For the Love of Pooh!

I love Winnie-the-Pooh. I love his friends too. That silly old bear and all his friends from the Hundred Acre Woods have given our family some sweet memories.

A couple of weekends ago, I took my little guy to see a fantastic production of Winnie-the-Pooh. It was the most adorable thing to watch! We giggled the whole time. I was so happy to see him still enjoying those silly Pooh characters so much. And honestly, my older girls would have enjoyed it just as much, but I was taking them to another playhouse that night to see Pride and Prejudice (also outstanding!), so it was just my handsome little date and me for the Pooh matinee.

Since seeing the play, I’ve been reminiscing over all the sweet memories I have of my children enjoying Pooh Bear. Their relationship with Pooh began with a gift given to my first baby girl. My husband’s grandmother’s best friend, Mrs. Sylvia, attended my church baby shower and brought a beautiful Winnie-the-Pooh china place setting. These dishes were so lovely and sweet, with a dreamy story-book scene illustrated on each piece. Anytime an occasion called for the use of my wedding china, the youngest child at the time got to use the Pooh china set.

Since receiving that gift, we’ve embarked on many adventures with Pooh by way of books, movies, music, and a large collection of stuffed animals. Oh! the tea parties my girls used to set up for all their stuffed animal Pooh friends!

As the years have passed and our kids have had to clean out closets and toy boxes to make room for newer and more mature interests, we’ve sadly said goodbye to much of our Pooh stuff. But there are a few very special items we couldn’t *bear* to part with, so they are still with us and will be packed away for the grandchildren.

I purchased this set of Winnie-the-Pooh’s Seasons board books from Sam’s Club for $6 when Piano Girl was a toddler. Money was really tight in those days and I clearly remember the guilt I felt the whole ride home for having spent so irresponsibly. But looking back now, that $6 was a small price to pay for the memories those books delivered. I read them over and over and over with all of my children. To this day, I can start quoting the first line of one of the seasons and my kids can quickly pick up and finish quoting the rest of the book from memory. And that Pooh CD! It is the cutest and the funniest. We still listen to it in the van sometimes. Our favorite song was always the “Honey” song.

This cookbook was a fun find on a Disney World trip at the Winnie-the-Pooh gift shop in Magic Kingdom. If you know me, you might know that my meal planning inspiration usually comes from whatever activity we’re doing, or whatever topic we’re studying. Since we had Pooh and honey on our minds the weekend of the play, I prepared some recipes from The Winnie-the-Pooh Cookbook.

In the play, all the Pooh friends sang about Cottleston Pie, so that’s what we had for dinner that night. It’s basically a quiche with cream, eggs, cheese, broccoli, and chicken. I served it with Pooh’s ABC Bean Soup, which was very tasty but not pretty at all, so I did not even take a photo.

Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie,

A fly can’t bird, but a bird can fly.

Ask me a riddle and I reply:

“Cottleston, Cottleston, Cottleston Pie.”

~Winnie-the-Pooh

For Sunday lunch the next day, I made Cottage Pie. It’s a recipe from Epcot’s Rose and Crown Restaurant in England, home of Winnie-the-Pooh. It’s a lot like Shepherds Pie. With it, we had honey-glazed carrots, salad (my friend’s homegrown lettuce!!), and Easy Honey Buns from the Pooh cookbook.

Easy Honey Buns

Ingredients:

One package frozen rolls

1/4 cup honey

2 Tbsp. chopped peanuts or other nuts

Bake the rolls according to package directions. Combine the peanuts and honey. Take the rolls out of the oven two or three minutes before they’re ready, and brush the honey-but mixture over them. Return to the oven until warm, remove and enjoy! 

The honey buns were so good! They were great as a dinner roll, but I think they’d also be great for breakfast, or just when you need a little yummy smackeral. 

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” Said Pooh. 

Since it was Sunday, and Sunday means pie, we finished our meal and our Winnie-the-Pooh weekend with Honey Chocolate Pie!

“And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it.”

~Winnie-the-Pooh

All this good eating left me wondering the same as Pooh when his excessive smackeral snacking got him a little too plump to squeeze through his doorway.

“How long does getting thin take?” asked Pooh anxiously. 

And for one last little tidbit, the book above, The Best Bear in All the World, is a new one I let Incredi-Boy buy at the Winnie-the-Pooh play. I had a gleeful moment knowing we were adding something new back into the Pooh collection. Part of the excitement was finding it on the 50% off table, so their was no guilt for this mama on the ride home that day!

I think we can all agree that Winnie-the-Pooh really is the best bear in all the world!