Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day.

Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day! From Italian to Austrian, the chefs at Fulton’s Crab House, Portobello and Wolfgang Puck Cafe in Downtown Disney have put an Irish twist on a few of their signature dishes. But for authenticity throughout the year, make your way to Raglan Road Irish Pub.

Fulton’s Crab House is offering a hearty and delicious meal fit for an Irish King! Start out with Irish Potato and Leek Soup followed by sliced corned beef brisket with braised Fulton cabbage, red wine marinated roasted shallot and caramelized tent peg carrots. The meal is $18.95 excluding tax and gratuity.

Although Portobello serves the tastiest Italian fare, they are celebrating the luck of the Irish with a special St. Patrick’s Day cocktail! The Café Irlandese is a mix of triple olive espresso vodka, Jameson Irish Whiskey, Liquer 43 finished with a scoop of smooth whip cream. A perfect Irish-inspired addition to one of Portobello’s signature pasta dishes!

At Wolfgang Puck Café, Chef Sinclair Thorne is offering a special Irish-inspired St. Patrick’s Day menu in the dining room. The three-course menu includes a Potato Pancake with Smoked Salmon; Asparagus Salad, locally grown albino asparagus and pencil asparagus with spicy hazelnuts, shaved parmesan cheese and finished with 5 year old aged balsamic Vinegar; Corn Beef and Vegetables, house-made corned beef with seasonal vegetable medley over smashed potato and served with a Guinness mustard sauce and finally White and Dark Chocolate Bread pudding. The menu is $40.95 per person excluding tax and gratuity.

Boxty Bradan with Irish smoked salmon

At Downtown Disney’s Raglan Road you’ll find traditional music, familiar ales and even genuine fittings from old bars in Ireland. The food is an updated version of Irish classics. The shepherd’s pie and bread puddings are yummy, but so is this Boxty Bradan.  You could probably fit four average sized pubs inside this Raglan Road (it seats 400). But for an Irish celebration, the more the merrier!

Raglan Road’s Boxty Bradan

Yield: 9 generous servings.

1 cup grated raw potatoes

1 cup leftover mashed potatoes

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons salt

2 eggs, lightly beaten

About 1/4 cup milk

Butter or oil for frying

Melted butter as needed

18 smoked salmon florets (roll thin slices around your finger and twist)

Salmon sauce:

4 tablespoons crème fraîche (see note)

Freshly chopped chives to taste

1. Place grated raw potato in a clean cloth and twist to remove excess moisture.

2. Combine raw potatoes, mashed potatoes and eggs. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder. Fold into potato mixture. Add enough milk to make a batter.

3. Heat butter or oil in a heavy skillet on medium heat. Drop potato batter by heaping tablespoons into the hot pan. Brown on both sides, 3-4 minutes per side. Lightly brush each boxty with melted butter.

4. To serve, place 2 boxty potatoes on a plate. Top each with a salmon floret. Whisk crème fraiche and chives to a creamy consistency and lightly drizzle over the salmon. Repeat with remaining boxty potatoes and salmon.

Recipe note: Crème fraiche is a matured, thickened cream has a slightly tangy, nutty flavor and velvety rich texture. The thickness of crème fraîche can range from that of commercial sour cream to almost solid margarine. Shop for crème fraiche at gourmet stores, The Fresh Market and Whole Foods Market.

Portobello Mushroom Cap Sandwich with chips and mixed green salad at Raglan Road Irish Pub.

Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant

 in Downtown Disney’s West End was constructed in Ireland from old bars then dismantled and shipped to Florida. The menu was crafted by chef Kevin Dundon of Dunbrody House in Ireland. The pub gets its name from a Patrick Kavanagh’s poem, which was originally published under the title “Dark Haired Myriam Ran Away.” The portobello beauty is a popular item from the lunch menu and a great way to get in the St. Patrick’s Day spirit.

1 portobello mushroom, gills scraped

1 kaiser-style bun with caramelized onions baked on top, split

Olive oil for glazing

1 ounce Dubliner cheese (about 1 slice, see note)

Tomato chutney to taste (see note)

1. Grill mushroom until cooked through. In saute pan, briefly cook mushroom in oil to glaze.

2. Place slice of cheese on mushroom cap and place under broiler to melt cheese.

3. Serve on bun with chutney.

Recipe note: Dubliner cheese is sold at Publix.

How to make the tomato chutney: This is the 3-gallon yield from the restaurant. In a large square roasting pan, combine 14 pounds diced plum tomatoes, 4 peeled and chopped red onions, 1 pound brown sugar, 1 quart good-quality balsamic vinegar, 1 pound raisins and 1/4 cup blend of salt and pepper or to taste. Bring to a boil and cook until tomatoes are soft, but still bright red. Remove from pan and chill. Simmer until cooking liquid is reduced in volume by half. Chill again. Recipe can be cut to 1/3 with good results.

Crawfish Andouille Lasagna

Yield: 4 servings

1 pound pasta

2 cups grated Parmesan cheese

2 cups grated mozzarella

1 cup ricotta

Lasagna filling:

3 tablespoons butter

1 pound minced andouille sausage

1 cup finely chopped green bell pepper

1 cup finely chopped yellow onion

1 cup finely chopped celery

1 cup chopped green onion

8 slices stale French bread, soaked in stock and minced

2 pounds minced crawfish tails

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon Tabasco

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup crawfish stock thickened with a bit of roux ( 1/2 cup New England clam chowder can be substituted)

1 cup Italian bread crumbs

1. Heat oven to 350 F. To make the filling, melt butter in a skillet over high heat. Add andouille and vegetables. Cook stirring constantly for 5 minutes. Add minced bread, crawfish and seasonings. Cook mixture for 4 to 5 minutes. Add sauce and a cup of bread crumbs. Blend well and remove from the heat.

2. Cook pasta according to package directions. Lightly grease a baking dish and cover the bottom with a layer of pasta. Put a layer of the filling (about 1/2 -inch thick) over the pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan and mozzarella. Ladle 1/2 cup of the crawfish sauce on tip and spread evenly.

3. Cover with another layer of pasta, filling and cheeses, 1/2 cup crawfish sauce and ricotta. Repeat procedure (there will be no ricotta layer).

4. Top with remaining pasta and lightly grease the top sheet. Cover and bake for 30 minutes.

The monorail play set wraps around this Christmas tree at Disney's Contemporary Resort. (Photo by Kristin Ford/Orlando Sentinel)

Visiting Disney’s deluxe hotels to see the holiday decorations has become an annual tradition for our family. And it’s a great thing to do when seasonal passholders are blacked out of the parks but still want a taste of the Disney holiday magic.

On Monday, we decided to visit the hotels on the monorail loop, beginning with the Grand Floridian. Visitors come by the busload to see the life-size gingerbread house situated in the lobby. The house is so detailed that it takes cast members more than two months to create the 5,089 shingles used in its construction, and it serves as a bake shop, selling replicas of the shingles and other holiday goodies. My kids look forward to the solid chocolate, character-themed lollipops each year, which they eat while we listen to live Christmas music.

In addition, the Grand Floridian has an enormous Victorian-themed Christmas tree in the center of the lobby. Seeing the change purses that adorn the beautiful tree makes me smile, remembering a few years ago when my son opened one, earnestly checking for forgotten cash.

From there, we headed to the Contemporary and stayed on the fourth-floor concourse, where we had dinner at the Contempo Cafe. It’s a less expensive option than Chef Mickey’s next door, but still allows your party to see the monorail speeding by overhead. Afterward, we browsed in the central gift shop, which has one of my favorite decorations — the futuristic Christmas tree decorated with the monorail play set. Then, we walked outside on the observation deck to see the giant wreath on the side of the hotel. We also had a great view of Cinderella Castle dressed in its Dream Lights and other Magic Kingdom attractions festively lit up.

We climbed back in the monorail and made our way to the Polynesian, where we saw a display of Disney gingerbread houses. The themes ranged from South Pacific to Disney movies, such as Up. These houses were more the size of what you’d create in your own kitchen. Then, we found Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Pluto and Goofy were greeting guests in the lobby. C and L were excited to see their Disney pals in their tropical holiday attire and gave them big hugs.

Disney welcomes visitors who want to view the decorations, but know that you will need to park at the Transportation and Ticket Center. Because the hotels are so busy during the holiday season, parking is reserved for those staying or dining there.

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney's Hollywood Studios started in Arkansas as a single home's annual display. It moved to Walt Disney World in 1995. (Photo by Kristin Ford/Orlando Sentinel)

Over the weekend, we joined friends for dinner at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and a walk through The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, a tradition between the two families for years now. Our kids are close in age, so it works out well — as well as doing anything with five kids eight years and younger does, that is.

It was quite crowded streaming onto the Streets of America, which made the parent in me a little nervous because I know that C and L want to run, jump and dance (as they should) when they get under the lights. They get caught up in playing with their friends and forget they could become separated from the adults. But as we inched our way down the street, we stopped at various points so the kids could play and we could talk and admire the millions of lights.

Of course, everyone was stopping to snap photos, too. Getting shots good enough for the scrapbook is not difficult, even with a simple point-and-shoot camera. But if you want to capture the incredible detail of the display, here are some photography tips from our friends at AllEars. net.

About every 10 minutes, the lights dim and then come to life, synchronized to holiday music. And “snow flurries” fall from the sky, which always excites our Florida kids who have never lived through the Indiana winters of my childhood.

If you have the opportunity to see The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights, I highly recommend it. Expect crowds, but know that they won’t prevent you from seeing everything. In fact, Hollywood Studios was scheduled to close at 8 p.m. the night we went and people still were enjoying the lights after 8:30.

The dancing lights are included in general admission to the park, and the display runs through Jan. 4.

HGTV's David Bromstad hangs with Mickey and Minnie at the foot of Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom.

HGTV will start rerunning its holiday special Behind the Magic: Disney Holidays beginning Dec. 11 (full schedule here). I admired some the behind-the-scenes access they received, including a look at the decorations warehouse and the construction of the biggest trees using cranes.

I especially liked the “giant popcorn” string for the Magic Kingdom tree, vintage clips of Mary Blair and factoids regarding the parks and resorts (1,300 Christmas trees overall).

Some of it felt a little made-for-TV, such as when host David Bromstad (host of HGTV’s Color Splash) decorated the tree for the suite inside Cinderella Castle — without telling him where it was going?

Bromstad, a former cast member and Central Floridian, is — to say the least — an enthusiastic guide during the one-hour special. Among the adjectives he threw out: huge, big, grand, fantastic, enormous, ginormous, massive, genius, stunning, gigantic, gorgeous, incredible, amazing, iconic, mesmerizing, glorious and breathtaking.  He also says crazy and insane a lot, but in a good way. (Oh, and for you Bromstad watcher, he actually wears sleeves in the show.)

Not that I counted (OK, I did), but the word “magic” and “magical” were uttered 19 times during the broadcast, and that’s not even counting the 12 references to “Magic Kingdom.”

However, Bromstad is appropriately in awe of the holiday treatment given the exterior of Cinderella Castle — 200,000 LEDs with 500 strobes, beautifully lit on specially dyed fishing nets.

“It’s perfect,” he says in the show. “I’m kind of obsessed with it.”

Us too.

Turns out you can watch the special online.

Toy soldiers march through the Magic Kingdom during the "Mickey's Once Upon a Christmastime" parade during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party.

Eligible dates now include every night of the celebrations except for the final one on Dec. 18, according to the passholder page of DisneyWorld.com. Remaining dates are Dec. 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15 and 17.

Tickets must be purchased in advance and are not available onsite or day-of event. Passholders can purchase for themselves and up to three guests. Purchases are made at DisneyWorld.com or by calling 407-WDISNEY.

The savings is $10 per ticket. Passholders will pay $49 general, $43 for ages 3-9.

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is a separate-ticket, after-hours event closed to regular day guests of the theme park. The evening includes the Once Upon a Christmas Time parade, the Holiday Wishes fireworks presentation and the totally new “A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas” show plus Disney characters in their holiday finest.

An assortment of holiday cookies from Disney's expert pastry chefs.

This time of year, it’s hard to escape the intimidating line up of food and lifestyle magazine cookie covers at the supermarket checkout. There are never crumbs in the frostings of the cover cookies. There’s hardly a line of piped icing out of place. And the colors of the coatings are as vibrant as a new strand of Christmas tree lights. They look just like your batch of home-baked cookies — don’t they? Your cookies can look just like those professionally food-styled specimens The secret ingredients are patience and a plan. In 2001, Disney pastry chefs visited the Orlando Sentinel test kitchen to share recipes and show us how it’s done.

Sparkling Snowflake Cookies

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen.

1 (18.25-ounce) package white cake mix

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups quick or old-fashioned, uncooked oats

Assorted colored sugars, candy sprinkles, small candies or decorator icings

1. Heat oven to 350 F.

2. In a large bowl, combine half of the dry cake mix with the butter, egg and vanilla. Mix thoroughly with a large spoon. Stir in remaining cake mix and oats. Mix well.

3. Divide dough in half. On well-floured surface, using a well-floured rolling pin, roll each half to no more than 1/4-inch thickness. Cut dough with a 3-inch snowflake or other large holiday cookie cutter. Place about 1-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. If cookie will be used as tree ornaments, poke a hole at the top of each cookie with a drinking straw before baking. (Repeat immediately after baking if the hole closes.)

4. Bake 6 to 8 minutes or just until set. Centers may still be soft. Carefully remove to a wire rack. Cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Grand Floridian Hotel’s Gingerbread Ornaments

Yield: 25 (6-ounce) ornaments.

Honey dough:

4 pounds honey

3 pounds bread flour

Spice dough:

2 pounds all-purpose flour

4 eggs

2 cups light corn syrup

1 ounce ground cinnamon

1 ounce ground nutmeg

1 ounce ground cloves

1 ounce ground ginger

1 1/2 ounce baker’s ammonia (see note)

1 cup water

Milk for brushing cookies

1. Bring honey to a boil and mix into bread flour. Mix until dough has a smooth texture. Allow to cool. Wrap in plastic and allow to rest overnight in refrigerator. Can be held at this point for up to 2 months.

2. Mix all-purpose flour, eggs, corn syrup and spices. Dissolve ammonia in water and add to flour mixture. Combine the honey dough and the spice dough.

3. Heat oven to 350 F. Roll dough into 1/8-inch thick sheets. Cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Brush with milk. Bake 10-12 minutes.

Recipe notes: Baker’s Ammonia powder is a leavening agent called for in some recipes. It is available at cake decorating supply stores.

Grand Floridian Hotel’s Gingerbread Men

Yield: 18 medium-size gingerbread men or 1 (13-by-15-by-10-inch) gingerbread house.

1 cup bread flour

1 cup cake flour

1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon spice mix (see note)

1 cup sugar

1 cup butter

1/3 cup milk, plus additional milk for brushing cookies

1. Heat oven to 350 F. Mix flours, spices mix and sugar. Add butter a little at a time. Add milk then mix to incorporate.

2. Roll dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Brush cookies with milk. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

How to make spice mix: Combine 1 ounce cinnamon, 1 ounce freshly grated nutmeg, 1 ounce ground cloves and 1 ounce ground ginger.

Simple white lines outline these baked gingerbread flowers.

Petals are filled with icy blue frosting and dried overnight.

A sprinkle of sugar adds sparkle to the cookies. Then another round of white piping for the flower petals.

The folks at Fulton’s Crab House are giving you a chance to taste different wines, along with some of its signature dishes, in a festive atmosphere.

Here are the details from the Downtown Disney icon:

Fulton’s Crab House, located at 1670 Buena Vista Drive in Downtown Disney, is hosting a Holiday Wine Dinner on Sunday, December 13^th. 

The dinner features six courses of Fulton’s specialty items, each paired with a complementing wine by Palmer Vineyards. The menu also showcases Fulton’s very own wine blend! Tom O’Dea from Palmer Vineyards will also be speaking so guests can learn all about the Palmer wines.

 The dinner is $49.95 excluding tax and gratuity and begins at 7 p.m. For reservations, please call 407-934-2628. Or check out www.fultonscrabhouse.com.