The Best of 2015

We have been blogging and eating for almost a year now!  We are in 38 countries and counting!  Here is a map of where our fabulous viewers come from!

We had some amazing meals and here are the dishes that really stood out!!


The best entree:
We both agreed that the favorite entree was the amazing Mushu's Moo Shu Chicken Lettuce Wraps from our awesome Mulan dinner!

The Best Side Dish:

My favorite side dish comes from our Twister dinner!  It's my Grandma Sharron's famous mashed potatoes!  A must for any holiday dinner!

Tim's favorite side dish were the Dinosaur eggs from the Jurassic Park dinner!

The Best Cocktail/Drink:

My favorite cocktail was the Port Royal Punch from our Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl dinner!

Tim's favorite drink comes again from the fabulous Mulan dinner.  The Warlord cocktail was amazing and I'm craving one right now!

Best Dessert:

My favorite dessert are the Truffula Tree Cupcakes from the Lorax dinner!  

Tim's favorite dessert was also from Mulan!  (Tim REALLY liked the Mulan dinner)  It was Mulan's Fortune Cookie Green Tea Cupcakes with Matcha Powder Frosting! YUMMMMM!!!!

2015 was a great year of food, friends, and family!  We are looking forward to another awesome year with our little lady as a much anticipated addition!  Happy New Year!

Elf Dinner

Tonight we had a fabulous dinner with fabulous friends!  We celebrated Christmas with an Elf Dinner with Tim, my parents, my grandparents, my brother Josh, my cousin Becca, my friend/second mom Shirley, and her lovely pooch Kirby!

Josh and Shirley got into the spirit and wore festive outfits!!

For dinner, we had Buddy the Elf's Sweet Spaghetti, "Smiling's my favorite" fries, "You smell like beef and cheese" appetizers, The World's Greatest Cup of Coffee with Syrup, and for dessert we had Central Park Trees.

Buddy the Elf's Sweet Spaghetti

I got the recipe from this site and changed it up a bit! 

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 small onions, chopped

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 8oz can of tomato paste 

2 28oz can of petite diced tomatoes

6oz of water

1 teaspoon of oregano

1 teaspoon of basil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

6 tablespoons of maple syrup (don't be afraid!!!)

2 packages of Spaghetti,cooked to package directions

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium heat and add onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes until onions are translucent.

2. Stir in tomato paste and cook for 2-3 more minutes

3. Stir in all of the other ingredients

4. Reduce heat to low and simmer for twenty minutes

5. Serve hot over spaghetti 

"Smiling's My Favorite" Fries

Shirley brought smiley fries that she got from Wal-Mart

"You smell like beef and cheese" appetizers
My mom found some beef and cheese taquitos 

The World's Greatest Cup of Coffee...with Syrup
It's just a cup of coffee with or without your choice of Rum Chata, Bailey's, or Kaluha.  I, of course, had regular coffee. 

Central Park Trees
We have peppermint ice cream trees.

What a fabulous dinner!! It definitely got us in the Christmas Spirit! 

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi Dinner

As we anxiously await the arrival of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, we did a dinner for Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi!  AND BOY OH BOY, WE SURE HAD FUN!!!

For dinner, we had Boba Fett-uccine, Han in Carbonite Jell-O, Ewok Trail Mix, Dagobah Swamp Soda, and an awesome Sarlaac Pit Bundt Cake.  I also made Jell-O jigglers because I have a kit for Star Wars and why not??

Boba Fett-uccine
Tim made Fettuccine noodles and we heated up some Alfredo sauce.  Tim put pepper and pepperocini peppers on his!  (Mine was plain because I'm not sure how baby will react to spice!)

Han in Carbonite Jell-O
I just made Jell-O according to the directions on the box and stuck a Han Solo lego figure inside! 

Star Wars Jell-O Jigglers
I made these just for the heck of it!

Ewok Trail Mix

We bought a small trail mix package from the grocery store (that had cranberries, white chocolate chips, and nuts) and we added Teddy Grahams!

Dagobah Swamp Soda

Ingredients:

3 parts Sprite

1 parts Lime Soda (like Italian)

A scoop of Lime Sherbet 

Sarlacc Pit Bundt Cake

This is probably my pride and joy!  I was so excited that it turned out so well!  I got the idea here but adjusted it to make it a little easier!  

Ingredients: 

3 cups of flour

1.5 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 teaspoon of baking soda 

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of butter

3/4 cup of sugar

3/4 cup of brown sugar

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

1 cup of buttermilk

Sea Salt Chocolate Sauce 

1 package of Biscoff cookies 

Slivered Almonds

2 Geneva Cookies (from Pepperidge Farms)

White icing 

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and spray your bundt cake pan.

2. With your electric mixer, beat the softened butter with both sugars until fluffy.

3. Beat eggs in one at a time, then add vanilla.

4. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt slowly as not to overwhelm the mixer.

5. Add buttermilk until completely mixed. 

6. Pour into bundt cake pan and bake for 45 minutes.

7. Cool for a few minutes and remove from the bundt cake pan with a spatula

8. Heat the Sea Salt Chocolate Sauce in the microwave until spreadable.  Drizzle evenly to cover most of the bundt cake.  

9.  Take the Biscoff cookies and smash until they are crumbs, spread on top of the chocolate sauce to look like sand

10.  Insert the slivered almonds on the inside of the bundt cake to look like teeth.

11. Using your icing, make teeth on the inside edge of both Geneva cookies and place inside the bundt cake.  

12. ENJOY!!!!

This dinner was soooo fun!  If you enjoyed it, check out our Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope dinner and our Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back dinner!

An American Tail Dinner

To get in the holiday spirit, we did An American Tail dinner because tonight is the second night of Hanukkah!  This movie is one of Tim's very favorite movies!  We've been looking forward to it for a long time!

For dinner, we had Mousekewitz's Vareniki, Tiger's Broccoli, The Streets are Paved with Cheese and Crackers, Moscow Mules, and Hanukkah Rugelach.

Mousekewitz's Vareniki 
I chose this dish because it's a Russian dumpling dish with cheese (perfect for the mice!)  It was my first stab at dumplings and they were pretty good!  I got the recipe here and sort of made it my own (since I don't need to make 140 dumplings, we had to get a tad creative!)

Ingredients:
1 large egg
1/2 tablespoon of sour cream
1/6 cup of water
1/3 cup of milk
1.25 cups of flour
3 Potatoes
1 tablespoon of salt
1/3 cup of Mozzarella cheese
1 ounce of cream cheese
1 tablespoon of butter, melted
3 slices of bacon, cut up into chunks 
1/4 of an onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of butter, not melted 

Directions:
1. Mix together egg, sour cream, water, milk, and flour.  This will create the dough.
2.  Knead the dough for a few minutes on a floured surface, sprinkling in flour to help not be so sticky.
3. Tear off pieces of dough and roll out into circles (or as close as you can get!)  
4. When you are done with the dough, let rest for a bit while you peel the potatoes and cut into small chunks.
5. Place potatoes in a large pot with water and a tablespoon of salt.  Bring to a boil and cook for about ten minutes until soft.
6. Drain potatoes and remove from heat.  
7. Mix in cream cheese, Mozzarella cheese, and melted butter
8. Using a spoon, spoon the potato mixture into the circular dough.
9.  Pinch each dumpling around the edge so it won't open when you cook it. 
10.  Once dumplings are finished, bring a large pot of water to a boil.
11. Drop the dumplings in the boiling water.  Once the dumplings rise to the top, then let cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from water with a slotted spoon.
12. While the dumplings are cooking you can make the Zazharka.  You cook the bacon up and once it's close to done, add the onions, and finally stir in the butter.  You drizzle these over the finished dumplings. 

Tiger's Broccoli
We just cooked up some frozen broccoli by following the stovetop instructions on the packaging.

The Streets are Paved with Cheese and Crackers

Moscow Mule
Using our fancy copper mugs, Tim had a fabulous Moscow mule.

Ingredients:
4oz Smirnoff Vodka
6oz Ginger Beer
The juice of half a lime
Ice

*I had sparkling grape juice!

Hanukkah Rugelach
I have made these cookies every year and they are so tasty!  I found the recipe here!

Ingredients:
2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature 
8 ounces of cream cheese, at room temperature 
1/2 cup of sour cream
2 cups of flour

Toppings: 
Apricot Jelly
Sliced Almonds
Chopped Dates
Chocolate Chips, Mini
Nutella 
Dried Cherries
*obviously not all together

Directions:
1. Mix together butter, cream cheese and sour cream in a large bowl.  Slowly add the flour.
2. Refrigerate for a few hours
3. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees 
4. Take out about 1/4 of the dough and place between two sheets of parchment paper and roll out with a rolling pin.
5. Refrigerate for a few minutes to keep the dough from getting too sticky. 
6. Add your fillings, refrigerate for a few more minutes
7. Roll into a log, refrigerate for a few minutes 
8. Cut into 12 small slices and place on a baking sheet
9. Cook for about 15 minutes

I had three kinds of fillings:
#1. Apricot Jelly and Sliced Almonds
#2. Chopped Dates, Chocolate Chips, Sliced Almonds (I wouldn't do this again because the filling doesn't stay in)
#3. Nutella and Dried Cherries

We had a fabulous dinner that we incorporated into our fun countdown to Christmas! 

Friends Dinner

To celebrate Thanksgiving and utilize our leftovers, we did a Friends Thanksgiving Dinner and watched all 10 of the Thanksgiving episodes.  We actually did this dinner last year and it was so much food and so much Friends that we decided to spread it out over a few days!

For dinner (or dinners) we had The Joey Special (Two Pizzas), Ross's Sandwich with a Moist Maker, Chandler and Monica's Perfect Mac and Cheese, Central Perk Coffee, Rachel's "Feetless" English Trifle, and Phoebe's Grandmother's Cookies

The episodes we watched were the Thanksgiving episodes.  Here is the list: Season 1 Episode 9: The One Where Underdog Gets Away, Season 3 Episode 9: The One with the Football, Season 4 Episode 8: The One with Chandler in a Box, Season 5 Episode 8: The One with the Thanksgiving Flashbacks, Season 5 Episode 9: The One with Ross's Sandwich,  Season 6 Episode 9: The One Where Ross Got High, Season 7 Episode 8: The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs, Season 8 Episode 9: The One with the Rumor, Season 9 Episode 8: The One with Rachel's Other Sister, and lastly, Season 10 Episode 8: The One with the Late Thanksgiving.

The Joey Special (2 Pizzas)

We made two frozen pizzas for the occasion.

Ross's Sandwich with a Moist Maker:

Ingredients:

3 Pieces of Wheat Bread

Leftover Stuffing

Leftover Gravy

Leftover Turkey

Leftover Cranberries

Assemble to your liking the middle piece of bread should be soaked up in gravy (creating a moist maker)

*It doesn't look special but let me tell you, we've been waiting for a repeat of this sandwich for a whole year!!

Chandler and Monica's Perfect Mac and Cheese

Ingredients:

16 oz package of shell pasta

1/4 cup of butter

1/4 cup of flour

2.5 cups of milk

6 slices of cheddar cheese

8oz of Sharp White Cheddar

1 tablespoon of Dijon Mustard

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon of hot sauce

It's the same recipe I used for the Little Mermaid Dinner!

Directions:

1. Prepare pasta according to the box

2. Melt butter over low heat.  Once melted, whisk in the flour and cook for one minutes

3. Whisk in milk and cook on medium heat until mixture thickens and begins to bubble.

4. Reduce heat and stir in cheeses, mustard, salt, and hot sauce.

5. Stir in pasta and serve

Central Perk Coffee

Rachel's "Feetless" English Trifle 

Ingredients:

Vanilla Pound Cake

Raspberries

Whipped Cream

Phoebe's Grandmother's Cookies

*like in the show, they are Nestle Tollhouse cookies

It was such a fun few days with tons of leftovers!!