Most amazing food at Disney World

Today I'm not going to share a recipe, but the most amazing food I ate down at Disney.  We purchased the Disney Dining plan which included 1 snack, 1 Quick Service Meal, and 1 Table Service.  Being that we have never been to Disney, we didn't realize how big the portions were, and that Dessert comes with the Quick Service and Table Service Meal! We were pretty overwhelmed at first.  With all of that dessert, we struggled to even want to eat a snack.

Before going on our amazing trip, I did a lot of planning and researching.  I was amazed when I found out that you don't have to eat just the little snacks that they provide on the Dining Plan Brochure.  When you visit the different parks, each restaurant or snack shack has a sign which indicates whether your DDP covers the food.  I found some amazing finds.  For example, Steve got the most amazing Rice Krispie treat covered in chocolate and drizzled with Werther's Caramels, in Germany.  This place was to die for!

Located at the Magic Kingdom in Adventureland, they have the most delicious soft serve.  I got the Dole Whip Float with Pineapple soft serve. Can we say OMG?!!! Look at this thing, I could have lived off of just these, they were AMAZING!

For the most delicious meal I've EVER eaten, we went to Akershus Royal Banquet Hall.  Steve and I were very leery about going here.  It was a character meal, but it was all of the princesses. My first question to the lovely lady I was on the phone with booking this was, will there be boys there?  She said of course, and there were, but they all had sisters with them.  I figured, hey, they'll be the little Prince Charmings. It was really no big deal, and I am so glad we went.  The Princesses were lovely, and they loved my little Prince.  Snow White made D's day!  She was definitely the most personable and acted like she truly loved her job.  Don't get me wrong, they were all nice, but Snow White went above and beyond, and for that she made one little boy, very, very happy!  D got his first lipstick kiss, and was done the rest of the night.  He didn't want it washed off or touched, we had to take several pictures of it.  Boy, am I in trouble when he gets older. haha

Everything about this place was amazing.  They treated everyone like royalty, and the food, holy cow, it was the best food I have ever eaten in my life.  It had flavor, and it was portioned just right, and the dessert was delicious.  I had the Mushroom-stuffed Pasta with Swiss Chard, Oven-roasted Shiitakes, and Parmesan Cream.

Can we say Heaven??!!

Steve had Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Rutabaga Mashed Potato, Haricots Verts, and Caramelized Onion Sauce.  Which he went on and on about too.  

I wish I had a picture of the desserts, but I was too excited, and forgot to take a picture. We were served family style Sweet and Savory Chocolate Mousse, Traditional Rice Cream

topped with Strawberry Sauce, Flaky Puff Pastry filled with Mascarpone Mousse topped with fresh Berries

Seriously, the best meal EVER!  If you go, even if you don't have children, you have to eat here, it is so worth it!  

We also had a lovely meal at the Sci-Fi Cafe, the food was good, but the atmosphere was great, and we had really great service.  It is somewhere worth trying too.

As for the Quick Service meals, they were okay, nothing to die for.  Most were large portions, which I could share with little man, but they weren't overly tasty.  I guess quick service says it all.  

If you go to Disney World, the DDP is worth every penny you pay.  You can eat anything off the menu, get dessert and a non-alcholic beverage.  Down there, it really adds up, but when you get your bill and it says $0.00, it made me feel a hole lot better, and I could eat whatever I wanted, not just the cheapest thing on the menu.  

I hope this helps any of you planning a trip.  It truly is a magical place!  We love it and can't wait to go back. 

There's a new day a comin'

Hello followers! This is the new and improved Barry blogging today; I am recoverying well and I feel like a new man. I can forsee many glorious Mandays in the near future; I am approaching my 3rd week of recovery and everyday is getting a little bit better. My Doctor has advised me that my sinus cavity has been increased 4-5 times in size volumetrically, and that is huge. I may be nearing release back into the wild but we will have to see what the Dr. says on the 3rd.

The possibilities for my first Manday adventure are swirling around my head and I am like a kid in the candy store. I want to fully experience breathing in the outdoors and don't know what to do with myself. I have not experienced this level of breathing in my life; the arrid climate of living in Las Vegas does not even come close to quality of life that I am now enjoying. It is as if I was living only a half-life all of my life and now I can finally be relinquished from the strangle hold that I have previously endured. I am trying to obey my Dr's orders of trying to take it easy and rest but it is so hard to restrain my wildside. I want to run through a mountain stream, hike up to the top of a mountain and roll down a grassy hill all at the same time.

On second thought I will start off slow and work towards granduer. I think that my first "wing spreading" excursion will be to one of Columbus's fine metro parks. They are wonderful and we are blessed that there are so many in such close proximity to our home. If grew up in the country and find yourself in the concret wilderness I highly suggest that you try to find one in your neck of the woods. They are pretty great in Columbus, miles of trails oceans of prairies and dense deciduous forests all in the same place I cannot hardly wait. I will take some pictures and take my postings from mere words to a more enjoyable visual display. I figure if there is a new improved me I need a new improved blog posting.

The weather is finally here and the pleasure is worth all of the pain. Theres a great day a comin' folks so when it gets here and the stars are aligned, the meteorologist isn't lying and you have a few free minutes go out and play. I will be right behind, not winded nor stuffy and soon to be under that same beautiful blue sky as yourselves. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, Dr. Castillon is a miracle worker if you are suffering from the same miserable sinus conditions as I was check out your areas best ENT, endure the pain of recovery because you will reap the benefits 10 fold.

Yours truly,

The new improved Barry

Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party- Funny, funny stuff!

This was Monday's post, but is way to funny not to post it again to make sure everyone gets a chance to check it out.  Hope you enjoy it!

Why having a Toddler is like being at a frat party!

Handmade Graduation stuff!

Good morning my beautiful friends!  I just got back from the most magical vacation ever.  I'll tell you all about it next week.  For today, I would like you all to check out the two graduation posts I had up last week.  I don't know why they didn't get very many pageviews, but they are worth checking out.  I hope you all have an amazing day, and love these handmade goodies.

Graduation Gift Ideas


and


Handmade Graduation Card




Please also head over to FTLOB to help with the tornado efforts.  Thanks!  BJ

2 more Disney Themed Cocktails

Since I've spent an amazing week in the most magical place, I thought I would share 2 more really cool Disney Themed drinks!

Glass Slipper

Ingredients

 ice 

 blue curacao

 gin 

(sprite to make it virgin)

Add all contents into a cocktail shaker, shake vigorously until a frost forms and strain into a cocktail glass.

Tinkerbell

Ingredients

 ice 

 1 tsp grenadine

 vodka

 cherry brandy

1 egg white

Put ice into a cocktail shaker, pour in the grenadine, brandy, vodka and egg white, shake a lot, strain into a cocktail glass.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thursday!

Graduation Gift Ideas

Here are some gift ideas for the High School graduate in your life.

We all know they will need a laundry bag.  Steve made this bag for our cousin.  

We used 1 1/2 yards of fabric. Mesh can be used, but we wanted to make it cute.  Steve stitched her name on an extra piece of suede so that you could really see it.  He also added a toggle like thing at the top to tighten the cording and so it would go back through.

I found her several things that all college freshman need to make it in a dorm.

Really the possibilities are endless.  I could have probably filled the gifts to the top, but I had to refrain.

College graduates gifts I find a little harder.  A nice check seems to work.  

Congratulations to my sister Brooke and my cousin Julie!  Love you both!  

Gator Tators and a double special wish

If you ever have potatoes laying around and need a yummy recipe for them, here ya go!

Wash and Quarter potatoes
Boil 15 mins or until soft (not too soft, you don't want them mashed)
Put into baking dish and add
1/2 stick to full stick butter
Worcestershire sauce(to taste)
salt and peper
cheddar cheese (1/2 -full bag)

Bake until cheese is melted

These are amazing!  I hope you love them as much as we do!


Today is a super special day!  5 years ago today, my beautiful baby boy was born, what makes it extra special, is that he was born on his beautiful aunt's birthday!  Cool, right?

Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party

Did you attend college?  Well if you did, you may have attended a frat party once or twice.  The reason I say frat party is because I was in a fraternity.  Now, even if you didn’t go to college, I’m sure you have attended similar parties.  

When I look around my house now, I see similarities with regard to destruction and chaos due to my two boys.  So here are a few things that I have noticed and are eerily similar:

-  There are half-full, brightly-colored plastic cups on the floor in every room. Four are in the bathtub.

-  It’s best not to assume that the person closest to you has any control over their digestive function.

-  Something will get broken.

-  You’ve got someone in your face at 3 a.m. looking for a drink. (Almost every day for us)

-  There’s definitely going to be a fight.

-  You’re not sure whether anything you’re doing is right, you just hope it won’t get you arrested.  (So far, so good)

-  There are crumpled-up underpants everywhere.  (Daily, I am staring at 2 pair right now.)

-  You wake up wondering exactly how and when the person in bed with you, got there.  (Little Houdini’s)

-  You sneak off to the bathroom knowing that as soon as you sit down, someone’s going to start banging on the door.  (No peace and quiet)

By this point I am sure we are in agreement that having kids is similar to a party.  I look at these and giggle about how true they really are.  And as I am writing this, my almost 5 year old is beating on his drum set so hard that it is giving me a headache.  

Ahhh, just like a frat party!

Steve ✈

Magical Weekend

 May you all have a Magically Wonderful weekend!  I know I will be having the time of my life as you read this.

Remember...

Happy Weekend Sweet Friends!!!

Love, BJ

Handmade Graduation Card

Are you still searching for the perfect graduation card?  Here is the one I made for a couple special graduates.

I copied a picture of a little girls years ago on a piece of velum and modified it to work for a graduate.  I also drew a little guy if I ever needed him.

Here is the girl

Add a cap in one hand and a diploma in the other and you have a graduate

You can use the school colors for the paper.  Adhere with some eyelets.
Personalize the inside with the perfect words and you have an adorable handmade card.

I print out a saying for the bottom/top of the card on some vellum for a neat outside.  Then handwrite the inside, but you could print out what you want for the inside too.  The graduate will love it with it's personal touches and cute little person.

Congratulations to your graduate!

2 Disney themed cocktails

I may not be able to drink, but that doesn't mean you all can't enjoy a magical cocktail or two!!!


Cinderella

Ingredients

 ice 

 lemon juice 

 port wine

  white rum

 1 tsp sugar syrup

1 egg white

Put the ice into a cocktail shaker, add in the rum, port, lemon juice and sugar syrup, then add the egg white, shake very vigorously and strain into a chilled ice.

Peter Pan

Ingredients

 ice

 gin

 peach brandy

 dry vermouth

 orange juice,

Place the ice into a cocktail shaker, pour in the orange juice, peach brandy, gin and vermouth, shake until a slight frostiness forms and strain into a cocktail glass.


Have a wonderful Thursday!!!

Birthday Iron on

I searched and I searched for the perfect shirt for Da Freakout to wear on his birthday.  Since we are doing something special, he needed a shirt to sport that day.  While looking around on the Internet I found an iron that was super cute and easy enough to make, well with the help of my Photoshop master.  I showed him exactly what I wanted and he customized it just for me.  Photoshop is pretty easy if you know what you're doing.  I went to Walmart, got Fabric Transfers, ironed on the finished product, and I have an adorable shirt to let everyone know the day he is wearing the shirt, is his birthday.

 His name is under the little arrows, but since I call him Da Freakout, we'll leave it at that.

Notice there are 5 of his name also.

Thank you oh great Photoshop Master! 

Even with this shirt, he still hasn't figured out where we are going.  

Man, I love kids!  When he gets bigger, it's going to be a whole lot harder to keep big secrets like this.  

I hope you all have a Happy Humpday!

Chocolate Chess Pie

This pie is to die for!  A really good friend of mine made this one time and it melted in my mouth, it was unbelievable!!!

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbs cocoa

2 eggs                                                                    
1 small can PET milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 stick butter

Mix all ingredients bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes and ENJOY!!!

Thank you guys!

I want to thank you guys for your words of encouragement, prayers and good karma. I had my sinus surgery, my deviated septum un-deviated, my turbonates re-turbo’d and tubes put into both of my ears. Hopefully these surgeries will help make for more enjoyable Mandays; Mandays that I do not have to fear for my health because I am in the great outdoors sucking up all of the allergens that like to ruin my days.

It better work, because I have greatly underestimated the gross amounts of pain that I would have to endure with my recovery. Holy crap! From my teeth up felt like it was on fire, and the genius trying to put the fire out was using cinder blocks to smother the flames. In short if you haven’t had major sinus problems that interfere with your everyday life I do not recommend that you put yourself through this.

I am an optimist however. I will get the packing pulled out of my noggin probably when you are reading this. I am going to put the thought of it out of my head right now so I can continue to be optimistic. Once my packing is out I will be able to breathe, smell, taste and live better.

So I will ask you to pray that there isn’t too much brain matter attached to the packing in my melon because I can’t have much left. And a toast to finish this blog, to smelling, really smelling not just having my brain tell me what something used to smell like but really smelling lilacs or fresh cut grass or bourbon. Bottoms up!

Monster Turkeys (Breakfast of Champions)

4oz Wild Turkey Bourbon

4oz Your Favorite Monster Energy Drink

Barry

Congratulations lil' sis!

Congratulations to my little sister Brooke on graduating from WVU today!!  We are all so very proud of you!  May you have many years using that brand new, shiny diploma! :)  We wish you the best of luck with all you do!

Iced Coffee

I love my coffee! In the summer, sometimes it's a little to hot out to drink it hot.  So that I don't deprive myself from my coffee addiction, I put it on ice.

I make 6 cups of my favorite coffee (Dunkin Donut)
Fill cup with ice
Add coffee to my cup, a little more than half way full
Add enough Coffee Mate Italian Sweet Creamer to make it sweet/white
(sugar optional)
Top with Redi whip and some chocolate syrup

I don't drink my coffee with sugar or sweeteners, so if you put enough Italian Sweet Cream in it, it makes it really sweet, and enjoy!

I love my coffee!!!

If you have any great coffee recipes or drink recipes, add them to a Thirsty Thursday.  I would love to try them!!!!

I would like to ask one small favor today.  Barry is having his surgery today, and if you would say a prayer or send some good vibes, or whatever you believe in, we would really appreciate it.  I don't know what I would do without Barry, and could really use some love sent his way.
Thank you all, and we love you!


Have a Wonderful day!

Boy, Oh Boy, OH BOY!!!???

WHAT???  Are you serious?  That's what I was thinking as I read the expression on my doctor's face.  Just then the tears and emotions started.  I'm going to have another boy.  It was tough to hear at first as I had not mentally prepared myself for a boy.  With my two other boys, I had pretty vivid dreams where I knew I was going to have a boy.

This one was different.  I had dreams that the little one inside me was a girl.  My husband and I would be at stores and always look at the little girl clothes and how cute she would look in some of the outfits.  My one Aunt even went as far as buying some little socks that look like ballerina shoes and some tu-tu's.  My husband would always say, don't jinx it, it may be a boy.  But I was so sure that it was a girl.  Being pregnant, you get that 6th sense and even seem to have a little ESPN.

Well reality set in and I am excited to meet my new little man.  The doctor said he was healthy and growing great and weighs a whopping 8 oz.  He is sitting breached now, so I hope he flops his little butt over.

One benefit to having another boy is that I already have everything I need.  Toys, clothes and shoes etc.....will be no problem.  The wardrobes for the seasons even line up perfectly as our little boy is due on his brothers birthday in October.

So here we go, 4 maniacs and 1 queen!!

I guess it's meant to be.

 

Making a faux tie

I was looking around for some cute ideas for my boys for our upcoming vacation.  I came across these ties that are too easy to make.  Of course I wanted to add a little something to make them fit into our vacation theme.

What you'll need:
fabric
heat and bond
fabric paint and brush
scissors
tie stencil
disappearing ink

I made my tie stencil on a sheet of paper.  You could draw it right onto your fabric, if you're that good, but I'm always afraid of mistakes.
Once I drew the pattern onto the fabric we cut it out

 Make it just a little bigger than you want it so that you can fold the sides over, it makes the edges more durable. Place on heat and bond,  cut around so there isn't excess and iron on.

 We ironed it onto the shirt, then sewed around the edges so that it stays put for good!  

 After it was sewn onto the shirt, I drew a Mickey outline onto it.

 Painted the Mickey head in and....

The finished products.

 Da Freakout thought they were cool.  Luckily he hasn't put two and two together.  We've kept it for 2 1/2 months of where we are going on vacation.  The look on his face is going to be priceless, I hope!

Of course you could put whatever design you wanted on the tie, or nothing at all, they are so cute!

Have a lovely Humpday!

Texas Eggs Casserole

If you are ever in need of a super yummy breakfast casserole, this is the one for you!  I had this many years ago at a pot luck breakfast, it was so delicious, I had to get the recipe, now anytime I get the chance to make it, I do!

What you'll need:
10 eggs
3 tbsp sour cream
salt & pepper
1/2 lb mild sausage
1/2 lb hot sausage
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 medium onion, chipped
sliced mushrooms
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
8 oz Velveeta cheese
8 oz cheddar cheese
8 oz mozzarella cheese

In blender, do quickly the eggs, sour cream, salt and pepper.  Pour into a 9x13 inch greased dish.  Bake 7 minutes @ 400 degrees.
Saute the sausage, bell pepper, onion and mushrooms; drain well. Add Ro-Tel
Pour this over egg mixture.  Melt together the 3 cheeses and spread over the top
Refrigerate overnight.  Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees until hot and bubbly, and ENJOY!!

If you have any great recipes or are looking for something yummy today, go over and check out


Have a delicious day!!!

"It's a Dry Heat"

So, who coined the phrase, “it’s a dry heat!”  Are you kidding me?

I recently visited Phoenix, Arizona for the first time in my life last week.  Of course the week I had to be there for a conference, the temperature each day was 100, 101, and 100 with sun filled skies every day.  Now it was a huge contrast in weather considering I left a cloudy, cool and soggy Ohio.  I don’t think I have seen the sun for a couple of weeks here in Ohio.  Maybe I was just shell shocked at the difference in temperature but it felt like I was sticking my head in an oven.  The humidity average just under 10%, so I know that’s where we get our dry heat.

I would have to say that the scenery was beautiful though.  I was able to play a gorgeous golf course and see some of the native animals that inhabit the desert.  My favorite had to be the roadrunner.  Yes, they exist and are real.  I say this because my wife did not believe me.  So the proof is in the photos.

BEEP BEEP

Well if you have never been there, it truly is a beautiful place.  There scenery is absolutely stunning.

After looking around and sightseeing for awhile, I finally got the message from the Arizona desert.

Leave.

Did the desert just flip me off??

I think it did..

Steve ✈