Saturday, July 30, 2016

One Crazy Summer Dinner

Well, it's our first dinner in Minnesota and we are currently living with my parents until our apartment opens up!  So we had a Wolf family Reel Fancy Dinner Extravaganza! 



We watched One Crazy Summer (a Wolf family favorite) and we had George's Chili Dogs, Egg's Deviled Eggs, Zucchini Regatta Boats, Hoops' Oranges, One Crazy Summer Shandy, and Fluffy Bunny Cookies.





George's Chili Dogs 

I found the recipe here and revamped it (since I didn't want to take six hours to make it!)

Ingredients:
1 chopped white onion
4 stalks of celery, chopped 
1/4 cup of butter
2lbs of ground beef
The juice of one lemon
1 package of mccormick's mild chili seasoning
1 teaspoon of regular yellow mustard
34oz of tomato sauce
2 teaspoon of worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 packages of hot dogs
Enough buns for the hot dogs
1 package of colby jack cheese

Directions: 
1. Melt butter in a medium pan and add the ground beef, brown.
2. Add celery and onions, cook for 3-5 minutes.
3. In a pot, add beef mix and lemon juice, mild chili seasoning, yellow mustard, tomato sauce, worcestershire sauce, salt, and brown sugar and cook on medium heat and cover
4. After about 10 minutes, reduce heat to a simmer and uncover. Let cook until the hot dogs are ready!
5. While the meat is simmering, cook up the hot dogs on the grill until done. 
6. In an oven safe pan, place all of the hot dog buns with the hot dogs inside.  Spoon the meat mixture over the hot dogs and cover with shredded cheese.
7. Place in the oven on broil until the cheese has melted.





My Grandma Sharron brought over some deviled eggs but instead of covering with paprika, add chives.




Zucchini Regatta Boats 
I found the recipe here and tweaked it a bit! 

Ingredients:
4 large English Cucumbers, cut in half lengthwise. (They were supposed to be Zucchinis but I couldn't find any that passed the test in the grocery store so I settled for English Cucumbers that are basically the brother of Zucchinis.)
1/2 cup of butter
1 chopped white onion
3 teaspoons of minced garlic
8oz package of baby bella mushrooms, sliced
2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 cups of panko bread crumbs 
1.5 cups of Parmesan cheese
1 cup of sour cream
2 teaspoon of thyme
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Lemon Zest from one lemon 
10 Bamboo Skewers
10 Paper sails 

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Using a pumpkin scoop (yes, a Halloween pumpkin scooper), remove the pulp and place on a cutting board.  
3. Finely chop the cucumber pulp.
4. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.
5. Once the butter has melted, add onion, garlic, and cucumber pulp.  Cook for about 15 minutes until pulp is tender.
6. Add mushrooms and bell peppers; cook for five minutes.
7. Remove from heat and add bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, sour cream, thyme, lemon zest, and salt. 
8. Place hollowed out cucumbers in a pan, and fill with the veggie mixture.
9. Bake for 30 minutes and sprinkle with a little bit of cheese.
10. Stick a paper sail on a bamboo stick and place in the cucumber boats. 





Hoops' Basketballs
I just took cutie oranges and used a sharpie to create basketball lines. 




One Crazy Summer Shandy
We indulged in some Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.


Fluffy Bunny Cookies
I found the recipe here.

Ingredients:
3 cups of white chocolate chips
8 Oreo cookies
8 mini marshmallows
Pink gel
Black gel

Directions:
1. Melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir until creamy.
2. If the chocolate gets hard, add some milk or cream to make smoother.
3. Dip the Oreos in white chocolate.
4. Place on a plate and put in the fridge for an hour.
5. Once the chocolate has set, paint a bunny face with the pink and black gel.
6. Use the gel as a glue for the marshmallow bunny tail.

Enjoy!




Here is our whole clan enjoying the dinner! 









Olivia also enjoyed some of her own veggies! 




Happy summer! 



Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Hugo Dinner

We have a ton of stuff from our Try the World box we wanted to use for our theme dinners!  So we did a dinner for HUGO and boy, was it yummy! 



For dinner, we had Steak Au Poivre, "Le Voyage Dans la Lun" Twice Baked Cheese Souffle, Train Station Croissants, The Hugo Cocktail, and La Mere Poulard Palets for dessert. 


Steak Au Poivre

Ingredients:
2 Steaks
Butter
2 packets of Christian Potier Peppercorn Sauce (from Try the World: France box)
Salt and Pepper to season the steaks

Directions:
1. Season the steaks with salt and pepper
2. Cook the steaks in butter on a skillet until medium rare
3. Heat Peppercorn Sauce in a saucepan on the stove until warm 
4. Serve Peppercorn Sauce over the steak. 






"Le Voyage Dans la Lun" Twice Baked Cheese Souffle
I found this recipe here and tweaked it just a bit! 

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of butter to grease ramekins
1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs
1/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of butter
1/3 cup of flour 
75 grams of Boursin goat cheese 
1/4 cup of Gruyere cheese (shredded)
2 eggs, separated
Dried thyme
1/3 cup of heavy cream

Directions:
1. Butter the inside of two ramekins and dust them with the breadcrumbs
2. Preheat the oven to 390 degrees F
3. Separate eggs, putting the yolks in a small bowl and the whites in a small bowl. 
4. Heat the milk in a saucepan (don't boil)
5. In a separate saucepan melt the butter, add the flour and stir.
6. Add the milk and stir until it becomes a sauce.
7. Beat in egg yolks, thyme, and boursin cheese.
8. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and a dash of salt until stiff and fold into the cheese mix.
9. Divide the mix between the two ramekins and place the ramekins in a cake pan and fill up with hot water. 
10. Bake for 20 minutes until they've risen and gotten a little brown on the top.
11. Put out and dump the water out.  Pour the heavy cream over each souffle and top with Gruyere cheese.
12. Place back in the over for 15 minutes.
13. Serve right away

The souffles did rise but I didn't snap a picture quick enough!  While it's not the prettiest thing, it sure was one of the tastiest!  

YUM!








Train Station Croissants





The Hugo Cocktail
3 Parts Prosecco, chilled
1 Part of the Ekologisk Elderflower Syrup (from our Swedish Try the World box) 
Mint Leaves
2 lemon wedges (one squeezed into the drink and one for a garnish)

*This is one of the best drinks we've had in a while!  It's the perfect summer cocktail and it's so refreshing!





La Mere Poulard Palets
These Cookies were from our Try The World: France box! 





It was a fabulous dinner!  If you like trying new things, you should check out Try the World!  It's so much fun!  


Monday, July 11, 2016

The Last Dragon Dinner

We did a dinner for The Last Dragon, a movie which (oddly) has a really important place in my relationship with my husband.  This was the very first movie we ever watched together!  And yes, I STILL married him! 







For dinner we had "Just Direct-A Your Feets-A To Daddy Green's Pizza" Pizza, Popcorn with Chopsticks, "I Would Love To Peel This Banana" Bananas, The Glow Cocktail and "Glow-Nuff".  For Dessert we had Sum Dum Goy Fortune Cookies. 



'Just Direct-A Your Feets-A To Daddy Green's Pizza" Pizza
We got two small pizzas from Mackenzie River!  



Popcorn with Chopsticks
We made up some butter popcorn and sprinkled some Thai Ginger salt on it.  Yum!



Eating popcorn with chopsticks... clearly cinematic gold. 





"I Would Love To Peel This Banana" Bananas





The Glow 
1 Reds Hard Cider
1 oz of Seagram's 7 Crown Dark Honey Whiskey
1 oz of Ginger Liqueur


The Glow-Nuff
1 Reds Hard Cider
1 oz of Seagram's 7 Crown Dark Honey Whiskey
1 oz of Ginger Liqueur
Mix with grenadine to get the red glow!





Sum Dum Goy Fortune Cookies


Kiss My Converse!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Monday, July 4, 2016

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Dinner

To celebrate, we did a Captain America: The Winter Soldier dinner over the weekend with my in-laws.  We had a very patriotic time!





For dinner we had Captain America's Breakfast Shield, Patriotic Popcorn, The Captain America Cocktail, Grand Old Flag Cake, and Shield Cookies.







Captain America's Breakfast Shield
I got the recipe from this website here!

Ingredients (makes five):

5 tortillas
5 eggs
5 tsp of water
Blue food coloring
1 can of refried beans
1 jar of salsa
Mozzarella cheese, shredded
5 pieces of sliced mozzarella

Directions:

1. Spread refried beans and salsa generously over each tortilla, set aside.
2. Cut out five mozzarella stars from the sliced mozzarella, set aside
3. Pour 1 teaspoon of water and a few drops of food coloring in a small bowl.
4. Add 1 egg to mixture and shake around until egg white is blue.
5. Spray a small skillet with cooking spray, put a circular cookie mold on the skillet on medium high heat, and pour the egg mixture in until cooked.
6. Toast one tortilla at a time on a larger skillet.  Add the egg to the center of the tortilla.
7.  Sprinkle shredded mozzarella around the tortilla and add the cheese star on top of the egg.








Patriotic Popcorn
We used the recipe from our Sleeping Beauty dinner but we made blue and red popcorn!






The Captain America Cocktail

Ingredients:
1 part Blue Curacao
1 part Grenadine
1 part Creme de Cacao 









Grand Old Flag Cake
This is a Wolf family staple!

Ingredients:
Lemon Cake Mix 
Cool Whip
Blueberries
Strawberries

Directions:
1. Make the cake in a 9x13 pan according to box directions.
2. Place in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
3. Cover the cake in Cool Whip.
4. Use blueberries and strawberries to create a flag!




You could also use bananas like my cousin Kara! (1000 miles away and we made the same dessert!  How crazy!!?)






Shield Cookies
I found these at the grocery store and I thought they made an excellent addition to our dinner! 







Happy 4th of July!  Olivia had so many patriotic outfits, we had to have a long weekend of Red, White, and Blue!











Well this outfit isn't patriotic... but she pooped on so many clothes, we had to wear a kitty outfit! 




Today we lost Tim's Grandma (Olivia's Great Grandma) Ann.  These fireworks were a beautiful reminder that you were watching over us!  I'm so glad I got to meet you!  We love you!










If you like this dinner, check out our dinners for Captain American: The First Avenger, The Avengers, and Iron Man