Fettuccine Alfredo: A Taste of Disney

It has been too long since I had a touch of Disney magic at home. Its not been four months since I came home from my last trip and, right now, there is no future trip in the works. I am not going to lie: I'm starting to feel the pains of withdraw.

My boyfriend and I are trying to get better at planning out our meals for the week before we go grocery shopping. We are trying to get better about eating healthy and not wasting food. Both of which are going to help us out a lot. After a much too short visit home I got a new cookbook. My mom had gotten me one of the Disney cookbooks that is missing from my collection.


The start of the Italian herb bread, if only you could smell how amazing it was. Which of course was just as amazing as the chicken sautéing in olive oil.


On the long drive home I was able to look through it and do the meal planning for the next week. Nearly every recipe in the book sounded amazing and brought back memories of fantastic family vacations. It was decided. I needed to make one in the next week.

Well, being short handed at the vet hospital and still trying to balance a part time job finding the time to make anything extravagant would be difficult. Then I found it. Fettuccine Alfredo from L'Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante at the Italy pavilion at EPCOT.

It looked simple enough. But, yet it sounded perfect. After all, who doesn't love pasta.

To be completely honest I was a little concerned with how it would turn out since it only called for noodles, butter, and parmesan cheese. I had always thought there would be cream, most likely heavy cream, in the alfredo sauce. But, it is a Disney recipe that made it into a cookbook comprised of the most requested recipes from the Disney parks. It must be good.

The only changes that I decided to make were to add chicken and mushrooms. I also made Italian herb bread in my bread maker. I even got a bottle of wine. Yes. This was going to be an amazing dinner. I had been looking forward to making this meal for days.

I was dead tired when I got home from work. I had a 14 hour day at the vet hospital. I had been on my feet for nearly 12 hours. I wanted nothing more than to pass out in bed. But, I had dinner to put on the table. It didn't take me too long to pull myself together and get to work in the kitchen. You see, my boyfriend plays video games to unwind after work. I prefer to find peace in the kitchen.

I pealed and minced fresh garlic for the chicken and mushrooms. I got the salted water boiling. I was able to orchestrate the entire process with perfect timing. The smell was heavenly. I had made the bread the day before and set out the two sticks of butter earlier in the day so they could soften. Once the pasta was done and drained I plopped in the softest butter I have ever worked with. I'll let you in on a secret. I didn't measure the cheese. I grated the parmesan cheese directly over the pot with the noodles and butter. Well, my boyfriend grated the cheese while I tired the noodles. Once I was satisfied with the consistency I portioned out the noodles and topped them with the chicken and mushrooms.  Armed with our forks, wine, and herb bread we were ready to attack our meal.

I must say. It turned out fantastic. I even got away with enough leftovers for both of us to have lunch the next day, which is amazing. The same wasn't as saucy as I had thought it would be, but it was very tasty. It was way better than what I would have found at any American-Italian chain restaurant that's for sure.

It was a great ending to a long day. It brought just enough Disney magic back into our lives for the night. It was just what we needed. I feel that we are back on the right track. If you would like to try your hand that this amazingly simple dish you can find the recipe in Cooking With Mickey Vol 2 on page 103. Trust me, you will be glad you did.


Have a magical day!

Beer Cheese Soup

If you have read my previous post about the lovely food at Le Cellier then you will already know that I was really looking forward to trying the beer cheese soup for myself. After all, I have heard from nearly everyone that has tried it about how amazing it is. But, it was simply not meant to be. I could even pretend to justify ordering any more food even if I wanted to. (And let me tell you the poutine was well worth it.)

I had wanted to pick up a Disney cookbook while on my spring 2016 trip. It was our last day and I had only seen one cookbook. In previous years there were two volumes. Well, I figured that it was the only one I was going to find so I might as well buy it. While on the plane home I decided to look through the pages. And, I bet you will never guess what I sound right in the middle. Beer cheese soup. It was a sign.

The day after we got back from Walt Disney World my boyfriend and I went to a friend's wedding. The next day we spent driving around the entire seven cities area looking at rental properties we had seen online. As the day went on we were getting more and more depressed. The homes were in bad parts of town, or nothing like what they had seemed like on-line. We needed a little Disney magic to brighten the day.

So, being the lovely girlfriend that I am, I went to the store and bought everything that we would need to make beer cheese soup. I will admit, I did pause a little when I saw how much I was spending on cheese, but it was oh-so worth it. I will say this: get the good cheese. Your soup will thank you. Trust me. And you won't believe how much cheese is in this soup.

I was a little daunted by the recipe itself. Soups had always intimidated me for some reason. But, I had my boyfriend helping me so I was able to organize the chaos in my kitchen a little better. I had him prep the bacon (the smaller the pieces the better) and grate all the cheese. And that alone was well worth having help. I prepped the veggies and got the soup started. It was at this point, lets just call it the point of no return shall we, that I realized that I had forgotten a major part of the meal. I had planed on serving the soup with fresh bread. I had forgotten to get some going in the bread machine and I hadn't picked any up at the store. I didn't have time to make any and I had started on the soup and I didn't have the time to run back to the store. So, my boyfriend, being the sweet amazing guy that he is, went to the store for me. He did even better than I thought he would do. He returned with bread bowls from Panera. That's right. He took dinner up a notch.

With you soup nearly done, and smelling fabulous, he returned with bread bowls in hand. Adding the beer completed the soup. We ladled the the soup in the the bowls. Took a picture for Instagram, of course. And used the tops of the bowls to taste the first delicious bite of the cheese concoction. It was everything that I wanted it to be. It was savory. It was cheesy. It was warm. We proceed to fill up on beer, cheese, and bread. It really did make the bad day that much better.

I know that I had needed that dinner. Having spend many family vacations at Disney I would say that it is safe to say that I have the 'bug'. I was already sad and feeling the withdrawal when the arrived at the airport to go home. This dinner was not just good. It felt like we had a little bit of the parks at home with us. It was at that moment that I decided that I would try to make every recipe in the book and try to collect the books missing from my small collection.

I hope to have many more stories to share. Because, everyone knows that the Disney parks have some of the best food in the world and they put the best of the best in their cookbooks. It is something that makes me happy and helps to get me though my daily life away from the magic that is Walt Disney World.

 Have a magical day!

The Disney Bug

I am sure it comes as no surprise that I, like many people that visit the Disney parks, have caught the Disney bug. I am already excited about planning my next Disney trip before I even leave the Walt Disney World Resort. Don't believe me? Just ask my boyfriend, he was able to experience Walt Disney World with me and family just a few weeks ago.

When I am not at the parks I like to bring a little of the Magic home with me. I have pictures on my walls. I have my ears proudly on display. I also like to make some of my favorite meals from the parks at home. I love my Disney cookbook. In fact, my goal is to eventually collect all of the cookbooks and make every recipe. Pretty lofty right? Some of the recipes don't appeal to me as much as others (mainly some of the seafood dishes), but I figure that I have never had a bad meal at Disney so they must be good. I'll give it a shot! Over the last few years I have worked on my cooking skills. And my lucky boyfriend is going to help me try all of the amazing dishes.

Anyone recognize this? Its beer cheese soup from La Callier at the Canada Pavilion.

But, this blog isn't just going to showcase food any cooking. I will also be sharing some of my favorite things about Disney. The parks, rides, attractions, shows, movies, and more!

This is one of my favorite views of Cinderella Castle. Just outside of the Crystal Palace. 

I think one of the reasons I like Disney so much is that when I am there I don't have any cares. I can focus on how much effort was put into the entire resort to make it look effortless. I feel like I am just able to enjoy myself. I love it. I can truly feel that magic. It is one of my favorite places. I really feel like it is my home away from home.

If you have ever seen any of my posts on my other website, then you will see that I have been writing about Disney for quite a while. I also tend to write about whatever pops into my head. For this blog however, I intend to keeps things strictly Disney. I'm excited! And I'm glad that you will be along for the ride.

Have a magical day!