Welcome to my new page: Friday Family Theme Nights! This is my first theme post, but I'm hoping for many more to come. Shane and I thought it would be fun for our family to have a night each week where we pick a theme and make food, craft, and play a game or watch a movie based on the theme.
This is so much more fun (and WAY cheaper) than eating out!
Last Friday just so happened to be the Chinese New Year, so guess what our theme was! We spent the afternoon brushing up on the Chinese culture and the new year traditions. We opted for Americanized Chinese food over "authentic," but we thoroughly enjoyed our night.
This is so much more fun (and WAY cheaper) than eating out!
Last Friday just so happened to be the Chinese New Year, so guess what our theme was! We spent the afternoon brushing up on the Chinese culture and the new year traditions. We opted for Americanized Chinese food over "authentic," but we thoroughly enjoyed our night.
The Dress Code
That's right, we had a dress code for tonight! We won't do that for all of our theme nights, but when given the opportunity it adds to the fun! For the Chinese New Year, people wear the color red for good luck. Shane and Josiah wore the only red shirts they own, and I wore red pants. (Sorry we did not get a pic of this.)
The Food
Here are the recipes/ food finds:
Dessert: Fried Ice Cream |
I did have to pre-cook and refrigerate the rice and there was work to be done with the fried ice cream, but when we started cooking, everything was ready pretty quick (I think dinner was on the table within 30 minutes). I cooked the rice in my wok, and pictured on the right above is a make shift deep fryer I used to fry the chicken and egg rolls. The lemon sauce for the chicken is pictured sauteing in the back.
For the record, I used to have a deep fryer, but I got rid of it. I quickly learned there is NO FUN in cleaning a deep fryer. Now I just fry things in oil in a saucepan. Much easier clean up.
For the record, I used to have a deep fryer, but I got rid of it. I quickly learned there is NO FUN in cleaning a deep fryer. Now I just fry things in oil in a saucepan. Much easier clean up.
For dessert we made fried ice cream with honey drizzled on top. It just seemed like a good idea. Plus I was already frying chicken and egg rolls, so why not?
Added Dinner Entertainment...
These dinners are like 10 times more fun with themed music! When we began cooking dinner tonight I searched for and played "chinese music" from Pandora. It made us feel like we were in an upscale Chinese restaurant!
When we sat down to eat dinner, we watched a Chinese music concert we found on youtube.
When we sat down to eat dinner, we watched a Chinese music concert we found on youtube.
The Craft
For a fun craft to help tie in some of the new year tradition, we made a "Fire Breathing Dragon." It's simply construction paper wrapped around a toilet paper roll, with googly eyes, and what's supposed to be tissue paper connected to the bottom. It looks way cooler when you use tissue paper at the ends, but for tonight we just glued construction paper at the end (it's all we had on hand.) Josiah had fun with it and that's all that matters. |
The Entertainment: Movie Night
Thanks for reading! Our next family theme night is President's Day!