Orlando - Day 1 - Dinner Theater

So, we left for Orlando last Friday for a long-weekend vacation. My sister was sweet enough to stay at our place and take care of Bailey - thanks sis! The first day of our Orlando vacation went pretty smoothly. We finished packing that morning, caught our plane in the afternoon and arrived right around 4PM, which was time perfectly by my SO, so we could go straight to the hotel and check in.



We took the complimentary shuttle to the car rental place, got our car and headed to our hotel. (See the airport in the background? I suppose technically, that is a hotel connected to the airport, but you get the jist)



We arrived at our hotel, checked in and settled in to relax for just a bit. We had the whole evening to spend at our will, so I decided to take my SO to a dinner theater. I remember growing up in Orlando that a dinner theater was a great thing-to-do in tourist-town and that we tried pretty much every dinner theater in town. My fave was King Arthur's Court, but that apparently shut down a few years ago. My next fave was Arabian Nights, so we chose that for the night. A quick tip on dinner theaters - check with your hotel concierge, because they can usually get you discounted tickets. Just remember to tip them - not sure what the going tip is for a concierge so if anyone knows, leave a comment, if you don't mind - I hope we gave her enough!



We accidentally drove to Disney (missed our turn on 536) so after some circular driving, we finally made it to Arabian Nights just in time to catch the end of the magician pre-show. After a greeting from some dude in a purple robe, we were let in to the arena where salads were waiting for us. Thank goodness because we were starving!



Now, I did check some reviews for the place before we headed over and they all said the food was terrible, especially the steak. I decided to go with the chicken option, which I thought was pretty good. The chicken didn't have much flavor, but it wasn't quite as bad as I expected based on the reviews.



My SO decided to try the steak, which he wasn't thrilled with, but I warned him! An important thing to know about dinner theaters is that you don't go for the food - you go for the entertainment. If you go to a dinner theater, don't expect to be blown away by the food - it's good, but usually not great.



Now, while I found the show to be pretty entertaining, another important thing to know about dinner theaters is that they're just that - "theaters." Your kids will probably end up having a better time than you, but I suppose it depends on what you're expecting. You also need to remember you're in Orlando where they're trying to market towards tourists. The show will probably be silly, corny, and sometimes over-the-top, so don't expect Broadway.



I had a good time. The show was pretty good, the horses were beautiful, and I thought the riders did some pretty amazing tricks - flipping, juggling, balancing, and all that fun stuff.



All in all, I'd say a dinner theater is a good thing to do in Orlando, but only if you're willing to let yourself have a good time without expecting complete perfection from the food and the show. My fave dinner theaters are: Arabian Nights, Medieval Times, and Sleuths Mystery Dinner theater. If you want a perfect dinner theater, you may want to try one of the Disney ones - they're not perfect, but Disney has an extremely high standard with everything they do, so you may like it more than the ones around I-Drive (International Drive - the "tourist area"). The only one I've done is the Luau at the Polynesian Resort and it was very good!

Has anyone out there done a dinner theater before? What did you think?

New Year's Dinner

Before I start with the Orlando posts, I wanted to take a minute to do a quick post related to New Year's Day. I meant to post about this before I left, but I'm sorta one of those people who like to do things last minute...or maybe not so much one who likes to do things last minute but ends up doing things last minute, so last Friday I had the choice to pack or do this post. I chose packing, which I think was a pretty good decision, eh?

But back to the New Year's thing I was curious to see if anyone else out there has a New Year's tradition as far as foods go. Since I grew up in the south, I've been raised to eat collard greens and black eyed peas on New Year's for good luck and fortune.

Does anyone else out there eat collard greens and black eyed peas or maybe some other traditional food? We had our greens and peas with some sauteed chicken and some nice hearty wheat bread. Looking back on it, I think cornbread is more traditionally served with the greens and peas, but I forgot. Oopsie! Maybe I'll remember next year?

The Tradition Lives On

Since my mom is from the Philippines and my dad is from the north, we don't have a lot of family living nearby (here in the south). Luckily, when I was young, or possibly even before I was born, my mom became good friends with a distant cousin of hers who also lived in the states, and our families began hanging out since I can remember. They lived in Canada, but would make long trips in their big van to visit us all the way down in Florida. They are a full-Filipino family (my Dad is American, so I guess that makes us "half") so it was really nice for my mom to have someone to talk to in her native language and someone to cook the familiar foods that they grew up eating. Not sure if you know any other Filipino people, but we like to eat...a lot. I mean, we really, really like to eat, so it was always a fun family foodfest whenever our two families got together.

Eventually, around the time I was in middle school, my cousins moved to Atlanta, GA, so we started taking trips to visit them (a few times a year). We would play video games all day and take trips to theme parks and water parks. It was the best...some of my favorite childhood memories were spent with my "distant" family. My cousins, especially the one my age, became like my brothers. We had the best fun just being kids together exploring those water parks, playing board games, and even playing their keyboard (my cousin was extremely into music and still is to this day...now he prefers to play guitar) to the pre-programmed sounds, like House of the Rising Sun and Hey Jude.

Every time we visited them in Georgia, we had this tradition that we would go to the Dim Sum restaurant for a goodbye lunch. We'd get there very early...before the restaurant was even open. You have to do that with the good Dim Sum restaurants because you will not get a table if you don't go early. Dim Sum is like a Chinese brunch with tapas-style, family-style food. It's much more authentic than many American-ized Chinese restaurants and it's absolutely delicious. Anywho, every time we went to Atlanta, we had to go to Dim Sum. We would get one of the big round tables they had for large families, we'd share food off of the huge lazy Susan in the middle of the table, and we'd eat and talk and eat and laugh and eat all afternoon. I have such fond memories of our Dim Sum outings, so when I found out there was a Dim Sum restaurant in my SO's hometown and that my SO's sister liked Dim Sum (it's not for everyone and not traditionally popular with Americans), I hoped that we would be able to go this past weekend and we did!

For anyone who's never had Dim Sum, here's how it works:

Check reviews or with locals to see if the Dim Sum restaurant is good (has a good reputation). If it does, you will need to get there up to an hour before they open. Get there at least 30 minutes early if you don't want to have to wait for a table to open up. People often will sit and eat all afternoon.



Once you get your table, the waiters and waitresses will push little carts around the room and stop by your table to show you all the yummy foods they have to offer you. Many times, they will not speak English, so you may have to choose your dishes by looks only. This picture features a cart with steamed foods. Inside these containers are a variety of delicious dumplings. You point at the ones you want, the waitress places your selection(s) on the table and marks your check. There are three parts of the check for the various dishes, which are priced by size: small (around $2.75), medium (around $3.75), and large (around $5-ish). They mark an X in the appropriate box(es), which will be tallied up when you check out.



In this picture, you can see some of the dishes we selected: sauteed brocollini, calamari, eggplant & green pepper, turnip cakes with pork, and steamed pork buns. Towards the back, my SO's sister is opening a grapeleaf package, which contains sticky rice with an egg, pork, and shrimp filling.



Same dishes as before except towards the front are some steamed shrimp dumplings...one of my favorites.



My plate...with a bite taken out of the steamed pork bun (another one of my favorites) so you can see the barbeque pork filling. It's not barbeque like you'd probably be familiar with, but it's a slightly sweet taste...trust me, it's good and one of the first Dim Sum I started eating as a too-picky-kid, so it would be a good one to start with.



Though it may not look like it, this is dessert - sesame balls. Balls of dough covered in sesame seeds, deep-fried, and with a yummy bean paste inside. The paste is sometimes yellow-ish, but the red bean paste is the best!

Overall, the Dim Sum was excellent! Just as good as I remember from my childhood. I had such a fun time chatting with my SO's sister and her husband and my SO. I had told my SO's sister about my family tradition with my cousins and she had a similar tradition with her friends growing up. So, as we were finishing our brunch, I was thrilled to hear her say, "Maybe we can start a new family tradition?" I quickly resp0nded, "I would love that. Let's do it!"

Christmas-ing Around the South

It was Christmas-ing around the south for us this year as we visited both my parents and my SO's family for the holidays. We spent the weekend before Christmas with my family. My mom is a neonatal intensive care nurse, so she only gets every other Christmas off. I guess it works out well now that my SO and I are sharing the holidays between both our families. Only problem is, with so few days, you don't feel like you really get to spend good quality time with either family. Don't get me wrong, a couple days with each is precious time, but I love my long, lazy days hanging out with family and doing nothing but eating, resting, and whatever else I feel like. Maybe next year? Anywho, my parents loved their gifts - my mom loved the scarf I knit up for her! Yay!


At my family's house, we had a traditional turkey dinner, but with non-traditional table decor. Doesn't matter one bit to me...turquoise is my favorite color anyways!



Oh yea! Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, steamed veggies...yummy! We even had pumpkin pie and a delicious chocolate cake...mmm...



Last week, I was recounting all the Christmas presents I had hoped to make and came to the awful realization that I didn't have time to get them all done. EEK! I only had time to get a couple done. That was...I thought I had time to get a couple done, and then, the orders for D Celestine started pouring in out of no where! I had some online orders and even had a few custom orders to make with some local friends, which is always a blast, but no time for my homemade Christmas gifts. Luckily, I packed up my knitting supplies and all the yarns I had intended to use in my gifts and knitted up a storm all weekend, and Christmas Eve, and even Christmas Day to complete two (yes, two) more of those butterfly scarves. I finished the second one about an hour before we were supposed to head over to my SO's aunt's house for dinner. Did I mention I had offered to prepare a panettone bread pudding before we left? Phew! What a busy day Christmas was!? Everything came together in the end. The panettone bread pudding was very much enjoyed, and I gave the two butterfly scarves to my SO's two aunts and they LOVED them. Phew! My first major, handmade Christmas gifts were a hit! I've got to come up with something good for next year now!

Chicken Vesuvio and Tree Trimming

Thanks to the wonderful Sarah of Misadventures of Mama and Jack, I decided to take a trip to Kmart to check out the Martha Stewart holiday decoration collection. You have to understand, going to Kmart isn't a simple 10 minute drive down the street, it's more like a 30 minute drive to the other side of town...and it's near a mall, which is always "fun" this time of year. Martha is usually so dependable for chic decorations, but you never know just what a store will be sold out of or not carry. The whole way over, I was keeping my fingers crossed that my trip would not be a lost cause. I have to say, the Kmart was not the most organized place I'd ever been. I couldn't figure out where the holiday decorations were and couldn't find anyone working there to help me. I just walked in circles in complete confusion. Can you tell I don't frequent the Kmart much? Nothing wrong w/ Kmart...I'm just too lazy and too busy to go so far for stuff I can get closer to home. I finally had to ask someone at the checkout (while they're were checking someone else out) where the holiday decorations were. Turns out they were in the Garden section...no wonder I didn't see them when I was circling the store. Anywho, by the time I finally made it to the decorations, I was slightly irritated, but that all just melted away when I took one look at the beautiful Martha Stewart ornaments and trim. Every doubt I'd had when I was driving over, fighting the mall traffic, and feeling completely lost in Kmart instantly disappeared as I started oohing and ahing over all the lovely decorations. I found way too many things I liked and bought far too many ornaments for my tree. By the time I got back from my shopping spree, it was nearly time for dinner. I made one of my favorite Everyday Italian recipes - Chicken Vesuvio


This is a super yummy dish with a light yet tasty flavor. The dish contains chicken, potatoes, artichoke hearts and the sauce is made with white wine, chicken broth, and butter



I've made this dish a couple times and must offer up that I usually only make this with two bone-in chicken breasts, though I keep the liquid ingrediants the same. Also, be sure to watch this dish as it's cooking because the high heat usually burns my chicken and 10 minutes for both the chicken and potato cooking times is too long.



Anywho, I had a lovely evening of enjoying delicious food, sipping wine, and trimming my tree. I think these new ormanents will go great with my sparkly snowomen



And look! My Christmas present came early this year and already unwrapped!

First Time for Indian

Can you believe I've never had Indian food before? Well, I guess that's not true...at least, it's not true any more! I tried Indian food for the first time last week and it was soooo yummy! I went with a few of my co-workers and some of them were Indian...thank goodness b/c they were able to help me pick out what to order. I ended up getting Morgh Tikka Masala (sp?), which is chunks of chicken in a creamy tomato sauce...but not like Campbells creamy tomato - it's like Campbell's with a kick (it's actually not at all like Campbells, but I have to compare it to something "familiar"). You must try it! I think trying new foods can be so amazing sometimes. When you try a new spice or herb or dish or food or flavor, the sensation of that new taste hitting your tongue can be so exhilarating! I mean look at that color! Something so beautiful must be delicious! I'm here to tell you it is...and I wouldn't lie to you...would I? :)


We all started with a tomato based soup that was slightly sweet and slightly spicy...an interesting combo



Here's my vibrant Tikka Masala - the sauce has cream and tomato and cilantro and tikka, which is a spice, and lots of other good stuff.



Steamy basmati rice



All served with some warm flatbread...I can't wait to go back! Hmm...maybe I can talk someone into going tomorrow?

Worms? No Thanks...I'm a Vegetarian.

I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a wonderful one and for everyone else, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I spent Thanksgiving with my fiance's family this year...one of several beautiful family get-togethers I've been fortunate enough to participate in. Don't get me wrong...I love my quiet, simple dinners with my immediate family, but with my mom from the Philippines and my dad from the north, we don't have a lot of "other family" near-by. We used to celebrate with some cousins of ours but haven't been able to connect as of late, but hopefully, we'll all get together soon. Anywho, every once in awhile, (maybe it's just me) but, I look forward to one of those big family celebrations with lots of friends and family everywhere. Very holiday-esque, no? My family has always celebrated traditional American holidays, but the older I get, the more I want to celebrate the holidays. The more I want to decorate, to bake, to cook, to gift wrap. I can't wait till my SO and I get a house so I can really get started decorating and maybe even host a holiday dinner. I'm taking notes from my Martha Stewart library...just in case.


We celebrated a traditional Thanksgiving with Turkey, dressing, gravy, dry dressing (a secret family recipe), macaroni & cheese, green been casserole, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls...am I forgetting anything? I mean, obviously, we had dessert (my fave part of any meal): pumpkin gooey-butter cake, brownies, ice cream, and apple pie. If you can't tell from the photo, I celebrated Thanksgiving with quite a few of my SO's family - his aunt & uncle (the hosts) and their two sons, his mom, his brother & his son, his sister & her husband & their son & daughter.

I had a funny conversation with one of my SO's nephews, Alex, while he was playing with this fish toy that had a worm on a pully that when you pulled made the fish's tail swim while the worm moved closer towards the fish's mouth. The conversation went something like this:

Me: What's that in the fish's mouth?
Alex: A worm.
Me: What's the fish doing with the worm?
Alex: He's eating it.
Me: Do you eat worms?
Alex: NOOOO! I'm a veg-e-TAR-ian! I don't eat meat!

It wasn't the answer I was expecting, but it was really too cute.



The weather was a bit chilly, but beautiful. The fire-colored leaves looked so brilliant against the blue-blue sky.



Bailey is really loving all the leaves. He loves to eat them...or pick them up in his mouth at least...



...even leaves waaaay bigger than his head, which is pretty cute.



Oh yea...and he likes sticks, too.



When we got back home from visiting my SO's family, we had a simple soup...gotta eat healthy after chowing down on all that turkey, right? This is the Chicken Provencal "Stoup" by Rachael Ray (click here for recipe). I thought the recipe was pretty good, but if you try it, be sure to get the olive tapenade. I was hesitant to buy it because I don't like olives, but a teaspoon-full stirred into my soup added a lot of flavor, and it didn't really make the soup taste too much like olives. It just added depth to the flavor overall.

Oh, and did I mention that we also got to celebrate my SO's mom's b-day? Happy birthday, you-know-who!

Comfort Food: Pot Roast & Molasses Cookies

I don't know what's with me lately, but with all this cold weather, I've really been getting into comfort food lately. Today, I knew I'd have a full day - brunch with the girls, bead show shopping (this always takes a few hours, no matter how hard I try to zip through), and then jewelry making so I'll have some new creations just in time for Christmas. I decided to do a simple, yet tasty pot roast


I've also been itching to make these molasses cookies I saw on one of my Martha Stewart DVDs - Martha's Favorite Cookies


I've been collecting the ingrediants for the recipe for a couple weeks now, bit by bit...I never made a list, so I kept forgetting a couple ingrediants here and there.



Sift the dry ingrediants, then add the wet ingrediants.



Mix and add rolled oats



Use an ice cream scoop to form balls - this is a dry dough, so I recommend patting the dough into the scoop to firm it up a bit. Dip a cup into sugar and flatten each cookie.



Bake, cool, and enjoy!



Now, which Martha Stewart cookie to make next? Hmmm...

Halloween Dinner Party

As I mentioned when I made my pumpkin favors, I decided to have my first official "dinner party" with a Halloween theme - primarily themed with the color black. Although it was lots of work and took up most of my weekend, I really enjoyed putting this together. Here are some shots from the evening:



I decided to make a nice, cold-weather comfort food, with a nice red tomato-juice-based sauce to resemble blood (just a bit...nothing realistic). It's the Brisket with Carrots & Onions by Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa. I also served it with spinach dip (from The Fresh Market) and roasted potatoes:

Roasted Potatoes Recipe
1-3 lbs small, red-skinned potatoes
4 garlic cloves
1 TBSP Italian seasoning (or other dried herb of choice)
2 TSP salt
1 TSP pepper
4-5 TBSP olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Farenheit. Peel rough parts of skin and eyes from potatoes (I like a little skin left on, but feel free to peel the whole thing). Slice potatoes into 1/2-1" chunks (the smaller the chunks, the faster they'll cook). Put potatoes in baking dish. Top with garlic, spices, salt, pepper, and drizzle olive oil on top. Toss potatoes to cover and distribute seasoning and oil. Potatoes should be lightly covered. Bake for 40-60 minutes until to desired tenderness.



I went with an all black table setting...well, except for the plates. A black, sparkly table cloth from target, 3 black candles, & the black flowers/vases I crafted earlier



A closer look



An armoire in the living area got a scary makeover with these Michael's skull luminaries, red/black candies, and black web-covered branch



I wanted to do a themed dessert since the dinner wasn't too scary looking, so I chose the spider "creep-cakes" from the Martha Stewart mag and re-created them without the fangs.



Unfortunately, one snuck away and we haven't seen him since.



We even had some "Witches Brew" complete with spooky dry ice effects. The dry ice didn't last long though...I'll have to get a bigger piece for next year. Anywho, if you check out the recipe, I subbed Kool-Aid for the soda packets, and I opted for the dry ice effects over the "frozen hand"...I'm sure either is scary. The spiders seemed to enjoy the special effects, watching carefully with their beady, red eyes.



This rustic, hearty dinner was served on a candle-lit table.



I even had time to make little name cards for each place setting.



After dinner was over, the spiders were served up. Unfortunately, the black sugar on top turned everyone's mouths black (lips, teeth, tongue), but them seemed to think it was pretty funny, even reaching for a second spider snack. Hey, it could be a good prank if you want to get one of your friends.



All in all, I'd say it was a successful dinner thanks to special help from my honey. Thanks babe. Hope everyone enjoyed.

Rainy Day Soup

After weeks of dry weather, the rain is finally here. I'm normally not a fan of the rain, but I realize how important it is at this time, so I'm welcoming the wet weather with a nice, big, hot bowl of soup, b/c there's not much better on a rainy day than hot soup.



I saw a picture of a chicken breast and white bean soup in one of my Every Day with Rachael Ray mags, so I thought I'd try to figure out the ingrediants on my own when I realized I wouldn't have the recipe on me at the grocery store. I got chicken stock, white beans, and a rotisserie chicken, which I pulled the meat from. I also got some fresh spinach.



When I got home, I quickly found the recipe and realized that I'd forgotten or simply missed several of the recipe's ingrediants. I also realized I got some wrong...for example, the recipe called for arugula...not spinach. Oh well, I shrugged. I figured it would have to taste good on it's own.



Care for some soup?



Easy Chicken, White Bean, and Spinach Soup "Recipe"
(in quotes b/c it's not really a true recipe...just something I threw together - very simple and makes a great healthy meal with minimal cooking)

Ingrediants:
1 Rotisserie Chicken (full or breast only) - meat pulled from bones
1 Box Chicken Stock
2 Cans white beans (I used Northern) - rinsed
1/2 bag fresh spinach (baby may be better, but the regular stuff was cheaper)

Directions:
~Heat broth over medium heat (add a couple cups water if you want it more "brothy")
~Add chicken and beans to stock
~Bring to boil, turn down to low heat
~Stir spinach into soup to wilt
~Serve with nice crusty bread