Lady and the Tramp Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe

Join me in welcoming Maxime from the Designing Disney Blog with a fun, Disney-inspired recipe creation!

Everybody remembers that romantic moment in Lady and the Tramp with the yummy plate of spaghetti, right?

Here’s a fun, easy recipe to recreate it!

Ingredients

1 pound ground sirloin
1/4 cup minced fresh onion
2 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
1 (25.5-ounce) jar fat-free tomato-and-basil pasta sauce, divided
Cooking spray
5 cups hot cooked spaghetti (about 8 ounces uncooked pasta)
5 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
5 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Method

Combine the first 6 ingredients and 2 tablespoons of pasta sauce in a medium bowl.

Combine ingredients

Shape the meat mixture into 25 (1-inch) [Read more…]

Disney Food Post Round-Up: June 26, 2011

By AJ 5 Comments

Happy Summer! If you’ve been on vacation or spent a day by the pool, you may have missed some of this week’s Disney food news. We’ve gathered it here for your easy reading!

2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival News

This week’s updates on Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival!

See our Exclusive interview with Marianne Hunnel, the brains behind the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival!
Chocolate seminars set to debut in this year’s festival!
Mixology seminars will be a nightly occurrence at the Festival Center this year!
Details and dates of Special Events have been released, including booking information and discount information!

We have always updated, in-depth coverage of the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival here!

Summer Sale on the Disney Food Blog Guide to Walt Disney World Dining!

Not sure whether the Disney Dining Plan is for you? What will be the best use for your DDP credits? Which restaurants are kid-friendly? Where can I get food in the middle of the night in Disney World?

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Now, On to the Round-Up!

Kevin Kidney

works on artistic touches inside Trader Sam’s! Amazing!

Disney Contemporary reminisces about the Concourse Steakhouse which closed in 2008.

Main Street Gazette reviews the Angus cheeseburger at Pecos Bill!

Disney Parks Blog reminisces about the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue’s long-standing home, Pioneer Hall!

All Ears reviews the recent Tables in Wonderland Illuminations Dessert Party.

4Parks1Blog.com highlights Disney Pub Crawls in a two part series. Part 1 and Part 2.

NY Times reveals a BabyCakes doughnut recipe. Try these gluten-free treats at home!

Flanagan Wines Dinner at Bull and Bear

By Kim LaPaglia 3 Comments

The Waldorf Astoria Orlando

is home of the award-winning Bull and Bear Steakhouse, which will host a private dinner with winemaker Eric Flanagan. Wines from the Flanagan Estate (Sonoma, California) will be featured at this exclusive dining experience. And several dishes highlighted in our recent review will be on the menu!

The Flanagan Wines dinner will include four courses of Bull and Bear cuisine paired with fabulous Flanagan wines. At this distinguished meal, Eric will introduce his first Chardonnay, which was barrel fermented in fifty percent new French Oak. The French Oak was made by Philippe Melka and sourced from a distinctive Sonoma vineyard.

Eric began his vineyard in 1999 from the ground up on Bennett Ridge in Sonoma County, producing wines that reflect the soils and climate of his Estate site. Flanagan Wines now produce 500 cases of Cabernet and 100 cases of Syrah. For more information, visit www.flanaganwines.com.

Dining Room Seating

Date

Monday, June 27 2011, at 6:30pm

Cost

$135 per person plus tax and gratuity

Reservations

Call 407-597-5409 and specifically request the Flanagan wine dinner

Guest Review: Palo Brunch on the Disney Wonder Cruise Ship

By AJ 8 Comments

Welcome guest author Vikki Hurley-Schubert with a review of brunch at Palo on the Disney Wonder (Alaska Style)!

Vikki and her husband with friends!

Brunch at Palo is a must-do for us when onboard any one of the Disney Cruise Line ships. So, we were excited for our brunch while aboard the inaugural Alaskan cruise earlier this month and delighted in every morsel we tasted.

The highlight of the meal for me was the strawberry soup – I must confess, I did have two – one during brunch and one for dessert! It was a fragrant, rich, bright strawberry flavor and a rich magenta color with a minty background. It wasn’t too creamy or watery either – it tasted like fresh picked strawberries!

Strawberry Soup

Before our entrees arrived, we hit the tables of seafood, cheeses and fruit. The shrimp were cooked perfectly as were the crab legs. My husband loved the salmon, salmon mousse and cheeses. The asparagus wrapped in prosciutto were [Read more…]

Start of Summer Sale! on the DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining

By AJ Leave a Comment

Happy Start of Summer, everyone! We’re celebrating vacation season with a great discount on our critically-acclaimed guidebook to eating in Disney World. This weekend, celebrate vacation season by getting your very own Disney Food Blog Guide for 20% off the regular purchase price using code: Summer on the check-out page!

If you don’t have your Disney Food Blog Guide to Walt Disney World Dining e-Book yet, this is the time to buy. Want to help someone else plan the best possible trip to Disney World? Purchase the DFB Guide as a gift!

The Disney Food Blog’s Guide to dining in Walt Disney World features 250 full-color pages of information, planning suggestions, tips, and details about eating in Disney World, including where you can dine in Disney World 24-hours a day, where to get a self-serve Dole Whip whenever the whim strikes you, what to do when you’re late for an Advance Dining Reservation, and even where to get interesting kids’ food for your adventurous eater.

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DFB Guide Sample Page

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Bonus Items

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You’ll also receive as part of your purchase an exhaustive index of Disney World Bars and Lounges, and several One-Day Dining Strategies that offer suggestions for where and what to eat in a variety of circumstances.

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“Up” in Oakland at Fentons Creamery

By Heather 17 Comments

Dining in Disneyland columnist Heather Sievers brings back a heartwarming and tummy-pleasing story from her recent visit to Northern California…

You know the adorable scene in Pixar’s Up where Mr. Fredricksen, Russell & Dug are having a tasty treat sitting on the curb of an ice cream shop? Well guess what? That ice cream shop is a real place!

Fentons Creamery As Seen in Pixar's Up

On a recent trip to San Francisco, our good friends took us to a very special place in Oakland, California: Fentons Creamery.

Around since 1894, E.S. Fenton began his business delivering dairy products from a horse drawn wagon. Twenty-eight years later in 1922, the Fenton family opened their first soda shop and ice cream parlor. Fast forward to 2009 and they’ve got Pixar featuring them in their double Academy Award winning feature film, Up. Until our visit, I had no idea that Fentons was a “real” place.

Fentons Creamery: Oakland, CA

Our visit to Fentons took place on a Sunday night. We didn’t even arrive until after 8:00 pm. In fact, on the way there, I was wondering if our friends had even checked the hours, because what ice cream shop would be [Read more…]

Would You Eat a Cars 2 Car?

By Erin 11 Comments

Disney Food for Families columnist Erin Foster weighs in on Cars 2 Merchandise!

Back on Valentine’s Day, I was lucky enough to attend a D23 member event in New York City in conjunction with the annual Toy Fair. Attendees witnessed the unveiling of the range of toys that would be licensed for the June 24 Cars 2 film release. At the event, Disney Consumer Products Senior Vice President of Global Toys (cool title, eh?), Vince Klaseus, announced that Cars 2 would have more branded toys than any previous Disney/Pixar [Read more…]

Review: New Menu at Bull and Bear Steakhouse

By AJ 22 Comments

One of my favorite steakhouses in Orlando, Bull and Bear at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, has re-vamped their menu. It’s become, if you can believe it, even better. You can see my initial review of the Bull and Bear here, to compare notes.

Atmosphere

Dark, luxurious, and plush. When you walk into this restaurant through the “library” of wine and the pleasant lounge, you don’t just hope for an incredible meal. You anticipate one.

Entryway

Dining Room Seating

We arrived for a tasting of the new menu and couldn’t wait to explore the new dishes. We’d been told that the chef, David Sears, wanted to expand a bit, creating dishes that one might not see on a standard steakhouse menu…

Eats

We started the meal with a bang — literally. Our first tasting plate was prefaced with a beautiful Taittinger Brut Prestige Rosé champagne. This was easily my favorite pairing of the evening — fresh, fruity, very light. What a great way to begin!

Taittinger Brut Prestige Rosé

This was paired with a rare salmon (Chef Sears flies this line-caught salmon in at the rate of just a few per week) cured with citrus and tarragon and finished with mache lettuce, pommelo, and [Read more…]

The Wonderful World of Mickey Waffles

By Kim LaPaglia 22 Comments

Update:Chocolate chip Mickey Waffles

are now available at Whispering Canyon Cafe! Also, the Contempo Cafe has begun serving the large Mickey Waffle, while Sleepy Hollow has stopped serving it.

___

One food item I crave at all places Disney is the Mickey Waffle. A Disney breakfast staple, the Mickey waffle is deliciously thick, made with malted flour for that one-of-a-kind taste, and often served with maple syrup. Of course, you might also get powdered sugar or even fruit topping on yours!!

Mickey Waffles

Mickey waffles are everywhere. At the Whispering Canyon Cafe, they are plentiful — both on the a la carte menu and in the all-you-can eat skillet. Don’t forget to try the chocolate chip version!

Waffles with Mickey’s famous face are also served! You can find him at Contempo Cafe in the Contemporary Resort…

Giant Mickey Waffle at Sleepy Hollow

And the Mickey waffle at the All-Star Sports food court, Intermission, is [Read more…]

Interview: Marianne Hunnel, Epcot Food & Wine Festival Content Development

By AJ 7 Comments

Chef Marianne Hunnel

As you know, I was given the opportunity to speak yesterday evening with Marianne Hunnel, Area Manager, Event Content Development for the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. She has a job that seems to be in equal parts exhilarating and difficult — and she loves it!

Without further ado, let’s jump into what I learned about the Epcot Food and Wine Festival and its true headliner, Marianne Hunnel! At the end of this post, we have a few pieces of news about what you’ll find that’s new at the 2011 Festival!

How A Festival Comes Together

With five years of directing content development for the Epcot Food and Wine Festival (six festivals altogether), Marianne Hunnel is an expert at shepherding her small, mighty team when it comes to building something bigger and better every single year. Of course, her 15 years working as a Chef on Disney World Property doesn’t hurt in terms of knowing what Disney guests are looking for when it comes to a dining experience!

Planning and development for these 45 festival days takes all year, and includes a lot of research. The first place they turn? Last year’s Food and Wine Festival guests! “[We] take a look at feedback from guests — what people liked, what was not doing very well. We really listen to the guests.”

After taking stock of what you, me, and the rest of the guests preferred last year, the team begins scouting the global trends taking over the food space and begin putting together menu items and tastings. To get unique and authentic input, Hunnel and the team speak with cast members — especially those hailing from countries represented in the World Showcase Marketplace Booths — to collect ideas, reviews, and even family recipes!

According to Hunnel, the festival should always be “interesting, exciting, and educational.”

Trends and Concepts Affecting the Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Healthy Dining

An ongoing focus of the festival is healthy dining. “[We are] trying to incorporate fresh and healthy foods that are indigenous to the regions represented around the marketplace. …And we do it in subtle ways. Guests can say, ‘Wow, you can eat healthy and enjoy going to a festival without feeling really guilty,'” says Hunnel.

In fact, a new event focusing on families and healthy dining will take place on October 29th, featuring Andrew Zimmern and two other celebrity chefs, Bryan Voltaggio and Chris Cosentino. The event will “show the Chefs as Dads. They’re going to have their kids with them, who will be showing techniques that the family can [Read more…]

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