Party Posts · Recipe Roundup

Harry Potter Party

So I was at a bellydance workshop all weekend and Fancy was excited to see me until the heat went on. Then she abandoned me for the heat vent. Silly dog! She’s currently snuggled under an extra sheet on the couch. The past couple of evenings, she’s been a brat until I’ve taken it down and made her a nest with it. 🙂

But on to the party!  It was super fun and we, of course, had lots of food. I didn’t go to overboard though. We also didn’t have too many sweets, as we had a Honeydukes section with a ridiculous amount of candy. Honeydukes is the name of the candy shop in the wizard village. 🙂

Side note, I finally got carded again for buying hard cider. The last couple of times I bought some kind of alcohol, I haven’t gotten carded and it’s a little weird for me… 🙂 This time, I was also buying about 10 pounds of candy, so maybe that’s why. 

So I read the first book again and looked up recipes to make themed party foods. It’s not like The Hobbit, where there’s focus on foods, so there’s only a couple of things that are pretty regular. The Husband requested a large pile of chicken legs, as Ron, one of the main characters, is frequently seen two fisting chicken. 🙂

 I used this recipe: https://juliasalbum.com/buttermilk-roast-chicken-with-garlic/

They were alright, but I would bump the spices next time. 

Butterbeer is the main drink in the HP universe. I forgot to get a picture of it, but the recipe is pretty simple. Use heated apple cider, bourbon, rum, or brandy, ginger beer, and butterscotch sauce. Mix them to taste and top with whipped cream if desired. I got the recipe from a Buzzfeed round up of Harry Potter themed cocktails. There are definitely some more that I would like to try on the list. 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/harry-potter-and-the-night-he-wont-remember?utm_term=.lid7Yxa9&sub=3654265_4940588#.ov03Z1WV

I used a homemade butterscotch sauce too, because I couldn’t help myself… The recipe is linked in the butterbeer recipe, I can’t get the link to embed in the post. It’s a popsugar article.

For other drinks, we had spiced pumpkin cider, which I found at Aldi, pop, tea, and hot chocolate. The pumpkin cider was a little weird, but not unpleasant. It tasted more like spices than actual pumpkin. Pretty sure it was apple cider with spices.

I attempted to make butterbeer macarons, but they were a total disaster. I couldn’t even serve them! No pictures because when I tried to take them off the pans, they crumbled and looked a mess. I will try them again though! They were from Sensible Sara. 

https://sensiblysara.com/2017/08/butterbeer-macarons-recipe/

One recipe that did go right was Pumpkin Pasties. 

I looked at some recipes and then just made my own up. I used pumpkin puree, goat cheese with honey, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. They were wrapped in puff pastry and brushed with egg, cinnamon and sugar. They were delicious warm. 

We had Bacon Mac and Cheese cups for a dinner snack. I overbaked them a little, but was told they were still alright. They do not reheat well, according to the Husband. And yes, it’s kraft mac and cheese. 🙂

The recipe is here: https://www.thegunnysack.com/bacon-mac-and-cheese-bites/

We had egg cups, partially for brunch, but also to test as a recipe for the Husband to take for breakfast. They turned out to be pretty good and they will work for breakfasts.

https://www.makeaheadmealmom.com/easy-egg-muffins/

We had another dragon cake, because it’s a magical world, so of course, there needed to be a dragon! https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/chai-spiced-pound-cake-recipe This was amazingly delicious! I will probably make it again, as I forgot the baking soda and the cinnamon exploded all over the batter. I apparently also forgot to take a picture of the cake. I decorated it with a maple glaze, edible gold glitter, and green dust. It was cute. I have requested a regular bundt pan for Christmas, as not every occasion needs a dragon cake. 🙂

We had chocolate frogs for part of Honeydukes. It’s something that comes up all the time in the books. My friend Kim sent me a mold to borrow for the frogs and I used Ghiradelli and Baker melting chocolate. These also had green dust on them. http://www.justticklethepear.com/2010/12/chocolate-frogs.html

They were a big hit, even if they didn’t jump around like the ones in the movies and books. 🙂

I made up a recipe for a mushroom tart, mainly because I really wanted it. I used marscapone and Boursin cheese mixed together and then spread on puff pastry. It was topped with sauteed mushrooms- baby bella and white, and caramelized onions. 

Kayla brought dragon spiced nuts, which were sweet and spicy. She also brought a large cooler full of sandwich fixings to go with the French Onino Soup. I also made nuts, but mine were weird, so we’ll just ignore them… 🙂

Here’s some Honeydukes pictures. 

We had Dementor Recovery chocolates, caramels, gummy worms/frogs/bears, PB eyeballs, Golden Snitches, jellybeans (but not the gross ones from the movies!), ginger candies, Ton Tongue Taffy, Acid Pops (Tootsie Rolls,) and Lemon drops. There was a lot of candy, but luckily, people took some home.

I’ll post the decor pictures tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday. You’ve probably had enough Potter pictures today. 🙂

Have a magical day!

Recipe Roundup

Recipe Roundup

We’ve been eating leftovers, since Chinese New Year. We had so many! I made steamed buns on the day when every appointment, except my very last one, all cancelled for various reasons. I did make a few new things though.

Tonight we had a mushroom cream sauce over mini ziti, with baked calamari. The calamari were from Costco, I only baked them.

The Husband says that I just “wave my arms about” and food appears. Tonight was one of those recipes. It turned out good.

Here’s what I did:

Creamy Mushroom Pasta, recipe by me! 

1/4 cup butter (half a stick)

2 T olive oil

1/2 onion, finely chopped

5-6 garlic chives- optional

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup chicken broth- approximately. I forgot to measure.

1 lb mushrooms, sliced- I used button mushrooms.

2 T flour

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Cooked pasta- I used half a box of mini ziti.

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Put the butter and olive oil in a skillet and turn the heat to medium. Add the onion, garlic chives, garlic, and mushrooms. Cook until veggies are soft. Sprinkle the flour over veggies and stir until coated. Add in the chicken broth, cook until the it thickens. Add the cream and cook until thickened and bubbly. Add garlic powder and salt and pepper. Add the Parm and stir. Put the cooked pasta in the sauce and mix until coated. Serve and enjoy!

I made a new breakfast recipe- Chai Pear Scones by Baked By an Introvert. https://www.bakedbyanintrovert.com/chai-pear-scones/

They have delicious bits of fresh pear in them. I would maybe up the spices a bit, but they were good. I did use the glaze, which I typically won’t do, but it was delicious. I brought them to my Supervision groups for the last two days, but sadly came home with a lot more than I can eat. I’m going to try freezing them, even with the glaze.

I had a craving for turkey burgers, so I found a fun Asian inspired recipe. It was originally a beef recipe from Carlsbad Cravings. https://carlsbadcravings.com/asian-burger-recipe/

I didn’t have a recipe when I went to the store, so ended up not using the slaw part. We also didn’t bother with the ketchup. Neither of us like it. I did make a little sweet chili mayo and it added a nice bit to the burger. It looked a little plain, so I sautéed mushrooms and green onions in olive oil. They turned out to be a pretty decent burger. I would make them again.

This week, the Husband is going out of town for a couple days, so I’m trying to decide what recipes I want to make just for me. Any good vegetarian ideas? Send them my way if you have them. I may also have some Lebanese food. Mmm… For now though, I’ve got some figure skating to watch and am trying to decide which thing to sew next. Have a great weekend!