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A Taste of Disney: The Garden Grill

by Kristin Casagrand

image001You may have spotted this week’s restaurant while riding “Living with the Land” in The Land pavilion at EPCOT during your last visit. This sometimes forgotten restaurant is The Garden Grill!

Garden Grill is the only sit down restaurant in The Land pavilion and provides a home-style cooking, character dining experience. I have been several times over the years and it is especially a hit with little ones, for obvious reasons (the characters). Mickey, Pluto, Chip, and Dale are the characters that rotate through during dinner, wearing farmer/country attire. While the food is decent, I personally love Garden Grill because of the views the restaurant provides, the moving platform, and the country feel. The restaurant is situated on a very slowly moving platform that rotates through the various scenes of the Living With the Land ride.  You are able to see the desert, prairie, rainforest, and farmhouse scenery while having dinner. There are two levels on the platform: one lower level with semi-circle booths facing towards the scenery, and an upper-level area with tables. I personally like the lower-level better because of the comfy booths and a better view of everything.

The food is served family-style, so you can get as much as you want throughout the night. There is even a separate family-style line up for the kids! I’ll be honest….I prefer eating the kids skillets because they have some of my favorite foods on the list. The adult menu includes salad, filet of beef, roasted turkey breast, fish of the day, garden fresh vegetables (prepared on the property),  buttermilk mash potatoes, artisan bread pudding, and fruit cobbler a la for dessert. Delicious, warm dinner rolls with maple butter are also provided. The kids line-up consists of chicken drumsticks, baked macaroni and cheese, broccoli, and sweet potato fries. Last time I was there, they had decorate-your-own cupcakes for dessert for the kids. Back in the day they used to serve “dirt” with gummy worms, which I wish they still had!

Garden Grill only serves dinner and the price is a little more expensive since it is character dining. Pricing runs roughly $35 per adult and $17 per child but varies according to peak v. regular season and day of the week. However, it is a fun experience for a family dinner and worth trying at least once!

The recipe this week is for the bread pudding at Garden Grill! Recipe courtesy of http://allears.net/din/recipes/rec_vbp.htm.

 

Vanilla Bread Pudding

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

1/2 loaf Texas toast

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon

8 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation

1. Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

2. Let set 5 minutes until ingredients are soft.

3. Mix all ingredients until if makes a batter

4. In a 13″ x 9″ pan, line with parchment paper and spray with non-stick spray.

5. Cover and cook at 275 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

6. Uncover and cool to room temperature

7. Flip out the pan and cut into squares.

8. Top with Bailey’s hard cream sauce.

 

Bailey’s Hard Cream Sauce

Ingredients

2 cups butter

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

4 tablespoons Bailey’s

Preparation

1. In a mixing bowl, add butter and mix until smooth.

2. Add sugar and vanilla and mixing well.

3. Add Bailey’s a little at a time until blended well.

4. Store in refrigerator in a sealed container.

 

Happy cooking! *o*

Kristin

Kristin Casagrand is a student currently studying physical therapy at Bellarmine University. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Kristin has taken many a family vacations as a child driving 24 hrs, cramped in the back of the car and fighting with her sister to get to Disney (definitely worth it though). She looks forward to sharing “A taste of Disney” with everyone each week.

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