The Sorting Hat

As I was brainstorming ideas for my Harry Potter party, the idea of the Sorting Hat made out of bread popped up in my mind. I was intrigued by the thought of a hat shaped bread that my friends could tear pieces off of and eat with a dip of some sort. In part, I was inspired by the large cornucopia bread centerpiece I made for Thanksgiving two years ago and served with a soft cheese.

I needed a bread recipe that used whole wheat flour, which would give the dough a darker color. Also, the bread dough needed to be pliable and not expand too much while baking. I decided on a pita bread recipe based on a memory of my attempt to make pita bread. I remembered that pitas contain ww flour and are easily shaped. I also knew from experience that when the pita breads aren't rolled out thin enough or if the oven temperature is too low, pitas don't puff up, which was bad for making pita bread, but perfect for my Sorting Hat idea.

I tried it out on the day of the party, hoping it would work as I planned. I made the dough, shaped it, and baked it. It was a success! I chose to serve it along with a spinach and artichoke dip I made right before the party. The Sorting Hat bread turned out to be quite an interesting but delicious dish at my Harry Potter feast.

Golden Snitches

Last night, I was watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on TV, which reminded me that I had some Harry Potter blogging to do (by the way, Harry Potter marathons seem to be on for the most random reasons... like House marathons, not that I'm complaining).

At last week's party, I served some golden snitch red velvet cake pops in the tiny "sweets" area of my dinner table, along with the candies I mentioned in my previous post. I couldn't figure out how to display the pops. I worried that their wings would chip off if they touched, so I left them stuck in the piece of styrofoam that I used for drying. It turned out that they looked okay like that, almost as if they were buzzing around above the table. It was an eye-catching display to look at while dining :).

Harry Potter Party!

Last Wednesday, I held a Harry Potter themed party for my friends, a sort of pre-New Years celebration. A tad random, but what better way is there to start the New Year than by eating lots of Harry Potter food with friends?

So... I'm crazy about themes. I'm someone who gets excited by holidays, seasonal changes, and anything else associated with a theme. Around Thanksgiving, I came up with the idea of having a Harry Potter party, inspired by 1) the Harry Potter party in the movie "Yes Man" (youtube clip at the bottom of this post, if you're curious) and 2) reading about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park within a theme park that's set to open Spring 2010 in Universal Orlando (which I'm very very excited about).

With ideas of drinking butterbeer and eating pumpkin pasties in real life floating around in my brain, I decided that it was very necessary that I throw this Harry Potter party. So in my next few posts, I'll be sharing with you Harry Potter themed recipes from my party, from a Sorting Hat shaped bread to Golden Snitch cake pops. Today, I'll share with you the simplest but most easily recognized recipe of the bunch: Butterbeer.

Frosty the Snowman

Happy New Year!!! My last Christmas post, I'm finally caught up. I saved this post for last because even though Christmas is over, as long as it's still snowing (or... still winter if it doesn't snow where you live), you can still make these snowmen macaroons without question.

These would make a fun winter afternoon DIY project, an indoor snowman building contest or something of the sort, an alternative to making gingerbread houses. You could set out plates of the baked coconut macaroon heads and bodies, different candies for decorating, and melted chocolate for kids to construct their own edible snowmen.