Last year, I cooked a whole series of “Disney Dinners,” using Delicious Disney: Walt Disney World as one of my primary inspirations for Disney-themed meals and desserts. Well, Delicious Disney has a new offering this year…The Official Disney Parks Cookbook, so I’m back at it. Here’s a look at one of the first recipes I made from the book: Shrimp boil tacos with andouille sausage and corn from the On the Cob Marketplace stand at Disney California Adventure’s Food & Wine Festival:
No Disney Dinner is complete without a Disney Dessert, so Ladybug and I also made a Honey Crunch Cake from the California Grill at Disney’s Contemporary Resort:
Both of these recipes were amazing, and I’m looking forward to trying more recipes from the cookbook in the future!
If you know anything about me, you know I love themed meals and hands-on activities. When I started planning our Disney-focused summer school (details to come!) to coincide with our postponed family vacation, I knew I had to find some kind of cookbook to go with our experience. I really hit the jackpot, because a new cookbook created for the 50th anniversary of Disney World was recently published, and it contains recipes from all kinds of park locations!
I planned our first “Disney Dinner” to go with the last day of the 2021-22 homeschool year last week…a real kick-off to summer vacation! We started the meal with a Disney classic, the Orange Bird Flip. Yes, it contains raw eggs, which might be scary or disgusting to some, but we liked it!
The main course was Puerco en Salsa Verde from the Mexican pavilion at Epcot. In addition to cooking the pork, I also fried the potatoes and made the salsa verde from scratch (which may have been a mistake, because now my family wants me to never buy jarred salsa verde again!)…I was pretty proud of the effort I put in!
For dessert, I made the Brown Derby’s grapefruit cake:
Yes, you noticed correctly…I even bought two special serving pieces to go with our Disney Dinners…and Orange Bird cup and what is technically a Mickey Mouse pasta bowl, but also works well as a plate. In the end, they’ll make good souvenirs as well as dishes! I’m looking forward to trying more recipes from this cookbook (and one other one I already had) this summer!
This recipe is so simple, it really doesn’t even need to be written down, but it was a huge hit with my whole family, and took very little effort, so I thought I’d share. It’s not only great in tacos, but also an excellent quesadilla filling!
3 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup taco seasoning
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
Place chicken in slow cooker and cover with taco seasoning and cream of chicken soup. Cook on low 8-10 hours or until cooked through. In last hour of cooking, shred chicken and return to slow cooker, mixing with sauce.
It’s the rare Taco Tuesday that falls on Cinco de Mayo! To celebrate, I made beer-battered fish tacos with a spicy sauce from scratch. Now, it might not be the most elegant-looking member of the taco family, but it certainly was delicious!
If you have traveled on IL 159 in Swansea recently, you may have noticed that there’s a new taco place in town. Specifically a taco truck and a taco stand…Valle Taco Express. The stand is only open when the truck doesn’t have an engagement, so you want to check their Facebook weekly page for their hours and locations.
Now, on to the food. I tried the taco plate, which included three tacos…steak, chicken, and fish, plus sides (I had a double order of the street corn), while Ryan had the steak and chicken Fuego burritos.
We both thought the steak options were a little dry, but still tasty. The sauce on my other two tacos was great…it had a nice kick to it. The meat was also cooked just right. The real star of the meal, though, was the corn. It had a nice char, and the addition of the cheese was the perfect topping.
I definitely enjoyed my meal, and I’d like to eat there again…it would also be fun to catch their truck at an event!
I think it’s obvious that I’m a fan of Beast Craft BBQ’s beer-braised pork…the carnitas are one of the best things I’ve eaten! They also put that delicious pork on tacos, and I had the chance to try them for the first time on Sunday (I have tried the pulled rib tacos in the past).
Not that I’m surprised, but these are SO GOOD. The flavor is reminiscent of the carnitas, and yet it’s its own thing. Three of the fabulous Beast tortillas (I seriously love these tortillas, whether they’re served plain or fried!), are filled with pork, cotija cheese, and a red cabbage slaw, and topped with both BBQ and fry sauce. They also added a few slices of lime on the side, and a little squeeze of juice adds a lot of flavor! The tacos are just the right amount of spicy, with the right amount of crunch, and the pork is just as good in tacos as it is as carnitas. I wonder if they can find anything else to do with it? If they do, you can be certain I’ll try it!
I love tacos, and I love salmon, but for some reason, I’ve never thought of putting the two together! I happened to watch Ina Garten make salmon tacos on the Food Network earlier this summer, and I knew I’d have to try the recipe. I made some changes to the recipe after the first time we tried them, and I think they’re now one of my favorite dinners…and I finally found a way to prepare salmon that even Bunny and Ladybug enjoy!
Slaw
Salmon
Avocado Smash
2 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
At least an hour before you plan to serve the tacos, prepare slaw. Toss the cabbage, cucumber, vinegar, dill, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper together in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate, allowing the cabbage to marinate.
When ready to serve, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Brush a baking dish with olive oil and place the salmon in it. Mix the chile powder, lime zest, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in a small bowl. Brush the salmon with 1 tablespoon of the lime juice and sprinkle with the chipotle seasoning mixture. Roast for 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish, until the salmon is just cooked through.
Wrap the tortillas in 2 foil packets and place them in the oven with the salmon. While the salmon is baking, roughly mash the avocados with the remaining 2 tablespoons of lime juice, the Sriracha, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper.
To serve, place a dollop of the avocado smash on one side of each tortilla, then some large chunks of salmon, and finally, some of the slaw. Fold the tortillas in half over the filling (they will be messy!) and serve warm.
Can you believe it’s been almost one year exactly since I last reviewed something from Beast Craft BBQ? It hasn’t been quite that long since I’ve eaten there, but I haven’t seen anything new that’s caught my eye since last January. I recently saw tacos on their menu, though, and I told Ryan that I was pretty sure I needed to try them the next time they were offered, and today was that day!
This was actually one of the “lighter” meals I’ve had from Beast. The pulled pork rib is delicious, but not as fatty as, say, burnt ends, so you don’t feel like you’re eating as much. It is a little drier, due to the aforementioned lack of fat, so you may want to add the sauce that comes on the side. The red cabbage, onions, and homemade salsa gave it a nice fresh taste, and I already knew I liked the Beast tortillas, so that was a welcome part of the meal. And, of course, I had the brussels sprouts on the side, which were as delicious as always!
It was fun trying something new from Beast again, and I’ll keep watching the menu for whatever new items they may come up with!
