Hold onto your hat’s, folks! Today we’re gettin’ whimsical! 😀
Lately I’ve been trying to make a lot of historically accurate blog recipes, like Rustic Brown Bread from JANE EYRE and Rüeblitorte from HEIDI. I planned to stick with that theme through this menu too, but the only entree in STUART LITTLE is lamb stew. Since I already shared my go-to lamb stew recipe in my HUNGER GAMES MENU, I decided to have some fun and make something silly instead. Plus, I’m unofficially trying to make everything on this menu work for a birthday party just because I think STUART LITTLE would make such a cute party theme, and I’ve never seen lamb stew served at a birthday.
For my focus, I chose Stuart’s favorite modes of transportation: his car and boat. I made deviled egg boats for a WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE menu a few years ago, and the one’s I’m sharing today are a slight variation on that. I made homemade hummus from Gimme Some Oven, mixed it into the filling, dyed the egg white blue to match the boat in the story, and topped it all with a pita chip sail. The rest of the hummus went to fill the roadsters: mini peppers I cut in half and fitted with tomato wheels, pretzel steering wheels, and chive seat backs.
These were SUPER simple and so fun to make. If you’ve got kids, I highly recommend getting them involved with this one. My 4-year-old loved putting the sails on the boats and driving the little cars around his plate!
A
Mouse on the Go: Stuart’s Mini Pepper Roadster’s and Hummus Deviled Egg Boats
“The Doctor then led Stuart into another room. From a shelf he took a tiny automobile, about six inches long—the most perfect miniature automobile Stuart had ever seen. It was bright yellow with black fenders, a streamlined car of graceful design. “I made this myself,” Dr. Carey said.“I enjoy building model cars and boats…This car has a real gasoline motor in it. It has quite a good deal of power—do you think you can handle it, Stuart?”
— Stuart Little
INGREDIENTS:
- FOR THE HUMMUS
- 1/3 cup tahini
- 2-4 Tbsp cold water
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 3/4 tsp fine sea salt
- 2 medium cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 2-3 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- FOR THE BOATS
- 6 eggs
- blue gel food coloring
- 1/4 cup hummus
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 tsp mustard
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 12 pita chips
- FOR THE ROADSTERS
- 6 mini red peppers
- 2/3 cup hummus
- 24 toothpicks
- 24 grape tomatoes, cut in half widthwise
- 12 chives or green onions cut to 2″ lengths
- 12 mini pretzels
Makes just under 2 cups of hummus, 12 egg boats, and 12 roadsters
INSTRUCTIONS:
-
- FOR THE HUMMUS. Combine the tahini, cold water, olive oil, cumin, salt, garlic, and lemon juice in a food processor. Process on low for 1-2 minutes until smooth.
- Pour in the chickpeas. Continue to process for 4 minutes, stopping halfway through to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula. If mixture is too thick, add in more water or lemon juice. In the end, I used the full amounts listed for both water and lemon juice. Refrigerate in a sealed container until ready to use.
- FOR THE BOATS. Place the eggs in a large pot and fill with cold water until covered with about 1 inch of water. Add 2 Tbsp white vinegar, if desired, to make the eggs easier to peel. Place the pot over medium heat, and as soon as it starts to boil, turn off the heat and cover the pot for 6-7 minutes. Drain the pot and fill with cold water. Rinse the eggs several times with cold water until they are room temperature.
- In a large bowl or pitcher, stir together 2 cups hot water, 2 Tbsp white vinegar, and 12 drops blue gel food coloring. Stir until the dye is completely incorporated. Fill 3 large mugs with 2/3 cup water. Set aside.
- Peel the eggs. Cut them in half, removing the yolks and setting them aside. Place 4 egg halves into each mug (they should be completely submerged). Allow to set for 10-15 minutes, gently stirring them occasionally.
- In a bowl, mash and mix together the yolk halves, hummus, mayonnaise, mustard, and salt until smooth. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
- Set the egg halves on a paper towel-lined plate. When they are dry, pipe the filling into the eggs. Top each egg with a pita chip.
- FOR THE ROADSTERS. Either gently twist the green bit from the end of each pepper or cut it off with a knife (but leave the rest of the bottom of the pepper intact). Cut each pepper in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Stick a toothpick width-wise through each end and poke half a tomato onto the exposed toothpick tips (these will be the wheels). Pipe each pepper full of hummus (around 2 tsp, depending on the size of the pepper). For the steering wheel, place a mini pretzel in the hummus near the narrow end of the pepper. For the seat, insert both ends of a piece of chive in the wide end to look like an upside-down “U.”
- Serve to an adventuresome mouse who’s always on the go!
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