Recipe: Bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake) Disney Copycat Recipe

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoon butter
2 each eggs
6-8 tablespoon milk

Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup almonds

Filling:
3 each instant vanilla pudding mix (3 1/8 ounce box)
4 cups milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
**This made about twice as much filling for my cake as needed. I suggest halfing the recipe and then making more as needed.

Honey and Sugar Mixture:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water
1/4 cup honey

Directions:

Cake:
Sift together the flours, salt and sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time until incorporated.
Then add the butter until mixed into flour mixture.
Heat milk until it is warm to touch. Add yeast to milk and dissolve.
In a mixing bowl, add the warm milk and yeast mixture to the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides but sticks to the bottom of the bowl.
Place on a floured surface and roll into a 10 inch circle to the thickness of 1/4 inch. Then place in a greased 10-inch cake pan.
Pre-heat oven to 350°.
Let sit in a warm place covered until the dough doubles in size.
Place topping mixture on top of proofed cake and bake in a 350° for 20-25 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Let cool on wire racks. Once cooled, slice in half lengthwise using a serrated knife.
Brush both sides with the honey and sugar mixture.
Line a 10 inch cake pan with plastic wrap so it over hangs on the sides.
Place the bottom of cake in the pan. Spread the pudding and whipped cream mixture on the bottom of the cake. Then place the top portion of the cake on the pudding mixture.
Place in the refrigerator until cake sets.
Remove from pan carefully from by pulling the plastic wrap. Serve.

Baked, ready for filling.

Topping:
Warm milk. Add the sugar and mix until well dissolved.
Remove from heat and cool. Mix in the almonds.
This will be used as a topping for the cake.

Topping on and ready to bake.

Filling:
Add the pudding mix to the 4 cups of milk in a bowl.
Beat with a wire whisk or electric mixer at low speed for 2 minutes.
In a separate bowl whip the heavy cream until it forms soft peaks.
Fold the heavy cream into the pudding mixture until well incorporated.

Honey and Sugar Mixture:
Mix together the ingredients. Heat until sugar dissolves. Cool at room temperature.

Recipe: Strawberry Shortcake with Lemon Cornbread

Note: This is not my recipe. This is the recipe given out by Disney. 

This dessert will have your guests raving!

Ingredients:

Grand Marnier Strawberries
7.5 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/3 cup Grand Marnier*
3 tablespoons sugar

Lemon Cornbread
1/2 cup canola oil
1.25 cups whole milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour**
1.25 cups sugar
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 cornmeal
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons fresh lemon zest

Lemon Syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup lemon juice
Zest of 1/2 lemon

Fresh whipped cream, creme fraiche, or vanilla ice cream, for serving.

Directions:
For strawberries:1. Combine 1.5 cups strawberries, Grand Marnier, and sugar in a blender, blending until smooth.

2. Combine remaining strawberries with pureed mixture in a large mixing bowl. Set aside to marinate.

For cornbread:
1. Preheat oven to 300°F. Grease and flour a 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan.

2. Beat oil, milk, and eggs in a large bowl using an electric mixer.

3. Sift together flour, sugar, and baking powder in a separate bowl. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring until smooth.

4. Stir in cornmeal, then lemon juice and zest. 

5. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 40 minutes.

For lemon syrup:
1. Mix sugar and water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 minute.

2. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and zest. If not using immediately, refrigerate in an airtight container.

To Serve:
1. Cut cooled cornbread into 12 squares, trimming off top crust.

2. Drizzle each square of cornbread with 1 tablespoon of lemon syrup. Allow syrup to soak in for 2 to 3 minutes.

3. In a buttered frying pan, sear both sides of cornbread until golden brown. 

4. Top cornbread square with Grand Marnier strawberries, then top with whipped cream, creme fraiche, or vanilla ice cream.



*We substituted water for the Grand Marnier to save $$
**Since we have gluten intolerance in our family we substituted with our favorite gluten free flour blend.

Recipe: Storytellers Corn Chowder

Note: This is not my recipe. This is the recipe given out by Disney. 

This chowder is so good, you won't just lick the bowl, you'll lick the pot!

Ingredients:

4 ears fresh corn, unshucked
2 slices bacon, diced
1 tablespoon diced onion
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 Yukon Gold potato, peeled and diced
4 cups chicken stock
6 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour*
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup pulled chicken meat
2 slices bacon, for garnish
Coarse Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Hot sauce, to taste
2 teaspoons chopped cilantro, for garnish

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. To roast corn, put whole ears in their husks into preheated oven for 25 minutes. Cool briefly, then peel back the husks and cut the kernels off the cobs, set aside.

3. Saute diced bacon. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of the fat and add onion and garlic and saute until transparent but not brown. Add the roasted corn, potato, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer.

4. Meanwhile, in a separate saute pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour, incorporating with a wire whip until the mixture is smooth. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, stirring, until mixture begins to loosen slightly. Let cool.

5. Add the cooled butter/flour mixture to the simmering broth, incorporating with a whisk. Stir often to keep from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Simmer 30 to 40 minutes.

6. Add the cream and pulled chicken meat and simmer for another 10 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, cook the bacon for garnish until crisp. Drain and chop into small pieces. Set aside.

8. Add salt, pepper, and hot sauce, to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with garnish of bacon and cilantro.

Yields 4-8 servings.

*instead of flour, since we have family who is gluten intolerant, we used cornstarch, only using 4.5 tablespoons.

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

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!

Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty [Themed Dinner]

I originally posted this on my personal blog (Reitter's Block) on January 5, 2013 as part of my "Tasteful Countdown" project counting down to the family trip to Walt Disney World in October of 2013. This is the project that gave me the idea to create this blog. And then life got in the way... so I am starting it up again in the New Year.

A meal fit for royally hungry people.

We are 271 days away from Disney World! After taking a couple weeks off from the whole dinner themed stuff we were back to it for this week.

The movie is my favorite of all time: Sleeping Beauty. I can't think of a time when I wasn't in love with this story and movie. I love everything about it - even the pink element, if you can believe that - the characters, the animation, the music. It's the perfect "Fairytale Come True." So it was alarming that I couldn't figure out a menu right away. In fact, I didn't come up with a full menu until the day of, so it was a menu based on stuff we already had in the house.

This was a big night for me because it meant I had to use the grill. I hate the grill, not because it doesn't cook the food or anything (it does a great job at that) but it uses fire and they can go BOOM and I don't like that. I'm very very scared of cooking after the fire when I was 16. Aunt Judy got me over the fear of the stove, but a BBQ is a whole new realm of scary for me. Dad said he would help me on that one, so it was set. Why the grill you ask? Well, mainly because of the Dragon element of the movie. Everyone knows I LOVE Maleficent's Dragon (you should see me during those scenes, or the ones during the Park show Fantasmic! LOL), so it should be no surprise that this is the route I ultimately took in theming the menu.

So the menu consisted of Honey Brined Grilled Chicken with a roasted red pepper, tomato, almond, and garlic relish (they call it a romesco in the recipe, all done on the grill). For our side it was herb roasted (in the oven) potatos and carrots. The whole house and outdoors smelled divine while it cooked! For dessert I went super simple with Vanilla Ice Cream (admittedly not homemade, maybe next time!) with a mixed berry syrup (which I did make from scratch - remember Briar Rose goes into the woods to collect berries - lots of berries - even though she picked berries the day before because her aunts - the good faries - told her to).

We did manage to have left overs, but it was a definite hit with dad - he immediately informed us of what he was taking for lunch at work Friday. He told all of his coworkers about it - it smelled great in the lunch room - and now I have several requests to share the recipe.

All in all another successful night. Next week we are going back in time - movie list wise - and will watch a double feature of Saludos Amigos & The Three Caballeros, so it will be Mexican. After that who knows, we're debating if we want to go live action, Pixar, or what animated movie to do next (next in line would be 101 Dalmations).

Before going into the oven.

The relish all ready to go.

The chicken was sooooooooooooo goood!

Mom may have licked the bowl clean...

Here are the links for the recipes I used for dinner:
Grilled Chicken and romesco
Herb roasted potatos and carrots
Mixed Berry Sauce

Walt Disney's Three Cabelleros and Saludos Amigos [Themed Dinner]

I originally posted this on my personal blog (Reitter's Block) on January 16, 2013 as part of my "Tasteful Countdown" project counting down to the family trip to Walt Disney World in October of 2013. This is the project that gave me the idea to create this blog. And then life got in the way... so I am starting it up again in the New Year.

Taco Salad - simple, easy and awesome.

On the eve of another themed dinner, I'm writing a post about last weeks very yummy - and somewhat simple - dinner. I finally got my hands on a copy of Donald's feature films "Saludos Amigos" and "The Three Cabelleros". It is a double feature DVD that I got on Amazon as they are both considered Classics. In my quest to have all 50+ classics I HAD to have them, so I finally bit the bullet and ordered them after getting my monthly paycheck.

But I digress, the meal was simple in that it was one of my favorites: Taco Salad. I am not a big Mexican food fan, but I LOVE tacos the way we make them. And if I can't have that, then I go for taco salad. Problem is - I don't like frying in oil (after setting the kitchen on fire - unknowingly - with oil on the stove - again, unknowingly - I just won't touch it!) so I decided to try to bake the shells like they have shown on pinterest. Problem is mom is gluten intolerant so she can't have the traditional flour tortilla, so I had to bake a larger corn tortilla. They don't make them as big, and they didn't turn out quite how I hoped.

If you're going to bake the shells, make sure to follow the instructions. And find one that gives the tip that you need to warm the tortillas up for about 15 seconds in the microwave before trying to put them in the bowl or you will end up tearing every single one. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the shells were not crispy everywhere and were extremely tough where they didn't crisp. I'm thinking it had to do with how much oil was used on them - either not enough or too much, I can't be sure without experimenting more.

I'm not a fan, but I'm told they be "delish"!

With such a "simple" dish for the main course, I decided to tackle a traditional Mexican dessert of Soppapilas. Mainly because my best friend Kassy said she would come to dinner if I did. She lied, but I made enough for a small army anyway so that she could have some the next day.

What's that you say? You thought I was afraid to cook with oil? I AM! I still am, even after all the fun I had frying my (homemade all the way) dessert. I had mom be my "spotter" as if flames started up I would've once again been out the door and letting her deal with it (as opposed to when I caught the kitchen on fire - for that I called 911!). With that done it was down to watch the double feature.

Not to be negative, but I've found that the movies - that I'd never seen all the way through - were not my favorites. Don't get me wrong I LOVE Donald Duck - favorite character, just ask my neice, she will tell you! - but the movies are dull compared to some of the other classics. No fear, though, because they still will hold a special place in my collection. I have to both Walt and Donald are in them!

I made more the day after for a Church function, and Kassy
took the rest home. I think she ate them all herself.

Baked Taco Salad Bowl - http://www.food.com/recipe/baked-taco-bowl-salad-314075

Soppapilas - http://www.recipe.com/sopapillas/?socsrc=recpin020612sopapillas

Walt Disney's Mary Poppins [Themed Dinner]

I originally posted this on my personal blog (Reitter's Block) on January 17, 2013 as part of my "Tasteful Countdown" project counting down to the family trip to Walt Disney World in October of 2013. This is the project that gave me the idea to create this blog. And then life got in the way... so I am starting it up again in the New Year.

Shepherd's Pie - everyone likes it but me!

Well it was a Jolly Holiday in the kitchen tonight with our Mary Poppins themed dinner tonight. We went with a very British main course of Shepherd's Pie (during the viewing of the movie I decided that Fish and Chips would've been better considering they plan on doing just that in the film, oh well, live and learn). The dessert was a raspberry tart and raspberry ice.
The shepherd's pie was the easiest thing on the menu after all was said and done. Not much excitement there. I've learned I don't like it very much, ha ha. Yup the picky eater is still a picky eater, however it wasn't bad. Just not my thing. Dad and mom gave it two big thumbs up, though. Mom went back for seconds!

Dessert proved more challenging. What I thought would be simple turned out not to be. I started with the raspberry ice, but that took more work than expected. It was simple enough to make the syrup and puree it with the berries, but when it came time to pour the mixture through the strainer the seeds kept clogging up the little holes! So I spent almost an hour stirring the stuff in the strainer to get the liquid into the dish to put in the freezer! ACK!

At least it looked good when it came out of the oven.

Then for the tart I used the same recipe for the crust as I did a few weeks ago for the peach tart. It is gluten free and has chocolate - what could go wrong. I tried to make it work better than the last time, but the problem was the raspberries melted when I put them in with the sugar to make the syrup. The extra berries I planned to bake on top melted into the syrup when I mixed the two. So I ended up with several cups of syrup on top of this already wet dough. The crust on the bottom didn't bake, and the filling didn't set up. Not my best baking experience.

Parents didn't mind though, and said it was good. Duane loved the raspberry ice judging by how he ate it when he got home from youth group. So still successful even if it wasn't "practically perfect in every way."

The funniest part of the night was when mom came home from the store. She went to put the ice cream in the freezer. Not knowing what was in the pan on the shelf she when to fling it somewhere else and ended up with not so chilled raspberry stuff all over the freezer. It looks like a bloody mess in there now. But at least if we need a snack in a pinch we can make raspberry snow cones! I'll admit I was ticked when it happened - I worked hard on that stuff! - but everytime we open the freezer door and you see the bright red going all the way down the shelves it's too hard not to laugh!

Gluten Free Shepherd's Pie - http://www.ziplist.com/recipes/1157673-Gluten_Free_Shepherd_s_Pie?return_to=/recipes/box%3Fpage%3D4%26partner_content%3Dziplist%26partner_key%3Dziplist-web%26theme%3Dziplist%26user_scoped_search%3Dtrue&_szp=40285
Raspberry Ice - http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/raspberry-ice

Walt Disney's Jungle Book [Themed Dinner]

I originally posted this on my personal blog (Reitter's Block) on January 25, 2013 as part of my "Tasteful Countdown" project counting down to the family trip to Walt Disney World in October of 2013. This is the project that gave me the idea to create this blog. And then life got in the way... so I am starting it up again in the New Year.

Not sure how authentic it is, but it was good.

Well, I'm becoming pretty consistent and quicker in making dinner. Surprising that I say this after making the meal that I did last night. The movie was Jungle Book which meant we travelled to India with our meal. I planned a menu of "Indian Chicken on white rice with naan" followed by a dessert of rabri.

I started off with the bread and the dessert. The naan dough was easy enough, but the rabri was disgusting. I had a "quick" recipe for it that called for use of powdered milk. Add to that a cup of heavy whipping cream and it smelled like curdled milk. Disgusting. I was really rethinking the idea of dessert!

I learned the hard way I do not multi-task well. I was kneading bread, shelling pistachios (for the dessert), and doing work on the computer. All the while the milk mixture was on the stove. I forgot about it and in under a minute it was burned. Just so you know: powdered sugar+powdered milk+whipping cream=the most disgusting smell ever when burnt. YUCK! Upset and discouraged, I had just enough cream to try again. If that went badly I would make banana splits and dad would just deal with it (by not eating the banana lol).

Not authentic, but just as good, naan. Dad ate all 3 pieces.

So, while I got the second batch on the burner - a much lower heat than before - I finished rolling out the naan and getting it ready to bake. The recipe said that it needed to be served warm, so I planned to bake it beforehand, and then broil it (as the recipe called for) right before serving. The bread came out awesome! The dessert took longer than what the recipe said - but I'm not sure if I did something wrong, or if they were off on their time. I may have cooked it on too low a setting, but I didn't want to screw up the whole thing again. First world problems, I know.

Once the milk stuff - mixed with the pistachios and almonds - was ready to cool I started on the main dish. A lot of interesting flavors mixed together for this. Curry powder, onions, garlic, honey, soy sauce, jalepeno, ginger - and it smelled good. Though, for a while, I thought it smelled more like the cup of noodles I ate in school. Ha ha! Once the flavors melded together the smell did, too. I put the stuff over the chicken and put it in the oven to bake.

Hot and ready to serve!

An hour later we were sitting down to the movie with a very flavorful and fragrant meal. I wasn't too keen on it - I found out I don't like curry flavors - but both mom and dad went back for seconds! Dad ate all three pieces of naan (it's good but too yeasty for me). The dessert was also a hit with the parents - though I still think it looks and smells disgusting - and they're still raving about it. The house still smells like dinner and it's been over 24 hours! Crazy!




Indian Chicken - http://www.grouprecipes.com/61470/indian-chicken.html
Naan - Link no longer exists, sorry! :(
Rabri - Ling no longer exists, sorry! :(

Disney-Pixar's Toy Story [Themed Dinner]

I originally posted this on my personal blog (Reitter's Block) on February 23, 2013 as part of my "Tasteful Countdown" project counting down to the family trip to Walt Disney World in October of 2013. This is the project that gave me the idea to create this blog. And then life got in the way... so I am starting it up again in the New Year.

Pizza, Cake, and a movie, what could be better?

January 31st marked Duane's 18th birthday. It also landed on a Thursday, so we mixed the two together. Duane's big party would happen that weekend, so we did a small deal with just us and his best friend. It worked out great because Toy Story was one of his favorites when he was small - and it has that "army man" element so we could still do the "Go Army" so it wasn't totally cheesey.

Well, there was cheese - I made homemade pizzas. Thanks to my awesome new KitchenAid pizza dough was so easy! I loved how simple it was, and for the first time of me making the dough I have to say it was excellent. I used a recipe a friend gave me, but didn't put in the total amount of yeast that it called for. It still rose well, and it didn't taste yeasty. A win-win for me as I hate the taste of yeast!

I forgot to save some white frosting for stars on the blue.

I also baked a cake from scratch - the first one I did the night before and it didn't go very well. I tried another recipe the day of and it came out better than the first, but I think I'm over mixing with the KitchenAid. I will have to keep working on it. However, I loved how the camo effect came out. That's right, I made a camo cake! The cake was green, brown, and black inside. It was frosted red white and blue and had toy army men in honor of both the movie and Duane's love of the Army.

The cake was two layers and had a chocolate mousse filling. It was pretty good and I'm not a cake fan.

You might be asking what my mom ate with all of this gluten loaded food - for the cake she had the mousse only (we had a lot more mousse than we did cake. It was not what we planned. Not sure what happened there. For the pizza we tried the pinterest craze of the cauliflower crust. It really works and it tastes great -and I hate cauliflower! Mom was happy enough with it - she still misses the regular crust, but at least she's found something that she not only can stomach but likes! Just a tip - use a ricer not a grater. The ricer looks to give you more cauli-meal for the crust.

With two 18 year old boys plus the three adults, we ate all but a couple of slices of pizza (we made four plus moms!) and ate half a cake. All in all a success even with the cake issues.

Very proud of how the camo came out! AWESOME!

Pizza Crust recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/basic-pizza-dough-recipe/index.html
Cauliflower crust recipe: http://whatsfordinner-momwhatsfordinner.blogspot.com/2012/06/cheesy-garlic-cauliflower-bread-sticks.html

*Note: the family drama started the night after this. I was unsure that I wanted to post this blog post, but honestly the pizza is one we make often because it is that good... and the camo cake is too cook not to share.