Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [Themed Dinner]

Banyan Beef Skewer, Turkish Stewed Green Beans, and rice.

When you think of Indiana Jones - what do you think of? Snakes? Rats? Nazi's melted faces? Monkey Brains? Yeah, it's not the easiest theme to go with... unless you like Monkey Brains and BBQ'd rat (I don't). So I went with a benign option. With it being The Last Crusade I thought middle eastern meets Germany somehow...

With our themed meals also working towards a countdown to a Disney trip (Disneyland this time) I also decided that we could use a recipe or two from the parks - which comes in handy with Indy as Adventureland's food cart is basically outside of the Indiana Jones ride. So off I went to scour the internet for inspiration.

I came away with the Banyan Beef Skewer recipe for our main course. Anytime beef is involved I'm pretty much there. And then I went with a Turkish stewed green beans dish and rice for the side dishes. It tied together very well. The family liked it (I didn't, but that's because I'm picky). There was just enough kick in the sauce to grab your attention and get you ready to fight off the Nazi's to save the world and find the Holy Grail.

The colors and smell were divine.

For dessert we traveled to Germany as I created a Bienenstich, which translated means Bee Sting Cake. I was very nervous on how it would turn out as I am not the best at doing cake layers with filling, but I was determined to get it right. I spent most of Friday afternoon and evening preparing it. After it set overnight I was excited (and still nervous) to serve it, but all things considered (I put a little TOO much filling) it came out great! And I even enjoyed the cake! We all agree it could easily be a frozen/ice cream like cake. YUM! Germany, you do things fantastically!

Because Mom is Gluten Intolerant she couldn't have the Bienenstich, so I made her a gluten free black forest type cake. She ate it before I could snap a picture.

Recipes used to create this menu:
Banyan Beef Skewers from Bengal BBQ
Turkish Stewed Green Beans
Bienenstich from EPCOT's Biergarten Restaurant
1-minute Black Forest Cake (Gluten Free)

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! :(

Walt Disney's Snow White & The Seven Dwarfs [Themed Meal]

I originally posted this on my personal blog (Reitter's Block) on November 1, 2012 as the start of my "Tasteful Countdown" project counting down to the family trip to Walt Disney World in November 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.

Tonight's theme was Snow White - what better way to start than with the movie that started it all (yes Mickey'd been around for a while, but we're going for feature length). I worked for a week finding the perfect menu (thank you, Pinterest) and decided on Pork for the main dish, and of course apples for dessert.



Pie ala Apple pre-baked.
Lookin' good "raw"!

I started cooking on Wednesday, baking (my first) apple pie while handing out candy to Trick or Treaters. A process that should've been an hour, or at the most two, turned into four due to all the starting and stopping. Still I got that and extra pie dough done to finish the baking and cooking for Thursday.

Today I came home from working at the office to bake my second dessert - "Pie ala Apple". I only had a couple of hours before I needed to head over to the courthouse to watch a long time friend get sworn in as someone able to actually "practice" law. So very excited for him! Congratulations Paul!

Once that was over and we were back home I started work on our main dish. I chose the "Cranberry Apple Glazed Pork Loin" mainly because it tied into the movie and it sounded amazing. (Wondering why I chose Pork for Snow White? How about the whole part of the huntsman using a pig heart to trick the queen into believing that he'd killed the princess. "...Snow White still lives, fairest in the land. 'Tis the heart of a pig you hold in your hand.")

The finished pork loin. So good!

I'm not a big fan of cranberry (I hate it) but when it's paired with apple it's edible. It took an hour and a half for it to cook (with me basting every 10-15 minutes) and the whole house smelled divine! Our sides were wild rice and almonds, and buttered carrots. Perfectly woodsy and in tune with the movie. The whole family scarfed it down, and we enjoyed watching the original Disney Classic.

For being the first time for making apple pie, that, too, came out well... and we all ate way more than we should have of the sweet treats! But it was totally worth it!