My second road trip to Savannah started as a solo event, but quickly turned into a duo for four whole days: being fully vaccinated meant more hang time with my BFF. Stephanie’s place is about 15 minutes out of downtown Savannah, so we could pop in and out of town to do as little or as much as we chose. With her quarter at SCAD finished and my school year coming to a close, it was the perfect time to take advantage of our Memorial Day weekend by exploring the surrounding areas, cooking and relaxing.
Types of honey from L to R: Gem Apiaries (Lutz, FL)-wildflower; Yankee Joe’s (Warner Robbins, GA)-wildflower; Winterthur (Winterthur, DE)-golden; Italian-cherry; Home Grown in the City (San Diego, CA)-citrus
Honey, we have a problem. Some—and when I say some, I mean my husband—might say I have issues. My real issue is that I don’t have enough pantry space to house my ‘collection’. What’s really wrong with having 24+ bottles and jars of honey, anyway? Each is unique in color and in flavor; would he be as critical if he amassed 24+ bottles of fine bourbon? I should think not…
I wasn’t always such as avid collector. In fact, this sugar girl was never a big fan of honey; it had an odd taste I couldn’t get past. A decade ago, a free sample of local nectar from a farmer’s market changed my opinion of this alternative sweetener—forever. Not only did I taste one sample, but I tasted four: one for each season here in Florida. Amazingly, they each looked and tasted shockingly different; I was dumbfounded. The variations resulted from what was pollinated during each season: Fall and Winter were dark amber to brown with a more complex flavor; Spring, practically clear yellow and mild tasting; and summer, still light in color, but cloudier and a bit more flavorful than spring. If this is what a year in Florida tastes like through the ‘eyes’ of local bees, my curiosity was piqued about the varietals of honey around the country, let alone the world. What might those taste like?
Favorite pics of 2019: (Top L-R: Tortilla Soup, Red Kuri Squash, My 1905 Salad; Mid L-R: Green garlic, Broccoli Cashew Salad, Market veggies; Bottom L-R: Cauliflower Tabbouleh, Chickpea, Grape Tomato & Feta Salad, Melon Gazpacho)
Well, another year is on its way out—they seem to be passing by faster and faster. So much so, that in researching back over the past year for this post, I realized I never posted a ‘Best Of’ for 2018. And beyond that, there was a gap from August 2018 – June 2019 when I didn’t post anything AT ALL! Well, it has been a busy two years with adjusting to being back to work, trying to ‘fit it all in’, and traveling more than we have in some time; it didn’t leave much time for blogging. The 2018 post is now up, and without further ado, here is 2019!
Yes, you read that correctly: 2018; and yes…I am a year late. I really enjoy looking back over the past year and summarizing it all in a ‘farewell to the year’ post. It’s just unfortunate that I only realized now that last year’s piece never made it to print. So many amazing things happened last year, I would be remiss to not give it the proper attention it deserved. Here is 2018 in a nutshell, and then be on the lookout for my 2019 post!
My favorite photos of 2017: strawberry chia jam, corn and crawfish pie, red beans and rice, low country boil, sweet peppers, blueberry merk’s coffee cake, pesto three ways, Florida cranberry (hibiscus).
Change is necessary. Change is inevitable. Change is scary…
The discussion of change almost seems a contradiction: how can something so normal and ever-present bring about such anxiety and stress? Change means evolving: evolving into something different–and hopefully–something better. Many look to a new year as a time of welcome changes: a new diet, a new fitness routine, maybe even a new relationship. For me, change comes in the form of a new job. After 9 years of being a stay-at-home mom, I’m going back to work. I’ve kept my toes wet in the nursing pool for the past 5 years, so I’m not completely rusty; but nevertheless, I am both excited and anxious at the thought of re-starting this chapter of my life. My biggest challenge will be finding a new kind of balance; one that coexists with a full time job.
Another transition has slowly been taking place over the past year: I have altered my diet to include meat and fish again. I was a vegetarian for six years and for much of that time, I felt better than I ever had. But gradually over the past year and a half, I haven’t felt the same: I’ve almost felt…imbalanced. I started gradually adding back those things I omitted all those years ago and started to notice differences: subtle at first, and then quite obvious. Not much else has changed–except now I like a little meat on the side of my veggies…
Crawfish, sweet corn, leeks, and a savory sauce are tucked into a buttery crust: Corn and Crawfish Pie is our new favorite comfort food.
My eight year-old son has quite the refined palate. So, when a city-wide search for crawfish pie in New Orleans left us empty-handed, I knew I had to start experimenting in the kitchen. This Corn and Crawfish Pie is the perfect combination of buttery crawfish tails, veggies and a New Orleans-style sauce hiding under a flaky pie crust.
For the full story and recipe, check out the St. Petersburg Foodies website here.
A view from the top of Wayah Bald Lookout Tower: Franklin, NC.
My family and I always seem to be eating our way through some city or another. Our summer trip to North Carolina was a bit different. Because this was our longest road trip to date with our 8 year-old son, Everett, the car was full of snacks and food packed for on-the-go; there was no stop every two hours for food. We stayed in the Franklin, North Carolina mountains, about 20 minutes out of town; instead of a hotel, we rented a cabin. Cooking in our cozy digs for the week made us feel more like residents than tourists. As a result of not eating out five times per day, we did not do our usual whirlwind culinary tour of town–however, we did do some drinking.
Living in St. Petersburg has spoiled us; we have coffee places and local breweries around every corner. When we venture out of our little town, those are the top two things on our radar. Rule number one: no coffee shop chains that we have at home–sorry, Starbucks. Rule number two: local craft beers only–no imports. With the current craft beer boom, we had no problem sticking with number two. To get the full mountain-town experience and to search for proper beverages, we ventured out to several of the other cities within a sixty-mile radius of Franklin: Bryson City, Sylva, Highlands, and Cashiers. On the route home, we drove through Greenville, SC and Savannah, GA all on the same quest. Here were our favorite drink stops along the way:
Ah, Quebec City…land of poutine, cheese curds and maple. We visited QC for a week during Spring Break for some snow, some culture–it was my son’s first trip out of the country–and, of course, for some food. Eating our way through Quebec City was, by far, the biggest culinary challenge to date; this town wasn’t exactly a vegetarian’s paradise. The Québécoise fare with a blend of French and Canadian cuisine was big on game; meat and seafood dominated nearly every menu we perused. With so many of the menus in this town being in French, learning enough of the language to translate them proved to be the most important thing I did to prep for this trip. In French, everything sounds amazing: even lapin–rabbit, wapiti–elk, cerf–venison, canard–duck; if I hadn’t focused so much of my time learning foods in Francais, who knows what would have landed on my plate! After much research, in the midst of all the carnage, we managed to find several spots that really made it count.
Or, more accurately, a boatload of maple… Like most folks, we use our fair share of maple syrup on breakfasty things like waffles, pancakes, and French toast; I also love to use it in muffins and cupcakes and icings. On a savory note, I remember when my mom used to make chicken dipped in maple syrup and coated in crushed pecans. I even go so far as to whisk this stuff into my homemade maple mustard vinaigrette. I knew maple syrup was versatile; I had no idea how versatile until our recent trip to Quebec City.
Our apple booty: (from left to right: Gala, Honeycrisp, Gala).
I know what you’re thinking; you don’t even have to say it: “Breakfast again?!” It is said to “write what you know,” and I know breakfast foods–oddly enough, I rarely eat them in the morning. So much so, that when my son was younger, I made eggs for breakfast one morning; he promptly told me, “Mommy, eggs are for dinner, NOT breakfast!” This isn’t a post about breakfast per se; it is about apples–and lots of them.
