Month: November 2017

Numerous years ago, we started a new tradition, eating out for Thanksgiving.  This came about for a variety of reasons, primarily because we both work on that day and dinner (if cooked at home) would realistically be late in the evening.  Then we would still have dishes to wash.  😦

Where to eat………something uniquely Florida……….. Columbia 1905 Spanish Restaurant in Celebration.

For this day only, they have two menus, their original one and a traditional Thanksgiving menu.

There are two important components of eating at Columbia……….the Cuban bread

and of course the sangria.  It is made table-side and they have several to choose from. We ordered the ‘traditional’ red sangria.  The table next to us ordered the champagne sangria and you can see the ingredients on the tray he’s using.

Only Beverly and I are drinking the Sangria since Eric is the designated driver tonight.  🙂

Eric started with their famous “1905” salad…………

………which is also made table-side.

Sorry, no photo of the finished salad.  Once Eric got the plate, we both dug into it.  We’ve made this salad at home several times after Eric searched the internet for a recipe.

Shortly thereafter, our main entre’s arrived.  First we got Beverly’s turkey dinner:

My ‘La Completa Cubana combo’ arrived next – Empanada de Picadillo, roast pork a la Cubana, Boliche Criollo (stuffed beef), yucca, plantanos and black beans & rice:

It is WAY too much food, but I also have leftovers to take to work the next day.  It is absolutely delicious and I pretty much order the same thing each time.  Eric ordered the seafood paella:

The seafood included shrimp, clams, mussels, calamari, scallops and lobster.

Beverly topped off her meal with key lime pie.

Eric and I shared their chocolate bread pudding and yes, there was WAY too much dessert on that plate.  I can’t imagine one person having room for all of it.

While the posting is a few days (okay almost a week) after Thanksgiving, we all hope everyone had a good turkey day filled with lots of good food and company.

   

 

 

 

 

I added another ‘page’ at the top of the blog titled “EATS!”.  Part of life’s journey is about the food and occasionally the creation of meals.  While no notifications will appear each time something is added, take a look once in a while and see what has been added.  Enjoy.

We planned a quick trip to Ponte Vedra to see Rich, Karen and the boys.  We both worked Friday and drove up afterwards.  Man – the traffic was a drag.  It was bumper to bumper for hours (well, at least it seemed like hours, and hours and hours).  We generally drive up on Saturday after work and we could definitely tell the difference that day.

The plan was to eat at their Friday Night Food Truck with friends, but the area was also celebrating Halloween and only the guys went to the Food Truck event. I ate with Karen and the boys at a local restaurant and it was perfect for us.  We stayed up talking, while the guys were out back on their porch.  Usually I’m the first one to crash and generally asleep before 11pm.  It was after midnight before I headed upstairs to our bed – probably a first.  Must be the cold air kept me awake (at least cold to me………..).

The guys went shooting Saturday morning and Eric came back pleased with his shooting.  The others participate in these events regularly and Eric does not.  Meanwhile, Karen and I sorted through our jewelry making supplies to see what we could accomplish in a few days. We took an early afternoon break and ate at the Maple Street Biscuit Company.  She had taken me there once before and on our last trip, it was closed when we stopped by.  I’ve  had a hankering for their menu ever since.  I ordered the chicken club biscuit with Ranch dressing and we split the cinnamon raison biscuit for dessert.  Their menu board looks great and I’ve got to try some of their other biscuits.

Both were might tasty.  Now that we were ‘fortified’, we headed back to make jewelry.  In the past I had only made earrings but this weekend I wanted to make a necklace.  It had to be something simple enough to complete by Sunday evening.  There are two necklaces I wear that have garnered compliments in the past.  My goal was to copy that style using a different color of beads.  Shockingly………I was able to finish two necklaces.  They are long enough to wear several ways.

Meanwhile, Karen put the finishing touches on a wrap bracelet for me.  I had thought it would be mostly worn on the weekend for casual wear, but twice this week at work I had it on.  Totally didn’t expect the second bracelet.  There had been a delay with the wrap bracelet so Karen made the other one.  It wasn’t necessary, but I love the colors. It is different from any of my others,

Monday, the kids had to go to school, Rich had to sign-in from his home office and Karen went to work!  She got a job at the end of the summer, setting up a new Hobby Lobby store and has continued to work their inventory deliveries.  She’s tried to quit several times and they won’t let her.  It’s pretty cool that she sees all the new things that are arriving and also set up her own Merchandise displays.

We packed up and searched for a breakfast spot before the drive home.  Lo and behold, we found a place in St. Augustine called  ‘The Spot”.

Its small, serves down-home food and at 10am wasn’t too crowded.  We sat at the bar to fully soak in the ambiance.  The coffee mugs were typical of a diner………..

……advertising every business, but their own.  Eric ordered a Southwest skillet with fried eggs, salsa and chili that topped breakfast potatoes.  I ordered the (half) order of sausage gravy & biscuits, topped with two fried eggs  (you can’t see the eggs for the grated cheese – more calories, groan).

Once again we headed south and came across a seafood market – Kyle’s.  Their seafood was fresh and their mullet smoked in-house.

Later that night we had the shrimp for dinner. It was combined with some veggies and a tomato sauce.  Each of us had a different version of the shrimp recipe.  Mine included chunks of avocado and his had cilantro added (yuck).

As an appetizer before the shrimp, Eric took the smoked mullet fillets and made a <delicious> seafood dip.  Sorry, no photo, not a lot of color in fish dip. 🙂

 

It was a great weekend trip.  Loved the cooler temps which gets us ready for Fall to arrive, with the bonus of being with our good friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although back in the states, our trip was not over since we weren’t home yet.  I let Eric talk me into flying in and out of Miami because (1) a less expensive flight (2) direct to Paris and (3) stretch our vacation with a day in Miami at the end.  He caught me in a weak moment.  We both napped a little on the flight but after landing at the Miami Airport, it was a ghost town. The gate was at the end of a terminal that had no other people and no one manning any desk.  Coming through Customs, the fliers on our plane were the only ones in the Customs line and there was no other luggage besides ours on any carousel.  However, got to say that ‘Global Entry’ was a breeze and well worth the money.  We walked up to one of the kiosks, placed our passport on the scanner, then our fingertips and after a printout we were on our way.

We caught a taxi to Coconut Grove, it hugs the shoreline of Biscayne Bay.  Using my favorite internet source……………I discovered that Coconut Grove is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood in Miami, first established in 1825.  Many locals take pride that Coconut Grove is one of the greenest areas of Miami.  However, if you remember what happened several weeks before our vacation……..Hurricane Irma.  We saw a lot of vegetation that had been stripped from trees and trees that had been uprooted.  It continues to be in the cleaning up phase.  It’s a cute, quirky part of Miami.

Eric found a Sonesta hotel that was clean, convenient, newly remodeled and an easy trip from the airport.  Although worn out, we needed some food and asked one of the bellman for nearby, walkable options.  When asked what kind of food we wanted……………..we said spicy!  He recommended a Peruvian restaurant that was only a few blocks away – sold.  We wolfed down the chips and salsa, practically before our drinks arrived.  Eric started with a tuna ceviche which he said was delicious.

My mahi-mahi fish tacos were some of the best that I have had.

Afterwards, I was done.  I needed sleep and was snoozing before Eric left to get a drink at the hotel bar.

We had to go back to the Miami Airport to pick up our rental car, but not before breakfast.  We walked a few blocks and found an outdoor restaurant serving food.

Did we need these big breakfasts…………….no, but they both were tasty.

It would have been so easy to go straight up the turnpike to go home, but also boring.  Instead we chose I-95 for a change of scenery.  That got old pretty quickly since we were also getting caught up in morning work traffic.  😦

Halfway home we started thinking about lunch since we were going to cut over to the central part of the state and there would be NO places to eat.  Pulled up the internet and found a top-rated placed in Vero Beach – Ocean Grill.

Continue reading “The final 251.3 miles” →