Lost Challenge: Throwing Down the Guantlet

Giving me a challenge of creating food at a themed party related around tv might just be combining my favorite things in the world.... food, tv, and the dorky creativity required to plan a themed party. After some of our previous themed parties, I am surprised you even bothered to call it a challenge. :)
My approach was less elaborate food splendor and more in your face Lost... so it may be less food blog worthy, but it was oh so fun to do.

Read below for recipes, stories of kitchen mishaps, and pictures of the food and party!

The Menu Brandon and I made:
Pig A La Lost (pig cooked on a spit) Dharma Macaroni and Cheese Supper (As seen with Desmond in Season 3 Episode 8)
Beach Scene Diorama (dirt cake and blue jello)
Smoke Monster Swimming in the Ocean (Blue Curacao with Dry Ice)

The Menu Provided by my Co-Party Planner
Mango Daiquiri's in coconut glass (made with fresh mangos)
Jacob and Smokey's Rocks O' Fun (Chocolate Macadamia Coconut Cream Candies)
Tropical Fruit Salad
Sweet Potato Fries

Pig A La Lost

Ingredients:
Pork Shoulder (16 pounds in picture)
Salt
Pepper
Sage
Cumin
handful of Brown Sugar
handful of White Sugar
4 cups Water
Fire Pit
Rotisserie
100 lbs of charcoal

Directions
Day Before
24 - 48 hours prior to cooking the pork rub with all dry ingredients except the sugar (you could do the sugar now as well, but we didn't)
Pour 2 cups of water in each 2 gallon zip lock baggie.
Place pork in baggie and store in fridge until an hour or two before cooking.

Day of Cooking
1 - 2 hours prior to cooking take pork out of water mixture and pat dry

Rub with sugar on both sides

1 hour prior to cooking start fire (start with wood and slowly switch to charcoal). Use about 30 lbs of charcoal at start of cooking pork, and add about 10 pounds every hour. You may need to add some wood at time to keep the fire warm enough.

You want the fire to burn about 225 F degrees. (We hooked our oven thermometer to the pole)

Insert pork on stick (we had to add another stick to help with the turning)

Turn the pork about every hour. We had to pull it off a few times to change angles.

The pork will be 170 F degrees when it is ready.

Let sit for 20 minutes. you can then slice it or pull. (You can also do a BBQ brine and rub to make BBQ pork).

The guests said it was the best pork they ever ate... I do not know if it was the best, but it was very good and moist.




Dharma Macaroni and Cheese Supper

I just made up this recipe, and I had utter chaos while doing it. The worst was when I accidentally dumped the macaroni noodles in the cream mixture instead of the boiling water, and I had to fish it all out with a slotted spoon. As I was fishing my onions burned and I lost a lot of the cream mixture to the sink.


Ingredients
8 oz - 16 oz of elbow macaroni noodles
12 oz of sharp cheddar cheese (I used 1/2 extra sharp white cheddar and 1/2 sharp yellow cheddar)
Sprinkle Cayenne Pepper
1 T mustard powder (I used dijon mustard because I had no powder)
Sprinkle garlic powder
Sprinkle onion powder
Pepper
Salt
3 c milk
3 T flour
3 T butter
1/2 onion
Bay leaf
bread crumbs

Directions

Start cooking noodles

Melt butter on medium heat
Add flour and cook for a few minutes
Add mustard (if it is not the powder it will clump fast, so stir it really fast and then add the milk quickly)
Add Milk (stir the whole time
Add everything but the cheese and noodles
Cook for about 10 minutes (quick boil and then simmer)
Keep stirring

Remove bay leaf
Either remove from heat or turn to low and slowly add most of the cheese.
Add the noodles

Pour into 8 x 8 pan. Top with rest of cheese and put thin layer of bread crumbs.
Cook for about 30 minutes at 350 F degrees.

Lost Diorama Cake

Ingredients
2 3.4 oz vanilla pudding
1 8 oz cream cheese
1 tub cool whip
1 package of vanilla oreos
1 package of chocolate oreos
1 cup powdered sugar
1 box blue jello
2 T butter
3 1/3 cups milk

Directions

Grind vanilla oreos in blender (set in bowl)
Grind chocolate oreos in blender (set in different bowl)

Blend cream cheese, butter, and sugar
Mix pudding and milk, whisk for 2 minutes
Mix pudding into cream cheese mixture
Fold in cool whip

Make a foil divider to help keep the ocean and sand separate. I have the foil on the bottom of the beach and then it bends up to make the barrier.

Layer 1/2 chocolate oreos and then 1/2 cream in a 9 X 13 pan. Then repeat.
Top with vanilla oreos (for beach).

Make jello according to box in a bowl.
Important, do not pour into cake until after it sets for 4 hours in the bowl. I tried pouring first this time so I could have a smooth ocean, and I thought my barrier would hold. It did not, and I had to yank the cream cake out of the pan as ocean started seeping through... talk about beach erosion. While yanking my cake I got cream and jello ALL OVER the kitchen. I also almost ruined the cake!

Keep cake and jello in fridge, until jello is ready. Stir the jello to make it easier to put in cake, and then spoon it into the side of the cake pan.

Then decorate as you wish.

I thought this picture was fitting... the only thing left on the cake as I put everything away after the episode was the burnt plane on the beach.

Smoke Monster Swimming in the Ocean

Ingredients
Spiced rum
Coconut rum
Blue Curacao
Orange Juice
Pineapple Juice
Sprite
Dry Ice

Directions

I got this from Stephie, so you can get the proportions from her, but for extra fun you need to add dry ice. This was our best way to represent the smoke monster. It is pretty spooky drinking a beverage that is smoking. When it melts it leaves a slushie at the bottom of the glass.

Decorations

I know you can't eat most of these decorations, but for me the biggest part of a themed party is the decor! So I couldn't end my post without showing you some of the decorations!

This is a view of the dharma food, our posters of Lost characters, some tropical flowers, and a plane.


Check out the scale to weigh good and evil! Our scale held tastier treats than the one on lost!

Drinking out coconuts!

We even had a lego village! If you look closely you will see the hatch, temple, black rock, a polar bear in a cage, the raft, swans, and much more!

Bonus points if you find the ping pong paddle played in Season 1, the Virgin Mary statue full of heroin, the lei all guests wore, dharma peanut butter, beer, and soda, and the swans all seen in pictures posted earlier!