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