Twin Cities Live asked me to do a segment on hosting a Harry Potter Party, pretty simple right? Well simple except for this muggle didn’t know very much about Harry Potter.  Always up for a challenge, I started asking friends about the memorable foods in the movies and my friend Nicole was willing to lend me the movies.  Which on an ironic side note, ended in me buying her a new set of Harry Potter dvds because I spilled pumpkin juice on the originals!  So I spent the last two weeks squeezing in Harry Potter dvds at every spare moment.  I ended up loving the movies, so exciting and filled with so many great food ideas for hosting a party!

For the show I walked through three recipes: Basilisk Pizza, Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice.  I also displayed several ideas for Harry Potter themed candy including: magical wands (pretzel and licorice sticks), fever fudge brownies, puking pastilles (sugared orange slices), drooble gum (cotton candy), bertie botts jelly beans (jelly belly knock offs), animal sound gumballs, gummi frogs, gummi worms and licorice snaps.  I even “borrowed” (ok, kidnapped) my daughter Stella’s Cabbage Patch doll, Wanda and transformed her into a Mandrake Root.  These are all great recipes to use at a viewing party, a Harry Potter themed birthday, or even on Halloween. 

The Basilisk appears as a villain in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie.  It is a giant serpent and often referred to as the King of Serpents. 

Ingredients:

2 Pizza Crust Classic Tubes (13.8 ounces)

4 TB of Flour for Rolling out Dough

1 Contadina Pizza Sauce Squeeze Bottle (15 ounce)

1 Bag of Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (8 ounce)

1 Egg Yolk

4 TB Poppy Seeds

6 Dried Juniper Berries or Peppercorns

Pizza Toppings:

8 Fresh Basil leaves

½ cup Pineapple Tidbits

8 slices of Ham (chopped)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400.

Dust rolling pin and mat with flour.  Unwrap pizza dough and roll out until flat.  Cut dough lengthwise into two pieces.  Fill each side with 1/3 cup of pizza sauce and ½ cup of cheese.  Top each side with desired toppings (fresh basil, ¼ cup of pineapple and 4 slices of chopped ham).  Fold each piece in half to make two long tubes.  Transfer tubes to cookie sheet sprayed with nonstick spray.  Form tube into a snake (bend each piece back and forth).  Mix egg yolk and 1 tsp of water and brush stripes on the snake pieces.  Shake 2 TB of poppy seeds over egg wash so seeds will stick.

Bake in oven for 13 minutes.

While piece bake, remove second pizza dough from package and roll out.  Divide into two pieces.  With one piece, assemble as above with desired toppings.  The other piece will be used for the head.  For the head spread pizza sauce on the bottom half of the piece and fill with desired toppings.  Fold head over and form into a triangular shape.  Fill in eyes with two juniper berries or peppercorns for each eye and then 2 for the snout.  Brush egg wash stripes on the head and body piece and then put remaining poppy seeds over dough.  Bake for 13 minutes.

8 servings

Pumpkin Juice is a favorite drink of the students at Hogwarts School in the Harry Potter movies and is drunk at breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:

1 Can Pumpkin (15 ounce)

1 tsp of Cinnamon

1 Bottle Ginger Ale (2 liter)

1 Bottle Orange Soda (2 liter)

Ice Ring:

Water

5 Gummi Worms

5 Gummi Frogs

Directions:

The night before serving, fill a bundt pan half way with water, add gummi worms and frogs.  Freeze over night.

In a large punch bowl, mix pumpkin and cinnamon.  Add ginger ale and orange soda.  Add ice ring. 

If using dry ice, do not add it directly to punch, the pieces may burn guests.  Instead, use two bowls and place punch bowl inside another bowl.  With tongs, place dry ice pieces in the outer bowl and add hot water.  Simply add more pieces and hot water throughout the party.

16 servings