War is Coming - An Edible Geekery Blog Hop

House Stark - Winter is Coming

 The North remembers. For Winterfell!

In this dinner:

• Shield - spaghetti squash with meat and spinach sauce and broccoli
• Provolone cheese Sigil of House Stark

 House Targaryen - Fire and Blood

You have awoken the dragons

In this lunch:

• Dragon body - leftover chicken wings baked garlic Parmesan, Teriyaki, and spicy BBQ on lettuce
• Dragon head - Colby cheese decorated with food coloring
• Swords of provolone and colby jack cheese
• Broccoli and carrots with a provolone Targaryen Sigil

House Lannister - Hear Me Roar

A Lannister always pays his debts

In this dinner :

• Homemade sushi rolls - Smoked salmon, cucumber, carrots, cream cheese, avocado, wasabi, roasted sesame seeds, on shredded lettuce
• Lannister Sigil on colby jack cheese
• String cheese severed heads on swords
• Soy sauce and wasabi
• Carrots and sugar snap peas

“A lord must learn that sometimes words can accomplish what swords cannot.”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

Welcome back Game of Thrones

The kings will clash, some will fall others will rise. 

When you play a Game of Thrones you win or you die.

The bloggers are coming. 

Edible Geekery is doing a mini hop so journey onward and see what Oh! Bento has slayed, 

stay on the King's road until you return home.

 

A Timey Wimey 6th Birthday

With the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who premiering today, I thought I would share Green Monkey's Whovian party. Since we are in America finding Doctor Who party supplies wasn't an option so we made them. As usual I caught a case of the pinterest pox and it threw up all over. So here's all the resources I used, along with a LOT (and by that I mean they did most of the actual work) help from my family. Get comfy this will be a long one but worth it if you're throwing a Doctor Who party or just want to kick off the 50th Anniversary in style, here's what we did.

Decorations

 Waiting in our living room the morning of the party was Green Monkey's very own TARDIS. Who wouldn't want to wake up to find a TARDIS, and it really is bigger on the inside. We got ours off Think Geek.

Our dancing Doctor

Our dining room is a greyish blue so to TARDISfy it I found some cube butcher paper at Mardell's in the teacher supply section. Perfect now I don't have to unclutter the bookshelves :)

For the ceiling we hung a bag of gold hanging swirly stars and streamers from Party City. Then made our own banners using crepe paper and 36 characters which we cropped to circles and printed out on cardstock. We also hung the Public Notice on our front door which was funny because you have to push not pull to open our door...its ok they figured out how to get in.

Games and Activities

The main attraction was a Games2U van since our boy is also a gamer. It was a huge hit and fit quite a few kids inside I think 16 plus another 8 could play on the outdoor big screens. 

Inside we had a couple fun things to keep them entertained. As you come in we had masks and bow ties for those willing to play along. The bow ties we made using a great tutorial by A Beautiful Mess. No sewing just an iron and hot glue gun, 1/4yd of space fabric, 1/4 yd of red fabric, alligator clips and a hot glue gun. The masks we printed on cardstock and attached rubber bands at the ears, those were from BBC One - Doctor Who - Masks and Fun and Games.

Our whole family dressed in Doctor Who attire including suits, bow ties, and of course converse because we knew we would be running a lot.

Moisturize Me!

Cassandra was getting dry so the kids had to keep misting her. A dollar store white plastic table cloth which I cut a few semi-circles and hung with string from the monkey bars, Gram cut felt face pieces from scrapes I had, and a dollar store spray bottle, $3 not bad.

We found a ton of free printable coloring pages on BBC One - Doctor Who Fun and Games

In our Gallifreyan tool shop the kids got to make their own sonic screwdriver pens. I found a great tutorial over at Doodle Craft. A simple craft all the kids (Ages 3-6) were able to complete and we sent most home to bake but got a few done before the party was over. Papermate pens, sculpy, and marbles, that's it. The kids are still taking them everywhere, though the sculpy can be a bit fragile.

Food and Cake

TARDIS has landed with 9th,10th, and 11th Doctors. This was a huge learning curve for me, but I survived with a lot of tips from a friend over at Ellie Belly Cakes. I am so grateful for all of her help walking me through my first from scratch cake, first ganache, working with fondant, and sugar sheet art

2 layers of Black Magic Cake and 2 layers of Confetti cakes vanilla cake, Swiss Buttercream frosting, and Ghirardelli Ganache, Signs and windows printed by Make it Sweet on sugar paper, and Satin Ice Fondant. The Doctors are the only inedible part and those adorable paper dolls came from Carg's Doodles. 

Adipose Marshmallows - The fat just walks away

This was inspired by Doctor Who Crafts the birthday boy love making them with his Uncle and drawing their faces.

Amy's Apples

 A small fruit tray with bananas for the Doctor, apples for Amy, and oranges just because they're good.

Galaxy Jello

Inspired by Bakingdom I used blue jello, and various sprinkles, small non-perils, moons and stars, both mixed in while it set, and some more on top.

Fish Fingers and Custard

A Doctor Who must, ours are vanilla pudding and lady fingers.

Old school candy dots, they look Dalek like to us. We had 2 containers or other candy too...wait for it

Other TARDIS Sightings

TARDIS Balloons

Gift bags

Milky Way, Nerds, Star bouncy ball, Glitter putty, Glow in the dark Alien, Pop-up alien, finger light, and compass ring, all from Party City. Gram and I made the bags just drawing and printing.

Gram made him the coolest TARDIS hooded bath towel ever.

It was one of our coolest parties to date. Everyone had a blast. Thank you to all of our friends and family that made this possible. Thank you to all the creative bloggers that shared such fun ideas.

DOH! I FORGOT THE AFTER PARTY!!!!

Ok so really it was a playdate on his actual birthday but since I made another Doctor Who themed cake I want to include it in this post. He requested a Cyberman so of course I made a little one for him. I used Devil's food cake mix, left over ganache from the TARDIS cake, and made marshmallow fondant from Make it & Love it. The eyes are fudge covered oreos...it wasn't girl scout cookie season yet or I would have had thin mints, but these were delicious too.

Easter Fun with my BBFs

I am so privileged to know some of the most creative foodies in the blogger-verse. It is said imitation is the sheerest form of flattery. Lately they have made some goodies I couldn't wait to try...and they were all a hit. So have some fun this weekend with these tried and true goodies.

Peeps Smore's

• Adapted from Creative Foods Peep Party
• I used Peeps, graham crackers, and chocolate bunnies
• It goes without saying...but remove the foil before zapping it in the microwave for 10 secs
• If you've never zapped a Peep you really need to try it, the kids will love watching them blow up...from a safe distance from radiation and all that.

Peeps Rice Crispy Treats Teacher Gifts

• Adapted from Creative Food
• 3 packages of peeps, 3 Tbsp of butter, and 6 cups of Rice crispy cereal
• Melt the butter in a big pot on the stove 
• On low heat add the peeps
• It took 10-15 minutes for them to melt, don't stir! Jiggle it from time to time. A lid will help it warm evenly.
• Add cereal, now gently fold it into the peeps until covered
• Spray a dish with cooking spray or grease with whatever you like, I sprayed the spatula too to keep it from sticking
• Spread it out and let it cool completely, I stuck mine in the fridge and did other things
• I cut ours with a Wilton Easter cutter I sprayed that too to prevent sticking
• In a baggie I placed one peep crispy bunny egg and 1 peep and used the free printable label from Nothing but Country

Carrot Patch Cupcakes

• Adapted from Bento Days
• Duncan Hines Devils food cake mix and Angel Food cake mix with orange food coloring
• I only had the grocery store brand not Americolor so it wasn't very strong orange. I amped it up with my Americolor edible markers.
• Duncan Hines Devil's food cake mix and Pillsbury Orangesicle cake mix was perfect
• Bake Orange cake first, I used a loaf pan and made cupcakes out of leftovers batter
• Once cooled then freeze it for at least an hour to make it easier to carve and prevent burning in step 2
• Cut orange cake into triangles for cupcakes or if doing a loaf spread cut the middle into a carrot shape, either way place that in the middle of your cupcake or loaf pan
• Now fill with Devil's food batter and bake according to box, when testing just poke the deepest Devil's food cake portion as the middle has the already cooked orange cake in there
• Once cooled slice the top to reveal the carrot..I suppose you could leave it alone but it was fun to see it.
• For stems any green you like cut into leaf shapes. I used fruity tic tacs for the first batch, then Sour punch bites for the second batch which I liked better.

 

 Peter Cottontails Bunny Trail mix kids craft

• Free printable lyrics from DLTK's - Learning Together
• Bunny cups
• Crepe paper bunny ears bigger ovals for white smaller for pink glue them together then to the top of the cup
• Glue on a cotton ball at the bottom of the cup
• On the other side use markers (I used sharpies) to draw on the bunny face
• Hop along the bunny trail and fill your bunny with trail mix

 

• Peter Cottontail’s Trail Mix 
  1 scoop of Cheerios for the footprints on the trail
  1 Spoonful each of:
  Jelly beans for Tommy
  Colored Hershey eggs for sister Sue
  Orchid M&Ms for your mommy
  Robins eggs Easter bonnet too
  Fruit and nut trail mix bunny food
  Marshmallow bunny tails too
  Annie's organic cheddar bunnies
  Annie’s organic Friends graham bunnies too

March 29th

Easter Panda?

What happens when you change your mind at 6:15am you get...well... this? Now I'd love to say that everything here has meaning and purpose but sometimes it's just amusing a 6 year-old to get him to eat. Side note I really need a Cute Z Cute cutter if he's going to request pandas :)

In this lunch :

• Peanut butter and Jelly Chick hatching and a sad attempt at a panda, we'll call it a bear, but he totally bought it as a panda...who needs perfection HA!
• Chocolate bunny
• Peep
• Annie's organic friends graham bunnies
• Carrots stacked in 3's counting down to Easter
• 3 chicks on eggs cantaloup 

Egg Who

 

In this lunch :

• Jelly Easter egg decorated by little blue monkey himself. I left the cutter on so he could draw without squishing it.
• Jelly Doctor Who bow tie, 50 for 50th anniversary, and DW in the middle
• 2 easter eggs filled with bunny trail mix from our recent playdate 
• Cheerios
• M&Ms
• Robins eggs
• Jelly beans
• Fruit and nut trail mix
• Annie's organic cheddar bunnies
• Annie's organic friends graham bunnies
• Chocolate Hershey egg
• Carrots
• Apple Easter basket with carrot grass and cantaloup chick and eggs. (My first checkered apple!) Bento for Kidlet is a master of the checkered apple, she can do it in 30 secs...I need practice :)

Fire and Blood

Game of Thrones returns Sunday for its 3rd season and we can't wait! 

No egg like a dragon egg for Easter. 

In this lunch :

• Shredded lettuce background leftover from taco night
• Chicken wings Dragon HA! Using leftovers again I used 2 wings and drum stick for the body then colby jack for the head.
• Something on a stick day! Cheese scraps on swords
• Broccoli and carrots with Targaryen sigil on provolone

If you have to do it anyway, why not have some fun while you get it done :) Never expect perfection they surely don't.

More Eastery lunch

We are still counting down to Doctor Who and Easter. One more day of school and then 3 day weekend woot! Continuing our odd mash-ups of who and Easter and whatever else these two crazy monkeys think up...

Silence will Fall or hatch?

In this lunch :

• Silence the egg and hash marks peanut butter and jelly
• Peeps
• 3 days left until Doctor Who returns...so carrots stacked in sets of 3
• 4 days left until Easter ...spring shaped cantalope

Star Wars Angry Birds

In this lunch :

• Millennium Falcon jelly sandwich (yes just jelly sigh) piloted by Angry Bird Han and Luke gummys
• Carrot and ranch sling shot
• Cantaloupe moons and a space pig gummy

Spring chicken...wings

In this lunch :

• Leftover wings, baked, 1 each of Spicy BBQ, Garlic Parmesan, and Teriyaki wing sauces
• Grapes
• Baby greens salad with broccoli, carrots, and provolone cheese flowers
• Carrot patch cupcake for the tutorial check out Bento Days
• I made them for our play group Easter playdate they were a hit! 
• Pillsbury Orange Dreamsicle and Duncan Hines Devil's Food cake mixes, and sour punch candy stems for one batch 
• Angel food/Devil's food cakes with fruity tic tac stems for the other...post coming soon

Coming soon, Easter food fun we've had this week inspired by our favorite blogs. Some of my best friends I've never actually met :)

More Easter Who?

This week we're counting down to the return of Doctor Who (4 days) and Easter (5 days)...you can see our priorities are straight ;).

Oodles of Easter - 4 days

In this lunch :

• Ham and cheese Ood and orb
• Annie's organic friends graham crackers (they hopped into the egg before closing it up)
• Pink and green peeps and a chocolate bunny (He couldn't decide and I was being nice)
• 4 carrots in our countdown
• "OO" strawberries

Hoppy Eater almost Easter

In this lunch :

• Peanut butter and jelly using our new (to me) Funbites Cube It! Thanks to my friend Cristi over at Bent On Better Lunches. Next time...less jelly ;), but I had to use my new Easter picks.
• Annies organic Friends Graham Bunnies in the Easter egg
• Carrots for the bunnies
• Strawberry bunnies - 3 total, 2 heart cut head and 1 quartered for ears.

It is coming...

We had a fun filled weekend with 2 egg hunts, pictures with Mr. EB himself. On the plus side they didn't cry this year, YAY! On the downside big green monkey pulled a Christmas Story brain freeze and forgot everything he wanted to ask him. So since we write to all our Guardians he left the Easter bunny a note on the door. By morning it was gone. Even sleeping in our front room he didn't hear him get in or out. that bunny is pretty amazing.

Our favorite show is coming back this weekend too so we're counting down the days until Doctor Who returns for the 50th anniversary. I'm not trying to distract from this guy, but my monkeys are a bit obsessed. So to be fair they each counted down, one to Doctor Who and one to Easter.

The Doctor is coming

 

In this lunch :

• The Doctor's watch - peanut butter and jelly
• 11th Doctor's sonic screwdriver - peanut butter and jelly with a grape light source
• Easter bunnies - Annie's Bunny Friends graham crackers, Harbo gummy bunnies, and Life saver gummy bunnies
• Planetary cantelope balls
• Carrot hash marks 5 days and counting...(pretend you don't see the bottom row they don't count)

The Chicks are coming

 In this lunch :

• 5 little chicks waiting for the big day - peanut butter and jelly
• 4 carrots
• 3 grapes
• 2 desserts - Annine's graham cracker bunny friends and gummy bunnies
• 1 Chick trying to get out - peanut butter and jelly