Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Week 16:

HI HO!!!! (long, drawn out call)

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! It’s off to dinner we go! (whistling:do-do-do do-do, do-do-do do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do, do-do. Repeat)

Willkommen (welcome in German), to Snow White night!

Snow White, along with many other fairy tales, is German and based off a story called Sneewittchen from the brothers Grimm, in case you were wondering about my greeting. The Grimm brothers spun a little bit different tale. It follows the same basic storyline (except the queen asks for, then eats, the liver and lungs of a boar instead of the heart..um..gross) and she doesn't get squished by a rock. Pity. However, her punishment is more cruel, unusual and drawn out. Let me explain with an excerpt (this is after Snow White bites the apple and the dwarfs place her in the glass coffin).

"Time passes and a prince traveling through the land sees Snow White. He strides to her coffin and, enchanted by her beauty, instantly falls in love with her. The dwarfs succumb to his entreaties to let him have the coffin, and as his servants carry the coffin away, they stumble on some roots. The tremor caused by the stumbling causes the piece of poisoned apple to dislodge from Snow White's throat, awakening her. The Prince then declares his love for her, and soon a wedding is planned. The couple invite every queen and king to come to the wedding party, including Snow White's stepmother. Meanwhile the Queen, still believing that Snow White is dead, again asks her magical mirror who is the fairest in the land. The mirror says: "You, my queen, are fair so true. But the young Queen is a thousand times fairer than you.

Appalled, in disbelief, and with her heart full of fear and doubts, the Queen is at first hesitant to accept the invitation, but she eventually decides to go. Not knowing that this new queen was indeed her stepdaughter, she arrives at the wedding, and her heart fills with the deepest of dread when she realizes the truth. As a punishment for her attempted murders, a pair of glowing-hot iron shoes are brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She is forced to step into the burning shoes and to dance until she drops dead."

Don't worry, I won't make you wear burning shoes at my wedding. Do feel free to dance though...at the reception.

The Grimm story does not specify or mention The Prince (whose name is never mentioned, but it is speculated was Florian or Frederick. I think Justice’s real name, Frederick, is more royal sounding personally and German, so we will go with that. He is my prince anyway), Sydney (after Amanda Bynes’s modern version), OR Ginnifer Goodwin (Once Upon A Time star that is actually married to the man who plays Prince David/Charming)?! Sigh, o well.

Odd, very odd.

Disney's Snow White, also, had some interesting and odd facts. Such as, Disney's own wife thought it would be a flop, Walt had to mortgage his house after the movie's costs went to $1.5 million (in the 30's. Yikes!), the prince was meant to be a major character, but wasn't because of the difficulty in animating him (sorry, Frederick), Walt wanted to keep Snow White's voice special and kept 19-year-old Adriana Caselotti from performing on stage again (pictured below. She is now a Disney Legend and can be heard briefly in The Wizard of Oz), Walt planned a sequel called "Snow White Returns", but didn't go through with it, Snow White was the first female fictional character to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and..O YA.. she was the FIRST EVER DISNEY PRINCESS!

Way to start it off, Snow!!

For more odd/interesting facts, visit this page: http://www.buzzfeed.com/briangalindo/20-fascinating-facts-about-snow-white-and-the-seven-dwarfs#3ey4o7f

Other than these odd things, the fact that we drew this movie this particular week is perfect. It is so, because Snow White, as I said, has some German roots and Justice and I both are of German heritage. He can even speak it and some of the recipes this week took all my Germanic instincts! I am determined to visit one day (my parents did for their anniversary and looked up some of our old stomping grounds!). Besides this perfection, it is back-to-school time which means cool, fall weather (in theory), apples, and football. It is still hot here, but two out of three isn’t bad!

Cool, fall weather inspires pie-making which, as we know, Snow White enjoys doing during this movie for her dwarfs. Apples are commonly seen around back-to-school time and are VERY important in this particular Disney movie. My mom's German relative even had her and all of her cousins' names written on apple ornaments, so there is another tie there. Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.

Now, you are probably wondering why I mentioned football. Well, I am in Razorback country which, for the non-Arkansasian mind, is a wild pig. What does the huntsman bring back in lieu of Snow White’s heart? The heart of a PIG. “Woo Pig Sooie”, is right.

Arkansas LOVES their pigs

and is the "Natural State" which is symbolized on their license plates by a diamond. Fitting.

(not my plate, by the way)

Now that we are done setting the scene, bring on the menu!

I started with pumpernickel bread, because it is German, my favorite bread, and a perfect complement to one of the additions I was planning.

Next, we had potato pancakes with applesauce. We didn’t have the grease needed for these, so we ordered them from a local German restaurant called Emmy’s. Let me just say, “Well done, Emmy, well done.”

Justice, also, got some pictures of some neat steins that Emmy had. He knows me too well (based on the picture part, not the drinking part).

Next, we had bratwurst. I chose this because it is made of pork which went well with the “heart of the pig” twist.

So unsanitary, your Majesty!

Lastly, I had granny apple pie with streusel. I made this using Justice’s moms recipe (she is German) for the FIRST time. It was one of the few desserts he absolutely LOVES. Ya, no pressure.

This pie has several ties to Snow White. First of all, it is made of Granny Smith apples which fits “dear old granny” who poisons Snow White. Second of all, it is made of apples. Apples. Snow White. Enough said. Third, it has streusel on top which is a German crumbly topping that is AMAZING and goes with Snow White’s heritage. Lastly, it was placed on a glass “stand” that is in memory of Snow White’s glass tomb. Seemed fitting to hold a pie made of the same fruit that put her there, in Sleeping Death, until true love’s first kiss woke her up.

By the way, props to the dwarfs for not burying her alive. The glass coffin thing was kind of..odd.., but, once again, it worked out even if it was a sad moment for the dwarfs (including Grumpy).

Now for the add-ons!

We all love the dwarfs, so I HAD to do something for them. First of all, I wanted to pay homage to the dwarfs’ job seeing as it WAS the week of Labor Day and they WERE some of the hardest Disney workers ever. Getting up early in the morning, not returning until dark. They definitely earned their pay!

So, I made them fruit parfaits. Granola (my first experience buying this was a tasty success) and vanilla yogurt for the layers they dug through and fruit for the gems! They got a mixture of gems, but I think they’d be happy with their haul! The parfaits were also paired with spoons that looked like their soup spoons or you could call them their shovels/axes!

I was going to dress them up to look something like the new "Mine" ride celebratory cupcakes,

but then, I thought, you wouldn't get to see their "lovely" faces (and I didn't have the time/materials)!

I, also, included some “unearthed” gems better known as Fruit Gushers. That'll give Dopey something to do

other than to be the best dancing dwarf EVER! We just "signed" our DJ over Labor Day weekend. I wonder if he gives lessons? We are doing the traditional German Grand March wedding dance, after all!

Now, each of the dwarfs were unique and had certain characteristics that made them so.

I wanted to focus on these differences a bit. I considered ordering these chocolate representations of the dwarfs

or this cakelet pan,

but I did not feel that highlighted them enough (plus they were expensive or out of stock). Therefore, I made them each a pie as individual as they were with a mini pie maker I got at one of our favorite kitchen stores, Creative Kitchen!

Umm...yes.

I thought it was unfair in the movie how Snow White just made Grumpy a pie and prayed for Grumpy to like her.

Not showing favorites are we Miss Snow (by the way, she also didn’t kiss Sleepy’s head in the ending scene. Tsk-tsk.)?!

We will start with Grumpy, however. He received a chocolate pie (for his dark outlook) with the classic “Grumpy” crust. I wish I would’ve had the birds to help me with the crust, but I am sure Grumpy would disapprove anyway!

Next, we had Sleepy who received a blueberry pie, because blue is a nighttime color. His crust sure does look slleeeppppppy.zzzzz….zZzZz. By the way, notice his parfait is laying down.

For Happy, I went with a banana cream pie, because bananas are often used in comedy skits and they are just a happy fruit. They even look like a smile when they are laying down. The crust reflected this smile.

For Dopey, I had special plans, but those kind of got changed (more on this later). No matter, no matter. I focused on the kissing scene for him. He received a S’mores pie with punched out lips for the crust, because he kept coming back for some more kisses from the fairest of them all. The filling was made from Hershey's kisses and his parfait jar had a reversible side...gotta fool her if you want s'more kisses!

Next, we had Sneezy. When I was younger, I was told that saying an “odd” word right before you were about to sneeze would startle your system enough that you would not sneeze. For me, that phrase was “Peanut Butter!”. The dwarfs were always trying to keep Sneezy from sneezing, so I thought a peanut butter (and chocolate) Reese’s pie would do the trick complete with nose crust (sounds gross, but wasn't)! You will, also, notice the Kleenex Sneezy has around his parfait…he needs to eat his pie!

"Gesundheit!"

For Doc, we had a strawberry pie with a diamond lattice crust. I wanted to make Doc’s favorite (gooseberry), but the stores down here do not carry gooseberrys and it was too late to get them shipped from Amazon (this is the drawback of drawing the week of..especially on a holiday weekend). If anybody wants to send me a can of gooseberrys, however, I will make an attempt at it and report my results. Now, back to Doc. I ended up making him one of my favorites, and fellow berry, strawberry. The crust paid homage to the fact that Doc was the gem surveyor at the mine.

I saved my favorite for last, Bashful. Bashful is so loving and sweet that I gave him a heart crust that gave away how shy he was on the inside. To show the redness of his cheeks, I went with a cherry filling and put his parfait peeking around the corner of the frame. This was my favorite pie to look at, as I said, but when I moved it the first time it broke right in half. My heart was literally and figuratively broken. Let’s just say I was not feeling like whistling while I worked after this…more like “salting” the pie. Even the bunny couldn't cheer me up..

Justice, however, rode in on his white horse (or red truck) and saved the day by bringing me more pie crust and filling. The second one wasn’t quite as perfect as the first, but it is still my favorite (along with Sleepy's which I made post-pie meltdown).

I still didn’t feel as if I had enough pie, so I made these adorable pie pops from a tool Justice got me, once again, from Creative Kitchen. I made some different flavors (including a Fruit Gusher filled one that I had seen tried online and was curious about), but all of them either had apple seed crust or a hair bow (in either red or blue which were the two color’s the little princess wore in the movie).

Now, I have enough pie, but the pie pops gave me another idea for a dessert-on-a-stick. A cake pop! I found this recipe (http://thekitchenmccabe.com/2013/10/30/poisoned-apple-cake-pops/) for poisoned apple cake pops and they quickly became the idea I was most excited about for this meal. I have never made a cake pop..

(Thinking to self) How do you do it??

Sigh, make cake pops! Thanks for paying attention, Grumpy.

I thought I could do it YouTube-less. How hard could it be? Sigh, how gullible/naïve I was. Kind of like Snow White and the wishing apple (c'mon the dwarfs warned you!). I think I made at least one common mistake on these cake pops at every step in the process. It is a miracle anything came out of them, really. However, I did get some lumpy apples, so here they are. You will notice, I have one with a white chocolate skull and another poisoned one with “just a bite” out of it showing the rotten core next to granny’s pie.

Hehe. I thought that was funny. My apples definitely had more calories and I am on a diet (cough,cough). Sorry, back to business. Go on now, dearie...

One of the few parts of the cake pop that I did get right was that rotten inside. Seeing as you can use just about any cake recipe you want for the inside, I decided to put a Snow White twist on that as well by making it another classic German dessert. I am talking about Black Forest cake, course! I have never made or tried this dessert, but, let me tell you, using this recipe (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/quick-black-forest-cake/), I may have found a new favorite. It was AMAZING and, even though I added too much frosting for cake pops, was absolutely delicious to drown my failures in afterwards! Justice even enjoyed the “scraps” with me.

Black Forest cake, also, was perfect for the dark forest the huntsman was told to take Snow White to then, when he couldn't perform the hideous deed, told her to escape into.

Dude, I know you are 14 and it is dark, but

it is a deer, birds, and a bunny. A BUNNY, SNOW!!

There, there. See? Now that we are all friends, back to the cake.

Kind of looks like a witch’s brew doesn’t it? Add a pinch of the dark of night (and everything right) to "disguise" the rough outer shell!

I know, they are rough (literally). If someone wants to send me a chocolate melting pot, some of the crystals you are apparently supposed to use to get the consistency right, and/or some cake pop making tips, I will reattempt these with the gooseberry pie. Looks like Disney could get his “Return of Snow White” after all!

I might even try different recipes, like this German apple cake

or this chocolate applesauce cake,

but Black Forest cake is going to be hard to beat.

Since my cake pop apples were so rough and granny’s apples were hidden under the cloak of streusel, I needed another apple to highlight. My friends at Creative Kitchen helped me again.

I had seen some “back-to-school” cupcakes they made last week (texting them to my bridesmaid who is a teacher..hints the picture) and thought “those would be the perfect apple for Snow White when I do it!”. They are sweet, red, and very, VERY tempting!

When I went into the store this week, however, the apples were all gone. Sigh, they were just TOO cute and TOO tempting. Just when I was giving up on my perfect red apple, the super sweet ladies there surprised me. They know my fiancé and I already from several earlier trips. When I told them about the blog and what I was needing an apple cupcake for, they whipped me up one on the spot (cannot get any more unique than that or better customer service)! Thank you, Meredith (my..almost..name twin) and Creative Kitchen!!

How bout them apples?!

We have had lots of sweet additions, but what about my more savory additions?

First, we had potato soup, because it was Emmy’s specialty and the perfect complement to the pumpernickel.

Next, we had a “mirror” composed of a block of fried Swiss cheese (another Emmy’s specialty), German egg rolls (with sauerkraut, pork, and beef packed inside), knackwurst (which Justice loves), and some more pig (a.k.a. bratwurst). All of this topped off with some lemon “crowns” that showed which person was a “mirror hog”.

Umm..about that...

Lastly, I found these REALLY cute Snow White and the Seven Dwarf cookie imprinter things on Etsy. I was going to punch the designs into the bread, some cookie dough, or, in the case of Dopey, into the pie crust. However, they did not come until the day after the meal. Someday my pie punchers will come (on time). Maybe during the “redo” post, if it happens, I will use the punches as well!

We definitely needed a walk after all this food. We didn’t get a chance to do so, but I mention it because, when we do go on strolls through the neighborhood together, we pass by this house that just screams, "Snow White!" to me. No, it is not exactly a thatched cottage, but it is fitting for a 14-year-old princess, I think. We sometimes see a bunny in the yard, even. We call him Peter.

We have, also, seen this at Lowes on some trips there. I think he would fit in nicely in the yard and he wouldn’t have to wash up for supper. That might make him Happy..or less Grumpy.

As you can see, I needed some time to prepare this meal (like all week) or I would have done it at home with my (German) family. My mom could’ve dug up the family’s apples. Alas, it is probably better this way. Less pie making and more pie (and other dessert…which included some peach dumplings) eating.

I definitely LABORed hard over this one.

Here is the whole thing!

Phew, DEFINITELY a LABOR of love! (SOOO tired)

Oops, with all the chores to get done for the dwarfs, I forgot the love story! Poor Prince Frederick, forgotten again. Let's do a quick recap, shall we?

Lovely job!

You found her, you kissed her, you schmoozed her, you carried her on (or off rather)!

HOWEVER, I hope you don't mind sharing, Prince Frederick. Snow White has A LOT of men in her life!

I ALMOST forgot this too!! I think that was a forgetfulness cake pop. Look what I FINALLY had when I was home this weekend to celebrate my grandmother's retirement. TRES LECHES CAKE!

It was my grandmother's first time trying it and I underestimated both of our love for it, so I had to get a picture of it off the internet. It looks the exact same, though, and now The Emperor's New Groove is complete.

There ya go, Kuzco!

What shall I do next? It was my turn to draw (please, no more pies or apples) and it will be…

The Rescuers!! Yay! One of our favorites. Bernard and Bianca (literally) came to my rescue!

Until then, "Auf Wiedersehen!" (Goodbye!)

Coming Soon: The Rescuers