Merida’s love of archery is something that my dragons relate to, and definitely keeps their interest when watching the movie. We decided for our craft, we would tie it in with the quivers we made when we did our Robin Hood Disney Day.
The first thing we did was decorate the wooden dowels. The dragons and Princess wanted their arrows to be personalized, and who can blame them? This lengthens the life of the craft, too, if you don’t want it to be super short!
After painting the dowels, I used my cricket to cut felt into the shapes foe the arrowheads and feathers. they picked favorite colors for each, and then we used hot glue to attach them to the dowels.
Another way to do it, is cut them just on normal paper and decorate those as well. Then you can use normal glue or a stapler to attach them to the end of the dowels!
My oldest dragon decorated his with a space theme and his name. I might have taken over decorating the princess’.
Don’t forget to check out our Bridies recipe we made for our Brave day, too!
Happy New Year, everyone! I have to admit, I’m so happy it’s 2022. I’m not entirely sure why, but it just feels like a wonderful fresh start.
We are starting the new year with a highly underrated film (in my humble opinion): Brave. Not only do I love Merida, but her mom, Eleanor, is one of my favorite Disney moms, ever.
For this film, I wanted to make a meat pie. So I did some research, and found that Bridies is a traditional Scottish dish and it’s exactly what I was looking for! Think shepherd’s pie with a good crust and no potatoes.
I tried this with two different crusts and can’t decide which one I like best (my family was torn as well). So, I’ll give you both options!
Scottish Bridie
Ingredients:
– Two frozen pie crusts OR two rolls of Pillsbury crescents
– 1 TBSP olive or vegetable oil
– 1 lb ground lamb (or beef or Turkey)
– 1/3 C chopped onion
– 2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
– 1 tsp dried thyme
– 1/2 tsp nutmeg
– 1/3 C rolled oats
– 1/2 C – 1 C beef stock or gravy *I used water + “better than beef bouillon”*
– salt and pepper
– 1 egg *optional*
Directions:
– Heat your oven to 400°F.
– Pour your oil into a large skillet over medium heat. Add the meat and onion and cook, moving to break up the meat. Cook until the onion is translucent and the meat is completely cooked through.
– Add the Worcestershire sauce, thyme, nutmeg, oats, and beef stock. Cook for an additional three minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
The oats work as a sort of roux, thickening the gravy and filling. Makes it much more filling!
– Spray a pie dish. If using crescents, roll out each roll so it is one giant sheet of dough. Place one of these into your pie dish. This will work much nicer than my Tetris version:
If using pie crust, place in traditionally.
– Put your filling into your crust. If using traditional pie crust, pinch the sides using a fork and trim extra dough. Cut slits into the top to vent. Brush the top with egg.
If using crescents, use your other rolled out roll as the top. I did not vent it with these, as my Tetris version wasn’t completely sealed.
– Bake for 30-40 minutes. Check to see that your crust, regardless of kind, is looking nice and golden.
Serve warm. This is positively delicious, and even my picky kids who oddly do not like pie crust or crescents, ate this dish!
For a more traditional way of serving, consider making individual pies!
Robin Hood has been a favorite since I was little. The love story with Maid Marian, the best friend Little John, the hilarious Sir Hiss and Prince John… it goes on. As fall approached, Robin Hood seemed the perfect choice for a Disney day.
We started our Disney day by putting together Little John’s Stew. Since this takes some TLC and some time, it was the best way to start.
This stew is one of my favorite things to make. I grew up with a different type of beef stew, and I have to admit that as I get older I prefer the rich gravy of the one we now make so often.
One thing I had to make sure of, is that we had Pringle’s cans ready to go. Pringle’s are not something we buy regularly, so the dragons enjoyed having those as a snack the week leading up to our Robin Hood day.
These quivers were a lot of fun, and we might be doing another movie with a fantastic archer to make some arrows for them…
But before we do that, tell me: what are you doing for Halloween?
diydisneydays.com 