Festival of The Holidays: American Holiday Table

Left: Slow Roasted Turkey, Center Dessert: Chocolate Pecan Tart
Center Drink: Chocolate Apple Shake, Right: Seared Pork Tenderloin

In the American Adventure pavillion during the Festival of the Holidays, there is this tasty gem called The American Holiday Table. This is one of my favorite Holiday Kitchens because it reminds me so much of home because of what is served and how it's made.
My friend and I tried all of the food here and we both wanted seconds on the stuffing that came with the Turkey it was so flavorful and perfect!

  The Slow Roasted Turkey came with cranberry stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, Green Beans, and cranberry sauce. The presentation threw me because it looked like there was no stuffing though it was listed. So it was a nice surprise to taste it underneath the mashed potatoes. The cranberry sauce on top was that perfect mix of sweet and tart that cranberry sauce should be. You can definitely tell it is not the canned kind most people are used to having by the look and taste. This is one sauce I'd love the recipe for. The turkey had a little dark meat and a lot of white meat, which is fine by me because I prefer white meat to dark. One of the biggest problems anyone who cooks turkey can have us the turkey dries out during the cooking process and after during serving it. As usual Disney knocks it out of the park. The turkey I got was so moist, not dry af all and cooked to perfection. The gravy was so flavorful too. It was a creamy turkey gravy that enhanced the turkey meat and mashed potatoes under it. I was surprised to taste a big bite of sweet cranberry stuffing underneath the light and fluffy mashed potatoes. My first thought on the bite was "Hey this is not the right texture or taste for mashed taters!". Then I looked and saw the stuffing on the bottom. The potatoes themselves were so light and fluffy. They also tasted more whipped than mashed, which has a slightly different texture, and perfectly buttered. The stuffing is to die for! I'd love this recipe too. The biggest stuffing problem is that it is too dry or too mushy. I do not know how Disney does it but it was perfectly done. Not an overly dry or sopping wet piece to be had. It had that stuffed in the turkey kind of taste to it with just enough springyness to each bite. I don't know if it was because some say it's a health risk to cook the stuffing IN the turkey, but it sure tasted like it! The cranberries in it were just as perfect, just tart enough for the stuffing without it being too overpowering. The Holiday Chefs have a winner with the stuffing alone in my book! When I tried the green beans, I was taken back to my childhood because they tasted just like how my mom makes them for any holiday. Though the passport  says green beans, they are the traditional green bean casserole found on a majority of American tables. The green beans were perfectly cooked, just enough of a crunch and not soggy at all. The sauce on them was the traditional cream of mushroom soup. This soup was homemade and thick enough it was more like a nice glaze than the super thick undiluted canned soup I'm used to. It let the green bean and fried onion crunchies tastes shine through while giving them a subtle mushroom taste. This plate took me back to many Thanksgivings and Christmases back home.

    The seared pork tenderloin came with the same green bean casserole the turkey had and roasted sweet potato wedges and a champagne demi-glace. The pork was perfectly done as well. Like cooking turkey, being too dry is one of the biggest threats to a pork dish. This was a no issue with ours. It wasn't too tough, too dry, too porky or too crispy. The champagne demi-glace gave it an upscale flavor that enhanced the pork tenderloin. The surprise hit for me (outside the green bean casserole) was the roasted sweet potato wedges. They had the texture of the roasted russet potatoes I'm used to but they tasted like sweet potato fries dusted with cinnamon. When i bit into one the inside was soft and fluffy, perfectly cooked both inside and outside. They just needed a small vat of melted marshmallow cream or ketchup to dip them in to be perfect, though the champagne demi-glace was a surprisingly good accompaniment as well.

    The Chocolate Pecan Tart was topped with a huge dollop of whipped cream and drizzled with caramel sauce. Like all desserts we saved ours for last after we tried the entrees. By the time we got to it, the tart was firmly set and the graham cracker crust was rather hard to cut into with the plastic knives, but we got it split. The pecans were nice and crunchy not mealy or mushy at all. It tasted like a traditional pecan pie. The whipped cream gave it the sweetness it needed for me. Without the whipped cream it wasn't that sweet, but with it yum! The one downfall to the tart I found was I could not taste the chocolate enough. There was a super subtle chocolate taste, but not enough to keep a chocoholic satisfied.
       

      The Chocolate Apple Shake featuring Twinings Winter Spice Herbal Tea was really tasty. It tasted like a chocolate milkshake with a super subtle hint of something you can't quite put your finger on. I had high hopes for this particular drink because it combined chocolate, apples and tea: all things I like. Yet it was a little bit of a let down. I had a hard time tasting the tea and apples. The chocolate ice cream overpowered the rest of the drink and the subtle tea and apple flavors. Yet it was a perfect drink for the 80 degree day we had.
Over all, I'd get everything again especially the turkey plate and I would eat the tart when I got it to make it easier to cut into pieces or at least split it first.