Sunday Snackday: Nathan's Surprise Star Wars Birthday

the main party table

Nathan's birthday was last week on a Tuesday and we really didn't do anything for it. Both of us ended up working late and we ate burgers with a dessert of pudding. He didn't mind, he's not super into his birthday. I don't think he noticed that I didn't get him a gift.

On Saturday he happily went up to see the house that our friend had just bought in New Jersey, not realizing that it was a ruse to get him out of the apartment for a few hours. I went into hyperdrive cooking/cleaning/decorating mode with the components that I had hidden all over the house.

When planning the party, I didn't want to go too little kiddy with everything coming from the pre-made party store Star Wars collection. I used black plastic table cloths and green and red plates for decoration. I did hang a doorway banner of Darth Vader behind and put up some Star Wars paper streamers.

I made my own food labels using Microsoft Publisher and found some great Star Wars Masks to print out. One word of advice, the retro masks print out much larger and more "head" sized than the episode 3 masks. These were pretty fun!

some of the masks were a little small... but that just made them more awesome

I bought three "Laser Swords" on amazon that light up AND make noises for $6 each. I figured that if they were destroyed then it was ok for $6. I wouldn't recommend them as a legit toy for little kids though, they're pretty cheapy for that.

I also created a Death Star Pinata out of a baseball pinata. I pulled off all of the paper coating, cut out a circle and inverted for the laser crater, and spray painted it gray. Initially, I had intended to also put in some of the details in black but I ran out of time. It still looked like a death star and I filled it with tiny plastic bottles of booze (easy party favor for adults).

the video wouldn't load ;_;

When Nathan arrived, there was a mask and a sword outside the door with instructions for him to come in and prepare for battle. He was confused, but did it which was pretty awesome!

Nathan entering the party

So food (because this is a food blog!). I made the following:

Ti-Fighter Ties
Leia's Mini Buns
C-3P0 Cinnamon Chips with R2-D2 Dip
Bantha Beef Fajitas (regular beef fajitas)
Chewie's Chicken Fajitas (regular chicken fajitas)
Light Side Cupcakes (yellow cupcakes with green butter cream frosting)
Come to the Dark Side Cookies
Darth Vader Chips and Dip (blue corn tortilla chips and salsa)
Bantha Milk (white russian with blue food coloring)
Dagoba Punch (sprite, lime sherbert, gin)

I tried to do some things that were just pour it into a bowl because I couldn't make much in advance (Nathan probably would have noticed that...) Both of the fajitas I made in our two slow cookers which actually turned out really well (I'll maybe post recipes for them at another time).

We watched some of the movies and played some games and it was a great time!

also a nice shot of my super cool labels

TIE-Fighter Twists

These are adapted from the recipe on the official Star Wars website.

Ingredients

1 tube of refrigerated pizza dough
1 package smoked beef sausage or kielbasa

Directions

Preheat your oven to 390 degrees.

Cut the pizza dough into lengths about 1/2 an inch wide and then slice in half lengthwise.

boom! dough is cut up

Cut the sausage into 1 inch high rounds. Wrap one piece of dough around the sausage, twisting the ends into a v. Repeat with a 2nd piece of dough so there is another v on the other side.

ta da!

Bake on an ungreased pan about 10 minutes or until the dough is golden brown.

not my best picture ever...

C-3P0 Cinnamon Chips and R2-D2 Dip

These chips were so good by themselves and the dip was also delicious with the cinnamon buns (and would be super tasty with fruit or even used as a cupcake frosting).

Ingredients

(for chips)
1 package of small flour tortillas
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
4 Tbsp butter (melted

(for dip)
1 package of cream cheese
1 jar marshmallow fluff
zest of one lemon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 340 degrees.

Melt the butter and brush it onto one side of the tortilla. Stack up the tortillas so the unbuttered bottom sits on the buttered top of the tortilla before it (this way there will be butter on both sides of the tortilla but you don't have to actually brush it onto both sides).

Cut the tortilla into 6 triangles. Place them in a single layer on a baking sheet. In a separate bowl, mix together cinnamon and sugar. Sprinkle the mixture over the tortillas. Bake for about 8 minutes. Let cool a few minutes on the tray.

For the dip, in a small food processor, mix together the cream cheese and the fluff. Stir in the zest. To make it R2-D2, dye blue with food coloring.

Parties don't have to look super professional and ridiculous to be super fun. Finger foods that your guests will enjoy and don't take a lot of time to prepare are just as good as making ridiculous fancy appetizers.

Below are few more pictures from the party!