Captain Dave's on the Gulf, Destiny

Watching the sunset from Captain Dave's on the Florida Gulf singing the Pina Colada song. Capn Dave's is a retro 70's style seafood restaurant with pretensions.

Youcan sit and watch the sunset while feasting on fresh caught fish and cocktails. Here is a key lime martini with ice cream in it and a dry gin martini.

Snow crab clusters fresh from Alaska (Kim always has to have crab legs even if it does not come fresh out of the gulf. She brings her own fancy crab cracker with her.)

Pasta something or other. Fresh shrimp and other stuff with spinach in a creamy lemony parmesan sauce.

Sauteed redfish in a cajun cream sauce topped with gulf shrimp. Jeff would be so down as there is very little fresh grouper to be found this trip. But this was by far the best fish I had the whole week.

The Crab Trap, Destin

A value lunch can be found at Destin's Crab Trap which is a very beachy restaurant directly on the beaches of the Gulf. The sticky tables and fresh breeze blowing in your face shows its authenticity. We all shared the Fried Crab Claws with tangy seafood sauce. $12.99

Seafood Salad with scallops, shrimp and fried oysters. $13.99

Seafood Gumbo loaded with shrimp and oysters $8.99

The view from the restaurant open windows. Priceless.

Best Dinner Ever: Bistro Bijou at Sandestin FL

We had our best meal of our lives for the second time at Bistro Bijou in Sandestin Florida. We had gone down as a girls trip, me, Kim and Alli. The Bijou is definitely not a bargain meal, but we did find they had an early bird, excuse me, sunset dinner which included an appetizer, entree and dessert for $30 each. What a deal and the choices were off their regular menu. You just have to order between 5 and 6. My appetizer was Fried Oysters on Spinach Salad.


Oh, we did pay extra for a few cocktails: A Pink Lady and a Dirty Martini.


Fried Green Tomato and Shrimp Napoleons on Roasted Pepper Sauce

Carmelized Onion Soup

NOW FOR THE MAIN COURSES

Shrimp and Grits. The shrimp were deliciously sweet and the grits had some sort of cheese added.

Grouper Almondine on Lemony Rice

Melt in your mouth Filet Mignon and Frites with Bordelaise Sauce


AND NOW DESSERT!

Pear Bread Pudding with Goat Cheese Ice Cream

Creme Brulee

Truly fabulous meal at any price.

My Birthday at Rosa Mexicana

I had the grave misfortune of being born on Mother's Day. Now that I am a mother, I get the combined Mother's Day/Birthday combo, not quite as bad as being born on Christmas but pretty close enough to breed similar resentment. Because Mother's Day out is usually such a zoo, we usually do a lunch on the Saturday before. I guess celebrating two days in one is a way to save.

Easter Eggstravaganza Illustrated

Easter morning and everyone is waking for the Easter bunny (and taking silly pictures with the new camera).

We made a gingerbread bunny house.

Our Easter tablescape.



Treats from the bunny.

I recently got a digital camera so that I could enhance my blog experience. I test drove it this past Easter. Or I should say my daughters test drove it while I cooked Easter dinner. Of course, the Easter bunny left goodies for my 27, 25 and 20 year old kids as well as the dog.

Next we prepared a turkey, ham, scalloped potatoes and all the fixings but not until we had a nice shrimp cocktail and deviled eggs for an appetizer.

If this is Global Warming, Where is my Hot Cocoa?

I am fairly earth friendly but also a little skeptical. Having been around a little too long, I lived through doom and gloom weather theories in the '70's that said we were entering a mini ice age. Well, that didn't happen and now we are supposed to be facing imminent destruction from man made global warming. So if global warming is here, why is it 10 degrees in Atlanta lately? And for a whole week!!! Winter for a week in Atlanta is unheard of. Too cold to go outside....and snow? So what are we to do? Make soup - cheap and warming. Everyone can make an easy chicken soup like the one below. Add other kinds of vegetables (zucchini, peas, spinach, even cabbage) or use rice instead of noodles to mix it up. You can even make it with tofu and vegetable broth for a vegetarian version.

Chicken Soup to Warm Your Soul
A couple of chicken breasts (or other chicken parts)
Chopped Onion
Chopped Celery leaves
4 cups of chicken broth (homemade is best but not necessary)
1 cup of chopped carrots (can use the pre-cut slices or matchsticks)
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1/2 package of any kind of pasta - egg noodles, bow ties, stars
2-3 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

Cook the chicken in the broth with the chopped onion and celery leaves/tops until done. Remove the chicken until cool enough to cube. Add carrots and celery to the broth and cook until just tender. Add the pasta and cook according to directions until done. Season to taste. A little fresh ground pepper adds zip. Add the chopped chicken and parsley and serve. This takes less than one hour from start to finish. It can be done in a crock pot but I prefer the quick stove top method leaving the vegetables a little crisp.

The Penny Coupon Disaster

As everyone knows who follows this blog, the highlight of my week is going to Publix on Sunday with the penny coupon to see what surprise I can get for almost nothing. Well....disastrous news! They have changed the penny coupon to Thursday. You have to search through the Thursday paper like hunting for easter eggs and then you have to use it that day! Who buys $25 worth of groceries on Thursdays? Who even shops on Thursdays unless they have run out of milk or toilet paper? Now I have no BDO (big day out) to look forward to....Why do I even want the weekend to roll around now? My solution is that Jeff will need to take me out to dinner on the weekends now for my BDO. Jeff says he is calling corporate Publix to reinstate the penny coupon on Sunday as my solution won't fly.