You thought a geek like me would let “Psych” end without having a little shindig?
Come on, son.
So after eight mostly hilarious years, our fake psychic is leaving Vancouver Santa Barbara. I’m thankful for the many laugh-out-loud moments Shawn and Gus have given me, as well as the opportunity they provided to get Ally Sheedy, Ralph Macchio, Kristy Swanson and other 80s greats back on our screens for a bit.
Baking for “Psych” was just too easy given how much time they dedicate to food on the show. The hardest part was narrowing down what to make. Some things I considered but didn’t do:
- Lassie’s Pecan Tassies
- Gus’ Gut Busters (I don’t even know what these would be, but they sound cool. Maybe really big sandwiches. With potato chips in them. And Red Vines.)
- Pineapple soda and straws with which to suck it
- Juliet’s Jellybeans
- Jamaican Inspector Man Jerk Chicken
- Have You Heard About Pluto? Pie
- Cinnamon Pie
- Buzz Bites (maybe brownies made with coffee to make them extra caffinated)
- Henry’s Hawaiian Shirt Shakes (vanilla ice cream, crushed pineapple, etc.)
- Tears for Fears Fries
The list could go on and on.
I stuck to just a few things that were simple to make or buy, and then I yelled at myself for selling the “Psych” pineapple foam finger I got at Comic Con 2009 and sold on eBay. How could I not foresee needing it many years later? At least I still have the t-shirt.
Get your party started with a trip to the grocery store for these psychedelic snacks:
- Snyder’s of Hanover’s Butter Snaps, in honor of one of Gus’ best aliases, Ghee Buttersnaps
- Something purple, in honor of another great Gus alias, Lavender Gooms (You could base an entire party just on these aliases. Get the full list on the “Psych” wiki.)
- Pineapple (obv.)
- Four types of cheese and two bags of Fritos for the poor man’s version of Quatro Queso Dos Fritos. There are recipes out there to make the real thing, but deep frying in the office isn’t really encouraged. If you’re doing this at home, go for it. They look delicious.
Now make some stuff!
I made not just blueberry muffins, but The Blueberry muffins, because that car is just as much of a character as anyone else on the show. R.I.P. old friend. I used a Jiffy mix for them because they’re cheap, super quick to mix up, and they only make six muffins, which was plenty with all the other stuff I had for the table.
Next I made Pineapple Coconut Bread. It came out so sweet that it seemed a little evil. Or “sweevil”. You know that’s right.
Just like me, this recipe came from 1977. I found it in a cookbook of Recipes from Solano County, and it’s held up just as well as I have.
Pineapple Coconut Bread
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 egg
1 cup sugar
8 oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
1 tbsp. pineapple juice
1 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts, but a co-worker suggested using macadamia nuts. This intrigues me.)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
Preheat oven on 350. Beat egg and sugar together. Beat in sour cream, pineapple and juice. Add in the dry ingredients (the original recipe doesn’t call for any spices, but I think a dash of cinnamon would add a nice touch) and beat until well mixed. Stir in nuts and coconut.
Grease a 9″ loaf pan. (The original recipe doesn’t say to flour it, so I didn’t. But next time I’ll sugar the pan – just like flouring it, but with sugar – to give it a sweet crust. This works really well on my banana bread so I think it would be great on this.)
Bake 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let stand five minutes and then turn out on a rack to cool.
If bread sounds too dull for you, try the Pineapple Coconut Pie I made last week for Pi Day. It was incredibly easy and extremely tasty.
And then there just had to be American Duo cookies. When it comes to food I don’t think there’s an American duo that goes more perfectly together than peanut butter and chocolate, so I made two different cookie doughs, one peanut butter with chocolate chips and one chocolate with peanut butter chips, and then I smooshed them together in a happy partnership of flavor and fun.
You can call them Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies or Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. I’ve heard it both ways.
If you have two other favorite cookie recipes, make them and smoosh away. I’d just recommend you choose recipes that have the same cooking temperatures and time.
For the chocolate cookie dough I used Hershey’s recipe for “Perfectly Chocolate” Chocolate Chip Cookies, but instead of dark chocolate chips I used peanut butter chips. I also left out the nuts because I already had so much going on with these cookies.
For the peanut butter cookies I used Hershey’s recipe for Reese’s Double Peanut Butter Cookies and DOUBLED it so that I would have the same amount as I did of the chocolate cookie dough. I also replaced the peanut butter chips with semi-sweet chocolate chips, which I guess no longer makes them “Double”, but still makes them tasty.
Really don’t want to have to mix cookie dough? Buy two different kinds of the pre-made stuff and smoosh ’em together. It’s not quite the same as made-from-scratch, but I doubt your co-workers will know the difference.
If you’re going to make some signs and want that authentic “Psych” look, download the Dateline font. I found it listed on a fan forum by people who are far more into typography than I am. Thanks, Psychos!
Are you a fan of delicious flavor?
Lisa
