Universal Studios, Home Edition: Krusty Burgers and Lard Lad Doughnuts

This weekend we were supposed to be heading up to Universal Studios for their Running Universal Trolls race.  Thatkid and I were signed up for the 5k, while Thatbaby was going to do the kids' race.  Of course, like usual, we were going to make a whole weekend out of it.

But since the race was cancelled, and Universal Studios is closed for the foreseeable future, I decided that we'd do our Universal Studios weekend at home.  This worked especially well given that Universal just released their Trolls World Tour Movie for streaming instead of a theatrical release.

When the boys woke up, I had Trolls shirts and hats ready for them, since they wouldn't get them from the race.  I also had printed out park maps for the two of them to decide what ride or show they wanted to go on/see.

We set up the loveseat facing the television and the kids' chairs in front of it and pulled up some virtual ride-thrus on youtube.

The kids took turns being the "line manager" and asking how many were in our party and directing us to our seats.

And then we rode a bunch of rides.

We took a quick break at lunch to head over to "Springfield USA" which is where we usually eat lunch at the park, since there's something for everyone.  This day, however, everyone was stuck with one option - Krusty Burgers.  However, they were served with fries and Squishees.

I even managed to grab some Duffs for the adults.  (Although in this case it was an energy drink instead of a beer)

And after lunch, there was doughnut.  Just one.  But as big as the kids' heads.  Because that's how they serve them at Universal Studios and because that is Thatbaby's FAVORITE thing to eat there.  Just like at the park, we divided the doughnut into four pieces and split it.

After lunch and nap, there were more rides.

And even a show or two!

And of course, we rounded out the evening with a showing of  Trolls World Tour.

It actually ended up being a really fun way to spend the day.  Of course, riding rides virtually doesn't really compare with riding them in real life, but as Thatboy pointed out, there were also no wait times.

And we did a pretty good job of creating theme-park worthy food.  Our doughnuts might have even been better than the ones you get in the park!

Krusty Burgers

1 lb ground beef

2 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp flour

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup shredded cheddar

lettuce, tomato,  red onion

Thousand Island dressing

4 burger buns

4 cornichon

1. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.  Divide the meat into 4 portions and shape into patties.  Season with salt and pepper and cook 4-5 minutes per side until desired doneness.
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter. 
3. Stir the flour into the butter and cook until a paste forms.
4. Stir in the milk and continue cooking and stirring until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.  Remove from heat.
5. Stir the cheddar into the white sauce.
6. Place each burger patty on a bun and top with some of the cheese sauce.
7. Add lettuce, tomato, onion, and a squirt of thousand island before topping with the other half of the bun.
8. Garnish each with a cornichon and serve.

Lard Lad Doughnut

1 1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup + 1 tsp sugar, divided

1 packet active dry yeast

4 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tbsp butter, melted

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract, divided

canola oil

2 cups powdered sugar

pink food coloring

sprinkles

1.  Microwave 1 cup of milk for 40 seconds.
2. Add a teaspoon of sugar and stir to dissolve.
3. Sprinkle over yeast and let sit for 8-10 minutes, until frothy and bubbly.
4.  In a medium bowl, whisk together flour and salt.
5. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining sugar, melted butter, eggs, and 1/2 tsp vanilla.
6. Pour in the yeast mixture and mix to combine.
7. Add in the dry ingredients, stirring until a shaggy dough forms.
8. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead until elastic, about 5 minutes (add more flour if necessary during this process)
9.  Form the dough into a tight ball and place in an oiled bowl, covered with a clean dish towel.  Let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size (about 1 hour).
10.  Line 2 baking sheets with silpat or parchment.  Punch down the dough and divided in half.
11. Roll out one half on a lightly floured work surface until it is about a 1/2 inch thick round.  Use a doughnut cutter or biscuit cutter to cut the center out of your "doughnut."  Repeat with second half of dough.  You can use the leftover scraps to craft more regular sized doughnuts or even doughnut holes.
12. Place doughnuts on baking sheets and cover with a dish towel.  Let rise again, about another hour.
13. Make the glaze.  In a shallow pie pan, whisk together remaining milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth.  
14. Whisk in as much pink food coloring to the glaze to get your desired color.  
15.  Heat 2 inches of Canola oil in a large, shallow, saucepan - large enough for your doughnut to fit inside - to 350 degrees.  Cook doughnuts, one at a time, until deeply golden on both sides, about 2 minutes per side.
16. While doughnuts are cooking, line the baking sheets they were on with paper towels.  Remove doughnuts from oil and transfer to these baking sheets to drain and cool slightly.
17. Spoon glaze over top of doughnut and place on cooling rack.  Add sprinkles to your heart's content.

Pajama Party!: Hot Cocoa Popcorn

Things are certainly not easy in Thathouse right now.  Due to the nature of my profession, work hasn't slowed down at all - it's increased as we are daily faced with new rules/regulations/health crises that need to be dealt with immediately, on top of my regular workload which hasn't slowed or adapted to the additional work, with the warning that when it does slow we'll be moved into hospitals and other clinical settings.

On top of that, like most every other kid in the country, mine are home.  But mine have no guidance or direction from the schools on what to do with them.  Which means on top of working 8+ hours a day, I also am in charge of keeping them occupied in a way that allows me to address the needs of millions of people, state regulatory boards, health care providers and agencies without the flexibility of doing it after the kids are asleep or before they wake up.

I admit to being resentful when friends have viral posts about taking this time to spend with your children who need you more than ever now, or who complain about having to work 4 hours a day and then post pictures of hikes and bike rides with their children, or write that they deserve an award for answering emails while helping their child with schoolwork.  My kids get no hikes, no bikes, no help with work, no parent time at all during the day.  Time off has been canceled, we had no spring break.  My entire week is me telling my kids "no" or "I can't."  Which is really hard for them to understand when I'm right there.  I was commiserating with a friend when we realized we spend less time with our kids now than before they were home 24/7. 

I'm trying to make it up to them on the weekend.  Going device free during their waking hours so I can actually spend time with them and give them the attention they crave so much.  When I heard Disney was releasing Onward on Disney+ I decided we would make a whole event of it - turning the living room into a giant pillow pit and having a slumber party while we watched it.

We went with a slumber party theme, which is their favorite.  They love wearing their pajamas all day.  And the movie was incredible.  Maybe moreso as I watched my two boys watching it together, since it's all about brothers.  If Frozen was about the love between two sisters, this is definitely the brothers' response.

As much as I'd have loved to turn the day into a movie marathon, my kids aren't great with sitting in front of a television, and having cushions all over the floor is basically just an invitation for them to wrestle until someone gets hurt.  So instead of movies all day, we threw in some other pajama party classics.  Like playing card games.

And eating pizza RIGHT ON THE FLOOR!

And most importantly, popcorn.  It doesn't hurt that popcorn is my all time favorite food, but it fits in well with a movie too, right?  I did a choose your own adventure with the popcorn, throwing together a couple different flavors so they could pick what they wanted.

The winner?  This Hot Cocoa popcorn.  I can't even remember why I bought the container of mallow-bits, but I always find a use for them.  And while regular marshmallows would add a gooey-ness to the popcorn, these little bits have the marshmallow flavor and a crunch that goes great with the snack.

Hot Cocoa Popcorn

1/4 cup popcorn kernels (if you use microwave popcorn, skip the first and second step)

1 Tbsp butter (melted)

1 Tbsp cocoa powder

1 Tbsp powdered sugar

1/4 cup Jet Puffed Mallow Bits

1.  Pop popcorn kernels in airpopper, or paper bag, or however you like to pop your popcorn.
2. Pour the melted butter over and toss.
3. Sift cocoa powder and powdered sugar over the popcorn.
4. Add Mallow Bits and toss.

Superbowl Snack: Air Fryer Buffalo Wings

I got an air fryer two years ago and for the most part, I bring it out when I want to cook frozen food fast - frozen fries, corn dogs, or veggies.

But I've been trying to use it more.  It's been hit or miss.  It took several different recipes and variations before we finally found a chicken tender recipe that got them nice and crispy (hint: the secret is adding the oil to the panko before breading instead of spraying or drizzling oil on the breaded chicken.)

So far the most successful air frying has been buffalo wings.  Which is perfect, since this weekend is the Superbowl and I'm willing to bet it's the day with the highest buffalo wing consumption of the year.  (Feel free to check me on that)  I know that we always have wings on our Superbowl menu.

The thing I love about making buffalo wings in the air fryer is that you don't need any additional oil to get them nice and crispy.  Part of this is due to the fact that chicken wings are already a bit fatty because of the skin to meat ratio.  Which is the other nice thing about the air fryer - that fat, drips right off an into the bottom of the fryer, which means your wings aren't sitting in a bed of grease while they cook.  So they come out perfectly crispy and dry!

I've been playing around with the sauce on these, and finally hit upon a declared winner last night.  You are free to use whatever hot sauce you prefer, but after experimentation, we decided our favorite was the classic Franks Buffalo sauce.  You'll also notice this recipe uses ghee in place of butter, which, combined with the Frank's sauce, gives the wings a really great buttery flavor to make up for the fact they're not dripping in oil.

Air Fryer Buffalo Wings

1 lb chicken wings (separated into drums and flats if necessary)

1/8 cup ghee

1/4 cup Franks Red Hot Buffalo Sauce

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1. Place chicken wings in air fryer.  Depending on size of your air fryer you may need to do this in 2 batches.
2. Cook at 375 for 15 minutes.  Flip the wings over and cook for an additional 12 minutes.
3. While the chicken is cooking combine ghee, buffalo sauce, and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl.
4. Toss the cooked chicken wings in the sauce and serve.

Happy Harry Potter Party!

If you know Thatkid at all, you know he's obsessed with Harry Potter.  We've been reading the books since kindergarten, he's got an account on Pottermore so he could be officially sorted and he even owns the "Syltherin House" version of some of the books as he has embraced his house.

In June he got a talking sorting hat, and the idea for his birthday party came into fruition.  Nevermind that most of his friends didn't know Harry Potter, and those that did were really only familiar with the movies and not the books.  He wanted a Harry Potter party, and he got one.

When guest arrived, they were greeted with a shopping list and sent to Diagon Alley to retrieve their school supplies.

A stop at Madam Malkin's for their school robes.

Cauldrons

Ollivander's to pick out their wands.

And of course, Flourish and Blotts to grab their school books.

Here they grabbed both a Monster Book of Monsters

As well as a book containing information for all their classes.

Once most of the guests had arrived, they were ushered over to the Hogwarts Great Hall.

Here they lined up and waited to be sorted into their houses.

Pretty soon, Dumbledoor came out with the sorting hat.

He placed the hat on the head of each child, and once it announced their house, he gave them an identifying tie and they hurried off to join their table.

Once all the children were sorted, Professor Sprout came out for the first lesson - Herbology.

The kids learned all about venus fly traps and got to plant their own.

Then Hagrid came out to teach Care of Magical Creatures.

He taught the kids about nifflers and they competed against each other in a niffler game.

Professor Trelawny led the kids in a Divination game

Then Professor Lockhart helped the children discover their Patronuses.

In Transfiguration, the kids learned to turn pills into animals.

And in potions class, they each made a potion (slime) to take home.

After all those classes it was time to burn off some steam - QUIDDITCH matches!  I hid 2 snitches in the yard so we could have 2 games - Gryffyndor versus Slytherin, and Hufflepuff versus Ravenclaw.

While the kids played Quidditch, the house-elves magically cleaned the tables and put out a feast for the kids to enjoy that was made up of sandwiches, fruit, veggies, house-colored deviled eggs, and sweet sorting hats.

And then it was time for cake.

Thatkid requested a strawberry cake with black mirror glaze.

On the way out, the kids all got to stop in Hogsmede for a trip to Honeydukes for some candy to take home.

I made peppermint toads out of marshmallow fluff, peppermint extract, and white chocolate.

Sugar quills were molded melted jolly ranchers.

I went with a more traditional interpretation of cauldron cakes - welsh cakes which are technically "pan" cakes, but could easily be made in a cauldron if one used that to cook.

My favorite were the ice mice.  Did you guys eat those chocolate ice cubes growing up?  They were one of Thatdad's favorites.  They seemed to melt in your mouth, while also making your mouth feel colder.  I found a recipe online and adapted it to work with white chocolate, which seemed more "ice-y".  These really did melt like an ice cube and chill your mouth!

It was sooooooo much work and I don't think I'll ever do anything like this again, but the kids had a great time!  Thatkid specifically picked out all the food that we served, from lunch, to cake, to candy.  He's the one who requested sorting hats with both regular and white chocolate. 

I especially like these because they're perfect for this time of year with treats and snacks take on that "spooky" aspect.  Because a sorting hat looks exactly like a witch's hat.  These are also incredibly easy, which is another plus.

 Sweet Sorting Hats

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup white chocolate chips

cocoa powder (use black cocoa powder for an especially spooky witch hat)

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Separate the dough into 8 triangles.
2. With the pointed part on top, place a Tbsp of either chocolate chips or white chocolate chips along the bottom of the triangle.
3. Roll the bottom up and over the triangle to contain the chocolate chips and create the brim of the hat.
4. Repeat with remaining triangles and chocolate chips.  Bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown.
5.  Use a sifter or strainer to sift cocoa powder over the warm hats.