Family Movie Night: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride

TGIF. I remember as a kid looking forward all week to the block of family programming on Friday nights. We would sit as a family watching Full House and eatting a bowl of ice cream. It was family bonding time. In an attempt to recreate this with my kids, I started Family movie night several years ago.

This week I am hoping to prepare my kids for an upcoming trip to Disneyland and show them a movie they have not seen.

Therefore this weeks theme is Mr Toad’s Wild Ride. Luckily Netflix’s has The Wind in the Willows, the movie the ride is based on so I don’t have to pay to rent it. I like to make the whole night themed so for dinner we are having Fish and chips, for dessert we are making car cakes, and for fun we are making cardboard cars to turn our family room into a drive-in.

It is currently summer and the kids are home all day on Friday so I decided to add a craft to our night’s fun. At Costco I grabbed two apple boxes to bring home the groceries. When I got home my children begged to keep them and before I could get all the groceries in they were using them as cars. So for family movie night I let the kids paint them and I glued plates for tires and a steering wheel. My daughter the artist also used tape, fabric, and batting to make a cushion seat. My son the engineer used flashlights for headlights. I love when they get excited and add to a project especially when they use their unique talents.

My daughter asked me the other day “What are fish and chips?” in that random way kids ask questions in the car. I had to explain what fish and chips were. So when I decided on this week’s movie I thought is was only fitting to make fish and chips for dinner since the story takes place in the U.K. It came out really good considering this was my first time deep frying food of any kind. I made a chipotle tartar sauce with chipotle mayo and sweet relish to go along with it and add some heat.

Whole Wheat Fish and Chips with Chipotle Tarter Sauce

Servings: 4-6
Time: Dependent on size of Fryer
Difficulty: Med
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Chips:

2 pounds Russet Potatoes
Salt, Pepper or other seasoning to taste

Heat a kettle of hot water. Peel the potatoes. Slice them into 1/3 inch slices. Then slice again to make fry shapes pieces. Place potatoes in bowl and cover with hot water and let soak for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes dry potatoes throughly. Heat fryer to 325. Place two handfuls of potatoes in fryer basket. Fry potatoes for 6 minutes, place on a paper towel. After you fry the fish place the fry back in the fryer for 4 minutes until desired crispiness.

Fish:

1 pound of Wild Caught Alaskan Cod
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (extra flour for coating fish)
1 bottle of your favorite beer (we used Alaskan Amber)
1 tsp kosher salt
Vegetable oil for frying
Salt to taste

Fill your fryer and preheat oil to 375. To make batter mix flour, salt, and beer until it is the consistency of pancake batter (you may need to add a bit off water). Cut the fish into manageable pieces. I cut into fourths. Coat the fish in dry flour. Dip the fish into batter then gently place in the fryer. My fryer fits about 3 pieces at a time. Cook for about 6 minutes. Agitate the fish gently so that it does not stick to the fryer basket. Remove from fryer and place on paper towels to remove excess oil. Enjoy!

Tarter Sauce

4 tbsp Chipotle Mayo
1 tbsp Sweet Relish

Mix Mayo with relish. Enjoy!

For dessert we made car cakes. Several years ago for my middle child’s first birthday I had made these car cakes to use as his smash cake.

My then 3 year old with her number 3 cake.

Smash cake cars and a larger sheet cake for the rest of the guests.

This time I decided to let the kids help make these cars. To make the cars I used a mini loaf pan. If you don’t have loaf pan you can make a sheet cake and cut the cake into eights. I decided to save myself some baking time by buying mix. I found a new “cleaner” mix (no yucky non-food ingredients) that I decided to try.

My mini loaf pan. Don’t forget to grease before use!

Since I used cake mix, the kids read the box and helped measure ingredients. Then I let them grease the pan. We then filled the pan and I made cupcakes with the remaining batter. While they baked I melted some chocolate to make windshields. I drew out rectangles on parchment paper with a permanent marker. Then I flipped the paper over. My husband had the brilliant idea to use a medical syringe to pipe the chocolate when I could not find my chocolate piping bottle. The syringe actually worked really well and even the kids could use it.

Using a syringe to pipe the chocolate for windshields.

I realized at about this time that I had over filled the loaf pan and the cakes were growing rapidly. My four year olds expression at this time was priceless.

My four year olds expression when he peeked in the oven at the overflowing cakes.

After the cakes were finished I made some frosting from a store bought “cleaner” starter. The kids then helped me trim the over flowed cars with a butter knife.