Day 1152: Fuller House

Full House fans rejoice!

Full House was always one of those shows that had reruns on night time television when I was young, and so I guess I grew up somewhat with the Tanners that way, even though the original show premiered and had it's full run about ten years before I was anywhere near the age of one of the sisters. Still, a few years ago the entire series was available on DVD and I jumped at the chance to really understand what the Tanner Family was all about. I didn't regret it.

After watching absolutely every episode of Full House, I probably felt much like those who grew up with the show: I was a part of the family that I had watched on TV for hours and hours and hours. To have that family come back to my television screen, or in this case, sort of my computer screen, was pretty darn great. To have Steve back was even better.

If you're not familiar with Full House, one of my absolute favorite episodes heavily involves Steve. It's right in the middle of his relationship with DJ, when the family heads to Walt Disney World and DJ keeps seeing Steve everywhere she looks. He even shows up as Aladdin, who he just so happens to voice in the original motion picture. But not even Steve dressed up as Indiana Jones can top my favorite part of the episode...when Steve falls quite literally head over heels in the middle of The Grand Floridian.

It's also not lost on me that Spaceship Earth is the first shot of Walt Disney World in the episode. Maybe it's a sign that I should do a reenactment of Full House goes to Disney World sometime. How awesome would that be? Either way, if you haven't binge watched Fuller House on Netflix yet, it's there waiting for you, and I highly recommend it!

Have a magical day!

Day 1141: After the Tea

Back in January I went to my first Afternoon Tea at The Grand Floridian, and I absolutely loved it. As usual, the food was amazing, and you can read all about that experience HERE, but one thing in particular just really stood out to me: the scones.

I've never been a huge fan of scones, despite the fact that several of my former roommates love the things. They just seemed like another type of bread, and since I generally eat muffins for my breakfast, scones just seemed dry. And then I had the scones at Afternoon Tea and my whole outlook on life changed.

Amidst attempts to make my life more organized, I began by meal planning, which enabled me to make all my food on the weekend so I didn't have to worry about it during the week. So far, it's worked out relatively well, and it's made me much less stressed about how I'm going to eat my next meal (it also means that I actually eat all of my meals...which I most certainly didn't do last semester). For breakfast, I've started making homemade dairy-free parfaits and muffins to last the whole week, but when I found a recipe for the scones from Afternoon Tea, I figured I'd give them a shot.

The recipe comes from AllEars.Net and is as follows:

To make 24 Scones

4 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons margarine
2 Tablespoons shortening
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/4 cup milk
1 cup golden raisins

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a large mixing bowl. Rub the margarine and shortening into the flour with your fingertips until a mixture resembles coarse meal. Combine the eggs and milk and stir them into the flour mixture, just until the dough comes together. Fold in the raisins.

Roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness on a lightly-floured surface. With a 2-inch round cutter; stamp out 24 scones and transfer them to a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake the scones for 10-15 minutes or until they are light brown.

Serve at once with Devonshire cream or butter and jam.

For me, two things were extremely difficult with these scones. First, the fact that my kitchen at school is relatively small, with almost no counter space, and my cutting boards that would work to roll out the dough are hardly big enough to make these scones an easy task. Secondly, our oven is possessed, or so I believe. You never quite know how long it's going to take for something to cook, but more often than not it overcooks things, so that's better than undercooking I suppose. Either way, it made the timing difficult on the scones. They still turned out really nicely though, and I'd definitely make them again...if I'm willing to put in the effort it takes to make them.

Or you know, I could just go to Afternoon Tea instead.

Have a magical day!

Day 1106: Afternoon Tea

Over the past couple of years I've really gotten myself to love tea. I started drinking some coffee on and off in the second half of high school, but tea was more of a thing for my parents. Then, one day, I just sort of started drinking tea (I have the feeling it had something to do with Once Upon A Time and the CaptainSwan tea that I love so much). Since then, I've always really wanted to try out the Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian, and when my mom approached me with the idea a number of months ago, I couldn't turn her down.

I must say that, while expensive, the our meal in the Garden View Tea Room was absolutely amazing. I'm fairly certain I haven't been that full in a long time, and everything I ate was exactly what you'd expect from The Grand Floridian. To begin, you're offered a choice between various packages for your meal, each with a few different options. Most are almost identical, but a few packages offer champagne or an additional cheese plate to go along with the rest of your meal. Once you've selected a package you're offered your selection of the various tea blends, some of which are unique to the Walt Disney World Resort. I personally selected The Bedfordshire Tea package, which comes with three courses, and the Mad Hatter's Tea Party blend, which includes vanilla and natural fruits such as passion fruit and pomegranate.

I want to stop for a moment and discuss this tea...since that's half the reason we're there, right? I sort of picked the Mad Hatter's Tea Party blend on a whim, knowing that I wanted to try one of the three signature blends made specifically for The Garden View Tea Room, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is honestly one of my all time favorite teas. I actually take my tea with a spoonful of sugar, or in this case, one cube of sugar, and that's about it, but this tea was almost sweet enough even without the sugar, and you could definitely taste the hints of pomegranate and passion fruit. I'm certainly looking forward to returning and trying the other two signature blends...if I can convince myself not to just order this one again.

From there, each person is served their own pot of tea, kept warm throughout your meal by a cover. I think I ultimately drank almost the entire pot, but we also sat there for about an hour and a half probably, and I didn't want any of the delicious tea to go to waste, despite the fact that I had plenty of other delicacies to try out. If you ordered a basic package without the additional cheese tray or champagne, you start with a plate of finger sandwiches, fruit, and cheeses, all of which were amazing. Starting in the front left of the picture below we had a cucumber sandwich, a beet and cheese tart, a chicken sandwich, egg salad, a couple of different cheeses accompanied by lavosh, an onion tart, and of course fruit, (The additional sandwich on the right is another Egg Salad).

Following your sandwiches you're brought another plate that features a scone and a jam tart, both of which I hope to eat every day for the rest of my life. We're still unsure about what the spreads for the scone were aside from the butter in the middle, but needless to say they were delicious as well. At that point we were already rather full, but we still had dessert waiting for us, which comes with your choice of either house-made pastries, strawberries and creme, or English Trifle. Having seen the Swan Pastry long before taking my seat in The Garden View Tea Room, I knew what I'd be having, and Frank followed suit while Mom went for the Strawberries and Creme. 

My pastries came with the Swan that was made of puff pastry and a delicious vanilla creme, as well as the chocolate eclair you can see hiding in the background, with Mom's strawberries and creme sitting to the side. Ultimately the only thing I left behind was the strawberry, although I'm unsure if that was a part of Mom's dessert or mine. Either way, by the time I finished off the Swan and my last cup of tea, I felt like I'd eaten more in one sitting than I did all of last semester. 

Overall, The Bedfordshire Tea package that I picked ran at $30, although other packages can run all the way up to $175 for two. The individual packages, however, remain under $50 per person, and if you love tea and are looking for a quiet way to spend your afternoon, I definitely recommend stopping by The Grand Floridian for some afternoon tea. I certainly plan on returning as soon as possible and look forward to sharing the experience with other members of my family, and avid tea drinkers, in the future. 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on January 22 due to travel).

Day 824: Disney Food Night

There's been numerous occurrences throughout the 800 days that make up Everyday Disney where I have had what we like to call a "Disney Food Night." The basis is simple: you make a meal entirely out of food from the Disney Parks, at at least that's how it works for us. I know there are definitely ways out there to do food inspired by a movie, and then you eat while watching that movie, but because we're at the parks so often, any sort of food from Disney World or even Disneyland just feels more right. We all have our favorites too; Jonny likes the Grey Stuff, my personal favorite is Strawberry Soup from 1900 Park Faire at the Grand Floridian, and Mom (I believe) enjoys the Honey Sesame Chicken found throughout the parks, but specifically Nine Dragons at Epcot. As for Dad, I'm not really sure, but he seems to like whatever we make, so it all works out in the end. 

For a number of reasons, we decided that it was about time for a Disney Food Night, and Ashley and I set out to figure out what Disney foods we'd be making this time. Like pretty much every other time we make Disney food, we ended up with the same dishes: Strawberry Soup, Monte Cristo Sandwiches, and, for dessert, Grey Stuff. That just seems to be how it works. All three are relatively easy to make, and as far as the Grey Stuff goes...you really can't mess it up. It's that easy. So here's how ours turned out, and I've included the recipes for you to try at home as well!

The Monte Cristo Sandwiches have become a staple around here, although we also definitely have a lot of Croque Monsieur. Either way, French food, or in this case, food from New Orleans Square at Disneyland, is one of my favorites. After all, I'm a huge beignets fan and these sandwiches are basically deep fried ham and cheese. Absolutely delicious. The recipe for this one came from HERE, although I've used several others over the years.

I don't have a specific picture of the Strawberry Soup just because by the time we finished it, the light wasn't great for taking photos anymore. I remember trying the Strawberry Soup on a whim because it's featured in one of my Disney cookbooks. After all, I like Strawberries! I like soup! And I certainly like Disney, so it sounds like a match made in heaven. Of course, it actually is, and when I had it at 1900 Park Faire a while later, I was hooked for eternity.

Strawberry Soup, Walt Disney World's Grand Floridian Resort
Yield 4-6 Servings
Ingredients: 
2 1/2 lbs frozen strawberries
2 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup yogurt
Fresh Strawberries - For Garnish
Method:
1. Thaw the frozen berries, keep the juices as well.
2. Blend all of the ingredients (minus the fresh strawberries) on low until smooth (I use my ninja and it works brilliantly).
3. Chill, shake well (or stir well) before serving.
4. Add Fresh strawberry halves as a garnish. 

And finally, my brother special requested that we make Grey Stuff, which I actually make all the time. It's literally delicious and one of the easiest Disney recipes you could ever make. There are several recipes out there, but over time I'm come to find that THIS recipe works really well. I always add a bit extra whipped topping though, just to make it a bit lighter, but you can make it any consistency you'd like.

I'd say that, in the end, the Honey Sesame Chicken from Nine Dragons is probably the Disney food made the most around here, but these three are all up there as well. Next, I'm definitely up for making some Hoop Dee Doo inspired food (Straw...Strawberry...Strawberry Shot...Strawberry Shortcake anyone!?!), and who knows what I'll want to try either before or after Disneyland! Plus, I figure I'll be making dole whips at some point, but that's all in the future. For now, I've got a whole container of leftover grey stuff in the fridge with my name on it.

Have a magical day!

Day 725: On The Server

You may or may not remember a day back in November when I blogged about the Walt Disney World server on the popular game Minecraft, and if you don't, you can read it HERE. However, today I finally remembered it, as he was playing Minecraft on his computer while I continued working on my blog, and not only did he know what I was talking about, but we ended up spending like an hour exploring the server, and I have to say that it's even cooler in person.

Jonny started me out by taking me to Epcot, which of course I loved. We even rode the Minecraft version of Spaceship Earth. From there we checked out other parts of Epcot until our lag caught up to us and we bounced back to the TTC. But can we just talk about the beautifulness that is the Minecraft Spaceship Earth for a moment...

From there we ended up looking at the Grand Floridian, which is also absolutely beautiful, even in Minecraft: 

It's also sort of ironic because while my parents have been on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Jonny and I haven't as of yet, but we went on it in Minecraft. Therefore, our first ride through of Mine Train was on the computer more than it was in person. That's alright though. Now we have a comparison for when we finally get on it next week! 

I have to say that the entire Disney World Minecraft Server is more beautiful that I could have possibly imagined. It's extremely well done and I can definitely tell the work that was put into it without even being a Minecraft player. I've never built anything on the game, but I can definitely understand the intricate detail that went into this. I mean come on, I rode Spaceship Earth on Minecraft. 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on December 29 due to Holidays and Computer Issues).

Day 627: Visiting Digitally

Disney is constantly keeping things ahead of the game, and here's yet another instance of that.

A few years ago, one of my favorite things to do with my brother was go on Google Earth and search out Walt Disney World. As part of a promotional campaign, they put much of WDW into 3D graphics, meaning that if you went down to ground level on Google Earth (and you can probably still do this), everything is like a giant pop up book. It's not as great as really being there, but this was at the forefront of the 3D additions to Google Earth and it was just a great feeling.

So as part of a newer promotional campaign, Disney has begun creating Animated Resort Tour Videos, beginning with one for The Grand Floridian and another for The Contemporary.

These are pretty darn adorable and creative AND well made, so I can't wait to see if they continue with this progression for the rest of the resorts. It's just another way we are able to experience Disney right in the comfort of our own homes. 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on September 23).