The Owl in Apalachicola Florida

I had to start this post with a photo of one of the most amazing meals I have had in Apalachicola. This is crab cake Benedict with fresh fruit and cheese grits. Look at those eggs, they were poached and so perfectly, so light and fluffy.



We've been meaning to eat at The Owl for a long long time but were always put off by what we thought were high prices. It's actually quite reasonable for the quality and quantity of food you are served.



This is the staircase leading up to the restaurant. Beautiful.



Here is the board with daily specials. Now I can tell you, I was mighty tempted to get Pot Roast but I thought it would be too heavy. Anyone who knows me knows if my tummy is too full, I will fall asleep on the back of the trike. I have been falling asleep on two and now three-wheeled vehicles for quite some time. The Sportster, The Road Glide, the Road King and now the Tri-Glide.



The sky was very blue and clear last Saturday. We like wandering down by the water after we eat, looking at boats and birds. See this yacht? It's for sale. No price listed.



We walked around some more, intending to gte a dessert of coffee but we were just too full from lunch. I wish I had brought a hat, the sun was very bright.



About 2:00 we headed home and yes, I did fall sleep a few times. We stopped at the Piggly Wiggley grocery store in Apalachicola before departing to pick up some hot sauce. I can't find it in any of the stores around the Tallahassee area so we stocked up.



It was roughly 160 miles roundtrip.

That's what we did last weekend. Hoping for a good ride this upcoming weekend too but Lizzie, our granddaughter, will be celebrating her second birthday so we will see what works out with parties and such.

Hope all is well in your world!

Meal Planning # 11

Hello and welcome to my eleventh post on meal planning. I mentioned last post that I would probably only do a few more of these but I had so many good photos so….here we go again. It’s been a roller coaster of ups and downs with our weather here lately. Freezing temps at night and then a high of 70 the next day. Rather a pain as you can never put away the warm weather clothes.

We did buy more chard and strawberries last weekend but haven’t put them in the ground yet. This weekend we will plant, get an estimate for a fence around Doug’s astronomy shed and shop for a mattress.

Yes, we live on the edge. I may even buy more yarn …..oooooo !

So, here is what we had last week.

Monday: Quesadillas with leftover flank steak, beans and rice.

Tuesday: We took Aja to the park and by the time we got home, we were both famished. Rather than wait, we ate at Waffle House.

Wednesday: Paula Dean’s version of Perlew.

Thursday: Cheesy Beef Noodle Bake

Friday: leftovers

Saturday: Smoked sausage and corn casserole (Recipe follows)

Sunday: Chicken, black beans, rice and tomatoes




That was a pretty good week because I made the leftovers and bits in the fridge. Nothing went to waste and we frequently had great lunches to take to work. Now it’s payday and time to plan a new menu. Hope your week went well.

Here is the recipe for the Corn and Bacon Casserole.

Creamy Corn and Bacon Casserole

6 slices of bacon, chopped
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 medium sweet red pepper, cored and chopped
1 bag of frozen corn kernels (16 oz) thawed
¼ cup parsley
2 large eggs
½ cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper
¼ tsp. cumin
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp. cornstarch

Heat oven to 375 F. Grease up a casserole dish or spray with PAM.

Heat a large skillet and cook bacon, onion and pepper until soft.

Stir in corn and parsley.

In a large bowl mix the eggs, heavy cream, salt, pepper and cumin. Stir veggie mixture into the wet ingredients.

After mixing gently add the cornstarch and cheese.

Slide this mixture into a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes or until set.

Tuscan Bread Loaf

Making bread again makes me happy. Makes my family happy too.

We bought a bread machine again as it saves so much time. I don't actually bake bread in the machine, I use the dough setting. That setting takes care of the mixing and initial rising. It only takes an hour and half but if I started bread by the time we got home from work, we wouldn't actually take it out of the oven until 9 pm.

Obviously that wouldn't be ideal.



There is a delay setting on the machine so I can measure the ingredients in the morning, set the timer on the machine so it's ready at 5 pm, then I get home and roll the dough out. It needs a second rising time and while it's doing its thing there, we can walk the dog or I can start on dinner. Perfect.

Here is a recipe for a good bread, one of our favorites, Tuscan loaf.

Ingredients

1 cup water
2 TB olive oil
3 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 package active dry yeast
cornmeal
1 egg white, beaten


For the machine: I spooned flour into measuring cup, careful not to dip my 1 cup measuring cups into the vat of flour. Know why I spoon the flour into the cup? Because it doesn’t pack the flour down. Thus states the directions of the bread machine. In large bowl combine flour, sugar and salt and mix well.

For my machine you add the liquid ingredients first. So, in goes the water and olive oil. Carefully add the flour mixture atop the liquid in the machine.

Now add yeast into the center of the flour mixture.

I simply select the Dough setting and the machine whirls happily while I, equally happy, am free to do something else for an hour and a half. How sweet is that?! The machine will beep loudly after that 1 ½ hour interval and I scoop the dough out with my favorite La Creuset spatula. Punch down dough.

Cover dough with inverted bowl and let rest 15 minutes. Shape into loaf about 12 inches long. Sprinkle ungreased cookie sheet with cornmeal. *

* Note: Necessity is the mother of invention and when you are out of cornmeal, grind up a handful of Cheerios, the honey nut or regular work a charm. You have to crush them fairly fine to work like cornmeal but I’m here to tell you – it works fine.




Place on corn meal coasted cookie sheet. Cover and let rise for 35 minutes.

Heat oven to 375 F. With knife slash the dough on top and brush with egg whites. Bake 25 to 35 minutes, then cool a bit and enjoy!

There isn't anything like a hot fresh loaf of bread.

Grab the butter and tuck in!

Mini Update: Gardening, Movies, Mozart and Reading

From here and the other blog….this is the mini update.

I’m participating with Joy at Joy’s Book Blog for her British Isles Friday series. It’s been a nice series as people post all sorts of book reviews, walks around England or Wales, any subject that can link to the British Isles. My last hook up focused on Doc Martin.





Reading: Recently completed

The Killing Floor



Try Not to Breathe



and The Finest Hours



Listening: Mozart in the den which I posted about HERE.



Watching
Inglourious Basterds starring Brad Pitt was a check out from the library. We'd watched it before. Newer movies for us are The Intern and Self/Less.



The Intern was good and for those who like a PG 13 rating, this is the one,. Nothing objectionable in this movie and you have Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. Usually we go for action movies but we enjoyed this one.

Selfless starring Ben Kingsley and Ryan Reynolds



This was an action movie but the acting wasn’t Oscar worthy. If you like Ryan Reynolds you’ll like this movie. Kingsley is a tycoon who struggles with his imminent death. There is an experimental procedure he secretly goes through and his brain is transferred to Ryan Reynolds. Naturally this can’t be without repercussions – that’s where the action part comes in. I liked it fine but wouldn’t own it or see it again.

Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks.



Very well done movie. Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance were brilliant. This is a true story and well worth watching.


Gardening

If I could only have a few plants and be successful I would choose tomatoes, beans, peppers and strawberries. But we don’t have to choose – we just need to figure out how to keep our plants healthy. Several nights we had to cover the plants as the temperatures dipped to freezing.

The broccoli after putting in the soil. It's bigger now.



Butter lettuce. We have always had success with it.



Swiss Chard....love this stuff!



So, that’s my update for the beginning of February. What have you been reading, planting, watching or enjoying?

Meal Planning # 10 {Baguettes, Peach Pie and Jamie Oliver's Lemon Chicken}

♥ ♥ Happy Valentine's Day to you. ♥ ♥

This has been a week up ups and down temperature wise. No kidding, we saw a high or 78 F (25 C) last Tuesday but only a few days later our high was 52 F (11 C). Northern Florida and crazy fluctuating temperatures. Since we planted chard, broccoli, strawberries and butter lettuce we have had to cover the tender little plants to protect from frost.

Here’s a week of meals, Enjoy!

*Grilled wings, Mediterranean Orzo Salad and green beans



*Leftovers

Pasta and sauce, homemade bread

* Jamie Oliver’s lemon Chicken with potatoes and beans and



* Baguette and peach pie




* Leftovers

* Grilled marinated Flank Steak, roasted turnips and sweet potatoes (We had grilled flank on week 6 also)

We eat lots of leftovers as you can see but I cook a lot of food! That's great for leftover dinners as well as lunches at work.

Hope your week of meal planning is going well.

I may do another few posts on meal planning and then retire the posts. We'll see what I am in the mood for.


I am sharing this with Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking Series.



Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Mediterranean Orzo Salad

For the weekly meal plans I always try and include one new recipe. This time I pulled out the latest Pioneer Cookbook, Dinnertime. We were planning on grilling wings and I though this Mediterranean Orzo Salad would be a great side dish. It was!

Also, I discovered this dish is good hot. We took some to work last week and it has been so cold in our building (state government caring about us drones, right?) so I heated a little dish in the microwave. The feta became soft and melty, good combo of flavors. I will definitely make this salad again.




Mediterranean Orzo Salad

Ingredients

Dressing:
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
1 clove garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salad:
12 ounces orzo pasta
One 15-ounce can chickpeas, drained.
1 1/2 cups red grape or cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 cups yellow grape or cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 cups kalamata olives, halved
1 1/2 cups crumbled feta cheese, plus more for topping
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, plus more for topping
1 red onion, diced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper


For the dressing: In a jar or bowl, mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and some salt and pepper until totally combined.

For the salad: Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the orzo according to the package directions. Drain and let cool.

Place the orzo, chickpeas, red and yellow tomatoes, olives, feta, parsley and onions in a large mixing bowl and pour the dressing over the top. Stir to combine and taste; add salt and pepper if needed. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Top with more feta and parsley and serve as a main dish salad or with grilled chicken, fish or burgers!


I am sharing this with Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking Series.



Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Dothan Alabama for BBQ..... Nice weather, good ride

Sometimes the weather cooperates beautifully on the weekends. One recent weekend was great. Tristan was able to ride with us to Dothan Alabama for BBQ and the temperatures were just warm enough.

My favorite people in the entire world.



There is a little place called The BBQ Shack that we had been to before. After a good ride we found the place but I suspect it’s under new ownership. The BBQ was good but I remembered it being South Carolina style with the slaw piled on top of the pork.

Maybe the memory of it got bigger and better as time passed. Now, that doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy a BBQ pork sandwich with fried okra, baked beans and slaw on the side. We also enjoyed homemade peach cobbler.

Gas was unbelievably low at $1.49 per gallon. The guys topped off their tanks at those prices although they needed premium gas, a wee bit higher.



Round trip was ballpark of 180 miles and what a great ride it was. Tristan was able to join us but his wife was not feeling it for the long ride so she stayed home. Maybe next time she can join us.

Me and Tristan....I am a proud mama.


Doug and Tristan.....did I mention they are my favorites? :-)



Hoping to take a very long ride this upcoming weekend as the temperatures are supposed to soar. Shall we ride for oysters, BBQ or country fried chicken? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm......I shall report back.


Hope all is well in your world!

Meal Planning # 9{Starring Tortellini and Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Mac}

Has it been a week already? That went fast. Last week we had some fun outings and accomplished a few needed chores. Also, we planted, getting the little garden turned over and planned where to place each plant. It’s still chilly but I am hoping the threat of freezing temperatures are over and the plants will be fine. So far so good. More on that update in another post.

Here’s a week of meals, heavy on the pasta this week. Enjoy!


Chinese Takeaway – one of my favorites! My usual shrimp with vegetables an a Spring roll



Light Cheesy Chicken Pasta with Broccoli


Tortellini with homemade sauce, green beans cooked with hock, freshly baked baguette



Leftover Tortellini meal

Roasted Chicken Thighs with cherry tomatoes, onions and feta cheese



Leftover chicken with broccoli and cheese sauce



Breakfast for dinner

I have some recipes I tried from my new Pioneer Woman cookbook I want to share next week. It’s a good cookbook and everything I have tried so far has been excellent.

Hope you had a good week!

Chicken-Broccoli Mac and Cheese with Bacon

Is it Saturday already? I was home from work yesterday and suddenly inspired to cook, bake and clean. I did get some reading done too. Currently reading The Finest Hours and it's very good. I was plotting my post for the weekly meal planning and here is one that will be included (hopefully I can post tomorrow). It's easy, it's cheesy, it has a vegetable in it and carbs too!





Chicken-Broccoli Mac and Cheese with Bacon


Ingredients

6 ounces uncooked large or regular elbow macaroni
3 cups chopped broccoli florets
3 bacon slices, coarsely chopped
12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 1/4 cups 1% low-fat milk
1 cup unsalted chicken stock
1/4 cup plus 1 teaspoon all-purpose flour
5 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 1/4 cups)


Preparation

1. Preheat broiler to high.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Add broccoli to pan during last 2 minutes of cooking. Drain.
3. While pasta cooks, place bacon in a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat; cook 4 minutes or until browned, stirring occasionally. Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon; reserve 1 1/2 teaspoons drippings in pan. Sprinkle chicken with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add chicken to drippings in pan; cook 4 minutes. Sprinkle with garlic; cook 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with turmeric; cook 30 seconds, stirring frequently.
4. Combine remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt, milk, stock, and flour, stirring with a whisk. Add milk mixture to pan; bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Cook 2 minutes or until thickened. Add pasta mixture and 2 ounces cheese; toss to coat. Sprinkle with remaining 3 ounces cheese and bacon. Broil 2 minutes or until cheese melts and just begins to brown.


I am sharing this with Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking Series.



Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page. For more information, see the welcome post.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

The majority of evenings here we have been sitting in the den, listening to music and talking. After almost 32 years of marriage we still have quite a bit to share, laugh and plot about. That’s something I take for granted sometimes and I shouldn’t. We’ve always had good times since we locked on to each other 33 years ago. I’m fortunate.



Our taste in music is the same and we’ll go from James McMurtry to Dave Matthews to Pink Floyd to classical. It just depends on what we are in the mood for any particular evening. One evening we decided to start on this enormous collection of Mozart.

It was relaxing, something non demanding so if we chose to read together (or read and crochet) you could concentrate on the book at hand. It was so enjoyable that we decided to see the collection through. Lots and lots of CDS spanning concertos, divertimento, sonatas, symphonies and…we haven’t gotten to it yet – opera. I’m not so sure about the opera.




Here is the box and the bookmark is where we are in this journey. Mozart was a prolific genius. I am loving everything we have heard so far. Ok, the focus on the flute on some of the pieces wasn’t….soothing. I’m not a classical music expert and couldn’t tell you the titles, except Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, but I am gaining an appreciation for Mozart.



Something else we enjoy in the den while listening to music is indulging in a short toddy. Aja has started moving into the den immediately after dinner because our cocktail time coincides with her getting a few treats. She knows when the cocktail glasses come out, so do her bag of treats. I think she may like the music too. After she gets her treat she settles on a big pillow bed and goes to sleep.



The few nights we watch a DVD in the living room she doesn’t always join us. She’ll come out for a little bit of time but then she goes up to bed before the movie is over.

I’ll keep posting about the musical journey and let you know what happens when Mozart’s operas are in queue. Willing to give anything a shot….