A French Food Find

Over the last few years we have enjoyed being pass holders to the Disney Parks here in Florida.  And, of course EPCOT is one of our favorites.  Probably because of the Garden Show in the spring and the Food and Wine Festival in the fall. OH, and Christmas is delightful.  After all, I do like to eat and they have some great food.  I know that sounds odd - being a theme park and all, but it really does have some great restaurants.

 Les Chefs de France is the most recent I've tried with my son and good friends.  I ordered the roasted chicken which was cooked perfectly and had a lovely wine reduction sauce.  The French baguette was amazingly good and overall we thought it was quite nice.
 
On a date night with my husband we also tried Bistro de Paris.  This was an amazing evening.  The food was wonderful.  We were in no hurry and the meal took quite some time as several courses were brought out.  We were lucky enough to have a table by the window and were able to watch the firework show right from our seats.  As we left the park, well after closing hours, we enjoyed what seemed to be a private tour through the beautiful gardens.  Truly a lovely evening.

DisneyTouristBlog- click on link below

DisneyTouristBlog

But as luck would have it - I just had lunch at a very lovely little spot in my downtown called Rendez-Vous.

We were a party of five and I will tell you that we all enjoyed our meals.  The bread and goat cheese was of course a favorite, but sadly $2 a small basket.  The prices on the rest of the meal I thought were very reasonable for the portion size.  Below are some of our samplings.

You should give them a try - I am certain you wont be sorry.

A Backyard Campout

As kids get older it's harder and harder to find fun birthday celebrations that aren't just crazy expensive.  This year we decided to have a Backyard Campout to celebrate my son's 13th birthday.  So I thought I would share a few photos.

I finally posted PDFs for the labels!

The midnight snack included: trail mix, Pringles singles, Slim Jim, a Glow stick, and a small whoopee cushion.

Who doesn't love a s'more!

Luckily we have a pool so that was free entertainment. The boys arrived around 4:30 and stayed until 4:30 the next day.  At first I thought no big deal, but then I realized I would need to find a few things to fill the time.  I purchased Mess Kits at Wal-Mart and the boys used them to eat their Foil dinner in.  For those of you not familiar with what a foil dinner is - you use ground beef as a base and load sliced or cubed potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and the boys added cheese as well.  Wrap it up in heavy duty foil, then another layer of foil for extra protection.  Write the boys name on the outside and stick it on hot coals or in our case, the grill. That night we had a fire and roasted marshmallows to make s'mores.  Played a few rounds of Man Hunt and of course sat around the fire way to late.

Next day after breakfast and a quick swim, I sent the boys on a neighborhood scavenger hunt - this was pretty fun. Then we finished up the afternoon with a little bit of wii games.

Hope you enjoy the idea! Be sure to search it on pinterest as well - lots of cute ideas there.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

I think my love of Strawberry Rhubarb pie began about 15 years ago on a family trip to Maine.  It was a great trip, and can I tell you those ladies in Maine know how to make amazing pies.  As luck would have it many of them sold pies from there kitchen.  So as we drove through the various towns and saw "Homemade Pies For Sale" we stopped.

Interestingly enough just after I posted about the Plant City strawberries, my sister-in-law gave me a new cookbook, and sure enough - it had a recipe for a Strawberry Rhubarb pie.  I could hardly wait to try it out. Now this is different from the Strawberry Rhubarb pie of my memory, but I optimistically gave it a whirl.

I think the pie turned out wonderful.  Better yet, it was very easy to make.

Here's the adapted recipe:

Stir together: 1 1/2 c sugar, 1/4 c flour, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and 3 eggs - lightly beaten

Gently fold in 2 cups of sliced strawberries and 2 cups of chopped rhubarb.

Pour mixture into an uncooked pie shell

(You can use whatever pie crust you like.  I like Martha Stewart's Pie crust recipe, but I will admit with this I just used Pillsbury Pie Crust.)

For the top of the pie, mix together 1/2 c flour, 1/4 c sugar

Then cut in 1/3 c butter until crumbly

Sprinkle over top of pie.

Bake in the center of a 400 degree oven for 55 minutes.  Check crust at 30 minutes and cover if necessary.

Let cool at least 30 minutes before cutting to allow the pie to set up.

Strawberries in Florida

Well it would be sad if I totally missed sharing a post with you on strawberries.  Being in Florida at this time of year means strawberries, Plant City strawberries too.  Why would I choose that area?  Well, my mom was born and raised in Plant City and her father actually farmed there as she and her siblings were growing up.  Of course like most of the other farmers there – he grew strawberries (among a variety of things).  My mom remembers having a break in school so that the families could work in the fields picking the berries. 

It is such a big deal for that area that they even have a Strawberry Festival – actually today was the last day of the fair. Even without the fair one can visit Parkesdale Farms for a variety of strawberry items.  I recommend the milkshake myself.

We love strawberries.  A favorite of my sister and her daughter is fresh strawberries with sweetened condensed milk drizzled over them.  My mom - she likes strawberry shortcake, but she prefers making hers with a yellow sheet cake instead of a biscuit.  Me - I like strawberry rhubarb pie. 

So I am in pursuit of a really good recipe for pie.  I'll share some of our favorite strawberry recipes with you throughout the month and I'll keep you posted on my search for the perfect strawberry rhubarb pie.

Photo Credit: ThinkStock

I'm not sure what fields are still open, but here is a website listing U-Pick strawberry fields.