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 EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival

Each spring EPCOT goes through a magical transformation. The entire park comes alive with flowers, butterflies, and life-size topiaries of iconic Disney and Pixar Characters. There are gardens for flowers, herbs, and vegetables. There are dozens of pop-up stands where park guests can purchase products to take home to tend their own gardens or even grow their own Mickey topiaries.

Just about everywhere you can imagine they have added brightly colored flowers. This year they had an exhibit that paid tribute to prehistoric plants. There were even little dinosaur figures in with the plants. The biologist in me was very excited over the fact that they had a bit of mass and it was producing spores. You can tell that all of the plants are very well cared for.

There are talks from experts in gardening and designing back yard spaces. Nearly all of the pop up stands and the existing snack stands have special snacks and drinks for this event. They even have dole whip! (Which previously could only be found at the Magic Kingdom or Polynesian Resort.) A lot of the drinks featured on special were alcoholic, with non-alcoholic versions available as well. Most of them are fruity and perfect for a temporary escape from the heat of the day. 

A lot of the character topiaries are placed in their native lands. In England you could even see Peter Pan on the roof of one of the castles. Though, I will admit that every time I walked by the 'tea garden'  I laughed a little. 

There are spice gardens, vegetable gardens, and even a giant enclosure with countless butterflies. overall the entire event is simply amazing. If you can spare a day to just walk around the park and enjoy all of the festivities you won't regret it. But, trying to see all of the exhibits and ride the rides, and see the attractions might be a little too much for one day and could easily cause the little ones to get burnt out by the end of the day.

If you are lucky enough to visit the parks during the extra magical time take a little extra time to enjoy it. They have some of the same characters each year, but a lot of the topiaries change each year, so it will be different the next time you go. How cool is that?

Have a magical day!