Susan in FL

I've missed my favorite thread, being busy with the planning, cooking, photographing and loading pictures, writing, etc. of blogging! I wanted to take some time to come back and read more closely after only quickly browsing for most of the past week. Thank you much. Sounds delicious... One doesn't see liver and onions in this dinner thread often. Happy birthday to Johnnybird! I saw that yesterday on the list. Looking forward to hearing about the birthday dinner. Great story. I grew up in those same 50's with that same rule. It's good to hear you enjoy this Saturday night tradition now. And, I love the sounds of the sandwiches you have. As you know if you've taken a look at our blog, we almost always watch TV with dinner! Eunny, lovely looking food as usual, and thanks for the description of making your parsnip- fennel- onion- gruyere- gratin. And somebody mentioned cravings based meals.... A great way to eat. I'm surely in favor of that.

Tonight's starter was pate' (Three Little Pigs Mousse Truffe) with chopped onion, capers, and seeded & diced tomato: Then we grilled for the first time this week. We had grilled rack of lamb and baked cheddar cheese grits: The racks of lamb were covered with a dry rub of rosemary, garlic, salt, and pepper, and they sat for a while before grilling. The grits were especially yummy. We surely recommend this recipe for Baked Cheese Grits. Great dinner for red wine... With these two courses, we had 2002 Francis Coppola Diamond Series Red Label Zinfandel. It had intense flavors -- some peppery -- and a soft feel, real dark and juicy. I liked it best with the pate'. After the main course, we switched to 2000 Clos Du Bois Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon. The cheese course: By this time I was getting full. I should have followed my signature saying and had the cheese course first. Up until this point, we cooked together. Then for dessert, Russ took over. He is the pancake man. He made Chocolate Griddle Cakes: That luscious chocolate and cabernet was the perfect ending to an evening-long Saturday night of cooking and eating (with some kitchen clean-up still left for the morning). Edited to add that I was so tired by the time I was posting last night, I forgot to mention the TV line-up during this evening of fine food! We watched the end of the Busch race on "TIVO", then The Beltway Boys and some other Fox News stuff, and then the Saturday Night Live special on presidential debates which was so hilarious we could hardly eat for laughing. It was a fun night, but now it's time to finish cleaning up the kitchen.

There were all kinds of foods for sale at the art festival today, from alligator and calamari to kettle corn and deep-fried oreos. We both would have liked to sample lots more, but we wanted to save our appetite for tonight's dinner. (We are in between courses now. ) We had a bottle of Corona with our food, in the middle of walking around, and a glass of wine afterwards while listening to some music. There were tables available by the music, and scattered throughout. This really big skillet had fried potatoes, onions, peppers, sausages, etc. cooking. Russ had a grouper sandwich, and I had calamari, which we bought from one of the vendors serving fresh seafood, or so they said. We weren't expecting it to be so good! It was deep fried very well, nice and crispy, and not overly greasy.

How very thoughtful, Dave! Thank you so much. We'll be in touch with you in PM. Even if Russ goes up there this time, we will probably want to strike up a deal with you sometime in the future. By the way, we love La La Land. We had one of our best ever special occasion dinners there, about a year or so before moving to Florida. Thanks again, the best to you...

I was laughing at myself about this. I enjoyed the photos of grandchildren and children in other blogs, and wondered how I could work a couple of pictures in, considering that none of the kids are here now. If they were visiting and having dinner with us, that would surely have been an opportunity. I thought of saying, "this is who we're not cooking for this week." Then, when writing about oysters I thought of it. I'm glad you like them. I'm a proud mom, for sure. He's the only one I gave birth to. But if you count the yours, mine, ours, step-children, etc. group, let's see... how many would that be? There is Michael, the oyster guy. Russ has a son who's in the army and overseas, and a daughter who is a law student in Chicago. We have a sort of adopted Danish son; he was an exchange student with us in Michael's junior year of high school, and he ended up staying on with us and going to college here. He is back and forth between Denmark and the U.S., and is in Denmark at the moment. We have taken in a few other kids through the years, but these are the ones we are currently claiming.

YES!!!

I agree with most of this, and especially agree with NulloModo about personal responsibility; however, I want to add the factor of exercise and physical activity to being able to eat a lot, out or at home. Many of us who are not blessed with an amazing metabolism (I'm one of those not blessed) can eat a lot of food because of including workouts, walking or running, swimming, whatever into the lifestyle.

Yes! I just thought of something. There's a way for me to show pictures of my kid in my food blog and it's food related! The above mentioned oyster tradition.... Here is my now 25 year-old Navy Flight Officer son, several years ago, and one or two years ago.

Eunny and everybody, again I appreciate such kind words. It does feel good coming from you, Lucy, Jinmyo -- all of you -- whose food and skill I admire so much. I got such a kick out of chicken under a barbell weight. Someday when you're a rich and famous cookbook author who photographs all the illustrations herself, Chicken Under a Barbell Weight could be one of your signature recipes. Of course, smash the Cuban sandwich first and then lightly crispy it up. Makes perfect sense. Great idea! Fresh sugar cane is now on my shopping list. They reopened sooooo much quicker than I expected. Sometimes I don't know how the building on the pier stays intact through just the normal summer storms, let alone hurricanes. They lost the very end of the pier from Jeanne. There is fishing out beyond the restaurant part, but obviously the very end is no longer available and they are in the process of repairing that. After working in schools in Delaware in way less demanding postions than yours, I can imagine how you must look forward to having your weekends back, and some free evenings. We are still craving Chincoteague oysters, though. So much, that Russ is considering driving up to get some, and some other get-only-on-Delmarva foods Thanksgiving week, so that we can have them Thanksgiving. Every year we use to always get a bushel on Thanksgiving eve, and eat them throughout the Thanksgiving weekend. I guess we have a lot of food traditions in our history!

We spent happy hours at Crabby Joe's and The Oyster Pub tonight. Friday night happy hour(s) is a tradition for us -- usually out and sometimes at home. First was Crabby Joe's while the sun was still up. Dinner was bar food, and not intended to be a fine dining experience. This is a place where Corona is considered a fancy beer, and then, it's served in cans! But the place has great sentimental value to me. I've spent many relaxing moments sitting over the ocean here, alone and with friends or Russ, AND it is the home of my favorite Cuban sandwich. Here's how it looked tonight. It was windy out on the deck! We ordered a drink, and started out there (beer for Russ, and vodka & tonic for me), and then moved inside, where we had wings and fries. I had my sunglasses on when I went there, and it was getting dark by the time we were inside eating, and I didn't have my seeing glasses, so you get the picture.... a bad one: The wings were good, but not exceptional. The fries as always were exceptionally good. Crabby Joe's is near where we live and work. Then we went to the Oyster Pub at Daytona Beach proper. We each had a dozen oysters and beer and we split "nachos supreme." The oysters are opened to order, right in front of you, if you're at the bar. They were great tonight -- big, ice cold, and almost as salty as we like them. To us, these are the best oysters in town, but still Chincoteague oysters, up north, are our favorites. It's outdoor festival time here, and one of them going on tomorrow is an art festival on Beach Street. We're planning to go. We're not sure what kind of food vendors will be there, but tune in tomorrow to find out! Hope you all have a good weekend.

The breakfast provided for the meeting of my department at work was nothing to write home about -- translated here, nothing to blog on eG about. However, since this is a food/eating journal, I'll put it on the record. This is the cafe that is open for breakfast and lunch to the employees and volunteers of Hospice, families of the inpatients at the Care Center, and other visitors. I thought it was going to be a special menu by the chef at the cafe, but it was mostly his usual breakfast fare and just free to us this morning. The offerings were fruits, hot and cold cereals, quiche, hard-boiled eggs, yogurts, French toast, coffee cake, juices, coffee, etc. I had a sampling of the quiche, French toast, and coffee cake, and coffee. I didn't eat any lunch, but I did accept the offer of coffee at a home visit later... I was way over my coffee quota today. This is not to say that the food in the cafe isn't good. The chef is professionally trained, and his food is very good, and it's a varied menu. Lunches are better, though, in our opinion. Russ and I are both Hospice counselors, but we work in different departments.

It's the one year anniversary of my eG membership today! I never imagined when I joined that I would be doing an eG Food Blog a year later. This is a timely opportunity for me to thank everybody for making eG what it is, the best food site and online community I've known. I've enjoyed sharing the joys, and I've gained not only knowledge from you all, but also new internet food friends. Thanks! I was up earlier than usual this morning, even for a work day. I had to go in early. Our Hospice organization, for whom Russ and I both work, gave my department a breakfast, so I broke from my usual pattern of not eating breakfast on work days. More on that food in the next post, but first, it occured to me that we hadn't yet mentioned about the start of our days, except that the coffee is black. We (usually Russ) set the coffee maker each night for the next morning. It is a Melitta Mill and Brew. We used the old fashioned Melitta for years and years, and then wanted to be able to both grind our beans and set the coffee to automatically be made when we get up. We've been doing this for a couple of years. It fits the bill and we like the coffee a lot.

I love the looks of that picture. Like Behemoth said, it looks tasty. And to quote Tana, pieces of oozing meat... I'll take it. Jan, I'll take your mac and cheese, too.

I think you're right, and both are available here. Store bought, we like Haas better than Florida grown. Often in the supermarkets the Florida avocados are labeled as low fat or some such nonsense. They don't have nearly the flavor as the Haas. The Florida ones are better bought from a produce market; however, the best we have tasted have been given to us, freshly picked from trees here. Quite a variety! ...Sweet potato, yucca, purple potato, taro root, carrot, parsnip, red beet, and salsify. The soup was left mushy/chunky, and quite good like that to my surprise. I was very tempted to blend it, but the recipe I used, from a cookbook of Miami recipes, didn't recommend blending. I'm glad I happened to follow those directions. The merry turtles are sweet, and have a story. We were at a restaurant called Turtles in a nearby town, enjoying the dinner, and admiring this voltive holder/candle aloud, apparently within earshot of the owner. He came up to us, and told us we could have it! Cool link! It's almost the weekend! Tomorrow night we are doing our Friday night happy hour thing after work as usual; only this time, camera along with us.

While I was doing some dinner prep this afternoon, I drank an iced coffee. When there is a significant amount of coffee left in the morning, I add Splenda and pour it into a carafe and keep it in the fridge. To drink, I pour it on ice and add half & half or cream. I like hot coffee in the morning black, but for iced coffee, I like this treat. (Note the obviously new tablecloth and napkins with the fold marks still there because I wasn't about to iron it today. ) Dinner was Cuban-style: Mojitos, Cuban sandwich, plantain soup, avocado & onion salad, and beer to wash down the remaining food after the Mojitos were gone. For Mojitos we most often use the recipe from Sloppy Joe's Bar, in Havana. Tonight I adapted it to make a "mix" ahead, and we added the rum and sparkling water to that when it was time to have the drinks. We tried a new kind of rum tonight, a change from our usual everyday Mount Gay to Pampero Anniversario. Yum! Thanks to eG's The Ministry of Rum, we are learning more, and I could easily get used the the good stuff. That thing next to the bottle of rum (which came in a "leather" bag) is something I found in a gift shop recently. I had never seen one of them before. It's sort of a special Mojito mortar and pestle for crushing together the mint and sugar. The Cuban sandwich tasted great, but my mistake was getting it toasted when smashing it, instead of cooked just enough to melt the cheese and no further. The bread was too crispy. I have been on a mission to get my Cuban sandwiches to be just like they are at the restaurant where I like them best. I still haven't quite achieved that. On the inside is a thin layer of mayo and mustard mixture spread just on the bottom bread, then ham, salami, roast pork, sliced Claussen pickles, thinly sliced onion, and swiss cheese in that order. On the outside of the bread is a little garlic butter, and then a dusting of parmesan cheese just before serving. We don't have a sandwich press, so this is what we do. The soup was that chicken stock I made yesterday, with pieces of garlic and fried plantains in it, simmered until the plantains are falling apart and mushy. This was a first, and since the stock was a really good batch, this turned out really good. The avocado and onion salad was avocado and onion. LOL... and lime juice, EVOO, and salt & pepper. After the Mojitos were gone, Russ finished up with a bottle of Corona and I with a Victory Hop Devil IPA.

Oh my, on a pizza! Yes! Now that's something else I want to do. Somebody, up thread I think, mentioned roasted cauliflower with pasta, and I've been wanting to try that ever since. So many good things to eat, so little time....

Today my morning black coffee was quickly consumed at the computer, while I checked my email and took a peak here. Since I ended up being off this afternoon, I could have lunch at home. I picked one of my favorite brunch or lunch foods, cottage cheese -- considered gross or weird by some -- topped with fresh tomatoes, basil, and salt & pepper. I like photographing lunch food, when there is natural light! The dark of night on the porch has presented me with some challenges.

Any time, Smithy... I can always come up with excuses to buy something for the kitchen or porch. And, guess what I did when I was out doing errands this afternoon... bought another one, with matching napkins! I have such a weakness for Bed, Bath and Beyond. Every time I get one of their coupons in the mail, which are for a single item, I go and buy something else that is on my list.

My schedule changed and I'm off this afternoon. This gave me a chance to go to the stores, and get a head start on dinner and the evening, and sign on here, all of which I am very glad about. Please keep me posted on the recipe development for that cocktail! And, about the capping, that's what I used... What a good discovery, since there are times when I only want a glass of beer instead of the whole bottle. Yes. I seem to recall that being part of the instructions on the use of the oven. In our home before this, our oven doors sort of clicked into place more easily when left cracked open. Sometimes getting that just right with this oven, which was in the house when we bought it, is quite a comedy of errors. In our house in Delaware which we remodeled we had a huge kitchen with better appliances, including two ovens. P.S. Not a silly question to me! Mmmm.... both sound good, thanks. About the second, you were referring to putting the salmon roe in an avocado half, I assume... ? I really like that idea. Nice... Has your mom ever caught a glimpse of John Travolta or seen his home? He moved from within two miles of our house (the fly-in community) to Ocala! Thanks, Ludja! I should have included a link to explain.

Russ always makes popcorn. The only time I do is if it's microwave, but that is not often. Suzilightning..... I had butter and Johnnybird's toast dope on mine! I drank the rest of the beer from my lunch with it. I capped the bottle and put it in the fridge. It stayed fizzy! I have to work tomorrow and Friday. I hope to get the chance to stop at home during the day and post, but if not, I'll catch up mornings and evenings.

A bit of a different format... the picture of the finished product first. Dinner was fresh local shrimp over top of black beans, with a mango salsa, and 2003 Brancott Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. We both cooked tonight. It was something I made up, after getting an idea of the presentation from a cookbook. I see Russ has told you that when we have shrimp, he always has the job of cleaning them and drinking white wine. I often sip on a glass of wine or "medication" when I cook, but tonight I had a Cosmopolitan-like drink while I was cooking, which the recipe called a Floridian. It consisted of orange vodka, Cointreau [we like that more than Grand Marnier], sour mix, and cranberry juice. We sauteed the shrimp in just a little bit of olive oil, with garlic, ginger, parsley, and lemon zest for a very short period of time, then turned the heat off and swirled in a little piece of Lurpak butter. The beans were just plain Goya beans, and we garnished it with some chopped scallions. The salsa was mango, cucumber, onion, cilantro and mint, fresh OJ and lime juice, EVOO, a little jalepeno and red bell pepper minced ever so finely, and S&P. I really like Sauvignon Blanc, and have been trying some from New Zealand recently. The tropical fruit flavors go well with something like this. When we have Sauvignon Blanc, and Russ first tastes it, he typically says it tastes grassy. We have red wine with dinner way more often than white. I went to our favorite seafood market, Hull's in Ormond Beach, for the shrimp. It is wonderful. Everything is so, so fresh. I couldn't get all three display cabinets in one picture: Here the shrimp were before cooking. And here is my cooking in progress being a slob picture from tonight.

All right! There is a connection with Northeasterners who are snowbirds or who moved here. One of the good things about being a snowbird or moving to Florida is that you feel welcomed immediately, and very quickly are at home here. Almost everybody is from somewhere. It's not like you move to Small Town American in other parts, where everybody knows everybody and you're not really a part of the town because you weren't born and raised there. If you've lived in Florida for just a week, you are not a native, but you're a Floridian. And, this house is so Florida. This is probably the typical floor plan of the majority of the new houses -- new meaning built within the last 15 or 20 years.. open, and divided between big master bedroom and bath on one side, and other bedrooms and baths on the other side. Our house is small, but has lots of space. What is different about ours is that we have 1 1/2 acres. In a neighborhood, that is pretty unusual. I love it. (Can you tell??!) Short of being wealthy and having my fantasy house, this is my dream house. Where does your mom live? Glad to hear that... It's not for everybody. That's for sure.

Roasted red peppers in progress! Most of the time, we don't roast peppers whole. We will if we need them whole for a presentation or a particular preparation, but usually we want them in pieces anyway. Cutting them before roasting seems a lot easier and they taste just as good to us. Sorry about the following photo, I couldn't get it as vivid as I had hoped. I think I'm tired of being indoors and want to get out, or at least that's the excuse I'm offering. So I'm heading out... I conveniently forgot my workout and run/walk this morning, so that and a trip to the seafood market are up next.

Chicken stock in progress! Russ is the maker of the best stock in this household, but I'm doing it today. He usually uses bones and leftovers of things we've saved. It is unusual for us to buy something just for the purpose of stock. Actually, I'm not using all these chicken wings for the stock; I did use all the wing tips, and some of the rest, and what's left will be used to make Buffalo wings. I am not good with knives. I'm sure Russ will attest to that. As you can see, I had three out before I chose the one which worked the best. Russ keeps the knives sharp, so it's not that. It is that I'm just sort of a clutz with them. This part of the job wasn't fun, and I would have asked Russ to cut them up had he not been at work. This and other such skills is the basis for the name Prepcook. I browned them before starting the stock pot. It always looks so pretty in the beginning! And so it begins to cook...

Thanks, Anna! I just thought of you and your blog as I was eating lunch and was about to say that in this post. One, I had beer with lunch, and also, my sandwich was open-faced! Not very Scandanavian-like otherwise, though... I had a meatball sandwich, putting the meatballs on a roll from which I had cut out a cradle-sort-of hole. This just cried out for beer, so I had a glass of Old Dominion's Spring Brew, a specialty lager. I ate at the kitchen bar, reading a cookbook. I don't routinely have meatball sandwiches, or meatballs on hand, for that matter. We're still in the process of cleaning out the freezer from when some stuff partially thawed during the hurricanes, and some meatballs with sauce were in there.