Disney Night Date

Being a rabid fan of anything Disney, I was SO excited when Joe pulled this week's date. We were to have a "Disney night," which meant watching a Disney movie and making Monte Cristo sandwiches.

Take it from me, Monte Cristo sandwiches are the BEST thing you can eat at Disneyland (find them at the Blue Bayou or cheaper at Cafe Orleans). Here is a picture from our recent trip:

Making our own Monte Cristos was surprisingly easy. We combined ideas from a few recipes online and listened to Disney music on Pandora while cooking :)

The result, of course, was not as good as Disneyland's, but we don't have a deep fryer and that is highly necessary for a true Monte Cristo. Nevertheless, it was yummy. Here's how we made ours:

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Kate & Joe's Monte Cristos (Makes 2 Sandwiches)
Adapted mostly from this recipe

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 slices of Texas toast
• 4 ounces of thinly sliced ham
• 4 ounces of thinly sliced roasted turkey breast
• 4 ounces of gruyere cheese
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
• Blackberry preserves (to preference)
• Powdered sugar (for dusting)

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Whisk the egg and milk together in a shallow dish and add salt and pepper to taste.

• Place your bread on a work surface and spread blackberry preserves on each piece. We did a light layer on ours, but it could have been thicker. The amount is up to you :)

• Divide the ham, turkey and cheese into piles on two slices of bread. Close the sandwich with the remaining 2 slices of bread and lightly press together to help the sandwich stay together.

• Over medium heat, melt the butter in a large nonstick frying pan until it foams. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn't burn. Lower the heat to medium-low if necessary.

• Once the butter is ready, grab a sandwich and dip each side of it into the egg and milk batter. Then place the sandwich in the frying pan. Repeat.

•  Fry until the bottoms of the sandwich are golden brown (about 6-7 minutes, but watch carefully). Flip the sandwiches and repeat. 

• After making sure the cheese is melted and the sandwich is warm through, transfer to serving plates and top with a healthy dusting of powdered sugar. Serve more blackberry preserves on the side for dipping.

FINAL RESULT:

Ta da! This is what your Monte Cristo should look like:

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Once our sandwiches were ready, we turned on The Lion King.

I was always more of a Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid fan, so I haven't watched The Lion King in YEARS. It was so much fun watching as an adult and realizing all of the famous people who were in the movie. Since I am currently binge-watching The Borgias on Netflix, I was particularly excited to see that Jeremy Irons was Scar.

I always knew that Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, James Earl Jones and JTT were voices (oh, JTT - how little Katie loved you so...). What I didn't realize is the following:

Matthew Broderick was adult Simba!

Ernie Sabella (a.k.a. Mr. Carosi from the beach episodes of Saved by the Bell) was Pumba!

Rowan Atkinson (a.k.a. MR. FREAKIN' BEAN) was Zazu!

Cheech Marin (of Cheech & Chong fame) was one of the hyenas!

This was a seriously star-studded flick. And a fun fact I recently learned is that prior to Robin Williams being cast as the Genie in Aladdin, Disney didn't really cast famous people as its voice actors. Obviously that approach changed, which is readily apparent in The Lion King.

I have to admit, that there have been times when I didn't really get why people were so into The Lion King. It was a good movie, of course, but as I said I was always more of a Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin fan.

Watching The Lion King as an adult, though, I got a lot more out of it. There were some pretty heavy themes and I loved how it was clearly inspired by Hamlet:

It was also interesting because Mufasa's death took on a different meaning. As a kid, you are sad thinking about your father dying. As an adult, you think of how tragic it is to leave your child and your spouse fatherless / widowed. It really hit Joe (probably because we've been talking about babies a lot lately).

Despite the requisite sadness over Mufasa dying, this was a really fun and relaxing date night! I'm excited to see what our next date will be...

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