A Disnerd Birthday Adventure, part 2: Food

The Asian in me loves parties that have exorbitant amounts of food. Like so much that you know you'll never finish it and have to force people to take doggie bags home. To me that's the only kind of party worth having. The problem is that whenever I host a party, I get really stressed out that there won't be enough food and then it's not very fun for me.

I didn't want my epic birthday party to be stressful, so I decided to delegate half of the food to friends and assign myself a lot of the easy prep stuff. This worked out really well! I should do this more often.

I realized that when you have every single Disney animated movie to draw from, you can pretty much make whatever you want and somehow give it a Disney spin. I did spend a lot of time brainstorming food ideas though. I even designed food labels for each item. Blame it on the day job.

Here's what we had (warning: you may want to grab a napkin to wipe the drool off your mouth as you read this!):

Savory Foods:

Pumbaa's in a blanket, made by Kylene & Vicki
haha. I used the "SHE'S GONNA EAT ME!" scene for the label. So ironic.

Koda's smoked salmon on crackers (Brother Bear)
This is seriously the easiest finger food to make. All you need is smoked salmon, cream cheese, crackers and fresh dill! No cooking required. :)

Mushu's fire-roasted dumplings
Also very easy, when you buy them frozen. The handmade dumpling days are gone. haha.

Genie, wake up and smell the hummus!
Here's a little random fact: I always thought he said, "Genie, wake up and smell the homeless!" hahaha. I mean, has anyone ever thought about how Aladdin probably smelled really bad?





Chicken Little Waffles not pictured (somehow I forgot to get a shot of these!):
This was fried chicken on homemade waffles drizzled with maple syrup, made by my roommate Amy, who on the day of my party had only been back from a 10 day trip to Africa for less than 24 hours. Seriously, my roommate rocks. We'll leave out the fact that her first batch of waffle batter used powdered sugar instead of flour. To be fair, the container was unlabeled. :D

Corn dip & blue corn chips (also not pictured...oops!), made by Kylene & Vicki ("blue corn [moon]" is a reference to a lyric in "Colors of the Wind")
I only ate a couple bites of this, but it was SO yummy. I'm still thinking about it a week later. Note to self: get recipe!

Non-Disney:

Steak strips on baguette with caramelized onion and blue cheese
Who cares if this isn't Disney. They were amazing. Once again my roommate is awesome! (I suppose we could have called them Home on the Range steak? But seeing as that my life goal is to forget I ever watched that movie, I didn't think it appropriate to make it part of my birthday celebration.)

 
Sweet Foods:

Cinderella's magic pumpkin cookies, made by Courtney
I actually didn't get to eat any at the party but I had one of the leftovers later. They were goood! I think I'm going to have to ask Courtney to make these again. :)

Snow White mini apple pies, made by Tiana
Um, I'm pretty sure there was poison in these because they were to DIE for. And they were apple-shaped! How cute is that? 

Dalmatian puppy chow
There wasn't really anything dalmatian-y about this chow. But it was easy to make, and a great party food.

Tarzan's tropical fruit
Another easy one! I think all parties need to have fruit. Yep, pulling the Asian card again on this one.

Mickey oreo cupcakes, blonde and chocolate, made by Tiana (sorry the picture is blurry!)
You have to have something Mickey-shaped at a Disney party!

Rapunzel's tower, made out of cupcakes, ice cream cones, and a lot of icing, by Tiana
Um, this was ridiculously awesome! I was in awe of how accurately detailed this was, and even more in awe that Tiana managed to get it to my party in one piece. No one wanted to eat it because it was so pretty!








The finale - cake & punch

 
A Disnerd cake
What's a birthday party without a cake? My friend Stephanie likes to decorate cakes, so we worked together on the design, featuring my special 30th Mickey logo, and symbols from the 4 main eras of Disney animation: the sorcerer's hat from Fantasia, Cinderella's slipper, Aladdin's magic lamp, and the sun from Tangled. It was both gorgeous and very Disnerdy. So basically it was perfect. Thank you Stephanie for the most memorable cake I have ever had!

Pink Elephant punch
A Disney-themed birthday party for a 30-year-old needs a little alcohol. I mean really. So I Googled "pink elephant punch" and found this recipe! I'm guessing people liked it because there was hardly any left at the end of the night, even after making a second batch. Dumbo & Timothy would have certainly enjoyed it.



Amy and I were eating leftovers all week. Actually I still have smoked salmon and dumplings I am avoiding eating. Imagine if I had prepared all the food myself! A HUGE thank you to each and every friend who helped with the food. I really could not have had such a great spread without you! 

Next and last Birthday post: fashion & games!

#45: Rock Bottom

(c) Disney

Home on the Range, 2004
watched July 29, 2012

Well friends. We've arrived. This is what it feels like. Rock bottom is pretty painful. I pray that you never have to feel this pain.

(Helpful Tip: Never watch Home on the Range. Ever.)

Want to know how to create the worst Disney movie of all time? Here are five tips from those who successfully achieved this feat:

1) Feature a really annoying main character.
Disney's first mistake was to cast Roseanne as Maggie, the cow. I wonder if they sat around thinking, "Hey, whose voice would be most annoying to listen to for 74 minutes? Oh, I know, the woman infamous for singing the national anthem in that crass, nasally voice of hers. Perfect. Let's get her."

2) Surround said main character with even more annoying supporting characters. 
Nearly all of the other characters are equally as whiny, stupid, and un-funny, possibly with the exception of Grace, one of the two sidekick cows. I about died when the villain, Alameda Slim, begins yodeling, and there's a sort of "Pink Elephants On Parade" thing going on, except with cows. And not died in the "I'm so excited I can't contain myself" kind of way. The other kind of dying. I want those five minutes of my life back, Disney!!

3) Tell a ridiculously stupid, boring story that no one cares about.
Okay, so confession time: the DVD was slightly warped and we had to skip through about the first 20 minutes of the movie. Given my obvious feelings about this movie, I was not too upset about this. But even without the beginning, one should still be able to engage with the remainder of the film. There was absolutely nothing that pulled me into the story. I kind of just cringed whenever anyone said something and someone else said something back. So, basically the whole time.

4) Don't spend any time making it look good. Just get it done.
Without knowing much about the film's production history, it's pretty clear that Disney spent significantly less time working on Range. It looks like a five year old could have drawn it. (Sorry to the five year olds that I know! I am pretty sure you all could do way better than this, actually.) At least with other dislikable movies such as Pocahontas, there is still some artistry worth observing and appreciating. Nothing to see here folks. Just a bunch of cows and a fat red-headed cowboy villain.

5) Include as many crappy songs as you can. 
Seriously. At the moment the first song begins, I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel. But unfortunately I still had another hour to watch. It's incredible that the same man who is responsible for A Whole New World, I See the Light, and dozens of other classics also has (You Ain't) Home on the Range and Yodel-Adle-Eedle-Idle-Oo on his resume. Hopefully they're way down at the bottom where no one will ever remember to check.

There you have it folks! A recipe for instant success. At failure.

I'm kind of ashamed that this movie is counted in Disney's animated canon. How can this be included in the same list as The Lion King, Cinderella and Tangled? It makes absolutely no sense.

Perhaps you're asking: But Laura, you always manage to find something good in every Disney movie! What about this one?

Here's the good news about Home on the Range: I will never have to watch it again.

Renaissance Parallels Pt. 5: Love

It's the last of my Renaissance Venn diagrams! I promise. :)

In this final set I focused on love, unquestionably the central theme to almost all Disney movies. But love doesn't necessarily mean romantic love (though 9 out of 10 times it does). I would like to point out the two fathers featured here: Mufasa and King Triton, both of whom give their lives for their child. Mufasa's death is one of the most emotional moments in the entire Renaissance.

It's also notable that Pocahontas shows up the most often, whereas it had very few appearances in the previous sets. This is probably because the love story in Pocahontas is the most overwhelming and dominating (ie: that movie doesn't have much else going on). It's probably not a coincidence that it's my least favorite Renaissance film. I love a good love story, but not when it becomes the whole story, which is kind of Pocahontas' downfall, in my opinion.

So, what did you think? Did I miss any major similarities? What was most surprising/interesting? Leave your comments!

And check out the other sets here:  main characters  |  songs |  villains  |  sidekicks

Happy Year of the Mushu!

Chinese (Lunar) New Year was never a big celebration in my family, probably because of our Filipino cultural heritage (where January 1st is a much bigger deal). But I thought it was fitting to at least celebrate the Year of the Dragon in Disnerd style, because Mushu the dragon comes from the only Disney film that takes place in China! How fortuitous!

In case you can't see the characters in the zodiac I created very well, here's the list:

• Dragon: Mushu, Mulan
• Snake: Kaa, The Jungle Book
• Horse: Maximus, Tangled
• Sheep/Goat: Djali, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (there aren't any sheep in the Disney films, unless you count the time that Genie transforms into a sheep and tells Aladdin, "Alright you baaaaad boy, but no more freebies!"
• Monkey: Abu, Aladdin
• Rooster: Panchos Pistoles, The Three Caballeros
• Dog: Bolt, Bolt
• Pig: Pumbaa, The Lion King
• Rat: Mickey Mouse! (Mickey's not a rat but he's way cuter.)
• Ox: Maggie, Home on the Range (technically a cow, there are no male ox in any of the Disney movies)
• Tiger: Rajah, Aladdin
• Rabbit: Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh

If you're unfamiliar with Chinese zodiac, check here to find out what year you are. I'm year of the dog.

Happy New Year! Xin ni kuai lok! (This is how you would say it in my dialect, Fukien.)