Sleeping Beauty

Week 13:

Our story begins in a far away land long ago with a Disney princess that I believe, for being a classic, is highly underrated. Hail to the princess Aurora!!

Sleeping Beauty was derived from a ballet and is one of the only Disney movies that has the classical music feel to go along with the classic princess (Snow White being the other, but she didn’t have the “opera-sounding” voice either). Opera. Ballet. Very Classy. Rose technically was gifted with song, but she is a fair dancer, too (must be the ballet background).

I get that Aurora is asleep/picking berries for most of the movie, but there are a lot of fun supporting characters. I mean, come on, who doesn’t love those fairies or the king that looks like he is a brother to the one ruling in Cinderella’s kingdom?

Speaking of the three good fairies, they have given us a gift. Here is their gift to thee.

I wanted to go for a brunch menu because a girls gotta eat after sleeping that long and after seeing her “aunts” cook, I am sure she could go for some pancakes.

The first item on the list was mimosas. I am not much for alcohol, but this was a “celebration” after all and Justice grabbed the cutest little bottle. Can you imagine not seeing your daughter for 16 years after trying for so long or not knowing about your royal parents. Tough. You’d need a little something. King Hubert knew this and supplied a little something he’d been saving for 16 years. Just like King Stefan, though, most of mine went…missing (meaning I just had a splash and mostly orange juice).

No matter, no matter. It was probably for the best. Wouldn't have wanted to end up under the table or sword fighting with a fish. There was a storm that almost knocked out the power on my last pancake as it was. I had to have my wits about me.

Next, we had cereal. The old breakfast standby. We had a few choices to make here. We could have Fruit Loops (which came in the good fairy colors), Cheerios (which are also a classic and are especially good with bananas), and Lucky Charms (both “light” and “dark” to represent the good fairies and Maleficent. Also, I figured we could use a little extra luck..referring to the week number there). We chose NOT to go to the dark side and went towards the “light” Lucky Charms and the Cheerios (with bananas, of course).

Speaking of bananas, the next menu item was fruit. Briar Rose does go berry-hunting during the movie and you have to start off the day right, right? I chose bananas (to go with the cereal), strawberries, and blueberries. The last two could have been something Rose picked and went with the “make it blue, no pink” theme that you will see develop.

I think I should give an explanation of the “make it blue, no pink” scenario. Flora and Merryweather have this “color fight’ throughout the entire movie leading the raven to find out Rose's hiding place. Even after that, they continued the fight into the final credits. Merryweather wants Rose’s/Aurora’s dress to be blue while Flora wants it to be pink. It kind of reminds me of my sister and I (she’s on the pink side, I’m with Merryweather…who is awesome by the way. Very sassy and we all cheered, I'm sure, when she turned that annoying bird to stone). I am happy to report that Rose/Aurora is in the blue version through most of the movie. Although, Aurora is often pictured in the pink version (sigh).

Moving on, I made Funfetti pancakes held up with a sausage and hashbrown broom. Since it was just two of us trying to eat this breakfast buffet/feast, I made the Funfetti pancakes “fairy-size”. Funfetti pancakes are usually birthday breakfast fare, so it fit in perfectly to celebrate Briar Rose turning a sweet 16. (sweet, get it?). You are probably wondering why it looks like the leaning tower of pancakes (a.k.a. a big syrupy, melting cool whip mess). Well, remember those three good fairies I mentioned earlier? They were kind of like me before this blog and had never attempted something as elaborate, or as "human", as sewing a dress, making a layered cake, or (gasp) beignets (see earlier post), so they had some hiccups along the way. Fauna meant well…(kind of reminds me of Amelia Bedelia with the egg folding shown earlier).

Overall, I’d prefer their “normal” way.

Next, we had pancakes. Just normal ones. No big deal. I did try to make a J and an M for our names, but sadly I didn’t have my mom’s magic touch (even with a batter pourer tool thing that should make it Meredith-proof).

Sigh, I just need to practice some more I guess! I did get to sneak some chocolate chips into one. These represented Maleficent again, of course, except I probably should’ve made a chocolate pancake with chocolate chips. I’m not sure she had any “lightness” in her (she always creeped me out and I always thought she was one of the scariest/evilest/worst villains of all the Disney movies).

She's saying, "Me too!"

Next we had waffles. Justice said the Sleeping Beauty book in the opening and closing scenes resembled Shrek and we all know Donkey’s famous line, “and in the morning, I’m making waffles!”. This isn’t the reason I chose waffles originally, but it worked out! We used his mom’s recipe and he put strawberries over them. Real men eat pink, I guess. They DID look delicious and fit with the berry/ “make it pink” theme.

Next we had bacon and eggs. Standard breakfast foods again. Completely standard, right? WRONG! First of all, the bacon was TURKEY bacon which, other than being healthy and delicious, paid tribute to the turkey leg that Hubert eats while he is bringing up the kid’s "small", starter castle (fine bird, Stefan). I, also, shaped it into a rose for Aurora’s “woodland” stage name and for her lips which apparently shamed the popular red flower. I would suggest drying the bacon out more than I did though, if you don’t want greasy fingers.

For the eggs, Justice just scrambled one up. The surprise, or unplanned, special factor came when they were plated. More on this in the add-ons, though. Yes, you have to wait to find out!

Lastly, we had blueberry and wildberry muffins. Justice may not be a big dessert guy, but he LOVES muffins. I even made him two dozen for his 24th birthday in the shape of a 24 (see below). Therefore, it just made sense to have them in our brunch. Blueberry was, again, for the berries that Briar Rose picked. She did just get some the day before AND the fairies did say they needed lots, lots more, so hints all the berry-related things. The wildberry applies to the above reason and, since it has blueberries and strawberries in it, followed with the pink/blue theme as well!

Now for the add-ons.

Of course, seeing as the fairies DID call Aurora “Briar Rose”, I had to get a red, red rose for the table. You see them at “fancy” breakfasts anyway (which this one was royal, so it is fitting).

Next, I made a trip to a neighboring palace to see what they could offer for the Princess Aurora’s homecoming (movie-watching). The Donut Palace provided (surprise, surprise) some donuts. Fitting for a princess named after the dawn (the time you, generally, have to get up to get the best donuts).

Aren’t they pretty?

You will notice a pink with confetti cake donut (for the princess’s celebration), a plain pink one (for her attire. Merryweather hadn’t noticed the change when I took the picture), a couple glazed donuts (for the kings whose eyes were glazed over after the fairies put them to sleep), a maple donut (just in case Rose was homesick for the woodcutter’s cottage), a few donut holes (I just love them..end of story there), and a kolache (a.k.a. a princess in a blanket). Best part of these donuts? The Palace staff was so happy to hear the news of Aurora’s homecoming, they gave me an extra TWO DOZEN donut holes. Ya, I will be VERY sleepy if I consume even half of those. No fairy dust necessary.

Kind of like I was when I was flying back from Seattle recently (NOT Sleepless in Seattle).

I was going to post a throwback picture of me on my first (and last until our honeymoon) trip to Disney World that dealt with the subject of sleeping, but it was my pre-teen, pre-straightener, braces, crooked glasses phase...with mouth open and saltwater/chlorine hair. Not a picture of grace and beauty!

Moving on.

My next add-on was for Maleficent and Aurora. As I said earlier, Aurora is usually associated with pink (a.k.a. wearing a pink dress), so I did strawberry (once again). However, I wanted to do something else for Maleficent. Since the menu called for fruit, I looked for a dragonfruit (which Maleficent turns into to defend her forest of thorns from Prince Phillip's "sword of truth". Sword of truth. Hmm..Phillip did look like a Crusader in parts of this movie) but, alas, Fort Smith does not carry such a thing. I did, however, find this strawberry dragonfruit Sobe water! This goes with the story. Maleficent and Aurora were tied together ever since Aurora was born. You could speculate that Maleficent was jealous of Aurora.

Of course, the whole spindle thing could've been avoided if Aurora's parents had just invited "her excellency" to the "baby shower". I am currently in the throes of wedding save-the-dates and have gone over and over my address list. I do not want to leave somebody out, then have a spindle-like curse (or any other object) thrown at me or have them feel like Maleficent did.

However, if you are the "Mistress of All Evil"/whatever you are calling yourself these days or you've just had one too many mimosas, I am hoping you will respectively decline.

We had mimosas (just the right amount) and the dragonfruit for drinks, but what is a breakfast feast without choices? So, I had chocolate milk (reduced fat with a pink lid for the princess), strawberry milk (need I say more), and apple juice (here is a new one. I just love apple juice).

I bet you are wondering if there is anything on this menu, other than fruit, turkey bacon, and possibly the reduced fat chocolate milk, that was actually healthy. Bring on the STRAWBERRY banana yogurt. A breakfast fav of mine as of late.

Now, you have probably been wondering about those "special eggs", too. No, they were not green (for Dr. Suess or otherwise). I had some swirl pumpernickel bread I wanted to make toast with as an add-on. The swirl looked like Maleficent's "horns" or the swirl, galaxy things that the fairies' and Maleficent's magic always looked like. Anyway, to save plates, I put the eggs with the toast. Seemed like a natural choice. Without planning to, look what I created!

A hidden Mickey (or Maleficent if you squint and turn your head at a 90 degree angle...just kidding...don't do that)!

Aurora loves Mickey! She is a part of his "club" after all.

Here is the whole breakfast brunch!!

Ya, it is ALOT. I have my wedding dress fitting next weekend. Let's hope I fit into it. I am dreaming of an entrance kind of like this.

There is just TOO much good breakfast food. It is really a shame it gets cornered to one time of day and is high in calories. O well, I'll just go dance in the forest for a while...or maybe not. Maybe a nap. Yes, a nap sounds better.

Best part of this meal? I ate it in bed while watching the movie in the middle of the day (the pictures are dark due to the storm) AND I got to wear my big, fluffy robe. This solidified the nap plan. YAY!

(Enter dream state where dancing with animals wearing clothes is natural. As is communicating with them.)

(Some time after brunch/sad animal talk/ food coma)

Meredith awakens with true love's kiss from her prince who she has danced with once upon a dream.

Me too, Fauna, me too.

Sidenote: A couple Disney ties I noticed in this movie (other than the squirrel and owl which seem to always show up in the early Disney movies), were that Samson (Prince Phillip's biblically-named horse) looked slightly like Tangled's Maximus (he loved carrots and oats though, not apples)

and that a certain, "common" gesture was repeated. Recognize this move?

Not only does King Hubert look like the king in Cinderella, but Aurora seems to have stolen the earlier princess's move! 

As if we needed another awkward situation, Sleeping Beauty's castle is featured at Disneyland while Cinderella's is at Disney World (and in the opening to all Disney movies). Hopefully, Aurora isn't offended. 

One last thing, I found these princess fruit snacks which, after watching several princess movies of late, I just HAD to get. Although, the whole re-styled princess thing kind of irks me. Cinderella does not look like that people!

I'm ok. I'm over it (cough, cough). Back to business. Will the princess streak continue? I do not know, but it is my turn to draw. And it is....

The Sword in the Stone!! No princesses but, hey, it is still royalty. All Hail, King Arthur (and more Disney squirrels and owls)!!

Coming Soon: The Sword in the Stone