Back in July, the Mister and I attended a wedding in Orlando and used a free day to visit Universal Studios. We explored a good chunk of the park, but for me the crown jewel was the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
It’s been on my bucket list for AGES, and now that I’ve been there, I can confidently say it was well worth the wait! 🙂 Here’s a rundown of my experience:
Howl’s Moving Castle was actually the first Studio Ghibli movie I ever saw, and it’s main comic relief (the fire demon Calcifer) is still one of my all-time favorite Miyazaki characters. Though he can be a bit salty and sassy, Cal’s got a good heart underneath it all, so I wanted to pay tribute to him with a dish in our Ghibli menu.
When forced into making breakfast with the new cleaning lady, Calicifer famously curses her by saying, “May all your bacon burn!” So in honor of Cal (and the delicious, non-burned bacon he made with Sophie that day), I decided to make some sweet and spicy bacon!
This recipe features crisp center cut bacon rubbed with cinnamon and cayenne for spice and coated with honey and brown sugar for sweetness. The perfect snack to share with your favorite fire demon!
Oh, Studio Ghibli. Not only are your stories amazing, but your characters are such a perfect combo of magic and true human spirit that they’ve become synonymous with childhood itself for many of us.
Making a marathon kit for Studio Ghibli movies was simultaneously one of the most difficult and most rewarding kits I’ve ever made. On the one hand, there are SO MANY options for what to include that it was downright intimidating. But all the Ghibli movies are so awesome, how can you possibly go wrong? 🙂
In the end, this kit turned out a little bit longer than some of my others, but I’m satisfied that I managed to include the very best. Enjoy! 🙂
Our entree today comes from Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, a retelling of The Little Mermaid. I love Ponyo’s preoccupation with food in the film, especially ham! Her reaction when Sosuke’s mom serves pork ramen soup is adorable!
This ramen soup recipe is a recreation of the one in the movie, featuring classic ramen noodles, hard boiled eggs, green onions, and of course ham! It’s a savory, salty, satisfying dish—sure to make you feel nice and cozy on a stormy night. 🙂
Intimidating books. No matter how deeply rooted our love of books may be, we’ve all encountered a daunting book at some point. Sometimes it’s a book big enough to rival the dictionary, or maybe the language is so complicated as to be overwhelming. Sometimes it’s just a genre we’re not sure we’ll like!
But all books were made to be read, even the intimidating ones, so I’ve resolved to read the ten books that intimidate me most. Here they are! 🙂
I’m proud to announce the start of a menu I’ve been looking forward to for ages: A STUDIO GHIBLI MENU! For those who are unfamiliar, Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki worked with Studio Ghibli to make films like My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, and Ponyo. I’ve been a huge Hayao Miyazaki fan for years, so I thought it would be fun to make a menu for his movies! Since it would be impossible to choose just one film, I decided to base each dish after a different movie. Today’s recipe is from Spirited Away!
Unlimited money for books. It’s what every book lover dreams about, right? Just last month I published a post describing my dream library, so I was all set to continue fantasizing about more books when this Top Ten Tuesday prompt came up. In fact, I’ve been saving books on my Amazon wishlist for ages, so I just had to pop over and see which ones I wanted most. Here’s my dream book haul master list!
A
I’m not sure what the weather is like by you, but here in Chicago it’s HOT HOT HOT! I’ve been hiding shamelessly inside with my air conditioner all month and cooking up all kinds of yummy goodness to take my mind off the oppressive heat. Let’s take a look at what we made this month!
We’re wrapping up our Little Princess menu with the very first food Sara ever shares with her close friend Becky: sweet, delicate, delicious cake!
I love the friendship that develops between Becky and Sara. And I think it’s no coincidence that it all develops around food! 🙂 At first, Becky the maid is shy and uncertain around the well-to-do Sara, and Sara is lonely in an unfamiliar country.
But when Sara sees how hungry Becky is, she shares all kinds of foods with her, starting with this cake (which I modeled after the rosy dress Becky says she once saw on a real princess). Becky is touched by the generosity and soon gets over her shyness, opening the door for a friendship that both girls desperately need.
I always knew cake had the power to change lives! 🙂
One of the many things that make books magical is how they expose us to worlds, cultures, and lifestyles we might never have known about. A truly great book can get us so excited about the lives of the characters that we want to live that way too!
As a kid, I DEFINITELY spent a lot of time pretending to live in different time periods and countries, but I often overlooked how books piqued my interest in new activities. Looking back, there were TONS of subjects I got passionate about after reading about them…and it still happens today! Here are my top ten things I wanted to learn/do after reading books about it. Enjoy! 🙂