Day 1 - Annie's Homemade Frozen Custard

OK, so if you have followed any of my prior posts you know that we love to eat and find fun places to do so!  Although Nauvoo is quite small (and I must admit I was not prepared for the food choices that were available (very good, hardy, mostly fried food - not diet friendly at all)) we still managed to find the most adorable Frozen Custard Shop (I was corrected when I called it ice cream)...

Annie's Fresh Frozen Custard

I should also add that Yelp gave her 4 1/2 stars and Urban Spoon gave her 5 stars (it was yummy!)

 We were the first customers of the day so Pryce even helped in the back...this was a reenactment with little cooperation!

Shrimp...

I have been eating a lot of seafood lately!  So I needed to get creative and find some new recipes to try...Pinterest!?  I do love Pinterest...but I will say it is just like any other cookbook, food blog, etc.  sometimes you find a big hit and sometimes a flop.  Here are a few of my favorite finds...

Eat & Relish - Honey Chipotle Shrimp Skewers with Avocado Greek Yogurt Sauce

 This was my try at it - so yummy! Definitely a keeper.

 Melanie Makes...Rosemary Citrus Shrimp Tacos

Melanie Makes Blog

 I didn't follow the recipe exactly, but closely...we love shrimp tacos.

 This is one of our favorite stand-by recipes (well more of a dinner creation)...Sauteed Shrimp with tomato and basil and mixed greens with strawberries, walnuts, and balsamic dressing.

Shrimp...

Rinse and dry (pat dry with paper towels) 1 lb of peeled, deveined shrimp.  In a skillet heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil. Saute 1/2 medium onion - diced, until translucent.  Add two cloves of garlic pressed.  Add shrimp and saute until opaque - time varies but shouldn't take more than 3-5 minutes.  Watch for the color change and remove immediately.

Add 1 cup of cherry or grape tomatoes sliced in half lengthwise to the skillet, add salt and pepper. Cook until tomatoes begin to release juice.  At this point add about 1/2 cup of fresh chopped basil and the cooked shrimp back to the pan.  Toss gently to mix together.  At this point we sometimes add crumbled feta.  Serve over pearl couscous or other pasta.

Easy Balsamic dressing....

1/2 cup Olive Oil

1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tablespoons honey

Pinch of salt

Whisk together well.  If you like a creamier version add 1 tablespoon mayonnaise. 

Crabcakes, my Favorite!

They really are! But I am pretty selective about them...I prefer the ones that are almost all crabmeat and if I had to select a style it would be the Maryland Crabcakes that I enjoy the most. For years I only ate them when we went out or traveling, but over the last few years I just make my own.

I have had a lot of trial and error because I couldn't find a recipe that tasted like I wanted it to. So finally after several recipes I decided it was time I tried to create my own. Which isn't really my own ~ I took the flavors and consistency I liked from various recipes and combined it into one.

Now I know there are two kinds of people out there...those who are thinking what took you so long, I never use a recipe and those who are thinking WHAT! ? No recipe. So I will say I narrowed it down to two recipes that I liked best. 

Inspiration...

Once Upon a Chef; Maryland Crabcakes

Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) Crab Cakes

Martha Stewart Crab Cakes

Mine...

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• 2-1/2 tablespoons mayonnaise, best quality such as Hellmann's or Duke's
• 1-1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup finely diced celery, from one stalk
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
• 3 Green Onions chopped (finely, not minced but small)
• 1 small red pepper chopped (finely, not minced but small)
• 1 pound lump crab meat 
• 1/2 cup panko
• Olive oil, for cooking

Instructions

1. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Combine the egg, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, Old Bay, salt, celery, onion, red pepper, and parsley in a large bowl and mix well. Add the crab meat and panko; gently fold mixture together until just combined, being careful not to shred the crab meat. Shape into 6 crab cakes (I use an ice cream scoop - I get same size and they are sticky so this works nicely) and place on prepared baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (this is really important because the crab cakes are mostly crabmeat, not much filler to hold them together).
3. Preheat a large nonstick pan to medium heat and coat with Olive oil (spray oil works too). When oil is hot, place crab cakes in pan and cook until golden brown, about 3-5 minutes per side. 

Serve immediately with tartar sauce, a squeeze of lemon, or my favorite Tabasco Sauce.

I'm the Florida Girl...

Who loves seafood! I think one of my favorite things about Florida and living near the coast is having scrumptious seafood available year round.  This was last night's dinner, courtesy of JB's Fish Camp.

Sweet Summer Time...

Well I must admit I have certainly taken a long break from blogging this year.  That isn't to say I haven't had lots of great things to blog about.  Actually so many projects I haven't had time to blog.  BUT I have been trying to take pictures, save documents, etc. so that now that I have a little free time in the summer I can share them with you.

This summer has started out crazy but I am happy to say I am finding some down time at our lake house.

I could live here permanently - or at least I think I could!  

...so here are a few things I have been working on that I am going to get posted over the next couple of weeks...

Girl's Camp & All of It's Adventures

(Oh the Crafts, Glorious Crafts)

My Spring Garden

Canning some of my Harvest

Bread & Jam

Just a sneak peek!

Out of Milk!

If you have read any parts of this blog, I am sure it did not take you long to figure out that we girls are always in pursuit of getting organized. Not sure what that's all about - calmness, sense of order, control issues... Who knows, but it is what it is. And I must say, it makes me happy to feel some part of my life is put together. At least for a short time.


Anyway .. the good stuff.  A while back my friend (apparently I attract others with similar qualities) shared a fun app with me for my smart phone.  Out of Milk.  For those of you like me, I have had my smart phone for a little over a year and I am certain I under utilize it.  So needless to say it took me a little while to start using the app (and must admit I still am only using a very small portion of it).

This app is great!  I love it - well worth the money.  Site says $1.99 today, but I may have paid $4.99.  You can use it obviously on your phone, but also on your computer, which I think is a really nice feature.



Today though I wanted to play around with the Pantry List part of the app - it helps you keep track of what you have in your pantry and how much.  Great right!  Well unless you have to sit and manually enter each item. NO! It has a scan that let's you use your phone to scan the barcode, look up the item, and then you simply add the quantity.

I just tackled my spice rack today and spent about 15 minutes scanning the draw. 

I am still learning how to use it, but it is just so darn cool I had to share.

Cheese, Lovely Cheese...

My newest interest is making homemade cheese.  Well actually I have been playing around with making cheese for about a year now, but I decided it was time I get serious and bump up my game.  

So today I am making Chevre cheese.  Not that this is a difficult cheese to make, on the contrary it is quite simple.  It takes about 12 - 18 hours for the curds to set up.  So no pictures at this point.  

However I do want to share a few resources I found helpful:

Available on Amazon

This book is , shall I say, amazing.  I am fairly new to this adventure and I have to say this book is so complete that it makes even myself feel very confident I can do this.  Now I am still in the easy cheese section of the book, but am moving onto the intermediate next week when I can acquire some local ingredients I want to use.

As for the Chevre cheese - the recipe in the book is straight forward and simple.  However, I do like to see the process and the pictures in the book, although lovely are sparse for my needs.  I found this series of videos on YouTube and found it very helpful. 

Be sure to watch part 2 and part 3 before starting.

Happy cheese making!

Spring Cleaning!

I found myself with some extra time this week and I decided it was time to do a little spring cleaning in my house. I know, I'm so exciting! Today - I tackled the REFRIGERATOR.  Not the freezer mind you, just the refrigerator.  Who knew so many things could hide behind others.  Luckily no science experiments going on - just a few items out of date.

While I was waiting for things to dry in the sink, I took a look online to see what type of organizing ideas I might get.  I thought I would share some of my findings.

I have to admit - I do love Crate & Barrel!

More fun photos...

Martha Stewart

and sites....

REAL SIMPLE

Live Simply

I always do a quick clean and sweep when I go grocery shopping - before I add the new, fresh items - I like to tidy up the shelves and wipe them down.  But, when you are really going to clean it - you need to set aside a little bit of time so you can empty out your refrigerator, take out the shelves and bins, wash them in some warm soapy water, and wipe out the refrigerator really well.  It's very simple, no crazy strategy. But I must say it will look worse before it gets better.  Everything from the refrigerator will be on your counter tops.

Sadly, I did not take any before pictures of mine - sorry!  But here are the during & after shots.

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.