punch

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!

Tasty Tuesday–Perfect Party Punch

I don’t have a lot of occasions to make punch (really, just for confirmation celebrations), but when I do, it’s the perfect punch. I’ve been making it so long, I don’t even remember where or when I found the recipe, but I sure am glad that I have it! I think the lemon juice is what makes it really special, and the Jell-O is another unusual and delicious addition!

  • 2  1/2 cups white sugar
  • 6 cups water
  • 2 3 oz. packages strawberry Jell-O
  • 1 46 oz. can pineapple juice
  • 2/3 cup lemon juice
  • 1 quart orange juice
  • 2 2-liter bottles 7-Up or Sprite

Bring sugar, water, and strawberry Jell-O to a boil in a large saucepan; boil for three minutes. Stir in the pineapple, lemon, and orange juices. Divide mixture between two containers (I like to use a bundt pan to get a nice ring shape) and freeze.

Combine one container of frozen juice mixture with one bottle of soda in a punch bowl and allow to become slushy (you want to prepare this at least an hour before you plan on drinking it). Repeat with remaining portions, or save for another event.