Star Wars Christmas, and Novelty Gift Ideas

Star Wars Christmas, and Novelty Gift Ideas

Welcome to our Star Wars Christmas, and Novelty Gift Ideas

Our Daughter Veronica, Drew and Painted Padme

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May The Force Be With You This Christmas

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I originally created this page because I had no where to put our Death Star cookie that would be appropriate. 

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Death Star Sugar Cookie

It just didn’t fit on any of our other food pages.  So I started this one.  I think this is where all of our odds and ends will end up.  But odds and ends are good!  STAR WARS odds and ends that is.  🙂

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One Quarter Portion

(In Episode 7 the actor/comedian Simon Pegg’s character Unkar Plutt, refers to Rey’s bread as “One Quarter Portion.)”

For Christmas 2021, Gordon and I gifted this cookbook to our son Brodie.  In flipping through it, I decided that I wanted one for ourselves.  I also bought an additional copy for our Star Wars loving daughter and son-in-law as well.

Polystarch Portion Bread

In Star Wars, The Force Awakens, Episode 7, the character Rey, played by Daisy Ridley, eats something called Portion Bread.  What is so special about this bread is the science experiment that it is, it rises on it’s own in front of your eyes.  Our Portion Bread will do the same with the help of a microwave.

Rey, Eating Her Portion Bread in The Force Awakens

(Recipe Down Below)

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Morning Yoda Coffee

This past Christmas, 2019, we had a Star Wars Christmas.  Oh, we have always incorporated Star Wars into every Christmas that we have had now for the past few decades.  And, I do have to say that Star Wars has been underneath my family Christmas Tree since I was in high school.  It just seemed right with the last of the movie installment debuting this December 2019, that we do something to honor the franchise and how much enjoyment every episode has brought us.

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Silver Tinsel Trees and my Princess Leia and Queen Amadala/Padme Dolls

So welcome and we hope you stay awhile. 

Merry Christmas, and May the Force Be With You!

“Hope.”  Leia Organa ,

Julie (and Spooky Lou)

Gordon and Julie

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Brodie Whann Kenobi and Mackenzie with Chewbacca

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Our Veronica with her Blue Milk on her private tour of the debut of the new Star Wars Disney.

Veronica, drink your Blue Milk!

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Veronica in front of the Millenium Falcon

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Orlando, Florida

Veronica Around the Star Wars Chess Set

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Getting Ready for Star Wars

We are HUGE Star Wars fans! Gordon and I made these to give as gifts for Christmas and I wanted to share it with you in case you might like to try to make one.

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Death Star Cookie

It’s just a giant sugar cookie baked on a pizza pan.

 

Here Gordon is using a rolling pin to roll the sugar cookie dough into a circle.  Using wax paper underneath the dough to prevent it from sticking to the counter.

To move the dough to the sheet pan simply use the wax paper to lift the dough on top of the rolling pin as shown.  Then slowly move the dough off the rolling pin and place it in the center of the cookie sheet.

Use the side of your hand to move the dough into a nice circle.  Here Gordon is using a plastic knife to make the lines in the cookie.  He also used the bottom of a glass to make the circle imprint.

Using a plastic fork to create the small holes just above and below the lines.

Here you can see the designs better.  Don’t push down too hard with any of the tools.

plastic knife tool_small plastic fork tool_small

He also used the plastic knife to make a star shape within the circle.

Lightly sprinkle some sugar on the cookie as you normally would.

Bake the sugar cookie as per the directions and monitor it near the end of the baking process as you may need to turn the cookie in your oven so it bakes evenly.  You may also need to bake the cookie a little longer as this one is very large.

We made the sugar cookie dough ahead of time and froze it until we decided to make them. 

We baked it on a 325F oven for about 15 – 18 minutes or so until done. 

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They were a big hit especially with the new Star Wars movie coming out. 

Not only does the recipient get a great cookie, but they also get a nice new pizza pan.

exhausted Christmas Day for M and S_small

Monk and Sugar tired from all the excitement of their own Star Wars Christmas.

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Veronica and Brian inserted their faces into Han and Leia.  🙂

Star Wars Ride, Disney Hollywood Studio, Orlando, Florida

The Ewok Section

R2D2

A Droid

On the Back Lot of Disney Hollywood Studios

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“This Ground Sure Feels Strange.”

Veronica’s Star Wars Birthday Cake

She Adores Leia

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Our Star Wars Dining Room

I’m just taking some photos of our Star Wars Christmas.

Just a few Star Wars items underneath the Christmas Tree. 

Photo right:  When Gordon does the gift wrapping.  🙂

(I think he takes after his mother.)

Sparky and Spooky Lou  🙂

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Leia’s Cinnamon Buns, Frosting on the Side

(Equip with Creepy Leia Mask. 

I hot glued a chopstick to the mask for Veronica to hold up to her face.)  🙂

I recently came across some old Star Wars things from when my children were little, when I was going through drawers looking for things to use for our Star Wars Christmas.  I found old Burger King Happy Meal Toys that Veronica and Brodie used to play with.  Gift Bags, Sticker books, Stickers, Cardboard Masks of Leia, Darth Vader, Luke, Greedo…… 

And even a few old Star Wars Trading Cards…

I also came across this recipe of Leia’s Cinnamon Buns that we never got around to making.  So, I decided that Gordon and I should make up a batch for Veronica as an edible gift for her and Brian to take home and then eat for breakfast the following morning.

We also made up a batch for Brodie Whann Kenobi and Mackenzie as well.  🙂

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Although I cannot find the official recipe right now. 

It wasn’t difficult to make at all so I will go from memory. 

Ingredients:

1 10 oz. Container Ready Made Pillsbury Pizza Dough

Granulated Sugar to Sprinkle

Spices of Ground Cinnamon, Cloves, and any other spices you may want to sprinkle.

Butter Flavored Cooking Oil Spray

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Frosting:

1 T. Milk

1/3 Cup Confectioner’s Sugar (I used about a cup.)

1/4 t. Vanilla

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Pre-Heat Oven to 350F

We did veer from the original recipe a bit.  But I will show you what we did.

And bear in mind that we are doing TWO here.

But, just take a baking sheet and spray it with a cooking oil spray.  We used a butter flavored one.  Then place the pizza dough, that rolls out quite easily onto the baking sheet.

Here Gordon is sprinkling some Ground Cinnamon all over the dough.  You can also sprinkle some Granulated Sugar and even some other spices such as Ground Cloves if you like.  We omitted the Granulated Sugar because there will be plenty of sugar in the frosting so we didn’t see the need to add it here as well.  But you can do whatever you want to.

Now it’s time to roll it up and start to cup slices out of it with a sharp knife.

Once you have sliced them into these little rosettes, place them onto a baking sheet that has been sprayed with a cooking oil, just so they don’t stick.

Here Gordon sprinkled more Cinnamon on top of each rosette.  Now place into the oven for about 15-20 minutes or thereabouts.  Always keep an eye out.

Once out of the oven let cool, and then place into a pretty gift container.  We made the frosting and kept it in a separate container so that they wouldn’t get all soggy before they ate them the following morning.

The frosting recipe is listed above.  I do advise making it ahead of time and keeping it in the refrigerator so that it can thicken up a bit.  I also felt that the frosting wasn’t thick enough so I added more Confectioner’s Sugar.

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Veronica, Brodie Whann Kenobi, and Gordon in the Kitchen

These are delicious Coffee Martini’s

Just make a pot of coffee and add some Vodka, and some Kahlua.  You want to make them 3 parts each.  In other words, grab a pitcher and make a third of it cold coffee, then a third of it Vodka, then a 3rd. of it Kahlua.  We added some Rum Chata as a creamer and it was perfect!  It sunk to the bottom and made for a pretty presentation.

Brodie Whann Kenobi with little Spooky Lou

Spooky is such a cutie.  She loves to press her face against yours.  First one side, then the other.  No idea why but we all laugh when she does it and I have never heard our “stoic” Brian laughing so much as he was when she was doing that to him.  🙂

Our Simple Appetizers

Dried Beef Cheese Ball with Crackers

Sausage Balls

Artichoke and Tomato Basil Bruschetta’s with Toasted Baguette Rounds

(We also had some party nuts scattered about the house as well.)

Veronica with her Plate of Apps

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Anakin Skywalker and Veronica  🙂

When I was looking around our house for past Star Wars collectibles I came across this photo that Veronica had taken at Disney’s Hollywood Studio at the Star Wars store of her and Anakin.  They just superimposed her face onto Natalie Portman’s.  When I found it I decided to add it to our Christmas.

The Action Figures and Cupcakes

I gathered up all the action figures and even my decoupage wooden serving trays that I made years ago and decided to create a mood with the cupcakes.

I adore all the Costumes of Episode 1!

I always decoupage the backs of my trays as well as the fronts. 

And always sign your work!

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Merry Christmas Chewie

At Veronica and Brian’s House

Meaty Bone for our Grand-Dog Chewie from US

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RECIPES!!

Dried Beef Cheese Ball

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The Recipe Card

I attended my old friend Lynn Jett’s wedding in the early 1980’s to her fiance Chuck Knowles.  Lynn was my childhood friend and I have written about her on my website……

Me and Lynn in Silver Springs, Florida in the 1960’s

There was this one particular food at her wedding reception that I fell in love with and it was this cheese ball.  So, I asked her mother Bettye for the recipe and she gave it to me.  I made this for many years and it was always a favorite with whatever crowd I made it for.  I quit making it because I no longer ate red meat.  I even raised my children to not eat red meat and what do you think they did the minute they left the roost??  They eat RED MEAT!

It was then that I decided to bring out of retirement this delicious Dried Beef Cheese Ball for everyone to enjoy.  🙂

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Well, it looks like I can’t find this recipe card either.  I don’t know what I did with it.  At least I photographed it above even though the ink is a bit runny you can still see the ingredients. 

I also still know what to do in making it.  🙂

Ingredients:

Jar of Dried Beef

3, 8 oz. Cream Cheese

1 Medium Onion, Chopped

3 t. Worchestershire Sauce

2 t. Accent Seasoning (Monosodium Glutamate)

(Note:  You can see that I do veer off the original recipe that is written on the card above.)

Let soften your Cream Cheeses.  In the meantime chop your onion. 

Dried Beef

(This is also the main ingredient in Chip Beef on Toast.  Something I ate a lot of in Charlotte, North Carolina in the early 80’s.)

You want to chop up your dried beef into small pieces, like so.

Add the dried beef to your softened cream cheese and chopped onions.

Although I don’t have a photo here, I did add the rest of the ingredients to the cheese ball and I worked it, mixing all the ingredients together with my hands.  It’s messy but it is the best way to incorporate everything.

Once it is fashioned into a large ball then place it back into the refrigerator overnight so that all the flavors can blend together in harmony.  🙂

Serve with Crackers 

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Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting

This was Simple, Easy, and Delicious

I used Red Velvet Cake Mix and Vanilla Frosting. 

Nothing homemade here!

I wanted 2 different cupcake cups…..

I just made everything according to the package instructions.

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It’s always important to eat at least ONE to make sure they taste good.  🙂

Vanilla Frosting, My Favorite

Just a little Star Wars Treat!

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Happy 55th. Birthday Gordon!

(His Birthday was January 8th. 2020)

Gordon and Julie, Hyde Park, Tampa

Cinebistro.com

Gordon and I enjoying our drinks before our dinner and movie.  I am drinking a Pink Flower and Gordon is drinking The Don.  (Maybe as in Don Juan “Whann”)  In his dreams!  🙂

This is a dinner and a movie kind of place.  Luckily for us there were not many people.

That is good!  As I hate crowds!

Brodie and Mackenzie Joined Us

I adore being some of the only people in a movie theater!

Goat Cheese Dip with Bread, PERFECT!

At this Cinebistro you arrive about 30 minutes prior to the movie and order your cocktails and food.  I purchased our seats ahead of time and got great ones!

Gordon and I both ordered the Mahi Sandwich w/ Tater Tots

We ordered 3 apps, this magnificent Goat Cheese Dip with Crudities and Pita Chips, A Hummus Dip, and Wings.

Brodie ordered some giant chicken sandwich and Mackenzie ordered a salad.

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Star Wars, The Rise of Skywalker

My Take……….

If you are familiar with us then you know we are HUGE Star Wars fans!

We even quote Star Wars ALL THE TIME!

( I cannot tell you how many times when our children were growing up and arguing that I was say, “If you two don’t stop fighting I am going to come back there and use the force on you!”)

With this movie being the last in the installment (9), I can’t help but think back to the first time I watched the original Star Wars movie.  It wasn’t at the theater either.  I believe the first movie (4th.) came out in 1977 but I didn’t watch it until 1980 I believe, and I saw it on T.V.  I was living in Charlotte, North Carolina with my modeling agent, Libby Stone and her family.  They had a T.V. in the back of their house and I was sleeping on the couch.  It came on in the middle of the night and I stayed up all night watching it.  I couldn’t believe how good that it was?  I only watched it because I just couldn’t sleep and there was nothing else to watch on T.V. that night.

THE Original Star Wars

So, when the second (5th.) movie came out, The Empire Strikes Back, I happily took my little brother’s to see it at a movie theater at the shopping center in Rockingham, North Carolina.

THE Empire Strikes Back

(Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back is my absolute favorite!)

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When the 3rd. (6th.) movie came out, Return of the Jedi, in 1983 I was living in my Grandmother’s basement in Rome, Georgia and working at Miller’s Department Store at the mall.  Gordon was also living in Rome in the garage apartment of my Great-Aunt Margie and Great Uncle Ray, and working at the Coca-Cola Plant.

Return of the Jedi

One Sunday night after I got off work Gordon and I went to see it.  I loved it so much that I told Gordon I wanted to go back and see it again the following Sunday.  🙂

I have episode’s 4, 5, and 6 on VHS.  I may even have episodes 1 and perhaps 2 on VHS as well.  But once they did away with VHS and everything went over to DVD I certainly purchased all of them that way as well.  And of course then when they came out on Bluray.

(Oh and a big P.S.  I have the very first Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark on BETA.)  Which btw:  Still works!!!  I still have it as well.  🙂

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Star Wars Episodes 1, 2 and 3

I am probably the only person that loved Episode 1 with Natalie Portman as Queen Amadala.

It was interesting to me that this 14 year old girl was a Ruling Elected Queen.  And when she met Anakin Skywalker, he was a 9 year old boy that was a slave on Tatooine.

We were living in Maryland when it came out on VHS/DVD and I purchased it.  I do admit that it is a bit boring but I happen to like boring.  I like the beginning’s of things.  Queen Amadala’s elaborate wardrobe represents excess and when things are at their height.  It represents peace, but it also represents frivolity and excess.  Also, lots of gossip because there are no hard times for people to fret over so they verbally attack each other.

I loved that her body guards were young women around her age and height, and weight that resembled her.  Camouflaged as hand maidens.  They could take you out in no time if they had to.

But every story has a beginning and not all beginning’s are exciting.  They are usually a bit boring in order to set the stage and tell the story.  Things tend to heat up mid story.

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Rogue One

This is Gordon’s favorite Star Wars movie.  It is also NOT part of the 9 part story.  It is an addendum.  An Insert.  But a very important part of the story.  This episode takes place between Episode 3 and 4.

It fills in a gap.

Chirrut Imwe

My favorite character in this story is the blind Asian guy, Chirrut Imwe, he is untrained but he has the makings of  a Jedi Knight.  He does have the force but because there are no more Jedi there is no training for those that are one with the force.  He is literally a powerful blind man but finding his way as a blind man that is force strong.

I relate to him because he is am Empath.

I am the Force, and the Force is With Me.

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Episodes 2, and 3

Star Wars Attack of the Clones

When this movie came out on DVD we were also living in Maryland at the time and we loved it!  Veronica did see it at the theater at the mall with her friend Caitlyn.  Anakin had grown up and was a Jedi.  Padme had grown up and was a woman, and a senator for her planet of Naboo.  I loved everything about this movie.  I would even say that this is my second favorite Star Wars movie.  Anakin was a bit of a whiner though.  But if you go back to see the early episode’s of Luke, he was something of a whiner as well.

Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith

I don’t like this episode and I don’t watch it.  This is where they slaughter all the Jedi.  That makes me very sad as the Jedi were the guardians.  The keepers of the peace.  Once they were gone then evil took over.

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Keylo Ren and Rey

They ended up being really good characters although I didn’t think so at the time when I saw their first movie, Star Wars Episode 7, The Force Awakens.

But Episode 8, and then Episode 9, they do get more interesting as the saga continues.  They are a “love story,” but a very dysfunctional one.

Ben/Keylo Ren is Han Solo and Princess Leia’s son.  Luke trains him along with several others but during that time he turns evil and slaughters those Jedi that do not follow him.  Luke feels like a failure and isolates himself on the isolated island that houses the Jedi Temple.  Leia keeps insisting that there is good in him and sends Han to retrieve their son, (in Episode 7.)  Ben/Keylo Ren then kills Han Solo, his own father.  When Leia talks about how he still has good in him then all I can think of to say is, “So What?”

Everyone has some good in them.  Even the most evil and vile.  But that doesn’t mean we should take them back because they have “some” good in them.  In the end Keylo Ren turned back into Ben Solo and he died helping Rey to defeat Palpatine.  He did redeem himself.  But he needed to die as he has just done too many evil things in his life.  He had done way too much damage to be forgiven by anyone.  He was a mass murderer.  It’s nice that he did the right thing in the end but he also needed to die, and he did.

I’m not one of these people rooting for some ‘Space Ghost Relationship’ between Rey and Ben.  She has been through enough in her life and deserves some happiness with a very boring and stable human being that loves and adores her and appreciates her for herself.  I guess we will never know what the writer’s intended but we can use our imagination and have her live out her life how we want her to.  Personally, I always wanted her to get together with Poe.  He is good, and he is cute!  🙂

May the Force be With You,

Julie

P.S.  AND SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

I decided to write about this instead of not.  At the end of the movie you see Rey on Tatooine at Luke’s home where he was raised and where his aunt and uncle were murdered.  She had taken Luke’s and Leia’s Light Sabers there to bury them in the sand.  After all, she had defeated Palpatine (her grandfather), and all the Sith Lords.  While Poe and Finn and the Rebel Alliance were able to defeat the Empire.

It was while Rey was there burying the Light Sabers that a woman wandered by and asked her who she was?  She told her that her name was Rey.  The woman asked, “Rey, who?”  After pausing and looking out into the distance and seeing the ghosts of Luke and Leia she answered, “Rey Skywalker.”

I have a big problem with that.

First of all, Luke was never particularly nice to her.  And it was revealed that Leia did know her family history which she withheld from Rey and didn’t tell her.  Leia may have been kind to Rey but she kept important information secret that I believe Rey needed to know about.

Next, Ben Solo/Keylo Ren as Leia and Han Solo’s son is also a Skywalker.

Ben/Keylo has been nothing but cruel to her from the moment he encountered her.  He made her life harder than it needed to have been.  He could actually be quite cruel to her.  The last name I would ever take would be HIS! 

I wish that she would have created her own last name and went with that.  Started something new.  Do we really need any more Skywalker’s?  I think the name should have died out with Luke, Leia and Ben Solo.  There is no Rise of Skywalker, they are all dead.  We will miss them forever, but they are gone.  Now it’s time for a new generation of Force Strong individual’s that don’t come from some famous family name to reign supreme!

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Mackenzie and Julie

Star Wars Episode 4, A New Hope

R2D2 and C3PO Popcorn and Snacks

Star Wars Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back

I am introducing Mackenzie, our son Brodie’s girlfriend, to the Star Wars franchise.  She has never seen the movie’s and I am shocked! 

So far we have watched Episode’s 4, 5, and 6, and The Family Guy Star Wars Episode’s of 4, 5, and 6.

Also Star Wars Episode 1, that no on likes but ME!  And Episode’s 2, and 3.

 I’m looking forward to enjoying our Star Wars time together.

May the Force Be With You!

Julie

Soon, I will introduce her to Episode’s 7, 8, and 9.  🙂

(Update:  I did.  She watched all 9 movie’s and Rogue One. 

In addition to all 3 Star Wars Family Guy movies.)

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One Quarter Portion

(In Episode 7 the actor/comedian Simon Pegg’s character Unkar Plutt, refers to Rey’s bread as “One Quarter Portion.)”

For Christmas 2021, Gordon and I gifted this cookbook to our son Brodie.  In flipping through it, I decided that I wanted one for ourselves.  I also bought an additional copy for our Star Wars loving daughter and son-in-law as well.

Polystarch Portion Bread

In Star Wars, The Force Awakens, Episode 7, the character Rey, played by Daisy Ridley, eats something called Portion Bread.  What is so special about this bread is the science experiment that it is, it rises on it’s own in front of your eyes.  Our Portion Bread will do the same with the help of a microwave.

Rey, Eating Her Portion Bread in The Force Awakens

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My New Cute Ramekins

(You need ramekins for this project.)

In the book, Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge

The Official Black Spire Outpost Cookbook

Written By:  Chelsea Monroe-Cassel and Marc Sumerak,

there is a recipe in the book, from a scene in the movie, where Rey makes this bread.

It is called Polystarch Portion Bread

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The Introduction to the Recipe Reads:

Jakku is a remote world with little to offer but heat and sand.  Food is scarce, and water even more so.  That makes cookin’ anythin; worthwhile there a bit of a chore.  However, I did manage to discover a minor culinary miracle on one of my recent visits: instant bread.  Known to the locals as “portion bread,” it’s really just a simple mix of polystarch flour and water.  The chemical reaction from the combination of the two creates a self-risin’ miniature loaf that would satisfy even the pickiest scavenger.  Maybe the intense heat of the Jakku desert aids in the reaction somehow, ’cause I ain’t quite been able to replicate the process in my own kitchen.  But with my oven at the right frequency, I’ve managed to come pretty close.

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Prep Time:  1 Minute

Cooking Time:  1 Minute

Yield:  1 Serving

Difficulty:  Easy

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The Ingredients:

1/2 Teaspoon Vegetable Oil

4 Tablespoons Wheat Flour

1 Tablespoon Instant Oats

1 Teaspoon Sugar

1/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Thin Flakes Dry Seaweed

Pinch Each of Salt and Pepper (We used Black Hawaiian Sea Salt)

Pinch of Ground Cinnamon (We used Corriander)

About 2 Tablespoons Water

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1.  Lightly grease a 6 inch microwave-safe ramekin or small bowl with the oil.

(We used a cooking oil spray.)

2.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, oats,

sugar, baking powder

seaweed,

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salt,

cinnamon (we used coriander), pepper, followed by enough water to hold it all together, about 2 tablespoons.

Mixing Together

3.  Quickly form into a rough ball, and place in the center of the prepared ramekin.

4.  Place the ramekin in the microwave, and cook on high for 45 seconds, during which time the bread should puff up somewhat.

Allow to cool slightly before eating.

We discovered that by doubling the recipe we were able to make one full bread batch in each ramekin.  Otherwise, it just wasn’t enough of a portion to fill each cup.

Our Completed Portion Bread

The fun thing about this recipe is that you don’t have to follow the instructions to the letter.  You can substitute the seaweed for fruit/dried fruit, like raisins, etc.  Also, you can substitute the cinnamon for another spice of your choice.  Just keep the measurements accurate so the bread will cook well.  In baking that is important.

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Enjoy,

Julie and Gordon