Tag Archives: Food

Saint Patrick’s Disney Side!

With Saint Patrick’s Day right around the corner, and my need to create new things, I began scouring my brain for some way to incorporate our Disney side with some festive yumminess! I thought back to our fun late night dinner at Raglan Road in Downtown Disney and its strong Irish roots during our first trip to Disney World together. Raglan Road is known for its famous Ger’s Bread and Butter Pudding which I decided I was going to tackle! I’ve included my adapted recipe below for you to try at home!

The beginnings of the delicious, slurp by the spoonful, vanilla cream anglaise!

Remember that whole bread and BUTTER thing? Yeah…here’s the sugar/butter spread in the making.

Thick sliced Texas Toast bread which I kept the crusts on for extra texture and caramelized crunchy edges!

Sugar butter “sandwich” triangles are the yummy base for this deadly dessert.

Cut your triangles to best fit whatever shaped pan you choose. I also soaked the raisins in warm water and imitation rum flavoring just for fun!

Finished bubbly goodness! Caramel sauce cooling in the background.

Caramel sauce and rich vanilla cream anglaise take this dessert over the edge into fancyland awesome.

Finished product. Moment of silence please………yum. Every. Part. Is. Perfect.

For dinner I prepared a simple fresh pesto over green pasta! Even though we’re Irish, doing the whole traditional Irish cuisine didn’t feel right so we went this route. I threw in some veggies and some smoked turkey sausage and served with a big green salad for good measure!

The beginnings of the yummy pesto sauce! So simple: basil, garlic, pine nuts, and parmesan cheese blended in a food processor.

So fresh, so delicious, so green.

Green spaghetti!

A lovely dinner full of green! Don’t kiss me, I’m Irish but I smell like garlic.

What are you having for Saint Patrick’s Day dinner? Share your recipes below! And try my version of Ger’s Bread and Butter Pudding for dessert and let me know how you like it!

Ger’s Bread and Butter Pudding (adapted from All Ears’ recipe from Raglan Road)

Vanilla Cream Anglaise:

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream

Method of Preparation: 
1. Heat up the cream and the vanilla on the stove until it almost starts to boil. Meanwhile combine the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk well.
2. When the cream reaches the almost boiling point, turn off and remove the pot from the burner. Temper the yolks, by ladling a small amount (about 1/4 cup) of cream to the bowl and mixing well. Then add the yolk sugar mixure to the cream, whisk well so that it does not curdle. Place over low heat for 2 minutes whisking until it starts to thicken. Strain and allow to cool at room temperature. (Post edit: I didn’t strain and the world didn’t end and the sauce was delicious. Sometimes I don’t follow the rules. There, I said it.)

The “Bread and Butter” part:

Ingredients:
1/2 loaf Texas toast (about six slices)
1/2 pound butter softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Crème anglaise (see below) for dipping
1/2 cup raisins soaked in water (and a dribble of imitation rum flavoring, optional)

Method of Preparation: 
1. Combine the sugar and butter, spread evenly on the bread slices to make sandwiches, stack together and cut off the crust. (post edit: again, I’m a rule breaker. I left on the crust and I’m glad I did! I also used the remainder of the butter mixture to butter the outsides of the bread too.)
2. Cut the “sandwiches” in ½ on an angle (from corner to corner)
3. Butter the inside of 8 oven proof cups or preferred baking dish (I used a 9×9 square pan). One by one dip the “sandwiches” in the anglaise and place in the baking dish, layer the bread and a sprinkling of soaked raisins as you go until done. (post edit: there was only one layer for me since I put them all in the square pan so I just put the raisins on top. Also pour more anglaise on top! Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan and fill in the holes-trust me on this.)
4. Bake covered at 375 degrees for 35 minutes until it rises a bit. Remove the cover and bake an extra 10 minutes until slightly brown. (post edit: this was the exact perfect amount of time.)
5. Carefully remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature with anglaise and caramel sauce (see below).

Caramel Sauce:

Ingredients: 
1 stick butter, chilled
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream

Method of Preparation: 
Combine the sugar and butter in pot and cook over a medium heat. Whisk well to combine. When sugar is melted and it starts to boil, turn off the stove, remove from heat, and whisk in the cream to combine. Allow to cool to room temperature.

Disney Bride Kristin’s Bridal Shower!

I am thrilled to feature one of my Disney Bride friends’ bridal shower! Kristin’s shower was so fun with subtle Disney nuances mixed with some of her favorite things!

Photo credit: By The Robinsons

Kristin headed to lunch at her favorite cozy Italian restaurant, Stefano’s Trattoria in Orlando one unsuspecting day where she was completely surprised to see 30 of her friends and family! She was the guest of honor for her surprise bridal shower!

Kristin’s mom and Maid of Honor had fluffed up the already beautiful restaurant to make it extra special and fit for a Princess. On the tables, they placed at each place setting cake in Mason jars and a Mickey glass filled with candy and specialty lip balms on a paddle from Epcot’s Canada pavilion (by “specialty” I mean “flavors” like Beaver Butt, Moose Spit, and Bear Breath!)!

For lunch, guests were given the option of eggplant parmesan, chicken marsala, or tortellini with port wine, espresso, cappuccinos, and sodas.

Kristin with Stefano himself!

A Disney themed game entertained guests between munches and sips where they matched Disney love songs with their respective movies!

Kristin’s Disney wedding is quickly approaching where she will marry her Fiancé, Geoff. Very much looking forward to seeing their wedding come to life!

Photo credit: By the Robinsons

An Oscar Night Dinner!

 

In preparing for watching the Academy Awards tonight I decided to give a little nod and use the Oscars as inspiration for our dinner! I found a healthy version of Oscar Burgers which I improvised slightly and ended our meal with a quick version of “Red Carpet” Cupcakes!

Lemon zest, minced garlic, diced red pepper for burgers.

Pork burger patties.

Chopped fresh dill, lemon, and plain greek yogurt.

Delicious sauce base.

Steaming burgers!

Roasted asparagus.

Finished Oscar Burger! Topped with roasted asparagus and crab meat.

Served with baked shoestring sweet potato fries.

I made the second part of dinner just as fabulous looking but a little easier on myself by using pre-prepared items! Betty Crocker usually gets it right anyway right? I trust her. I was super happy to find the absolutely perfect Oscar-worthy gold sparkly accessories for these Red Carpet gems!

Red velvet cake mix, whipped cream cheese frosting, glitter gold sparkles, and gold cups.

It’s a lovely shade of red!

Beautiful cupcakes.

Starring roles.

And the award goes to…

Surprise Be Our Guest Dinner!

Stepping into New Fantasyland in Disney’s Magic Kingdom, you might notice a second castle and wonder to yourself, “Hmmm, I wonder who THAT castle belongs to?” Well, wonder no longer! This is the Beast’s (or Prince Adam’s) castle from the beloved tale, Beauty and the Beast!

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Be Our Guest Restaurant, located “inside” the Beast’s castle, has created quite a stir long before Fantasyland was ever open. There are a couple reasons for this. First, because of the drop-dead gorgeous ballroom in which you dine (that looks identical to that in the famous film) and also because this restaurant serves alcohol! This is the first time in Magic Kingdom history that alcohol is available inside this park!

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This newly coveted dining spot has a counter service option for lunch and then is full-blown table service dining for dinner. At the time of our visit, Be Our Guest had been booked solid for its official open in December and had been for months. I was excited to see it but had succumbed to the belief that it was impossible to get in.

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If you recall from a previous post, Mark somehow snagged last minute reservations for us during our “day of a million surprises!”

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After checking in, Mark received a buzzer and was asked to wait on the bridge leading up to the Beast’s castle. While we waited, I took a few (not good) photos of our surroundings.

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Once our names were called, our host was very kind and showed us all the interesting rooms on our way to the dining room. I REALLY wished I had brought my camera but I didn’t know this was going to happen, so I was stuck documenting this experience with my iPhone.

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We ordered a couple drinks since we could for the first time EVER in Magic Kingdom! There was surprisingly a decent wine list. The menu looked excellent – a slightly French influence but definitely for the American palette.

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All entrees come with salad which was very good.

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Mark’s steak was perfectly cooked and what it lacked in presentation it made up for in flavor. This is an excellent choice for a red meat lover.

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I chose the Cornish Hen which I love mostly because I like that it’s my own tiny chicken! This was also wonderfully prepared and fell off the bone!

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We couldn’t pass up dessert! Of the mobile display case of goodies we chose two little works of art called “cupcakes.” Specifically, the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake and the Triple Chocolate Cupcake. These were so lovely it was hard to un-wrap them to eat them! For someone who loves cupcakes, either of these would be a wonderful choice as they are on the small side which was fine with us since we barely had room left after dinner! They were both a little too sweet for me but perhaps I should have ordered the Lemon Meringue Cupcake instead – next time!

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We were free to peruse the place after dinner so we stopped in the other dining rooms. Seriously this place is just breathtaking. SO perfectly themed!

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We only had two complaints. Our server wasn’t the best and was not very attentive. This was harder to see because the table next to us had an excellent server who explained everything on the menu and made suggestions; ours was just there to take the order and leave. Granted, this was basically a dress rehearsal, but still, I expected more.

Also, the seating in the main dining room (what would be the ballroom in the original Beauty and the Beast movie) is very tight and you’re sitting very close to your neighbor. The seating is also arranged in such a way that lucky guests on one side of the table have a view of the huge, glorious bank of windows with “snow” falling outside and the unlucky guests on the other side have a view of a wall (to be fair, it is a pretty wall) or other diners. If you’ve seen they’ve made adjustments to this since, please let us know.

Overall our surprise New Fantasyland introduction was an extraordinary one! We are so excited to go back in June!

Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri Sauce and Boniato Purée – Food and Wine Must Tries

Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri Sauce and Boniato Purée $5.00

Last but not least, we will get our happy little tummies over to the Argentina booth to try this lovely beef skewer (because again, who doesn’t like food on a stick?)! I wondered with Boniato Purée is, so I looked it up and found it’s a sweet potato with a white dry flesh with little sweetness that is usually grown in subtropical regions. Hmmm interesting. And chimichurri sauce just sounds good and a little research taught me that it is native to Argentinean food-perfect!

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Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies – Food and Wine Must Tries

Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies – $5.75

The Australia booth apparently likes its food on a stick and the lamb chop has a built-in stick/handle which just makes it fun! This meat on a stick is reportedly melt-in-your-mouth tender, the mint pesto made fresh daily and is topped with homemade salt and vinegar potato chip crunchies. Sounds delish!

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Maybe we stop next door too at the Caribbean booth for the wonderful-sounding Bacardi® Frozen Dragon Berry Colada ($7.75)!

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