My Proudest Birthday Gift as a Daughter to Her Mother

Hello! This is the first installment of a series that I am calling my Diary where I discuss something interesting that happened in my personal life.

This past weekend was my mom's birthday, and she can be hard to buy for. She never wants anything, and I often find myself with her when she picks something she wants and I purchase it on the spot and save it for her gifts. She does, however, prefer experiences instead of physical gifts.

Every holiday, I try to spice it up. Last Christmas, one of my gifts was that I would take her to Fork N' Film.

This is an immersive dining experience where you go watch a movie, and while you are watching, meals relating to each scene are brought to you. The most popular option that I've seen is Rataouille. For example, during the scene in the movie where they serve the food critic rataouille, you would also receive rataouille to eat.

Ultimately, my mom refused to let me take her there because she thought it was too expensive.

I personally still wanted to gift her this, but left it in the back of my mind as an option, just in case tickets lowered in price or if we found a deal.

Then, a couple weeks before her birthday, the light bulb in my head went off. What if I did my own version of Fork N Film at home?

Her favorite movie of all time is Monster's Inc, so it was a no brainer.

Here's how I did it.

The Drink

As someone who does not like alcohol, I made her a mocktail. I bought a bottle of Sprite along with a small bottle of Crystal Light berry flavoring. I poured the cold Sprite into a glass over ice, eyeballed the amount of Crystal Light (while taste testing) and topped it with blueberries. The goal was to make it blue for Sulley, because the next appetizer was Mike focused. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of the final product.

The Appetizer

Using guacamole, sour cream, and a dot of balsamic glaze, I was able to recreate Mike's iconic simple look. Two small broken pieces of tortilla chip were used for the horns. Trader Joe's carries blue tortilla chips that were perfectly themed for Sulley and tasted nice and fresh with the guacamole.

I served this at the start of the movie, when we are introduced to Mike & Sulley.

The Fruit Side

Only around 8 minutes in, Mike & Sulley walk to work and pass a market called Tony's Grossery. The scene is quick, but the merchant there tosses the duo some fruit.

I served her a bowl of blood oranges, as they are mentioned visually in the scene.

The Main Course

The scene at Harryhausen's was an obvious choice for a themed main course, as there as enough time to finish the appetizer and the scene takes place in a restaurant.

The problem was, my mom doesn't like sushi and that's what the restaurant specialized in. Luckily, my brother found out that she likes Trader Joe's frozen kimbap, so I warmed that up for her in the microwave and called it a day!

The Optional Side

After the scene at Harryhausen's was over, Mike & Sulley take Boo to their apartment where they feed her a circular cereal resembling Froot Loops. I bought a small contianer and laid them out on a board similar to how Sulley lays them out on the floor to lure Boo into his room.

She was too full to eat these, but enjoyed them for breakfast the following morning!

The Dessert Part 1

There was a good chunk of time in between the previous course and the next important scene, which was a good break for digestion.

But of course, when they meet the abominable snowman and he offers them lemon snow cones, I had to serve something similar.

My local Von's had Italian Ice cups from a brand called Lindy's, which were perfect. My problem here was that I did not take them out early enough to thaw, so she had to wait a bit before she could eat it.

Dessert Part Two

Her favorite character of all time is Boo and her favorite scene of all time is the ending. Boo and Sulley have a tearful goodbye. Then, later, Mike rebuilds her door and he gets to see her again.

I should've stopped at the snow cones, but I felt that I had to do something Boo themed for her. And, although I am not proud of how they turned out, and never claimed to be a good artist, I attempted to ice Boo's door onto Milano cookies.

I did not purchase the right supplies for this and the flowers became impossible to draw on the door. But, something about my mom is that she doesn't need it to be perfect because she loves the effort that was put in.

Ending Thoughts

The biggest challenge of this was timing everything with the movie, especially since I didn't prepare by watching the movie in advance first. The food needs to be ready to serve when the scene appears, so having the Kimbap warmed up in the microwave (from the freezer) or the italian ice perfectly thawed in time was difficult using my prior (but fuzzy) knowledge of the events of the movie.

However, I am very proud of how it went. Knowing her likes and dislikes, I was able to provide a personalized Fork N Film experience that I could argue might be better than the actual thing. She got to watch her favorite movie, be in the comfort of her own home, eat some food prepared for her, and her favorite-- not pick a meal.

I love her so much and all I want is to be able to express that in the best and most creative ways that I can.

I hope you can take some inspiration from this if you're ever struggling to come up with a gift idea for a loved one. You don't need to be a good chef-- I didn't even turn on the stove. As long as the effort and the knowledge of the person is worked into the gift, it's sure to be a hit.

Thank you for your time!