We chose this menu.
Chicken Drumsticks -
I got this recipe from my mother-in-law and really enjoy it! Usually you make it in a dutch oven, however, it was raining cats and dogs that day, so I made it in the slow cooker. Worked just as well.
8-10 chicken drumsticks (skin removed, optional)
2 cups sugar
1 cup soy sauce
Mix sauce and pour over chicken in foil lined dutch oven or slow cooker. If cooking in a dutch over, cover the oven with charcoal briquettes, top and bottom. It takes about an hour to cook through. Make sure they are at 165 degrees internal temperature. With slow cooker, I cooked them on low for 3-4 hours or on high for 1 hour. Just make sure the internal temperature is 165 degrees.
Sliced Baked Potatoes -
Another recipe from my mother-in-law. Her scalloped potatoes! YUMMY!
6-8 small potatoes, boiled, skinned, and sliced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Cheese, cubed (preferred) or shredded
Salt and Pepper to taste
Parsley
Paprika
Combine sliced potatoes, soup, and cheese cubes in an oven safe bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add parsley to taste. Place in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Top with Paprika before serving.
French Bread -
I just had my husband pick us up a loaf of french bread on his way home from work.
Hot Cross Buns -
I used the recipe from Rhodes Bread.
18 Rhodes rolls, thawed to room temp
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
flour, if necessary
Frosting:
1 1/3 c powdered sugar
1-2 TBSP milk
Combine rolls and press or roll to flatten. Combine sugar and spices in bowl. Sprinkle flattened dough with 1/3 of the sugar mixture. Fold dough over itself and knead to combine. Flatten again and add 1/3 more of the sugar mixture. Repeat folding and kneading until all of the sugar mixture is incorporated. If the dough becomes sticky, add flour. Shape dough into log and cut into 12 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and place on a greased baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
My kids thought these tasted just like cinnamon rolls, since I altered the original recipe and only added what I knew we would like. :)
This is how we decorated our table.
Day 10: Decorate your Pressed Penny case
Do you remember pressed pennies from your childhood? I sure do! I read online that Disney has pressed penny machines around the park. I wanted them to experience the joy and wonder of getting a pressed penny and so we made our own pressed penny cases.
Mini M&M tubes (empty)
Disney stickers
Scissors
Marker
Packing tape
1. Have your child empty out their mini M&M tubes. This is the extra fun part. :)
2. Next, you will need to take off the label and wash the tubes. You can use goo gone to take off the glue that is used to keep the label on, or if you don't have any, simply put a small amount of vegetable oil and rub it all over the sticky part. Once it is coated with oil, rub flour into it until you feel the sticky stuff coming off. Rinse with hot water and repeat if necessary.
3. Have your child decorate the tube with Disney stickers. I found mine on clearance at Target.
4. Write your child's name on the tube with marker and wrap the whole thing in packing tape so that the stickers don't just fall off.
5. Fill up their pressed penny case with quarters and shiny new pennies.
Day 11: Make Mickey shaped pizza
We made mini mickey shaped pizzas. That way they were personal size and the kids could top theirs with the topping of their choice. I used the recipe from Rhodes Bread.
Rhodes frozen roll dough
Spaghetti sauce
Cheese
Pepperoni
Any other topping your family enjoys (i.e., olives, mushrooms, pineapple, ham, anchovies, green peppers, etc.)
Put your frozen dough on a greased sheet and allow to rise completely. Once it is risen, take one roll and shape it into a circle on another greased sheet.
Day 12: Have Disney Dinner and a Movie {Dumbo}
Here is our menu.
These are the recipes we used:
Circus Dogs -
We just used store bought hot dogs and buns. Warmed and put together with ketchup, miracle whip, and yellow mustard.
Timothy's Kernal Corn -
Canned corn. :)
Jumbo Pickles -
Right off the shelf. Big dill pickles.
Elephant Ears -
I used the recipe from Taste of Home.
1 cup warm water (between 110 degrees and 115 degrees)
1 cup warm milk (between 110 degrees and 115 degrees)
3 TBSP sugar
1 TBSP salt
3 TBSP shortening
4 to 4 1/2 c all purpose flour
oil for deep fat frying
Glaze:
1/2 c sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Dissolve yeast in water. Add milk, sugar, salt, shortening and 2 cups flour; beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. One a floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl; turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 1 hour. Punch down dough and shape into 15 ovals. Heat 3-4 inches of oil to 375 degrees in deep-fat fryer or electric skillet. Fry ovals, one at a time, 3 minutes per side or until golden brown. Drain. Mix sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over warm pastries.
This is how we decorated our table.
Day 13: Put together a Disney puzzle
I found some Disney puzzles at my local Dollar store that were shaped. The kids LOVED them! I got one that had more pieces for my 5 year old than the one I got my 3 year old. They both still needed a little help, because of the fact that these were shaped puzzles...not your traditional square or rectangle puzzle. It was a bit trippy...even for me.
Day 14: Have Disney Dinner and a Movie {Frozen}
We had to squeeze an extra Disney Dinner in somewhere and this was the easiest week for me to do it.
This is the menu.
These are the recipes we used:
Norwegian Meatballs-
I used the recipe from Taste of Home.
1 c milk
1 c dry bread crumbs
1/2 c finely chopped onion
2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp each ground ginger, nutmeg, and allspice
1/4 tsp pepper
2 lbs ground beef
1 lb ground pork
Gravy:
2 TBSP finely chopped onion
3 TBSP butter
5 TBSP all purpose flour
4 c beef broth
1/2 c heavy whipping cream
Dash cayenne pepper
In large bowl, combine the eggs, milk, bread crumbs, onion and seasonings. Let stand until crumbs absorb milk. Add meat; stir until well blended. Shape into 1 in. meatballs. Place meatballs on a greased rack in a shallow baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees until browned, about 18 minutes or until internal temperature of 160 degrees. Drain and set aside. For gravy, in a large skillet, saute onion in butter until tender. Stir in flour and brown lightly. Slowly add broth; cook and stir until smooth and thickened. Blend in the cream and cayenne. Gently stir in meatballs and cooked pasta; heat through but do not boil.
Ice Block Jello-
I got this recipe from Kraft.
2 pkg (8 oz each) Blue Raspberry Jello
Stir boiling water into gelatin mix for 3 minutes to dissolve completely. Pour into 9x13 pan. Refrigerate 3 hours or until firm. Cut into squares and rectangles to represent ice blocks.
Olaf noses with Glacier Dip-
Chocolate Fountain-
This was how we decorated our table.
Day 15: Have Mickey Mouse pancakes for dinner
At our house, breakfast for dinner, is a BELOVED tradition. My daughter's favorite meal of all time is pancakes and eggs so it's a no brainer to make this for dinner often. We made it a bit more special by making Mickey Mouse pancakes.
Start off by making your favorite pancake mix.
Day 16: Have Disney Dinner and a Movie {Beauty and the Beast}
By this point, I was getting a bit worn out on Disney Dinner and a Movie nights. You might be too. If that's the case, don't include as many in your count down chain. We are doing 10 in a 32 day period. I figured that we would want to watch many Disney movies, so why not? I'll tell you why you might not want to...the work. The time it takes in making a special meal and decorating the table. However, it is up to you. I'm stubborn and I decided to just gut it out.
This was our menu.
Beast's Soup du Jour -
I made Chicken Noodle Soup from Tyler Florence.
2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 med onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 med carrots cut into slices
2 celery ribs, halved and cut into slices
4 fresh thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
2 quarts chicken stock
8 ounces dried wide egg noodles
1 1/2 c cooked, shredded chicken
salt and pepper to taste
Put soup pot over med heat and coat with oil. Add onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme, and bay leaf. Cook and stir about 6 minutes. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add noodles and simmer 5 minutes or until noodles are cooked. Fold in chicken and heat through. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
French Bread Rolls -
I bought the hard dinner rolls from Walmart for these.
Fruit Parfait -
I just layered raspberry yogurt with fresh raspberries to make a simple parfait my kids would eat.
Belle's Bookworm Cookies -
I wanted to try a different rolled out cookie, since we had just had sugar cookies this month. I tried Dreaming of White Chocolate's peanut butter cookie cut-outs. They were really good. The dough was super yummy!!
1 c creamy peanut butter
1 c light brown sugar, packed
1 c white sugar
1 TBSP vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
3 c all purpose flour
Mix together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar, white sugar, and vanilla, on low until thoroughly mixed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs. Beat on medium speed until mixture is creamy and fluffy. This takes about a minute or two. Add baking powder and flour mixing on low speed. Chill dough in fridge for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheet with silpat or parchment paper. Roll out portions of chilled dough to 1/4" thick. Cut with desired shapes and transfer to cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes, or until bottoms are slightly golden. For softer cookies, bake shorter time of 8-10 minutes. Let cool completely before frosting.
Once they were baked, we finished them off with some chocolate frosting decoration. I love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate.
This is how our table looked.
Check back in a few days for more of our activities in depth!
Valerie
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