The Circle of Life

The second summer Cinema Brittahytta movie was The Lion King, perfect for 9 of us of all ages, even the little ones! I showed off my own family tiki carved by my grandfather in its happy new home in my garden, and my fun menu included Bugs & Grubs, Iced Tea-Keas, Luscious Little Lions, and Tribal S’mores with gargantuan marshmallows that were a huge hit!

After a sweltering 100F(!) day, the backyard was lovely in the evening shade. We enjoyed grilling & chatting until it was dark enough to play some Beatles Rock Band, then it was time for the main feature. Little Ellie’s interpretive dance to the opening Circle of Life was adorable, but it was extra fun that Jeff could come with his wife & little daughter, since it was Jeff & me who saw the first Lion King trailer together in late 1993 and said “We HAVE to see that movie!” It was one of my first promos working at the movie theatre, so for patio decor I had the official poster one-sheet, numbered on the reverse side, Scar & the hyena trio from the standee, some static cling leaves from the original Disney theatre decor kit, and I wore my well-loved & now-faded moonlight shirt for the occasion.

Trader Joe’s sells a bunch of chocolate-covered dried fruits, including some that are brightly-colored, so I decided that could be a very easy way to make Bugs & Grubs! I used my black food coloring pen to draw some legs & eyes on the brightest ones, mixed them with the dark chocolate ones in a clear bowl lined with organic fern clippings from my yard, and voila…”tastes like chocolate!”

I am taking poetic license for Lion King “tribal” to include tikis even though they are not African, mainly because I found the tiki ice cube trays at the dollar store that were too perfect with the reveal of my own garden tiki that my grandfather carved. I hope we can call them awesome “tribal carvings” and keep having fun. The Iced Tea-Keas were tasty but harder to see, since the iced tea didn’t really show the detail of the fun molds, but it was nice to have a flavorful unsweetened tea option.

After the Iced Tea-Keas were all frozen in several batches and the molds washed & dried thoroughly, I outlined just the detail with white chocolate candy melts, let them set in the freezer while I melted milk chocolate & 60% Ghirardelli chips together, the poured the brown chocolate over the white detail. After they set up solid in the fridge, I used my food coloring pens to add some colors to them. I’m still not sure if it was the chocolate getting too warm or it gumming up my pens that made the color stop transferring to the candies, so about half stayed the white accents only.

I had found gargantuan marshmallows recently, so huge that I can toast the outside three times and still have almost a whole normal marshmallow left, so I used those with normal graham crackers with the tiki masks as the chocolate, ready for melting. Not only did we have many rounds of successful s’mores, but even plain marshmallows were roasted!

Last but not least were the Luscious Little Lions…so cute! These are the same vegan maple cornbread muffins with coconut manes I made as Cowardly Cornbread for my Wizard of Oz birthday two summers ago. Since I was trying to keep that party as vegan as possible, I had found this recipe and it worked well enough to try again with plain water instead of soymilk. I didn’t bother with the whole corn this time, and I doubled this recipe for about 30 since my mini muffin silicone pan is taller than standard size.

Luscious Little Lions (aka Cowardly Cornbread)

1 cup plain soymilk or water
1/4 cup non-hydrogenated vegan margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup frozen corn (optional)
1 cup shredded coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Use a silicone mini muffin pan and spray with non-stick cooking spray, or line 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Whisk together soymilk (or water), melted margarine, maple syrup, and vinegar in bowl. Whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in separate bowl. Stir wet mixture into dry mixture. Fold in corn kernels for large muffins, optional for mini muffins.

Spoon or scoop the thick batter into prepared muffin pans about 2/3rds full. Sprinkle shredded coconut around edges of each muffin. Lightly tap the coconut flakes into the batter so it will stick during baking. If any stray coconut is in the middle, tuck down into the batter or scoot aside.

Bake mini muffins 15 minutes at 375F. Since the coconut is touching the moist batter, it won’t toast as quickly. Coconut should be lightly toasted brown the same time the muffins are done.

If making full-size muffins, bake 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into muffins out clean. The longer cooking time might burn the coconut before the muffins are done. Cool 10 minutes in pan then unmold. If you keep these enclosed under a glass dome or inside a cookie tin or plasticware, the crispy coconut will start to sag from the moisture in the cornbread, so best to bake these only a couple hours before serving if you can.
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Finally I will leave you with my garden tiki watching over my waterfall. I am very proud to have one of my grandfather’s carvings in my own yard!