Cinderella

Week 12:

Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day its Cinderelly! Before I jump into this week's post, I want to call your attention to the perfection of the week number. 12 (i.e. for midnight, the time where everything was NOT as it was before)!

Cinderella is, of course, a classic that is still as loved today as it was when it came out. There are countless renditions of this tale in movies proceeding Walt's including one called "Ever After" with Drew Barrymore and a Hilary Duff/Chad Michael Murray modern-day version called "A Cinderella Story". Cinderella also inspired the main castle in Disney World AND the beginning of all Disney movies with the opening screen. Ya, she's pretty awesome.

I love this classic, because it was WAY ahead of its time and honestly who can't love Gus Gus and Jaq? However, as much as I love this movie, I know it is child's play (pun intended) compared to how much my sister loved and continues to love this movie. For example, she dressed up as our favorite eligible maiden for Halloween (fitting perfectly with the pumpkin-filled holiday if I do say so myself) and, today, has the Cinderella clock chimes as her ring-tone. O yes, AND her husband, who has red hair, is lovingly nicknamed "Pumpkin" while she is dubbed "Princess". I have a feeling this is all related. Here are a couple pictures to illustrate the evidence (Note: I am dressed up as a Disney character as well. Sadly, I do not own The Hunchback of Notre Dame, so Esmeralda will not be making another appearance. Also, I think my sister did something to provoke my face. Just sayin').

Isn't she gorgeous?

Without further ado, let us get on with the menu.

(SOUND: ROYAL TRUMPETS) Presenting, her royal menu:

Once upon a time, in a quaint townhouse, a boy and a girl partook in some sparkling white grape juice. This grape juice was special, because it paid tribute to Cinderella's white (and blue) sparkling ball gown given to her by her fairy godmother the night of the grand ball.

Next, we had corn kernels. This was to represent my two favorite characters. Jaq and Gus Gus. Jaq, in a very clever move I might add, acted as bait to distract Lucifer (properly named) while the other mice collected their breakfast. Way to take one for the team, Jaq! Gus Gus tried to carry too much, however, which led to a very exciting breakfast.

Next, we had carriage wheel pasta. DaVinci made some perfect "Wagon Wheel" pasta noodles for this. I used Justice's favorite alfredo sauce (it seemed more refined than a red sauce and matched with the white/blue theme). It came out fantastic. Have you ever seen such beautiful pasta?!

Notice the riders going after the prince's true love? They look like the Masked Rider to me. This is perfect, because Texas Tech is where Justice and I met and the Masked Rider is Texas Tech's very unique entrance to football games.

Look! A Texas Tech pumpkin! Justice's mom and I made it. Perfect!

Speaking of Texas Tech, my organization, WSO, had a Cinderella/princess-themed formal one year. I was honored that night to receive an award voted on by my peers. I guess you can say it was my Cinderella night.

I even had a glass (ahem, plastic) slipper!

Back to the menu. Remember how I said I loved Jaq and Gus Gus? Well, corn kernels were not enough to honor them, so I made them into another favorite of mine, CHOCOLATE! Chocolate kiss mice that is.

They had quite the time at my dinner party, but more on that later.

It is time to talk about the add-ons. First of all, I wanted to include the items of food that were actually shown in the movie, other than the corn. These items were the porridge Cinderella served her stepsisters and stepmother and the rice the mice throw at the end. For the porridge, I used Justice's favorite Peaches & Cream oatmeal. Oatmeal is a type of porridge. O, the things I learn as I blog. Peaches & Cream. Fitting. Cinderella's life before the ball was anything but that from the sounds of it.

Do you think Jaq and Gus Gus got enough rice to throw? They do have to attend Cinderella's wedding and mine, you see!

Next, I felt like my original menu was missing something crucial. Pumpkins, of course! I integrated Pumpkins in three different ways (without the use of the nasty pumpkin candy. BLAH!). I started with the pumpkin dinner rolls (recipe found on this site: http://www.beyondkimchee.com/pumpkin-dinner-rolls/). They came out a little flatter than I'd like and I had to add A LOT of flour too the recipe to get it the right consistency. I, also, added parsley for the leaves, but they turned out great after all! After the pumpkin was turned into a couch, it was off to the ball.

I decided, during this time, that Cinderella would need a drink to help her stay up for the entire ball. She had gone through a long and hard day's work after all, as did I working and cooking this dinner. Look, we even have matching work shoes!!

So, for my second pumpkin implementation, I got a pumpkin spice steamer and a kid's hot chocolate to help us both stay awake. Neither had coffee in them, so it makes sense why she couldn't stay up all night and I was struggling to. Even Jaq and Gus Gus's presence didn't help!

Cinderella needs her beauty rest it seems and time to allow her heart to make wishes (a.k.a. dream). On her way to bed, she was chased by the King's men (the Masked Riders). These riders ended up smashing her carriage.

What do you do when life gives you a smashed pumpkin carriage? You make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, of course!!! So, I did just that for my third pumpkin item. The recipe for these can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pumpkin-chocolate-chip-cookies-iii/. I was worried in the beginning, because they seemed "under-baked", but do not be alarmed. Pumpkin makes them really moist. REPEAT. They are supposed to be this way! I won't lie, with the addition of mouse-size chocolate chip (a.k.a. mini chips), these cookies were my absolute FAVORITE part of the meal. Delicious!

I was considering using these adorable cookie cutters, but I am glad I didn't. They were too good already according to my scale.

On to the next add-on!

Naturally, mice and clocks go together. Mice and clocks..hmm seems to ring a bell (i.e. Hickory Dickory Dock). Therefore, I decided to put the pumpkin dinner rolls and the kiss mice together to form a significant shape for the soon-to-be princess. Put them together and what have you got? A clock (pointing to Cindy's curfew)!

Finally,for the last and most difficult add-on, the high-heel shoe cupcakes (I glanced at this post for instructions: http://www.vickibensinger.com/2014/04/high-heel-cupcakes.html)!! These tribute both Cinderella and the Tremaines. Of course, we all know that Cinderella had a famous glass slipper, but I wanted to step into her stepfamily's shoes.

Anastasia is my favorite, ugly stepsister so it makes sense that she has my favorite shoe. I even used purple cupcake mix! The gold triangles represent her everyday hair wear and the green feather represents her formal hair wear. The red is for her hair, of course. Curls and all!

Drizella Tremaine's shoe, also, turned out well. I decided to skip the bow and go right to the bright blue feather. I included blue sprinkles to represent the beads she tore off of Cinderella's neck that started the whole "destroy Cinderella's life" scene. I couldn't decide whether to use a neon yellow or lime green cupcake mix. I tested both and landed on the lime green cupcakes.

For Lady Tremaine, I went with Devil's Food cake. She was evil and had a cat named after the fallen angel after all. Instead of regular pirouette heels, I used Oreo sticks. They were darker and "sharper", like a stiletto. Stilettos are also evil...for your feet. Instead of her maroon outfit, I went with her ball attire, but featured her broch/ring that she never seemed to leave home without.

On all of these, please excuse the icing. It was a long night and I figured they were supposed to be ugly anyway. Right? Don't look at me like that...

Anyway, do you see something strange, other than the icing? Something missing perhaps?

CINDERELLA!!

It DOES say, "by royal demand, every eligible maiden is to attend!"

So, here are Cinderella's cupcake slippers. I used blue velvet mini cupcakes (for Cinderella's dainty feet..in comparison with her stepsisters' feet) that were slightly pointed for effect and frosted in sparkly blue and white gel. Once again, not the best icing, but I was proud of it.

I stand corrected. Seems to me I need to change my plural to singular. Slippers. Fitting name. I mean they keep slipping right off Cindy's feet. Where did the other one go?

Just when I was getting worried, my prince found it for me!! He even presented it on a pillow-sized plate. So this is love!

We were tired but, unlike Cinderella and her prince, we got in our kiss just in time!

Sorry, Cindy. So close!

We ended the movie at midnight. Perfect and just in time.

Finally, here is the overall, final result.

The table was set up to resemble the story. The porridge, corn, and pumpkins started it all.

Then, Cinderella went to the ball (hints the clock and the carriage pasta). The night-time drink aids were at hand for the ball where the stepfamily, unfortunately, were in attendance. The sparkling white grape juice, being as phony as they were, is behind them. Then, the cookies came after Cinderella's getaway and the smashing of the pumpkin carriage.

Of course, it all truly changed for our dear Cinderelly with the grand duke's final fitting for the girl that fit the slipper was to be the prince's BRIDE!

This led to a royal wedding. No, not Will and Kate's...although they do resemble each other.

Which, the cutest king EVER was only too happy to plan!

He must have REALLY wanted to hear the pitter-patter of little feet again.

Because, when he talked about the wedding planning with the grand duke, he looked very chipper...maybe it was the cigar...

I know when I start thinking of wedding planning details, I look more like this...

Especially, after working on the save-the-date/invitation address list which I am currently in the middle of and running late on (Cinderella would understand that part).

Even with the king's happy planning, something did go wrong. Cindy's shoe fell off again. Doesn't anyone in the kingdom do glass shoe resizing?!? Who keeps letting her go down that staircase?! I can hear the king now..."TREASON (doing head-slicing motion/sound)!!".

However, as before, the disaster worked out perfectly and sweetly. Who doesn't love this part. Such a helpful future grandfather and father-in-law.

This shows me that even the best made plans can go wrong, but sometimes they work out even better than you could ever wish for. Disney movies are teaching me lessons even now.

So, as long as my prince is still there on 12-13-14, I know I will enjoy the start of my (excuse me, our) own happily ever after. (Note: the kitchen towel, which I plan on having the Disney couples sign, was a gift from my future sister-in-law who is a fellow Disney/Cinderella fan. She even has the opening storybook page hanging in her house!)

It was Justice's turn to draw next and he drew another classic princess and one I have been wanting to draw.

Sleeping Beauty!! Do you know what this means? I can finally watch Maleficent (I have been waiting, because Justice cannot remember the movie that inspired this version). Whoohoo!!

Coming Soon: Sleeping Beauty