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eG Foodblog: Prepcook and Susan in FL


Susan in FL

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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. :smile: 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.

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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.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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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! :sad: 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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Hope you all have a good weekend.

Same to you!

Crabby Joe's must have taken a beating in the hurricanes. Did they have to do a lot of repairs before reopening?

Michael aka "Pan"

 

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Wow, the happy hour trip sounds very nice. As much as I love what I do, I can't wait until the end of marching band season so I can start having weekend evenings free to go out and enjoy such things ;) You just gave me such a huge craving for wings and oysters.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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I like to press my cubans for an hour before cooking - sort of like a pain bagnat - and then toast them, lightly pressed.  Gets everything appropriately smushy and puts just the right amount of cruch.

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. :laugh:

Of course, smash the Cuban sandwich first and then lightly crispy it up. Makes perfect sense.

We love mojitos. One thing Ihave started doing which everyone seems to love is put a piece of fresh sugar cane in the drink as a stirrer. You can stir and chew on it which is tasty. We copied that from a restaurant here in Seattle.

Great idea! Fresh sugar cane is now on my shopping list.

Crabby Joe's must have taken a beating in the hurricanes. Did they have to do a lot of repairs before reopening?

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.

Wow, the happy hour trip sounds very nice.  As much as I love what I do, I can't wait until the end of marching band season so I can start having weekend evenings free to go out and enjoy such things ;)  You just gave me such a huge craving for wings and oysters.

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!

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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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.

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:smile:

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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This blog just keeps getting better and better, Susan! :smile: Thank you so much for posting pictures of your son, I love that he's been eating oysters since he was small. I was lucky enough to be introduced to things like oysters, clams and lobster when I was a child and loved it all from the start. My parents were genuinely surprised as it was not food I came in contact with regularly as we didn't live anywhere near the ocean. One of my fathers favourite stories takes place in a restaurant when I was about 7 (we were on vacation) and the waitress handed me a kiddie menu. I politely handed it back and ordered a dozen raw oysters and a steamed lobster. She stood there flabergasted until my father laughed and told her that I knew what I wanted. :biggrin:

Do you have just the one son?

Barbara Laidlaw aka "Jake"

Good friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies.

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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.

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:smile:

If I PM you my number, will you pass it to him? :smile: Tell him that I'm a pretty good cook :laugh:

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We spent some of today at the local annual art festival.

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We saw paintings, and pottery and jewerly from all over Florida and as far away as Michigan and West Virginia and New Zealand. We had some good food, listened to some pretty cool music, AcoustiCon, and bought a coffee mug.

I suppose the weather in heaven is better, but I doubt it.

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When Susan gets the rest of the pictures ready, she'll tell you more.

Now, I am going to start getting some things ready for a special Saturday night dinner.

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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.

Do you have just the one son?

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? :biggrin: 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. :smile:

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Susan and Prep cook,As i told you earlier in your blog i,ve moved tobeautiful Long Neck and worked at LaLaLand in Rehoboth over the season,if i can be of any assistance in saving you a trip i.e. shipping some chincoteauge oysters etc.let me know,it would,nt be no problem ,plus i know most of the purveyors . P.M. me if you would like

Love your blog best wishes,

Dave s

"Food is our common ground,a universal experience"

James Beard

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Susan and Prep cook,As i told you earlier in your blog i,ve moved tobeautiful Long Neck and worked at LaLaLand in Rehoboth over the season,if i can be of any assistance in saving you a trip i.e. shipping some chincoteauge oysters etc.let me know,it would,nt be no problem ,plus i know most of the purveyors . P.M. me if you would like

Love your blog      best wishes,

                                              Dave s

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...

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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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. :smile: )

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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.

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There were tables available by the music, and scattered throughout.

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This really big skillet had fried potatoes, onions, peppers, sausages, etc. cooking.

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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.

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Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Tonight's starter was pate' (Three Little Pigs Mousse Truffe) with chopped onion, capers, and seeded & diced tomato:

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Then we grilled for the first time this week. We had grilled rack of lamb and baked cheddar cheese grits:

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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:

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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:

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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.

Edited by Susan in FL (log)

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Oh, that grouper sandwich looks GOOD! What all was on it, so maybe I can imagine what it tasted like?

The calamari looks good, too, but I'm afraid I'm just not fond of squid at all....

Thanks for sharing the mouthwatering pictures!

Marcia.

Don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he wanted...he lived happily ever after. -- Willy Wonka

eGullet foodblog

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Oh, that grouper sandwich looks GOOD! What all was on it, so maybe I can imagine what it tasted like?

The calamari looks good, too, but I'm afraid I'm just not fond of squid at all....

Thanks for sharing the mouthwatering pictures!

Marcia.

I just added salt. There were the usual condiments available, but this time I didn't want to cover up such a pretty piece of fish. I did get two dill pickle spears that I ate while we were waiting for Susan's order.

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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! :sad: 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.

Are Crabby Joe's and/or The Oyster Pub places you'd particularly recommend for out-of-towners? Are there others that are especially good? My husband s headed that way even as I write, and he wants seafood. Doesn't have to be fancy, just has to be good, with good beer available. Chain restaurants need not apply. :biggrin: He'd love to hear recommendations from locals.

Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
HosteG Forumsnsmith@egstaff.org

Follow us on social media! Facebook; instagram.com/egulletx; twitter.com/egullet

"Every day should be filled with something delicious, because life is too short not to spoil yourself. " -- Ling (with permission)
"There comes a time in every project when you have to shoot the engineer and start production." -- author unknown

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Smithy, we wouldn't recommend Crabby Joe's if it's important for good beer to be available, unless he considers canned Corona poured into a plastic cup good enough. Giving a recommendation for good seafood isn't a problem, but finding good beer in this area is a problem.

The Oyster Pub we do recommend to out-of-towners if it need not be fancy. At least they do serve their Coronas in the bottle. They have Bud, Bud Light, and a few of the usuals on draft. I guess it depends on what he considers good beer!

There are some pretty good seafood places at Ponce Inlet and on the way down there, which is at the southern most tip of the Daytona Beach area's stretch of A1A. If your husband is unfamiliar with the area and isn't sure where that is, and is interested, let me know.

If by seafood, he is interested in good fish dishes in a little more upscale atmosphere, he would probably like Stonewood's. They have a decent wine and beer selection and they are in Port Orange and Ormond Beach.

Up in Ormond Beach there is the Charlie Horse restaurant, where I've gotten the best all-you-can-eat crab legs. If he is staying in the Ormond area (north of Daytona Beach proper), he will probably find better restaurants than right in Daytona.

There is a place on Beach Street that has good fresh Bass Ale on tap, and for this area that may be the best beer. I've never ordered seafood there, though. But they have great onion rings!

Email or PM me if you would like more suggestions, and we'll think some more on this.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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We love Sunday brunch. Today we tried a new recipe, Poached Eggs with Roasted Tomatoes and Portabellas. We forgot to buy Fontina when we were shopping yesterday, so for the cheese we used brie, and otherwise followed the recipe. That was a fine substitute. :wub: We had bagels and lox and trimmings with it. I had Mimosas and Russ had his bubbly straight, which is usually his preference over Mimosas. We had a sweet treat of frosted grapes, which I had made to garnish last night's dessert, but then recalled that they need to sit for a couple of hours and dry, before serving. I did them like this, except I didn't keep the grapes in the clusters.

We enjoyed our morning coffee in the new mugs we bought at the art festival yesterday. I shop at art shows and festivals the same way I go antiqueing. I am usually drawn to culinary type things... something for the kitchen or food/dining-related. With art, that often means the ceramics medium if not something decorative. We saw these at the very beginning, and proceeded throughout the festival just in case we found something (affordable) that we liked better, and then we came back to this artisan.

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Put it all together, and brunch was served. Now we're having a fairly lazy afternoon of football and racing after a little yard work and a not overly strenuous workout.

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Edited by Susan in FL (log)

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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We're doing some dinner prep, and here's some of the work on dessert. I'm probably preaching to the choir by sharing these tips with you, but I thought I would mention a couple of techniques that are especially helpful to me. How to peel a mango is something I was happy to learn, since when I first moved to Florida and was peeling a mango for the first time, I promptly cut myself. Cutting the ends so they are flat, and then setting it on the cutting board like so, and then cutting downward really helps with the slippery slimyness of mangoes. After this part, we carefully cut slices off, parallel with the flat seed, and then if they need to be cut more than that, take it from there.

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How I like to separate eggs, rather than cracking the eggs and transfering the yolk from one half shell to the other is to crack the egg and put the yolk in my hand, and let the white seep though my fingers. I have broken some yolks using this method and ended up with a handful of yolk and white dripping all over, but I think this is fun. The eggs I used for this making of mango creme brulee were good... the yolks easily withstood this process.

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I'm especially enjoying tonight's dinner prep. We've started enough in advance that we're cleaning up as we go. I'm really taking my time and being the slow person I like to be. We want to eat at around 8:00, so we can watch Cold Case over dinner, one of our favorite shows. Then, we will go to separate TVs. I want to watch the Dallas reunion, and I'm sure Russ will not want to. But anyway, I'll be here in my office, where I have a little TV, blogging. :smile:

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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