Entertaining with Disney

Mardi Gras 2023

As hard as it is to believe (since it seems like we just celebrated Christmas), Lent is upon us already. But first, let’s take a look at Mardi Gras 2023 in the Markel house!

As I did last year, I made plum Berliner instead of pączki. I’m not saving myself any work by doing so, but I like the Berliner a little more.

I don’t understand why the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Festivale event is on Monday and not either the weekend or Tuesday, but I had a fun time hanging out with Pavé!

For dinner, I turned back to two of our favorite recipes from the Entertaining with Disney cookbook…Tiana’s Famous Gumbo and Bayou Queen Punch:

For dessert I made a King cake. I couldn’t find quite the shade of green sugar I wanted, but it was still pretty and tasted great!

Now that the celebration is over, I guess it’s time to really buckle down for Lent.

Tasty Tuesday–A Look Back at Disney Dining

For the last few months, I’ve been sharing all of the Disney Dinners I’ve made…here’s a look at each dish we tried from either a Disney cookbook, or an online resource with copycat Disney recipes:

We also tried quite a few thing while we were at the Disney parks (my favorite was the Dole Whip!):

And we enjoyed one very special dinner at the Hollywood Brown Derby:

This wraps our summer of fun Disney dinners, but I’m looking forward to trying (and retrying) recipes from our Disney cookbooks in the future, and I’ve already pre-ordered The Official Disney Parks Cookbook, which is scheduled to come out next February, so we’ll have even more new recipes to try!

Tasty Tuesday–The Eighth Disney Dinner

I planned our eighth Disney Dinner to coordinate with a very special day…Dole Whip Day, something we were especially excited about since we had recently tried an actual Dole Whip! But first, the drink. I made Cinderella’s Midnight Magic Punch, which was delicious, pretty, and extra fun with the rock candy stirring rod!

The main course was Monte Cristo sandwiches with currant jelly sauce. I have wanted to make Monte Cristos for years, but the idea of it was always too intimidating. They really weren’t bad to make, though, and they were really, really delicious!

And in honor of Dole Whip Day, a “Frozen Pineapple Treat Inspired by Dole Whip.” I think we were all skeptical, because we liked the Dole Whip we had a the Magic Kingdom so much, and we knew it wouldn’t be quite the same, but we all agreed that it was a pretty decent facsimile!

This was an especially fun Disney Dinner because it included something we had actually tried on our trip…stay tuned for the next one, where the main course is a replica of a meal we had a Hollywood Studios!

Tasty Tuesday–The Fifth Disney (Breakfast for) Dinner

For our fifth Disney Dinner, I turned to a family favorite…breakfast-for-dinner. I chose recipes from the Frozen “Winter Wonderland Holiday Brunch” in Entertaining with Disney to create the menu, starting with Elsa’s eggnog, which was a punch made by mixing my homemade eggnog with 7-Up and vanilla ice cream:

The main course was Anna’s ham, egg, and cheese croissant sandwiches:

I kept dessert simple…strawberry frozen hearts:

This dinner was really fun, and I love any excuse to make breakfast in the evening!

Tasty Tuesday–The Fourth Disney Dinner

Our fourth Disney Dinner (which was thankfully not a disaster!) was The Princess and the Frog themed. We started, as always, with a drink…Bayou Queen Punch. I made one adjustment to the recipe…since we’re not millionaires, I substituted ginger beer for the ginger juice, which was prohibitively expensive. The drink was refreshing and perfect for summer!

Our main course was Tiana’s Famous Gumbo. I’ve made gumbo before, so this wasn’t totally new, but the preparation was a bit different for this recipe, and I really liked it!

For dessert, I made “Man-Catching Beignets.” It’s not the first time I’ve made this variety of donut, but it’s been so long, I’m not sure any of the children really remembered them, so they were looking forward to trying them…beignets are definitely a hit here!

This was an excellent dinner after a disappointing previous attempt…now I just have to decide what we’re having next!

Tasty Tuesday–The Second Disney Dinner

For our second “Disney Dinner” last week, I turned to my other Disney cookbook, Entertaining with Disney, for inspiration. I decided to make two recipes from the “Moana Motunui Island Summer Barbecue” chapter, starting with Te Fiti’s Tropical Punch, a mixture of blue Hawaiian Punch, pineapple juice, and orange juice:

The main course was Moana’s Motunui Sliders (pork tenderloin in Hawaiian BBQ sauce with bacon, pineapple, and pepper jack cheese on King’s Hawaiian rolls):

After being interrupted by the tornado sirens, we finally got around to dessert, a recipe for Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’ Florida Kitchen Menu Hummingbird Cake from Delicious Disney.

I’m really enjoying our Disney Dinners!