 4-6 hours until tender.  Slice or shred beef while in pot.  Juice can be used as Au Jous sauce.  I keep my beef in the juice and serve with tongs.  Serve with french rolls.

Potato Soup
(by Annicka)

1 30oz bag of frozen shredded hashbrowns
3 14.5oz cans chicken broth
1 10.5oz can cream of chicken soup
1/2c chopped onion
1/4tsp ground pepper
1/2c. bacon pieces
8oz cream cheese (DO NOT use fat free, it won't melt)

Put all ingredients except cream cheese in the crockpot. Cook on low for 6-81 tso hours. About an hour before serving, cube the cream cheese and add to crockpot. For serving, top with green onions, shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, or any other baked potato toppings you like.

Cheeseball
(by Jill)

For 1 cheeseball:

1 (8oz) package of cream cheese, softened (regular or neufchatel will work, fat-free does not soften)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2-3 green onions, finely chopped
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp lemon pepper

Mix all ingredients together and form into a ball.  Refridgerate until firm. Roll in chopped nuts (I decorated mine like a pinecone-as seen on pinterest- with whole salted almonds).  Can refridgerate and then remove at least 30 minutes prior to serving.

Pumpkin tarts

(by Camilla)

Crust:

3/4 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp. salt

Cut the butter into the flour until it's crumbly and there's no dry powder.  Dissolve the salt into the water, then stir it into the flour and butter. Stir to make a soft dough. Form into a flat ball, and chill.

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves*
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice*
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger*
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1.5 cups cooked, mashed pumpkin
1 cup evaporated milk

*or use 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Mix the filling ingredients together, blending thoroughly.  Roll out the crust on a lightly floured surface, using flour on top and bottom as necessary to prevent sticking. Roll to 1/8" or thinner. Cut into small circles and press them down into a cupcake tin. Keep rolling and cutting to use all the dough.  Pour the filling into the crusts, almost to the top of each.  Bake at 350 F for 30-40 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. This should make about 1 dozen tarts.

 

Tango Scones

(by Camilla)

 

1 cup raisins

1 cup hot water

½ cup sugar

1 tsp. Baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup melted butter

2 1/2 cups flour

1 cup chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 350 F. Soak the raisins in the hot water for 10 minutes, then drain and puree in a blender.  Beat together the sugar, baking soda, and eggs. Gradually add the melted butter, beating well. Add flour, raisins and nuts. Blend well.  Line a cookie sheet with a piece of baking parchment and form the dough into a large flat circle on it. Cut the circle into wedges. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light brown.

High Tea Scones

(by Camilla)

Grated peel of 1 lemon

4 Tbls. Sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1 egg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 Tbls. Milk

2 cups flour

3 tsp. Baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup raisins or dried currants

Combine lemon peel and 2 Tbls. Sugar, set aside. Preheat oven to 425 F.  In a small bowl, combine sour cream and baking soda. Stir in the egg, oil, and milk. Set aside.  In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and 2 Tbls. Sugar. Pour the egg mixture into the flour and stir until just combined. Stir in the raisins/currants.  Line a cookie sheet with a piece of baking parchment and form the dough into a large flat circle on it. Cut the circle into wedges. Sprinkle the top with the lemon sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

 

Mini Leaf Pies

(by Jill)

Premade pie cruse (or homemade recipe of your choice)

Premade pie filling of choice (or homemade recipe of your choice)

 

Roll out piecrust and cut with cookie cutter (I used a leaf).  Fill with small amount of piefilling and sandwhich with another piecrust shape.  Slice 3 airvents into top crust.  Seal with a fork around edges.  Bake according to piecrust directions for 15-20 minutes until browned.

 

 

Stuffed Mushrooms

(by Jill)

 

26 medium mushrooms

4 Tbsp butter

4 green onions, diced

1/2 cup of minced ham (I just slice up one package of Budding brand ham)

1 Tbsp preminced garlic

2 cups finely chopped Spinach (I grab a handful of leaves and roll them then slice them)

2 pieces of bread (cut into small cubes)

salt and pepper, to taste

1/2 cup mozerella cheese

 

Melt 2 Tbsp butter and grease a mini muffin tin or a small glass baking dish).  Precut and dice all filling ingredients, including 2 of the mushrooms into small pices.  Remove stem and spoon out some of the inside of each of the remaining 24 mushrooms.  Discard stem and insides.  Place each mushroom into dish.  Saute remaining 2 Tbsp butter with garlic,  Add mushroom pieces, onions, ham, and spinach.  Saute until tender.  Add bread crumbs, salt and pepper and stir well.  Allow mixture to cool to a temperature that is okay to touch.  Spoon stuffing mixture into each mushroom, pressing down with fingers to secure.  Sprinkle with cheese and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve immediately as these are better warm (Can be made in advance by preparing mushrooms and then refridgerate until ready to bake and serve).

 

 

 

Glazed Pecans Salad

(by Becca)

 

Green leaf lettuce of choice

feta or mozerella cheese

apples, diced

craisins

sugared pecans

cucumbers

 

Mix together ingredients in portions desired

 

Glazed Pecans:

In a frying pan over medium-high heat, melt 1 tbsp butter. Add 1/4 cup sugar and1/2 cup pecan halves, stir to coat. Cook until the sugar melts, then reduce the heat to low. Stir and continue cooking until the sugar turns golden brown. Remove from heat pour the nuts onto the prepared baking sheet to cool.

 

Poppyseed Dressing:

(by Anne)

 

1/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup white vinegar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard

1 cup oil

1 Tbsp poppy seeds

 

 

In a blender combine all ingredients except oil and poppyseeds and blend for 20 seconds.  Slowly add in oil as blending until incorporated.  Stir in poppyseeds.

 

Eggnog

(by Jill)

 

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp nutmeg

pinch of salt

1 whole egg

4 egg whites

1 1/2 cup milk

1 1/2 cups half and half

 

Combine sugar and spices in a large bowl.  Add the whole egg and 4 egg whites and beat on high for 5 minutes.

 

Heat 1 cup of the milk, stirring constantly, until steaming (do not boil!).  Slowly mix half of milk into the egg mixutre, while stirring.  Stir this back into the hot milk in the pan.  On medium heat, cook for 8 minutes, stirring constantly, until steaming again (do not boil!).

 

Remove from heat and stir it frequently as it cools for 5 minutes.  Stir in remaining 1/2 cup milk and half and half.  Cover and chill.

 

Wassil:

(by Jill)

 

2 quarts apple cider

1 cup apple juice

2 cups orange juice

1/2 cup lemon juice

12 whole cloves

5 cinnamon sticks

1 pinch ground ginger

1 pinch nutmeg

1 orange

 

In a crock-pot or large pot combine juices.  Season with cloved, ginger, nutmegs, and cinnamon sticks.  Simmer for 4-6 hours until hot and smells delicious. Slice orange and place on top.  Serve hot.

 

Other delicious food included: Roast Ham with Pineapple, Bratwrust, Hobbit Hole Cakes, cheese/crackers/fruits/veggie platters, and broccoli salad.

 

Hobbit Hole Christmas ornament.

For the upcoming Hobbit movie premier I am hosting a party (will post more details later) and for the party favors I decided to add a hobbit-hole Christmas tree ornament to my usual favor of themed bookmark and movie pin.

I made the ornament with wool-felt.  I free handed the half circle base and cut 1 inch circles for the doors and 1/2 inch circles for the windows.  I filled them with polyfil and sewed them up by hand with a simple stitch and brown floss.

Breaking Dawn party.

One last Twilight Night.  One last party.  It was fun to get together with friends/coworkers to watch the final chapter of the Twilight Saga and have some goodies too. 

Vivian made these incredible cake pops decorated to represent each book cover.  She used a red-velvet Cakepop recipe, similar to Bakerella's.  She decorated them with gumpaste.  They were divine.

I made quote magnets with little crystal heart charms, like the one Edward gave Bella in Eclipse.  I strung the beads, and hooked them to the cardstock with a brad.  I used business card magnets and so the whole magnet was 2x3.5inches. 

Due to budget and time contraints I kept everything simple.  The gift bags were created with movie snacks and halloween clearance.  Wilton had great "Take a Bite" bags and cupcake liners, that added a great touch.  Of course there were cheap Vampire teeth for fun.  I filled the cupcake liners with Hot Tamales candies.  I just made up some buttered popcorn to fill the bags.  I used the "wolf-pop" mold I did for Breaking Dawn pt.1 and made up some mint-chocolate flavored wolves by melting the Mint-Truffle Hershey Kisses and regular semi-sweet chocolate chips together. 

For the decoration I just cut the Diecuts-With-A-View "Immortal Love" paper stack up into a simple pennant banner.

 

Breaking Dawn Part 1 Party

 

New Moon Party

Apple Cinnamon Bread.

This recipe was adapted from Apple Bread on allrecipes.com

3 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

3 eggs
1/2 cup veg. oil
1/2 cup applesauce (I used cinnamon applesauce because that is what I had on hand)

3 cups apples, peeled, and cut into small cubes (I used pink lady apples because that is what I had on hand)
1 cup cinnamon chips (optional)

1.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees and spray grease 2 bread loaf pans.
2.  In a small bowl blend eggs, oil, and applesauce.
3.  In a large bowel stir together dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.
4.  Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix well.
5.  Add apples and cinnamon chips.
6.  Seperate into 2 loaf pans and bake for 60 minutes (glass pan took 60 mins. Metal took 65 minutes, just keep an eye on it).

Monster Truffles

These were rediculous and easy to make.  You can make Oreo Truffles a million different ways roll by rolling them in chocolate or white chocolate and roll in any type of topping.

For these I used:

1 package reduced-fat oreos
1 package Cream cheese
candy melts
sprinkles
eye-ball sprinkles

1.  Crush package of oreos and mix together with softened cream cheese.

2.  Melt candy melts according to package directions. 
3.  Roll oreo mixture into balls and roll in melted coating, using 2 forks or spoons to roll and cover.
4.  Decorate with sprinkles before they harden.
5.  Place on wax-paper covered cookie sheet to set.

(lucky for me the monsters can be lumpy because I can't ever get these smooth!!)

 

The Great Pumpkin.

When I found these GIANT pumpkin marshmallows I knew I just had to get them.  While I was trying to decide what to do with them I just took the simple approach and thought of one of my favorite Halloween shows, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown."  So I made some devil's food cupcakes, frosted them with green vanilla buttercream, and topped them with the marshmallows (ps.  these are vanilla flavored, not pumpkin spice).

For dinner to continue the pumpkin theme we had some Pumpkin ravioli I got from Sam's Club.  It is a pumpkin filled & pumpkin shaped ravioli that we drizzled with Browned Butter, some also liked it with a little lemon juice and salt.

Quick Caramel Popcorn

2 qts popped popcorn (1/4 cup unpopped)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup karo syrup
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda

1.  Pop popcorn and pour into a large brown paper bag.
2.  Place butter, brown sugar, karo, and salt in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave 2-3 minutes, stop when bubbly.
3.  Pour over popcorn in bag, roll top of bag down and microwave for 1 minute and 20 seconds. 
4.  Remove from microwave and shake bag well.
5.  Pour onto wax paper or a wax-paper lined baking sheet to cool.

Sprinkle with salt and mixed with cashews if desired.  You could also drizzle it with melted chocolate for variation.

Star Wars birthday party

My cousin held a Star Wars birthday party for their kids and it was a lot of fun!  There was pod racing, light saber making, and lots of fun food...

pod racing by cutting the bottom our of boxes and having 2 small kids or 1 adult per box.

Ewok Endor Brownie bites.  Just use little teddy grahams to look like Ewoks.

Death Star cake

Yoda apple (super ghetto but cute) with intergalactic dip (2 packages cream cheese, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 1 cup heath bar bits)

Potato Salad

I am pretty picky about potato salads, I usually think it sounds good and then I am almost always dissapointed.

My roommate made this recipe today and I was pleasently surprised so I thought I better mark it down.  It is a bit sweeter than traditional potato salad, but had a nice variety of flavors.  I also believe that you can toss in whatever you want to salads so I will just give the dressing recipe.

7 potatoes cooked, peeled, and cubed

Dressing: 

1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
4 Tbsp butter
1 tsp celery seed
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup onion, chopped

Combine sugar and cornstartch in a saucepan. Add vinegar, milk, egg, butter, celery seed, salt, and dry mustard.  Cook over a low heat, stirring continually until thick and bubbly.  Stir in the mayo and chopped onion.  Cool.  Gently fold sauce over potatoes.  Add additional stuff and refridgerate until ready to serve.

Stuff :
3-5 hard boiled eggs, chopped
small cubes of cheddar cheese
salt, pepper, paprika
a little bit of mustard to taste
chopped celery
1/2 cup dill pickle relish or chopped pickles

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

August 8th was leave a Zucchini on your neighbors porch day, so tis the season to make treats a bit healthier by sneaking Zucchini into them.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake:

2 cups finely shredded Zucchini (2 small or 1 large zucchini)
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cup white sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate ganache

1.  Mix applesauce, sugar, and vanilla.
2.  In a separate bowl mix flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda. put through sifter as pouring into sugar mixture. 
3.  Stir together until well incorporated. 
4.  Add Zucchini, folding in until well incorporated.
5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 pan.  Spread mixture evenly in pan and bake for 25 minutes.
6.  Cool and make ganache.
7.  Pour over cake and serve.

Chocolate Ganache:

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 oz heavy cream

Melt chocolate and cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat, stirring continually until chocolate is fully melted and mixed with the cream. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

A different type of Cake Pop.

We made these cakes from soda pop cans for Cyrus' birthday and Shawn's Bachelor party at work.  They were super easy, cheap, and made an impact.

20-30 cans of soda/beer
3 tiers of cardboard cake circles
Ribbon

The amount of soda you need depends on if you want to make a solid layer or a border.  For the bear cake we made a solid layer and for the Mt. Dew cake we just made a border and filled it with a favorite bag of candy.  Make your base, place smaller carboard circle on top, make next layer, repeat.  Wrap each layer with ribbon.  It is easy and can be adjusted as needed.

Cast Iron Peach and Raspberry Cobbler

I love cooking with my Cast Iron skillet, but don't do it nearly enough. I also love using  fruit in season when it is cheap and super tasty.  When I saw this recipe on the Lazy Homesteader I decided to give it a go.  It was great, here is my variation:

Peaches, Raspberries

6 Tbsp butter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup buttermilk

Peel and slice 2-3 large peaches, wash raspberries (I used about 2 cups of sliced peaches and 1/2 cup raspberries, but this is open for options depending on the type of fruit and how much you like in your cobbler).

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Slice up 6 Tbsp butter and place in bottom of the pan. Set in preheating oven to melt.

Sift together flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.  Create a well in the center and pour in milks.  Stir until mixed all together. 

Remove hot skillet from oven when butter has melted and pour batter on top of melted butter.  Spread around slightly to fill to edges but this isn't percise and it's okay if butter come up a bit over the top of batter (as the Lazy Homesteader mentions, this is a LAZY cobbler, which means easy and not precise).

Place fruit evenly on top of batter.  Return to oven and bake for 1 hour.  Serve warm with vanilla icecream.

Happy Birthday Harry, Recipies

Yorkshire Pudding

(adapted from simplebites.net)

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 cup water
4 eggs (at room temperature)
1 stick butter at room temperature

Sift together flour and salt.  Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in milk and water.  Whisk until well incorporated.  In a small separate bowl beat eggs until frothy.  Beat into other ingredients.  Refrigerate mixture for at least an hour.  Generously grease two 12-cup muffin tins with softened butter.  Place in oven and preheat to 400 degrees.  While oven is preheating remove mixture from refrigerator and whisk until small bubbles appear on surface.  Remove tins from oven when butter is browning and smoking slightly.  Immediately and quickly fill each tin with approximately 1/4-1/3 cup of batter, fill all cups evenly and not too full as it will puff up while cooking.  Place back in oven as soon as filled and bake for 20 minutes, until puffed and edges are lightly browned.  Serve immediately with roast beef and gravy.

Cauldron Cakes

There are so many amazing versions of cauldron cakes that have been created.  Some are spicy, some chocolate, some have cauldron handles and some have potions spilling forth.  For this party I didn't have a lot of time so I kept it simple.

1 brownie mix

1 vanilla buttercream frosting (recipe below)

Raspberries

Gold Flake sprinkles

Mix and bake brownies according to packaging, except bake them in a well greased mini muffin pan.

Mix up vanilla buttercream as brownies cool completely. 

Vanilla Buttercream:

1/3 stick butter, softened

3 cups powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp milk

Mix butter and powdered sugar together until crumbly.  Stir in vanilla and milk and blend until creamy.  Add more powdered sugar or milk to achieve desired consistency. 

Frost brownies, sprinkle with gold flake sprinkles and place a washed raspberry in the center.

Acid Pops:  I made these as directed on The Pastry Affair.  The only change I would make would be to use Karo (corn) syrup rather than honey because I don't like the flavor of honey and thought it was too overwhelming.





Oatmeal Chip cookies.

Oatmeal Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups oats
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup butterscotch chips

Cream butter and sugar.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Sift in baking soda, salt, cinnamon.  Stir in flour and oats.  Add chocolate and butterscotch chips.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly grease large cookie sheet.  Roll dough into balls, just smaller than golf balls.  Bake for 9 minutes.  Transfer to cooling rack and cool.  Makes 3 dozen large cookies.

Literary Delights: Matilda

When I was a kid, my mom would always enroll us in a summer reading program at our local library.  I loved to read and I loved completing these challenges.  I also love cookbooks that are related to books and have amassed quite a collection.  I want to try some of these recipes this summer and share the sucess (and possible disasters here).

up first from my Roald Dahl cookbook is an adaptation of "Bruce Bogtrotter's Cake" from Matilda.

Purchase Here.

Bruce Bogtrotter is a boy at Matilda's school who dared to eat the Trunchbull's chocolate cake.  As punishment she makes him eat an entire cake in front of the school.  "She glared at Bruce Bogtrotter who was sitting on his chair like some huge overstuffed grub, replete, comatose, unable to move or speak. A fine sweat was beading his forehead but there was a grin of triumph on his face." -Roald Dahl

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 sticks of butter (3/4 cup)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
6 eggs, separated
Ganache (recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Grease a 9 inch springform pan (can use a round cake pan but a springform is a lot easier to use)
3.  Separate egg whites and yolks into 2 bowls.
4.  In a microwave safe glass bowl melt butter and chocolate chips in 30 second intervals, stirring in between, until smooth.  (takes about 1 1/2 minutes)
5.  Beat egg yolks and add yolks, sugar, and flour to chocolate mixture. 
6.  Whip egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Gently fold into chocolate mixture, one half at a time, until incorporated.
7.  Pour into pan and bake for 40 minutes.  Walk out of the kitchen and try not to go back in until baked because movement can shake cake and make it fall.  Will form a crust on top and appear undercooked in the center if you poke it with a knife or toothpick.  The cake is cooked and will set up more as it cools.
8.  Allow to cool in pan on a wire rack.  While cake is cooling make Ganache.

Ganache:
1 1/2cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 oz heavy cream

Melt chocolate and cream in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over low heat, stirring continually until chocolate is fully melted and mixed with the cream.  Remove from heat and allow to cool.

9.  When cake is mostly cool turn out onto a plate (the center will sink slightly).  Pour ganache over the top (be prepared for the ganache  to run all over when cake is cut into).

10.  Enjoy with some milk or icecream, this cake is intense!

via.