Disney's Planes 2 [Themed Dinner]

This theme is a little on the *corny* side.

I hate when things don’t go as expected. We were planning a family dinner and movie night. Dad knew that. He knew. And he decided to at the very last minute invite a friend over. Okay, no problem, thankfully we made enough (though normally this friend is so stupidly picky that he makes me look adventurous, and we had all of his least favorites in the menu I was in the process of preparing). Food went pretty well, and I will detail that a little later, but it meant we weren’t going to watch the movie. Even if the friend would agree to watching it, he talks through the whole thing and it just ruins the mood.

Needless to say I was not a happy camper as they walked into the kitchen, friend barking orders for me to drop everything and help them pack fish. Um. No. Not my job. I’m cooking. And I’m in a really bad mood. Thankfully mom was able to jump in and diffuse the situation because I was contemplating homicide at that point.

However, the menu was a success – for the most part – so I will definitely share it here.

Remember, this is for the movie Planes 2 – we went with a corn theme because of the film taking place close to the annual Corn Cob Festival the region the movie takes place in holds.

At least the batter looked good, right? Maybe the problem
was too much corn?

For starters we had Corn Fritters – or, rather, corn pancakes because the Gluten Free recipe I had was a dud. I’m not sure if it was because we couldn’t find the cornmeal mix that the recipe called for (it was very specific and mom couldn’t find it in any of the stores she went to) or if it was the recipe itself (I’m prone to believe it was the recipe). Either way there was a lot of frustration and very nearly tears as I tried again and again to get it to work in the pot of oil. It didn’t, so mom to the rescue. She came up with the pancake idea. Whew!

I am not a fan of corn fritters… or corn pancakes… but I love the idea of them. Next time I’m just going to use a real corn fritter recipe and mom can go without… or we can come up with our own flour mixture or something. Maybe I should play around with it and come up with me own and then I can share it for all the world to use. There’s a thought.

We paired the “fritters” with the Cinnamon Butter Texas Roadhouse Copycat Recipe – which made my dad very, very happy. He loves their butter. LOVES it. I don’t get what makes it so special. It’s just one or two whips away from Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting.

For our main course we had a Corn, Tomato, and Avocado salad that was fresh and summery looking, and Corn Chowder. Oh my word, the Chowder was SUPER yummy. The recipe comes from Disney’s Storyteller’s Café located in the Grand Californian at the Disneyland Resort. It says it takes about 2 hours of prep time, but I prepared it much earlier than that for dinner to really let the flavors meld. Everyone, including my 90-year-old grandfather, went back for seconds.

Because I didn’t eat but one of the fritters, I toasted some sourdough bread to go with my chowder – and that is definitely the way to go. I really was thinking next time I make this dish (and I will be making it again) that I would have to do it bread bowl style (which would still work with the Disneyland theme what with Pacific Wharf there at California Adventure, so if you’re going for that theme DO IT).

I did not try the salad (remember, I’m picky), but there was just a couple of spoonful left at the end of the night. My family’s from California, they loved everything about that salad.

The Dessert Course I am probably proudest of. The recipe comes from the Grand Californian as well, this time from their Napa Rose restaurant. I did a little tweaking to make it gluten free, but it worked well. I started by baking the cake part, and making the Strawberry topping. Then after that was finished began work on the main meal.

Over all a success. Since I don’t have links for the two Disney recipes, I will type them up later in the weekend on the blog.

Try out this menu in part or in full and tell me how it went in the comments section! If you have a suggestion for a GF Corn Fritter recipe I’d love to try it as well!

Menu Recipe Links:

Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad
Storytellers Corn Chowder
Strawberry Shortcake with Lemon Cornbread