denise

I was inspired by Kristine Fraser and decided I would also try making Disney World foods at home. Which is awesome because Disney foods but even more awesome because I rarely cook anymore…(I’m skipping the Dole Whip from her list, because that’s not an official recipe, I don’t care what anyone says. Dole Whip is vegan and that recipe isn’t vegan. Also, we have the official Dole Pineapple Frozen Yogurt mix which DOES make more realistic Dole Whip anyway.)

Next on the list, TW’s favorite cocktail (she says favorite, I say second favorite. I’m right but haven’t figured out how to make her real favorite at home, yet… I’ll get to it) and a macaroni & cheese dish from France in Epcot that we’ve never actually eaten.

Because we’ve never actually eaten at Chef’s de France and I haven’t really heard AJ from Disney Food Blog talk a lot about the macaroni & cheese there, I assumed that the photo of the mac & cheese on Kristine’s FB page was either the Jiko mac & cheese or the noodle gratin thing that AJ sometimes talks about that’s in Germany. I guess I should actually read the descriptions of these things before I decide I’m going to make them? Or maybe not since this sucker was GOOD and I think we’d all eat Gratin de Macaroni again.

You can see the photos of the original and Kristine’s, along with the recipe, here. And, these are my photos.

Kristine used Swiss, I used an 8 oz block of Gruyere that I picked up at the Jacksonville NAS commissary. Because I didn’t actually read the directions, I had a brief moment of panic that 8 oz would not be enough and was frantically digging around in the fridge for some swiss to supplement it with. Turns out, I actually had more than the 1 1/2 cups the recipe calls for. If I deviated from the recipe at all, it is just using the entire 8 oz block rather than carefully measuring out a cup and a half. And then I had another brief moment of panic when I took the foil off of the top and it was really oily looking. I thought for sure I’d used too much cheese and it was going to taste BAD. They key here, I think, is to let it sit for the 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven. It was hard to wait, but I did, and the oily sheen disappeared.

If/when I make this again, I’ll add 2 pinches of Kosher salt rather than one. That was the only complaint anyone had – it needed a wee bit more salt.

It was really, really rich and really, really good. TW had seconds AND she ate it for lunch the next day and then for breakfast today. I did not get seconds nor did I get to have any of the leftovers. TW RARELY eats leftovers. Not even of mac & cheese (which she will swear she eats leftovers of.) WINNER!

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Now for the Tempting Tigress cocktail, found at Nomad Lounge. Nomad Lounge is one of our favorite Disney World places. It’s also a place where TW has been known to sob out of happiness (really) and get just a littttttle bit tipsy. Neither are things she does on a regular basis.

Here’s the basic recipe. Our little liquor store does not carry the St Elizabeth’s (shocking, I know) so TW found a recipe for the Allspice Dram here. I tracked down whole Allspice and I ordered Tamarind Syrup and the demerara sugar from Amazon (mostly because I was afraid Walmart wouldn’t really have Sugar in the Raw and I had no idea whether the commissary would have it. Rather than taking a chance, I just ordered and made my life easier.)

I made the dram… super easy, if kind of weird. I used the Nellie & Joe’s Key Lime Juice that was leftover from one of those other Disney recipes I made last month. I thought for sure we’d have a lemon handy so I didn’t even think twice and… our lemons were pretty much dead so errr, that was a bit of a fail. But I don’t think TW or her mom cared.

TW has mightily enjoyed her Tempting Tigresses and I’m sure plans to continue enjoying them until the bottle of Russell’s is empty and/or I buy another bottle and make her another batch of Allspice Dram.

Another winner under my belt!

I was inspired by Kristine Fraser and decided I would also try making Disney World foods at home. Which is awesome because Disney foods but even more awesome because I rarely cook anymore…(I’m skipping the Dole Whip from her list, because that’s not an official recipe, I don’t care what anyone says. Dole Whip is vegan and that recipe isn’t vegan. Also, we have the official Dole Pineapple Frozen Yogurt mix which DOES make more realistic Dole Whip anyway.)

It’s funny. I thought making the O’hana noodles would be pretty easy and the recipe most likely to succeed. Let me just say right now that I was wrong. Very wrong.

First, I had to halve the recipe because I was much lower on rice vinegar than I realized – which is FINE because there’s no way we needed that many noodles around here. Sheesh. Next, I should have used about twice as many vegetables as halving the recipe called for. Last but not least, I should have used a LOT less brown sugar. Those noodles were sweet. Like dessert noodles, if dessert noodles were a thing. Last, but not least, I would probably not use Ramen noodles and would use soba noodles or even spaghetti. The Ramen noodles got sticky – partly because my Parker House Rolls took their slow ass time baking so the noodles had to sit in the pan longer than ideal.

Go here to see the recipe and a photo of Kristine’s. And here are a couple of photos of mine. The first, while it was still in progress – looked decent. The second, when I was ready to plate it. That bright color should indicate to you that there’s a LOT of brown sugar happening. And there was.

TW and I made a lot of jokes about it but we ate it. I added a bunch of Rooster Sauce to it and it was … edible. Oddly enough, while we were eating, TW said “Don’t throw the leftovers away, I’ll eat them tomorrow.” Then she proceeded to have a small second helping AND she did eat the leftovers. She’s weird.

I was inspired by Kristine Fraser and decided I would also try making Disney World foods at home. Which is awesome because Disney foods but even more awesome because I rarely cook anymore…(I’m skipping the Dole Whip from her list, because that’s not an official recipe, I don’t care what anyone says. Dole Whip is vegan and that recipe isn’t vegan. Also, we have the official Dole Pineapple Frozen Yogurt mix which DOES make more realistic Dole Whip anyway.)

Cheshire Cat Tails are the recipe I was most excited about but also very sure was going to be a failure. Because… I LOVE Cheshire Cat Tails. They are one of my favorite Walt Disney World snacks. I love, love, LOVE them. But… puff pastry is HARD and pastry cream is whut? I’ve never made pastry cream!

As I was prepping to make them, I began to question the whole pastry cream thing. Why does that recipe even include pastry cream? I do not recall pastry cream being in a Cheshire Cat Tail. Has it just been so long since I’ve had one that I’ve forgotten? I talked to TW about it. She also didn’t remember pastry cream. I wandered around the internet looking at descriptions and photos of Cheshire Cat Tails (and also Tiger Tails, in Animal Kingdom because they’re pretty much the same darn thing.) I looked at other people’s recipes and decided that Kristine’s recipe is likely very good but it is not accurate because of the pastry cream. Instead, I went with Chef Dave’s recipe and hoped for the best.

Turns out this was the easiest darn recipe in the entire world. And, it tastes VERY similar to the real deal. I would do some things just a little differently next time (and there will be a next time. Many next times.)

1) I’d let the puff pastry get a little warmer. I was afraid of trying to work with it if it got too warm so I probably started working with it just a LITTLE too soon. It was a little stiff and it didn’t want to adhere to the chips so more of them came out during the slicing and twisting than should have.

2) Because chips do fall out during slicing/twisting, I will do that prep work away from the pan that I’m going to bake them on. There was a wee bit of a burnt chocolate taste in some spots because there were so many little chocolate chips all over the baking sheet and I just left them there rather than removing them.

3) If I was going to eat them hot out of the oven, I wouldn’t bother with colorful icing. I’d just go with some plain ole confectioner’s icing and be done with it.

4) If I want the color of the Cheshire Cat Tail (or want to make a Tiger tail in Black/Orange or a Clemson Go Tigers! Tail in Orange/Purple or a Tigger Tail in Orange/Black) I’ll let them cool before drizzling the icing over them and I’ll pop them in the fridge for a bit to firm up that icing even more. Then just warm them up for a little bit in the toaster or microwave.

For Kristine’s recipe and photos, click here.

Photos of mine before I iced them.

Photos of the first batch that I drizzled icing over while they were VERY warm.

Photos of the second batch that I drizzled icing over while they were cool. (This is the batch that went to Jenn.)

These were SO good that TW, who doesn’t even like the real Cheshire Cat Tails, said a few hours later she wished there were more. And we talked about NOT sending three to Jenn’s house and just sending her two.

SO good. HUGE success. Need more, ASAP.

I was inspired by Kristine Fraser and decided I would also try making Disney World foods at home. Which is awesome because Disney foods but even more awesome because I rarely cook anymore…(I’m skipping the Dole Whip from her list, because that’s not an official recipe, I don’t care what anyone says. Dole Whip is vegan and that recipe isn’t vegan. Also, we have the official Dole Pineapple Frozen Yogurt mix which DOES make more realistic Dole Whip anyway.)

I decided to start things off with a recipe from what used to be my “dream resort” and is still one of my all-time favorite resorts at Walt Disney World… The Polynesian. Much to TW’s disappointment, I did not choose her beloved noodles for this adventure. Instead, I chose Captain Cook’s Thai Coconut Meatballs which I’ve never actually eaten. Hah. It seemed like a quick (hahaha) and easy (hahahaha) recipe and I didn’t need too many items from the grocery store in order to make it (hahahahahahahaha.)

Here’s a link to Kristine’s photo, the real meatballs, and recipe.

This is a photo of mine.

You’ll notice one differences right off the bat, eh? I had some cooking mishaps that were completely unexpected.

I’ve made rice in the microwave a zillion times without issue so I figured it would be the easiest method for this recipe and keep another pan off of the stove top. I was so confident in this cooking method that when the microwave beeped to say the rice was done… I didn’t even open the door and peek. Instead, as I was about to plate the food, I reached over my head and pulled the dish out and… spilled scalding hot water all over myself, the stove, and the floor… and the rice wasn’t cooked. WTF?

I sent TW to the spare freezer to look for the Schwans frozen mashed potatoes, which she could not find because our freezers are an overflowing mass of impossible. If you want anything that isn’t ice cream… good luck finding it, haha. I told her to give up looking and reached for a box of INSTANT MASHED POTATOES and quickly (with more spills than I want to discuss, because I’m not generally a spill everything while cooking kind of person) and plated the damn thing.

What you don’t also know is that I did not make meatballs from scratch. I used frozen meatballs, coated them in the Thai chili sauce, and baked them as directed by the bag. I’m not calling that a fail, because it wasn’t bad but as TW said… it would have been better with homemade meatballs. I agree but my meat selection is limited at the moment and have you seen the covid-19 stories about meat packing plants? Yea, no. Using the frozen meatballs was the right choice, right now.

The other thing about this recipe is that it would NOT reduce and thicken. I looked at several videos and photos of other people’s versions and the sauce always seems much thinner than I’d like. (TW said, “Oh, you made Captain Cook’s Meatball Soup” lol) I did try to thicken it a bit with cornstarch and if I hadn’t had the rice fail, I probably would have worked a little more to thicken it up. But I didn’t.

In the end, we all liked it. TW even had one extra spoon of instant mashed potatoes dipped into the sauce/soup. TW’s mom thinks she would not have liked it as much with the rice. I might try the leftovers today with some extra Thai chili sauce added in and see if that spices it up a wee bit more.

While we ate, we had Alexa play the soundtrack to Lilo & Stitch and we drank Backscratchers a la the Tambu Lounge. (I made a small batch of POG with just single serving cans of passionfruit, orange juice, and guava. The Backscratchers were a big hit with TW and her mom. TW even had a second one and that NEVER happens.)

I’m calling this first recipe (plus bonus drink recipe/s) a win.

Next up… maybe TW’s beloved noodles from O’hana. Maybe a Cheshire Cat Tail for me.

Updated the day after: TW saved my failed brown rice by finishing it off in the instapot so when I cleaned up after dinner, I put the 2 cups of rice with half dozen meatballs into a container and spooned enough sauce to cover the entire thing and put it in the fridge. I had 1/3 of it for lunch and… OMG, it’s even better the day after. The sauce thickened and picked up more flavors from the meatballs (Thai chili sauce) and the coconut milk. Definitely making this again but going to make it the day before.