Note: This post is a continuation of Part 1: The Planning.
Cover photo from MickeyBlog.com

California Grill
A very popular destination since 1971 (then known as the Top of the World Restaurant & Lounge) located on the 15th floor of Disney’s Contemporary Resort, The California Grill offers unparalleled panoramic views, and outdoor roof terraces for viewing the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. Though Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower offers exclusive access and closer viewing, the angle and overall view is still better from California Grill, in my opinion. Of course, nothing beats being on Main Street to experience the projection mapping, lights, fireworks, and music, but I digress.

As I mentioned in Part 1, the scheduling of the “at home ADRs” started from least complicated to most elaborate. “Least complicated” in this case equaled “made by someone else.” California Grill is known for its stellar wine list and clean, fresh, contemporary California cuisine. While we have eaten in the restaurant many times, we have also sat in the Lounge area for lighter fare and cocktails before watching the fireworks or heading into the Magic Kingdom for an evening event. I chose to recreate the Lounge experience for this first evening.

When Sean woke up on that Saturday morning, I left a card for him to open that had a drawing of a Cosmopolitan on it. We tend to pair our cocktails with the seasons, and summer is always Martinis (for him) and Cosmos (for me), and the clean lines and pop of color reminded me of the Contemporary. In the card, I told him to “meet me this evening at the California Grill for our first ADR, and be sure to check the dress code.”

When sitting in the Lounge, we typically order off of the Lounge menu, so I chose an amuse bouche of a Veggie Salad Roll (from Whole Foods), a charcuterie & cheese board, cocktails, and a small dessert trio (also from Whole Foods) to share. We are lucky to have The Cheese Shop of Salem in town (and even luckier that they deliver!), and while I did not stick entirely to the California theme in my cheese and charcuterie selections, I did have California wines available and built up the choices to make it more of a meal.

The Veggie Salad Roll was a fresh, clean, vegetarian sushi-style roll wrapped in lettuce (not shown, sorry) which seemed very Californian to me, and the desserts (below), while maybe not accurate to the original menu, were close enough to convey the sense that we were there.

You will notice that the dessert photo has a dramatic lighting effect, that is because the “lounge” was actually our living room coffee table. During the meal, I had a sunset video on the TV while a Disney Spotify playlist I created played over the speakers. When it came time for dessert, I turned off the lights and switched the TV and speakers to the Happily Ever After Fireworks.

When we travel to WDW, we will often start our vacation in the Magic Kingdom, or by watching the fireworks from Top of the World or California Grill, so this was the perfect beginning, and set the tone for the rest of the month. Because this evening’s dinner was store-bought and involved only assembly and presentation, I was able to “book” a hearty breakfast ADR for the following morning.

Whispering Canyon Café
While we have only eaten in the Whispering Canyon Café a handful of times, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, where it is located, is very dear to our hearts, so I knew I had to find a way to represent it in my planning. In the overall story of the month, I had us staying at the Lodge this first weekend. We would have taken the boat from the Contemporary last night after dinner (what a spectacular view – go do an image search) and we’d be waking up in our room and heading down to the lobby for breakfast this morning.

In Part 1, you saw a screenshot of the planning spreadsheet and may have noticed that he received a gift AND a WDW@Home experience on this day. I can’t recall which came first, so this truly was a chicken & (scrambled) egg scenario. You see, we had lived up to this point without owning a cast iron skillet (!). I knew that it was the secret tool in the perfectly-prepared filet mignon coming up later in the month (not to mention the crispiest grilled cheese, skillet cornbread, chicken-under-a-brick…the list goes on…), so I ordered one. I had already planned a special breakfast for the second Sunday that was to be the only non-dinner event, but when the skillet arrived early and I realized we didn’t have the Wilderness Lodge represented, I had the idea of making the skillet a gift and to use it as the centerpiece to this meal.

Sean woke up to a pun card with a horse on the cover that said “Hay There.” Inside, there was a lot of “Howdy Partner…” this-and that, plus a warning to not ask for ketchup, because we were heading down to the lobby for a rollicking good time and an all-you-care-to-eat skillet breakfast!

Since the Saturday meal was relatively low-maintenance, I used the day to prep the potatoes for making home fries, made my Cheddar Buttermilk Biscuit mix (I used dried buttermilk powder), cornbread, honey butter, and the sausage gravy. All sat in the refrigerator overnight so that in the morning, I’d have less to prepare.

I set the “table” on our kitchen island, as that is where we usually have weekend breakfasts together. First, I put the bacon in the oven (400F for ~20 minutes on a foil-lined baking sheet). The cornbread was wrapped in foil and sat in the oven for a few minutes to warm, then was served with the honey butter while Sean had his Mimosa and coffee. While the bacon was cooking (oh the smell!!!), I added the appropriate amount of cold water to the chilled biscuit mix, kneaded it, shaped &, cut (yay Mickey cutters!) and put them on a baking sheet. When the bacon was done, I put it on paper towels to drain while I increased the oven temperature to 425 F to bake the biscuits. I warmed the sausage gravy on the stove, toasted the frozen (store bought) Mickey Waffles in the toaster, and skillet-roasted the potatoes (heat butter & oil, sauté cubed potatoes with minced garlic and onions over med-high heat 8-10 minutes, toss with garlic & onion powders, a pinch of paprika, salt & pepper). The potatoes and biscuits were done at the same time, so I heated some maple syrup before plating and presenting everything to Sean while I scrambled the eggs.

Everything came out perfectly, but (like the real thing) it was way too much food! Proportions aside, don’t be intimidated by trying this. Remember: this was all breakfast food. You can easily change the décor, music, and plating to turn this into Chef Mickey’s, Donald’s Breakfastasaurus, or The Crystal Palace Breakfast with Pooh & Friends. Try it out with your family to add some Magic to your weekend breakfast.

Coming up on Part 3: Eating on the Monorail!
Citrico’s at The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
The Kona Café at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort

Coming up on Part 4: Eating in the Parks!
Monsieur Paul at Epcot World Showcase’s France Pavilion
The Hollywood Brown Derby at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Coming up on Part 5: A Memory & A Dream!
Jiko: The Cooking Place at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Victoria & Albert’s at The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa