Aladdin Movie Night

We've got a Disney World trip planned in our future and we are BEYOND excited.

(If you do Disney, you know what I'm talking about!)

 (2012 trip)

(2011 trip)

So, to count down and hype up the already-extreme-anticipation, I have planned a few 

Disney Movie Nights.

Here were some 'rules' I set for our Disney Countdown Movie Nights:

-Keep it simple.

-Keep it themed.

Easy, right???? 

I tend to over-think and drive myself crazy with 'crafting' party stuff. So I decided to focus my decorations on the kitchen table.

And I wanted to have the food go with the movie. 

(Helllloooo Pinterest!) 

Will you join us for the first one???

I'll give you a hint....

"Arabian niiiiiiiiights, like Arabian daaaaaaays..."

(You're singing the song now, right?)

We love riding the Magic Carpets at Disneys' Magic Kingdom so, of course, Aladdin seemed like a logical movie to start the count down!

I know, I know.... first picture and I've already broken rule #1.
Since I was planning dinner to be eaten at a low table with fancy pillows, there was no sense in decorating a kitchen table we weren't going to be using. So, the fireplace got a make-over. (I needed to take down the Valentine's decor anyway!)

I drew an 'Arabian' backdrop onto a big piece of cardboard. Then I cut it out with a straight blade right before I spray painted it black.
It totally set the theme and I was so excited to make it!
And I'm also glad I have a small lantern fascination these days. I didn't buy any for this dinner!

The gold pillows were made from extra gold fabric I've had for years that was tucked away in my Christmas decorations box. I sewed three sides for the pillows, slipped various couch pillows in and tucked in the fourth side. I didn't want to make them permanent because I really wasn't wanting gold pillows for my everyday look.

While I was in the basement storage, getting the gold fabric, I picked up some beads (also in Christmas storage) and found an old clear vase that I spray painted gold. The sticks and feathers that I placed in the newly painted gold vase came from my Christmas wreath.... the one that never got made.

I did purchase a few little things for the kids at the dollar store. Beads, coins, a tambourine for Reese,  and a plastic snake for Graham.

{Some of my photos came out blurry- there's no such thing as still excitement!}

Other than the Arabian backdrop that took me about an hour to draw, cut and spray paint, my other 'project' was to make Magic Carpet Placemats. What would an Aladdin party be without Magic Carpets???
I tried to make it simple but nothing seems to be as simple as I think it will be. (sigh)

Here's the quick description of what I did....
I purchased 2 different fabrics for each Magic Carpet. The purple (shown in the photo below) was cut smaller to be the top layer of the two-layered Magic Carpet. I lined the edge of the purple fabric with gold bias tape that I purchased at my local craft store. It was a little hard to deal with.
Okay, I lied.
It was REALLY hard for this beginner to deal with. So, instead of sewing it, I hot glued it. After all, hot glue is the solution to everything, right???
I sewed the lined purple fabric to the main fabric (pictured in the photo below as teal) and then sewed the teal fabric into a 'mini pillow case'. I know my kids and I knew they would love having a 'pocket' for their new prizes.
After pressing the Magic Carpets, I hot glued tassels to the corners and Wha-La!

{Again, excuse my blurriness!}

Reese already owned a Jasmine costume, so I knew I had to make some costume that would satisfy Graham as Aladdin.
Black sweat pants(in his drawer), a tank top from last summer (cut down the front center to resemble a 'vest') and a strip of the gold Christmas fabric as a belt. I was pretty excited we had all of what we needed. I kinda forgot about costumes until the last minute.

I did try a craft for 'Arabian Jewelry' on Pinterest.
Paper towel roll, macaroni noodles, gold spray paint.
Unfortunately, as soon as the kids put the bracelets on, the 'golden macaroni' (as we starting calling them) started falling off. Big choking no-no around here. To the trash they went even though it was a cute idea. Maybe I should have read the directions?!?!?!

Aladdin, Abu and Jasmine....

Abu was finished taking pictures.....

And now onto the cuisine of the evening.....

When we visited Jasmine and Aladdin at Epoct at Disney World, they were outside Morocco. That is why the main dish was Moroccan inspired. 

Here's what we ate:  

Don't let the Jasmine's Tea fool you.
I'm southern, so good, southern sweet tea is always in the fridge. Somehow calling it 'Jasmine's Tea' made it even more appealing to the kids.

The Cucumber Salsa was so good. Even better with sea salt Pita chips!

Cucumber Salsa

Ingredients:

2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped

2 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup chopped red onion

1 Tablespoon freeze-dried parsley

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1/4 cup sour cream

lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon

lime juice from 1/2 a lime

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin 

Directions:

In a bowl, combine cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, parsley, and garlic. In another bowl, combine the sour cream, lemon juice, lime juice, and cumin. Pour sour cream mixture over the cucumber mixture and gently toss. Taste and salt as needed. 

The Main Dish was called Beef Tagine with Squash and Couscous.

It was a meal I purchased from Plated. 

{Plated is a website that sends you fresh ingredients and instructions on how to make the dish. If you visit their site, you can order meals that will be shipped right to your door. They have different and exciting recipes every week that can satisfy any palette.}

When I saw they had a Moroccan dish, I knew it would be perfect with our Aladdin movie night.

And for dessert (and the favorite food of the night), Abu's Monkey Bread.
This deserves it's own post so I'm going to share it with you tomorrow. Believe me, you don't want to miss it.
(And in case you are going to the grocery store before I post the recipe tomorrow, pick up a can of Pillsbury Grands Homestyle Butter Tastin' rolls so you'll have everything you need!)

One Disney Countdown Movie Night done!

It was fun to plan and thrilling to see how excited the kids got over a themed dinner and a borrowed movie!

Oh, and one last MAJOR Disney Movie Night tip....
Make sure you have the movie you are planning the dinner around.
Or that you can buy it.
Come to find out, Aladdin is in The Disney Vault.
(Sister-in-law to the rescue!!!)

Sriracha Dipping Sauce

Sometimes you just crave a grilled hamburger.
Well, if you could see the snow that is surrounding our grill, you'd know that a grilled hamburger is not currently possible.
This past weekend, I decided a pan 'grilled' hamburger would have to do until it warms up about 60 degrees outside. To make up for the fact that it wasn't going to have that
 'summer-hot-outside-Daddy-grilled-it' taste, I splurged on pretzel buns.
On my.
A good decision!!!!

I was excited to try a Sriracha dipping sauce I found over at The Hill Hangout.
It was EASY, super delicious and the perfect dipping sauce for our sweet potato fries!

All you have to do is mix the following ingredients:

1 cup of mayo

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon paprika

3 Tablespoons Sriracha

(More or less Sriracha depending on how spicy you want it!)

And to keep it real....

You know that 'OH NO' moment when you forget about the bread you are just going to 'lightly toast' under the broiler? 

Well, it's an even worse feeling when it's Pretzel Rolls you were so looking forward to!

It's great to have a husband that says, "It's okay, you can give me the most burnt one."

Thankfully, after some scraping, they were salvageable. 

And topped with some sauted onions and mushrooms, melted cheese and dipped in the yummy Sriracha dip, they were delicious!

Happy grilling (if you live in Florida). 

For everyone else, making this dipping sauce to accompany your hamburger and fries will help you forget that you weren't able to grill outside!

Celebrating the 2014 Olympics

I love the Olympics. Winter. Summer. It doesn't matter, I love them. 

There are some events that aren't as exciting of others, of course. {But I'll watch any of it.}

In preparation for the beginning of the Olympics a few weeks ago, I wanted to get the kids excited about watching the games.

Opening night, we had an Olympic mini-party.

We talked about the 'Olympic symbol' and made our own Olympic symbol flags with card stock, empty toilet paper rolls and paint. 

Did you know all the countries that compete in the Olympics have at least one of the 6 colors of the Olympic symbol (Blue, Black, Red, Yellow, Green, and White) in their flags?

Time to feed my Olympians!
(My Olympic ring colors were a little off. I couldn't think of anything blue that would be tasty.)

  Torches for all the athletes to carry....

 And of course, Gold Medals for all the winners!

The torches were a hit, and it quickly became apparent that my 4 year old was Olympic deprived.

We held our own little 'Olympic' games. All easy, Minute To Win It type games.
Moving an Oreo from your forehead to your mouth without dropping it, racing to pick up marshmallows with chopsticks, etc.

Watching the Opening Night of the Olympics, we learned one important thing:
Record the games so the kids can watch them the next day.
They were soooo excited about watching the torch light up, but someone couldn't stay awake long enough...

Joel and I stayed up late every night watching Primetime Olympics. Then I would watch it again the next day with the kids (fast forwarding to the good parts for them). Some days we could watch Olympics all day!
#olympicjunkie

And last night, we grabbed our torches to watch the closing ceremonies!

Looking forward to the Summer Olympics in 2016!
Until then, we will try to talk the kids out of snowboarding and ice skating lessons!

Salsa

Some of my favorite recipes come from a friend, of a friend, of a friend....

Here's a good one from a friend of a friend.

Salsa

Yeah, not the red kind you were thinking.

It has beans. Which I love to use but don't very often.

It has corn. Sweet corn. Yum. (Indiana is rubbing off on me.)

It has red onion. (CONFESSION: Not a huge fan, but finely diced, they are great in this recipe.)

Cilantro. (Again, not a huge fan, but something about it in this recipe.... good!)

Green onion. Yes.

Lime Juice. YES!

It's quick and easy. And tastes even better the next day. And the next. And the next.
{Except, there won't be any left after day 1!}

Other than a big 'ol bag of chips, here's what you'll need:

Salsa

1 can sweet yellow corn, drained 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed 2-3 green onions, chopped 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion (I used a little less than 1/4 cup) 1/4 cup chopped cilantro 1 Tablespoon olive oil Juice of 1/2 lime Juice of 1/2 lemon Kosher salt to taste

Add and omit ingredients according to your taste!

Mix all the ingredients together.

Cover and chill.