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!

Le Cellier

I ate at Le Cellier for the first time when I was much younger. Young enough to each off the kids menu and be a somewhat picky eater. Young enough that I know I did not appreciate it. So, when I got a little older and I heard people talking about how Le Cellier was one of the best places to eat at the Walt Disney World Resort I was a little skeptical. After all, my memories were of a dark room with fancy food. And as a young child that didn't put this place very high on my favorites list.

In May of 2016 my parents took my boyfriend and I to Walt Disney World. It was amazing! The spring before my parents had taken their first Disney trip without any kids. They enjoyed a meal together at Le Cellier and said it was one of the highlights of the entire trip. So, naturally, when they said they had made reservations for the five of us to dine there on our trip I was excited. I don't often eat steak as it is a little on the pricey side so I was very much looking forward to enjoying a steak. Especially from one of the beast steakhouses on Disney property.


The dinning room was just like I remembered. It was dark, but not because they didn't have any lights. The theme is that you are in a cellar, of course there won't be any windows or bright light. The decor was beautiful, and really welcoming.

Our server was fantastic. He shared stories of his world travels, how he came to work at EPCOT, and his plans for when his work visa expired. He explained the menu in a way that was easy to understand. He was able to make recommendations based on what he felt we would enjoy.

My parents had tried the poutine. Now, I had never heard of it before and there really wasn't much of a description on the menu. My parents were raving and our waiter explained that it is a dish that is popular in Canada and is essentially fancy cheese fries, sometimes served with gravy. I love cheese fries. They are my guilty pleasure. My kryptonite if you will. So, of course, they had to twist my arm to try them. (insert sarcasm here please)


We got two deferent kinds since our waiter recommended we get two for a group our size. Just before he brought out the poutine he brought us bread that represented the different regions of Canada and butter that had maple sugar on it. You heard me right. The breads were fantastic and all of us were able to sample them.  My boyfriend was so excited by the red wine reduction sauce that he asked for the recipe. We had gotten the signature and the bacon-cheddar. I really enjoyed both of them. But it was the signature poutine with that red wine reduction sauce that won the table over.

We were slightly full by the time our entires arrived. But, when I cut into my steak I was instantly hungry again. 4 out of our 5 steaks were cooked to absolute perfection, just how we wanted. Sadly, my little brother had to send back his steak. Twice. The manager himself brought it out for the third attempt and made sure that it was cooked how he wanted. It happened. I was a little glad it took so long for him to get his dinner, it gave me more time to digest before dessert. There. I said it. I am a horrible sister. I know.



My steak was so tender I didn't need my knife to cut it. There was so much flavor. And the steak itself was a very decent size. The mushroom risotto that it was plated on was amazing as well. I ate all of it. Not even ashamed to admit it. Three of us had gotten the filet mignon and the other two got the rib eye. We all enjoyed that meal. I think we all agreed that it was one of the best meals we have ever had at Disney.

Dessert was great. For the most part we each got something different. My boyfriend was a little disappointed with his, but I think it was just one of those things were the dessert at fancy restaurants isn't exactly what you are expecting it to me. I think he was expecting the strawberry basil float to be a little sweeter. It was good, but not my thing. The maple creme brûlée was fantastic. It had a lot of flavor and was just sweet enough to be dessert. But, it did get stuck in my teeth.

Overall, my one regret is that we didn't get the sampler of ice wine. My boyfriend and I enjoy sampling different wines and beers and we wanted to try as many as we could on the trip. But, it was a little expensive for us and we opted that we would be better off drinking the iced tea with dinner. After all, it was a very hot day out and we most likely were already dehydrated enough without adding alcohol into the mix. But, if I could do it over again I would spend the money to try the ice wine.



I highly recommend giving Le Cellier a try. I loved it. I know that I will be going back again.

Have a magical day!