Family Night Made Easy (and V Fun) with Amazon + Alexa
This post was sponsored by Amazon Devices & Services
There’s nothing I love more than spending time with my family, especially my nephews. Making memories with these special little guys is something I absolutely cherish. Living across the country from the people you love most means that when are together, we make the most of our time. Alexa is my secret weapon when it comes to making the most of the present, streamlining any plan and being efficient with time.
This holiday season, Amazon Devices took our family time to the next level with these fun activities:
WOULD YOU RATHER…?
Anyone else love the game, “would you rather…” or is it just me?! We’ve played it with family members of every age — the youngest at 6 to the oldest at 65 — and had an absolute blast, as well as way too many laughs.
My Echo Show took our “Would you rather” game to the next level with the Either Or Alexa Skill. Once you enable it, all you’ll need to do is ask Alexa, “Alexa play Would You Rather” and you’re on your way to hours of family fun.
TRUE OR FALSE?
True or False? is exactly what it sounds like. It's a trivia game, which you can play with up to 20 people, wherein you are asked questions about the world. Answer with either true or false and see how much you really know about the world we live in.
HEADS UP!
Heads Up! is the wildly popular game played on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. It’s also one of my most favorite games of all time. Alexa will deal you a "card" and give you clues to help you try to guess the correct word. Try to guess before the time runs out. You can play this game by yourself or with a group of friends.
Heads Up! comes with three free decks to choose from, but you can purchase additional decks from within the skill.
FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT
The number of times I watch Home Alone 1 + 2 during the holiday season is far too high to count. If you don’t enjoy watching the same movie 992 times a year, never fear because the Amazon TV Fire Stick with Alexa Voice Remote has got you covered with access to thousands of shows and movies. Plus it’s so easy with Alexa, I just say, “Alexa, play Home Alone” with my Alexa Voice Remote to start watching.”
But, wait, there’s more! Make movie night a whole lot more delicious by making movie night recipes using the Echo Show. Just say, “Alexa, show me popcorn recipes.” Or get cooking with your favorite Food Network stars, award-winning chefs and cookbook authors — all from the comfort of your own kitchen with the Food Network Kitchen subscription! Try "Alexa, open Food Network Kitchen" to stream full episodes of Food Network cooking shows. Or, try "Alexa, show cooking classes" to choose from live and on-demand classes taught by your favorite chefs.
Save any recipe you see to try later — simply say, "Alexa, save recipe" while watching a Food Network Kitchen show. Then get the ingredients sent to your door when it’s time to cook by adding your ingredients your grocery list. By enabling the Food Network Kitchen skill on Echo Show, you'll be able to access your saved recipes and sync up your progress in classes and shows.
Here are the fun movie night recipes my nephews and I made together with the Echo Show and the Food Network kitchen App for Echo Show 5 (Pro Tip: All ingredients were ordered by asking Alexa on the Echo Show 5 and delivered via Amazon Prime NOW. What in the world did I ever do without Alexa!?):
PEANUT BUTTER CHOCO POPCORN
Prep Time: 1 minute
Cook Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 4 minutes
Servings: 6
INGREDIENTS
64 mini marshmallows or 8 big ones
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 bag low fat popcorn
INSTRUCTIONS
Pop popcorn and place in a bowl.
Combine the other ingredients and melt in the microwave. Make sure to stir every 20-30 seconds so everything melts and combines smoothly.
Pour over popcorn and gain 5 lbs. Oh, I mean enjoy!
BIRTHDAY CAKE POPCORN RECIPE
Happy Birthday to you, me and everyone else because this Birthday Cake Popcorn, popcorn coated in white chocolate, cake batter and sprinkles, is something worth celebrating!
INGREDIENTS
6 cups freshly popped popcorn
1½ cups white chocolate chips
1 cup cake batter mix (yellow or white)
¼ cup rainbow sprinkles
DIRECTIONS
1) Place popped popcorn in a large bowl, removing all unpopped kernels.
2) Place the white chocolate chips in a medium, microwave-safe bowl. Melt chips in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring every 30 seconds, until fully melted. Add cake batter mix and mix until well-incorporated (note: mixture will be thick). Pour over popcorn, add sprinkles and mix until evenly coated. Spread onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper and allow to harden for 20 minutes before serving.
Yield: 6 cups popcorn
CHILI DARK CHOCOLATE POPCORN
INGREDIENTS
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil (I prefer to use coconut oil or olive oil)
1⁄2 cup popping corn
2 to 4 tablespoons butter or olive oil, optional
2 tablespoons chopped dark chocolate
1/2 teaspoon mild chili powder, to taste
Salt, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Put the vegetable oil in a large, deep pan with a lid. Turn the heat up to medium, add 2 kernels of corn, and cover.
Once the kernels pop, remove the lid and pour in the remaining popcorn kernels. Cover and shake the pot, holding the lid on. At this point, I like to remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for a minute before continuing.
Cook over medium heat, shaking the pot occasionally, until the popping sound stops after about 5 minutes. Based on the sound, take the pot off the heat around the same time that you would take a bag of popcorn out of the microwave. Meanwhile, if you’re using it, melt the butter or gently warm the olive oil.
Quickly pour the popcorn into a large bowl; sprinkle with chopped chocolate immediately. Sprinkle with chili powder and salt, then toss the popcorn. Season with more salt, to taste. Serve immediately.
SESAME SRIRACHA HONEY POPCORN
Prep Time: 5 minutes (excluding popcorn preparation)
Cook Time: 5 minute
Total Time: 10 minutes
ingredients
Popcorn
3 tablespoons butter
1 heaping tablespoon Sriacha
1.5 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Salt, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Set popcorn aside in a large bowl
2. Melt butter in a saucepan on medium heat
3. Stir Sriracha and honey into butter until well combined. Take off the heat.
4. Slowly pour half of your mixture over popcorn and toss to coat. Do the same with the remainder.
5. Sprinkle sesame seeds over popcorn, and toss again. Salt to taste, and serve right away!
Reindeer brownies
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for greasing the pans
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour (see Cook's Note)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon fine salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 cups regular semisweet chocolate chips (about 12 ounces)
16 small chocolate-flavored candy chews, such as Tootsie Rolls
16 red or brown candy-coated chocolates, such as M&M's
16 mini vanilla wafer cookies
16 mini marshmallows
32 mini semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 teaspoon)
32 mini peppermint candy canes (about 2 1/2 inches long)
INSTRUCTIONS
Special Equipment: two 8-inch round cake pans
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of two 8-inch round cake pans. Cut two 8-inch circles out of parchment paper and line the bottoms of the cake pans with the parchment.
Stir together the butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir in 1 cup of the regular chocolate chips and divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing the tops. Bake until a crust begins to form around the edges, the edges pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, halve the candy chews lengthwise. Use your fingers to shape each half into a teardrop shape for the reindeer's ears and set aside. Melt 2 tablespoons of the remaining regular chocolate chips in a heat-proof bowl in a microwave in 20 second intervals.
Use a dab of the melted chocolate to stick a red candy-coated chocolate onto each of the vanilla wafers to make noses and set aside.
Cut each mini marshmallow in half crosswise. Insert one mini chocolate chip, pointed-side down, into the flat, cut side of each marshmallow piece to make eyes and set aside.
As soon as the brownies come out of the oven, sprinkle the top of each brownie round evenly with half of the remaining regular chocolate chips (7 tablespoons each) and let stand until the chips melt, about 5 minutes. Spread the chocolate evenly over the top of the brownies with a spatula.
Let the brownies cool fully in the pans on cooling racks, about 1 hour. Cut each circle into 8 equal triangles with a knife. Use a small offset spatula or pie server to lift each triangle out of the pan.
To assemble: Arrange the brownies so that the longest, sharpest point faces you and gently press a cookie-nose on that point of each brownie. To make antlers: Using the tip of a paring knife or a skewer, poke two small holes in the top side of each brownie, about 1/2 inch from the corners, and insert a mini candy cane in each hole.
For the ears, press a piece of candy chew on each corner below the candy cane antlers
Press 2 of the mini marshmallow eyes next to each other in the center of each brownie.
Cook’s Note
When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off the excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods.)
