Susan in FL

How cool is that! It's a great set. The round table and chairs are the same, and so is "my" chaise, which I really, really enjoy. Well actually, everything on the porch is that set... except the TV stand! As for eating places, last, and least used these days, is the dining room table. One thing that's good and bad about eating elsewhere most of the time is that stuff collects on this table. It's the first thing we come to, to unload whatever, as we come in the front door. Needless to say, I took some time to clear it before taking this picture, and actually put stuff away. I wasn't hungry at my usual brunch time, so I'm having lunch soon. This afternoon I want to roast some red peppers, since we're all out of them, and make some chicken stock, possibly for a soup tomorrow night.

So far today, I haven't eaten anything, but it's a beautiful morning and we enjoyed coffee on the porch. Since it's so pretty outside, I thought it would be a good time to continue showing you our eating places. The table on our porch which is probably familiar-looking, but here it is unadorned by a dinner (and I bought a tablecloth, hoping it would cut back on glare and reflections in our photos): That's some of our rosemary outside in the background. Here is the other end of the porch, with the bar where we sometimes eat appetizers and often have a drink before dinner:

I hope Paula's Cornish Hen recipe is online somewhere; I don't have the cookbook. It looks so good. If I can't find it, I might be asking you to tell me about it...

Great looking photos and delicious looking food by all! Eunny, big congrats on the new job! As we are blogging, I most likely will not be posting dinners on this thread for the week. I need a yawn smilie. I'm still up, watching the returns, and playing by the eG rules of expressing no reaction to how it's looking.

Dinner was good. We love uncooked pasta sauces, and this is probably our favorite. I originally found the recipe in a 1989 issue of Food & Wine, and have since adapted and modified, and still we change it, depending on our mood (and our appetite for garlic ). It's a good after-work recipe, especially if you get an earlier start than I did tonight. Here is my current write-up of the recipe, for four servings: 2 pounds plum tomatoes, seeded and diced 6 fillets of anchovies, chopped [i usually use more] 1/2 cup Kalamata olives [or oil cured black olives] 3 tablespoons drained small capers 1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley 2 large garlic cloves, minced, or to taste 1/2 teaspoon crushed hot red pepper 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 1 pound cavatappi or fusilli Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, as accompaniment In a large bowl, combine the tomatoes, anchovies, olives, capers, parsley, garlic, hot pepper, salt, and olive oil. Stir gently to combine. Cover with a towel and let the sauce marinate at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes so that the flavors will marry. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm, about 10 minutes. Quickly drain and toss with the sauce in the bowl. Serve at once, with the cheese on the side. We use Kalamata olives unless we have real good, high quality oil cured olives. Fortunately, we have found a source for great oil cured olives, Cosmos Imports in South Daytona. If I make a trip to that store this week, I'll take a picture. I've been going there for lots of canned and jarred products, since discovering the place. What I like about both their Kalamata olives and their oil cured is that they are of such high quality and come pitted. Here is where I got the tomatoes for the dish tonight. It's not the greatest looking place inside or out, but the tomatoes are the best I've found, year-round. They didn't have plum tomatoes -- first time that's happened -- and so I got the regular ones. The seeding of the tomatoes in progress: And after they are seeded and diced: Then all the ingredients went into the same pottery bowl we've been using for years for this recipe, and here it is sitting on our counter, covered and marinating. This photo shows what a slob I am when I'm in the process of cooking. The marinating time gives me a chance to clean up before cooking the pasta and serving. The plate: The table: I like to have Montepulciano D'Abruzzo with this, and tonight's was Casa Girelli 2001 Canaletto Montepulciano D'Abruzzo. If was soft and fresh tasting, and mildly fruity. Though medium-bodied, it stood up to the intense flavors of this food. Oh, and one more photo Russ request that I take... It shows what we elected to watch on TV tonight.

About lunch today, I did make a brief stop at home, and took a very quick peak at this topic, but I resisted even sitting down in the chair while I did so because I knew it would be hard to pull myself away. I had to look, though, thinking oh my... what if noboby replies on our blog thread? It would be like throwing a party and nobody showing up. I was happy to see that there were a few posts, and for the rest of the work day, I looked forward to getting home. I ate an avocado, with S&P and some lemon juice, spooning it out of the skin. I love this. Russ posted about his vegetable chips, and at first we had some trouble loading that photo, but now here it is.

I like hearing about others' enjoyment of games or racing or whatever on TV, sometimes while eating! Somehow it seems as though liking TV became something one is supposed to be ashamed of, especially with meals when people should be bonding and talking and such. It is possible to talk while watching. We do sometimes listen to music during dinner, or have no sound in the background. Interestingly, however, sometimes I get more lost in music than I do in TV. Freeze your ass off, and dream of moving to Florida! (...Sorry, I know not everybody has an aversion to cold weather like I did for 50 years.) In Slower Lower Delawhere there was very little to do in the dead of winter. After the excitement of the holidays, and up until about April, I use to wish I could be like a hibernating bear and sleep all winter. One good thing about the colder months in Delmarva however is that "Oysters R in Season". I like oysters from up there better than most of what are served here. Usually. So, I guess you can stay in and eat oysters during the winter in Slower Lower!

What a wonderful bunch of replies to come home to, after a very long day at work. I'm less nervous about this now. Wouldn't you know that day one of this blog would be one of the busiest days I've had at work in months? I didn't get off until 5:30, so I was late starting dinner, which is going to be pasta and uncooked Puttanesca sauce. Photos and more on that later... Not usually... I enjoy shopping, of any kind, way more than Russ does. Once in a while we go together, but that's the exception, mainly because I am a very slow shopper and I go to several different places to find particular things, as part of one major shopping expedition. It would drive him totally nuts to be with me at those times. He is happy to do brief stops in stores on the way home from work, and does that, too, in about half the time it would take me. In the planning, I sort of take the lead, but often either one of us will voice that we're hungry for something, and that becomes a plan. Oh yes! We're glad to hear we're not the only ones, too! Yes, yum! We had our first of the season recently. I am so ready for more. The fresh Stone Crab claws are something new to me since moving here... I had no idea or appreciation about the fresh ones, served ice cold, before experiencing that here. I was a Stone Crab virgin when I found myself at Joe's Stone Crab restaurant in Miami, and I have been hooked ever since. LOL... I am sure it will show up at some point, Suzi. The discovery of toast dope is one of the best thing to come of being an eG member! That, and roasted cauliflower, and larb, and... The pasta sauce has been sitting, marinating, and now it's time to cook the pasta.

We're unable to add reply using Prepcook's log-in, so until we get that figured out... “Welcome to Florida”, said the young man behind the counter as he slid a small cup of orange juice to each of us. It was our first vacation to St. Augustine and we have felt at home in Florida ever since. It is a thrill to share this week with you. I would like to start by telling you a bit about the development of my love for food and cooking. I was the third of six children. My father was a Baptist preacher who moved from Buffalo, NY to Mingo County, West Virginia before I was a year old. My mother came along to raise a family and be the preacher’s wife. When I was six, I remember the excitement of getting indoor plumbing and an electric cook stove. No more fried eggs with golden brown, crispy edges my mother was famous for, and no more winter trips to the outhouse! Although it would be ten more years until we had our own TV, I thought we had become a really modern family! My first real food memory is fresh cornbread in a drinking glass of sweetened milk. I was about five years old and our neighbor who lived “up the hollow” gave me this treat whenever we went there. I loved this desert and when I asked her how she made it, I showed my first interest in recipes. My mother was not the world’s best cook, but she was a woman of great wisdom. From her I learned that “Nothing learned is wasted” and that “You can’t learn anything when you are talking”. She taught me the basics of cooking, and to always see the positive side of life. In rural West Virginia, it was traditional to invite the preacher to Sunday dinner. These dinners serve as the foundation of my appreciation for food and food preparation. Since then, my love for food has led me on a wonderful journey that included believing that Southern Living was the final authority on what was good food, to thinking that the recipes in Gourmet Magazine must be in a foreign language because the titles had so many words that I didn’t understand, to enjoying wine with dinner when the wine was a three liter jug of Gallo Burgundy. Then I met Susan. Now, twenty plus years later I am about to share a week of my food life with some of the world’s best food people on the world’s best web site. What an adventure! So, to all, “Welcome to Florida”. -Russ

Good Morning, all. Thank you, Ronnie Suburban, for a great blog! It would be hard to deliver such an appealing display of foods! Hopefully we can provide continuing enjoyment to all, as eG food blogging travels south, especially to those of you who dream of a warmer climate, like we used to! I will start this, and acquaint you with my husband, and his own introduction will follow soon. We are pleased to be food blogging during this time of year, when many think that Florida is at its best (well, except for all the election controversies). Fall does hold some of the best weather in this sunshine state, and the weather affects our cooking and eating almost as much as anything else. We have been having days in the mid to high 80’s, and nights in the high 60’s recently, with mostly clear skies. We hope to show you that Florida is much more than strip malls, the hanging chads of 2000, hurricanes, and who knows what by the time this Election Day is over; and we hope to share some of the joys of being here and living our dream. We will both be leaving for work shortly, and so until we get home and continue posting, we welcome you to our home, our kitchen, and our eating places. Come on in: Here's an outside view of the porch: Our kitchen, as you enter from the dining area: From the other end: And, from the living room, looking across the bar: For those who know me from the eG topics I frequent, especially the Dinner thread, it is no secret that our eating place is usually our porch. What is more of a secret is that we have a TV on our porch and we often watch a lot of sports and some other programs while we eat dinner. Some of our most romantic dinners were with a baseball or soccer game, a NASCAR race, or other sports event on TV, and a beautiful place setting with candlelight and flowers on the table. It’s been a tradition for us for a long time. I often post on eG about the enjoyment my husband and I have in cooking together, or cooking for each other; but as you may have gathered, Russ reads a lot more than he posts. When he introduces himself in this blog, it will be his second post! I asked him to join me in this, since so much of our cooking involves him. (He might say that I threatened him in some way if he didn’t do it.) So after I have introduced myself to those who don’t know me, Prepcook will introduce himself. Then we will proceed to journal our eating! I work part time and he works full time, so most likely I will have more entries and most of his will probably be early morning or evenings. Unfortunately, neither of us can access eG while we are at work, but please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions, and we will respond as soon as we’re back home and online. I grew up in a food-loving home, and my parents were good cooks. They bought a restaurant when my brother and I were teenagers, and spent most of their waking hours there for several years. I first learned about meal planning and cooking from my mom, but she did not teach me about what she did. She was one of those people who, for reasons unknown to me, didn’t share her knowledge of home cooking and kept many of her recipes “secret.” After I was grown and on my own, my mom and I began sharing recipes, and I began developing my own tastes and my own cooking styles. I have loved cooking ever since. Up until our move to Florida, I always worked full time and more, except for the first five months of my son Michael’s life. With rare exception, Russ and/or I cooked a nice dinner from scratch every night, no matter how many practices or games or other activities were going on, and we always sat down to eat together. Some nights back in the days of Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, and all the school teams, we ate dinner at around 10 PM! We all loved it, and our home was where all our boys’ friends wanted to come for dinner, and often did. …All that was making a short story long, to say that I am a self-taught cook. After the boys grew up, and were going to college and all that, my love of cooking and food became a passion. As much as I have always enjoyed cooking, it is even more fun now to cook for just the two of us. We do love the empty nest syndrome. There were a couple of years after I retired and before moving to Florida that I did some food consulting/ recipe development/ food writing/ food and wine education -- mostly for a wine shop where Russ and I both moonlighted. I owned a small company and had a web site called Culinary Passions. However, since moving to Florida, I have only pursued these activities as play, rather than work. This morning I am having my usual black coffee, even as we speak (type). On work days, I rarely eat breakfast and usually not lunch. If I get hungry and take the time, I’ll eat just a little on the run at around brunch time. I’m not sure how today will be, but I’ll keep you posted.

Awesome! I love Oregon Pinot Noirs. Most of them are pretty expensive here, and except for special occasions, I like to spend under $20.00 a bottle. Tonight's Pinot Noir was Beaulieu Vineyard, on sale $2.00 off the regular price, making it about $8.00... Pretty good for an "everyday" Pinot Noir. Some of our favorites are King Estate and Argyle (Willamette Valley) from Oregon, and David Bruce, Cambria, Sanford, Chalone, and Robert Mondavi from California. Today when I went wine shopping I bought a Pinot Noir from New Zealand, and I'm looking forward to that probably later this week. I am looking forward to hearing about your Willamette Valley wine shopping! Please do report back.

Yum. Yum. And yum. ← Ditto. I found beautiful baby bok choy in the supermarket today... Walmart of all places. It was Melissa's and some of the best baby bok choy ever, and I came home and planned dinner around that: Seared coriander chicken breasts with the bok choy, sauteed, and a reduced sauce of fresh-squeezed OJ, garlic and ginger, and hoisin; Steamed potato and asparagus; Pinot Noir

Grilled hamburgers (thanks to the current blog, I was craving a burger!) Salad of Boston lettuce, seeded tomatoes, sweet onion, avocado, and blue cheese, dressed with balsamic vinegar and EVOO Corn on the cob Cabernet

I have never had a toasted sesame bagel with lox... it's sometimes onion but usually plain. Thanks for the idea! I agree with Dejah's comment; your blog seems far from the ordinary to me. Your photos made me crave certain foods more than any other, I believe. I only I wish my metabolism and body size would allow me to eat breakfasts and lunches like those, in addition to dinners! It all looks so good. Nice job.

My pomegranate glazes have been made by reducing pomegranate juice (and I've used it only as glaze, not marinade). When I did the first recipe, a bought a half gallon, because all the little bottles had another fruit juice added in, and I wanted straight pomegranate. That big baby cost $9.99 so needless to say, I began looking for ways to use it up, so we had glazed entrees for dinner twice and another night I did the pomegranate glazed pears for dessert. For the cornish hens and the duck, I reduced 2 cups of pomegranate juice and 1/4 cup of sugar and freshly ground mixed pepper to about 3/4 cup. The glaze for the roasted pears called for 3/4 cup each of red wine and pomegranate juice, 1/2 cup of sugar, a cinnamon stick and orange peel, and I think it reduced to about 2/3 of a cup. There's a lot of room for playing around with these glazes and I want to concoct one, to call my own. The food pictures in your blog were great. How well I remember those times. Of course back in my day of raising kids, regular people weren't photographing their food or doing blogs on Blogspot or eG or wherever. I didn't give nearly the thought to presentation back then. This was a long time coming!

Welcome! And I echo, what a wonderful first post. I would love to have the recipe for the salad. Do you know if it is online anywhere? Looking forward to more posts from you. I really don't want anybody to feel embarrassed posting pictures of your own dinners because you don't think it's as beautiful, or as whatever, as mine! I would imagine that Eunny and others would have the same sentiments. I thank you for the compliment part of that (I'm usually pleased with my cooking and plating, but I am often not pleased with my photos, BTW), but I don't want to have any part in anybody not feeling welcomed to post. That would take away from the fun! Please do post photos when you can. Everyone's photos are a big part of the reason this is my favorite thread and eG is my favorite food site. I've been on a kick for pomegranate syrups and glazes lately. They are just so good, aren't they. Ruth, I vote for you to get a camera. I would love to see some of the food you describe!

I'll say! Sounds great. Wonderful idea for left-over potatoes (which to me often taste better as breakfast potatoes than just-cooked ones do).

I am glad to have this week of working five days and three evenings over. It pulled energy from me that I would have otherwise used toward cooking, photographing, time on eG, and all those things more enjoyable in life than working for a living. Russ cooked again Wednesday. That was grilled skewers of pork, pineapple and sweet onion, on rice, and with snow peas. Last night was a Chili's To Go while working, and I knew I wouldn't want to eat much of that, so I ate a larger meal than usual during the day. "Linner" in between jobs was a vegetable plate of asparagus, red and yellow plum tomatoes, and cut-up baked beets, with blue cheese. Tonight after happy hour we went to the store that had large snow crab claw clusters (that's a mouthful, pardon the pun) and live lobsters on sale and had them with a potato and watercress salad, and bubbly. Tomorrow I am going to an air show at the NAS in Jacksonville and will probably eat there or out afterwards. I haven't bothered to take photos except for yesterday afternoon. It was pretty as a picture, so I did take one.

That would be the Truffled Lentil Spoons from Amuse-Bouche...?? They sound wonderful... did you use the proportions as called for in the recipe? The recipe I'm familiar with, to serve four to six, called for three fresh truffles, 1/2 cup of truffle juice, and 1/2 cup of truffle oil!!! That pretty much precluded me from making it strictly by the recipe, but I would love to adapt it. I have some French green lentils I've been trying to decide about. Please do tell. ← Susan, I love looking at that book but sadly am just starting to try things out of it. I think I was a bit intimidated last year, but now I'm fearless!! haha! So yes you are referring to the same recipe. I cut the recipe in half since it was just my hubby and I testing (still have some in the fridge for a snack!). Here's what I did.... bought a jar of French truffles, 3 in the jar in juice- guess what?It's truffle juice! And I got white truffle oil, needed some as was done to my last drops anyway! So I just used 1 truffle, the juice which was about 2 TBS and just under 1/4 cup truffle oil. Even pairing back it is STRONG! I can't imagine going full strength and I love truffles! But even if you don't try this try the bacon vinaigrette, you use the bacon grease inplace of oil!! oh man! Oh and 1 other thing, cook your colored lentils seperately. I cooked the green and orange together and they just look grey next time will cook them seperately and then toss together with the vinaigrette. Next to try is the potato chips with vanilla foam! I am buying a foamer tomorrow!! ← Thanks! Your modifications sound right on it. I thought full strength might be too much even for me... and like you, I love truffles. Thanks also for the tip to cook the different colored lentils separately. I'll give the bacon vinaigrette a try, while I'm waiting for the next time I buy a jarred truffle. I do keep white truffle oil on hand, so I've got that part covered.

That would be the Truffled Lentil Spoons from Amuse-Bouche...?? They sound wonderful... did you use the proportions as called for in the recipe? The recipe I'm familiar with, to serve four to six, called for three fresh truffles, 1/2 cup of truffle juice, and 1/2 cup of truffle oil!!! That pretty much precluded me from making it strictly by the recipe, but I would love to adapt it. I have some French green lentils I've been trying to decide about. Please do tell.

Adorable nephew! He's smiling already, must be thinking about the food from his uncle to look forward to. I'm enjoying your blog.

I gave my son a binder cookbook, soon after he moved into his current house in Pensacola. I made plain ol' copies of my favorite recipes and put them in the binder under appropriate dividers. For nostalgia reasons he liked having copies of my versions of the recipes, instead of all of them changed into the same format. They were mostly clipped from magazines or copies from cookbook pages, and they had my handwritten comments and changes on them. However, not everybody would attach the same sentimental value to having a copy of them in their original form. It kind of reminded me of recipes I have that are in my parents' handwriting. I did go to a scrapbooking store and bought some stickers of Navy aircraft and cool stuff to further personalize it. I am so with you about geese with blue bows and grapevines need not apply! LOL!

I was hoping to hear something outrageous!

IPA is still my most frequent choice, no matter how hot it is outside, except for when I am doing yard work or something like that. And water or Mexican beer if I am doing such a thing.

Whoa Jason, that's a perfectly beautiful photo! Looks delicious, too.