Ernest Saves Movie Night (#97)

 

This year's Christmas movie was Ernest Saves Christmas. This was a childhood favorite of mine and the first Ernest movie that we have featured. Coming up with a meal for this event was a challenge at first. My first thought was to do pancakes based on a scene where Ernest is comically flipping pancakes in a way that seems to defy physics. I decided against a pancake dinner since we did something similar not long ago for Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Then I remembered the scene where Ernest shows up unannounced to Vern's house to help set up for a Christmas party. In that scene, Ernest tries to set up a Christmas tree and destroys the house. Meanwhile, Vern had already had party platters and food set out. This became the inspiration for dinner.

In the scene, Ernest drinks what he calls "party punch." We also know that Vern had a platter of bacon cheeseburgers. Other than that, you can't see much. There was a conversation earlier though where Ernest showed an interest in making bean dip, cheese balls, or finger sandwiches for the party. This made for a pretty easy theme for the night.

We would build dinner around Vern's Christmas party. I made several things myself, but I also asked guests to bring a dish of their own to add. In addition, I encouraged them to bring a small Christmas decoration to help with the decor in the same way that Vern brought the Christmas tree.

Christmas Party Punch

The punch that Ernest drinks has slices of fruit in it that I am not able to identify but that look like citrus. So, I made a punch from 7up and Holiday Cheerwine and added to it lime sherbet and orange sherbet that was left over in the freezer from last month. It didn't look exactly like the one in the film, but it tasted good. Guests seemed to enjoy it pretty well.

Bacon-Flavored Cheeseburgers

Since I don't eat bacon, I didn't want to make bacon cheeseburgers, but I still wanted to incorporate the idea. I started wondering how I could make a "bacon cheeseburger" without bacon. My first thought was to use "bacon-flavored bits." Something that I learned a while back is that many bacon bits that you buy in grocery stores are not real bacon bits but are actually bacon-flavored bits. This is because they are cheaper to make and have a significantly longer shelf life without needed refrigeration. They are made by taking small pieces of soy and smoking them over hickory. As it turns out, most of the bacon flavor that people love is really the smoked hickory flavor. Give that same flavor to something else and suddenly it "tastes like bacon." I thought of adding bacon-flavored bits to the beef patties or mixing them into the cheese, but two of my guests have a soy allergy, so I had to think of an alternative.

Awhile back, I bought a smoker. It occurred to me that I could smoke my burger and it would give the meat patty that smokey flavor that would have normally been provided by the bacon. I also bought some turkey bacon, which I smoked along with it, in case any of my guests wanted it. I did end up overcooking both, as I am still figuring out my timing and temperatures when it comes to smoking, but the smokey flavor was undeniable.

I decided to pre-make the burgers and serve them in a manner similar to sliders. I wanted to keep them simple, just cheese, meat, and spices. For the cheese, I decided to make my job easier by buying a premade soft cheddar cheese spread. Then I added smoked paprika to it, until the flavor was present throughout. The goal was not to make the cheese spicy, just to give it that smokey flavor.

I served the burgers on white buns with just meat and cheese. Because I overcooked the meat, it was a bit dry, but the soft cheese added the moisture that it needed. My only negative is that I probably should have put some sliced pickle on them as well. Because the meat and the cheese both had a smokey essence, it was about the only thing you could taste. Having pickles would have added some nice freshness to the bite.

Bean Dip

Other things I served was chips with bean dip and some cheese puffs. The cheese puffs were a nod to the "cheese balls" that Ernest mentions. Again, in an effort to save time, the bean dip was made with some pre-made ingredients and added spice. I mixed refried beans with a jar of queso. The queso was really mild though, so the result was extremely bland. I livened it up with some fresh jalepenos from my Gardyn, cayenne, and cumin, which was really the most important spice as it gave the dip a meaty or umami flavor.

The dip was a big hit. I served it with regular tortilla chips but also some that were lime flavored. Those seemed the favorite of the group.

Gingerbread Pancakes

I struggled to come up with a good idea for dessert. At first, I thought about doing gingerbread houses. At Vern's dinner party, a gingerbread house can be seen in the back of the room. This would have been fine and I could have even made a group activity out of it, but ultimately, I was trying to minimize the amount of work I would need to do for this event and that felt time consuming.

Then, I thought about the pancake scene again. If I wasn't going to use the pancakes as inspiration for dinner, perhaps it could inspire dessert? It's not that far fetched to think of pancakes as dessert since many of us are already used to eating them with syrup, fruit toppings or other sweet things. That's when the thought occurred to me to combined both ideas. Why not make gingerbread flavored pancakes? It turns out that gingerbread flavoring is not easily found at the grocery store, but making your own gingerbread spice is not that hard.

Here's how I did it:

I started with simple pancake mix. Sure, I could have made my own, but I was going for easy and I still had some left over from when I made patty cakes. To make gingerbread pancakes, use whatever recipe or mix that you would normally use to make pancakes. Follow the instructions unless it says to use oil. Substitute the oil for an equal amount of melted butter. Because we want our pancakes sweet, butter makes for a richer and sweeter flavor.

After your batter is made, add a good bit of ground ginger and ground cinnamon. I didn't measure mine, but it seems like I used about equal parts of both. I also added a lesser amount of nutmeg and just a little bit of allspice. Allspice is a spice mix that contains a few of the spices already mentioned, but also clove, so you could substitute this for a pinch or two of ground cloves. I added these spices until I felt the gingerbread flavor was distinguishable without being overpowering. I also added about a tablespoon of amber agava to sweeten the batter. Agava acts a bit like maple syrup or molasses in its sweetness and consistency.

I premade this batter a few hours before my party and put it in the fridge. About ten minutes before our dessert break, I heated a pan, used butter to grease it, and started making pancakes over a low-medium heat. Because they were meant to be served as dessert, I intentionally made them small, measuring with a large spoon. The gingerbread pancakes I then served with chocolate and caramel syrup, marshmallows, chocolate chips, whipped cream, and sprinkles all available to be added as toppings by my guests.

This dish was surprisingly good. I had an strong idea going into it, but the result was better than I expected. I can definitely see myself making this again. Maybe even making it a new holiday tradition.

Overall, this night was a big success. The food was good and everything themed well with the film. This is definitely a Christmas movie night that I would recommend for any friend or family group.