Sunday, September 12, 2010

Dinuguan (Chocolate Meat!) and some Disney related blogs to check out

Dinuguan is another traditional Filipino dish. it's not really chocolate meat, that's only what we called it when we were kids because it looked like the meat was covered in chocolate. It's really a type of pork stew, with one of the main ingredients being pork blood... but... it tastes a lot better than it sounds. My grandma used to make big batches of this stuff and all of us, kids included, scarfed the stuff down (over hot rice... mmmmmm....). Haha... one time at my grandmothers, one of the kids found a container of raw pork blood in the refridgerator, thought it was grape juice, and started guzzling it down ...

Ingredients:

3 tbs cooking oil

2 lb pork butt roast (Pork Shoulder)chopped into bite size pieces

4 cloves garlic minced

1 medium onion chopped

2 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 cup soy sauce

2 bay leaves

1 tsp sugar

1 jalapeño pepper minced

1 cup pork blood

Directions:

In a big pot, heat the oil, add the pork, cover and let it cook on medium low heat for 10 minutes

Stir in the garlic and onions, cover and let cook for 10 minutes

Add the soy sauce, vinegar, chicken broth and bay leaves, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes

Stir in the sugar, jalapeños and pork blood, cover and let simmer for another 20 minutes, stirring occassionally

Disney Related Blogs

Ever since the social networking activity started taking off, there's been an influx of Disney related blogs popping up. A lot of them are discoverable on twitter and I've gotten a lot of good new disney stuff intel just following some of the key disney tweaps but... out of all of 'em, a great place to go to get the official scoop on all things new happening in disney is Disney's own official blog site.

In any case, here's a list of Disney related blogs, both professional and personal ones, that are fun to read and/or to get the scoop (haha... aka 411) on all the new stuff coming out of Disney:

5 Kingdoms
A Dash of Pixie Dust
A Disney Mom's Daily Endeavors
A Taste of Disney
A Taste of Wonderland
A WORLD VIEW... Enjoying Walt Disney World
Adventures in Walt Disney World, FL
After the Mouse.com - The online Disney Cast Member Community
All Ears® Guest Blog
All Things Disney
AllEars.Net
AllThingsD
Anne's blog - Mouse Map
Anthony's Wonderful World of Disney
Attractions Magazine Blog
Be Our Guest WDW Podcast
BeOurGuestPodcast.com
BETAMOUSE
Blog Vinylmation Disney
Blue Sky Disney Blog
Cara Goldsbury's Luxury Walt Disney World and Orlando Blog
Chip and Company
Club D23
Cosmic Reid's Starlight Cafe - Magical Mouse Radio
Couponing to Disney
D-Report.Com
Dad's Guide to Disney World - The Blog
Daily on Twitter as discussed on the 'Rick Alvarez' list
Daveland Vintage and Current Disneyland Photos
Davelandblog
Deb's Digest
Designing Disney
Details Of Disney
DF'82
DiningWithTheMouse
DIS Unplugged Disney Blog
DisDates.Com - Online dating for Disney fans
DisFanReview
DisMarks
Disney (Unofficial) Blog
Disney and more
Disney at Work Blog
Disney Babies Blog
Disney Bella
Disney Bloggers Collection - New Every HOUR!
Disney Books blogs
Disney By Joe
Disney Contests and Sweepstakes
Disney Cruise Line « Disney Parks Blog
Disney Detectives - Discovering Disney News one site at a Time!
Disney Dispatch
Disney Diva Tips
Disney Done Right
Disney Dream Depot
Disney Dream Makers
Disney Every Day - We'll Take You to Disney Every Day!
Disney Family Man
Disney Fan Ramblings
Disney Guru
DISNEY HISTORY INSTITUTE
Disney History Today
Disney History
Disney In My Life
Disney InfoNet
Disney Main Street
Disney News Blog
DISNEY PARK ATTRACTION POSTERS
Disney Parks Blog
Disney Society - Disney Society- for fans of Disney television programs and movies. Catch up on
Disney Tales
Disney Top 10
Disney Travel Adventures
Disney Travel Examiner
Disney World - Orlando - Blog
Disney World Basics
Disney World Blog Discussing Parks, Resorts, Discounts and Dining - Only WDWorld
Disney World Update
Disney's Dream Maker Feature Story
Disney's Dream makers Site News
Disney's Folly
Disney, etc.
disney4dads
Disneyana World
DisneyBella
DisneyBiz
DisneyBooks blogs
DisneyDaddy
DisneyDreamDepot
DisneyFairyTales.com
DisneyFoodBlog
DisneyInMyLife
Disneyland News Live
Disneyland News Today
Disneyland Nomenclature
Disneyland Resort Newsroom- Home
Disneyland's Famous Dr. Lee!
disneylandmom.com
DisneyNews Daily paper.li
Disneyology
DisneyParks Official Disney Accounts Paper.Li
DisneyParks.com
DisneyPhotography.com
DisneyShawn
DisTECH - The Blog About Technology and Disney
DisTips - Walt Disney World Tips
DisZine
DLP.Info - Disneyland Resort Paris
DLRP Today
Doing Disney Seacrist Style
DoomBuggies.com - TellNoTales.com Official Weblog
Duckman's Blog
easy WDW
EPCOT Central
etckt.com
Everything Walt Disney World
Eye of the Passholder
Family Disney Vacations
Finding Mickey
Flexible Disney
For the Love of Disney
FunkiDivaGirl’s Disney Travel with Style
Global Disney Pinvestigation
Growing Up Disney
Grumpy's Hollow
Hidden DLRP
I Love WDW
Illuminating Epcot
Imagineering Disney
Imaginerding- Disney Books, links and more!
ImagiNERDing
In Disney Style
Inside the Magic
It's A Disney World After All
Jeff's Worldwide Mouseathon
Jim Hill Media
Jungle is -101- - Disneyland's Jungle Cruise And Other Disneyland Stuff
Just Another Disney Blog
LaughingPlace.com Disney Articles
Laura and Jeanine's Salute to All things Disney but Mostly Disneyland
Love Those Disney Girls
Lunch - Only WDWorld
Magic Eye
Magical Kingdoms Disney Blog
Magical Mousecapades's Blog
MagicalMousecapades
MagicalMouseRadio.com
Main Street Gazette
MainStreetGazette
Marcio's Disney News
Meet the Magic
Meltdown Free Disney
MiceChat - Blogs
Mickey's Magical Trip Tips
MickeysMagicalTripTips
Military Disney Tips Blog
Monocle On The Mouse - Recent Blogs Posts - Blogs
Mouse Beat- Disney Blog about Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios
Mouse Magic HD Blogs
Mouse Magic in a Minute
Mouse Mentor
MouseInfo.com
Mouseketweeter
Mousekingdom Blog
MousePlanet
MouseRight
My Disney Blog
my disney collection blog
My Disney Mania
MyHiddenMickey
NCDisneyDad's Blog
News from Walt Disney World
Operation Pixie Dust
Our Cheap Disney Vacation
Page 626
Parkeology
Passamaquoddy
Passport to Dreams Old & New
personal Disney videos
Plan the Magic
Progress City, U.S.A.
Re-Imagineering
reedycreekradio.com-joomla-index.php
Running to Disney
SamLand's Disney Adventures
Scrapping the Magic
Screamscape
Shandy's Corner, A Disney Blog - Magical Mountain
So Disney!
StitchKingdom
Studios Central
Stuff from the Park
Take the Monorail
Tales from the Laughing Place
TalesFromTheLaughingPlace
Team AllEars® Running Blog
The Affordable Mouse
The art of telling tales
The Cousin Mickey Doesn't Talk About
The Daily Disney from OrlandoSentinel.com
The Daily Mickey
The DIS Unplugged Disney Blog
The Disney 50
The Disney Blog
The Disney Chick
The Disney College Blog
The Disney Dork Blog
The Disney Driven Life
the disney food blog
The Disney Frontier Blog
The Disney Gene
The Disney Obsession
The Disney Pins Blog
The Disney Wedding Blog
The disneynews Daily on Twitter
The DVC Life
The DVC Mom
The English Disney Blog
The Food Festival
The Magic in Pixels Disney Photo Blog
The Mouse Connection
The Mouse For Less - Disney News
The Muppet Newsflash
The Official Disney Blog
The official-disney-accounts Daily on Twitter
The Original Disneyland Hotel
The Tiki Room Morning Show -Under New Management-
The True Disney Fan
The Unknown Magic Within Walt Disney World
The Voice Of....
THE W.E.D. PAGE
The Walt Disney World Moms Panel
TheAffordableMouse
TheDisneyBlog
TheDisneyChick
TheDVCLife
TheFoodFestival
Think Disney
This Is Where the Magic Lives
Tinker Bell's Pixie Prints
Tinker Tell's Pixie Dust Express
Today In Disney History
Top 10 Disney - WDW to Disneyland
TouringPlans.com Blog
TravelsWithKids
Upcoming Pixar
Vintage Disney Alice in Wonderland
Vintage Disney Collectibles
Vintage Disneyland Goodies
Vintage Disneyland Tickets
Visions Fantastic
Walt Disney Company Daily News Digest
Walt Disney World Facts
Walt Disney World Resort News
Walt Disney World- It's Not Just for Kids
WALT'S BASEMENT- FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS DISNEY! - Message Board
Walt's Wide World
WDW Central
WDW Daily News - Disney News & Orlando Area Attraction Info
WDW Facts — All about Walt Disney World
WDW Fanatic Family - Just another WDW fan site…
WDW News Today
WDW Photography
WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello
WDW Twourists
wdwnews.com - Walt Disney World Resort
WDWNTube
WDWPRINCE
WDWRadio.com
WDWStevieBs Onederland
WEDWayRadio.com
Welcome, Foolish Mortals... to DoomBuggies - a Tribute to Disney's Haunted Mansion - Free email, fan forums, multimedia and more...
Wishes And Pixie Dust
Yet Another Disney Blog
ZannaLand
ZipaDeeDooDad

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Kare-Kare and Halloween at the Disney Parks

Kare Kare is a Filipino peanut flavored stew and... was one of my Dad's favorite dishes. My Mom & Grandma usually made this with oxtails but... you can also just use regular stew meet if that suits your tastes (you won't have to wrestle with the bones as much :-).

Ingredients

2 lbs oxtail (or real stew meat if you prefer)

2 eggplants sliced (1/4 inch slices)

5 long string beans, cut into 1.5 inch pieces

3 cloves garlic minced

1 medium sized onion chopped

3 tablespoons oil

1/2 cup soy sauce

5 cups water

1/2 cup peanut butter

Directions:

In a skillet, saute the garlic and onions in hot oil until they start to get brown

Add the oxtails to the skillet and saute for another 10 mins

In a large pot, bring the water and soy sauce to a boil

Add the skillet contents to the large pot, bring back to a boil, then simmer for 60 minutes

Add the string beans and eggplant to the pot, bring back to a boil, then simmer for another 15 mins

Stir in the peanut butter and simmer for another 15 minutes

hardcore Filipinos usually eat this with a little bagoong (shrimp paste)... and... sometimes they add tripe (uhg, pig stomach lining... has the texture of chewy fat... but hey, to each their own...)

That's it! Enjoy!

Halloween at the Disney Parks

Halloween at the Disney parks is big. Both Walt Disney World and Disneyland go all out to make Halloween "not so scary", but still exciting, for everyone...

The following is Walt Disney World's commercial for Halloween:

and here's a fast forward vid showing the Magic Kingdom getting prepared with the fall decorations:

WDW holds a Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party every year:

The WDW halloween parade is pretty trippy and is called "boo to you":

And WDW also has a "Villains Mix & Mingle" show:

haha... if you plan a WDW trip for Nov 1st 2010 through Nov 9th 2010, you can go to both Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

The Disneyland Halloween commercial keeps with last year's cool and funny take on a "disney villain" theme:

Last year in October, my wife's niece (Tina!) celebrated her birthday at Disneyland. This was the first time we were able to experience Disneyland during the Halloween season and we were awed by how decked out the park was. It was also cool seeing a bunch of little munchkins running around in costume (some in Marvel Mickey get-ups, cuz Disney happened to have aquired Marvel last year)...

It was really cool what they did to the Haunted Mansion, decking it out in a Nightmare Before Christmas theme:

another attraction that they tweaked for Halloween was space mountain (ghost galaxy):

Halloween Screams, their Halloween fireworks show, was just plain awesome... but... it was really really packed so... you had to get there early, to get a good spot with a clear view of cinderella's castle:

and here's Disneyland's "Halloween Time" vid, that sums it all up:

updated: here are some new vids from this year's disney related halloween activities:

Disneyland's happy haunts tour:

Disney Entrance and Main Street Giant Pumpkins (Go Giants! #WorldSeries):

How to carve pumpkins like the Disney Parks:

what follows is random (haha) and has nothing to do with kare kare or halloween at the disney parks...

RT @RehgallgMij Truths For Mature Humans

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Bad Part of Town" routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. (Ladies.....Quit Laughing.)

i repeat (from a previous blog entry), this is cool:

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Leche Flan and Former Disneyland Attractions (yesterland)

ok, for those of us raised in Filipino American households, let's face it... the best'est dessert in the whole wide world when we were kids was, what else... Leche Flan!!! haha, when they used to take us to those Filipino weddings, i remember make'n a run to the buffet table in the hopes that there'd be platters of the stuff just ready for the taking (and remember getting scolded, often, to stop bogart'ing the stuff)... Anyway, this one's my wife's recipe...

Ingredients

7 Egg Yokes

1 Can Evaporated Milk

1 Can Condensed Milk

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

2 Tablespoons Sugar

Pans: (you usually can find these at those Asian Grocery Stores)

Double Boiler

Oval Leche Flan Pans

Preparation:

Mix egg yokes, evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla extract in bowl

Heat 2 tablespoons sugar in oval leche flan pan, until lightly carmelized, coating the bottom & sides of pan

Pour egg mixture in leche flan pan

Boil water in double boiler until steam appears

Put leche flan pan in double boiler

Cover, lower heat & steam for 15 to 30 minutes

After 15 mins, insert toothpic and see if it comes out clean, if not check again every 5 mins

That's it! Enjoy!

Former Disneyland Attractions

I actually have a memory of Disneyland from when I was about 2 years old... I remember clinging to my mom, scared $#|+|_3$$, as they put us in a cage in some type of cave... haha, it was the skyway to tomorrowland (1956–1994) or... to fantasyland, not really sure which way we were going...

Do you know the zip-a-dee-doo-dah animatronic characters that are a part of Splash Mountain? They were re-purposed from a show called America Sings (1974–1988), that used to be where innoventions currently is (in tomorrowland). The building used to be called the Carousel Theatre, where the audience would rotate around the center of the building, when it was ready to view the next skit:

Prior to America Sings, the Carousel Theater held General Electric’s Carousel of Progress (1967–1973) which, btw, is still a live attraction in WDW:

Another funky attraction that my wife & I road when we were teens, was the Mike Fink keel boats (1956–1994 and 1996–1997). I was thinking, this is kinda stupid... My wife remembers having to sit with your knees bumping into the folks on the other side of the boat. The boat operator (aka cast member) kept making fun of everyone and everything around the rivers of america:

The country bear jamboree (1972–1986) was an "E Ticket" attraction (meaning it was one of the good ones) and lots of folks were wondering why disneyland decided to retire it. oh well... haha... i have an MP3 of the show that i listen to when i'm jogging:

One ride that folks usually got on just to kick back and take a little rest was the people movers (1967–1995), the lines never seemed to be long. WDW just re-opened that attraction but it looks a tad different than the original retired attraction:

here's what the original attraction looked like:

what replaced the People Movers, but has also been retired, is the rocket rods (1998–2000):

One of the formerly retired attractions was Michael Jackson's Captain EO (1986–1997, 2010-present), but it's back now, to pay tribute to him after he passed away:

when it was retired, it was replaced with honey i shrunk the audience (1998–2010), which is now retired because of Captain EO coming back (haha, confusing):

another one i'd like to comment on is the adventure through inner space (1967–1985), which was replaced by star tours. we took my wife's niece on this when she was a toddler and we convinced her that the ride really really shrunk you when your omnimover traveled through the eye of the microscope:

To see a full list of other attractions that have been retired, click here... another good reference is http://www.yesterland.com.

oh... and this has nothing to do with flan or rides but... i've never seen this before... (haha... random)

Zeravlar Recipes