Mickey and Minnie Macarons, A Trip to So Cal

One of my favorite treats at Disneyland is

their fresh raspberry Mickey Macaron, found

at the Jolly Holiday Bakery, just at the far end

of Main Street.  My grandkids just can't

get enough of French Macarons, so I decided

to make some for a family dinner.

I used my macaron silpat and picked a spot where

there were three circles.  I started with the center

circle and piped it extra large and to the top of the circle,

and then piped the ears on, using the regular size

of the circle, but bringing it a little closer to

touch the center.  

For the complete recipe click here.

These were so large that I only got 5 double

sided ones out of a batch, so we had the kids

split them.

These are large, but they have to be to fit

all of those luscious raspberries in on top

of the buttercream frosting.

I added a little fondant bow for Minnie's.

I was thinking Disney, because we were heading

to southern California.

My niece and I were headed down to Los Angeles for a Laker's

game.  My friend's husband is one of the coaches

there, so we got to eat in the family room and

have our picture taken in the tunnel.  She is a huge

Laker's fan and we were lucky enough to see

LeBron James play his last game this season,

and Lakers won!!  

Our friend joined us at Disneyland for a day,

and we got to enjoy the gorgeous sunshine -

lacking here at home still.

(The castle is still wrapped up for repainting,

so disappointing!)

Of course, we ate our way through Disneyland.  

These were Butterscotch Beignets - one of their

best seasonal flavors so far.

We always have to enjoy something from

the Cozy Cone.  We got the Chili Cheese and

the Fiesta Cone.

But my new personal favorite is the

Lobster Roll from the Harbour Galley,

right across from the

Haunted Mansion, down by the water.

How had I missed this place for so many years.

The Food and Wine Festival was also going

on.  We tried fried artichokes which were lukewarm

and soggy and disappointing, and a Ghost Pepper

Mac and Cheese, which was hot and spicy, but

quite overcooked.  

But this little Mickey Mouse Chocolate Mousse

was fantastic.  I have to say that saved the Food

and Wine Festival, because we weren't that impressed

with the quality of the other two foods we tried.

Then my niece and I headed over to The

Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal.

We just completed a big 5 week Harry Potter competition

with our Young Single Adult Ward, which I will

post soon, if I ever stay home!!!  But that made

it a perfect time to stop and pick up some prizes

for our Harry Potter competition.

Of course, I had to be dressed in my

Gryffindor sweater, and

we had to eat at the Three Broomsticks.

My niece got Bangers and Mash, which had a wonderful

onion gravy on it,

and she ordered a Butterbeer Potted Cream.

Both were delicious.

I tried the ribs and some Butterbeer ice cream.

We awarded ourselves 150 points each for our

Harry Potter Cup competition, since we traveled

all the way to Hogwarts!

Spoiler alert, Gryffindor still didn't win, but

we picked up some fun prizes for the competition.

I will be posting our whole month's activities

soon, but now hubby and I are off to Highpoint,

for the furniture mart.  We have never gone to it

before, so I hope I have some things to share.

We are always off on some adventure!

Hogwarts Feast Table - Harry Potter California

We had been anxiously awaiting our owl mail

and we finally received our tickets to Hogwarts,

It came the same day we received our

acceptance letter.

So we donned our robes and headed out!

These two scholars were promised a trip to

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter when

they finished reading all

of the Harry Potter books.

Someone was surprised when they read them so quickly.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter just

opened this year in California at Universal

Studios.  We had been to Orlando's, but we

wanted to visit here, while we were in California

for a wedding reception.

Of course, we had Butterbeers,

(Frozen or not)

which are one of our must haves,

but this year at The Three Broomsticks,

we tried something new,

The Great Feast!  It says it feeds four,

but we had four adults and two children,

and we had tons left over.  This was a real

bargain for a meal for 6.

Our scholars were able to choose a wand, and

later Kylie was actually chosen at Ollivanders,

and a wand chose her.

They really enjoyed the interactive wands

that they could use at different spots to try

and do spells.

We had three marvelous and fun days there.  

This Harry Potter look-a-like was the only one

who could ride 

The Forbidden Journey

over and over and over,

so the last day, while we just ate and enjoyed

the atmosphere, he rode in the single rider's

line 20 times!

We quickly had to create our own magical dinner

party to relive the fun.  

We created everything at home, and

then transported (on our brooms) to

our cabin.

My sister Jean, and my niece Shaunna and I

created all kinds of Harry Potter treats to enjoy

at 

Our Great Feast,

like these Chocolate Cauldron cakes, 

that I last posted.  

We also made chocolate frogs,

Golden Snitches,

that rat, Scabbers,

filled with marshmallow cream.

brooms, and Butterbeer fudge.

We imitated the great feast with roasted chicken,

ribs, roasted potatoes, carrots, broccoli and 

corn on the cob.

The table was decorated with the books the scholars

read, and other goodies collected by our group

of Harry Potter Fans.

Shaunna created our plates using the Cricut.

Harry describes the feast in the first book and

says they had gold plates and goblets, so we accented

our fun plates with gold flatware and a gold

placemat.

Shaunna has also crafted her own broom, which

she brought up to the cabin for our Hogwarts feast.

While we all have a few Harry Potter collectibles,

Shaunna has the most - like the illustrated version

of book one shown above and the quaffle.

I may have to get the illustrated version.

She just received the second illustrated

book in the mail this weekend.

Kylie purchased a time turner.

One new drink we tried at the Three Broomsticks

was Pumpkin Fizz, so we purchased a sparkling

pumpkin cider,

Knudsen's Pumpkin Spice,

to have at our feast.

Chocolate wands, which one of my little granddaughters

helped to decorated with magical dust were nestled

right by an Ollivander's wand box.

Our Chocolate Frogs jumped into an original 

Chocolate Frog box from Honey Dukes.

Jessica made the Butterbeer Cupcakes.

We all helped with the brooms.

Jean made the Butterbeer Fudge.

I made my recipe of Butterbeer, and this is the wand

that chose Kylie (of course Grandma had to buy

that wand - it chose her!!!)

(Especially during October!)

Hope you enjoyed our little trip to 

Hogwarts, and our Feast.

One of my favorite events there is the

Frog Choir - they come out about once

an hour and perform.

We loved the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter

in California.  

It isn't as big as the Orlando one, but we

read they have plans to add Diagon Alley and

Escape From Gringotts.  One advantage they have is that

they made Ollivander's Wand Shop larger, and many of

the fake shops are now real shops.  For us, it is very accessible

compared to Orlando. 

I am sure you can tell there are plenty of

Harry Potter fans around here! 

 I even

got to be first on the ride one morning -

power walking and not carrying a

backpack!  Woo hoo!  I always wanted

to do that. 

Hope you get your acceptance letter

and your ticket soon and get to go!

Oops!  Beaulah was flying around

getting after me for not including her

in this Halloween post

(even though she didn't get to go!)

She thinks she is the queen of Halloween,

but I think someone else might be

(just don't tell her!)

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

Dishing It and Digging It

Halloween Tablescape Party