Wednesday, October 21, 2015

A Harry Potter Halloween Part 1: The Menu

So, after much consideration and a lot happening this last week we finally came to the conclusion around here that trick or treating is out (for one) and running a Halloween party is probably out too since we'd have to have said party ON Halloween and we know that not many people would show up for that.

But, despite peanut allergies and braces I really wanted the kids to have a fun Halloween.  I'd already started messing with some Harry Potter decor for some Halloween fun for my daughter so, after talking to said daughter, I decided to expand on that idea.  Since Halloween falls on a Saturday this year I thought it'd be fun to have a Harry Potter themed Halloween all day long. 

My daughter, needless to say is so thrilled she's ready to pop a vein *laugh*.

So, first and foremost, planning a Harry Potter themed day, I realized meant that we had this thing called "meals" to worry about.  But, I really needed to make choices that were budget friendly (basically, things I had around here). 

I wasn't really sure what to expect on things that would be considered Harry Potter friendly.  So, I went online and started researching what other people did when throwing Harry Potter themed parties.  I ended up kind of disheartened as I quickly realized that for the most part people revolved menus around desserts.  Which, of course, makes sense, BUT I wanted the family to eat more than sweets during the day (go figure).  The other thing people did was throw ELABORATE Harry Potter parties with tons of decorations with one hefty price tag attached in some cases (one woman wallpapered her dining room in rock wallpaper.  75.00 in wallpaper for one party!).  So, I started figuring out low budget options for decor and using my imagination, which so far has worked quite well.  So, it was onto the food!

I decided to look up "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" online (man I'd love to go there someday!) to see what the restaurants in the park offered for food.  I found very quickly that for the most part the restaurants offered typical English fare for dinners (Cornish pasties, bangers and mash/sausages and mashed potatoes, toad in a hole, etc).  So, I decided that simple was the best way to go for lunch and dinner.  And, of course, there will be desserts and snacks too!

Now note:  This menu might seem ridiculously long, but I really worked hard to come up with desserts that I could freeze until Thanksgiving (pumpkin pasties for instance) or that could be grazed upon should family show up during the day, so I figure I'm killing two birds with one stone.  I'll get more into the ease of use factor on this stuff in later posts for some things (like the drinks), but for the most part I think this is going to work really well.

So, here's the menu I decided on for the day.

Breakfast:
  • Scotch eggs
  • Toast
  • Fruit cups (fruit cocktail in fancy serving dishes)
  • Porridge (for me as I'm not a big breakfast person)
Lunch:
Dinner:
  • Pan fried Chicken drumsticks (my daughter's request as that's what Ron is eating during the feast on their first night at Hogwarts in the movies)
  • Steamed mixed vegetables
  • Mashed potatoes and gravy
Desserts:
  • Pumpkin pasties (pocket pies to us Yanks ;).
  • Treacle Tart
  • Cauldron Cakes
  • Treacle Fudge
  • Sorting Hat cookies (if they turn out  as this is my bright idea*laugh*)
Special Drinks:
  • Pumpkin Juice
  • Butter Beer
  • Fire Whiskey (non alcoholic)
  • Various potions (more on this stuff later)
Candies/Honeydukes counter (with the exception of chocolate and some taffy the candy counter will be for those in the family who come by to fill goody bags as my daughter can't have anything chewy or too crunchy with her braces and my son doesn't like many different types of candy.  I already had said candy from picking up a thing of candy here and there throughout the year):
  • Jelly slugs
  • Sugar Quill Lolipops
  • Chocolate Wands
  • Chocolate Frogs
  • Bertie Bots every flavor beans
  • Others if I think of things
So, there you are folks. My menu for Halloween. Anyone else doing anything weird...err...special this year?

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