Once Upon a Happily Ever After: The Fox and the Hound

Week 20:

Hello again!

This week was VERY special, because someone VERY important to me had a birthday.

No...not you, Tod!

It was my wonderful, thoughtful, and caring fiancé, Justice!

Those are green, color-flame candles, by the way!

Thus, I focused mainly on him instead of this dinner. GASP!!

I did this by making him some sort of food that he liked for every day of his birthday week (Monday: fried rice (no pun intended and not pictured) and a vanilla waffle cone (Sonic had 1/2 price ones), Tuesday: Oreo cake and chicken piccata (chicken not pictured), Wednesday: Portillo's (a meal we enjoyed on our trip to Chicago where we got engaged), Thursday: (croque monsieur, see Aristocat's post, and blueberry muffins), Friday: apple pie, Saturday: Chipotle and Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza, and Sunday: hmm..can't remember. It is a day of rest, after all!).

Luckily for me, The Fox and the Hound was a relatively easy meal to put together (other than a few hiccups). Therefore, even with all this cooking and birthday buying, I still was able to pull it off. Yay!

I haven't watched The Fox and the Hound since I was very young and, even then, not very much. I did remember some key parts and, with Justice's help (who actually watched this alot when he was a kid), we got some things together.

Here is the menu:

I started with Fried Biscuits. Biscuits are a farm/homestyle food that I thought went well with the story.

I wanted to have these AMAZING drop biscuits from a local steakhouse. They taste kind of like sugar donuts without the sugar and, when served warm, are melt-in-your-mouth good. However, if I wanted these biscuits, I was told I would have to buy an entrée. Cheapest one available? $21.00 for an 8 oz. filet mignon.

Ain't nobody got money for that!!

So, I decided that simple is sometimes better anyway. Even though I was recently told Popeye's biscuits were better, I decided to go to my roots for some real "down-home" cookin' Sanders-style. Colonel Sanders, that is.

That's right. I went to KFC.

Next, I had fried chicken. Also, from KFC.

The chicken was to represent Tod's interest in chickens, which happen to be the very animals that cause the feud between Amos and Widow Tweed and for Tod to be sent to the game reserve.

Don't worry, Tod. I got EXTRA crispy.

Chicken was also, as I said, a very "homey" meal, which I thought Widow Tweed would've cooked on occasion.

I almost included some Hugs (the fruit drinks we all know and love from our childhood, if you grew up in the nineties, in the plastic "barrel" containers) to go with the way the chickens were "rounded up" (in Chief's barrel), but got busy with birthday stuff. Next time, though, next time.

Next, we had mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn to round out our country cookin'.

The green beans kind of reminded me of Squeaks and Squeaks reminded Justice of me. Not that I squeak, but the part where Squeaks warms up by the stove. I am always cold these days. I know, Mom, it is very ironic (I used to make fun of her for the same thing when my Dad and I would "freeze her out". I used to be hot-natured, you see).

I guess you could say I have transformed! See what I did there?

Speaking of my mom and Squeaks, Squeaks was always chased by Dinky and his woodpecker pal, Boomer. Boomer was voiced by the same man who voiced the Chinese cat in the Aristocats ("fortune cookie always wrong") and Tigger. Tigger was my FAVORITE growing up and my mom, when she took us swimming, used to sing his song (lyrics below) while bouncing me in the water (I was really little, mind you) and when she reached the "I'm the only one!" part she would throw me a little ways into the water (I was old enough to swim or be caught by someone, so don't be alarmed). That is still one of my favorite memories!!

"The wonderful thing about Tiggers is Tiggers are wonderful things! Their tops are made out of rubber their bottoms are made out of springs! They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy fun, fun, fun, fun, fun! But the most wonderful thing about Tiggers is I'M THE ONLY ONE!"

Finally, we had bear claws. This was for the bear that attacked Amos and Copper as they were chasing Tod and Vixey. Tod ends up saving Copper, who ends up saving Tod. Turning point in their friendship, I'd say. Nothing like a bear attack to make you see who your true friends are.

These bear claws proved tricky, however. The Donut Palace, my normal donut shop, did not have bear claws, donut holes (which I was getting for Justice's birthday along with kolaches. THAT is what I ended up getting him on Sunday. Mystery solved!), and another add-on for this meal when I went in on Saturday. They have them EVERY weekend that I am in there (except for donut holes, which are popular and sometimes go out early), so I was surprised.

I HAD to have bear claws, though so I told them what I wanted and they told me they'd have it for me the next day (even noting a time). Needless to say, they did NOT have them (insert slightly sad/mostly irritated face). Luckily, another shop in town that I had never visited had them AND my add-on items. It doesn't mean I will switch, but they made the Disney dinner!!

They were shaped a bit differently than the Donut Palace's, which look more like a catcher's mitt. These were bigger though (to go with the huge bear in the movie), showed off the massive claws, and, instead of almond paste, tasted more like cinnamon rolls.

Cinnamon rolls made more sense with my homestyle meal anyway, so THERE!

My what big claws you have!!

By the way, did you know bears are actually scared of dogs? I am serious, YouTube it. They will run away most of the time! Justice told me this as we were watching the attack in the movie. See, they really are just a bunch of softies!!

Speaking of softies..

Justice, also, told me during the movie (I know, I know, not normally acceptable) that he saw two red foxes in his backyard when he was living in London. Maybe this was Tod and Vixey's (the vixen, haha) honeymoon?

Hmm..I don't know. I DO know that Big Momma sure is a good matchmaker. She showed Vixey in just the right light to get Tod hooked, moved into the burrow, and not "running back to his momma" all in the course of one song. Nice one!

Now for the add-ons.

For Widow Tweed's dairy cow, Abigail, I had chocolate milk.

This reminds me of a family friend of ours who visited us from St. Louis one year. We had show animals at the time and he asked a very interesting question.

"How does a brown cow who eats green grass produce white milk?"

O, life's mysteries.

Of course, it can't be solved if Amos and Tod keep spilling it!

Serves you right!

Speaking of Amos Slade, I had a maple longjohn (my other donut addition and shown in the bear claw picture above) for the grumpy, dog-loving hunter.

I wanted a vanilla iced longjohn to go with the white pair he NEVER seems to leave home without but, once again, they were missing.

Watch, they will have them now until the end of December, because that is always the way and is just my luck.

I wore my "BAM!" Mickey band-aid, in fall colors, for the hunter and the occasion. Hello, Mickey!

Another of life's great mysteries (at least to sleep-deprived me at the time), foxtails.

I knew that I had heard of them before and that they were a plant. I, then, turned to Justice and asked, "Are those the reed-like things?". He held it together longer than I would have (signs of a good future husband). He, patiently and sweetly, said, "No, that would be cattails.".

O, right. Oops!!

Moving on....

Sorry, Chief, nothing for you no matter how much you howl.

Don't worry though. You will always have Copper to cuddle with you (you know that was an AW moment for you when you saw it).

Lastly, we had Oreo cookie bark (recipe found here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/oreo-cookie-bark/). This was to represent the trees in the forest (particularly the Birch trees behind Widow Tweed in the picture below) and, of course, the hunting dog's calling card.

Copper had it down! Makes sense. He is a hunting dog after all.

What does the (feisty) fox say?

I don't know, but I do know he barks as well (crazy, huh?).

Also, thinking about it later, the black and the white signified the "natural enemies" or stark differences between Tod and Copper, but how they overcame that and created something amazing (friendship, not bark. Corny, but, hey, that is me).

I, also, made a slight error here. In the comments of the recipe, a user advised, if making a small amount, to use one bar of almond bark and an 8 oz. package of mini Oreos. She said that "crushing" the mini Oreos was not required, because they were already in small chunks.

Well, no offense to her, but, if I make it again, I am crushing those mini Oreos (and putting it in a colander...takes the dust out so that it isn't gray).

Don't get me wrong, the bark still tasted just like a Hershey's Cookies and Cream bar (Justice's favorite chocolate bar), but it just looked "bulky" to me and messed with the cookie to chocolate ratio.

Since I had a lot of mini Oreo's left over, I was going to try making the bark again (it was also super easy), but then I found this brownie brittle. I thought it went well with the other tree shown in the picture or looked like tracks. I have never tried it, so I was a bit nervous, but it was great! I even took it for my plane snack to Florida this week (no, I am not in the land of Disney for fun, just work)!

Speaking of the airport, I found more bark that would've gone nicely with my dinner.

Yum!

I am curious what the "Diet Delight" would contain, though.

Here is the whole thing!

Notice the shout-out to Justice in his favorite color, green!

Well, that's it. Short(ish) and sweet.

It was my turn to draw and it will be...

Bambi!

That's ironic. Justice and I, when we saw the opening scene of Tod's mother, said that it reminded us of the beginning of Bambi and how sad that part always was for us.

Looks like we have an orphan animal/forest theme going on!