This week’s Saturday Snacks recipe has you and me dipping into a tried and true recipe reflecting Southern flair and tastes. D23, in honor of Black History Month, re-released the recipe for Blue Bayou’s Hushpuppies, and I don’t know about you, but those amazing little things were exactly what I needed this week.

My favorite hushpuppies hail from Lee’s Inlet Kitchen in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina. It’s a wonderful little place that gets super busy in the evening, so the earlier you get there, the better. If you have a chance to stop by, please have a hushpuppy and a plate of fried shrimp for me. Yummmm.

Hushpuppies are magical little deep-fried concoctions of cornmeal and flour, and in Blue Bayou’s case, shallots, crumbled bacon, and sweet corn. And, thankfully, they’re easily thrown together and fried up. Before you know it, you have something wonderfully warm and comforting that will elevate any meal. Or any weekend afternoon snacktime.

When things wrapped up with the Galactic Starcruiser Media Voyage on Wednesday, I scarfed down a salad at Contempo Café and made a beeline for my grocery store. I needed to buy a shallot, and while I had looked up shallots and what exactly one was supposed to do with them on the internets, I wasn’t 100% sure where I would find them and I still wasn’t 100% sure what to do once I was in possession of one.

Thankfully, I found the shallots in and among the veggies, and picked one that looked like it might render a tablespoon or so diced. The shallot was bigger than I expected it to be, so I figured it would do.

The way to prepare a shallot is to make a lengthwise cut down the side to begin with. Doing so will make getting the skin off of the shallot just a bit easier. You then make a slice lengthwise without cutting all the way through the end of the shallot. You can then make vertical cuts into the shallot and then go across the other way to dice it. It turns out that my shallot was the perfect size, and I had just the amount I needed. Whew!

I decided to go ahead and chop up the rest of the things that we needed and get everything ready à la mis en place. If you’ve been hanging out here at Saturday Snacks for any length of time, you know this isn’t my normal mode d’emploi. But I took a few minutes and washed the parsley and chopped 1 1/2 teaspoons and placed it in its own ramekin and fried up 1 heaping tablespoon of finely chopped bacon.

I was this close to buying pre-cooked bacon (no shame in that), but decided at the last minute to go ahead and just buy a regular pack of bacon and fry it up. Few things delight me as much as freshly cooked bacon, so I figured I’d go that route for the recipe. And now I need to take a break from writing this ‘cause I just remembered that there’s half a package of bacon in the fridge waiting to be fried and gobbled up. Please hold.

(Insert bacon eating here.) The recipe also calls for 3 tablespoons of white sweet corn. Rather than stressing over using fresh corn, I bought a small can of white shoepeg corn and called it good enough. And you know what? It worked perfectly!

While I was at the store, I picked up a bottle of corn oil since that’s what the recipe calls for and it’s just not ever a type of oil that I have on hand. You and I will need 4 cups for the recipe, although for the size of pot that I used, I ended up needing all 5 cups.

This is another wonderful recipe where the large majority of the ingredients get dumped into one big bowl and combined. It’s like the Disney chefs know that we just don’t have a whole lot of time or patience or, really, brain cells by the time the weekend rolls around. Just let us dump all the things into a bowl and mix ‘em up and we’ll be happy, mmmkay?

In my large bowl I combined 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of yellow cornmeal, my 1 tablespoon of finally diced shallot, 1 heaping tablespoon of chopped bacon, 1 1/2 teaspoons of finally chopped parsley, 3 heaping tablespoons of white shoepeg corn, 1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and a half teaspoon of black pepper.

These hushpuppies are going to be slightly sweet and slightly savory and oh so delicious. You’ll know it as soon as you start mixing up all of those dry ingredients. These are fancy hushpuppies. And they are going to be amazing.

This was right about the time when I decided to go ahead and start heating up the oil. My thermometer said that I need it to be around 360° or so in order to fry the hushpuppies, so I figured I had plenty of time. Well, long story short, my oil got way too hot way too fast and I ended up needing to pull it off of the heat and it took all of 12 minutes to cool down to the point where I could start dropping dough in the oil. Yikes. Learn from my mistake: keep an eye on that oil.

Making things even worse, once we put the egg and 3/4 cup of milk into the dry ingredients and mix them all together, the recipe tells us that we’ve only got 15 minutes to be able to use that batter/dough. The clock was ticking. Thankfully, the oil got to the right temp just in time.

The recipe also tells us that we can use 2 teaspoons in order to form small hushpuppies the size of an olive. I don’t know about you, but the hush puppies that I’ve had are quite bigger than the size of an olive. And I needed fried food this week, so I made them the size that I wanted them to be. I grabbed my tablespoon-sized cookie scoop and started scooping away.

One at a time, I scooped up a bit of the amazing-smelling hushpuppy dough and dropped it into the hot oil.

After three or four minutes, the most beautiful golden brown hushpuppies emerged. I pulled them out of the oil using a strainer and let them drain on a plate covered with a paper towel. One scoop at a time, I dropped dough into the oil. And magic came out.

BEHOLD that plate of goodness. To say that I was happy is an understatement. I bit into the first hushpuppy and it was a sensory experience. It pulled me back to eating all of those wonderful meals at Lee’s Inlet Kitchen and it tasted exactly as I hoped it would. Warm, flavorful, and so good.

And I soon as I bit into my first hushpuppy, I wanted shrimp. My hubby pointed out that we had a bag of raw shrimp in the freezer, and before you know it, we were having shrimp and hushpuppies. And it was just the best.

I also wanted honey butter, so I mixed a bit of softened butter with a bit of honey, et voila! I was so incredibly happy.

Recipes like these are lovingly crafted and handed down over time. And they’re also through lines linking families, communities, and cultures. There’s history in those hushpuppies, and it’s not just Disneyland history. I’m thankful for those who created the recipe, and for those who have handed down their own beloved recipes over the years.

May this weekend be a good one for you and yours. And may you savor something delightfully delicious along the way.

I’ll be taking an early Spring Break time out next weekend, so the next Saturday Snacks article will appear on March 12th. We’re getting dangerously close to the 100th Saturday Snacks recipe, and I don’t know about you, but I think we need to do something fun on that big special day. Hmmmmm…

Thanks so much for reading!

Ready to try your hand at making Blue Bayou’s Hushpuppies? You’ve got this! The recipe is below:

Blue Bayou’s Hushpuppies

Enjoy this recipe for Hushpuppies from Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. They’re so delicious, you’ll savor these crispy little bites in exquisite silence.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen

1 cup flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 tablespoon finely diced shallot
1 heaping tablespoon cooked and finely chopped bacon
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
3 heaping tablespoons white sweet corn
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
4 cups corn oil or shortening

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except the egg, milk, and oil.
2. In a separate bowl, mix together egg and milk. Heat the oil.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the egg-and-milk mixture. Do not let the batter sit longer than 15 minutes.
4. Use two teaspoons and carefully spoon a ball about the size of a large olive into the hot oil. Fry 3 to 4 minutes.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Disney has donated money to every sponsor of the new “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

This bill, called the Parental Rights in Education bill, but most famously known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, was passed by the Florida’s House of Representatives on Thursday. It will prohibit “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” in the state’s primary schools.

It is heading to the state’s Republican-held Senate, where it is expected to pass.

Disney, on the other hand, has always seemed to be pro-LGBTQ. Rainbow merchandise is sold every year during Gay Days and Disney even went as far as to make a fifth “key” called “Inclusion.” These keys are the foundation for Cast Members’ approach to service.

But despite this, Disney donated money to every sponsor and co-sponsor of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

“The Senate sponsor, Ocala Republican Dennis Baxley, has backed anti-gay legislation for years — including laws to prevent gay couples from adopting kids who otherwise wouldn’t have a family at all. Baxley once compared kids who live with same-sex parents to kids raised by alcoholics and abusers and later said: “I’m not phobic, but I simply can’t affirm homosexuality.”

The very next year Disney cut Baxley a campaign check. And another after that. And yet another last year.

So the park puts out the rainbow Mickeys during Gay Days while also cutting checks to the politicians hellbent on dehumanizing those same park guests.

Disney isn’t alone. The Number-crunchers at the Popular Information news site tracked donations by Florida entities that cite equality as a core value and found many funneled big bucks to politicians who back this bill — including more than $100,000 from Florida Realtors and Publix; $75,000 from Anheuser-Busch, $34,000 from Duke Energy and $28,000 from Comcast.

Orlando Democrat State Rep. Anna Eskamani said the companies’ priorities are clear: “The business lobby seems more focused on securing tax breaks … than living up to their so-called corporate values of inclusivity.”

Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida, still hopes some of Florida’s business leaders will step up and speak out before the bill before heads to the Senate next week, saying companies that preach inclusion “have an opportunity to walk the talk.”

The bill itself, House Bill 1557, is a trainwreck. Not just based on anyone’s personal values, but based on pure linguistics and legal flaws. It uses nebulous and subjective phrases like “reasonably prudent person” to set standards and bans classroom discussions on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in “certain grade levels” without clearly defining what those levels are.”

Source: Orlando Sentinel

The post Disney Donates to Sponsors of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Despite Marketing for ‘Inclusion’ appeared first on WDW News Today.

The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser has a lot of activities you can do while you’re on the ship, like playing sabacc, interacting with characters, or trying the fun drinks in the Sublight Lounge.

The Sublight Lounge

But, one of the activities that we’ve been the most hyped up about (as we’re sure other Star Wars fans have been, too) is the lightsaber training! We know we’re not alone in saying that we’ve wanted to wield a lightsaber (and actually FEEL like we’re using it) since seeing the movies years ago. Is there even a cooler weapon in cinema?! Well, we finally got to try out the lightsaber training aboard the Galactic Starcruiser, and we’re here to tell you if it’s worth the hype!

Everyone aboard the ship will have a scheduled time in their itinerary for lightsaber training — make sure to check your schedule so you don’t miss it! When it was time for our session, we headed over to our designated lightsaber training pod.

We’ve been waiting for this!

Walking inside, there is some pretty dramatic lighting, which is perfect to set the scene for training with a lightsaber.

The pod

Let’s take a look around!

Here you can see the training devices

There are spots on the floor so you know where to stand.

More on this in a minute!

We also noticed these circular devices on the wall, which will come into play later!

Do you know what these are?

Each training session is led by a Saja, which is the title for a lightsaber trainer.

She showed us the way!

You’ll be lined up for the training stations. The first round will only be 4 people in the front with the lightsabers, but they will arrange everyone in a rotational system, so everyone gets a chance to train!

Training in progress!

These lightsabers feel like lighter versions of the Legacy sabers you can get in Galaxy’s Edge, but they did still feel like metal. The Legacy Lightsabers are heavy enough to make you feel like you need to be really careful with them, and we didn’t feel that at all with these sabers. However, they were heavy enough to feel “real” enough in the training sessions. And, they’re light enough that almost anyone should be able to hold and swing them with ease.

Shields and lightsabers

For the lightsaber training, a blue “tracer” light beam will come out from the training device indicating where you should place your lightsaber.

Follow the beams!

Then, a faster light will shoot out and if your lightsaber is in the right place, it will light up and you’ll feel the fire hit it!

Gotta be ready!

After everyone has a chance with a lightsaber, shields will be handed out to the people standing behind those with the lightsabers in the rotational system.

Time for shields!

This way, you get a chance with the shields AND the lightsabers.

The shield

These shields also light up!

Our shield

The people with the shields follow the light pattern just like you would with a lightsaber, so that if the person with the saber in front of you messes up, the light will hit your shield.

Hold it up!

The training gets harder and harder as it goes on, so be prepared to possibly break a sweat! The first half of this training session is pretty fun, but it does kind of feel like you’re in a gym class or a group fitness class. It’s entertaining, but definitely not the most fun activity you can do on the ship.

Training hard

Once you’ve trained for a while, your Saja will begin talking about the force and a recognizable voice will start talking overhead. This voice echos through the room and talks about using the force to train with your lightsaber.

Use the force…

So, the tracer lights are turned off and you have to “use the force” in order to know where your saber should go. Don’t worry though, there are some twinkle lights that will help you out!

May the force be with you

This part with the force and the twinkle lights was fun, but we think Disney could’ve done a bit better with making it feel more real and less cheesy. The twinkle lights don’t really give off the feeling that you’re using the force — it’s just you looking at sparkles. The whole thing with the force in the Star Wars universe is feeling it, not seeing it. If something like sound effects were used instead, we think it would’ve been more impactful.

Your Saja will also talk about the force!

This was still a fun experience, but it didn’t really match the level of immersion we encountered during other activities on the ship. So, because of that, the story arc during lightsaber training didn’t quite feel right.

Lightsaber training

Toward the end, our Saja ended with a passionate and emotional speech about how inspiring we had been during the training process. She did a fantastic job, but because the immersion wasn’t built up enough in this experience compared to others, it was kind of confusing. If you’re really into Star Wars this could be moving for you. But for the more casual fan, it might seem a bit more confusing or out of place.

The end!

There you have it — that’s what training with a lightsaber is like on Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. If you’ve always wanted to use a lightsaber and are a big fan of Star Wars, this will probably be your jam. Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, you should still enjoy the training aspect of this activity. Just know going in that it’s not going to be as immersive as other experiences on the ship and maybe treat it more as just getting to play with a lightsaber. Stay tuned to DFB for more from the Starcruiser.

Click here to see our ULTIMATE guide to Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser

Do you think you would be good at wielding a lightsaber? Tell us in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

The post PHOTOS: Find Out What Lightsaber Training Is REALLY Like at the Star Wars Hotel in Disney World first appeared on the disney food blog.

The shiny new amethyst Minnie ear headband has arrived at Walt Disney World. We found this pair in the Emporium in Magic Kingdom.

Amethyst Minnie Ear Headband – $29.99

We first found this pair over at Disneyland.

The headband and bow are a lighter purple than the ears, which are covered in reflective sequins.

The sequins have shell-like lines.

Will you be adding these to your ear collection? Let us know in the comments!

For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow WDW News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The post New Amethyst Minnie Ear Headband Arrives at Walt Disney World appeared first on WDW News Today.

You could be paying around $6,000 total for a single room at Disney World’s new Star Wars-themed hotel. So that cost should cover all possible expenses during your stay, right? Apparently not.

Galactic Starcruiser

One of the reasons a stay at the Galactic Starcruiser is so expensive is that it’s more like a cruise experience rather than a hotel. Most meals and activities onboard are included in the price. But not quite everything is included — let’s take a look at what will cost you EXTRA during your visit to a galaxy far, far away.

The Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser is an immersive experience that takes guests into the Star Wars universe. The concept is that guests are boarding the Halcyon — a luxury cruise spaceship — and traveling around the galaxy. The ship will dock in Batuu (Galaxy’s Edge in Disney’s Hollywood Studios) for an excursion there as well.

Atrium

For 2 days and 2 nights, guests can actively participate in a storyline on this ship that involves interacting with characters, going on secret missions to fight (or aid) the First Order, taking part in lightsaber training, learning to fly the ship, and more.

Lightsaber Training

All of those activities are included in the cost of your stay, as are most of the drinks, snacks, and food on the ship. A breakfast buffet, lunch buffet, and family-style dinners are all included. So what does that $6,000 price tag NOT cover?

Alcohol

First of all, alcoholic drinks are NOT included in the cost of your stay (for the most part). If you want to grab a cocktail at the Sublight Lounge, you’re more than welcome to — but you’ll have to pay extra.

Bespin Drink

Most of the drinks cost between $13 and $23 for a cocktail, beer, or wine on tap (with most cocktails in the $15 to $18 range). Getting a bottle of wine will cost more, with options at $55 up to $140 per bottle.

Fiery Mustafarian

This is also true if you want to get an alcoholic drink at dinner. Cocktails and other drinks are available at dinner time, but they are not free. 

Drinks Menu

The only exception that we’ve seen to this rule is in Galaxy’s Edge. Guests are each given a quick service meal credit (kind of like a Dining Plan credit) to get lunch at any quick service location in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Our Docking Bay 7 Meal

This lunch is included in the cost of your Star Wars hotel stay — you won’t have to pay extra for it. For our meal at Docking Bay 7, we ordered a beer as our beverage, and it was included in the quick service credit.

Beer in Galaxy’s Edge

Most guests go to Docking Bay 7 or Ronto Roasters (the quick service locations in Galaxy’s Edge), but you could really use that credit at any quick service (NOT table service) location in the park.

You can get totchos if you want!

Nothing is stopping you from escaping space for a while to grab Totchos from Woody’s Lunch Box!

Read more about what’s INCLUDED during your trip to Batuu here! 

Specialty Drinks

Some other specialty drinks are not free, such as mocktails at the Sublight Lounge. However, you can try out the Cantina Chronicles experience for free, which is basically a flight of mocktails (although you only get a small taste of each one). Each drink has a backstory, so it’s interesting to hear where they came from and test out the different flavors.

Cantina Chronicles

But if you want a full mocktail, you’ll have to pay between $7 and $8 extra.

More of the Menu

The drinks that ARE included in your stay are soft drinks (such as Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta Orange, etc.), Blue and Green Milk, and some juices during breakfast time (orange, cranberry, apple, and grapefruit).

Soft drinks

Note that Blue and Green Milk are unlimited during breakfast and lunch hours, but even if you wanted some at a different time, you can ask a Cast Member and they will likely bring it to you. We did this at the Sublight Lounge in the evening, and the Cast Member was very kind to get us some.

Blue and Green Milk

We were also surprised to find that certain drinks at Galaxy’s Edge (during our Batuu excursion) were free as well. We purchased a Thermal Detonator Diet Coke from a snack stand, and the Cast Member included it in our meal credit even though it wasn’t part of our lunch (it was at a separate location). So we did not have to pay for that bottle of Diet Coke.

This was free during our Starcruiser excursion.

We aren’t sure if this is an official policy or not, but it was our experience during our visit to Galactic Starcruiser. We’ll let you know as soon as we can confirm this information. If it is the policy, then soft drinks may be free at Galaxy’s Edge for Starcruiser guests during their excursions.

Read MORE about our experience at the Lounge on the Star Wars Hotel HERE! 

Captain’s Table Experience

Although both multi-course, sit-down dinners were included in the cost of our visit to the Starcruiser, there was a special dinner experience that cost extra. The Captain’s Table is a special table in the Crown of Corellia Dining Room (the same dining room as where everyone else eats) that is located at the front of the room, near the stage.

Captain’s Table

You can pay $30 per person to have dinner at the Captain’s Table on either night of your stay. Guests there get some special interactions with certain characters (such as the Halcyon’s captain) as well as extra courses in their meal that aren’t available to other guests.

Character Interactions

This table will still get the normal courses served to the rest of the guests, but there are a few extra dishes and drinks here. The additional drinks include a red or white wine pairing with your meal and champagne (to raise during the Captain’s toast).

Wine Pairing

There are some additional appetizer options, such as the Red Fruit Pillow (which is almost like a Caprese salad).

Red Fruit Pillow

The Intermezzo is also unique to the Captain’s Table, and we had a Miso Shooter for this course.

Miso Shooter

Additional entrées for this experience include Lee Rosemary Seared Scallops or Lobster Tail (these may be different during your visit).

Scallops

Finally, there is a specialty dessert called Umi Yumi Chocolate with Caramel and Yuzu.

Umi Yumi Chocolate

So if you’re looking for a particularly VIP experience on the Starcruiser, you can book the Captain’s Table for some extra-attentive service and additional dishes. Keep in mind that the seating at this table is very limited, so reservations for the experience may be difficult to get.

See our full review for the Captain’s Table here.

Merchandise

There is a gift shop on the Galactic Starcruiser with special merchandise made for this experience. There are pins, keychains, t-shirts, and other normal souvenirs as well as Sabacc games, model Halcyon ships, and replica Star Wars weapons.

Gift Shop

You can also find a lot of costumes in this shop, which you can use during your stay at the hotel.

Costumes

This merchandise will cost extra if you want a souvenir from your stay at the Star Wars hotel.

Click here to see all the merchandise available at the Star Wars hotel.

Memory Maker (Photos)

There were some special photo spots onboard the Galactic Starcruiser, as well as PhotoPass photographers to take your picture. However, we were informed that those pictures are not included in the cost of your visit.

Atrium

PhotoPass here works the same as in other areas in Disney World. You can get your picture taken for free, but if you want to download any of the images, you will have to pay for them. You can purchase Memory Maker for unlimited photo downloads during your trip if you’d prefer that.

The Bridge

A Cast Member also told us that there would be an extra, individual photoshoot available for purchase (like the Capture Your Moment photoshoots in the Disney World parks). We will share more on this as Disney shares more information.

Anything You Buy in Galaxy’s Edge

In addition, you’ll need to pay extra for anything you buy in Galaxy’s Edge during the Batuu excursion (except for your lunch and possibly other soft drinks).

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

If you want to visit Oga’s Cantina, you can do that (with a reservation), but you will have to pay for your drinks.

Oga’s Cantina

Any special experiences like building your own lightsaber or droid will also cost full price. These are not included in the cost of your Starcruiser stay.

Building Droids

Note that if you do buy a souvenir during your excursion to Galaxy’s Edge, you can immediately take it to the Cast Members outside the Starcruiser entrance (where you came in for the excursion), and they will take it back to your hotel room for you. That way, you won’t have to carry it around in the park.

Tips

Some tips are included in the cost of your stay, such as gratuities for food service.

Food tips are included

However, other gratuities such as for valet parking or housekeeping are not included in the cost.

Valet Parking

Disney encourages guests who want to tip Cast Members for these services to do so at the time of service. Guests will not be asked to include a full gratuity for these services at the end of their stay.

Cast Member

That’s it for the things you’ll have to pay extra for at the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser! Stay tuned with DFB, because we’ll be bringing you ALL of the information about this new experience.

Read Our ULTIMATE GUIDE to the Star Wars Hotel HERE!

Would you stay at the Star Wars hotel? Let us know in the comments.

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink.You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ

The post Everything You’ll Pay EXTRA For at the Star Wars Hotel in Disney World first appeared on the disney food blog.