Disney's Emperor's New Groove [Themed Dinner]

 

"Our moment of triumph approaches. It's dinnertime!" - Yzma

It's not the most brilliantly animated of the Disney classics, but anyone who appreciates sarcasm will appreciate this film. I mean it's David Spade - you know that it's going to be mega snark. I LOVE the dialogue. I love that Eartha Kitt is the voice of the villain (who is by far one of the best modern Disney villains). And who doesn't love Kronk? It's very quotable, so I knew I wanted it to be one of the films we watched as we counted down to our 2013 Disney trip.

For the appetizer, what better dish to serve up than Spinach Puffs! Of course, with mom's gluten free allergy we had to find one that would work for her. Thankfully our local grocery store happened to have a gluten free pie crust that we were able to make work. It was a pain (like super frustrating. I HATE gluten free dough). The spinach filling was pretty good, and I'm not a fan of the green stuff. My parents both said we could just make a meal of them. They didn't last long.

They definitely puffed up, and yes I cut them in the triangle to try and get the look of Kronk's in the movie. I made sure not to let them bake too long. Pretty sure Kronk would give his approval. They were much prettier than my little point and shoot camera suggests.

For the main course I did a pork steak with diablo sauce. I'm not a big fan of mustard in general, but this sauce was pretty dang tasty. Sauces are so far my nemesis, but this one came out with no problem. We rounded out the dish with some broccoli. It was just like Kronk was in the kitchen whippin' up some yummy vittles.

For dessert I made apple raisin Empanadas. I am not a fan, but dad enjoyed them. Mom's didn't do too well being GF, but I tried! That's what counts, right?

This was another very successful menu.

Pork with Diablo Sauce

Kronk's Spinach Puffs (Gluten Free)
Caramel Apple Empanadas

Disney's Tangled [Themed Dinner]

"Frying pans! Who knew, right?" - Flynn Rider (Eugene Fitzherbert)

This is probably one of my favorite menus. The food was delicious, I absolutely adore the film, and the food is totally photogenic. I was very proud with how this all worked together. Chicken and pasta always works together, in my world anyway.

For this menu, I wanted everything to be cooked in cast iron skillets. Why? Um, because it's Rapunzel's weapon of choice. So more so than the food I was focused on the presentation. So I went to pinterest, and I was pleased with what came together.

For the main dish I did braised chicken with orange and scallions. This meal is super yummy and we make it now when we want to feel fancy, but it's really easy. you start off on the stove top and finish in the oven. Like I said, super easy.

Like I said, it's very photogenic when it comes out of the oven. So much so that I HAD to get my camera out and make sure to do it justice. No point and shoot or camera phone for this one. Nope. This is red carpet worthy in my book!

For the side dish, I chose an angel hair pasta dish (also cooked in a cast iron skillet). After all, Rapunzel's hair is her most known feature, right? I found the recipe, and it called for walnuts. My mom hates walnuts (which is weird, she's from Northern California, that's like one of their big crops). So I tweaked it and instead of walnuts we went with pecans (which I don't like). I don't think it made too big a difference.

Again, it is a photogenic food, so I was very happy to get a few shots.

Dessert I went with a cobbler. We do a lot of apple dishes when Disney is concerned. Not exactly sure why that is... maybe because I LOVE all things apple (except the technology company. Not an Apple fan). Presentation is everything, so it was baked in the skillet as well. It came out looking pretty good, but meh. I think I was just done with the whole cobbler thing by this point. Still, this was by far one of the award winning themed dinners.

Here are the links for the recipes used to create the menu:
Braised Chicken with Orange and Scallions
Angel Hair with Walnuts
Rustic Apple Crisp

Walt Disney's The Little Mermaid [Themed Dinner]

"The human world, it's a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they've got up there." - Sebastian

I have a confession to make - I don't like The Little Mermaid. Oh the movie is okay, and I LOVE the music and supporting characters (and as animated Princes go, Prince Eric is a very attractive guy). I just don't like Ariel. And mermaids have never really done anything for me. I was not THAT girl my age when the movie came out wanting to be like her. I don't like going under water. I don't like the idea of being half fish.

So it may be a little surprising that I chose this movie to make a menu. However, my mother LOVES LOVES LOVES the music... and it really does lend itself well to creating a fun menu. So I decided to give it a shot. Why not, right?

Like the film, though, the menu I came up with - I wasn't willing to eat. Go figure. That's what happens when the chef is picky but wants to impress her family with her culinary skill. Or, well, hopefully skill. I can never be sure if people actually like my food, or if they're just glad someone else is cooking.

So, what does one plan for a night watching The Little Mermaid? Crab cakes, of course. What? You say that's just wrong considering Sebastian is one of the best, most loved, characters from that film? But wait, that's what they served Ariel's first night in the Sea Side Castle. So that was the inspiration. No, I did not sing the song or chase a crab around the kitchen with a clever (though that might've been fun).

For the side we did a fresh greens salad with everyone's choice of dressing. Honest I don't remember what I had that night (this was done a few years ago and I'm just getting to the blogging). I do know that gluten free cakes are more difficult to do because they don't stick together as well - but my mom really enjoyed hers. And I'm pretty sure dad ate more than his fair share of them. The recipe is not gluten free - but we used the gluten free "panko" my mom makes. It seemed to work.

The sauce was a little bit spicy, which my dad of course loved. It gives a really nice color to the plate and also gave a pit of a kick in the flavor. It complimented the dish very very well.

For dessert I went with the cute little sand dollar almond cookies. Sand was cinnamon and sugar, with almond slivers making the pattern most associate sand dollars having. It's an almond flavored snickerdoodle in a lot of respects. I'm not a fan of almond flavoring, so I sampled one and left the rest for dad and his co workers at work (they always like it when I make more than enough left overs).

Here's the menu with links to the recipes:
Mini Crab Cakes with Red Pepper Sauce
Fresh Greens Garden Salad (no link, self explanitory)
Sand Dollar Cinnamon Sugar Cookies

Coming Attraction: Planes 2

Once again I am horrible at keeping this blog going. Hopefully with my kick starting our family's monthly countdown to Disneyland I can make this happen.

Saturday I will be kicking off our movie dinner countdown with Planes 2. Since we are going to Disneyland this time and not Disney World, I've decided to go with movies and menus that fit particular parts of Disneyland and California Adventure. While Planes 2 takes place in an area that looks more like Yellowstone, it definitely also fits the Northern California feel of Grizzly Peak in California Adventure.

I'll be honest, I am not a fan of the Planes movies. I own both of them because I have this weird need to have all of the Disney animated films, but other than that I just feel like they are spin offs of Cars and at best should've just been released to DVD. There are a lot of iffy things with the second film (mainly the stalker behavior of Dipper) that are off putting.

So why am I going with this and not Brother Bear? Partially because we've already done Brother Bear, but also because I wanted to do a theme focusing on Corn (and Pocahontas just doesn't fit the Disneyland Resort IMO). So we're going to have corn fritters, a corn salad, corn chowder, and a cornbread strawberry shortcake... corny I know. But then so is the movie. ;)

So check back hopefully on Sunday and I'll have photos and recipes and what went wrong and all that jazz.

I've got 4 more months to do menus... what movies do you think fit Disneyland? Help me decide what to do!