Saturday Morning Cereals - Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies Cereal

This morning we've got a very special treat! Grandpa is a big fan of the whole line of Little Debbie products. Today there's a brand new cereal from Kellogg's, and it's based on one of my favorite treats from Little Debbie. The Oatmeal Creme Pies! 

And so this morning we're going to be trying both the Oatmeal Creme Pies Cereal, and also the classic Oatmeal Creme Pies! Thank you to my brother Patrick for sending me this cereal from Colorado!

National Strawberry Day - Strawberry Day Treats At Home From EVERY Disney Resort in the World! - Feb 27th

How did we celebrate National Strawberry Day? By making a Disney treat from every single Disney Resort in the World!

You can read all about it on Micechat here!

Strawberry Day Treats At Home From EVERY Disney Resort in the World!

Disneyland’s Secret Spaces: An Overnight Stay in the Dream Suite! - Linking to Micechat

My third article is live on Micechat. This is revisit to my awesome overnight stay at the Disneyland Dream Suite that I've written up before. This is just the highlights from that epic 14 page post. 

Here's the article on Micechat!

Disneyland’s Secret Spaces: An Overnight Stay in the Dream Suite!

And here's the original detailed report!

Disneyland Dream Suite - July 14th, 2012

Part 1 - Two Months of Anticipation
Part 2 - Breakfast - 9am to 2:30pm
Part 3 - Welcome to the Disneyland Dream Suite 2:30pm to 4:30pm
Part 4 - Dinner 4:30pm to 7pm
Part 5 - Friends Arrive 7pm to 9pm
Part 6 - Fantasmic 9pm to 11:45pm
Part 7 - Our After Dark Disneyland Tour 11:45pm to 2:30am
Part 8 - Back at the Dream Suite 2:30am to 11:30am
Part 9 - Exploring the rooms of the Dream Suite - Parlor
Part 10 - Exploring the rooms of the Dream Suite - Frontierland Bedroom
Part 11 - Exploring the rooms of the Dream Suite - Adventureland Bedroom
Part 12 - Exploring the rooms of the Dream Suite - Master Bathroom
Part 13 - Exploring the rooms of the Dream Suite - Balcony and Patio
Part 14 - Exploring the rooms of the Dream Suite - Hallways and Hostess Area

National Chili Day - Lay's Game Day Chili flavored Chips - February 25th

The fourth Thursday in February has been designated National Chili Day! We're celebrating with homemade Chili and these Limited Time Lay's Game Day Chili flavored chips!

I've been holding onto these chips for just such an occasion. Today is perfect!

Snacks for Dinner?

As a general rule, we try not to do too much snacking. Some of the meals we make are pretty rich, so we don't need those extra calories. But after avoiding snacking for so long, it was Theresa who declared that tonight for dinner, it's all snacks!

National Bake a Sweet Potato Day - Sweet Potato Taste Test Comparison - February 22nd

Today is National Sweet Potato Day! I know a few people in this house that would love to do something to celebrate this day. 

And I wasn't content to just bake 1 kind of sweet potato. No way! This is a Flowers' family taste test. I searched out all the different sweet potatoes in my local markets and found 5 that we're going to try today!

Pizza at Home - Roasted Garlic Pizza - Theresa chooses pizza night

Happy Sunday! It's pizza day again! Today Theresa is picking the pizzas we're making today, so if you've been following along at all, you'll know that that means No Tomato Sauce! Theresa likes her pizza to just have toppings with fresh bread. Since she gets to pick the pizzas, she's choosing a roasted garlic pizza and the signature pizzetta from Napa Rose. 

All the Funfetti Items I can find Taste Test Comparison

What's the funnest cupcake you can eat? That's easy! Funfetti is made with 100% Real Fun!

This giant Funfetti comparison has been in the works for a long time. Over the summer of 2020, Pillsbury announced a few brand new Funfetti products and it was then that I came up with the idea of a big combined taste test. One weekend in February I decided it was finally time to stop the searching and finally do it! 

There are so many Funfetti things here it's a little ridiculous. Today we're having:

1. Funfetti Premium Cake Mix with Candy Bits

2. Funfetti Strawberry Cake Mix with Candy Bits

3. Funfetti Chocolate Cake Mix with Candy Bits

4. Funfetti Chocolate Brownie Mix with Candy Coated Chips

5. Funfetti Sugar Cookie Mix with Candy Bits

6. Funfetti Cookie Mix with Chocolate Candy Bits

7. Funfetti Vanilla Cake flavored Morsels with Rainbow Funfetti

8. Funfetti Edible Cookie Dough with Candy Sprinkles

9. Funfetti Cereal 

10. Funfetti Buttermilk Pancake Mix with Candy Bits

11. Funfetti Vanilla Frosting

12. Funfetti Confetti Vanilla Frosting

It’s Cherry Pie Day . . . The Disney Way - Linking MiceChat

I got a second article published on Micechat.com! 

We're celebrating Cherry Pie Day with a Mickey Cherry Pie!

It’s Cherry Pie Day . . . The Disney Way

Chocolate Mint Taste Test Comparison - National Chocolate Mint Day - February 19th

Today is National Chocolate Mint Day! Not to be confused with National Peppermint Patty Day which was just about a week ago. 
I asked Theresa to take my picture with the kids like usual, and she said "No way! This is my celebration!"
Okay, okay. You do love your chocolate mints. After all, it wasn't me who went to Target after Christmas and bought 20 bags of Dove Peppermint Bark to put in the freezer to last the entire year... And it's not me who keeps a bag of York Peppermint Patties right next to them when she feels like something different. 
You're right, this one is all yours. 

Not content to just pick one kind of chocolate mint, we're going to have 6 different chocolate mints to compare today! On the menu today are: York Peppermint Patties, Dove Peppermint Bark, Junior Mints, After Eight Mint Chocolate Thins, Andes Mints, and Alli's Homemade Mickey Peppermint Patties. 

Cheering NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover

One benefit of doing school from home is that we get to take breaks whenever something really interesting is happening in the world. Just like today! After a 6+ month journey from Earth, the Mars Rover named Perseverance is going to be landing! And I love that NASA does a live-stream of their control room! That makes science super visual and really exciting for the kids. 

Ian and Alli both watched the live-stream for an hour before touchdown. The livestream did a great job explaining the mission, what was going to happen, and even showed other kids getting to ask questions. The kids stayed engaged. 

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Mug Root Beer Ice Pops

Tonight's taste test happens to be another Dollar Store find. They do have some interesting things that I haven't seen anywhere else. Tonight we'll be tasting Mug Root Beer Ice Pops. 

And it wouldn't be a Flowers taste test if we didn't taste Mug Root Beer along with it. 

Hunting down Geocaches, and making our own

Have you ever heard of a Geocache? It's an outdoor activity where you use a GPS to go to a particular set of coordinates, then search that area for a particular object, a cache, that someone has hidden there.   

One of the benefits of this pandemic is that being at home all the time helps us follow a schedule. That makes it easier to have time every night after dinner to go for a walk. We've walked all the streets in our neighborhood multiple times, and we're looking for something to spice it up a little. I remembered from years ago that I was into Geocaching and thought it would something fun to try. It's always fun to go for a walk with a goal in mind.

And I don't remember nearly this many geocaches when I did it before. There's millions of caches hidden all around the world. All those points marked on the map are some form of geocache nearby. 

Making Disney's Blue Bayou at Home! - In honor of Fat Tuesday and the start of Mardi Gras - Linking MiceChat

Guess who is a Brand New Author on the Disney fan site MiceChat.com? This guy!

I've been a reader of MiceChat for years, watching all the news updates and posting things to the forums. I was contacted and asked if I'd like to contribute as an Author! Totally!

Check out my very first article - 

Making Disneyland Blue Bayou Classics at Home: Monte Cristo, Mint Juleps, Beignets & Gumbo!

Ruston was there with us in spirit if not in person.

Happy Valentines Day 2021

Happy Valentines Day! Even though we're stuck at home, we're still finding fun things to do. 

Pizza at Home - Valentines Pizza

Happy Valentines Day! Sunday is normally pizza day, but we're having pizza just a day early on Saturday. We've got a tradition of eating Cheese Fondue on Valentines Day and we're not going to break that tradition.

After the success of the different pizza shapes at Christmas, I knew that for Valentines I'd be making everyone heart shaped pizzas. Let's get started!

Making Chicken Nuggets at Home - Grammy's Chicken Nugget Recipe

Chicken Nuggets are pretty delicious. For us, Chick-Fil-A is pretty hard to beat. We've tried to recreate them twice that I've posted, once for the Sandwiches and another time for the Nuggets. We've also made nuggets a few more times that I haven't posted while we just tried other people's interpretation of Chickfila's breading. None of them quite got there. 

But you know who else makes nuggets that everyone, and I mean everyone, loves? Grammy! If we have family visiting, Grammy's Chicken Nuggets are always requested. The only problem is, in classic Grammy fashion, she doesn't have a recipe. She does it all by however much she feels needs to be added. Well tonight, I'm going to follow along with my video camera and a scale, and finally write down all the ingredients, amounts, and steps that she follows as she makes everyone's favorite nuggets!  

Happy Lunar New Year 2021 - February 12th

Today is the Lunar New Year! Many Asian calendars are based on the Lunisolar Calendar, where the year is based on the cycles of the moon. Seeing as how Chi is from Korea, Theresa is half Korean, and the kids are a quarter Korean, of course we'll be celebrating today. 

For dinner, we're making lots of different foods celebrating all sorts of Asian cultures. From Korea, there's Bulgolgi Chicken (Dak Bulgolgi), Spicy Chicken (Dak Gui), Mandu, and Kimchi. From Japan, tempura green beans and spicy dipping sauce. From China, there's Cream Cheese Wontons. And the rice could be from anywhere.  

Disney Treats - Mickey Mouse Peppermint Patties - National Peppermint Patty Day - February 11th

Today is National Peppermint Patty Day! There's quite a few people in this house that loves to eat them. There's always a bag of York Peppermint Patties in our freezer, just in case someone feels in the mood for them. 

We could have just opened a bag of York Peppermint Patties and called it a day, but in keeping with our whole "make it at home" mantra, I was curious if it was possible to make your own Peppermint Patties. Turns out, you totally can! 

I'm always on the lookout to try to add some Disney flair to whatever we're doing. Does Disney make Mickey shaped peppermint patties? Not that I could find. Actually in my search, I'm not seeing any Mickey shaped peppermint patties anywhere? Could these be one of the first ones made? Let's get to making them!

Michel Cluizel - Chocolate Taste Test

Do a search on google for "World's Best Chocolate" and you'll find French Chocolatier Michel Cluizel high on that list. Today we're tasting 6 or 7 different flavors!

National Pizza Day - February 9th

Today is National Pizza Day! After making pizzas every Sunday for the last 8 months, even though we just had pizza, we're having it again! You can't just let a day like this pass unobserved!

Pizza at Home - Disney's Inside Out Pizza - Broccoli Pizza & Hawaiian Pizza

Fear - What the heck is that?
Joy - Who puts broccoli on Pizza?
Disgust - That's it. I'm done.
Anger - Congratulations San Francisco, you've ruined pizza! First the Hawaiians, and now you!

For today's pizza we're paying tribute to the Disney movie Inside Out. 

In that movie, Riley has just moved to a new city. She suggests going to get pizza, but the crazy pizza shop in San Francisco only puts broccoli on their pizzas. Eww. 

National Fettuccini Alfredo Day - February 7th

So February 7th is National Fettuccini Alfredo Day? Why haven't we been celebrating this in years before? 
Actually I know exactly why. Last year at this time, our experience with Alfredo sauce was either from Olive Garden or something from the grocery store out of a glass jar. This pandemic has caused us to revisit our eating and dining habits, and now we can make the most delicious Alfredo sauce at home!

It's become such a hit that Ian has stated that it's his second favorite meal we make (his first being Cheese Fondue). 

Kids Make Disneyland at Home - Round 2

We're coming up on a year now since we've been to Disneyland. It's a little hard to believe. For a while, we were going every single week as a family! Back in July the kids brought Disneyland home, including snacks, rides, characters, and a lot of fun. 
In January, the kids brought Disneyland home again! Alli made the sign. "Wecam to Walt Disny Lanb!" Good enough for a kid who isn't even in Kindergarten yet!
The kids put on Disney clothes special for it.  

Chocolate Hazelnut Oreos - World Nutella Day - February 5th

Today is not just a National Day. It's a World Day! February 5th is a day for the whole world to celebrate World Nutella Day! And I don't know if Oreo was thinking ahead or what, but just recently they came out with their Chocolate Hazelnut creme Oreo cookies. 

We're going to eat both the Chocolate Hazelnut Oreos and some Nutella sandwiches. We'll compare the two and see what we like best!

National Homemade Soup Day - February 4th

Today is National Homemade Soup Day! It doesn't say canned soup day, it says homemade soup day. That's no problem for this household. With a lot of soup lovers in the family, we regularly have 1-2 different kinds of soup in the fridge. 

Today we've got 3 different homemade soups. There's Homemade Lentil Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup, and Aguadito de Pollo, a copycat recipe of a soup from a local Peruvian restaurant.

National Carrot Cake Day - February 3rd

It's National Carrot Cake Day! 

Theresa made up a box of this Super Moist Carrot Cake and we called it a day! It's even got Imitation Carrot Flavored Pieces! That's good enough for us, right? Right? 

In my best Balki Bartokomous impersonation - Well, of course not, don't be ridiculous. (and if you get that reference, congratulations)

National Tater Tot Day - February 2nd

It's National Tater Tot Day! We love those tasty potato puffs. So much that we buy them in giant 8 pound bags! 

And it wouldn't be a Flowers' taste test comparison if we weren't trying them a few different ways, would it? 

Pizza at Home - Mexican Taco inspired Pizza

Happy Sunday! Once again it's time to decide on another unique pizza to make. In a continuing effort to try to make pizza without a tomato sauce base, I stumbled upon tonight's inspiration. My creation tonight is a Mexican Taco inspired pizza!