A few photos of the photography I did at Bok Tower Sanctuary & Gardens in Lake Wales, FL - it was a nice place, and there was actually some HILLS, in....Florida.. although not sure it was worth the 2 hour drive on I-4.. maybe one of those places to stop by if you're in the neighborhood. We were too tired from the night before and should have known better as it commenced a bit of chaos between the natives.. oddly enough, I did snap quite a few really nice pics and there were some very pretty flowers in bloom.. I will start editing and posting the others on another day.
To add to our adventure that day, we did have QUITE the interaction with wildlife, poor tall Boy nearly walked into 6 or 7 banana spider webs, I was STALKED by a rabid squirrel and a swan got the chance to bite at Boy's foot. I only have pics of the swans (which I adored, and now I want one..) and the evil squirrel...... stay tuned.
Also, we made smoked peppercorn pork & swiss chard enchiladas last night, I only took a couple pic's of the preparation - 1) I was starving! 2) the outcome was delicious but not quite as capture-able as I would have liked. Oh well, another day.
So, I also attempted one of my first fall recipes of the season, and something I have never made before - semifreddo.
I made a pumpkin toffee pecan semifreddo and here are my thoughts on it - the dessert itself was GOOD, as in the texture, the crunch, and of course the pumpkin flavor... but, in this particular recipe they advised to top this dessert of with whip cream and caramel - WOAH, sweet overload. I normally have a very sweet tooth but after the pumpkin, the toffee, the sweet roasted pecans, then to top it off with whipped cream and caramel - GOOD GOD. I felt that nearly ruined it... but, I did opt for a couple of plump blackberries to tartly cut the sweet - good choice by moi.
So, the passed few days have been interesting ones - as you may have noticed, we took down the Keystone post. We decided not to go there for a few reasons.. now, don't get me wrong - it looks beautiful there but we were planning to go pretty much smack in the middle of their season, and the rates were outlandish - the flight was pretty cheap but the lodging - holy hell. One of the most important things to me on a vaca is lodging, I like cuddling up in cloud like over sized beds, strolling thru beautiful grounds, the complimentary wines and cheese, cookies and home made breakfast's by the fire place. I am normally very willing to compromise OTHER things but my lodging, No. For what we REALLY wanted in Keystone, we were looking at no less than $300. nightly and well I like to spendalot on my vaca's - I find that to be somewhat extravagant for MY world.
green onions, cabbage, steak..
Beyond that, don't DIG OUT SEEDS OF A SERRANO PEPPER WITH YOUR BARE FINGERS. I'm sure some of you knowledgeable foodies/bloggers out there already know this fine piece of information but my friends, I.. honestly thought it wouldn't be an issue and thought nothing of scraping out the membrane of that little green firecracker until a mere 15 minutes later when my hand was literally, FUCKING ON FIRE - I soaked my hands in mylanta, cream, rubbed veggie oil on them, let them numb out in ice and finally after more than an hour of intense burning I went for the booze, that's right... popped some Tylenol and decided to shine off more than half a bottle of cab... the burning stopped, eventually.
Enjoy your weekend friends. I will.
No, the nights aren't too cool here.. and the leaves aren't turning but hey.. no reason why Fall can't be properly celebrated, and embraced. My pumpkins are properly placed outside, my fall/Halloween wreath hanging on the door and all my little fall gadgets strategically placed around the house.. and of course an oil burner, 3 candles, 2 reed diffusers of pumpkin spice, cinnamon, figs, thai spice make it THAT much more of a zesty holiday in MY casa.
Of course, you have to interpret the holidays thru food as well. Boy made a great semi harvest dish on the fly last night, and damn.. it was so good! Thanks Boy!
Tonight I am going to attempt a pumpkin semifreddo!
Stay tuned.
A post for the days when you need to get away.. just drive, miles away.. towns, cities, counties..away. When you just want to spend time clicking away, overloading on starbucks and all by the soundtrack of blue oyster cult, dont fear the reaper..(and the like..).. yea, you know the feeling, ahh..
enjoy..
dark skies...
Just a few photos of the passed few days meals, that I have been too busy/lazy to get going here...
The tart that Boy makes at his restaurant........ but, at home =)
tuesday night never felt so right.
Today is my birthday, but we celebrated this weekend - because of work schedules. Friday and Saturday I went where boy makes the bacon to lend a helping hand while the head chef is STILL out of the country... it was suppose to be a two hour helping out with the dishes and polishing glasses thing on Friday that turned into a Saturday thing also plus making salads and desserts, and I even got paid for it! Woot! It was a lot of fun though.. I have put in a lot of my time in restaurants as a bar back, bartender, server, and manager but never in the kitchen, until now - I had a blast.
i love to dip....
Now I get why everyone talks about it, it was incredibly yummy... my perfect vision of a birthday dinner - cozy, romantic, delicious and full of laughs..
Enjoy....
Due to unsightly schedules, a very..small kitchen and.....well that's enough to make anyone go crazy ok..???
Anyhow, because of those traumatic things we have been thinking more on our toes about dinner, less planning and preparation like in the past. So instead of leisurely trips thru fancy shmancy markets, oodling and fondling everything gourmet, we now marathon thru the local grocery, snatching all things whole, organic and without the yuck (i.e. - hfcs, msg..you get it). No, it's got nothing to do with the economy either.. it's really the fact that we are on the run all the time because of our jobs and that we live in a small place right now because our original plan was to pay off debt before moving into something big, and nice.. and well, the debt was paid in record time and now we are stuck in a lease with a fridge the size of a large lamp.. I'm not complaining, honestly... it just makes schlepping over to the gourmet markets and spending 200 bucks on what I can barely shove into my fridge and might actually miss and let go bad because I cant see it because of 27 things stacked on top of it? Yea...
So we end up with a colorful array of foods that dont match and try to make more stuff homemade instead of having a bag of tortillas, and flatbread, and regular bread, and bagels, we make what we need on the spot, or there about's.
So, behold buffalo gyros.. no, no not hot wing style buffalo, real bison meat - it's soooooo good.
In other news... yes, it's true I have a serious un-wavering addiction to Starbucks.. Soy Caramel Macchitos to be completely precisely.. you know.. just.. incase you want to pick one up for me? =)
Well, even though I have no issue going to SB's drive thru on a daily..or double daily basis it can get costly at $4-something a pop annnnd it's not the most calorie forgiving drink, so I make my own - minus the caramel for previously stated reasons, but I top mine off with pumpkin spice because I am ridiculously head over heels for fall.......anything.
traditionally, egg & milk wash - roll in panko.
had some roasted veggies with mine..
voila, topped it off with the sauce - i added garlic, ginger, thyme, thai basil, and brown sugar in addition to the ketchup.french mustard & soy sauce.
