The Terminator (#68)

Our next film was The Terminator. For this film, I decided to base our theme on the war with the machines. Based on the film's timeline, we should be at war with the Terminators right now. So, I asked myself, "What might we eat if you were post apocalyptic soldiers?"

I decided that it wouldn't make sense to cook a big and elaborate dinner for this event. Instead, I purchased some military style MREs. They contained an entree, side, smoothie, and a heat pack that was activated by water. I purchased mine from The Ready Store, but there are many places that sell similar products. What I purchased was a box containing multiple different dinner options. Guests chose the one they wanted and we all heated our own meals with the provided heat packs. I will be honest, the meals were difficult to heat and the instructions were a little unclear. The food itself was about what you would expect. Very filling, but a little bland. I am going to hang on to the leftover packs to use for camping trips.

For dessert, I decided to do something a little different. Chocolate bars have a rich history of being a snack used by the military. Because this was supposed to be post apocalyptic scenario, I thought that it would make sense that chocolate bars would not be easy to come by, so instead I decided to make my own with coco powder, honey, crisco, vanilla extract, and some melting chocolates that I had left over from the Oreo Truffles I made a few months back. Below, you will find my recipe.

Homemade Chocolate Bars

 1/2 cup coco powder

6 tbsp Crisco or coconut oil

6 tbsp honey, maple syrup, or agave

vanilla extract to taste

optional: melting chocolate or toppings

Directions: 

1. Using a double boiler technique melt your Crisco and honey. If you have any milk or dark chocolate on hand that you can melt, add it now. 
2. Once it seems well melted, stir in the coco powder. Keep the bowl over the heat and continue to stir your mixture until everything is mixed thoroughly with no clumps.
3. Taste your chocolate. If it is too bitter add vanilla extract. I didn't measure how much I used, but I estimate it was about a tsp.
4. While the chocolate is still hot, pour it into a mold. If you don't have one, get creative and make one. I made mine using some glass stirrers, which I put on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Make sure you butter or grease your mold so it doesn't stick.
5. Before it starts to cool, use a knife or spatula to gently guide your chocolate so that it reaches the corners of your mold and is relatively level.
6. Let it set out and start cooling while you prepare your topping. Use whatever you have on hand. It could be chopped nuts, peppermint, sprinkles, or just about anything else that works with chocolate. For my topping, I melted some white chocolate that I had on hand and poured it on top. Add your topping before the chocolate has cooled completely so that it binds to the bar.
7. Refrigerate.

The chocolate bar was a big hit and may be something that I make again. I will say that they did come out softer than a traditional chocolate bar. Guests compared the consistency to fudge. It was still very tasty though.

Overall, the night was a big success. I wasn't sure how the MREs would be received, but my guests loved the experience of heating and preparing their packs of food. I was also afraid that chocolate bars might be too simple for dessert, but again, the uniqueness of eating a homemade chocolate bar made it success.