Sunday, August 30, 2009

Outdoor Movie Night

Last night we held our first outdoor movie night in our back yard. We asked everyone show up around 7 p.m. to pick a spot and visit. Then started the first movie, WALL-E, around 8:30.

After the kiddies went home, we watched Haunting in Connecticut for our second movie. We figured a scary movie was fitting for backyard movie entertainment.

Then for the third movie, Adventureland, we went inside since our friends Aaron and Kala were the only ones left and it was starting to get chilly. That and we didn't want to keep our neighbors up too late (we did let them know & invited them).

I tried to get a picture of everyone during the first movie but, unfortunately, it turned out a little blurry. I've never been known to be a great photographer.

Anyway, to add to the overall outdoor movie experience we ended up renting a popcorn machine. We LOVED the popcorn machine. It not only added to the experience but freed up time we would've spent manually making popcorn for our guests all night. We may even look into buying one for future parties - it'll be well worth the investment.

To fancy it up a bit, we also provided some fun popcorn toppings:
  • Truffle Salt
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • Melted Cougar Gold Cheese
  • Tabasco
  • Johnny's Seasoning Salt
  • Fresh Ground Sea Salt
  • Peanut M&Ms
  • Gummy Bears
But, since the popcorn machine is magic, it really didn't need any toppings at all. Every batch of popcorn tasted perfect.

This is a bit of a surprise since we didn't purchase the pre-measure kits that came with the machine and ended up guessing: 1 cup of popping corn, 1/4 cup of grape seed oil (then olive oil later when we ran out) and 1 tablespoon salt. I'm sure these aren't the official measurements but they worked great last night!

Plus, we just used the random oil we had in the house and I'm pretty sure this is NOT what you're supposed to do. I read online that coconut oil is best.

All in all it was a great time. I highly recommend throwing an outdoor movie night - even if you can't get your hands on a popcorn machine. It's even a treat for the chickens since they're waddling around the yard right now eating up fallen popcorn.

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like it was a great time. Just the popcorn alone sounds awesome.

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  2. I LOVE seeing movies in gardens! You should make it a regular event - it sounds like a big success! At my annual Halloween Pumpkin Carving Party, we show the most terrifying and obscure films on our garage wall - and the neighbors ALWAYS complain! Last time, they ended up staying to watch.
    It is SO GREAT when people use their outdoor spaces like this - KUDOS! It made me want to be there...

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