Winter Vacation Highlights (4)

Half way through our vacation we moved from the guest house to a rental house in the same resort. Pictures of the rental house will be posted here over the next few days. Originally we had planned on traveling to Treasure Island, Florida and had acommodations pre-arranged however we liked Cypress Lakes resort enough we decided to stay. This last minute change of plans worked out rather well!

Rental Kitchen

Recall that Cypress Lakes resorts is a community of manufactured homes set in a beautiful park like setting scattered with many ponds, wildlife and two amazing golf courses. Some of the residents live there year round while others rent out their homes during the times they are not there. We moved down the same road as the guest house to a triple wide rental house. If the guest house looked nothing like a trailer inside and out, well the rental house quelled any suspecions of it being a trailer and really even a manufactured home!

Take a look at this beauty of the rental house kitchen. It was love at first sight and yes those are granite countertops. I really love my ceramic tile at home thanks to our renovations last year but our next renovation will be granite. The appliances were mid-range stainless steel GE's. There were a lot of really neat features built into this kitchen. The draw front under the sink pulled down for small item storage. There was a copious amount of counter space with a lowered section for a built-in desk just barely visible in the lower right hand picture. One of the most impressive features was the solar tube (red arrow). I've been looking at these for ages so after seeing this one it is a must have. It lit up the kitchen nicely without having to have any lights on!

Chicken Caesar Salad

Tuesday of our vacation we were back to eating at the Big Cypress Grill. I have to tell you it is a pity this restaurant is not open to the public as their food is top notch. The service is beyond average! I should also point out that aside for buying food on site and eating out a couple of times that is the almost only money spent while there. We made one emergency trip into the drug store (more tomorrow) but that was it. In terms of money spent this was an extremely frugal vacation.

I ordered the chicken caesar salad for lunch ($7.99). The dressing was the clear type rather than creamy dressing. The croutons were homemade. The generous chicken breast was nicely cooked and seasoned. Chicken caesar salad is a real family favourite easily made at home. It's so easy to make and a lovely meal for those hot summer days. Keep cooked, sliced, seasoned chicken breasts in your freezer then top my favourite caesar salad recipe for a quick summer meal.

Meatloaf Sandwich

My husband ordered the meatloaf sandwich ($7.99). The hearty sandwich came with a side of French fries and dill pickle spear. The sandwich was made using marbled bread topped with mayonnaise, sliced meatloaf, tomato and onion. This really was a lovely presentation!

The only negative thing my husband made about the sandwich is that it wasn't my meatloaf. He really did enjoy the meal! There was nothing fancy or pretentious, just good home style cooking. This meal would be extremely easy to duplicate at home. I'll do a post later on how to get this effect making your own bread.

After lunch we met up with our friends to do a little sightseeing around the Lakeland area. Lakeland is a We saw the Florida home of the Detroit Tigers (Joker Marchant Stadium). It was quite impressive and very similar in design to their summer home in in Detroit (Comerica Park). After a bit of sightseeing we headed back to Big Cypress Grill for happy hour and dinner.

Clubhouse Sandwich

I ordered the clubhouse ($6.99) on whole wheat for dinner. You just can't go wrong with a clubhouse as far as value goes. This clubhouse was ham, turkey and beef with lettuce, swiss and cheddar slices, and tomaotes. It was served with a dill pickle spear on the side. It was a very large sandwich so I ended up taking half home with me.

This hearty meal reminded me of what a great meal this would be for those hot, summer months when you don't want to heat up the kitchen. With little more than a toaster, you can put a lovely meal like this on the table with little time or effort and without heating up the kitchen. It can easily be made with thinly sliced roasted meats from your freezer instead of using processed lunch meats. This is a sandwich to put on your easy meal list for when the temperatures soar.