Saturday, January 5, 2013

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

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year!

Well, so much for December posts! I just got so busy and I swear we skipped a week in there somewhere. Christmas came so fast and now it and New Year's is gone. What happened?!

After my last posts I fought the second wave of that stupid cold that has been hanging around. So far it hasn't been back, but man it seems everyone got sick in the last month. It's been nasty. When I wasn't sick I was busy with work. Tours were lining up and we were looking to be very busy. Danny is back for a while so we were able to open up huge blocks of time - double the work for everyone. Problem was we didn't have much snow, and Seward had none. We had to cancel the first weekend of tours. It was disappointing.

The week leading up to Christmas was busy with parties and gift wrapping and cookie baking and work. The Sunday before was the "office" Christmas Party at the Seavey's. My first, and it was fun. I got to chat with Janine and heckle the others as they play ping pong (I can heckle, but I can't play lol). Mitch and Janine gave me a really nice gift and I was touched that they did something like that for each of us. I really do love my job, mainly because of the people I work for.

Christmas Eve we went to First Baptist Kenai for the Candlelight service. Mom and Dad's church did their Christmas service Sunday night, so it was nice to have them in the old Church again. After the service we finished the baking and putting gifts out and then it was bedtime. Christmas morning we got up, played with teh dogs and then broke into Luke Chapter 2 before opening gifts. The dogs got theirs first so they wouldn't be all up in the tree trying to find theirs.

Gifts for everyone this year were awesome - considering we were all saying that it was going to be a "lean" Christmas gift wise I guess we all decided to get stuff the other person actually asked for. Ha ha! I ended up with a professional grade flash for my new camera, dad got his sound system for the boat, mom got a laptop, and Duane got stuff that he'll be able to use until (and after) bootcamp. It was a relaxing day for the four of us - dad and duane plowed the driveway, and we all got a turn playing our new wii games we got in our stockings, and it was an excellent prime rib.

Since then I've had a photoshoot, and lots of work, so I haven't had a lot of time for myself. Today was the first day I just vegged (once I got the go ahead to take part of the day off becuase the phone and email were both dead!).

I took a break from doing the Disney dinners over the holidays, but tomorrow we start again - so hopefully I can get that post out in a timely fashion.

Happy New Year! Let's make 2013 the best year yet!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

30 Days of Carolling: Day 4

Christmas music you listen to when you're down

Normally if I'm in a funk at Christmas time it's because a lot of people are around and I don't do well with crowds - even family. They're loud, over dramatic, stressfilled... you get the picture... so I guess the best song for that would be ray stevens' "I Won't Be Home For Christmas".

Unfortunately youtube doesn't have this song, but trust me, it's a good one.

Since I couldn't find that one, here's another awesome song by ray for Christmas.

Monday, December 3, 2012

30 Days of Carolling: Day 3

Song you listen to when you're feeling good.

That would be Alan Jackson's "Santa's Comin' In A Pick Up Truck". It's so much fun, and a great childhood memory. It's the song that made me an Alan Jackson fan because he sang with the CHIPMUNKS! When you're a kid that's COOL! Ha ha! And with the way the weather's shaping up this year, it just might have to happen this way here in AK!

Sunday, December 2, 2012

30 Days of Carolling: Day 2

Least favorite Christmas Carol

Again I assume this is meaning any Christmas song. And that honor goes to Paul McCartney's "Simply Having A Wonderful Christmas Time" - seriously the most annoying and stupid song I could think of. I LOVE Christmas music, and was worried I wouldn't be able to find one for this prompt, and then this song came on a commercial and I said "BINGO". It's just so dumb, uncreative... and the "music video" is just... yeah.

Ugh.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

30 Days of Carolling: Day 1

Favorite Carol of All Time

I'm assuming that this doesn't mean just the traditional, but I guess mine is one of those classic/tradition/old Christmas songs. O Holy Night is timeless and the perfect song to reflect on why many of us celebrate the Christmas season (as opposed to the many other holidays, or the commercial holiday season). So many famous singers have done this song, and done it well, but the one that I blast all throughout the year - not just the days leading up to Christmas - is Josh Groban's version. His voice is amazing, and for some reason just seems to be the *right* way for this song to be sung... I don't know what it is, really.

30 Days of Carolling

Day 1 - Your Favourite Christmas Carol Of All Time
Day 2 - Your Least Favourite Christmas Carol Of All Time
Day 3 - A Christmas Carol You Listen to When Feeling Good
Day 4 - A Christmas Carol You Listen to When Feeling Down
Day 5 - A Christmas Carol That Reminds You of Someone
Day 6 - A Christmas Carol That Reminds You of Somewhere
Day 7 - A Christmas Carol That Reminds You of Your Childhood
Day 8 - A Christmas Carol Where You Know All the Words
Day 9 - A Christmas Carol Where You Always Mess Up the Words
Day 10 - Favourite Christmas Album
Day 11 - Least Favourite or Most Disappointing Christmas Album
Day 12 - A Christmas Carol Sung by Your Favourite Singer (Male)
Day 13 - A Christmas Carol Sung by Your Favourite Singer (Female)
Day 14 - A Christmas Carol as Sung By a Forgotten/Timeless Boy Band of the 1990's or 2000's
Day 15 - A Christmas Carol as Sung By a Forgotten/Timeless Girl Band of the 1990's or 2000's
Day 16 - A Christmas Carol That Best Describes Your Life Right Now
Day 17 - A Christmas Carol You Used to Hate, But Eventually Grew to Appreciate
Day 18 - A Christmas Carol You Used to Love, But Can't Stand Hearing Anymore
Day 19 - Favourite Christmas Carol Performed by a Choir
Day 20 - Favourite Christmas Carol Performed by an Orchestra
Day 21 - A Christmas Carol: Disney Style
Day 22 - A Christmas Carol Used in a Movie
Day 23 - A Christmas Carol Used in a Television Show
Day 24 - A Christmas Carol Used in a Commercial
Day 25 - A Christmas Carol You Would Dance Wildly To
Day 26 - A Christmas Carol You Shouldn't Dance Wildly To
Day 27: A Christmas Carol You Wish Radio Stations Would Play MORE
Day 28 - A Christmas Carol You Wish Radio Stations Would Play LESS
Day 29 - Your Favourite Lyric From a Christmas Carol
Day 30 - A Christmas Carol for a Character from Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"