eG Foodblog: Susan in FL - Food and Drink Celebrations

[daniellewiley]

The pizza looks yummy.  What dough recipe did Russ use?  Did the pizza suffer from lack of sauce?

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Hey Randi!

I'm not Susan, but I never use sauce on my homemade pizza. I think it's delicious without it!! I do put olive oil on the crust, though.

Edited September 22, 2005 by daniellewiley (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Susan, that pizza looks ridiculously good. Nice work!

Plus, cucumbers are my all-time favorite food (odd, I know). You've won my stomach!

Edited September 22, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[Abra]

Yummy blog, Susan! The birthday boy is very lucky, and I hope he knows it.

That's an interesting technique for dry-frying the shrimp. Would you say you need non-stick to pull it off? And I found myself worrying over the sight of the already-cooked shrimp going onto the uncooked pizza - did they manage to stay tender after the heat of getting the dough cooked? The result was certainly gorgeous.

[Susan in FL]

Another brief greeting... I am posting from a coffeehouse where I had a smoked turkey wrap and a Cafe Mocha. Most noteworthy is that this is the first time I've ever gone into an eating place and found wireless internet access!! But now I have to get back to work, so more this evening.....

[suzilightning]

Wendy and others on the Dinner! thread got me wanting to do something with figs, so I roasted some, and stuffed them with gorgonzola -- half with mountain gorgonzola and half with gorgonzola dolce -- and wrapped them in prosciutto. There was not a dramatic difference in the flavor of the two. They were good, but I'm not so crazy over figs, so I probably won't fix this often.

susan- next time stuff with the gorgonzola, drape with the prosciutto THEN roast.

what kind of figs did you use?

am loving this thread and the best to russ for health and happiness in the next year.

[Susan in FL]

First I must say to everybody, your comments and encouragement are great. They provide quite an impetus to keep at this! I hope you enjoy reading it half as much as I enjoy photographing the food, posting, and reading your feedback.

This morning my work day started with a meeting at the main "headquarters" of Hospice of Volusia Flagler, my part time day job. No food was provided for an 8 AM meeting. What kind of meeting is that? There was not a big turn-out and I told the manager that if she wanted people to show up, she better announce that at the least, coffee and donuts would be served.

This is not very exciting, but it's part of logging in the food of the day. This is the little cafe that we have at work. It is for employees, and the families of the patients in our in-patient unit. It was slim pickins by the time I got there. I bought a banana. The chef actually does a great job. He's professionally trained and cooks all his dishes, and bakes, from scratch. Lunches are really good, and it's all reasonably priced.

[Susan in FL]

After my meeting in Port Orange this morning, I headed to the west part of the county, which is about 20 miles inland. I didn't get to steal much time for signing on, as I had hoped. In between visits today, I stopped at the Orange City location of Boston Gourmet Coffeehouse.

That is where I found wireless access, as mentioned above. I took a lunch break and ate lunch, which is highly unusual for me (blame it on foodblogging ), and I bravely opened up my laptop and anxiously awaited what would happen and wondered how I would know if it was a "hot spot." A box popped up and told me I had BostonWiFi. I acted like I knew all about such things, and proceeded to eat my wrap and sip my coffee drink, and sign on to eGullet briefly. I felt so proud of myself, like I was technologically advanced or something; but I confess, I would have been too embarrassed to pull out my camera and photograph my food on top of all that.

The Cafe Mocha (espresso, chocolate syrup, steamed milk, and whipped cream) was wonderful, and the smoked turkey and ham wrap was good, too.

[Susan in FL]

Rita poured rain on us all day and I started whining to myself about it, but then I immediately reminded myself that I should only count my blessings and be glad that all we have gotten from this hurricane is wind and rain, and not loss of life or destruction.

So tonight, instead of letting our picnic be rained out, we brought it inside! We thought about waiting another day for good weather, but there are other dinner plans for the next two nights. Tomorrow night will be our usual Friday night happy hours, and Saturday night is part of the Daytona Beach Wine Festival.

I did some preparation ahead late last night, roasting potatoes and some chopping, and did the rest after work tonight while sipping on a beer.

I've gotten some good ideas for picnics from this book by Pamela Sheldon Johns and Jennifer Barry, and made the recipe for Roasted New Potato Salad with Pancetta-Rosemary dressing. Beautiful pancetta...

I got Russ in a picture last night, so he got me back tonight. I had planned to include a photo of one of our huge rosemary plants in this blog, but he took care of getting the picture while I was getting the rosemary for the potato salad dressing. This one is now taller than I am.

The potato salad went with chicken salad, and here, the chicken is cooking. Using the pan drippings and brown bits in the chicken salad dressing made it really good. I used boneless chicken, breast and thighs. I'm not as fond of chicken breasts, but surprisingly, I prefer breast meat in chicken salad. Still, it was tasty.

So... this looks rather odd, but what we did was put beach towels on the rug in front of the TV and ate on the floor, sitting propped against our couch. Not the first time we've done such a thing, but it's the first time we've admitted it publicly. We had some blue cheese, Roquefort and Roaring 40's. We drank one of the bottles of Cabernet that came from our wine club Tuesday, the Morenzy Cellars.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Beautiful pancetta indeed! and those huge rosemary plants are incredible!

[Susan in FL]

Next:

The Foodblog bus takes a trip back north, for a heavy week of food porn, deep in the heart of Pennsylvania.  .......

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I see the next blogger is from Pennsylvania.  I think it's fun to guess who's next.

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Percy? Does Percy live in PA??

.......Maybe you will think about doing the legs as confit?

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.......Remember to save some of that duck fat and those duck thighs and legs for duck confit, followed if you wish by cassoulet.  Then you can make us drool with even more lovely pictures. 

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I have thought about duck confit, and all this time I wondered how long it would take to save up so much duck fat. It never occured to me that it would be store bought. Duh! Thanks so much for the link to the confit topic. What a great thread! And the link to the Cassoulet Cook-off, I hadn't read that one.

.....and you'll have to look for Lillet, it's in the wine section of the stores and is best served on ice with an orange slice.

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Thank you, I will look for it.

[misgabi]

Susan, great blog am enjoying it greatly.

Is the Roaring 40's from King Island? If so that is one of my favourite blue's and I had no idea it had made it all the way to the US.

I love the fact that the blogs now all have such great photos. Way back in the depths of time when I did mine there was nary a photo to be seen. Maybe I'll have to volunteer again soon and try taking some photos that look half as good as yours.

[Susan in FL]

Susan, just saw your blog and am really looking forward to the week.  I am missing Florida and we're hoping to get down to visit family in November...maybe...if I can get a dogsitter....etc.....oh, I hope so, just in time for stone crab!

The duck looked wonderful, I'm doing duck with a sour cherry sauce for a dinner party on Friday.  Belated birthday and moving anniversary wishes.

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Thanks, and nice to hear from you... I have forgotten where your family is in Florida, and did you make it for the 2005 Daytona 500? And thanks for reminding me of stone crab season! When does it start?

Good luck with your dinner party tomorrow night. Please let us know how it goes.

The pizza looks yummy.  What dough recipe did Russ use?  Did the pizza suffer from lack of sauce?

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I think the recipe for the dough was from Cooking.com. It had equal parts all-purpose flour and semolina flour -- first time to use semolina flour in pizza dough. We will probably use it again, but play around with the proportions. About the sauce, what Danielle said. We use olive oil on the dough, as well. The only time I use sauce on homemade pizza is when I make the traditional Americanized version with sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, etc.

From Central Maine to you Susan in FL.

Don’t know if you ever had, or even like “Jalapeno Pepper Jelly”, but about 15 years ago, while visiting my wife’s Grandmother in Daytona Beach (also a brother-in-law in Ormond Beach), I discovered the Farmers Market on Saturdays in Daytona .

At it was a vendor who had this Jelly, since then I was hooked.

Not getting to DB too often (Grandma passed), I have it shipped to me twice a year 12 jars. Delightful just great on Bagels over a fine Goatsmilk or Sheepsmilk Cheese.

Anyway here is the address:

Ocie (Al) McConnehead, 731 Heineman St., Daytona Beach FL  32019 386-290-4337

One more thing:

"Gaylords"(Sp?) on the road to Port Orange, past the Dunlawton Ave. Bridge used to serve the most outstand 'Prime Rib of Beef'. Does it still excist?

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It's always good to hear from someone who knows this area. The Flea Market is something, isn't it?! It's huge. What a trip. (Click here for a more vivid description.)

I've never heard of the restaurant, so I'm thinking it must be out of business. I have a friend who knows restaurant history of the Daytona Beach area, and I'll ask her.

Yummy blog, Susan!  The birthday boy is very lucky, and I hope he knows it.

That's an interesting technique for dry-frying the shrimp.  Would you say you need non-stick to pull it off?  And I found myself worrying over the sight of the already-cooked shrimp going onto the uncooked pizza - did they manage to stay tender after the heat of getting the dough cooked?  The result was certainly gorgeous.

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I think you probably do need a good non-stick pan for the shrimp. Mushrooms, as discussed in that thread, no... they release so much liquid, it's not a concern.

The shrimp on this pizza did remain tender, and moist too. It they had been smaller or chopped up, perhaps I would not have cooked them ahead. I'm happy to say the taste was as good as it looked.

[Susan in FL]

susan- next time stuff with the gorgonzola, drape with the prosciutto THEN roast.

what kind of figs did you use? 

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Thanks for the good wishes.

Interesting that you mentioned that, Suzi... I saw in the Dinner! thread that Wendy and you roasted them with the prosciutto. I was going to do that, but I cringed at the thought of cooking/roasting this good prosciutto. (I think I recall correctly that the figs were Black Mission.)

Comments, anyone?

[Susan in FL]

Is the Roaring 40's from King Island?  If so that is one of my favourite blue's and I had no idea it had made it all the way to the US.

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Yes, it is! The only place I've seen it so far is iGourmet. It is soooo good.

Thanks for the kind words.

[misgabi]

I noticed in your picture of the goodies from igourmet that you had received the Maggie Beer Verjuice too. Do you get many Australian products from there? If they have the Maggie Beer Quince Paste it goes amazingly well with the Roaring 40's

[suzilightning]

Thanks for the good wishes.

Interesting that you mentioned that, Suzi...  I saw in the Dinner! thread that Wendy and you roasted them with the prosciutto.  I was going to do that, but I cringed at the thought of cooking/roasting this good prosciutto.  (I think I recall correctly that the figs were Black Mission.)

Comments, anyone?

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8 minutes or so at 400. works beautifully.

love the pictures - makes me wish i had time to figure out how to up load from johnnybird's camera - maybe if we get a rain day

[Susan in FL]

Good Morning. Even though there was not a lot of sunshine this morning, the blue blossoms were out, looking for it. At least it's not raining so far today. As it unfortunately gets worse elsewhere, the weather seems to be improving here.

On the agenda today is a manicure and pedicure -- Woo Hoo! -- and happy hour food & drink for dinner.

[daniellewiley]

On the agenda today is a manicure and pedicure --  Woo Hoo! -- and happy hour food & drink for dinner.

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That's MY kind of agenda!!

[Susan in FL]

I noticed in your picture of the goodies from igourmet that you had received the Maggie Beer Verjuice too.  Do you get many Australian products from there?

I think this was the first time for the Australian products from iGourmet.com. I had been wanting to try both Roaring 40's and Verjuice for quite a while, and this particular Verjuice appealed to me the most from its description on that site. It might be my new current favorite ingredient.

If they have the Maggie Beer Quince Paste it goes amazingly well with the Roaring 40's

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Thanks, sounds good! I'll check.

It was interesting when I was first searching for Roaring 40's Blue. It is listed in iCheeses.com. When you click to purchase it there, it takes you to Amazon.com, and then when you click to purchase it there, you end up purchasing it from iGourmet.com.

I would love to see you do another foodblog from Australia! I hope you decide to volunteer.

[Susan in FL]

8 minutes or so at 400.  works beautifully.

Thanks, Suzi. I probably will give it another try, cooking it like that.

love the pictures - makes me wish i had time to figure out how to up load from johnnybird's camera - maybe if we get a rain day

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Please do!

[Monica Bhide]

I need to move to Florida :-)

Awesome stuff Susan!

[Susan in FL]

Monica and All, I am glad you are enjoying it.

I've been waiting for the sun to shine more before taking some pictures of foodstuff growing in our yard, but this morning realized that the waiting could be endless, so here it is.

You saw the one rosemary bush. Here it is again with more in the background.

To the left, the prickly pear cactus, and to the right, my avocado tree:

This is a pineapple plant. We have yet to see a pineapple, but patience, patience... I have faith that we will see it someday.

Most of the plants in our yard were given to us by patients or families that we have visited on the job. In a way, it's a memorial garden. Lots of stuff looks very young..... This is a year after the three direct hits by hurricanes, so there are way less trees in our backyard, and with some of the plantings, we started all over.

This is the lemongrass "patch" ...one of the die hards.

And this is the part of our yard that we call the garden. It's usually mostly an herb garden. It is time for fall planting, and soon there will be new tomato plants.

[Carrot Top]

That rosemary bush is awesome, Susan.

They say that rosemary helps memory and erases forgetfulness.

I think perhaps I need to sleep under a huge rosemary tree, the way I have been lately.

Lovely blog, am enjoying it.

Shout a big "hey" from the hills to your hubby for a belated happy birthday!

[Susan in FL]

So I went for the manicure and pedicure today, and experienced such total relaxation for two hours...

What, you might ask, does this have to do with food & drink? Well for one thing, a glass of wine is always offered and today I certainly accepted. I sipped on a nice Chardonnay for the entire two hours. Food? When it was done, I went to another section of the spa and ate some really nice cookies. And also, it seems no matter where I go, the conversation turns to food, and so it did today. But I won't go into that right now. This is the place: The Riverview Hotel and Spa.

It's a hotel (I think more aptly called an Inn), restaurant, spa, and giftshops. It's a beautiful place to relax. I could go on and on about this place, but would eventually get off the topic, so PM me if you want to know more. To make a long story short, if anyone wants to vacation in the Daytona Beach area and get away from the glitz and the crowds of families with screaming kids, New Smyrna Beach is the place to go. It's about 10 to 15 miles south of Daytona Beach.

Here is a shot of one of the gift shops, with lots of kitchen stuff handcrafted by local artists. Today I bought two sparkling wine glasses, which you will hopefully see pictured Sunday or Monday.

This is the outside of the restaurant. We have gone here for Friday happy hour several times, and met here tonight. The food leaves something to be desired, but the atmosphere can't be beat on a beautiful sunny afternoon or evening. And yes today the sun did come out. It's on the intracoastal, the place to be in all of Florida, to look west and see the setting sun.

And the "inside" ...actually the bar which is on the intracoastal. Russ got off work a little early, and I met him after my afternoon in New Smyrna Beach, and we were the first cocktail hour customers when they opened at 4:00 PM.

And ladies especially, take a look at this. Isn't this a nice looking manicu ...uh ...glass of wine?

[Susan in FL]

When Russ met me after he got off work, we started with drinks and the obligatory bar snacks.

Then we ordered an appetizer of parmesan-dusted calamari. As expected, good but not great. However, the views are worth the price at this spot.