Pirates of the Caribbean dinner
The kids are finally at an age where they can enjoy movies – the stories, the visuals, especially themed movies – they’re really getting into it. This week was the premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides.
I knew I wanted the kids to fully experience it so we had ‘dinner and a movie’ night to watch the previous Pirates. Luckily they loved the movies (and weren’t scared) and mostly because of our family love of Disney they were ready for the full experience. It’s a good thing too because I got VIP tickets to see the new Pirates at the El Capitan in Hollywood (recap, here).
To go along with our Pirates celebration I made a Pirates themed dinner of course!
We talked about what pirates eat on the ship: “Bread! Chicken! There’s not room for anything else!” Hm. Ok. And if you remember green apples are BIG part of the movies as well. I also made a special pirate-y dessert.
Salt + Pepper chicken drumsticks (recipe, here)
Garlic Bread
Green Apples
Cap’n Crunch Treasure Treats (recipe, here)
Milk
The Baby wanted RUM “like the pirates drink.” Yeah, nice try 5 year old, it’s milk or nothing. We enjoyed our pirates dinner and re-watched the old movies – the Baby in full pirate regalia, of course.
Cap’n Crunch Treasure Treats
Just like your favorite rice cereal treat, but with a twist! Also thar be buried treasure in these treats for young pirates to find…
ingredients:
1 bag of large marshmallows
2 Tablespoons butter
pinch of salt
6 cups Cap’n Crunch Crunch Treasure cereal
1/2 cup fruit snacks
I happened to find this Cap’n Crunch Treasures cereal and what caught my eye more than the fact that it was 1/2 the sugar of regular Cap’n Crunch was that it only cost $1 a box! Yay for cheapness.
Grease a 9″x13″ pan with melted butter. Set aside.
In a large pot heat the marshmallows and the butter. Once it starts to break down and melt, add the pinch of salt. Stir up this sticky mess and once it is all combined fold in the cereal, careful not to crush it.
Once the cereal is coated in the marshmallow mixture, pour HALF of it into the prepared pan.
Here’s where the treasure comes in – you’re going to bury the fruit snacks into the cereal treats.
Top with the rest of the cereal mixture.
Push down to even it out flat, and let sit to cool. Cover with plastic wrap until you are ready to serve. Then cut into squares.
The kids love finding the different fruit snacks buried in their treat. It’s a fun and tasty dessert!
Salt + Pepper Chicken Drumsticks
This is the simplest of recipes – using only 3 ingredients, it’s a great quick dinner in a pinch. You’ll be surprised at how delicious just salt and pepper can be.
ingredients:
6-8 chicken drumsticks
salt
pepper
melted butter
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and place a wire rack on top. Lightly grease the wire rack with a little bit of oil.
Wash and pat dry the chicken, then place the drumsticks on top of the wire rack.
Brush the melted butter on top of the drumsticks, then season liberally with salt and pepper.
Bake in the preheated oven for 50 minutes to one hour, depending on your oven, until done.
Chili Burger Sliders
Now that Oprah’s over I have no one to tell me how to live my life. I will bury my sorrows in chili burgers.
It’s Memorial Weekend – if you’re having a party try to make your life easy – ahem – I’m one to talk (party over-doer), but you know what I’m saying. The less steps the better.
These little sliders are perfect because you just set your crock pot o’ chili up in the morning, then cook the burgers in the oven and bring them out when the guests are ready. No standing at the grill getting sweaty and gross – just kick it in the kitchen and enjoy the fun!
ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
King’s Hawaiian sweet bread rolls
crock pot of chili (I like my ‘Not-Zippy’s Chili’ for these recipe, here)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep a baking sheet lined with foil on the bottom and then a wire rack on top.
In a bowl combine the ground beef, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Form little slider size patties, I like to indent the center so they cook evenly.
Place on the prepped pan and bake for 20-30 minutes as desired, until the juices run clear.
I love serving warm meaty dishes on King’s Hawaiian rolls. The sweet Portuguese bread seems to always balance things out.
Place the burgers on the sweet bread rolls and top with the crock pot chili, or have the guests assemble their own. A perfect party treat!
Flautas
Here at justJENN headquarters we love us some Mexican food. And really, is there anything better than fried Mexican food?? Well, it’s not the healthiest – and while I could care less about myself, I DO care about what the kids eat and so I try to doctor up some of their faves to make them slightly healthier. Plus frying things at home can be such a drag.
So I made some flautas but baked them in the oven. They crisped up perfectly and honestly it was hard to tell the diff between these and the fried version. This is a regular meal of ours and don’t let the prep fool you, they are quick to make!
ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
my homemade taco seasoning (recipe here)
flour tortillas
melted butter
In a pan over medium high heat, brown the ground beef and sprinkle the taco seasoning on top. Simmer for a few minutes, then set aside.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Prep a sheet pan with foil and then a wire rack on top.
Take the flour tortilla and add about 4-5 Tablespoons of the meat filling. Tightly roll the tortilla, securing it with toothpicks. (You’ll remove these later.)
Once they are all rolled, brush with melted butter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until browned and crisp.
Take the toothpicks out before serving, they go great with salsa and guacamole!
Homemade Taco Seasoning
I don’t know what it is, the preservatives, the sodium – I just hate pre-packaged things. Even seasoning. I like to make my own so that I can control what goes into it, as well as the level of spice.
This taco seasoning is EASY. And once you have the base ingredients you can use it over and over on beef, chicken, shrimp – just about anything!
ingredients:
1 Tablespoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Mix well and keep in an airtight container.
Moomin cupcakes
Moomin is one of those characters you just look at and immediately assume is Japanese. After all he’s very popular in Japan and in the Japanese markets his face is on every cracker/cookie/candy you can find. But like a lot of kawaii characters, he is Finnish! I guess the Japanese just adopted him as their own. He is so popular – he has his own tv show AND his own theme park! Quite the celeb.
Either way, the Moomin cookies I found at the Japanese market were so adorable and delicious, I knew they’d be perfect toppers for cupcakes. Cookies are a quick and easy way to decorate cupcakes without a lot of effort and a whole lotta cuteness. Plus I always love having two desserts in one…
ingredients:
Milk Tea cupcakes (recipe, here)
Mascarpone frosting (recipe, here)
Moomin cookies
‘tree stump’ chocolates
green white chocolate curls
For the cupcakes I used Royal/T’s milk tea to make the cupcakes. Something about the cute little cookies made me think of tea and how they’d be perfect for an afternoon treat.
Once the cupcakes are cooled, frost them – then roll them in the green white chocolate curls. I just love those things, they look like a lovely spring grass to me.
As you know, I love to wander the Asian markets because you can find the craziest stuff, and it always inspires me to decorate cupcakes. So really, I’ve been eyeing these ‘tree stumps’ in the candy section for years, always wondering what they were. Once I even asked O.G. to translate it to which she said, “How do I know, I don’t read Japanese.” Great. Bad asians. So I bought the box anyway just to peek at what was inside.
I found out they really were tree stump shaped cookies dipped in chocolate. Why the heck would they even make these I have no idea, but they seemed a perfect fit for these Moomin cupcakes.
In the end Moomin looks happy perched atop his cupcake home. At least he has a nice little chocolate tree stump to keep him company.
Comfort Food to go
I have a friend who I miss dearly. We’ve known each other for years, but you know how things go – kids, work, life – there’s no time to catch up. We’ve gone months, sometimes years without talking or seeing each other. But let’s face it, I’m not leaving the house while Oprah’s counting down to her last show. All joking aside, time flies faster than you can keep track.
I think about her all the time though, and she once joked that I should have a take out service where I deliver home cooked meals to friends. I took that ‘joke’ to heart and since her office is on one of my many daily routes, I carved out a bit of time to drop off some things I know would make her happy – because really all you need is carbs + sugar to make your life better, right…?
First I made some mac n cheese (keep the ‘pot’, hold the ‘pie’) in ramekins (recipe here) and wrapped them in plastic and froze them. I printed out reheating directions in a fun little card and attached it to the pot pies.
I then pre-packaged DIY Smores, a pack of marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolates. Again with instructions for whenever she felt like making up a quick dessert.
This was a fun way to show my friend how much I care and heck, we could all use a little help with simple meals now and again. I know I often (A LOT) feel unappreciated or forgotten, and sometimes it’s nice to remind people that you are thinking of them, even if you don’t see them as often as you’d like.
Ricotta Bake
This is one of my favorite meals. Why? Because I have the kids do most of the work.
If your kids are old enough (and you have the right mindset of letting go of mess) why not let the kids mix and stir and pour? It’s a big help in the kitchen and by getting involved – I know my kids are more likely to eat something that they’ve proudly helped with. Now to get them to learn to use the deep fryer…
ingredients:
1 package penne pasta
5 cups marinara
1-1/2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 (15 oz) container ricotta cheese
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 egg
zest of half a lemon
salt
pepper
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prep a 9×13 pan by greasing it with melted butter. Set aside.
In a large pot, boil the pasta according to the package directions. Drain, do not rinse.
Now here’s when you get the kids to do all the work. Mix the pasta with half the marinara and pour into the prepped pan. Then pour the rest of the sauce on top.
My kids being children born in the 2000′s have never realized that you can actually grate your own cheese, it doesn’t just come in a bag pre-done. HELLO. That was one of my jobs as a kid, my mom always made me grate cheese and I always thought, why don’t they just sell it pre-grated?? I was a child genius ahead of my time, obvs.
To come full circle I decided to enforce child labor and make the kids do all the grating of the cheese. As you can tell by the pic it takes two people to grate mozzarella cheese, apparently.
Sprinkle the well-grated-child-labor-cheese on top of the pasta and sauce.
Then, in a medium bowl combine the ricotta, parmesan, egg and lemon zest. Stir together well, season with salt and pepper. Again, this is something the kids can do easily since it’s just mixing.
Drop the ricotta by dollops, almost like biscuits, on top of the penne.
Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes and serve.
While you’ll have to do the pasta boiling and oven part – the rest can be done by the kids, which is nice. Getting them involved in the kitchen makes them want to try new foods and frankly, it’ll give YOU a much needed break.
Chocolate Chip Cookies with See’s chips
Can you believe today is ‘National Chocolate Chip Day?’
Man, they have a holiday for everything.
If we had a family crest, there’d probably be a picture of See’s Candies on it. We eat A LOT of it. It’s a Southern California fave and boy, does our family do our part to keep them in business. Meaning – every week you will find a box of See’s at O.G.’s house, so that when our family visits, it’s a tradition to dig through and pick our faves.
What a surprise to find out that See’s has chocolate chips! The chips are massively big, which makes these cookies about 90% chocolate, that’s the way I like it. When I made these O.G. complained that she likes more cookie, less chocolate – which is ironic considering I once watched her polish off a half pound of chocolate in one sitting. Since she’s 90 years old, I guess chocolate is the fountain of youth, my friends.
ingredients:
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
See’s chocolate chips (yes, use the entire bag!!)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with silpats.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Add the vanilla and the eggs until combined.
Spoon in the flour until the dough comes together.
Fold in the large chocolate chips by hand, so that the chips are incorporated throughout the mixture.
Form the dough into small balls, a little over a Tablepoon, and place them on the prepped sheets 2 inches apart. You will get about 4 dozen cookies depending on the size you make them.
Bake for 10 minutes until browned – depending on your oven, and let cool on a wire rack.
I like my cookies more on the crisp side, so I cook them just a touch more which makes them cripsy, almost hard when they cool – but they melt in your mouth as soon as you bite into them!
