"What are you looking at, butthead!"
- Biff Tannen
In this 1980s sci-fi classic, small-town California teen Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) is thrown back into the '50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) goes awry. Traveling through time in a modified DeLorean car, Marty encounters young versions of his parents (Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson), and must make sure that they fall in love or he'll cease to exist. Even more dauntingly, Marty has to return to his own time and save the life of Doc Brown.
(NOTE: The following content might have spoilers)
My favorite trilogy of all time is hands down "Back to the Future". I can watch it over and over again and eveytime it's just as funny and because I love it so much I'll be creating a menu for each of the three movie's. There were just so many references to food and I had so many ideas how could I not. Keep an eye out for Back to the Future II, coming this August.
Remember my job is to make this food look picture perfect and to be as creative as possible but you choose how much work you want to put into it. Sometimes we just don't have the time or money to make the whole menu and that's ok too, the important thing here is to have fun and enjoy some family time.
THE MENU
Enchanted Sea-bites, 1.21 Giga-loaf, and Parole Cake
Enchanted Sea-Bites
Marty's parent's love story all started with the Enchantment Under the Sea dance where they kissed for the first time. I decided to use this as the inspiration to our appetizer I figured since it's going to be a pretty heavy dinner I thought going with fruit would be best. During the school dance scene there's was a very big clam seashell in the background which is why I added the Madeleines. See below for the step-by-step
NOTE: You can use Pirate Booty or Popcorn to add on top of the blueberries for some sea foam but I felt it didn't look as nice.
Place 1 Madeleine in each plastic cup.
For the seaweed, start peeling your apples and keep the skin long and wide enough as shown in picture above.
3. With your kitchen scissors (I used a 5-bladed scissor) cut 4-5 thin strips. Make sure you don't cut all the way to the bottom otherwise it will fall apart.
4. Cut out some of the strips and shorten others so they look inconsistent.
5. Stick each apple piece to each side of the Madeleine with the green part facing you. The inside of the apple will be moist so it will easily stick to the cup
6. Fill up the cup with about 1/4 cup of blueberries.
7. Use the extra apple skin strips you cut off and randomly stick them in-between the berries.
NOTE: Please make sure to always soak your berries in baking soda and/or vinegar for 10-15min before eating. They have a lot of nasty stuff on them.
8. Lastly add whatever flavor fish crackers you'd like. I think maybe adding the ones that had different color fishes might have looked better.
1.21 Giga-loaf
Meatloaf? Yes meatloaf, this meal was not eaten once but twice in the movie. 1st meatloaf dinner was with Marty, his parents, brother and sister. His mother (Elaine) made what I'm assuming a special dinner because she thought they'd be celebrating Uncle Joey getting out of jail. The 2nd time was when Marty went back to the past and ended up having pretty much the same dinner with his mom and grandparents along with his uncles and aunt.
The exact dinner was meatloaf, frozen bag of mixed veggies, mash potatoes (from the box), dinner rolls and ketchup. but as you know I had to spiff it up so I covered the top of the loaf with the mash potatoes then I used the veggies to create a "Y" shape to emulate the flux capacitor and lined the bottom of the loaf with green beans just to give it a cleaner look.
Meatloaf in the 1950s became an iconic meal of that era not only because it was an affordable yet hearty option that could easily feed a family but it was a quick meal for the busy homemaker at that time. This dish is still a favorite because of its versatility using a variety of meats, fillings, and toppings that suited different tastes and dietary preferences. As you can imagine there were many different recipes out there but I decided to stick with the 1953 Hunts Tomato Sauce advertisement with meatloaf recipe. This was my first time making meatloaf but wont be my last. It was very easy to make with little mess and everyone enjoyed eating it.
Recipe is below as the image above is hard to see:
1 1/2 ground beef
1 egg
1 cup of bread crumbs
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 can of hunt’s tomato Sauce
Lightly mix ingredients and form a loaf. Place in Shallow pan in moderate oven (350 degrees). While it’s starting to bake, combine the following to make your gravy:
1/2 can of hunt’s tomato Sauce
2 tbsp of vinegar
2 tbsp of prepared mustard
2 tbsp of brown sugar or molasses
1 cup of water
Pour over meat loaf in oven. Continue baking 1 1/2 hours longer or until internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
For the most part I followed the 1953 Hanes recipe. Except for the following:
I used 1/2 lbs of pork and 1/2 lbs of beef Instead. Also instead of bread crumbs I used some stale ritz crackers that were in my pantry (1 cup per the recipe). As a matter of fact there were some fish crackers left over that I threw in as well. Just make sure to crush them with the rolling pin to get those fine crumbs. I made the meatloaf sauce/gravy per the recipe but didn't like it and thought the ketchup was much better.
Use an actual meatloaf pan if you have one, it drains all the excess fat from the bake, otherwise definitely line you loaf pan with parchment paper.
Grab 1-2 bags of the frozen mixed veggies
This was how the meatloaf looked once it was done baking, it has a reddish tone because of the tomato sauce that is added to the recipe. I didn't add the gravy though.
4. Serve meatloaf with side of dinner rolls, ketchup, and glass of milk
5. Just wanted to give you guys an inside view of the layers. You can add as much mash potatoes as you'd like. It holds very well.
Parole Cake
There was no question that I was going to make the Uncle Joey cake for our dessert. It looks easier than it actually was. I'm a creative person but definitely not a professional cake decorator or even anything close to that and I wasn't going to be spending money on special tools that I would never use again. See below for my step-by-step.
Once cake is done, carefully take out of pan to cool. Once cooled remove the thin layer of what I call "cake skin" from the top of the cake. It comes off easily and you can see it here in the photo where its created some small air bubbles. If you don't remove this it will get all over the frosting when you try to apply it.
Place the cake back into the pan and start frosting your cake. Take your time and don't rush this process. When your done frosting the cake let it stand for 20 min so the frosting can harden.
3. Outline the jail door along with the letters with a tooth pick first. If you mess up dip your finger in warm water (wash first) and lightly dabb on the frosting and it will go away.
4. Use the black cake decorating container (use writing tip) and trace the door use the red frosting for the letters also with the writing tip. Last part is adding the bird, use the toothpick first to make sure it's the size you want.
NOTE: I messed up here and should have used the red for the words but was so focused on making it fit I totally forgot, it happens.
5. I used sprinkles to color the inside of the door. I used star sprinkles for the beak and feet and blue sprinkles for the stripes on his jail bird shirt. Also, I used my eyeball candy for the eye and created an eyelid with the black frosting.
NOTE: because the letters should have been red I cheated and added some red sprinkles to kinda outline them. This was way too much work and wouldn't reccomend it but because the words were originally red I had to add the red in there somehow.
TIP: I love sprinkles and when they go on sale buy as much as you can they never go bad and always come in handy it's never a purchase I regret. It makes everything look so much cooler and kids will eat anything that has sprinkles on it, adults too.
Q&A with the kids
1. A Time Machine takes you back in time 30 years, what's the first thing you do?
2. Ask your parents or a married couple from your family how they met each other?
3. Would you change anything if you went back in time 30 years?
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