A Tasteful Countdown: Sleeping Beauty

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

WDW 2013: A Tasteful Countdown

With Disney almost a year away, I have been trying to find a way to get the family more involved in counting down. With all of us being adults (or nearly so) some of the tried and true methods (countdown chaings, for example) I was at a loss... until I read an article by Chip and Co. that mentioned doing a family movie night and have dinner that went with the movie. That sounded like something I would be a bit more adult than most, so after talking with the family that's what we decided.

It also helps because mom, the main cook of the house, is busy on Thursday, and this would give her a bit of a break (it was normally taco night, and dad was getting tired of tacos). So I think that was the true selling point.

Tonight was the first themed dinner night, and I have to say it was an amazing success! 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! Next week is Pinocchio and I'm actually excited to tackle the recipes I've chosen! But you'll have to wait and see what that is!

Stay tuned each week for the latest edition of our cooking adventure!
Countdown with us by following me on Pinterest!