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Our cast of characters heads to the drive in to throw a unique party, showing you how you and your crew can be the real stars of the show. The fellas round up their favorite stars and starlets and throw a party while taking in a drive-in movie, with portable cocktails and classic movie favorites you can make at home and take on the go, perfect for movies in the backyard, on the couch or the drive-in. Get ready for some star power, we’re going to the movies.
The features
Root Down
We love a good vintage drive, and bringin’ back that old school cool when we’re bringing our best gal or guy to the drive-in movie. Want to really crush it with your crush? Making a fun cocktail is one of the best ways to do it. Nothing says drive in like a classic root beer float, and we upleveled the booze and the flavor to make this fine actor a star. We add some spiced brown rum with some pure vanilla extract, and make it a blockbuster by making some rum-infused whipped cream, which we freeze so it’s nice and cold when we scoop it out while gettin’ the scoop at the theater. All you need are a few cans or bottles of root beer and a few minutes to make a drink that’ll make you the star of a party. The frozen whipped cream starts to melt a little bit by the time you arrive, and that makes the root beer have a creamy, velvety texture and appearance.
- Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients
- 1 ½ ounces. spiced dark rum
- ¼ ounce pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup (3 nice scoops) of frozen rum-infused whipped cream, ingredients/directions below)
- 6 ounces of root beer from a can or bottle
- Ice
- Bright red maraschino cherries
Ingredients for Whipped Cream
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons spiced dark rum
Directions for Whipped Cream
- About 20 minutes before you make the whipped cream (and the day before the movie), put a large metal bowl and your mixer beaters into the freezer, get them nice and cold
- Add the whipping cream and sugar into your large chilled bowl, and get whippin’, building in intensity
- After about 30 seconds, add in the vanilla extract and the rum
- Continue beating until stiff peaks start to form
- Scoop the whipped cream into a plastic container that can travel, and put it in the freezer
Directions
- Fill a fun glass, like a mason jar, with ice
- Add in the rum
- Top with the root beer, but still have an inch or so at the top
- Scoop in a few tablespoons of that frozen whipped cream…
- Top with a cherry, and put your root down
Brown bag popcorn
The food that’s most associated with the lights going down before the previews is the most classic movie food of all-time: popcorn. You can microwave some, that’s fine. You can even buy some pre-bagged some, there’s no shame in that game. However, it’s really easy to make some popcorn that stays fresh and blows any of those other options out of the water. Whether you’re headed to the drive-in or having a movie night under the stars in the backyard or under a blanket on the couch, these are two perfect popcorn recipes that are perfect for sharing or for keeping to yourself, and both are not your common flavors, but are going to win popularity contests at your party. One uses a perfectly balanced truffle parmesan mix, and the other takes cheesy popcorn to another level – instead of orange cheddar, we’ve got something really good – gouda popcorn. Let’s get poppin’.
- Yield: 1 bag
Truffle Parm Popcorn
Ingredients
- 4 cups of freshly popped popcorn (if you are using microwave popcorn, get no salt or lightly salted, if you want to make your own, it is below these two popcorn flavors)
- 1/4 cup truffle oil (in a bottle that can drizzy drizzle)
- 1/2 cups of fresh grated good parm cheese
- 1/4 cup dried parsley
Directions
In a large, clean brown paper bag, add 1/4 of the popcorn
Add in 4 good shakes of truffle oil, roll up top and shake vigorously
Add in 1 tablespoon of parm and a few shakes of parsley and shake again
Continue until you are through with all the popcorn
Shake ’em out into individual boxes or containers
Gouda Popcorn
Ingredients
- 4 cups of freshly popped popcorn (if you are using microwave popcorn, get no salt or lightly salted, if you want to make your own, it is below these two popcorn flavors)
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- 1/2 cup of powdered gouda cheese (can be store bought or made with the directions below)
Directions
- In a large, clean brown paper bag, add 1/4 of the popcorn
- Add in 1 tablespoon of the butter, roll up top and shake vigorously
- Add in 1 tablespoon of powdered gouda and shake again
- Continue until you are through with all the popcorn
- Shake ’em out into individual boxes or containers
Instructions for Powdered Gouda Cheese
1/4 cup gouda, grated up
1/4 teaspoon cornstarch
Directions
- Lay the gouda thinly on a parchment paper covered microwave safe bowl
- Microwave for :30 at a time, until it melts into a firm disc, should take 2-3 minutes
- Once it’s cooled, peel from the parchment and put it on paper towels and let it cool for another 5 minutes
- Break the cheese into tiny pieces and throw it into a food processor, and pulse it until it’s a powder
- Add the cornstarch and pulse it again until it’s evenly distributed
How to make popcorn at home that’s not microwaved:
- In a big saucepan over medium, combine a ½ cup of unpopped kernels and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- Cover it, and wait for the kernels pop, and get your big mixing bowl ready
- Once they pop, turn off the burner, and remove the pot from heat. Pour in the remaining kernels you’ve got (2 ½ cups), cover and shake it and let it rest for a minute
- Turn your heat back on, cover it again and shake as needed
- Open the top briefly to let some steam out, and continue until the popcorn is done
- Add the corn to your mixing bowl, and add your flavoring
The jerk Beef Jerky
- Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds of london broil, cut into ¼ “ strips, the width of the cut
- 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme
- 1 tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 cup soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon seasoned salt (or buck’s seasoning, you can use cajun seasoning too)
- 1 ½ teaspoons hot sauce (about 20 drops)
- 4 teaspoons liquid smoke
Directions
- Add all the ingredients except the meat into a large bowl, and whisk until it is evenly mixed and and you don’t see any more of the granules of the spices
- Pour the marinade into a large plastic storage bag
- Add the meat into the storage bag, and store overnight, up to 24 hours or so
- Preheat the oven to 150 degrees (if your oven does not go as low at 150 degrees, 170 degrees can work as well)
- Place a wire rack over a rimmed baking sheet
- Place the strips of meat onto the rack, touching each other, as close together as you can, as they’ll shrink significantly while they’re cooking)
- Slide into the oven for 3 hours
- Create a vent in the oven with a towel ( folded into quarters) to vent out the moisture while cooking
- Remove from oven, let cool, and place in bags as needed (they’ll last for at least a month)
Junior Varsity Mints
We have so many candies and snacks we loved as kids that we have nostalgia for, and most of them are from gettin’ those cardboard boxes at the theater. Some things you can make at home to capture that feeling, and we want to share it with you so you can share it with your people when the movie starts. One of our all-time favorites are junior mints (which were almost famous on TV, too). You got chocolate draping some fresh mint, a great combination. These sit well, can be made in advance, and are perfect for any age group, so whether you’re watching something rated G or R, you’ve got something for everyone here. They’re easy to put together, and they are the perfect movie snack in case you plan on not paying attention to the film and getting a little personal, if you know what we’re sayin’.
- Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
- 3 ounces of softened cream cheese, left out for 20 minutes or so
- ¼ – ½ teaspoon mint extract ( depending on how minty you would like it)
- 3 cups powdered / confectioners sugar (you might need an extra ½ cup)
- 8 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Directions
- With a good mixer, beat up the cream cheese until it gets smooth and lighter
- Add in the mint extract, continue beating
- Then continue adding in the sugar until it’s stiff and holds together if you pinch a piece (this is where you might need to add extra sugar as needed)
- Put the mint/cheese mix in the fridge for 10 minutes to harden up
- Take that mint/cheese mix and roll them into smaller balls (you can flatten ‘em into buttons too, but we like the balls so we can throw ‘em and try to catch ‘em in our mouth)
- Lay out some parchment paper so it’s ready when you need it
- In a double boiler (we used a microwave), heat and mix the chocolate and coconut oil
- We use a squeeze bottle to squirt into a candy mold, which is preferred. (another option is to use tongs or a spoon to dip each of the mini mint balls into the chocolate, and place on the parchment paper.) Throw some into the fridge or the freezer until they harden, then you’re good to go
- Get minty and fresh
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