Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I have been waiting for years to do a Star Wars movie premier party, and the time finally arrived!!

Favors:  I had bought a really cute set of Star Wars cookie cutters from Hot Topic on black Friday and these were a lot of fun to make the classic Cinnamon Ornaments with.  I used the Imperial Sugar recipe and would recommend to  keep them thick and cook them longer as well as allow to airdry over night.

Activities: Since it is near Christmas, the activities were winter and Christmas oriented.

Build a Droid:  Instead of building gingerbread houses, we built droids using marshmallows and toothpicks and royal icing as the base and various candies (gum drops, licorice, etc) to decorate and personalize your droids. We had a contest and passed out Star Wars $1 merchandise prizes.

Star Wars Snowflakes:  Anthony Herrara Designs is the king of all cool geeky snowflake patterns and you can get them for FREE on his website.  I printed several options out and had a station with a large cutting mat, multiple pairs of scissors, and some exacto knives available.

White Elephant:  Over the past few months as $1-3 items have popped up in Target Dollar Spot, I have snagged them to have plenty of wrapped gift options for a "Left-Right" white elephant gift exchange game.  Unfortunately there are no Star Wars version of the story, although if you are creative you could write one about the Dark or Light side of the Force. 

Star Wars Trivia: I passed out this difficult trivia quiz I found via pinterest on See Mom Click.

Photos:  I always like to have a photo wall with some props.  It is a fun way to loosen people up, get a photo of everyone in attendance, and it is easy entertainment.  I was lazy and rather than make a cute starry night or other appropriate Star Wars background, I just used a Force Awakens table cloth.  I bought a lot of the masks on clearance after Halloween, and others I have found thrifting over the years.  I added a title overlay when I edited the pictures later and sent them to each guest. 

Party Food:

Drinks:  I had Yoda's Sodas representing the light side (Cream Soda) and the Dark side (Rootbeer) of the force and water.  I wanted to serve Hoth (hot) chocolate but never got around to it.

BB-8 Balls: Clementine's are plentiful this time of year and the new cute little droid BB-8 fits right in.

Jar Jar Links:  Just did the crockpot lil smokies and BBQ sauce. 

Taun-Taun Sliders: I have heard people rave about these ham and swiss sliders for years and since I was keeping the meal simple, this was a perfect time to use them.

Hawaiian Ham and Cheese Rolls

1 stick butter

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp Poppy seeds

1 Tbsp dried diced onion or 1/2 tsp onion powder

18-24 Hawaiian Rolls (must be the King Hawaiian brand)

1-2 (16oz) packages of sliced deli ham

8oz thin sliced Swiss Cheese

1.  Melt butter, mix in mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, poppy seed, onion

2.  Slice roll and place 1 piece of ham in each.

3.  Cut Swiss cheese slices into quarters and top ham with a slice of cheese.

4.  Place sandwiches onto a baking sheet and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Brush rolls with butter and seasoning mixture liberally.

6.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Bantha Bites: For these I created meatball sliders. 

Meatball Sliders

24 frozen or homemade meatballs

24 oz jar of spaghetti sauce (I use Prego Fresh Mushroom)

12 oz of Mozerella (block to slice)

24 rolls

1.  Heat up sauce and meatballs in a saucepan (10-20 minutes)

2.  Slice Rolls and cheese. Lay out rolls on sheet pan.

3. Open rolls and place a slice of cheese on each.

4.  Spoon sauce and a meatball on each roll and top with other side of roll (may have to squish down to keep in place).

5.  Bake for 5 minutes at 350 degrees.

Endor Salad:  Any fresh green salad works for this.

Cloud City Cookies:  I made Mexican Wedding cookies for this.

Mexican Wedding Cookies

recipe from Kraft Foods.

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour

1 cup finely chopped pecans

additional powdered sugar for rolling

1.  Beat together butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy. 

2.  Slowly mix in flour.

3.  Stir in pecans

4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

5.  Roll cookies into 1 inch balls.

6.  Bake for 14 minutes, cool for 5 minutes.

7.  Roll into powdered sugar and allow to cool completely.

Wookie and Friends Gingerbread cookies:  I bought awesome gingerbread Star Wars cookie cutters from Think Geek.  I made chocolate gingerbread for fun.

Avenger's Shwarma

Remember that after the credits scene at the end of Avengers where they are all finally trying some Shawarma? 

Anyway for dinner before seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron I decided to make up some of Tony Starks favorite shawarma as well as some quick other character inspired stuff.

-Thor's Hummus.
-Black Widow Brownie Bites:  Buy premade brownie round bites or make brownies and cut into small squares.  Pipe with vanilla frosting and top with a maraschino cherry.
-Hulk Punch:  I just bought some strawberry kiwi Hawaiian punch and printed up a label, 3 inches tall and centered in the middle of a word document.  Cut out to be the perfect length to wrap.

-Hawkeye Fruit Arrows:  Use the strawberry for the arrow tip and cut out some feathery end to complete the arrow.  Served with 8oz of cream cheese, softened and mixed with 1 cup brown sugar.
-Nick Fury Fries:  Just cooked up some frozen Ore-Ida garlic and parmesan fries and added cheese in the last few minutes.
-Captain America Cookies:  Some store bought red-velvet cookies

I got this particular shawarma recipe from KSLs Studio5.   This is my slight variation:

Shawarma:

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/3 cup olive oil

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt, to taste

1/2 tsp black pepper, to taste

 

Place chicken thighs in gallon-sized Ziploc bag and seal, pound with a rolling pin to flatten chicken a bit.

In a bowl stir together the rest of the ingredients.

Pour over chicken in the bag, reseal, and squish around to make sure chicken is coated. 

Marinate in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better.

Broil on a broiling pan (you can grill on an actual grill as well, and probably cook on a regular pan, but I haven't tried it) for 10 minutes on each side, until juices run clear and temperature is at least 165. 

Allow to rest and cool a bit.  Rough chop it into thin strips.  Serve.

 

 

 

To Serve:

 

Pita pocket bread

Jerusalem Salad

Tzatziki sauce

 

Jerusalem Salad:

the original recipe also found on the KSL studio5 link above.

 

1 large cucumber, chopped into small pieces

4 Roma tomatoes, chopped into small pieces

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped into small pieces

rough chop handful of mint leaves

rough chop handful of fresh parsley

1/2-1 cup tahini sauce

 

Stir all ingredients together.  You can eat this on the side or stuff in the Pita with the Shawarma.

Goonies Birthday Party

I love themed parties and I love the movie Goonies so it seemed like a fun idea to have a Goonies themed birthday this year.  After looking at pinterest I decided this party was going to be a snap and it was.  Here are some details.

Banners:

Goonies Font from dafont.com.  I cut the banner with the Silouhette using the Goonies font, then glued the letters on white cardstock and mounted on brown.  I just taped the letters to a piece of twine.

Pirate flag from Zurchers party supply.

Goonies Tags from HotTaTasFaktory on Etsy.  Super cute and made a fun additional banner.

One-Eyed Willy:
The skeleton is one I picked up last year at Costco for Halloween, he has come in really handy.  I tied a scrap of cloth on his head as a scarf.  I bought the eye patch at Zurchers and then made the jewel eye like One-Eyed Willy has in the movie with scrapbook sticky embellishments.

Cake:

I got the cake topping frosting sheet from the NM Sugar Shack on Etsy.  These printed frosting sheets are edible, store for a long time, and are easy to apply.  Be aware that it took 24 hours before the frosting sheet blended in with the cake like it was supposed to, not the "several hours" advertised.

 I bought the dynamite candles from Party Swizzle and they were my favorite purchase for this party.  They are packaged so cute, and sparkled when lit.  A couple of them kept relighting and just looked cool for this party, especially because the Goonies think the dynamite sticks they find are just candles.

 

 

The cake was a delicious White cake with Raspberry filling we ordered from Harmon's Bakery, a local here in Utah.

Goonies details:
Data's "Pinchers of Peril" were some chatter teeth I bought on Amazon.

 

Statue of David was a mini garden pick I bought on Amazon then I tied a tag around the middle that said, "That's my mom's favorite piece."  Since it was a tiny garden pick we decided to use it as an additional cake topper.

An "it's wet ain't it?  Drink it!" sign for the water.

Baby Ruth candy bars as thank you for coming favors.

Rocky Road ice cream to serve with the cake.

Pirate's Booty as a salty snack, bought at Costco.  Sign next to it that quotes "bobby traps....that's what I said, booty traps" from the movie.

"Rich Stuff" was a mix of hard candies in colorful wrappers like jewels, some shiny pirate coins and jewelry I picked up at Zurchers, and Hershy's Treasures.

Fratelli's wanted poster found via pinterest.

Goonies map I bought on ebay.

Chunk's Truffles in honor of the truffle shuffle are just oreo truffles.

Additional ideas:
Additional party food as needed that would fit the theme would be Domino's pizza and spray cans of whipped cream.

While we just watched the movie at my party some game ideas would be a matching game with a picture of a character and a quote by that character, a photo booth with One-eyed Willy and a sloth mask you can find online.  A treasure hunt of some sort.  A trivia game.

Decorations that I wanted and couldn't find for a reasonable price or had time to make was the key they find on Chester Copperpot's body.

Catching Fire.

We had a Victor's feast before going to see the Catching Fire Premier.  It was fun to eat delicious food and visit with friends.  For our feast we had soup in breadbowls, bacon green bean bundles, some amazing brie, a puff pastry apple caramel pie, firey cupcakes, Nightlock berry fruit salad, a veggie rosette pie, and  various other delights.

The bacon wrapped green bean bundles are from our best bites. They were easy and a really good veggie side-dish.

The Veggie tart is from a European magazine I found online, pg 67.  I just used a premade pie crust instead.  Used a peeler to peel the veggies and for a 9 inch pie it took 4 medium zucchini and I believe around 8 carrots.  We peeled all of the veggies first.  then we made the rosettes and swirled them around.  We decided to make some small rosettes too and I liked the effect a lot.  After the veggies are done, I drizzled with Olive Oil, and sprinkled with thyme, pepper, and salt.  Baked at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

The puff pastry apple caramel pie came about by accident.  I was attempting to make apple rosettes from a recipe in the same magazine pg 65 as the veggie tart and it suddenly went a bit Sweeny Todd in the kitchen as I almost chopped off a nail.  So I scrapped that idea and made my own.  I thawed a box of puff pastry according to box instructions.  I made caramel in a can, using the boiling method by Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk.  Basically you boil a whole unopened can of sweetened condensed milk for 2-3 hours.  Every 30 minutes I would check it and pour about 2 cups more water in the pan, as the can needs to remain completely covered during the boiling process.  Allow can to cool and then open.  Inside is sticky-sweet caramel.  I spread the caramel over one rolled out layer of puff pastry (about 2/3 of the can) and then sliced 3 apples and laid out sliced apples over the caramel.  I sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, topped with other puff pastry and sealed the edges, pressing with a fork.  I egg wash brushed the top (beat one egg with some water and brush over top) I cut some slits in the top crust and then sprinkled with some sugar-in-the-raw I had on hand.  I baked it for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.  Sliced when cooled a bit with a pizza cutter.

For the fiery cupcakes I simply bought premade red-velvet cupcakes and used Wilton's frosting spray colors in yellow and orange to make the frosting look like fire.  To make the mockingjay picks I used my stamp from my last party and just punched them out and taped them to toothpicks.

The brie is a top secret recipe by my friend Toni, if I get it I will post it! :)  And as for the berry salad I just made a traditional cottage cheese fruit jello salad (1 large container cottage cheese, 1 large container coolwhip, 1 box raspberry jello, mixed frozen blueberries and raspberries all mixed together when thawed).

 

We also enjoyed some photo-booth fun.  For the banners I used my Silhouette to cut the title "75th Hunger Games" using the Hunger Games font.  I made the various banners using district logos and pictures I found through tumblr and pinterest.  Props included Katniss' bow and arrows, and various colorful Capitol accessories (the skeleton and turkey hat were pure irony).

For take home goodies I made chocolate peanut-butter and white chocolate peppermint mockingjays.  I found the mold online on ecreater, but it is also carried at various baking shops.  I bought tiny boxes of matches and just printed little labels that say, "Every Revolution Begins With A Spark."  I found these silly bright mustache magnets at target.

Poppy Baby Shower

I recently helped out with a baby shower and it was all things Poppy, here are some ideas....

Poppy paper flower centerpiece (made with a Silouhette America poppy and pregnant lady)

Paper poppy and onesie garland (also made with Silouhette America designs)

"Thanks for Popping by", popcorn in a poppy bag, thank you treats

Plus some Poppy themed food such as a fruit and nut filled garden salad with poppy seed dressing.

Other ideas are that the soon-to be-mother is "ready to pop".

 

 

Other food we had:  Sloppy Joe sliders (rolls and sloppy joe filling in a crockpot), Strawberries and poundcake (pound cake, sliced strawberries that had been mixed with a Tbsp white sugar to make juicy, and some whipped cream), a regular garden salad, and Rice Krispie Treats with red and pink M&M's to match the poppy colors--these were a major hit!!

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.