Mushroom and Barley Soup

Village Restaurant - Walt Disney World Shopping Village

This soup is amazing. I don't even like mushrooms but I liked this soup. I used whole barley instead of pearl barley, but it was just as good I would think. I'm going to start posting the recipe for any 5 mickey recipes, so here it is!

1/2 cup pearl barley
1 clover garlic, minced
1/2 coup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
4 tablespoons butter
2 quarts (8 cups) chicken broth
3/4 pound mushrooms, chopped (about 4 cups)
Salt and white pepper to taste

Soak barley in water overnight. Saute garlic, onion and celery in butter until tender. Drain barley and add to vegetables. Saute 10 minutes longer until barley becomes thick. Add chicken broth and mushrooms and simmer, covered, until barley is tender, about 1 hour. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

French Toast

Terrace Cafe - Contemporary Resort

This french toast is very over-powering. It's salty and extremely sugary. We could barely get 2 pieces down. This is a short blog, but we only give it 2 mickeys.

Polynesian Sweet and Sour Chicken

Coral Isle Cafe - Polynesian Village Resort

Not hard, tastes good, pretty standard. That really sums it up. It was yummy, but it didn't blow my socks off. The chicken is not coated with any kind of breading, so that makes it a bit healthier. I do think my Grandma Cook's sweet and sour recipe is a bit better though. I give it 3 mickeys.

Beef Lexington

Liberty Tree Tavern - Liberty Square, Magic Kingdom

History: By far this is one of my favorite restaurants in the magic kingdom. My meals here have always been wonderful. I feel like it is a hidden gem in the Magic Kingdom. This dish is no longer served.

Basically this dish is beef over rice with a Madeira wine sauce. It's good. Mine looked a bit pink only because I didn't have the brown food coloring, but it tasted fine regardless. I used stew meat instead of the tenderloin medallions. I only did this because they were thawed and needed to be cooked ASAP. I wouldn't recommend it with stew meat as I'm sure the medallions would be much tenderer (is that a word? My spell check didn't complain...). It was good, but nothing amazing. I give it 3 mickeys.

Marinated Mushrooms & Vinaigrette Dressing

Pueblo Room - Contemporary Resort

So this recipe comes with a side comment. I don't like mushrooms (see my other blog). I tolerate mushrooms when they are cut up and cooked with something in a sauce that masks their flavor. This recipe did none of that. I'm not a good judge for this recipe. Why did I even bother to make it then? Well, 2 reasons. 1) I am determined to cook EVERYTHING in the cookbook, and 2) my husband likes mushrooms, so I had a non-biased taste tester. I am also committed to try EVERYTHING in the book. I tried it...and spit it out. Yep, I still don't like raw mushrooms. Greg, however, LOVED them and said they were great. The Vinaigrette dressing that they marinate in is also a separate recipe in the book. The dressing is good! So, from my perspective, the dressing receives 3 mickeys and the mushrooms 0 mickeys, because, well, they're raw mushrooms. Greg gives the dressing 3 mickeys and the mushrooms 4 mickeys, so we will go with his rating today! Oh, and sorry about the horrid picture, I just couldn't get decent lighting that night.

Chocolate Layer Cake

Coral Isle Cafe & South Seas Dining Room - Polynesian Village Resort

While this recipe looks amazing and was fairly simple, it really lacked flavor. When you look at it you expect an explosion of sweet, moist, chocolately goodness in your mouth. You get a dry, bland chocolate flavor. It just didn't live up to its appearance. Oh well. I give it 2 mickeys. A Betty Crocker cake mix and jar icing would have been sweeter and moister.

Tourtiere

Le Cellier Restaurant - Canada Showcase, EPCOT

History: Le Cellier Restaurant has made a slight name change to Le Cellier Steakhouse. This dish is no longer on their menu.

Recipe: This recipe was easy and good! it is basically a dry pork pot pie with carrot, onion, celery, and potatoes. My only complaint is that it is VERY dry. It needs some kind of sauce or gravy...something to add some moisture to your mouth. I give it 3 mickeys.

Polynesian Braised Pork

Papeete Bay Verandah - Polynesian Village Resort

History: See previous posts

For the most part, this recipe is simple. Make sure you read ahead to notice that you need to marinade the pork for 2 days before cooking. I don't know why, but I have issues with aluminum foil. It's supposed to be every cooks best friend, but it's my worst enemy. In the normal world the foil holds in the heat and helps to cook the food faster. In my world, it adds 45 minutes of cook time. I don't get it, but it's a proven fact. So, if you have my luck, you need to cook it for 1 hr, 30 minutes, not 50. It had a good taste but didn't soak up enough of the marinade. If I did it over again, I would reserve some marinade to heat and poor over the pork when serving. I give the pork 2 mickeys for blandness, but it could rise to 4 with the extra marinade added.

New York Style Cheesecake & Strawberry Topping

The Land Grille Room, Farmers Market - The Land, EPCOT

Ok, so this recipe really ticked me off. First off, I love cheesecake...so does Greg. I was super excited to make a yummy cheesecake after the awesome marble cheesecake recipe I made a few weeks ago. The crust was easy. The filling was not as easy. First off, you have to find farmers cheese...almost impossible. I did manage to stop by a Giant Eagle MarketPlace that is 40 minutes from my house which advertises 400+ cheeses on a huge billboard...I finally found my farmers cheese. However, it's supposed to be soft so you can just whip it up with the cream cheese. One problem...farmers cheese is not soft like cream cheese...so you have to warm it a tad. It melted some. Because the recipe does not call for you to bake it in a tray of water...I didn't. The outside was so overcooked that it had a thick, sandy texture and the the inside wasn't completely cooked. So call me a bad cook, or call the recipe stupid, but I did just fine on the last cheesecake so I'm thinking it's not me. It's sad too, because the strawberry topping was pretty good, and doesn't my picture look awesome? Yeah, it's like wax food...great to look at, nasty to eat. Even the ok cooked parts weren't sweet. We ate the middle out and threw out the edges. Oh well. We give the Topping 3 mickeys, but the cake only gets 2...and that's if it would have cooked up correctly.

Polynesian Village Zucchini

Polynesian Village Resort

When I cooked this recipe and sat it down in front of my husband, his exact words were "who put snot on my plate?" Maybe it looks that way, and if you don't like zucchini then you probably won't like it. Coming from a zucchini lover though, it tasted awesome! It was super easy to make and tasted great, so I finished off my husbands portion too! I give it 5 mickeys...even though Greg would say 0 :-)

Baked Lobster Tail with Saffron Rice

Disney Cruise Line, Disney Magic - Captain's Gala Diner

I went off schedule and jumped to one of the newer Disney cookbooks in light of our Valentine's day weekend cabin get-a-way. I found lobster tail as Aldi (of all places) that was decently priced and thought it would be a good "gift" to my husband. It turns out I might be allergic to lobster as I felt miserable for 2 days after eating it. Oh well, it might just have been worth it.

The recipe was actually fairly easy, but required some expensive ingredients (i.e. lobster tail, saffron.) The rice was AMAZING. I would remake this rice without the lobster and still be in 7th heaven. If you're looking for a special meal to make that tastes and looks like you have years of culinary experience, this is it! We give it 5 mickeys!

Steak Diane

Lake Buena Vista Club - Lake Buena Vista Communities

History: The gulf club opened in 1974. The diner was known for it's coat requirement. It was renamed the Disney village Clubhouse in 1988, changing it to a more family oriented meal with casual dress. The entire club closed in 1994 and was rebuilt into the Disney Institute.

The recipe took a decent amount of time to make and wasn't all that exciting. I think it would be just as easy to make a steak and pour a red wine and mushroom sauce on top of it. It was good, but nothing special. Of course, I didn't set it on fire the way you're supposed to...We give it 3 mickeys.

Stuffed French Toast

Papeete Bay Verandah and Coral Isle Cafe - Polynesian Village Resort

History: As previously stated, the Papeete Bay Verandah is now O'hana, and the Coral Isle Cafe is now the Kona Cafe. The Kona Cafe still sells this item, renamed as Tonga Toast.

We LOVE this recipe. It is by no means healthy, but extremely good and easy. Just stuff some bananas in sourdough bread, dip it in a milk/egg mixture, and deep fry. Drain and cover with a cinnamon sugar mixture. Absolutely amazing. We give it 5 mickeys.

Steak En Croute + Bordelaise Sauce

Steerman's Quarters - Empress Lilly, Walk Disney World Shopping Village

(Bordelaise Sauce) - Chefs de France, French Showcase, EPCOT. Gulf Coast Room, Contemporary Resort.

History: The Empress Lilly was a boat at the shopping village that was one of the first breakfast character dining experiences. Steerman's Quarters was for diner only. It was one of a select group of FL restaurants that served certified Angus beef. The boat opened in 1977 and closed in 1995, reopening as Fulton's Crab House in 1996. Chefs de France is still in buisness while the Gulf Coast Room has been replaced (see older post for more Gulf Coast Room history).

This recipe was actually fairly easy despite it's appearance as difficult. It was good, but would better with a few alterations. First, I didn't have puff pastry ( I thought I did when I started) so I used phyllo dough instead. It would be better with puff pastry. Next, it's a HUGE honking mound of meat...I would make them smaller. The Bordelaise sauce that you put on it takes 2 hours to simmer...something I didn't pay attention to ahead of time, so mine simmered for about 45 min. I give it 3 mickeys, but with the changes I would up it to 4!

Polynesian Village Fried Bananas

Papeete Bay Verandah - Polynesian Village Resort

History: This restaurant had breakfast and lunch buffets. In the evening it had a polynesian revue. In 1994 it closed and reopened as O'hana (a fav. of mine!).

While this was a super easy recipe, and tasty, I would make a few changes. The coating was excellent but overpowered by the banana taste. I think I would cut the banana in half length-wise also, or else into little bit-sized rounds to coat and fry in order to get more of the cinnamon-sugar flavor. I give it 3 mickeys, but with the alternations I would give it 4.

Crystal Palace Barbecued Chicken

Crystal Palace - Main Street, U.S.A., Magic Kingdom

The Crystal Palace is a buffet at the magic kingdom. This specific dish is currently not on the menu, but it could be rotated through, who knows!

While the BBQ sauce was good and so was the chicken, it took a lot of effort to throw all this together when you could have just poured a bottle of BBQ sauce on it and enjoyed it just as much. Oh well. I give it 3 mickeys.

Woodsman

The Land Grille Room - The Land, EPCOT
As mentioned before, the Land Grille Room has changed names, but the food is still great. This dish is no longer served there.

I greatly enjoyed this dish. Greg didn't like it as much as I did. It was easy to make for the most part. It takes a bit of time to cook, so you have to start at least 2 1/2 hours in advance, not counting the prep time. It had a flavor that you didn't expect. I looks like beef stew, but the dill flavor explodes out of it and the sour cream really makes it yummy. I would give it 4 mickeys, but Greg gave it 3, so let's just call it 3 1/2 mickeys.

Apples Supreme

Top of the World - Contemporary Resort
Garden Gallery - The Disney Inn
1994

History: The Disney Inn was originally the Golf Resort (opened in 1973) and changed to the Disney inn in 1986. The garden Gallery focused on American cuisine. It was leased by the U.S. government and used for military personnel in 1984 and renamed "Shades of Green." It is currently closed and torn down for remodeling.
*** Thanks to WaltDatedWorld for this info.

Recipe: What a delicous and easy recipe! The top crusty stuff is so simple, yet amazing! I think if I were to give it 5 mickeys then I would take out the graham cracker crust and add more of the top crust to the bottom. I highly recommend this recipe!

I give this recipe 4 mickeys

Italian Potato Soup

Terrace Cafe - Contemporary Resort

History: The terrace cafe used to feature dinner buffets.

Recipe: This soup was easy to make and very good! The great thing about it was everything in the recipe was stuff you would easily find in your fridge or cabinets.
We give this recipe 4 mickeys

French Bread

L'Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante - Italy Showcase, EPCOT

History: This restaurant opened in EPCOT in 1982 as one of the original restaurants of the world showcase. It closed in 2007 after Disney's contract with the company was over. They decided to not renew. According to "yesterland", Disney was dissatisfied with the uneven quality and the company didn't like the dining plan. The current Italian restaurant in it's place is now Tutto Italia Ristorante.

Recipe: This bread is good, but thick. It might be my fault though...I didn't have the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) that it called for, so I made it without it. It had a good flavor regardless of the thickness of the bread. It requires a lot of "punch-and-wait" time.

I give the french bread 3 mickeys