Category Archives: food

West Coast of the East Coast of the US

Yesterday we took a drive over to St. Petersburg to have lunch with friends. St. Pete is located on the west coast of the east coast of the United States.

Driving down I-4 from Orlando to Tampa was a revelation. We’ve been gone a little over 10 years and how things have changed!

We had no real plans except for to have lunch with the Mitchesons. When we saw the Cafe Mozart German Bakery, we had to stop and turn around and go inside. It was fun to talk to the owner who said her husband had brought all of the recipes with him from Germany. They had lots of yummy baked goods and some fabu looking sausages I’d have loved to take with us if we had a cooler. Sausages make my little German American heart happy. 🙂

We met Kathy and George at the Red Mesa Restaurant for lunch. The food was delicious and fresh. I had Ginger Encrusted Salmon and we shared lots of great conversation catching up the past 10+ years.

When we lived here, I worked for George at Native Sun. He is a terrific and fun person and I loved working there. I was a marketing assistant but he gave me cool titles like Office Wizard followed by Cruise Director. Fun!

On our way back to Orlando, we stopped and got Cuban sandwiches. Oh yum! We ate them too fast to take a photo. 😉

Such a fun and delicious day. So great to see you Kathy and George!

We Are Gastronauts

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I was listening to a webinar yesterday when the gal being interviewed referred to herself as a gastro tourist. Say what? She then described what she meant and I thought, “I love that! We are totally that.”

I also like the idea of referring to myself as a gastronaut. 🙂

We are heading to Florida today. On the way there, we will drive through Birmingham because it’s the most direct route. On the way home, though, we’ll be driving through Nashville. Why? Because we’re gastronauts.

When David brought me the moonshine last year, I spent a lot of time looking for recipes that I could use it in. While searching, google brought me to the Loveless Cafe and I became obsessed. I like them on facebook, I follow them in instagram. I want to go there SO badly and eat biscuits. So we’re going to drive out of our way to have breakfast there. 🙂

Given that we are going the different route, our drive will take us through Atlanta where we’ll have lunch with my friend, Kat, at Mary Mac’s. I only learned of this restaurant yesterday while we were planning our visit so now I have a new menu to obsess over. It looks delish!

I’m not sure what kinds of places we’ll visit while in Florida. We’ll be sharing several meals with old friends and I’m looking forward to the friends part more than the food but it will all be good, I’m sure! 🙂

I love to food spot and you can find me here.

Cookbook Cook Through: Week 4

Donuts!

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Donuts are just one of those foods. You know. They’re not good for you but they taste SO good. Especially with chocolate milk. Also not good for you.

We decided to take the Glambaby for a donut this a.m. to a place call OK Country Donuts. They make donuts into shapes and Nikki had gotten some baseball donuts from them for Geoff for his birthday.

When we got there, the fun donuts were on the bottom shelf of the case, just at the Glambaby’s level. They had pigs and snakes. Well, how do you decide between them? Both so fun?

You don’t.

You get them both. And enjoy them both.

We love donuts!

What food does it for you? 🙂

Making Pizza

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We now get to have the glambaby with us on Fridays since she’s been going to school on Wednesdays and Thursdays in the new year.

It’s always so much fun to have her here. We’re both amazed at how long she’ll sit and color or do crafty type things. She really likes them.

Since we had such a good outing when we baked cookies the first time, I thought we’d have her help make lunch today and start learning the family pizza recipe. I got the dough all ready so we just had to spread it out on the pizza stone. She wasn’t too keen on helping me spread the oil on the stone or sprinkle the cornmeal. But when I brought out the little pizza dough roller she was ready to play.

She did a great job helping to spread the tomato paste.

Then she gave the base a good dousing of Italian seasoning.

I’m not sure she liked the feel of the cheese. She sprinkled a little bit on but each of the two times she touched it, she inspected her hand after the cheese was out of it. Then we opened pineapple which she promptly started to eat. She put no pineapple on the pizza. I did that. Then I added sausage.

It looked and tasted great. And it was so much fun.

We’ve been holding off on buying furniture for the house since we moved in because we have some renovations we want to do first. Well, today I decided that I don’t ever want to buy furniture. It’s way too much fun to run, chase, hide, bounce balls, and generally act like we’re on the playground. Which is what we do the rest of the time she’s here. 🙂

Cookbook Cook Through Week 2

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It’s the second week of my Cook Through of Everyday Paleo and I made two recipes that were DE-LISH! Yum! 🙂

I made the first recipe Brussels Sprouts ‘n’ Bacon straight away. I had scored some beautiful Brussles sprouts at the preview event at the new Sprouts Farmers Market that’s located in midtown Tulsa.

This recipe was fairly easy and we both loved it. I’m not sure about the steaming for 4 minutes part of the recipe, though and I might just skip it next time. Maybe blanching them for 4 minutes? I don’t know but after only 4 minutes in my steamer they were still cold so it seemed like a wasted step to me.

Clearly, I’m hooked on stick to the ribs comfort food since it’s winter. I chose the Marvelous Meatballs for the second recipe. I kept putting off making it because it seemed involved. That’s why this post is a day later than I had planned to write it.

In the end, the veggie chopping wasn’t that difficult and the meatballs were amazing! I served it with mashed cauliflower and roasted green beans with garlic.

I cut this recipe in half and it still made six large meatballs so we got dinner and leftovers.I can’t wait to taste the cold leftovers, something I adore. 🙂

Next week, I plan to try the Better Butter Chicken and the Nutty Cookies.

Brussels Sprouts ‘n’ Bacon – from Everyday Paleo

6 bacon strips
1 lb Brussels sprouts
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tbs dried thyme
black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Dice bacon and cook in a skillet until crispy
Steam the Brussels sprouts for 4 minutes, cut off stem and quarter
In a medium sized mixing bowl, toss the Brussels sprouts with the bacon, bacon grease, garlic powder, thyme, and black pepper. Spread evenly in a glass baking dish and bake at 350F for 30 minutes. Stir halfway through cooking time.

Cookbook Cookthrough: Everyday Meatloaf and Paleo Apple Muffins

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This was the first week for the Paleo Cookbook Cookthrough challenge that I decided to do and I chose one main dish recipe and a muffin recipe.

The first recipe I made was the Everyday Meatloaf. It is DELISH!

I used fresh basil as called for in the recipe and it’s very basil-y which I love. I have seen the recipe on the Everyday Paleo site and it used dried basil which would be great in a pinch. But if you have the opportunity for the fresh basil, use it!

I mixed the meatloaf in the Kitchen Aid and, while it looked like it was completely mixed, there was a part of the finished loaf that had a concentration of almond flour. Next time, and there will be a next time, I’ll mix it all with my hands like it says to in the recipe.

I served the meatloaf with roasted garlic green beans which are a favorite here.

Uh-MAZING cold! I adore cold meatloaf and David and i were fighting over the leftover cold pieces. This is a great recipe!

Yesterday, I tried the Paleo Apple Muffins.

I did cut the recipe in half because there are just two of us. I know from experience, that if something is good, we have no restraint. Fresh muffins are best anyway, right? 😉

For paleo muffins, I give it five stars for texture and muffiny-ness. And they were okay tasting. We did eat them. But they are not very sweet. I expected them to be just a little more special. I will for sure make them again because when you’re eating paleo, sometimes you really want some bread and these would fill that need nicely. However, I think I’ll try adding some dates or stevia or something to make them just a little sweeter.

Next week, I’m planning to try Marvelous Meatballs and Brussels Sprouts N Bacon. I scored some beautiful Brussels sprouts at the new Sprouts Farmers Market grand opening and I can’t wait to eat them! 🙂

Pretzel Crisps!

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One day last month, I was tweeting with my friend @ginidietrich when I got this tweet:

How fun! I had never heard of Pretzel Crisps but was interested in finding out more. So I replied with my address. I spoke to my sister shortly thereafter and she told me she had seen them on the Today Show. Since I don’t watch much TV (except sports), I usually find things out via twitter.

The other day, the doorbell rang and the FedEx man had left a package. I couldn’t wait to open it up. When I did, I saw:

Whoa! It looked like Pretzel Crisps sent me one of each flavor!

There were lots of savory options and even two sweet options along with two pens and two koozies.

Okay, the pen…

The pen has the ability to write either blue or red ink and it brings back fabulous childhood memories of the pens with all the colors in them. Maybe they still have pens like that but I haven’t seen one since I was a kid. I love this pen! 🙂

Back to the snacks. We both love pretzels and we decided that we’d try two different flavors. I’m a Libra so faced with so many incredible taste options was difficult for me but I chose the Chipotle Cheddar. David chose the Garlic Parmesan.

They were both delish!

I love cheese in all shapes and forms and these crisps were cheesy without leaving orange on my fingers. I loved the bite of the chipotle.

The garlic parmesan were nice and garlicky. Yum.

I’m not much of a savory snacker but I’m going to have to hide these from David for sure. They are a very tasty treat and I’m looking forward to trying the sweet flavors: Peanut Butter Crunch and Dark Chocolate Crunch.

Many thanks to Pretzel Crisps for the unexpected treat! 🙂