Teacups and Toasters

I’m having a hard time getting over vacation. While I’ve been fairly productive this week, I can’t seem to get my head out of Walt Disney World. It’s bad. I know. I wake up every day and I want a Pineapple Dole Whip. If you don’t know what that is, you want to. Well, except that you might then have my problem. It’s a soft serve like ice cream, but it’s dairy free. It doesn’t taste dairy free and my dairy loving husband with Wisconsin blood in his veins thought it was better than the soft serve ice cream he had from the same shop. You can get them from Aloha Isle in Adventureland at the Magic Kingdom, but I digress..

I did come back with a few WDW tips to share with you that are not related to Pineapple Dole Whips.

A. Avoid going in the summer. It’s brutally hot.

B. If you must go in the summer, like most, save some money and bring your own bottled water. We did this past time because we drove down and were able to load up the car. If you’re flying have some shipped to your resort ahead of time.

C. In relation to bringing your own water, pack a zip-loc bag and fill it with ice. Stick the bag of ice in the bag you take to the parks and place your water up against it, or if you have a back pack – place the bag of ice on the inside of the backpack so that it will be against your back and then the water on the opposite side of the bag of ice. This way you keep yourself and your water cooled. Of course, make sure that your other items inside of the bag will be protected from the condensation.

D. Get up early and stay up late. I know it sounds contradictory, but try to avoid the parks at midday. The heat seemed to peak between 2 and 3pm. Get up early, go to the park of your choice, and head back to the resort for pool time and nap time around 11am. Then once you wake up from your afternoon snooze, head back out to a park.

E. Extra magic hours can be a great way to spend more time in the parks, however they are quite often the most crowded times to be in those parks. For a  more relaxed way to spend the morning, or evening, try going to a park that had the extra magic hours the day before. It’ll be way less crowded.

F. If you want to take the advice on getting up early to hit the parks, but don’t want to deal with the extra magic hours morning crowd, try booking a breakfast inside of one of the parks for a time before the parks open. It’s no problem to get in for your early reservation, as there is a special entrance line and if you stay on property the buses will be up and running plenty early. It’s also a great way to get pictures of the parks with minimal crowds. Main Street is a whole new experience when you take a stroll at 7:30a.m. (and it’s totally worth getting up early for!)

G. Budgeting for those special breakfasts. The breakfast buffets run about $18.99/adult and around $10.99 for the kids aged 3-9, so for most of us it’s not something we can do everyday, unless we’ve carefully budgeted for it ahead of time. However, it is definitely worth doing at least once. I recommend the one at Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom, which includes visits with Pooh Bear and friends. The princess breakfast at Akershus in Epcot is a great way for your princess to meet her favorites, but it’s nearly double the cost. Of course having a large breakast means that lunch can be lite (trust me you won’t want to eat a ton in the high humidity of the afternoon), and then dinner at counter service is pretty reasonable and there are wide variety of choices across the parks. I’d recommend Columbia Harbour House at Magic Kingdom, Flametree BBQ at Animal Kingdom, and ANYWHERE at Epcot!

H.  If you’ve never considered the dining plan, but really enjoy eating – a lot – like me- then consider that. We were at Disney for a week and spent approx. $200 less than we would have with the dining plan, and that was with my husband and I sharing a few counter service meals, eating in the room a couple times from our picnic basket, and only doing table service twice. We did free dining last September and loved it. If you can go at the end of August – December, there are special Free Dining packages available.  The basic dining plan includes one snack, one counter service, and one table service per person per day. Snacks range from popcorn, to muffins, to bottled water, to coffee, to oh so many choices (like pineapple Dole whips!) Counter service and table service include drink, entree, dessert, sides (cs).

I. Have some Kaki Gori (shaved ice) in the Japan section of World Showcase, at Epcot. Seriously, just do it.

J. A bucket of popcorn is only about a dollar more than the standard size. Think of it this way, you get more popcorn and a souvenir for only a buck.

Okay, so mostly that was a list of tips related to beating the heat and enjoying some food. My next Disney post will be in relation to souvenirs. So stay tuned!

Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands. They stand this day according to your ordinances, For all things are your servants.

Psalm 119:89-91

I love to eat. And I can eat cookies like Winnie the Pooh can eat honey.

It’s true. So I’m really excited to tell you that over the fourth of July weekend, I found my new favorite cookie recipe. I loved it so much that I had to make it again in order to share it with you because I was too busy devouring the first batch to take pictures. This time I made sure to take plenty.

We had our parents over for a cook in (it rained) on Sunday and when we were discussing what we should eat and who should bring what, my dad began telling me about this great cookie he had at The Daily Grind in Short Pump. We’re friends with the owners and I swear I did not steal their recipe! I don’t even know what their recipe is. My dad just told me that this cookie had Oreo pieces instead of chocolate chips, which sounded amazing. So, I went to my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe and adapted it likewise. If you’re in the Short Pump area of Richmond, you should check out The Daily Grind and their cookies.

If you want to make your own Oreo chip cookies, here’s what you’ll need:

~An oven preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit
~A cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (I ran out of parchment paper this past time and thus my cookies weren’t as pretty.)
~ 1/2 cup butter (As always, I use Smart Balance Light for a nice lactose free cookie.)
~ 1 cup packed brown sugar
~ 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
~ 1 egg
~ 2 teaspoons of vanilla
~ 1 3/4 cup of flour
~ 1/2 teaspoon of salt
~ 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
~ 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
~ 1 sleeve of Oreo cookies (I use double stuffed.)

Here’s what you do:

Cream butter, and sugars until fluffy!
Next, add the egg and vanilla. Mix well. Then add the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix well.
Add the Oreos! You need to smush the Oreos up first. I put the whole sleeve in a sandwich bag and smashed them up. There is minimal loss of cream. I smash mine up rather small, but you could make it chunky. I think that’s what The Daily Grind does, but I’ve not actually seen theirs.
Mix the Oreos well into the batter. Then spoon into even portions on your cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. The recipe makes about twenty.
Bake for twenty minutes at 300 degrees Fahrenheit, or until the edges of the cookies are ever so slightly brown. I actually, like to bake for twenty minutes and then turn off the oven and let them sit for another five.
Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a great 4th and got to spend a little time doing something fun. I spent my evening baking and mopping, but this afternoon we went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to see “Butterflies Live!”

I think it’s a pretty silly title. Do the Butterflies have a hit single? Aside, from the silly title, the exhibit is pretty neat. Inside of the large green house (Richmonders forgive me for not knowing the proper name of the building), is a room where newly hatched butterflies are released. There are about 200 in the room at one time.

I wore a flowery shirt in hopes that some would land on me, but none did. They didn’t seem to be landing on anyone though, so I didn’t take it personally. We waited about a half an hour to get inside, which I doubt is normal. Entrance to the gardens and the exhibit was free today. Thanks Lewis Ginter!