This week's Disney feature film was Pinocchio. If you read the last weekly newsletter that aired January 30^th, you may recall my project. For those who didn't, a quick synopsis is that Rhett (my husband) and I are watching an animated Disney film at least twice a month and making all food featured in the film. Thus creating a Disney cookbook that will rock your socks off. We are watching the shows in chronological order, so our first week was Snow White. We dove into German foods and dwarfish folklore in order to create a fish soup and gooseberry pie to make any German dwarf proud. Pinocchio was our next movie. It featured more food than we remembered, so we ended up making a whole feast! In fact our blog just went live, find us on facebook, twitter, Instagram, or just go to the blog itself.

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I'll start with the basics you need to know before reading on. Pinocchio is a story about a wood-carver named Geppetto who lived in a small Italian village. The village is believed to be San Miniato Basso, which is in Tuscany. Geppetto makes a marionette which he names Pinocchio, and wishes every day for a child. One night the turquoise fairy comes and gives his marionette life. Geppetto is thrilled, and sends Pinocchio to school, then while he's gone, makes a feast for the whole family. The family includes a fish named Cleo and a cat named Figaro. Pinocchio gets sidetracked, ignoring Jiminy Cricket (his conscience), and never returns home, but is sold to Stromboli, the gypsy to do puppet shows. He escapes, but on his way is taken to Pleasure Island, where he makes friends and does bad things. He begins to turn into a donkey, but escapes again to find his father. Geppetto went searching for Pinocchio and is eaten by Monstro, the whale. In Pinocchio's search, he too gets swallowed by the whale and the family is happily reunited. They make it out, and for showing bravery and love of family, the fairy turns Pinocchio into a real boy.

So what's all this got to do with food? Well Geppetto's feast for one thing was astounding. There was a whole fish, a whole roast chicken, a bowl of fruit, and a giant cake on the table. We used bass, as it's a common fish found in the Mediterranean Sea that Italians eat. Cooked with lemon, cherry tomatoes, and olives. We cooked our chicken with Italian herbs in milk (the milk was just to try something new, since there's no set way to cook an Italian chicken). The cake is just a cake, and we featured a bowl of fruit on our table placement.

What about Stromboli's food? Yes, Stromboli the gypsy eats a meal while talking to Pinocchio, who is now a captive. He has a summer sausage, French bread, and lots of vegetables. Wait! That's not all! Pinocchio is also seen eating a pie with a red center on Pleasure Island, with an ice cream cone in the other hand. How did we do all this? Geppetto's feast was done first. The next night we made French bread and set it out with vegetables, then made a strawberry pie and served it with pink ice cream. We used strawberries, because in my search for common Italian berries or berry dishes, strawberries were always seen.

Let me tell you, the food was delicious! I appreciate a Tuscan meal with amazing desserts. We're going to have to up our exercising to keep off all the extra calories from the Disney desserts alone! Included here at the end of the article will be the recipes for the fish, the chicken, and the cake. Up next: Fantasia! Keep reading, and enjoy dinner and a Disney movie.

Italian Chicken in Milk Recipe:

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Roasted Italian Fish:

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Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting

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