While Bunny did add some pillar type things to the Lego Disney Castle this morning (you can see some of them in the background), the most important addition to our Lego project for Advent was none other than Mickey Mouse himself!
For our final Disney Dinner of the summer, I didn’t use any of my cookbooks…instead I turned to the internet, where I first found a copycat recipe for violet lemonade like they serve at the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival, something we were able to attend on our trip. The drink had a lovely floral quality, and was such a pretty color!
The Disney Parks Blog had a recipe for Totchos as served at Woody’s Lunch Box in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The recipe included a simple, thick chili as a topper, and while it wasn’t my famous three-meat chili, it is perfect for things like totchos, hot dogs, and baked potatoes, so I’ll probably make it again!
For dessert, we had classic but simple Mickey Mouse cupcakes with Oreo ears! I know I saw a picture of this idea online somewhere, but it’s not like you need a recipe to make it happen.
While we’ll continue making recipes from our Disney cookbooks (we’re already looking forward to getting The Official Disney Parks Cookbook, a companion volume to Delicious Disney, when it comes out next year!), there was something really special about this summer of Disney Dinners that I’m really going to miss!
The first time we had just Disney drinks and dessert, it was because the dinner I had made to go with them was a failure. This time, I made just drinks and dessert just for fun! The Lava Smoothie from Leaping Horse Libations at Disney’s BoardWalk Villas tasted like the tropics in a glass!
And because we just haven’t had enough Mickey Mouse-shaped food, I made Mickey Mouse Rick Krispie treats that were extra special because they were topped with white chocolate and m&ms!
This was a fun way to sneak a few more Disney-themed items into our summer!
Our tenth Disney Dinner was all about taking a second chance on the rib recipe that didn’t turn out earlier in the summer, but before we get to that, a drink I put a lot of effort into coming up with, the Frozen Sunshine from Disney’s Beach Club Resort. The more Disney Dinners we had, the harder it was to find drink recipes that didn’t include alcohol, or that could at least have the alcohol substituted out. I went through pretty much all of the recipes in our cookbooks, so I turned to the internet for copycat recipes, which is where I found this Creamsicle in a cup!
I was still upset about the “Disney Disaster” we had previously, so I gave the hoisin chili sticky ribs from Delicious Disney based on Chef Morimoto’s recipe from his restaurant at Disney Springs, Morimoto Asia, another shot, substituting baby back ribs for spare ribs. They were perfect…definitely the best ribs I’ve ever made!
For dessert, we had Mickey Mouse-shaped beignets with lavender sugar. Can you have too many Mickey-shaped treats?!?
This was a fun meal, and I really enjoyed the redemption when making the ribs!
I’m not sure that I’ve ever purchased an accessory inspired by architecture before, but this Loungefly Disney Contemporary Resort handbag certainly is!
I love that the bag has the a-line shape of the main building of the resort, plus a whimsical print that combines Mickey and Minnie with mid-century details (the perfect reflection of the resort, which is also celebrating an anniversary this year!). And if you look closely, you’ll notice that the handle is in the shape of the monorail that travels through the building!
We had such good intentions of finding “Hidden Mickeys” while we were at Disney World. We were prepared to look everywhere, and we even had a a list of some of the known ones as a starting point. But…I guess we were just wrapped up in the experience, of being there (we is actually a good thing!), because for the most part, we forgot altogether, and even when we did remember, we couldn’t find them. Except for the one on this manhole cover we spotted our first day at EPCOT.
Does it count? I mean, I think it does? If you weren’t looking down at the right moment, it would be easily missed. So I say it counts, and at least we have evidence we found one of them!
Today marks the start of my 15th year as a home educator!
We started the day with the Schultüte, as is our tradition:
I think they were a hit!
And of course I took pictures of my students…it’s still a little hard for me to believe that I’m down to two, and one of them is in her second year of high school!
We did some light schoolwork…religion, math, a read-aloud, and a bit of language arts. We’ll get into the rest of the subjects tomorrow, but the first day of school is mostly about fun, including building a new Lego set. I got something really different this year…an art set of Mickey Mouse, which was the perfect way to bridge summer school and our vacation to the new school year! And since we started school before everybody else, the rest of the children were still here to help!
It was (I think) a really fun build!
Here’s a closer look…I think I may get a second copy of this set for our last day of school, because there are alternate building instructions to make Minnie Mouse, and I would love to have a matching pair!
I think we got the school year off to the right start!
When we got home from our vacation, we were all missing Disney World. So I started thinking about what I could do to try to capture some of that Disney magic here at home, and I came up with the idea of Mickey waffles, a fan favorite at Disney that we didn’t actually get to try while we were there!
There were a couple of options when it came to Mickey Mouse waffle makers. Many of them make very similar-looking waffles, but there were differences when it came to price, waffle size, and the number of them you can make at a time. In the end I went with cheap (of course), as well as larger waffles, with the only downside being that I can only make one at a time. They cook pretty fast, though (2-3 minutes each), so in the end, that’s not really a big deal.
Aren’t they the cutest?!?
So far, I’ve only made classic buttermilk waffles, but I’ve served them a few different ways, including with fried egg ears, and a decadent chocolate syrup and whipped cream variety:
We’ve really enjoyed making waffles at home for the last few years (I guess you could call it a pandemic hobby), and it’s even more fun to have a way to hold onto a little piece of our vacation at home!
“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” Walt Disney
