Movie Night: The Pirates! Band of Misfits

 We like pirates around here (in case you hadn't noticed) so when I saw that the public library was having a pirate party (dressing up encouraged) we had to go. That is, after we had a good swim first of course. Do you like how the boat is as big as the pool?

At the library we made P is for Parrot letters and heard some pirate stories.

Then we came home to watch the movie The Pirates! Band of Misfits (I had planned on watching Rise of the Guardians, because I heard the Easter bunny was in it, but was vetoed in favor of a pirate movie).

For dinner, I made pizza breadsticks. Lousy picture, I know, but sometimes I can only find my phone and it is not the greatest. The breadsticks, however, are. In the interest of preserving favorite family recipes, I shall share. When I make pizza or breadsticks, I always start with the same base- a breadstick recipe from one of those ward cookbooks that I have adapted slightly. I like it because I don't have to wait for it to rise. Yay for quick and easy!

Breadsticks:

1 T yeast

1 1/2 C warm water

2 T sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3+ C flour

Preheat oven to 415F-425F (depending on how hot your oven runs) Dissolve yeast in warm water with sugar and salt. Mix in the flour until it is only slightly sticky and rollable(add flour slowly- it is better the less flour you are able to use, but generally ends up taking closer to 4 or 5 cups). If I am making pizza, I roll out the dough in a circle and top with my favorite toppings (generally ranch dressing, mozzarella cheese, chicken, bacon bits, onions if I have them, and more mozzarella- I like a thick crust extra cheesy pizza). For breadsticks, I roll the dough out in a rectangle (about the size of a large cookie sheet). I spread the surface with garlic butter. Thinking back to elementary school when they were teaching paper folding- mentally divide the dough the hotdog way and put lots and lots of mozzarella cheese on the bottom half (you can add slices of pepperoni or other pizza toppings at this point if you would like- pepperonis are in the ones pictured above). Fold the top half over. Use your pizza cutter to cut strips about 1-1.5". Twist them as you lay them on a greased cookie sheet. Cover with more cheese (did I mention that I like mozzarella?) Bake. I'm not sure on the exact time, because I have a tendency to just put the pizza or breadsticks in the oven and pull them out when they are nice and golden brown. It is probably around 20 minutes.

 Since it was almost Easter, I jazzed up the popcorn a little bit. I made it up as I went along.

 First I popped some corn with my air popper. Then I laid it out on a couple of cookie sheets and drizzled with the most Easter-esque candy melts I had (the red looked a little more pink in real life, but not as much as it should have). I added Mini Whopper Robin Eggs and drizzled more candy melts. After a stint in the fridge to harden, I broke it up and put it in bags. It was tasty enough.

I might try it again with Kettle corn as the base, although that might make it too sweet. The kids all liked it- much better than the movie. Once was enough of that one. We should have gone with the Rise of the Guardians- we watched that one the next night and like it better.