Aladdin Dinner

For Christmas this year, we got an amazing gift basket full of fun foods to use for an Aladdin dinner from Tim's brother Bill!  

Well this week Bill and his girlfriend Megan were in Helena so we decided to have an Arabian Night!

For dinner we had Magic Carpet's Carried Away Curry, Agrabah Kabobs, Jasmine's Hummus and Naan, Royal Vizier Cocktail, and Fig and Goat Cheese Bites.  It was a little out of my comfort zone as far as cooking was concerned but I think it went really well!!

For the Magic Carpet's Carried Away Curry, Bill got us this packet where it's basically all included.  So we just followed the instructions on the packaging and I made some white rice to go with it.   It was pretty tasty!  AND my first taste of curry!

Agrabah Kabobs: (did you know there are like 12 ways to spell Kabobs..?  I guess the correct way for a middle eastern dish is Kebab.  But there's also like Kabab and other weird ways!)

I took 3 chicken breasts and cut them into bite sized pieces.  I seasoned them with salt and pepper and cooked them until golden brown on the outside.  I let them cool down and Tim put them on skewers.  To keep them warm until dinner, I kept them in the oven (which was still warm from making the Fig bites).  

I heated up the Tagine sauce in a saucepan for four minutes and served on the side.

Jasmine's Hummus and Naan: 

This meal was inspired by the recipe in my Disney Princess Cookbook which can be found on Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1423163249/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1/176-5742804-2149857?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=1VEXB11CBKDKD5MSK2Q1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=1944687542&pf_rd_i=1423601734

Ingredients: 

1 15oz can of garbanzo beans (drained first)

1/4 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

2 Tablespoons of lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

Directions:

Mix all of the ingredients in a food processor until smooth

Serve with triangle pieces of Naan

Royal Vizier Cocktail:

Here's where we found the idea: http://www.incrediblethings.com/food/disney-princess-cocktails/ plus many, many more!!

4 oz Spiced Dark Captain Morgan

6 oz Pineapple Juice

1 oz Grenadine

Bill and Megan holding their fabulous cocktails!

And for dessert we had Fig and Goat Cheese Bites!
I used these directions with my own ingredients: http://www.tablespoon.com/recipes/cranberry-brie-bites/f6c8ca72-a175-482f-a0ca-8bd07c1075d1

Ingredients:
Frozen Phyllo Dough Sheets (thawed)
Goat Cheese
Fig and Muscat Wine Preserve

Directions:
1.   Preheat the oven to 375 degrees
2.   Cut the phyllo dough into 3x3 squares and push into cupcake circles in your cupcake pan
3.   Fill phyllo dough bowls with a slice of goat cheese and a spoonful of the preserve. (you can use as much as you like but the more preserve you use, the more likely it will spill over)
4.   Place and the oven and cook for 10 minutes or until golden brown
5.   Enjoy!

Toy Story 2 Dinner

We had another great meal tonight!  Woody's Cowboy Chili, Al's Chicken Bites, Jessie's Rootin' Tootin' Root Beer and Cream Soda, Stinky Pete's Gold Corn Nuggets, Couch Potato Cheetos and Cowboy Badges! YUMMMMMMMM!!!!

We got the idea for Woody's Cowboy Chili from our Disney Christmas Cookbook but tweaked it just a tad.

Ingredients:

1 lb. lean ground beef

1 chopped medium yellow onion

1- 14.5oz can of stewed tomatoes

1- 8oz can of tomato sauce

1- 15oz can of dark red kidney beans (drained)

1- 15oz can of light red kidney beans (drained) 

1- 14oz of beef broth

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 tablespoon of ground coffee

Shredded cheddar on top

Directions:

1. Place the beef and onion in a large pot and cook over medium-high heat until meat is brown and the onions are tender.

2.  Add the remaining ingredients except for the cheddar cheese to the pot.  Stir and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.

3. Cover partially and let simmer for 45 minutes.  Serve with shredded cheese on top!   

You can find the original recipe in this cookbook: http://www.amazon.com/Merry-Christmas-Cookbook-Disney-Group/dp/1423163222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421805293&sr=8-1&keywords=a+merry+christmas+cookbook

Stinky Pete's Gold Corn Nuggets:

We just boiled up some frozen corn and added a little butter.  You can add some pepper too!!

Al's Chicken Bites:

We bought frozen Chicken nuggets and cooked them according to their directions.

Couch Potato Cheetos… they… well… they're… cheet-os! 

Jessie's Rootin' Tootin' Root Beer and Cream Soda:

Cowboy Badges:
I found this recipe online but we halved it and changed some things.  If you want to see the original, here is the link: http://www.inkatrinaskitchen.com/2011/12/best-sugar-cookie-recipe-and-kitchenaid_28.html  (It's an awesome recipe!!)

Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon imitation almond extract
1 egg
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1.5 c. of all purpose flour.
Yellow Sprinkles
Yellow Icing


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit

2. Mix the butter and sugar together.  Then add in the vanilla and almond extracts.

3. Beat in eggs.

4. Slowly add in flour and baking soda

5. Once mixed together, roll out with rolling pin until desired thickness.

6. Use your fun cookie cutters (we used stars to make them badges!!!) on the dough and put them on a non-stick pan!

7. Put in the oven for about 7 minutes.  The cookies will still look squishy on top but once they cool off, they stiffen up.  This will ensure the perfect bottom to your cookie!

8.  Decorate as you wish!

Reach for the SKY!!! 

Beauty and the Beast Dinner

We invite you to be our guest this week for one of my personal favorites, Beauty and the Beast!  And the dinner was pretty amazing… after all, Miss, this is France and a dinner here is never second BBBBEEESSSSTTTT!!

We bought a baguette (Marie, the baguettes!  Hurry up!) and some assorted cheeses.  We also had Soup De Jour and Hot Hors D'oeuvres (why we only live to serve).  We also have Gaston's Burly and Brawny drink (that'll put hair on your chest!).  And for dessert we have "The Grey Stuff" (it's delicious!   Don't believe me, ask the dishes!)

French Baguette with a few different kinds of cheese including Gruyere, White Cheddar, Smoked Pepper Jack.

Soup De Jour:
We made French Onion Soup.  I got the recipe from a blog called Jo and Sue.  I changed a few things but here is the original and fabulous recipe!  http://joandsue.blogspot.ca/2012/01/french-onion-soup.html

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of unsalted butter
3 medium white onions diced
42 oz. of beef broth
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp of Parmesan cheese
6 thick slices of a french baguette, cubed
4oz of Gruyere Cheese

Directions:
Saute onions in melted butter in a large pot for 30 minutes
Add beef broth, garlic powder and salt, then bring to a boil.
Let boil for a minute then reduce heat and simmer (uncovered) for 50 minutes.
Add parmesan cheese and let simmer for 10 more minutes.
This part was tricky.  I was a little paranoid about putting my nice dishes in the oven to broil… so we spooned a few cups of soup into a large pyrex.  Tim put some cheese slices of Gruyere cheese on top.  We put it in the oven on broil until the cheese began to brown.  (For about five or six minutes).
We then put cubed pieces of french baguette into the bottom of our serving bowls and spooned the soup on top trying (and somewhat failing) to preserve the cheese on top.

It doesn't look the prettiest but boy, was it delicious!  I actually forgot to take a picture of it while devouring…. but… here is what we have for leftovers!

Hot Hors D'oeuvres
I just chose some frozen hors d'oeuvres from grocery store but they were pretty good!  First were Brie Bites with a Raspberry Chipotle…yummmmmm...

Then we had Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon Bites.

To drink, we had Gaston's Burly and Brawny Cocktail
2 oz. Whiskey
1 oz. Amaretto
4 oz. Black Cherry Cola

It really will put hair on your chest...

The Grey Stuff
I found this recipe online and tweaked it just a tad.  Here's the original recipe: http://www.thedisneydiner.com/2013/02/try-grey-stuff-its-delicious-heres.html?m=1

Ingredients:
1- 5.4 oz pkg of Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix
1 1/2 cups of 2% Milk
15 Oreos
1 8oz tub of Cool Whip
3 Tablespoons of Instant Chocolate Pudding Mix
Graham Crackers
Edible Pearl Sprinkles

Directions:
Whisk together Instant Vanilla Pudding Mix and milk.
Set in the fridge for 5 minutes.
Pulse Oreos in the food processor until crumbs.
Take pudding mixture out of the fridge and stir in Oreo crumbs. (the mixture will be dark grey)
Fold in Cool Whip.
Mix in chocolate pudding and should be grey!
Chill over night.
When ready, pull out of fridge and spoon on a heap on to a graham cracker square.
Immediately before serving sprinkle edible pearl sprinkles on top and enjoy!

I don't know if you noticed… but we have a large variety of Beauty and the Beast dishes!!!

Here are some photos from our Disney World trips!

Lion King Dinner

Welcome to my blog!   I am a newlywed and a fairly new cook!  My husband and I have a thing for movies and so I am using that love to inspire my cooking!  We have been cooking these theme dinners for a few months now and thought blogging might be the best way to share the recipes (and fun).  I hope you enjoy!

Our first theme dinner is for the LION KING-  It's my husband Tim's favorite movie!  We also are sharing our cooking not only with the blogosphere but with our friends John and KC.

First we had Mufasa's Fresh Wildebeest!  This was just a steak that my husband cooked to order for everyone with some Lawry's seasoning and pepper.  

 Then, we had Rafiki's Fried Bananas which was very, very good and good for you!

INGREDIENTS

Coconut Oil Cook­ing Spray
1/4 tea­spoon Cin­na­mon
1 banana
1 table­spoon honey

Directions:

1. Cut the banana into 1/8in width. 

2. Mix together honey and 1/2 table­spoon water in a bowl and set aside.

3. Place a fry­ing pan on the stove top under medium heat and spray gen­er­ously with the coconut oil spray.

4. Add the banana’s and once browned (about 1–2 min­utes) flip over.  (I would actually wait a little bit longer until it is more firm.  The bananas we made were a little on the mushy side… but they were still good.)

5. It will look like this when ready to be flipped.

6. Once you flip the pieces of banana over, turn off the stove and add the honey/water mix­ture all over the top and watch it bubble.

7. Sprin­kle the cin­na­mon on top and enjoy.

For our cocktail, we had the "No Worries" Cocktail:
  

1 oz. Amaretto
2 oz. Peach Vodka 
3 oz. approx Mango Juice
3 oz. approx Orange Juice

I found the idea online with no amounts but they have some other really awesome ideas here: http://www.incrediblethings.com/food/moar-disney-princess-cocktails/

We, of course, had Zebra Cakes from Little Debbie (or Deborah as my husband calls her):

And last but not least KC and I made Simba's Muddy Brownies which is a recipe from a Disney Cookbook Tim got me for Christmas:

Ingredients:
For the brownies:
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For the mud frosting:
1/2 c. (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/3 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 c. confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/3 c. milk
2 4-ounce bags of gummy worms

Directions: 
To make the brownies:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray Pam on a 9x13 ince baking dish
2. With an electric mixer (or a kitchen aid which we got for the wedding!!!), cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the eggs and vanilla until combined, and then slowly add flour, cocoa powder, and salt.  
3. Pour (which is not really the right word… it's more like scoop… it's pretty thick…) the mix into the pan  and place in the oven for about 20 minutes.  It will seem not brownie-esque but it's more like a brownie brittle… it's still awfully tasty!

To make the frosting:
Melt the butter and cocoa together in a saucepan over medium heat.  Mix the confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth, and gradually add the milk while stirring.  Then pour the frosting on the brownies and let sit for a few minutes.  Then top with gummy worms! 

Here is the link to the cookbook if you are interested! http://www.amazon.com/Merry-Christmas-Cookbook-Disney-Group/dp/1423163222/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421028172&sr=8-1&keywords=a+merry+christmas+cookbook+disney