DuckTales (1987)

Posted on by cartooncravings

Episode: The Money Vanishes
Ma Beagle’s Cake

“Scrooge McDuck, he had a vault. Ee-i-ee-i-oh. And in his vault, he had some dough. Ee-i-ee-i-oh.” What? You don’t immediately start singing this song when you think of DuckTales? Me neither. I like something with a bit more “Woo-oo!” in it. Hey, after all my Disney Afternoon days, I’ll never be able to get that theme song out of my head. But that catchy tune is just one thing I love about DuckTales. There’s also adventure, mystery, riches, Launchpad. I could just sit here and type about this series for days, but then we’d never get to the recipe. Let’s just say that I love this show as much as Scrooge loves money. No, my cartoon obsession won’t make me three cubic acres of cash, but I feel rich in other ways. Even Scrooge comes to realize that wealth isn’t always measured in dollars and cents. But that never stops him from fussing over the money he has and finding ways to earn more. Scrooge didn’t become a zillionaire by luck alone. He did it by being “smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies.” And those skills of his, as well as those of his grandnephews, are put to the test whenever they travel across the globe in search of treasure or come face-to-face with the villains right in Duckburg.

You’d think life would be easy for the richest duck in the world, but it’s not all triple-mint ripple ice cream and dips in the Money Bin for Scrooge McDuck. He’s got to deal with pains in the wallet like Flintheart Glomgold, Magica De Spell, and the Beagle Boys. When we first meet the notorious Beagle Boys, Big Time says that they’ve hit the Money Bin 299 times! And after all those attempts, the Beagle Boys still somehow keep finding new ways to try to make off with Scrooge’s cash. They once stole Gyro’s Furniture-Mover Ray and Preparation Spray and zapped all the money in the Money Bin straight to their hideout. They never had to lift a money bag! But let’s back up here a bit. The Beagle Boys were in jail. They’re always in jail. How do they keep getting out? It’s definitely not because of good behavior. El Capitan, Glomgold, and Magica have all sprung them from jail, but they usually escape thanks to their dear old Ma. Whenever her sons end up in the slammer, Ma Beagle goes to the kitchen and bakes up something special to send to her boys. And her tokens of affection are filled with the best surprises. (I’m not talking chocolate chips.) More like “a file, some dynamite, maybe a blowtorch.” In the case of “The Money Vanishes,” Ma Beagle sends a cake with a shovel in it. I know what you’re thinking, “There’s a shovel in that cake?” Yeah, you can’t even tell, right? Okay, so you can OBVIOUSLY see that a shovel is hidden in it, but Officer Parolski doesn’t notice.

Recipe makes one large chocolate cake.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake:

1 cup vegetable oil

4 ½ cups sifted all-purpose flour

3 cups sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

4 eggs, room temperature

2 cups buttermilk, room temperature

 

Frosting-You’ll need 3-4 batches

3 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon heavy cream

 

Sprinkles

2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon meringue powder

2 tablespoons warm water

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Blue and Red/Pink Food Coloring

 

Directions

Chocolate Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Grease and flour two 10 x 2-inch round cake pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. In a stand mixer, combine oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract and beat until pale, about 3 minutes. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternatingly, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix until just combined.

Divide cake batter amongst pans. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when the cake is tested. Cool in pans for 10-15 minutes. Turn out cakes on a wire rack and cool completely.

Frosting:

In a stand mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Beat powdered sugar in, a little at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add vanilla extract and heavy cream. Beat until smooth.

Sprinkles:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, meringue powder, vanilla extract, and water until smooth. (You may have to add additional water if it’s too thick, but you want the mixture to remain pipe-able.) Divide the icing into two bowls and tint one blue and the other pink. Transfer one bowl of icing to a piping bag fitted with a tip about ¼-inch in diameter. (I wanted bigger sprinkles and the best tip in my drawer was a Marpol #10.) Pipe long, thin lines onto parchment-lined baking sheets until all the icing is used up. Repeat with the other colored icing. Let the icing sit uncovered for 24 hours, or at least overnight. Once the icing strips are dry, chop or break them up into your desired lengths.

Putting It All Together:

Trim any excess cake so both rounds are level. Spread a large amount of frosting on the top and sides of one of the cakes. Top with the other cake. Now here’s the fun part! Stick a shovel right through the cake. Cover the cake and the shovel with a lot more of the frosting. Top with sprinkles. Now it’s ready for delivery or you can just go all Burger on it!

DuckTales BBDuckTales BB Cake

I’m a big fan of this shovel cake, (It doesn’t have a fun, alliterative name.) so I would love to take a peek at Ma Beagle’s recipe book to see all the weapons she’s baked for her sons. There are Pumpkin Pistol Popovers, Metal Meringue Pie, Huckleberry Hand Grenade Cheesecake, and Ma’s favorite, Chocolate Chainsaw Surprise, just to name a few. All these sweet treats warm the Beagle Boys’ hearts and fill their stomachs, and most importantly, get them out of jail. That is, once they figure out how to use the tools. Big Time is the only one who understands that they need to use the shovel to tunnel out their cell. Too bad all of their digging and deceiving is for nothing because Huey, Dewey, and Louie turn the tables on them and zap them back to jail before they can even spend a dime. They may have only gotten a small taste of freedom, but they’ll be sinking their teeth into another one of Ma’s cakes in no time.

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Gravity Falls

Posted on by cartooncravings

Episode: The Time Traveler’s Pig
Mystery Dogs

“Ah, summer break. A time for leisure, recreation, and takin’ ‘er easy.” Unless you’re Dipper Pines. He and his twin sister Mabel get shipped up north to Gravity Falls, Oregon to stay at their Great-uncle Stan’s place in the woods. Well, their “Grunkle” doesn’t live in an ordinary house. He transformed it into a tourist trap called the “Mystery Shack.” “And guess who had to work there.” Dipper thought he’d have to suffer through the same boring routine all summer, but that changes when he finds a mysterious journal in the forest. Dipper’s suspicions about the town’s weirdness are confirmed and then some. The kids begin uncovering the mysteries of Gravity Falls and encounter all kinds of magical creatures and paranormal thingums. And of course, no summer is complete unless the fate of the world is at stake.

Dipper and Mabel unlock all sorts of crazy secrets surrounding the town, but there remains one mystery left unsolved: How do they get Mystery Dogs in the shape of a question mark? (“It’s unnatural.”) Yeah, I’m talking about the corn dogs at Grunkle Stan’s Mystery Fair. They’re the ones that Dipper and Wendy get before Dipper accidently hurts Wendy, steals Blendin Blandin’s fancy tape measure time machine, and goes back in time over and over to keep Wendy and Robbie from getting together. I know. There are a whole lot of puzzles and blink-and-you-miss-it things in this series and I get hung up on corn dogs. I’ve seen Soos direct traffic with corn dogs, and there’s the Tunnel of Love and Corndogs at the Mystery Fair, and-Oh my gosh! Is there some kind of Gravity Falls corn dog conspiracy? Nah, I’m sure Old Man McGucket would have mentioned something. Right? Hmm…maybe I should look into this. Or maybe I should just shut my yap and get on with making corn dogs.

Recipe makes 3 large corn dogs.

Ingredients

3 footlong hot dogs

1 cup yellow cornmeal

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for coating hot dogs

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

Mustard (Optional)

Oil for frying-Enough to submerge corn dogs, a little over 1 gallon

Directions

Heat oil in a deep fryer or large pot to 375 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. In another bowl, combine the eggs and milk. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.

Pat the hot dogs dry and roll in flour to coat. Insert a 12-inch skewer halfway through the hot dog. Bend the top of the hot dog to make the curve of the question mark and continue pushing the skewer through so it holds it in place. Cut off part of the bottom of the hot dog and pull it down to make the bottom of the question mark.

Dip a hot dog into the batter and evenly coat. (You’re going to have to get your hands dirty.) Allow any excess batter to drip off. Carefully place the hot dog in the hot oil and cook until golden brown, 4-5 minutes. Transfer the corn dog to a wire rack or paper-towel-lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining hot dogs. Top with a little mustard and enjoy!

Gravity Falls Mystery DogGravity Falls Insp Mystery Dog

So I just made corn dogs shaped like question marks. That’s got to be one of the more weird things I’ve done over the summer. (You’re next, Mobius chicken strips!) Hey, my summer breaks weren’t nearly as supernatural as the Pines’. Still, I loved them more than anything, so whenever August rolled around, I’d start wishing summer could last forever. Unfortunately, whether you’re saving the world from a whole lot of weirdness or you’re just lazing your days away, summer ends. And then it’s time for us to grow up. (“But not too much.”) I wish I could go back and relive my past summers, but that’s not going to happen unless I get my hands on some sensitive, extremely complicated time equipment. But time machine or not, whenever I need just a little more summer, I know I can always return to a sleepy town in the woods called Gravity Falls.

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

The Super Hero Squad Show

Posted on by cartooncravings

Episode: Invader From the Dark Dimension!
Corn, Dirt, and Cabbage Spaghetti

“Ready, Squaddies?” Time to Hero-Wait! Too early in the blog. I didn’t even give a supervillain the chance to show up. That shouldn’t’ take too long though since Doctor Doom teamed up with almost every one of them and formed the Lethal Legion. And if the troublemakers in Villainville aren’t enough, there are plenty of other baddies out there with their own plans for wreaking havoc on Super Hero City, the Earth, and the entire Universe. With all of these villains around, we’re going to need a few good heroes. That’s where the Super Hero Squad comes in. It’s the Squad’s mission to prevent Doctor Doom from rebuilding the Infinity Sword by collecting all the Infinity Fractals before he does. Plus there’s all that other superhero business they need to take care of. Lucky for The Super Hero Squad, they have S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and other heroes to come to their aid. (“You can’t throw a cow in this town without hitting a superhero.”) Unlucky for the Squaddies, they all have to live together in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier.

Sure, you might think it’d be funny if Iron Man, Thor, Falcon, Hulk, Wolverine, and Silver Surfer lived under one roof, but actually…no, it is funny, especially when the other Squaddies have to deal with Silver Surfer’s cooking. The Surfer loves cooking, but his food tends to make his friends “bloweth mighty chunks.” When Baron Mordo possesses Iron Man, Thor blames Silver Surfer’s “freaky cosmic food” for Iron Man’s odd behavior and smell. Silver Surfer does admit that his food would be better if he had taste buds, but that doesn’t stop him from cooking. So when the Squad returns to the Helicarrier (Minus Falcon, Redwing, and “Iron Menace.”), Silver Surfer whips up a fresh batch of corn, dirt, and cabbage spaghetti for them. The Surfer calls it comfort food, but he still takes it into battle and throws it on Doctor Doom. It delights Silver Surfer when Doom picks up on the Parmesan because he finally found someone who appreciates gourmet cooking. Gourmet or not, the spaghetti looks a little scary, so this will be quite the battle for me. Hmm. I guess that means it’s “Time to Hero Up!”

Recipe makes about 9 cups.

Ingredients

8 ounces spaghetti

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup onions, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons dried mushroom powder (Did you think I was really using dirt?)

1 cup corn

4 cups red cabbage, thinly sliced

8 cups beef broth

Shredded Parmesan cheese

Salt

Pepper

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and cabbage and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add beef broth, dried mushroom powder, and corn and bring to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook until the noodles have reached your desired doneness. Season with salt and pepper and add Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

Super Hero CDCSSuperHeroSquad CDCS

Looking at the corn, dirt, and cabbage spaghetti makes me feel pukey, but it tastes much better than it looks. And now I know I can use it as a weapon during a fight. It’s a tactic called “Making someone sick with some home cooking.” Silver Surfer uses this when he starts throwing “truly powerful” meat pies at Abomination and Wolverine. Just seeing Surfer’s cooking is now enough to scare off Doctor Doom. Even though Surfer’s cooking is “deadly,” he loves it and that’s all that matters. Iron Man rewards him for assembling the Defenders and allows him to be cook for a day at the Stark Industries Café. This calls for a new name for Silver Surfer. Now he is the Cosmic Chef.

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Atlantis: The Lost Empire

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Cookie’s Food

First off, I’d like to thank “this board” for taking the time to hear my proposal, er, read my blog. Now, we’ve all heard of the movie of Atlantis, a science fiction action-adventure film that was released by Disney back in 2001. “Now, some of you may ask, ‘Why Atlantis?’” It’s just a flop, isn’t it? “Well, that is where you’d be wrong.” Atlantis: The Lost Empire is the exciting journey of a cartographer and linguist who leads a ragtag band of specialists/plundering vandals to the greatest archeological find in recorded history. Sure, it didn’t perform as well as expected at the box office, but money’s not what’s important. (Unless you’re an “adventure capitalist.”) Atlantis is really all about discovery, teamwork, and adventure.

The lost continent of Atlantis is just a legend, right? So to go on an expedition to find it, you’ve got to be crazy. (Crazy, passionate, quirky, snarky, sweet.) The characters all have such strong, differing personalities. I wish the movie was twice as long, so I could learn more about each one. One of my favorite parts of Atlantis is when the team makes camp. The others finally accept Milo and they eat, and pitch up tents, and just talk. However, they probably would prefer to just skip that eating part. Cookie’s great and all, but his food doesn’t look much like food. When he slops “the appetizer” onto everyone’s trays, he calls it Caesar salad, escargot, and Oriental spring rolls. I call it…well I really don’t know what to call it! (I don’t even know what it is.) But I know it contains the four basic food groups: beans, bacon, whisky, and lard.

Recipe makes about 4 cups of beany cornmeal mush.

Ingredients

¼ pound dry pinto beans, rinsed and soaked in water overnight

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 small garlic clove, minced

¼ pound bacon, cut into small pieces

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 tablespoons molasses

2 tablespoons whisky

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon lard

6 cups water

1 cup yellow corn meal

Salt

Directions

Rinse the beans and soak in water overnight. Drain.

Place room temperature bacon pieces in a pot and bring to medium heat. Once the bacon pieces begin to crisp, add the onion. Cook the onion for 5 minutes and add the garlic. Cook for 30 seconds. Add beans and water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the beans for 1 ½ hours.

Add ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, whisky, and lard and continue simmering for 30 minutes. Bring the beans back to a boil and add the corn meal. Stirring constantly, cook until thickened, about 3 minutes. (If it’s too thick, add some extra water.) Season with salt. Come and get it!

AtlantisTLEAtlantis M

“Thank God I lost my sense of taste years ago.” I’m just kidding. The stuff isn’t pretty, but it’s not that bad. (I don’t think you’ll be seeing any mushroom clouds if you dump it into a fire.) So are you ready for the main course? Oh, you say you couldn’t eat another bite. “Ha ha ha, don’t you worry. It’ll keep and keep and keep.”

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Star vs. the Forces of Evil

Posted on by cartooncravings

Episode: The Banagic Incident
Banagic Ice Cream

Star vs. the Forces of Evil promises a little weird, a little wild, and a good time. I’d have to say it delivers. If a magic-wielding, monster-fighting princess from another dimension living as a foreign exchange student on Earth doesn’t fit that description, I don’t know what does. How does this even happen anyway? Well, Star isn’t what one would call a “typical princess.” She’s reckless and irresponsible and sets her kingdom on fire shortly after receiving a great family heirloom, The Royal Magic Wand. Her parents send her to Earth to train and she takes up residence in the Diaz household. This was done as a safety measure, but Star still finds plenty of ways to get into trouble. When she’s not narwhal blasting some ill-intentioned monsters or cutting her way into other dimensions, she’s got to handle everyday life in a place entirely new to her.

Star lives a pretty exciting life, but even she isn’t safe from boredom. (It’s her biggest fear.) She was going to have to renounce her vow to never have a dull day until she saw a magazine ad for The Banagic Wand. It’s one of those “As Featured on TV” products that you see in those late night commercials. “Designed by leading freeze-ologists, The Banagic Wand uses state-of-the-art molecular ice-stronomy to frostulate your sizzle zones and chill you out.” (It makes banana ice cream.) Star can’t resist this “Earth Magic” and insists on immediately finding a “Better Store” where it’s sold. (Supplies are limited.) But Marco refuses to skip his karate class, so Star’s on her own. She wasn’t doing too badly until she mistook the staff of a pirate-themed restaurant for real pirates and trashes the place. They chase her all the way to the store and corner her right in front of The Banagic Wands. Star tells them that they need to “chill out,” so everyone does just that. Banagic Wand Party at Marco’s house!

Recipe makes one 2-cup serving

Ingredients

4 ripe bananas

Yellow food coloring

Directions

Peel and thinly slice the bananas. Freeze the banana slices for at least two hours. Place the frozen banana slices in a food processor. Blend, occasionally scraping down the sides of the processor, until the bananas become creamy. Add a little yellow food coloring and blend a few more seconds. Scrape out of the food processor. (You can fill a piping bag with the banana ice cream and pipe into a bowl to give it more of a soft serve look.)  Enjoy immediately!

StarvstheFOEStarvstFOE Ban

Star completes her quest, conquers her boredom, and feels like she’s mastered Earth. Marco is impressed and admits that he underestimated her. Star’s not too happy to hear that though and she pushes Marco’s Banagic ice cream out of his hands. I wasn’t surprised that Star found a Banagic Wand, but I was surprised that it actually worked. I’ve gotten sucked in by enough infomercials to know that they can’t all be trusted. Well Banagic Wand or not, banana ice cream is pretty magical. “I’m totally chilled out!”

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Posted on by cartooncravings

Cookies

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a “story of greed, sex, and murder” and cartoons! That sounds like one entertaining movie, huh? “You’d better believe it, buster.” Here’s the scenario: a cartoon rabbit named Roger, whose whole purpose in life is to make people laugh, has been accused of murder and the only guy who can clear Roger Rabbit’s name and save him from a vat of Judge Doom’s Dip is a booze-drinking, toon-hating, private investigator named Eddie Valiant. Think film noir but with cartoons. And boy, does this have cartoons! This movie is jammed-packed with animated stars. There’s Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny (Sharing the screen!), Donald Duck and Daffy Duck (Also together.), Betty Boop, Droopy, Woody Woodpecker, and many more familiar faces. But as much as I adore all the cameos, my favorite Toon in this film is Roger. I was crazy about the guy before the opening cartoon even had a chance to end.

This film jumps straight into a Maroon Cartoon starring Roger Rabbit and Baby Herman called Somethin’s Cookin’. When Baby Herman’s mother goes out, she leaves her son in Roger’s care. (And threatens to send Roger back to the science lab if he doesn’t take good care of Baby Herman.) Now this wouldn’t be much of a cartoon if Roger was a perfect babysitter and Baby Herman didn’t get in any trouble, so of course Baby Herman escapes from his playpen as soon as Mrs. Herman is gone. He sees a full cookie jar sitting atop the refrigerator and heads straight for it. Baby Herman makes his way through the dangerous kitchen unscathed and gets himself a golden, crinkly cookie, but Roger doesn’t fare as well and ends up with the refrigerator on his head.

Recipe makes about 20 peanut butter crinkle cookies

Ingredients

½ cup shortening

½ cup peanut butter

½ cup sugar, plus more for rolling cookies

½ cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ cups flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

In a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the shortening, peanut butter, and sugars until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and the vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

Shape the dough into rounded tablespoon sized balls. Roll the dough balls in sugar and place on parchment-lined baking sheets.

Bake until cookies are golden, 10-12 minutes.

Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely. Now you can fill up that cookie jar!

WhoFramedRogerCookieWhoFramedRRCookie (2)

Baby Herman looks awfully happy to get that cookie. Sure he’s just acting, but he’s believable. I remember how shocked I was to see his true self when I watched this movie for the first time. He’s not really a sweet baby, so I wasn’t much of a fan. But my love for Roger only grew as the movie went on. He and all of the other cartoon characters were brought to life so perfectly in a live-action film, I really believed that the Toons and humans acted together. (It was tough for me to accept that Roger didn’t exist in “real life.”) But even if Roger isn’t “real,” the laughs he’s given me are. And “a laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it’s the only weapon we have.”

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Rabbit of Seville

Posted on by cartooncravings

Fruit Salad

The month of June always gets me thinking about a certain Looney Tune. Oh, you know the one. Cartoon Network used to do a marathon in honor of the guy. What was that called? June Something. June Duck! No, that’s not right. (Who would want to watch something called June Duck?) Now I remember! It was June Bugs. I know, like I could ever forget June Bugs. Bugs Bunny is one of my favorite cartoon characters EVER, so a weekend of nothing but Bugs was kind of a big deal to me. Yeah, the days of June Bugs are long gone but that can’t stop me from celebrating the rabbit. I think it’s time for my own June Bugs marathon. I can see the drama, the music (Yeah, “see” the music.), the pageantry, the double and triple-takes, the action, and the romance now. But what I really need to be seeing is the food. Most of the time Bugs just eats plain old carrots or someone’s trying to eat Bugs, but there’s got to be something I can make. (It would be much easier if I did this after watching all the cartoons.) Well, I do have one idea.

While playing around online, I stumbled across some stuff about Bugs Bunny making a fruit salad on Elmer Fudd’s head. I wondered what cartoon that could possibly be in. I hit myself when I found out that it’s Rabbit of Seville. How did I not remember that? Rabbit of Seville was, is, and always will be my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoon. I could sit there and watch Bugs shave and beautify Elmer Fudd all day. (Is that weird?) Now where does the fruit salad come in? I’m getting there. You see, Elmer Fudd was chasing Bugs (Big surprise there.) and the chase leads to an amphitheater (The Hollywood Bowl) where The Barber of Seville is to be performed. Bugs runs in through an open stage door and Elmer follows and ends up on stage. Bugs opens the curtain and the orchestra starts playing. The next thing you know, Bugs “The Barber” scoops up Elmer and gives him quite the shave. The next time Elmer finds himself in the barber chair, Bugs massages Elmer’s head and then uses it as the perfect base for a fruit salad. He piles on some lettuce, a bunch of whole fruit, some carrots (This is Bugs Bunny we’re taking about here.), whipped cream (At least I hope it is.), and tops it all off with a cherry. Bugs shows his masterpiece to Elmer Fudd, but he doesn’t seem to like it too much and goes after Bugs with a razor.

Recipe makes one fruit salad

Ingredients

This is a chance to get creative, so add any fruits or veggies that you see fit. Here’s what I used.

4 lettuce leaves

7 red apples

6 bananas

5 oranges

4 carrots

3 plums

4 lemons

3 pears

2 pale skinned white nectarines

2 small bunches of grapes

1 small pineapple

1 cherry

1-2 (15 ounce) cans whipped cream-I used one whole can and could’ve easily used another

 

Directions

Bugs starts with a ring of cream but whipped cream melts away too quickly, (It was already sliding before I got a picture.) so I started with a bed of 4 lettuce leaves. Toss in an orange, a carrot, an apple and a lemon, and two carrots, an orange, and a plum/apple. Slice one carrot and add it. Toss the fruit salad. Mysterious white and dark stuff started showing up here so that’s why I added the nectarines (They were the palest produce I could find.) and the plums. Add a pineapple and an apple.

Okay, now here’s where it gets confusing and crazy. Bugs tosses on so much stuff so quickly and the fruits change to other ones in midair or in the stack. So just stack as much fruit as you want in whatever way suits you.

This is kind of the order Bugs throws the fruit (It was different each time I watched it.), so I sort of followed that. I just used less fruit because it was already out of hand and the last thing I needed were more apples. He adds an apple and a lemon, a banana and an orange, and a pear, an orange, and an apple. Then he adds an apple and a banana, an apple, an orange, and a pear, an apple and a lemon, a pear and an apple, and an orange, a banana, and a small bunch of grapes. Then he adds an apple, a pear, and an orange, an apple and a banana, an apple and an orange, an orange/apple and a banana, and an apple, a pear, and a mystery shape that looks like a yellow bell pepper (I used another lemon). Then he adds an apple and a banana, an apple, an orange, and a small lemon, an lemon and a banana, an apple, a banana, and an orange, and an orange and an apple. (Whew!)

Then spray on some whipped cream. Place a cherry on top and there you have it!

Rabbit of Seville Fruit SaladRabbit of Seville Fruit

Ugh! You don’t know how badly I wanted to build this on someone’s head! (I did try.) But it’s hard enough to build it on a flat surface. You’d think that these “stacking recipes” would be easy, but gravity is a force to be reckoned with. So no, this is not a normal fruit salad, but Bugs Bunny isn’t a normal rabbit. And he’s definitely not a normal barber. If the fruit salad wasn’t enough to convince you, then maybe Bugs using hair restorer on Elmer Fudd’s face and using an itty bitty lawnmower to shave him might. That or Bugs using fertilizer and growing flowers on Elmer’s head. Yeah, he doesn’t like that too much either. This time he goes after Bugs with an axe. And then they have a weapons chase, and then they have a wedding, and then Bugs drops Elmer Fudd from really high up and he falls into a cake! And I just watched this cartoon five times in a row and I still can’t get tired of it. (I never will.) But if I plan on making it through all of Bugs’ cartoons in one busy weekend, I better move on. “Ehh…next?”

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Charlotte’s Web

Posted on by cartooncravings

A Veritable Smorgasbord

Salutations! (“It’s my fancy way of saying hello.”) Guess who I learned that from. She has eight legs, catches flies and drinks their blood, Wilbur adores her, and her name is right in the title. Yep, none other than Charlotte A. Cavatica! Now I’m not a big fan of spiders, but Charlotte is one of the very, very few exceptions. (She’s the only spider I’ve ever cried over, but I don’t want to talk about that.) Charlotte may be a common gray spider, but she’s terribly clever and has a gift for words. But most importantly, she’s a friend to Wilbur when he needs one the most. Charlotte promises to try to save Wilbur’s life and uses her talents to play a trick on Zuckerman by spinning “miracles” in her web. (“People are very gullible. They’ll believe anything they see in print.”) Charlotte’s web skyrockets Wilbur to fame and Zuckerman decides to take him to the county fair. But Wilbur isn’t safe from becoming smoked bacon and ham just yet.

When Charlotte needs inspiration for the miracles, she relies on the others in the barn cellar, especially Templeton. But Templeton is a rat who’d rather spend his time spying, hiding, and eating. He doesn’t like to do things for others unless there’s something in it for him. He has to be told that he’ll starve to death if Wilbur is killed. And even then the word he brings Charlotte is “Crunchy.” (He brings back a better word the second time.) So when the day of the fair arrives, Templeton refuses to come along until the Goose convinces him that a fair is a veritable smorgasbord, orgasbord, orgasbord. (“Why, a fair has enough disgusting leftover food to satisfy a whole army of rats.” Yummy.) After it gets dark and Templeton fetches a word for Charlotte, he declares it a night to remember and sets out to glut. He finds melon rinds, bits of hot dogs, cookie crumbs, rotten cotton candy, and other gobs of gorgeous gook. He even decides to pile up his goodies to the point where it topples over. But he doesn’t let that stop him. He eats what he can as it falls and continues his feast around the fairgrounds.

Recipe makes one ratly feast.

Ingredients

You can get as crazy as you want and add whatever to this. Here’s what I used.

Swiss cheese

Lighter cheese wedge with rind-Mine was white cheddar

Lunch meat-One grayer and one more red-Roast Beef and Pastrami

1-2 small zucchinis

Watermelon wedge

Tomato

Yellow snack cake

Chocolate snack cake

Popcorn

Egg-Boiled

Fish-Extra points if you can get a whole one. I had to settle for a fillet, but it is easier to eat.

Chocolate wafer cookie

Vanilla wafer cookies

1 leaf lettuce

Green olives

Black olive

Hotdog

Chocolate pieces

Peach-Cut in half with pit

Apple Core

1 slice bread

 

Directions

So, think of this like a giant sandwich with a lot less bread. Start with a base of Swiss cheese. I used 6 slices. Add a small zucchini and the chocolate snack cake. A piece of rolled up roast beef could work here too. Place the egg near here too. Top with a slice of roast beef, Swiss cheese, and a tomato slice. Add a slice of pastrami and a piece of the watermelon wedge. Top with another tomato slice, some lettuce, and more zucchini or some green olive. Add a slice of bread. Top that with the fish, piece of the wedge cheese, and more pastrami. Sprinkle some bit of green olive and hotdog here. Add another piece of the wedge cheese and the apple core. Top with a slice of Swiss cheese. Add a rolled up piece of roast beef. Add another slice of tomato, another chunk of cheese, and the peach half. Top with some popcorn.

Around the bottom of the stack, place the chocolate and vanilla wafer cookies and some popcorn. Start spreading out from there and add the snack cake, cheese, black olive, pieces of chocolate, another tomato slice, and other miscellaneous. The food pile is quite a balancing act, so add anything else you can think of to stabilize it. Have fun with it and don’t worry if it falls. (Mine fell twice before I got a picture, so it’s extra funky.) These foods are supposed to be leftovers so bite and rip into whatever you want to give them that feel. Once you’re happy, dig in!

Charlotte Web SmorgasbordCharlotte's Web Smorgasbord

All the food that Templeton eats at the fair has been “seasoned” by the passage of time and the heat of the day. It may be yummy for him but it would make anyone else sick, so I’ll stick with the fresh stuff, thank you. (Even the apple core is fresh, but I’m not really going to eat that.) Yeah, it’s kind of weird and kind of messy, but it is really fun. You can pick it apart and have meat and cheese, a sandwich, fruit, dessert, and whatever. Or you can just kind of go for it and eat it all together. Either way, it’ll leave you as full as Templeton. He needs to sleep all that off so his fun at the fair is over, but Wilbur’s is just is getting started. He doesn’t win first prize, but he’s honored for being Some Terrific Radiant Humble Pig and Zuckerman promises to let Wilbur live to a ripe old age. When Wilbur returns to Charlotte and asks her why she did all of this for him, she says it’s because he’s been her friend. She really was in a class by herself. “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Steven Universe

Posted on by cartooncravings

Episode: Together Breakfast
Even More Together Breakfast

I’d like to say that I’ve been a fan of Steven Universe since the show started, but then I’d be lying. Actually, I was quite late to the party. I was having trouble adjusting to newer shows, so I didn’t even give Steven a chance. But it’s not right for me to say I don’t like a show if I haven’t tried it, so I watched one episode. Then one more. And another and another and now here I am all caught up with everyone else. I felt so silly for thinking that the show had nothing to offer me because it has something for everyone. It’s weird and silly but serious and action-packed. Plus the characters are all so different, be it personalities, abilities, sizes, shapes, colors, whatever. And the amount of heart this show has surprised me. I love Steven’s relationship with the Gems and after I watched “Together Breakfast,” I knew I was hooked on the show.

The episode, just like the title food, is fun and sweet. Steven wakes up to an empty house and starts making breakfast. He’s got four toaster waffles with syrup. (Okay.) When he finds that the Gems still aren’t home, he adds some microwave popcorn. (Interesting.) The house is still empty. What does Steven do? He adds some whipped cream. (Now it’s out of control!) But wait, there’s more! He tops it all off with a strawberry. Now Steven comes to the conclusion that this is too good to be eaten alone. This is a “Together Breakfast” which should be eaten with the Gems like best buds. But when the Gems return, Steven’s breakfast gets turned down and ignored. Not letting that deter him, Steven follows Pearl into her room in the hopes of getting everyone together before his Together Breakfast becomes Together Brunch. This leads to him getting caught up in a waterfall, being chased by Amethyst, and sliding down to the bottom of the Crystal Temple. And just when everyone is together, they have to fight a smoke monster that takes refuge in the Together Breakfast. (“Now it has all the power of a breakfast. We have to destroy it.”) After the battle, they make a Together Breakfast that’s even more together and even more breakfast.

Recipe makes one shareable breakfast.

Ingredients

8 toaster waffles

1-2 bags microwave popcorn

Maple syrup

Canned whipped cream

Strawberry

 

Directions

Alright, this one’s easy. Toast the waffles according to the directions on the box. Place the waffles on a plate in two stacks of 4. Drizzle maple syrup over the waffles. Pop popcorn according to the instructions on the box/bag. Dump as much popcorn as you desire over the sticky waffles. Top with whipped cream and a strawberry. Now you can finally eat!

Steven Universe Together BreakfastSteven Universe More Together Bfst

Okay, so Steven and the Gems decide not to eat the Together Breakfast after all. (“Pizza’s a better idea.”) The Together Breakfast looks great! How can they pass that up? Well, it did try to kill them, so I guess I understand. But I live for food like this so whether I had to fight it or not, I’m eating it. Seeing Steven build the original Together Breakfast made me smile because I’ve been in his sandals and done the similar things. Just not with waffles and popcorn. Too bad the idea of eating the Together Breakfast is now ruined for Steven and the Gems because it’s even more fun to eat than it is to make. But it still brings them together, so it’s not a complete waste.

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!

Howl’s Moving Castle

Posted on by cartooncravings

Bacon and Eggs

Studio Ghibli. You know it. You love it. And if you don’t, it’s only a matter of time before you fall under its spell. I’ve been a fan of Studio Ghibli’s masterpieces since I was little, but it took me many years to figure out that the movies I’d been watching over and over came from the same studio. (I was either really unobservant or really stupid. Probably both.) Once I connected the dots, I knew to keep my eyes peeled for any upcoming movies. It wasn’t long until I found an article about Howl’s Moving Castle. I only had a brief description and a few pictures to go off of, but I was already in love with the film. The only downside was that I’d have to wait for it to come out. And wait and wait. And after a couple long years, I finally got to see it. You can guess that by this point I had very high expectations for this movie. I wasn’t disappointed in the least. Although I can’t say what my favorite Ghibli movie is, (It’s too painful to choose! Don’t make me!) Howl’s Moving Castle has been pretty high up on the list since then.

From the moment Howl’s castle walks across the screen, I check out of reality for a couple of hours and become completely immersed in the beautiful world of the film. Howl’s Moving Castle is obviously fantasy, but the captivating story plays out so effortlessly that it feels real. The characters are just as expressive as you or me and they interact with each other so naturally, routine things such as cleaning or cooking breakfast suddenly become fascinating. I suppose cooking is always livelier when your heat source is a scary and powerful fire demon. Yes, I’ve had my heart stolen by Calcifer too, (I’m rocking my pair of Calcifer socks right now.) but he’s only a part of what makes the breakfast sequence so wonderful. Sophie, Howl, and Markl are just as important. They’re all together for the first time and they already look like a fun little family to me. And then there’s the food! Studio Ghibli has a reputation for beautifully animating food for a reason. Something as simple as bacon and eggs becomes the tastiest looking meal in the world, and I can’t say I wouldn’t tear through my breakfast like Markl.

Recipe serves 2-3.

Ingredients

3 strips bacon (The biggest/thickest you can find.)

4-6 large eggs (Only 4 shown in the picture)

Salt

 

Directions

Place room temperature bacon in a cold pan and set heat to medium. When bacon begins to curl, flip it to the other side. When the bacon is close to your desired doneness, move the bacon over and crack and add the eggs. If there isn’t enough grease, add a little bit of oil before adding the eggs. If the grease is too hot, reduce the heat to low. Continue to cook until the bacon is cooked through and the egg whites are completely set but the yolk is still soft. Remove from heat and season. Bon appétit!

Howl BreakfastHowl Bacon Eggs

It’s not fair. Howl makes cooking look so easy. He can even crack eggs one-handed. I’ve tried and tried and I still can’t do it. I think I’m defective. I have more trouble cooking bacon and eggs than I do most foods, (“I can’t remember the last time we had a real breakfast!”) but I just had to give this a shot. Sure, it’s not nearly as pretty as Howl’s, but it’s still darn tasty. And the best part is, my screwy stove can be as uncooperative as Calcifer, but my bacon didn’t burn!

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!