After a quick visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios where we ran into Kylo Ren who may or may not have sent the First Order after us…

We walked on over to Epcot for another round of Marketplace goodies.

First stop, Ireland for cheese and bread! The BEST cheese dip in WDW

Mid-day break in the air conditioned Food and Wine Festival Center for “Mix it, Make it, Celebrate it!”

We learned all about baking with great ingredients from Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, owners of Baked from Brooklyn, NY https://www.bakednyc.com/  We put together pancake mix (mix it/make it) while drinking Prosecco (celebrate it) and even got to try the finished product.

Time to visit a few more Marketplaces. First, Coastal Eats: Lump Crab Cake with Napa Cabbage Slaw and Avocado-Lemongrass Cream; Seared Scallops with Roasted Corn and Butterbean Succotash and Chili-Chipotle Butter Sauce. This may have been the favorite of the festival. [Matso’s note: Agreed… even without tzatziki sauce]

Then off to Hawaii: Kahlua Pork Slider with Sweet and Sour Dole Pineapple Chutney and Spicy Mayonnaise; Teriyaki-glazed SPAM Hash with Potatoes, Peppers, Onions, and Spicy Mayonnaise. [Matso’s note: I endorse the hash]

Final lunch stop in Canada: Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup served with a Pretzel Roll and “Le Cellier” Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle-Butter Sauce. Washed down with the now famous  Moosehead Radler: Lager infused with Grapefruit, Grape, and Lemon Juices (Matso liked this one so much he got it more than once later in the week). All amazing flavors, especially the truffle butter sauce.

As we finished, we got a message from Melanie’s Aunt Joy that she, Aunt Gay and Grandmother had arrived.  We were looking forward to visiting with them so we headed to the front of the park.

We drove Gay and Grandma around the park for a while, taking in all the sights and sounds of the festival. We purchased a sweet and refreshing non-alcoholic Passion-rita from Joffrey’s Coffee & Tea company (on the list if you are keeping score) while on our way to the American Adventure. The Voices of Liberty were scheduled to sing and we were ready to get out of the heat. We stayed for the show – pushing the wheel chairs up the exit ramp, as the elevators were not working – then went over to The Land for a refreshing dinner. After a wonderful, but too quick, visit it was time to say goodbye.

But the night wasn’t over for all of us. We had a few more Marketplaces to visit – for goodness sakes, Melanie only had a salad for dinner. Off we went to Active Eats for Loaded Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Nueske’s Pepper Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, Peppers, and Green Onions ; Sweet Avocado Crema with Strawberries, Yellow Cake, and Tortilla Streusel. The mac ‘n’ cheese was a bit overloaded and hard to get all the flavors but the Avocado Crema was smooth and light. Delicious!

And Earth Eats was right next door so we had to try the Ricotta and Zucchini Ravioli with Rustic Tomato Sauce (yum); plus Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Mousse with a Carmel Drizzle (tasted like peanut butter cookie dough! yum!) [Matso’s note: Too rich for me, believe it or not]

 

We fininshed the night with another family meet up, this time with Melanie’s Aunt Karen. She is a Disney cast member and was able to reserve us a great spot to watch the traditional Epcot fireworks show, “Illuminations, Reflections of Earth.” Karen escorted us to a private area near the lake and presented us with some extra magic “Mickey-Vision” glasses for the fireworks. It was a wonderful way to end the day.

 

We are now 13/40