Vegetarian Black Bean Soup

Shutters - Old Port Royale, Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort



I have to admit that we have yet to eat at Shutters. We've thought about it. Reviews didn't seem that great, which is weird for any Disney food joint, so we went elsewhere. After trying this soup I'm thinking we should give Shutters a fair chance. Yes, it has a long list of ingredients, but all good soup is full of seasoning! Don't be overwhelmed by the ingredient list, it's down to earth and you probably have it all at home anyway...no running to Whole Foods looking for an obscure spice you've never heard or or spending 30 bucks on a meat that you can't pronounce. Nope, I bet you have it all at home right now. On top of possible, it was easy and good! 4 mickeys for you soup!

Anna Potatoes

Concourse Steakhouse - Disney's Contemporary Resort




Confession. This doesn't look at pretty as I wanted it to. Shocking right? It didn't get all brown on the top, but it was done. The potatoes are layered with a cheese/spice combo and backed in a cast iron skillet. They were good but nothing amazing. 3 mickeys.

Pollo a las Rajas

San Angel Inn Restaurante - EPCOT
I ate here as a child and hated it...back in my mexican food hating days. I'm a much bigger fan as an adult. My husband and I even ate at this restaurant on our honeymoon. From this visit I learned that I still don't like mole sauce.


To give you an overview: baked and seasoned chicken sits on top of a red pepper, poblano, onion, chorizo creamy sauce. It was really good! My husband said it needed more chorizo. I don't like the texture of chorizo, although the flavor is good, so I was fine with it the way it was. It takes a bit of time to prep since you have to saute the poblano until the skin starts to peel off. Other than that the prep/cook time wasn't too oppressive. 4 mickeys!

Little Nutty Salad

Whispering Canyon Cafe - Disney's Wilderness Lodge

An absolute favorite restuarant (and resort ) of our families. We often hit up Whispering
Canyon Cafe for breakfast. Unlimited mickey waffles? Who can turn that down?!

Do not fear, the recipe comes in 3 chunks, but no piece is complicated or takes very long. It can take substitutes easy; For instance, I used leftover crockpot chicken in place of grilled chicken. Prepping the walnuts is easy, just cover them in maple syrup and bake for a bit! The Roasted Walnut Vinaigrette Dressing is quick to make and very good. I look forward to the leftover for lunch tomorrow! 4 mickeys!

Monterey Jack Cheese Grits

Yachtsman Steakhouse - Disney's Yacht Club Resort
My husband and I have a personal goal of eating at every restaurant on Disney grounds, at least within FL. We have yet to get to the Yachstman Steakhouse, but it's on the Disney bucketlist.



We recently moved to the South, so it only seemed fitting to make some grits, Disney style!
 The recipe was easy to make and wasn't bad. We had some cheesy grits made by a church member that were to die for a few weeks ago. I was hoping these grits would equal up, if not succeed, but indeed, southern cooking still won out. So, 3 mickeys for you grits.

Tri-Color Angel Hair Pasta with Chicken Tenders and Pesto Sauce

Caffe Villa Verde - DisneyLand Hotel



I made this last night. Yes, I know, that "angel-hair pasta" looks awful lot like rotini. You would be right. Here's the thing. I have looked for YEARS to find angel hair pasta in tri-color. I have even asked at specialty places. Clearly Disney magic makes this only there. It was go with shape or make. I went with make to attempt to replicate the recipe as close as possible. The chicken was pretty basic. The pesto sauce is good, but it called so so much basil for the pesto that I almost killed my basil plants trying to even get the taste of basil in there. I'm still not sure they will recover! If it had more basil it would have been better. Overall, I give it an average 3 mickeys.

Glorious Tomatoes

Napa Rose - Disney's Grand Californian




Back on the Disney cooking horse, I attempted these glorious tomatoes (true story) last night. I decided they needed to be stacked up all chef-like on my last Disney trip souvenirs, these awesome plates! Perhaps my food photos will now come on Disney dishes only! Regardless of the dish (can you tell I love them?) The food was amazing. You need to be prepared to make it in four parts - the blue cheese croutons, the vinaigrette, the crisping of the bacon, and then the assembly. The assembly is the easy part. FYI, you can make the croutons earlier that day and the vinaigrette up to 2 days before. That saves you a ton of time when you go to assemble it. We ate it until we were ill. So. So. Good. Think blue cheese sourdough crouton, fresh tomatoes, Dijon vinaigrette, onions, more blue cheese, applewood bacon, fresh chives and basil...oh yum yum yum. Totally work the effort. 5 mickeys!!!!

Basil Pesto

Narcoossee's - Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa


I have to admit I made this recipe a LONG time ago so my memory is vague. While making the same recipe last night for a different dish I didn't have nearly enough basil and so my judgement is a bit clouded. From what I can remember it was good but very average. So with that, I give it 3 mickeys.

Coconut Squares

Papeete Bay Verandah - Disney's Polynesian Resort


I had such high hopes for these. My husband loves coconut, I however am not the biggest fan. It seems so simple...too simple. They came out looking like this. Maybe they should look nicer, I've never really seen them in Disney form. After 1 taste my husband was done. They didn't turn your stomach, but they were SO bland. I melted some chocolate and slathered it on them and that helped a ton. Even with the chocolate bath I wouldn't make them again. Sorry coconut.

2 mickeys.

Grapefruit Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Hollywood Brown Derby - MGM Studios



This is one of our all-time favorite cakes in the park, but somehow baking it as home just doesn't do it justice. Oh yes, it was still very good, but it was missing something...perhaps some Disney magic? I'm guessing is a secret ingredient or two left out of the recipe...after all, Disney can't give away all their secrets!
4 mickeys

Orchard Favorite

The Land Grille Room - EPCOT

Yes yes, I know, it's been about a year and a half since I posted anything. You probably thought I gave up - but I didn't!! We moved and life got crazy, and honestly, we've been trying to eat much healthier (sorry Disney, healthy food is not very common in your cookbooks). While we may not be eating Disney-style every day, I still pull out the cookbooks for special occasions. I will try to catch you up on the last few recipes and start adding more and I go.

First off, take a look at my oldest cookbook, once my moms.


It's really seen some use, from time with my mom, to the next generation using it. After all, it was made in 1986. No cook/baker can claim to be so unless their cookbooks look like this. Perfect cookbooks means you never open them :-)


Let's get to food now, shall we?




Crepes. I love crepes. These were good, I was a fan. It's really a basic cottage cheese/sour cream/strawberry crepe. The crepes themselves were better than the filling. It was above average but didn't blow my mickey ears off.
4 mickeys

Apple Pie

Plaza Inn
DISNEYLAND Park

A good apple pie...I mean, how can you go wrong with apple pie?!! There was nothing special about it, but it was good, so we gave it 4 mickeys.

Sauce Verde

Special Events
Disneyland Hotel

The recipe suggests to use this sauce with "broiled fresh fish." I came close...broiled frozen fish. It was good with the fish. We both thought it would also be good with chicken or pork. The sauce is make of mayonnaise, spinach, parsley, scallions, red wine vinegar, and spices.

4 mickeys.

Chile Sauce

Special Events
Disneyland Hotel

We loved this sauce. We used it on top of burritos and omelets. It worked well both ways. The heat all depends on the chile's that you use. I used poblano, jalapeno, and some other green chile. Next time I will use a bit more spice.

4 mickeys.

Marinara Sauce

Disney MGM Studios Theme Park

I rarely make my own spaghetti sauce, but I decided to give it a go. This was a great sauce. The only thing that would make it better would be to add some salt and spice.

4 mickeys.

Vegetable Frittata

Grand Floridian Cafe
Disney's Grand Floridan Beach Resort

I made this for Easter lunch today. You can see the hashbrowns and turkey bacon next door to it. I didn't garnish it with the zucchini because my husband is not a big zucchini fan. It was pretty average. We added shredded cheddar and my husband added some hot sauce. It needs someone else to kick it up a notch. Only 3 mickeys.

Derby Vegetables

Disney MGM Studios

Guess what. This was simple. This was amazing. Here's the recipe. You're going to want to make this as your veggie dish one day.


1 bunch broccoli, tops only
34 C carrots
1 large red bell pepper
2 C small button mushrooms
1/2 bunch cilantro(that's the kicker)
4 oz butter or margarine
                                                                                    Salt and Pepper


Cut broccoli into florets. Peel carrots and slice, first lengthwise, and then in 1/8-inch slices. Wash mushrooms and dice red pepper. Roughly chop cilantro and set aside.
Blanch broccoli and carrots in boiling salted water until about half-cooked. Drain well and allow to steam dry in a colander. Melt butter or margarine in a skillet and add vegetables an cilantro. Quickly saute until almost tender.

Season with alt and pepper and serve immediately.

Note: Vegetables should remain a little crunchy for best flavor. Serve with additional butter or margarine, if desired.

Mussels Mariniere

Shipyard Inn
Disneyland Hotel

When the Disneyland hotel was expanded they added a Marina. Thus Shipyard Inn was built in 1970. It closed on Jan. 3rd, 1999 and was replaced by Hooks Pointe Restaurant and Wine Cellar in April of 1999. Thank you to http://davelandweb.com/disneylandhotel/ for the background information.


I didn't eat this, so once again my husband was the guinea pig. He wasn't impressed. It smelled really good, but the meat didn't hold the flavor and so it was very bland. 2 mickeys.

Mini Chicken Brochettes with Sweet and Sour Sauce

Special Events
Disneyland Hotel

I was not impressed. Not impressed at all. It had no seasoning, no flavor. The sweet and sour sauce was horrible. While this recipe is considered an appetizer, I still wouldn't suggest it. Sorry all.

1 mickey.

Muffuletta

Tony's Town Square Restaurant
MAGIC KINGDOM

There is nothing hard about putting together a sandwich, but it's all about the ingredients you combine. This sandwich is on muffuletta loaf, stuffed with mortadella,Genoa salami, smoked ham, mozzarella and provolone cheese, and green olives with oil.

It was great! I'm not big into all the salamis, but it had good flavor. 4 mickeys.