This week for Cinema Brittahytta, 11 of us enjoyed Close Encounters with Flying Saucer Pizzas, a Devil’s Tower Potato Salad, Alien S’mores with homemade Musical Marshmallows by Lyle & Galt, and the Brownie Briquettes served in the tabletop grill made a command performance again! A few people saw a couple Perseid meteors during the movie, but I missed them all…darn!
I have never seen Close Encounters before, but I knew there was a scene where mashed potatoes were shaped into the distinctive lava plug mountain Devil’s Tower. I didn’t think mashed potatoes were summer BBQ fare, but I thought my grandma’s recipe for potato salad molded into shape would be hilarious. Seeing that everyone laughed, I think it succeeded!
Even with my crazy schedule that week with the giant cake, a face painting gig, and 4 special events to attend, I was able to make some Alien S’mores, cutting the same vegan graham cracker recipe I’ve been using all summer into shape with an egg-shaped cookie cutter, and poking the nose & 
mouth detail directly into the dough. I traced the same cookie cutter onto wax paper and spread melted chocolate as matching oval shapes, then used the rest of the melted chocolate to pipe the large almond-shaped eyes onto the faces.
Lucky for me that Lyle & Galt offered to make homemade marshmallows for the s’mores, and they brought them as Musical Marshmallows in the light grid from the final first contact scene…fantastic, clever AND extremely tasty!
Lyle has become my master griller lately! I started grilling the watermelon because I need the practice (the slices need to be nice & thick, then about 2-3 minutes per side to get nice grill marks with carmelization & smoky flavor), but he helped finish them for me, and put the white peaches on to grill…both were very tasty! Thanks Lyle! 
The personal grilled pizzas were such a hit for Forbidden Planet that I brought them back as Flying Saucer Pizzas! I served some of the same ingredients as last time, some others brought some fun toppings too, and this time we had plenty of crusts, thank goodness. Everyone’s looked so tasty I wished I could eat them all!
Since Tracia & Kian had made a special trip from Davis to stay overnight & attend movie night, by special request I reprised the Brownie Briquettes again. This time I used royal icing instead of marshmallow creme, so the orange sugar didn’t soak in as badly, but the powdered sugar always soaked in, so 
I had learned my lesson & only decorated them the hour before other guests arrived. They looked great in the foil-lined little grill again, and they were a hit with all the people who had missed them before, as well as those like Glen who enjoyed them the first time around! 
Everyone was enjoying making pizzas so much that not many were able to make s’mores before we started the movie, so we continued making them after the movie was over. I got some fun photos of the gooey alien s’mores…hooray!
As always, you can click to see the entire photo gallery, plus read my grandmother’s potato salad recipe I used for Devil’s Tower…enjoy!
Grandma Clouston’s Potato Salad
1 cup mayonnaise (can be reduced-fat mayo)
1/4 cup sweet pickle juice
1 Tbsp mustard
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
4 large potatoes, cooked with skins on
4 or 5 eggs, hard cooked
4 or 5 chopped sweet pickles
4 or 5 stalks celery, chopped
Mix all together, cover & store in fridge. Best if made at least 4 hours before serving or the day before. I just dump what looks right when I make it. How many potatoes depends on how big they are, etc. You can always make hash browns out of leftover potatoes if you have too many. Number of eggs is optional, too, as well as everything else. Make it to suit your taste buds.
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