Disney Hangover

After 7 days at the happiest place on Earth I have returned to my real life and to my kitchen. Which at the moment is a complete disaster! Oh the joys of going away! First I am going to share a couple of yummy things and then what I made for the Full Compass employees who were kind enough to take care of things for Calvin while we were away. And in hopes that Beaker is not totally destroyed. ;)

So.....here is some yumminess from the Happiest place on Earth.

Day #1
Today we ate at the Akershaus which is a little place in Epcot, in the land of Norway. This was our storybook Princess dinner. The girls got to see Cinderella, Aurora, Snow White, and Ariel in her ball gown. Which was the highlight for them. :) The food....good. Calvin ate his fill of all things fish on the first night. I had chicken which was good and the children both ate pizza. Ick. If there is something Disney does NOT do well, it is pizza. Anyway, here is our dessert from the first night. From left to right....chococlate mousse cake with chocolate ganache, rice pudding with berry compote, and apple tart with caramel ice cream and caramel sauce!
Day #2...today we ate at Coral Reef. This is another place within the wall of Epcot. This is not in the world show case, but still fantastic! This is the second time that we have eaten here and I will return again. Calvin had apricot braised beef short rib which he LOVED and I had.....steak. If there is one theme with me, it is beef. :) For dessert I had cheesecake with a blackberry on the top and a berry drizzle, Calvin had butterscotch creme brulee, and the girls had....pizza. Ick again. But here they got to make their own sundaes when they were done which they LOVED. Here is my dinner...
Day #3
Today we went to the Animal Kingdom and the girls were a pain in the butt and wanted NOTHING to do with anything that had animals...HELLOOOOOOOOO this is the ANIMAL kingdom. ugh. So we had a short day. Our dinner was at Kouzzina. This was a new dining experience for us. One that we will not be returning to if I have anything to say about it. Nothing special. The girls had grilled chicken and I should have eaten their dinner, it was better than mine. I had flank steak and Calvin had fishermans stew. For dessert, Calvin are his before i could take a picture.... :( But he had a piece of chocolate with words on it inside bakalava. It was pretty tasty. I had Galaktoboureko, which you are probably wondering what that is....I did....here is what it says....Semolina Custard in Baked Phyllo Dough and Vanilla-Praline Gelato it was tasty as well. We split each dessert. But the meal itself, I was not blown away by and perhaps I was just expecting too much.

Day #4
Saturday...this is our halfway point....and BY FARRRRRR the best meal of the whole trip. Today we ate at Epcot again. And the name of the happiest place to eat...LeCellier. This is a steak house in "Canada" It is wonderful. And hands down the best steak that I have had...and that is saying a lot. I like steak. So, I had steak, New york strip to be exact and Calvin had the same, I could not even tell you what the children had. They also serve something yummy before the melt in your mouth steak....bread. And not just any bread, pretzel bread. Warm yummy pretzel bread. So....for dessert which was almost as good as the steak, I had an apple tart with maple syrup and almonds. And Calvin had the Chocolate celebration cake.....which is pictured below. It was a great meal and we have eaten here before and will return on EVERY visit to the world.

Day #5
So here we begin our endless buffets....the first being at Hollywood and Vine at the Disney's Hollywood Studios park. Now, the studios does not have a lot of options when it comes to food. It is my least favorite park and the food sucks, not much going for this place....BUT they have Fantasmic! which makes it all worth it. The buffet was average and can't even brag about the dessert buffet. I have no pictures from here. And to top it off....it was the COLDEST day of our whole trip down south. And I will leave it at that. At least the girls loved Fantasmic! or as they call it...Mickey saves the world.

Day #6
Day of buffets number 2. Tonight we ate at a new place called Boma. This was an experience. This is a buffet of African type food as well as a few "american" things for those who are less adventurous. I ate fruit. They had a great fruit bar. :D And dessert as you will see below. All in all it was good, but nothing to write home about. The atmosphere is good. Would we eat here again? Probably not. It is one of those places that is WAY out of the way and the food is not good enough to make me go that far out of the way. So...here is dessert from Boma.....
The first is a Zebra dome. Which contains alcohol of some kind. There is a chocolatey mousse inside of the white chocolate top....the second, does not have a real name of sorts, but it is in a chocolate shell and was pretty good for chocolate....

Okay...so now we are on Day #7
This is our final buffet and a new one for us. It was Chef Mickey's. Yes, we will do this again. WAY FUN and out our window was a view of the castle. And we got to watch the sun set. This is a character buffet and Olivia was THRILLED because the mac & cheese had mickey mouse noodles. And she ate 2 plates of them. Whoo hoo!! Anyway, the food was good. The dessert buffet was to die for. They had make your own sundaes and then a few other things. Pictures of many to follow. The first is something I hope to try and make on my own. The second picture had Mickey mousse, Minnie cheesecake and Key lime tart. The Key lime tart is the square dessert in the picture.

OKAY....now onto my life at home. While I felt pretty good on the trip the pain has returned to me over the weekend. :( So while waiting for the Drs office to call me back today....I decided to bake. Look out Full Compass....you are getting food tomorrow! Today I made Chocolate chip cookies, which my girls have consumed almost the whole batch. When I was done and the Dr's office still had not called, I decided to make a lemon cake. This is what will be traveling into Full compass tomorrow. :)
Lemon Pound Cake
- adapted from Cookie Baker Lynn (and her picture was MUCH prettier than mine!)


2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar
6 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest
1 tsp. pure lemon extract
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1- Preheat oven to 300 F with a rack in the center of the oven. Butter and flour a 12 cup Bundt pan.

2- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together twice. Set aside.

3- Cream the butter and 1-3/4 cups sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed and add the flour mixture, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour. Stir in the lemon zest and lemon extract.

4-Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1-1/2 hours, or until a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes on a rack.

5- While the cake cools, bring the lemon juice and remaining sugar to a boil over medium high heat in a small saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.

6- Invert the cake onto a rack, and remove the pan. Poke holes all over the cake with a wooden skewer. Position the rack over a baking sheet and slowly pour the syrup over the cake. It will seep through the holes and into the cake. Let cool to room temperature. Decorate with fresh or candied flowers (optional).