Cheese is a marvelous thing. I do like a great Gouda with grapes, or a beautiful Basque with black olives (green olives are actually better, but doesn’t sound as poetic). Many of our friends roll their eyes when I tell them they can’t start eating yet because the cheese has to “breathe” first (Thank you Jason for teaching me that trick!!! Amy, thank you for encouraging my “habit”!). I have been accused of being a cheese snob more than once, but I prefer the work “enthusiast”. So when we came up with the idea of a Tosche-ese Station last year, I was almost overwhelmed by the possibilities. After several trips to the cheese counter at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Meijer, and confusing the heck out of the friendly staff with questions such as “which cheese will separate less when molding”, we finally settled on this spread.
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May the Fourth be with You
AT-AT Perler Bead Coaster
Sometimes I really do miss the pre-CGI days! We just watched Empire Strikes Back (to get inspired when making our Halloween costumes, which will be posted soon!), and we marveled at how amazing the big battle on Hoth still looks…almost 25 years later. My favorite part is watching the Walkers. When watching, I could feel the weight of those walkers. I could feel the creaking in their knee-joints. Stop motion filming adds weight, gravity and substance in a way that CGI just can’t.
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Stinky Tauntauns
When I was a wee Padawan, I did A LOT of camping. With friends, family and the Scouts (in Europe, the Scouts are co-ed). Eating all that campfire food, it was inevitable that someone started “stinking up” their sleeping bag at bed time. We would hear the farting, and everyone would scream “DO NOT OPEN YOUR SLEEPING BAG!!” But of course the culprit would open it, and we all would gag and scream “AAAURGH!” If we had had these Tauntaun sleeping bags, we would all have been yelling “AND WE THOUGHT THEY SMELLED BAD ON THE OUTSIDE!” instead. Camping (and farting) would have been MUCH funnier!
Bow-TIE Fighter Pasta Salad

It’s the day of the Star Wars birthday party. 20 kids and adults are coming any second. You are running around like Jar Jar Binks – tripping over lightsabers, and stepping on Lego ships (OUCH!), trying to get things in order. Imagine how relieved you will be that at least all your TIE fighters are in formation (from the night before), just waiting to be served. 1 less thing to worry about on the day of the party (YEAY!). AND the batch is party-sized – there is enough food here to feed a whole squadron of Bucketheads (TIE fighter pilots).
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Darth Vader Piñata
Episode V, Degobah, the Forest, by the Tree Cave:
LUKE: What’s in there?
YODA: Only what you take with you.
Luke looks warily between the tree and Yoda. He starts to strap on his weapon belt.
YODA: Your weapons…you will not need them
Luke gives the tree a long look, then shakes his head “no.”
Yoda shrugs.
Luke reaches up to brush aside some hanging vines and enters the tree.
Luke must have known he would need his lightsaber… because Darth Vader’s helmet was filled with…CANDY!?!
Make a blue lightsaber bopper, be like Luke, and get a good whack at Darth.
Cloud City Float with a Millennium Falcon Ice Ship
I was going to say this tastes heavenly, but I don’t think that is the correct pun for it. Maybe that it truly belongs among the clouds? Naah, no good either. It is a good thing the Cloud City is a float? Bad punch lines, good punch though. It looks impressive, fizzes, bubbles and is very yummy. Jedi Master Heidi (whom you will hear more about in later posts – and without whose help and creativity the M4Ps [May the Fourth be with You Parties] would never happen), helped me figure out this recipe. It was (obviously) served it in (Han) Solo plastic cups!
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