Tag: family

Food & Wine Festival 2019

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Today is the last day to enjoy all the deliciousness at the Food & Wine Festival in DCA. We bought the Sip and Savor Pass ($49 with AP discount) which we love doing for all of the food events that take place at DCA. We were able to mosey along to each vendor, try what we wanted and come back at a later date to try some more! We really enjoy trying all the different foods – we’ve posted some of our favorites below!

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It was a bit chilly when we first went to try some food so we decided to stop and get the Fiscalini White Cheddar Lager Soup from the Nuts About Cheese booth. The soup was served in a mini Boudin sourdough bowl so you could eat every last bite of this delicious dish.

Close by was the California Craft Brews booth where Cody got the Karl Strauss Brewing Company, Columbia Street, Amber Lager and Courtney got the Pepperoni Pizza Egg Rolls. I’ll say this now, us three siblings all have very different tastes in what we like and what we agree on. These egg rolls are something we will never agree on. I won’t name names but some thought it was amazing and others thought that that person was CRAZY.

Another glimpse into our disagreements of tastes… Kenzie was not sold on the Esquites Sweet Corn Nuggets but Courtney loved them so much she had them twice! Also, Cody loves Churros (not part of the Food & Wine Festival but worth noting).

 

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Like I mentioned before, we love taking advantage of our Sip & Savor Pass. We went back to DCA on another weekend to eat more food!

These next few vendors had some of our favorite dishes from the festival.

  • The Spice Roasted chicken on Pita with Avocado Hummus and Garlic Sauce
  • Artichoke Toast with California Olive Tapenade
  • Deconstructed Teriyaki Chicken Musubi with Pineapple Relish

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Some honorable mentions:

  • Asian-Style Beef Barbacoa Taco with Pickled Ginger
  • Chocolate Crunch Cake
  • Chocolate Peanut Butter Churro

Posting this made us hungry…Until next year Food & Wine Festival!!

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Lunar New Year at DCA

Lunar New Year

It’s the Year of the Pig and we celebrated with all the Lunar New Year food at DCA. We decided to head to the park on a day that had a 50% chance of rain…which in hindsight wasn’t the best idea but that didn’t stop us from enjoying all the yummy food. Because of the bad weather, most of the performances were canceled so we weren’t able to see Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession… I guess there is always next year!?

We purchased the Sip & Savor Pass ($39.00 before AP discount-$36.00 after AP discount) so we could try an assortment of goodies from all the different vendors. We still had some left over on our pass so we went back for seconds of our favorite foods.

Sip & Savor Pass

Vegetable Egg Roll and Chilled Sesame-Garlic Noodles
Longevity Noodle Co.

Kenzie LOVED the Vegetable Egg Roll and Chilled Sesame-Garlic Noodles from Longevity Noodle Co. Courtney’s favorite was the Mandarin Orange-Green Tea Tart from the Lucky 8 Lantern. Also, what should be noted but is not pictured, the Vietnamese Iced Coffee from the Lucky 8 Lantern… SO delicious.

Mandarin Orange-Green Tea Tart

Kenzie’s Favorite
Longevity Noodle Co. Food

There was just so much good food! We spent the rest of the day trying to walk off everything we ate, but we ate A LOT.

Prosperity Bao and Buns

Lunar New Year
Char Siu Pork Bao

Lunar New Year

Fall Dapper Day 2018

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With Spring Dapper Day coming up this weekend, we decided to (finally) post our first Dapper Day experience at Disneyland! We had so much fun getting all dolled up and going into the park. We made a whole weekend out of it and booked a room at the Disneyland Hotel. Since the Dapper Day expo was taking place in the hotel they were offering discounts on rooms if you purchased your expo tickets ahead of time.

lrg_dsc00799Once we checked in we went downstairs to check out the expo. We got there just in time to watch the San Andreas Sisters perform and we LOVED seeing everyone on the dance floor!

lrg_dsc00867We then roamed around the exhibit hall to look at all the vendors and found a couple of shops that we really loved. Leo found a hat shop that had so many great options he couldn’t decide on what hat to get and ended up leaving empty-handed. The pressure was too much! Kenzie, on the other hand, walked away with an adorable Mickey fascinator by Hat & Mouse.

The next day we got up bright and early to have breakfast with Minnie & her friends at the Plaza Inn.

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That moment when you see your favorite character…

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After breakfast, we met Cody back at the expo to get our tintype photographs done. We saw this booth set up the day before and put our names down to get a portrait done. Jason Madsen, the photographer is great and if you’re ever in the Los Angeles area, he frequents the Melrose Trading Post so you can grab your tintype photo there too!

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Voila! The final product!

We headed back into the park to walk around, grab a bite to eat and take some pics of our Dapper Day attire. Kenzie had an outfit change because she said “wearing a dress is hard work”.

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We had so much fun on our first dapper day. Can’t wait to do it again soon!img_6494

 

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

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The best part about Halloween is PUMPKIN SPICE! Okay- that’s just Kenzie’s personal opinion but is she wrong?? I don’t think so. As we approached October, we started to deck our halls in orange and black and thought it would be festive to make some cookies for the occasion. We looked online for pumpkin spice recipes and found The Mommy Mouse Clubhouse’s recipe on Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies.  It was our first time making these cookies and I think we found our new Halloween tradition!… All Abooooaardd!

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Refrigerate the dough for at least two hours. While the dough is in the fridge you can start prepping the icing or if you’d rather use store bought icing like we did, then you can watch a little Halloween movie instead while the dough is setting!

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For the icing, we originally used this recipe on the pumpkin-shaped cookies but found that the flavor of the icing took away from the flavor of the cookie so we went with some good old fashion Betty Crocker Cream Cheese Frosting for the skeleton-shaped cookies.

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Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

  • Servings: 30
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients:

Directions:

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs. Add the pumpkin, vanilla, pumpkin spice, salt, and baking powder to the mixture. *Note: Next time we would add a little more pumpkin spice so we can REALLY get a stronger flavor* Stir in the flour just until mixed. Refrigerate for at least two hours.
  2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll out the dough until 1/8 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes. Transfer the cookies to a cookie sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Let them rest on the baking sheet for 1-2 minutes before placing on a cooling rack.
  3. Decorate as desired.

 

 

 

Why We Love Being Annual Passholders

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Last weekend, we ended our day at the park with a purchase at the Castle Holiday Shoppe in Fantasyland. The cast member helping us asked if we were annual passholders (we are) and then she asked us what our favorite part about being an annual passholder is. We haven’t been asked that question in a loooonng time and it made us think…what IS our favorite part about being annual passholders?

Kenzie: “You can be a little spontaneous! Many times when Courtney and I have been down in Orange County visiting our parents (and the dogs), we’ve made a pit stop for some churros or popcorn. We used to do it in High School too, after class we’d go to Disneyland for the night and just hang out. No pressure, no plans.”

Courtney: “My favorite thing about being a passholder is being able to go to the park any time. We can go just for dinner or to catch a parade or show that we haven’t seen in a while. Also, we get to experience Disney year round, through every holiday. I can’t wait to see the park all decked out for Christmas! It’s my favorite”

Cody: “The Food. That’s not really an annual passholder answer but my favorite part is the food…”