When Harry Met Sally Dinner: ANNIVERSARY EDITION!

Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary!  I was going to save When Harry Met Sally until around New Year's but it's my favorite romantic movie!  It was an amazing spread of food!!

For dinner we had "Sir, there is too much Pepper on my (Chicken) Paprikash", "I will never want that Wagon Wheel Pasta", Sally's "I'll have what she's having" house salad with balsamic vinaigrette with oil on the side, Harry's Grapes, New Year's Champagne, Pecan Pie-heated with Vanilla Ice Cream… on the side, and some of our year old Wedding cake. SO GOOD!

Sir, There is too much Pepper on my (Chicken) Paprikash
I found this incredible recipe here. 

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1/2 cup of chicken broth
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
8 oz of sour cream
2 tablespoons of cornstarch

Directions:
1. Cut chicken into cubes.
2. In a small bowl add paprika, salt, garlic powder and pepper then stir.  
3. Sprinkle evenly over chicken thighs and rub in.
4. Place in your slow cooker.
5. In another bowl whisk together tomato paste and chicken broth. Pour over chicken
6. Cover and cook on low for 6.5 hours.
7. Transfer chicken to cookie sheet and cover.  Then place in the oven to keep warm.
8.  Turn setting to high-heat on the crockpot.
9. Whisk sour cream and cornstarch into the crockpot juices.
10. Cook for fifteen minutes and spoon over chicken. 

I will never want that Wagon Wheel Pasta
We just added some butter and parmesan to wheel pasta cooked for 8 minutes.

Sally's "I'll have what she's having" house salad with balsamic vinaigrette with oil on the side
Found a great summer recipe here. 

Ingredients:
4 cups of baby spinach
1 cup of sliced strawberries
1/2 cup of toasted pecans
1/2 cup of feta cheese
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
2 cloves of minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
3/4 cups of olive oil

Directions:
1. In a bowl, add the spinach, strawberries, pecans and feta cheese.
2. Toss.
3. In another bowl, whisk together vinegar, sugar, garlic, salt, pepper and oil. 
4. Whisk until sugar and salt has dissolved.

Harry's Grapes

New Year's Champagne

Pecan Pie- heated with Vanilla Ice Cream… on the side

Wedding Cake

Cheers to a great year and many more!

Harry: The first time we met, we hated each other.
Sally: No, you didn't hate me, I hated you.  The second time we met, you didn't even remember me. 
Harry: I did too, I remembered you.  The third time we met, we became friends.
Sally: We were friends for a long time.
Harry: And then we weren't
Sally: And then we fell in love. Three months later we got married.
Harry: Yeah, it only took three months.
Sally: Twelve years and three months. 

Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back Dinner

In honor of Father's Day, we celebrated with a Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back dinner!  "Luke, I am your father!"

For dinner we had a Shredded Tauntaun Meat Sandwich, Millennium Falcorn, Star Wars Jell-O Jigglers, Wampa Dip with bread, C3P0 cocktail, and Admiral Ackbar cupcakes!  

Shredded Tauntaun Meat Sandwich
I found this awesome recipe here!

Ingredients:
4 boneless chicken breasts
1 cup of BBQ sauce
1/4 cup of Zesty Italian dressing
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon of sea salt 

Directions:
1. Season chicken breast with sea salt
2. In a mixing bowl combine BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, brown sugar, and Worcestershire sauce. 
3. Place chicken in crockpot and pour sauce over
4. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours
5. Shred chicken with a knife and fork
6. Serve on a bun!

Millennium Falcorn
Bring water to a boil and add desired amount of frozen corn.  Reduce heat and simmer for two minutes.  Add butter, salt, or pepper to taste.

Star Wars Jell-O Jigglers 
I made these for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Ingredients:
1 Jell-O Jiggler Star Wars Mold Tray
2/3 cup of water
1 pkg of Jell-O

Directions
1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Spray the inside of the tray and place on a baking sheet (in case it spills).
3. Add boiling water and gelatin mix in a small bowl and stir for 3 minutes until mix has dissolved.
4. Refrigerate overnight
5. Use a knife to jiggle the jigglers loose! 

Wampa Dip
I got this awesome recipe on this site.

Ingredients:
8oz of mozzarella cheese
8oz of provolone cheese
8oz package of cream cheese
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1/8 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes

1 loaf of Artisan bread, sliced

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Shred the mozzarella and provolone into the same bowl
3. Add cream cheese, parmesan, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper flakes
4. Spray baking dish.
5. Add cheese mixture and bake for 15 minutes
6. Stir when completed and serve with bread. 

C3PO Cocktail
I found this recipe along with a whole bunch of others!

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of honey
2 tablespoons of boiling water
4oz of bourbon 
4 tablespoon of lemon juice
one lemon wedge 

YUM!

Admiral Ackbar Cupcakes!

*DISCLAIMER: Dad, I do know that Admiral Ackbar is NOT in the fifth movie but I had to make an exception because I have such an awesome idea for the sixth movie.* 

I found this amazing idea here! 

The cupcake recipe is one I have used for many dinners now: Twister, A Goofy Movie, and The Lorax dinner.  

Decorations:
For icing I just bought chocolate icing in a tube.  
Yellow Candy Melts
Black icing (for drawing the eyes, nose and mouth)
Chocolate sprinkles for his weird goatee!

TA-DA!  

It was an awesome dinner! 

I did feel like I had to add some pictures of when we went to Disney World and rode the Star Tours ride like six times… 

Happy Father's Day! 

If you liked this post, check out our Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope dinner.

Orange is the New Black Dinner

Tomorrow the next season of Orange is the New Black comes out!! Yipppeee!  We did another dinner this week because we are going on vacation next week.  However, we will see how much binge watching we can get done before then!

For dinner we had Red's Powerful Chicken Kiev, Prison Pad Thai, Taco Popcorn, Screwdriver, Miss Claudette's Famous Coconut Cake

Red's Powerful Chicken Kiev
I found some great recipes here!

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts, pounded flat
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cups of flour
1.5 cups of fine dry bread cups
8 tablespoons, softened
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoon of dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
Vegetable oil for browning

Directions:
1. Mix butter, garlic, lemon juice, parsley, salt, and pepper.  
2. Tim got really clever where he covered an ice cube tray in four ice cube slots and put it in the freezer for ten minutes
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
4. Season chicken breasts lightly with salt and pepper.
5. Remove butter mixture from freezer
6. Place one ice cube of butter in the center of each chicken breast.  Fold the sides of the chicken breast over the butter so it is completely enclosed.
7. In a skillet, add vegetable oil and heat to 350 degrees.
8. Dredge each chicken roll in flour, pat off excess, dip in beaten egg covering all sides and roll in bread crumbs to coat.
9. In a skillet, fry chicken until golden brown.  Four minutes on each side.
10. Transfer chicken to a pan and bake for 10-15 minutes in the oven.

Prison Pad Thai
I found this recipe on the same site as the Kiev!  

Ingredients:
1 package chicken flavor ramen noodles
1/3 cup of peanut butter
1/4 cup of peanuts, smashed
2 teaspoon of hot sauce

Directions:
1. Prepare ramen noodles according to the directions on the package, drain excess liquid.
2. Stir in peanut butter, peanuts and hot sauce

This recipe sounds really weird…and it is…. but it also doesn't suck.  College students of the world!  This is your new recipe!!

Taco Popcorn
Because "Don't worry, tomorrow's taco night" 
We found the recipe here but I adopted it.

Ingredients:
1 bag of popcorn
1 teaspoon of walnut oil
1/3 a bag of taco seasoning

Directions:
1. Make popcorn according to directions
2. Pour into a bowl and add walnut oil
3. Toss with Taco seasoning

Screwdriver Cocktail
Orange juice and vodka to taste 
*If you want to get creative, decorate with a screwdriver

Miss Claudette's Famous Coconut Cake
I found the recipe here and adapted it.

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter
2.5 cups of sugar
3.25 cups of flour
1/3 cup of cornstarch
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
5 large eggs
13oz of unsweetened coconut milk

Glaze:
1/4 cups of coconut milk
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/2 cup of shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (grease and flour bundt pan… seriously… do it!)
2. Combine butter and sugar in mixer for 3-5 minutes
3. Add vanilla and eggs.
4. Then add coconut milk, flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt.
5. Pour into bundt pan
6. Bake for 50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
7. For the glaze, add all ingredients together.

If you liked this dinner, check out our Californication dinner!

As we were typing and eating, the next season came out early!!! BYE!

Jurassic Park Dinner

To celebrate the opening of Jurassic World, we did a dinner for Jurassic Park!  My husband is a middle school band teacher and he even had his kids play the theme from Jurassic Park in a concert!  We are in it to win it!

*special thanks to Carol for letting us borrow her awesome dino hats!

We had Pterodactyl wings, Herbivore snacks, Dinosaur eggs, Green Dinosaur cocktail, and Fossil cookies.

Pterodactyl wings
Tim picked up buffalo wings and honey barbecue wings from the deli that we heated up.

Herbivore snacks
While Tim was picking up the wings, he also got a veggie tray!

Dinosaur Eggs
I adapted this recipe.

Ingredients:
3 eggs, hard boiled
4 quarts of cold water
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of black tea
2 teaspoons of Chinese five spice
1 stalk of green onion
1 large slice of ginger

Directions:
1. Place hard boiled eggs in a sauce pan and cover with cold water
2. Add all of the other ingredients
3. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for an hour
4. Remove from heat and let the eggs cool to room temperature in the mixture
5. Peel the shells

Green Dinosaur Cocktail
I found the idea here!

Ingredients:
1 ounce tequila
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce rum
1 ounce Midori
Fill with lemonade
A final splash of Midori 
Lemon slice

Fossil Cookies
I used my sugar cookie recipe that I've used for Toy Story 2, Breaking Bad, and The Avengers!  Then I bought some  silly dinosaur toys at the dollar store and made tracks in the cookie.  Then I dusted it with cinnamon.

Twister Dinner

On Saturday we had a send off our friends Kaden and Rachel, who are moving to Kansas, with a Twister movie night!  (Mostly to scare them into staying! Just kidding!!!)

We had a fantastic dinner!!

For dinner, we had Aunt Meg's Steak and Mashed Potatoes, Jack Daniel's glazed carrots, Twistered Tea, and Tornado Cupcakes!

For Aunt Meg's Steak
I bought four round steaks that Tim cooked up.
Tim seasoned with White Pepper and some Lawry's seasoning salt

Mashed Potatoes
I used my Grandma Sharron's Mashed Potato Casserole recipe which is the best mashed potato recipe in the whole world.  No holiday is complete without her fabulous potatoes!  They weren't perfect but they were pretty dang good!

Ingredients:
10 red mashed potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
8 oz of cream cheese
8 oz of sour cream 

Directions: 
1. Place peeled potatoes in boiling water that is lightly salted.
2. Also add in three cloves of garlic.
3. Whip together cream cheese and sour cream until smooth
4. After about 15 minutes the potatoes should be soft enough to poke with a dinner fork.
5. Pull out a potato at a time and mash them into the cream cheese/sour cream mixture.
6. Once mashed, use a mixer to whip it all together.
7. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees when you are getting close to eating dinner.
8. Place potatoes in the oven for ten minutes with three squares of butter until warm.
9. Stir in butter and serve!  YUMMMM!!

Jack Daniel's Glazed Carrots
I found the recipe here.

Ingredients:
1lb of baby carrots
6 tablespoons of butter, divided
1/2 cup of whiskey
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

Directions:
1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pot on medium high heat.
2. Pour whiskey into the pot  and cook for 40 seconds.
3. Add the remaining butter and let it melt.
4. Add the brown sugar and mix the ingredients together
5. Pour carrots in, lower the heat to medium low heat cover, and cook for five minutes.
6. Add salt and pepper and cook covered up for 5-7 minutes until tender
7. Remove from heat and keep covered until serving.

Twistered Tea (or the Suck Zone)
This was Tim's own concoction!  
1 twisted tea
4 oz of rum
a splash of grenadine

Tornado Cupcakes
I used our Lorax cupcake recipes for both the cupcake and the icing.

For the Tornado, I melted about a cup of chocolate chips, drew tornados on a piece of wax paper and stuck it in the freezer.

Entourage Dinner

We are gearing up for the Entourage movie coming out this week!  We watched  nine episodes of the show and had some awesome food!

We had an awesome meal of E's Irish Pork Sausages, Ari's Challah Bread, Johnny's Bananas, Aquaman Cocktail, and Turtle's salted caramel turtle sundae!  Yummy!

E's Irish Pork Sausages
I found a recipe here and we adapted it.



For the Onion Gravy:

Ingredients
2 red onions, sliced
3/4 tablespoon of flour
3/4 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar
125ml of beef stock
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1. Fry the onions in a large frying pan over medium heat until they soften.
2. Add the flour and stir the onions, add the sugar, balsamic, and stock.
3. Allow to simmer gently for 20 minutes
4. Season to taste


For the Sausages:

Ingredients
4 pork sausages
fresh sage leaves
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2. Place sausages in an oven safe tray
3. Add the sage and drizzle with olive oil
4. Place in the oven for thirty minutes until golden brown and cooked through. 


For the Mash:

Ingredients
Buttery Homestyle Instant Potatoes
1/2 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste 

Directions
1. Make the instant potatoes according to packaging
2. Add milk and nutmeg
3. Season to taste and set aside

Plate with mashed potatoes, place sausage on top, and top with gravy.

Ari's Challah Bread
I got the recipe here for that here and tweaked it a bit. 

Ingredients
2.5 tsp. active dry yeast
3/4 cup of warm water 
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of olive oil
4 eggs
1 tablespoon of salt
4 cups of flour

Directions
1. In your stand mixer, dissolve the yeast in the warm water.  Let sit for five minutes or until yeast begins to foam.
2. Mix oil, sugar and salt into yeast.
3. Add 3 eggs one at a time.
4. Add four cups of flour in one cup increments mixing the dough with the dough hook.
5. Oil a large bowl with olive oil and place dough inside and cover with a clean towel.  Let rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours or until it has doubled in size.
6. When it has doubled turn it over in your bowl.  Put in the fridge and let it rise overnight in the fridge.
7. Cut the loaf into 6 equal pieces.
8. Roll each piece of dough out into a long rope.
9. To braid, watch this video… it's harder than it looks!  
10. Brush the braided bread with 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water. 
11. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and back for 20 minutes.
12. After 20 minutes, pull out and brush with egg wash and bake for 15 more minutes.
13. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Johnny's Bananas

Aquaman Cocktail
We found the recipe here.

Ingredients
1 part aquavit
1 part gin
1 dash Martini & Rossi Extra Dry Vermouth
3 drop of lemon

*too be honest… it was a little too strong for me……….  

Turtle's Salted Caramel Turtle Sundae
I found the recipe here and adapted it.

Ingredients
Vanilla bean ice cream
Hot fudge salted caramel sauce
Caramel sauce
Hershey's chocolate syrup
Pecan Pieces
Maraschino cherries

If you enjoyed this, check out our Californication dinner!