Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps at Ohana's Restaurant in Disney's Polynesian Resort

Ohana's restaurant in Disney's Polynesian Resort quickly became one of our favourite eateries when at our vacation home.  This restaurant is famous for it's grilled meats prepared over an oak fire served from long skewers, churrascaria style as well as their delicious Ohana Bread Pudding à la mode with Bananas-Caramel Sauce!  The atmosphere is simply delightful.  Reservations are a must and are six months out so we have already booked for our fall visit!
  

Ohana's has changed their menu slightly.  Grilled chicken skews are no longer available, the salad dressing has been changed from honey lime to passion fruit vinaigrette, and the stir fried vegetables have been updated to include more vegetables, less broccoli and no garlic sauce.  The atmosphere and quality of food remains above average.

The dinner began with Ohana Pineapple-Coconut Bread Mixed Greens Salad with Lilikoi Dressing (passion fruit vinaigrette with chunks of passion fruit and mandarin oranges).  Pork Dumplings tossed in Garlic-Ginger Sauce Honey and Coriander Chicken Wings appetizers are followed by skewers of Sweet-n-Sour Pork Loin served with Peanut and Sweet-n-Sour Sauces,  Szechuan Sirloin Steak served with Peanut and Sweet-n-Sour Sauces , and Spicy Grilled Peel-n-Eat Shrimp accompanied with noodles, tossed in a Teriyaki Sauce with Fresh Vegetables and Stir-fried Vegetables.   Ohana Bread Pudding à la mode with Bananas-Caramel Sauce finishes off the delicious meal.

I was intrigued with the vegetarian lettuce wraps.  This low calorie dish is a must make at home.  The spicy  filling consisted of edamame, bean sprouts, mushrooms, shredded carrot and sauce.  Unfortunately there is no mention of the wraps on the website for Ohana's dinner menu.  They may be a new menu offering in the testing stage.  According to reviews, the wraps replace the grilled chicken which may or may not be the case.  At any rate, I am going to experiment to create a similar filling for lettuce wraps.  These will be a nice change from salad!

If you go to Ohana's the Ohana Bread Pudding à la mode with Bananas-Caramel Sauce is a must!  Even if you are counting calories, factor in enough wiggle room to enjoy a bit of this absolutely heavenly dessert.  The ice cream has flecks of vanilla bean giving a decadent flavour that pairs nicely with the bread pudding.  The warm banana-caramel sauce tops this dessert nicely.  Delicious! 

Steak and Zucchini Stir Fry

The first part of the May trip at our vacation home is quite the adjustment as we are coming off of a four month schedule of up at 3:30 AM and into be by 8 PM.  Suddenly we are thrust back into somewhat normal hours without any time to get used to the change.  We generally spend the first few days of our trip rather low keyed and relaxed.  The second day of any of our Florida vacations is always grilled steak.  The Publix there has a nice meat counter so we buy a couple of extra thick cut steaks.  There is always enough steak left over for snacking and another meal!

Zucchini melody is one of our all time family favourites!  This simple dish consists of sautéed zucchini, mushrooms and onions.  Not only is zucchini melody tasty by itself, it can be quickly converted to a full meal stir fry as I did with the left over steak.

Basic Method:  Heat about a teaspoon of olive oil and a little butter in a non-stick fry pan.  Add the onions and cook until translucent.  Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until onions start to caramelize.  Add the zucchini pieces. Cook, stirring often until zucchini is tender.  Remove from heat and serve.

For the steak and zucchini stir fry modification, I added fresh green beans with the zucchini.  Once the vegetables were tender, I stirred in slices of left over steak cooking just to warm through.  The result was a delicious, quick to prepare stir fry to enjoy on the lanai while chatting about our plans for the rest of our vacation. The following day we would be picking up my husband's sister and her son.  They would be staying with us for four days so we were excited about the days to come. 

Tex Mex Salad at the Clubhouse

Yesterday, I wrote about my May hiatus.  We left home in beautiful but still quite cold Ontario in the early evening of May 6 to stay overnight at a motel close to the airport for an early morning flight with our final destination being our vacation home in sunny Florida.  It seemed like such a short time ago that we had arrived home!  Really we had only been home four and a half months but it had been through the brunt of a rather nasty, cold winter that refused to relinquish its grip.  Like many northerners, we were anxious to enjoy a bit of warmth and sunshine.  And so our spring vacation started...

Travel days are always quite exhausting even if they go smoothly.   They tend to be high calorie expenditure but low caloric intake aka we are very active but don't eat much.  We finally have flying south down to a routine where we stay overnight leaving on an early flight which puts us in Florida around 2 PM.  We stop for groceries then head to the house.  After opening up the house, unpacking, and putting groceries away we head to the pool for a quick swim.  Feeling refreshed, we head back to the house to change then back down to the clubhouse for dinner.

Our clubhouse is a lovely spot to meet up with friends we haven't seen since our last trip.  The food is nothing spectacular but it is decent.  As homeowners there we do try to support it by eating there at least a couple of times each trip.  We ordered an appetizer, Tex Mex salad and drinks. 

The Tex Mex salad was huge!  We shared the salad that was served in a large bowl.  The salad consists of chopped tomato and chicken on a bed of iceberg lettuce topped with shredded cheddar cheese and Fritos corn chips then drizzled with ranch dressing.  It was quite tasty and filling!  The corn chips were something a bit different that added a nice crunch.  There really wasn't a lot of dressing on the salad even though it looks like there is.  I would guess at about 2 - 3 tbsp (about 150 to 200 calories).  Despite the dressing, the salad was on the healthy side.  When I make this salad at home, I plan to kick it up a notch by adding arugula, substituting Monteray Jack cheese for the cheddar and use grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast. 

Our Vacation Home Kitchen

We are incredibly blessed to own a vacation home in sunny Florida where we try to spend three months a year over three trips.  This past year we also bought a co-op in Aruba, so in essence we have three fully equipped kitchens.  We are very much firm believers of eating healthy, home cooked meals even when on vacation.  The only difference in our eating style on vacation is we tend to eat out more.  While discovering new restaurants and revisiting our favourites is a wonderful culinary experience that we truly enjoy, we also enjoy home cooked meals.
 

Our vacation home is a two bedroom with den, two bathroom manufactured home (2007).  We bought it in 2010 after it had sat a year and a half empty.    The house is in a 55+ retirement community with a lot of nice amenities.  The club house is very nice, a place to meet up with other members of our community, enjoy a bit of entertainment or a meal.

Our vacation home kitchen is fairly similar in size to our home kitchen with a similar layout except the vacation home kitchen is open to the small family room.  It is an eat-in kitchen.  The patio doors lead to the lanai where we often enjoy morning coffee and meals.  The cabinets are standard white, nothing fancy.  The counter tops are basic formica but the backsplash is ceramic tile.  There is a bit less actual counter workspace  than our home kitchen, not significantly less but enough to be noticeable.  The appliances are Whirlpool with the stove being electric and the next step down from the natural gas Whirlpool Gold range at home.   The sink is a heavy plastic double sink with food disposal.  We replaced the original taps with the set pictured last spring.  The floor is a textured sheet flooring in a tile pattern.

The refrigerator wall of the kitchen has a narrow but deep pantry.  A door leading to the small utility/laundry room separates the refrigerator wall from the sink wall.  The refrigerator has an ice maker but other than that is fairly basic especially compared to our home refrigerators.

Our vacation home kitchen is light, bright, quite functional and easy to maintain.  It has the distinct disadvantage of being what you see is what you get.  That is the entire storage available for food, kitchen appliances and kitchenware.  There is no extra storage space in the rest of the home to store extra kitchen equipment or food although larger pots and pans could be stored in the golf cart shed.  In all honesty, longer stays require being a bit more creative but we will never be living there full time and we will likely continue to rent our vacation home out from time to time so the kitchen more than meets both needs.

Our vacation home while considerably smaller than our home still requires interior maintenance, repairs and updating.  This is fairly consistent with any vacation home or cottage.  As mentioned we have already replaced the faucet set as the old one sprung a leak that continued to get worse despite repairs.  We are planning a few upgrades to increase the value of our vacation home while adding more durable, lower maintenance materials that will withstand the intended purpose of our vacation home.  We are planning on replacing existing carpeting with laminate flooring or ceramic tile next spring.   Ceramic tile is likely our best choice so we would end up tiling the entire house at that time.

Now when I note we are at our vacation home or show a meal prepared there, you will have an idea of what the kitchen there looks like.  Our vacation home kitchen is equipped with the basics - blender, slow cooker, toaster, coffee maker (mainly for tenants), Keurig (our use only), can opener and hot air popcorn maker.  I took the stainless steel Lagostina pot and pan set we recently replaced from home to the vacation home so we are set that way.  So, it is fairly well equipped suitable for any of the cooking and baking we will be doing there.  We also have an outdoor grill that just as at home gets a lot of use.  Tenants at most will be there a total of 3 months but that is very rare.  So far, we have had tenants stay a month or two, most commonly one month.  Next week I will share some of our foodie highlights during this portion of our fall vacation.

A Taste of Home at Our Vacation Home

We arrived home last Wednesday night after spending three weeks at our vacation home in sunny Florida.  We spend three months each year at our vacation home spread over three separate trips, usually flying.  Flying is inexpensive and gets us there the same day unlike driving that ends up taking us two days with an overnight stop-over.  That means I am very restricted as to what food I can bring from home to our vacation home since liquids are restricted to 3 oz or less only in the quantity that will fit in a one quart zipper bag, one bag per traveler.  Thank goodness, I am not a make-up person!  We have also found that certain powders like Morton's Tender Quick will result in extra screening at the airport security checkpoints.  Now, as funny as that one was, and it was funny as the very friendly screening had never met someone who cured meats which led to an interesting conversation, I quickly decided in future to either mail these types of items to our vacation home or bring them with me when we drive.  We can bring dried foods as long as they fit in our backpack, more dried foods if driving but it isn't feasible to try bringing meats or fish by either mode of travel.

I was elated to find out that my husband had planned on this being a driving trip with a bit of sight seeing and a planned meal at Lady and Son's in Savannah, Georgia.  The plans were to drive down, stay for awhile, fly home, fly back then finally drive home towards the end of the year.  In total, we planned on spending a little over two months of the fall, early winter in the sunny south.

I brought a few jars of home canned foods with us for a taste of home.  It is surprising how much I've had to modify my cooking style at our vacation home simply because I don't have a lot of the ingredients, especially the home canned foods I am so accustomed to using.  I brought salsa, Old Fashioned chili sauce, zesty bread & butter pickles, Mom's pizza sauce, picante sauce, roasted tomato garlic sauce, beef stock, pork & beans, whole kernel corn, black cherry jam, Italian garden sauce with mushrooms (not pictured) and low sugar chocolate raspberry sauce (not pictured).  In hindsight, I should have brought another case of home canned foods so I may even mail more down before our return to our vacation home this year.

Eating at our vacation home is quite different than at home but I am finding that the more we are there, the more cooking from scratch we do.  The biggest problem we face is not being able to store much in the way of food with the exception of the fall trips as food can be left in the cabinets and refrigerator.  However, we rent the house out mid-January through mid-April, so all food that can not be safely stored in our homeowner's closet has to be cleared out.  We also leave the house tenant ready after our spring stay just in case.  Basically, we are restricted to storing a large Rubbermaid tote of food, mainly dried and commercially canned foods that will not be affected with the closet at room temperature.  I don't store any home canned foods in the homeowner's closet. 

Driving to our vacation home and back has a lot of benefits even though it takes longer.  We are able to bring a taste of home with us and take back some of the new foods we discover while there as well as along the way.  We also get the opportunity to do a bit of sight seeing along the way.  Of course, there are a lot of foodie stops!  Stay tuned for the foodie highlights of this leg of our fall stay at our vacation home...

Grilled Porterhouse Steak

This is the time of year that many Canadians turn their thoughts to cottage life, camping and spending times around backyard pools or day-tripping to area beaches.  We camped for years when our kids were growing up.  When we moved to waterfront property about ten years ago, it was like we were cottage living on a daily basis.  That house and the next one we bought also on waterfront property originally were cottages that had been converted for year round living so essentially we were cottage living.  Still we tossed around the idea of buying a cottage in Ontario then in the spring of 2010, we bought our vacation home located in Florida and eighteen months later sold our waterfront property to buy our new urban setting house.  Living in an urban setting we have a greater appreciation for our vacation home.  We spend about three months of the year at our vacation home, divided into three trips.  Vacation homes and cottages present a few cooking challenges because many including ourselves want a break from the normal routine.  At the same time, vacation homes and cottages tend to be not as well equipped as your home kitchen so the emphasis is on delicious meals and snacks that are easy to prepare.

The grill is our favourite piece of cooking equipment at our vacation home, much like it is at home and was when we camped.  Aside of using a grill for quick and easy meals, we use our grill much the same way as an oven so we enjoy fresh baked food and bread during the hot summer months without heating up the kitchen.  Grilled steak is our number one go to meal while at our vacation home!  We quickly established a tradition of the first home cooked dinner is always grilled steak enjoyed on the lanai.  The nearby Publix grocery store has a lovely meat and seafood counter.  The meat is fresh and high quality so that is where we buy our fresh meat when at our vacation home.

Pictured is the 2.17 lb (984.29 g) porterhouse steak we bought for the first dinner of this year's spring trip.  Isn't it a beauty?  A porterhouse steak is similar to a T-bone steak except it has a tenderloin whereas a T-bone steak does not have a tenderloin.  This nicely marbled cut of beef promised to be tender and juicy when grilled.  The porterhouse steak cost $19.41 on sale, saving $6.51.  Now, that might sound expensive but in comparison to the cost of two steak dinners eaten out, it isn't.  This size steak is enough for a dinner for us plus left-overs for a stir fry and wraps.

We like keeping the side dishes for grilled steaks simple, easy, and delicious.  We decided to have both asparagus and potatoes with the steak but cooked them a bit differently.  Foil wrapped potatoes is a grilled side dish that we often serve.  It is an easy way to prepare whole potatoes for the grill lending the perfect easy side for grilled steaks, chops or chicken. 

Method:  Cut enough squares of aluminum foil for the number of potatoes you want to grill.  Place each potato on a square of aluminum foil.  Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over the potato.  Sprinkle with Montreal steak seasoning or garlic pepper.  Wrap the foil tightly around the potato.  Place on the hot grill on indirect medium high heat.  The potatoes will take about an hour depending on size.  They are ready when finger soft to a pinch.

My husband put the steak on about 15 minutes before the potatoes were ready.  He grilled the steak on one side turning a quarter to form hash marks then  flipped the steak to finish grilling repeating the hash marks.  He moved the potatoes to the side, off  the top rack to the lower grate where they would stay hot.  Foil wrapped potatoes will keep quite warm even when removed from the grill for a half hour or more but it is safer to keep them at temperature on the grill until ready to be served.  He put the asparagus spears on the grill just after turning the steak.  While extra virgin olive oil can be used on asparagus spears being grilled in this fashion, we didn't use any.  As long as the asparagus is grilled lightly just to cook through, it will remain tender without drying out if the oil is omitted.  The asparagus was turned once while grilling.  Asparagus grilled to al dente this way with  nice grill marks and just a hint of smokiness then drizzled with a little butter  is delightfully delicious.  

My husband grilled the porterhouse steak to medium rare with a warm red centre, pink throughout and nice hash marks.  He didn't use any seasoning salt, marinade or barbeque sauce.  This is how we typically grill steaks, letting the flavour of the beef shine rather than being masked by other flavours.  He removed the porterhouse steak from the grill and let rest 8 minutes just shy of the 1 min per 100 g some chefs recommend.   Whole pieces of meat like steaks, chops and roasts should be rested after cooking.  During the grilling (cooking) process, juices are driven towards the centre of the meat.  Resting the meat before serving allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat ensuring it will be moist, tender and juicy when cut. 

The first dinner at our vacation home always reminds me of those camping days of our past.  By the time we get out of the airport, drive to our vacation home stopping for groceries along the way, it is usually after 3 PM.  We are tired from the trip, need to do a bit of unpacking and ready to relax while anticipating a few weeks spent filled with great food, pleasant weather, reuniting with friends and  rejuvenation. 

My husband and I shared the delicious steak dinner sitting on the lanai, listening to the sounds of wildlife change from day to evening. The steak was melt in your mouth, butter knife tender with an amazing flavour!  The potatoes were tender, nicely flavoured from the seasoning.  The asparagus spears were done to perfection!   The evening was warm and slightly balmy, a nice change from the cooler northern weather we had come from earlier in the day.  As we enjoyed the first dinner of our spring vacation, we chatted about how we would spend our time.  After dinner, we went for a ride around the park in our golf cart letting the warm air brush over our bare arms.  And so the first trip to our vacation home of 2013 began...

Dinner Buffet at Cleveland Heights Golf Course in Lakeland, Florida

During our third stay at our vacation home in late 2010, our neighbours invited us to the Early Bird Entertainment Revue and Buffet hosted by Ruby's at the Avenue in Lakeland, Florida (3405 South Florida Avenue in Lakeland, Florida).   This is a weekly event featuring a dinner buffet ($10.95) followed by entertainment by some of the greats - Jim Hendrick (radio station host and MC for the evening), Ken Brady (The Casinos), Jack and Jerry Calhoun.  Eddie Snyder (American composer and song writer)  was at the table behind us!  Nancy Cattarius (Vice President and General Manager of WONN, WPCV, WLKF, and WWRZ) is there fairly often.  Other wonderful entertainers include Dale Glenn (one of our friends), Pablo Reyes, Margaret Burcham, Lorrie Messina and Carlos Roman as well as special appearances by other talented entertainers.

In 2012, the Early Bird Entertainment Revue and Buffet was moved to Cleveland Heights Golf Course located at 2900 Buckingham Ave in Lakeland, Florida.  Cleveland Heights Golf Course is a Division of the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Lakeland.  The Revue is held in the spacious club house which offers more seating and a larger dance floor than Ruby's which is nice as it has been a full house every time we have gone.  Seating is by reservation as far as I know.  We always sit with our friends, Dale and his wife as well as a couple of the entertainers, but have gotten to know a lot of the entertainers and regulars.

Ruby is the cook at The Avenue however the restaurant and kitchen are closed for renovations.  Cleveland Heights Golf Course has a full service restaurant, The Grille open from 6 am to 2 pm daily.  The dinner buffet for the Revue starts at 4 pm so the food is catered in from Ruby.

The buffet is set up is a separate room just off the lounge, behind the stage.  It is all you can with food available until the entertainment ends.  The meal usually consists of soup, salad bar, three choices of meat, three choices of vegetables as well as dessert.  Of course there are all the extras like dinner rolls, condiments and that type of thing.  The menu does vary.  Sometimes the theme is fish, other times chicken as well as pastas.  Usually one of the vegetables is some type of potato dish.

We enjoyed an evening at Early Bird Revue and Buffet the Tuesday before we left (Dec. 20) to come back to the cold weather in Ontario.  The food on the buffet is very much home style cooking and that's what makes it good.  It's not pretentious or fancy, just tasty!  I had roast turkey with cranberry sauce and gravy, ham, yams, collard greens and dressing.  Doesn't it look like a delicious, homemade, home style cooked meal?

The Importance of Marbling in Steak

In recent years, dietary fat has gained a very bad reputation.  Health conscious folks limit their fat intake to the point it can actually be damaging to their health.  I honestly do not believe in ultra low-fat diets.  A certain amount of fat is necessary for the proper brain development in infants and children.  It is needed for the formation of the myelin sheath, the outer white insulating sheet surrounding nerve fibres. Think of myelin as the plastic coating on electrical wires.  If there is reduced myelin, signals cannot travel normally from the brain through the nerve cells.  My graduate thesis involved de-myelination in the proband that lead to a Wernkie's-Korsakoff presentation in an 18 month old child.  Mild loss of myelin can result in reduced brain function, nerve  problems and confusion.  The worst part is, once the myelin is destroyed, no amount of fat is going to replace it.  So it is very, very important to not restrict dietary fat to the point of causing a deficiency.  The second factor in restricting dietary fat comes from the fact that fat makes fat.  In reality, fat comes from starch that was converted from sugars (carbohydrates).  If the body cannot use the sugars ingested, it converts them to starch which is then converted to fat, likely part of our evolutionary make-up to provide nourishment from within when food was sparse.

We have made a tradition of the first meal at our vacation home being grilled steak.  We always choose steaks that are well marbled.  Marbled is just a fancy word for nice fat distribution.  It is apparent by the white throughout the steak as well as a layer of fat around the steak.

Fat add flavour, flavour, flavour!  At the same time it makes the meat tender and juicy.  While some trim the excess fat from steaks, we do not trim if grilling.  Excess fat can cause flare-ups on the grill but flare-ups can be easily controlled.  The outer fat drips down into the grill adding to the smoke flavour.  Fat is easily cut off before eating the steak.  The inner fat (marbling) reduces when grilling while keeping the meat moist and juicy.

A good steak is all about flavour.   It should be tender and juicy, never over cooked but rather just to perfection according to desired doneness.  Be aware that doneness does change over time.  I used to always like my steaks well done but now prefer medium rare.  If you are cooking steaks for others, always ask how they would like their steaks cooked.  We often add caramelized onions or sautéed mushrooms. Both enhance the flavour of grilled steak without overpowering it the way barbeque sauces, steak sauces and seasonings can.  Both of us agree, when you want steak it is that flavour that should shine.  Marbling brings out the flavour of beef.  So, don't shun a bit of fat on any beef cut especially if grilling or broiling.  Choose nicely marbled steaks then trim after grilling for the best flavour.

Traceability Codes on Eggs

We spent most of the month of October at our vacation home in Florida then returned home for most of November before returning to our vacation home November 29 to stay until December 20.    One thing I do notice when shopping in the grocery stores where our vacation home is, is the food labelling.  It's not like I don't see food labelling at home in Ontario, it is I see a lot less of it because of our heavy reliance on whole foods home grown, bought directly from the source (eg. farmers, farm markets, orchards, etc.) or bought in bulk from the bulk food stores.

We buy most of our groceries a Publix when at our vacation home.  However, we also occasionally shop at Sweetbay and Walmart for groceries.  Our flight was late on November 29 so we didn't arrive into Tampa until after midnight so didn't arrive into our vacation home community until about 1:30 AM.  We stopped at Walmart which is open 24 hours to pick up a few groceries to last us for a couple of days.  Part of that purchase was a dozen of extra large eggs.

When I opened the eggs a couple of days later, I found one was broke.  Normally, I check store bought eggs for breakage but at 2 AM the old brain was a bit fuzzy.  Each egg had a 'use by date stamp' with a code below it.  I've seen this type of thing on eggs before.   The use by date is the last date you should use your egg for freshness.  The other code is the traceability code.

Traceability codes are on most commercially prepared products, cheeses, some meat products, dairy, some bakery goods, canned and jarred foods, and dairy.  The traceability code is usually found under the best by or use by date.  It is normally a series of alpha numerical characters separated into groups as the one on the eggs.  The groups may be separated by spaces or dashes.  Essentially, the code can gives information from the grower to the processing plant.  This is the code that is used when a food product is recalled which is one reason foods should be stored in their original packaging.  If you have a mobile device, it is easy to check the traceability code while you are shopping before buying.

Here's a short video that explains how eggs are graded and how they can be traced back to the producer.


We bought the extra large eggs at Walmart on November 30 for $2.08.  I pay $2 per dozen from the organic farm and $3.49 at the grocery store for free range eggs at home (Ontario).  I put the code AX-P1306-306 into The Egg Tracker at My Fresh Egg.   This dozen eggs were processed on November 1, 2012 from Cal-Maine Farms located in Bushnell, Florida.  They were Grade A, extra large sold under the brand name Sunny Meadows.  I got all that information just from the code that was on the egg using The Egg Tracker!

What I found concerning was the eggs were already a month old when we bought them.  I wasn't pleased about that.  The use by date was December 15 which means the eggs had a freshness span of 45 days.  When I buy eggs from the organic farmer at home, the eggs were collected the same day so not even a full 24 hours old!  In other words, the eggs we normally use are fresh not days old.  To date, I have not found a source for fresh (hours old), free range eggs at our vacation home.  I have an app on the iPad called Eat Local to find farmer's markets near our vacation home so that has been a huge help as far as finding fresh, local produce.  Now we just need to do a bit of networking to find fresh sources for meats, cheeses and eggs.

The Simple Sandwich

The guys spent a week with us during our fall vacation in October.  This has become an annual golfing event for the guys, my husband included who would live on the golf course given his druthers.  The guys played a round of golf (18 holes) each day they were there.  There are two award winning golf courses in our resort but unlike some golf courses there is no cart service for food or drinks.  There is however, beautiful eye candy is a gorgeous setting peppered with gators and other wildlife.  Guaranteed, when golfing there you are going to see at least one gator and in fact we see on average three or more gators daily.  

The guys take their own drinks and sandwiches.  I have yet to make bread at our vacation home as I don't have a KitchenAid stand mixer and can no longer knead dough by hand.  Publix has a lovely in-store bakery so we end up buying fresh baked bread there.  We tend to buy the sourdough bread but the guys like the butter bread.  We picked up a couple of loaves of butter bread, lunch meat, sliced cheese, romaine lettuce, tomatoes, onions and alfalfa sprouts along with condiments.

Each day they made their sandwiches and drinks just after a home cooked breakfast.  It was rather impressive to see the four guys getting things ready for their round of golf.  It was an assembly line for the sandwiches!  They were simple sandwiches yet healthy and nutritious, perfect for on the golf course.  The sandwiches and drinks were carefully packed in a cooler on our golf cart with the other golf cart carrying any extras.

I'm seriously considering bringing our own sandwiches the next time we visit Disney World.  I already bring a water bottle (Britta with filter) with me when we go there and since we have an annual pass, like most we tend to arrive early and leave late.  I don't mind spending at Disney World but seriously, bottles of water do tend to add up and they are always cold, something I really don't like.  I also don't like that the empty bottles add to waste so bringing my own re-usable water bottle is an eco-friendly solution.  Since we are there all day, a sandwich for lunch is nice because we know we already have reservations for dinner so I really don't mind saving a bit on lunch without having to wait in line or finding somewhere to grab a bit of lunch.

It's hot in Florida or at least it is when we tend to be there so sandwiches are always the perfect lunch meal.  We seldom buy breakfast or lunch when we are at our vacation home because both are always less expensive made at home.  That is always something to keep in mind when on vacation.  If you reduce the cost of breakfast and lunch by making your own, you can splurge on dinner and that's where you really want to do a bit of splurging when on vacation!

Balsamic Mushroom Slices

We often have friends and relatives stay with us at our vacation home.  During our fall vacation in October, four of the guys arrived the same day my husband's sister and our nephew left.  They were down for a week of serious golfing while enjoying the sun.  While do a fair share of eating out when they are down, we also cook meals.  Most of the breakfasts and lunches are made at home as well as about half of the dinners.  Don't get me wrong as we love eating out but getting into relaxed mode makes it easier to eat at home some days.

The nice thing is, most of our family and friends are foodies as well so they love to help with the cooking and KP duty.  This is a wonderful way to share recipes and lots of good conversation peppered heavily with laughter.

My husband picked up rib eye steaks to grill for dinner.  Sautéed mushrooms are almost a must have with steak followed closely by caramelized onions.  One of the guys was making his specialty caramelized onions in a bourbon reduction.  I decided to get creative with the sautéed mushrooms.  I started them as I normally do in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and butter.  When the mushrooms were at the sweat point, I made a change.

Balsamic vinegar reduction is absolutely delightful and ever so easy to make.  Simply pour balsamic vinegar into a fry pan then bring to a simmer.  Continue cooking until it is reduced to the consistency of a medium thick syrup.  It is a lovely, rich, full bodied  sauce ideal for serving over meats but also works nicely over some sweets like vanilla icecream.   I reasoned a balsamic vinegar reduction would go nicely with the mushrooms while complimenting the flavour of the grilled steaks.  Instead of making the balsamic vinegar reduction separately, I added about a half cup of balsamic vinegar to the cooking mushrooms.  I thought it would infuse the mushrooms with the rich flavour of the reduction.  

I continued cooking the mushrooms until the balsamic vinegar was nicely reduced.  The mushrooms were nicely sautéed with a lovely hint of caramelization but with a deeper, richer colouring.  The aroma was tantalizing!

The whole kitchen smelled heavenly between my mushrooms and our friend's onions!  Both took about the same time to cook.  Both were simple variations of traditional toppings served with steak.  My husband had raved about our friends bourbon onions so I kept my fingers crossed the balsamic sautéed mushrooms would  be equally well received.

The meal was rather simple yet quite delicious consisting of grilled rib eye steaks, grilled potatoes,  balsamic sautéed mushrooms and bourbon caramelized onions, and a garden salad.  I could not believe how such simple variations by adding balsamic vinegar to the mushrooms and bourbon to the onions, made such a difference.  That is not sour cream on the potatoes.  It is Greek style yogurt that is lower in fat with a bit richer flavour than sour cream.

This really is what makes cooking so much fun.  It really doesn't take much to change a recipe for a totally different result.  Simply substituting one type of vinegar for another can change the flavour of a dish.  I found that out years ago with canning recipes.   Adding in flavour enhancers like bourbon, sherry or wine can make a huge difference in the flavour as well.  So don't be afraid to do a bit of experimenting substituting one or more ingredient with a variant of that ingredient.

Gater Bites

There are a lot of alligators around the area of our vacation home.  I love taking the golf cart out after dinner to get a few pictures.  I don't even have to go a block before I spot them.  Gators are to be respected because they can easily maim or kill a human. They can out run a human who is running in a straight line so the best defense if one comes after you is to run in a zig zag.  Now, with me it would be rolling into the fetal position knowing the gater is going to win.  The thing is gators really are rather docile so won't attack unless provoked.  Being of sound mind, I stay in the golf cart taking only pictures and never provoking them.  We have a 10 footer in the resort where our vacation home is.  Talk about an impressive animal!

Gater is offered at many Floridian restaurants usually as a breaded appetizer.  I have seen frozen gator pieces at one grocery store but they really aren't the norm.  I've never seen them at Publix, Sweetbay, Walmart or Sam's Club.  They tend to be a bit more popular in tourist type areas like Key West and pub grub style restaurants.

Everyone says alligator tastes like chicken but seriously it doesn't.  The closest it comes to is frog legs.  It is mildly flavoured but has a considerably different texture from chicken.  Gator is usually served as an appetizer with some type of spicy dipping sauce, almost like a tartar sauce kicked up a bit with hot pepper sauce.  It is usually breaded similar to chicken nuggets.  If you can find gator meat, they would be very easy to make at home.  Our nephew was delighted to enjoy a basket of gator bites.  It really made his day before heading back to the cold of home.  Talk about good times spent in the company of family :)

WildSide Bar & Grille in Kissimmee, Florida

My husband and I spent our fall vacation (October 2 - 23, 2012) at our vacation home in sunny Florida.  This vacation is very much a family, friends and golf vacation which means we end up making a few trips to two different airports depending on where family and friends are flying into and out of.  We arrived in Tampa late on October 2 then made the drive to our vacation home.  My husband's sister and her pre-teen arrived on October 5 on a bit earlier flight in Orlando to spend the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend with us.  We decided to go for dinner before picking them up.  So we pointed Lucy (our GPS) in the direction of a restaurant we wanted to try close to the airport.  That ended up in a field of nothing!  We told Lucy to take us to our next choice and again were greeted with an empty field.  So, we drove around heading towards downtown Orlando where we found a nice little gem of a restaurant.

We are huge barbecue and grilling fans.  Although the terms are used interchangeably  there is a difference.  Barbeque is low, slow cooking (hours) which gives tender, juicy, fall off the bone results.  Grilling is high heat that seals in the juices giving nice hash marks.  The best of both worlds combined with smoking is to do the BBQ then finish off with grilling.  Well, we spotted a huge smoker outside of a restaurant and knew that was it so we stopped in for dinner.

WildSide Bar & Grill has three locations, two in Orlando and one in Kissimmee.  We stopped at the Kissimmee location at 7725 W. Highway 192 just a short distance from the Walt Disney World Resort.  There is a really lovely piece of wall art on the side of the building where we parked (to left of photo out of camera range).  I was going to include it as well but five pictures is about the maximum for a blog post.  There is covered outdoor seating on the front porch and in the gazebo, both facing Highway 192 (W Irlo Bronson Memorial Hwy).  After taking several pictures, we decided to eat indoors out of the misty rain, high humidity and threatening a heavier shower.

Just take a look at this gorgeous smoker set-up. Isn't it impressive?  I would have loved to see it in action so that is on our to-do list for our winter vacation.  The black smoker unit on the far right is a separate smoker from the larger unit.  The larger grey unit is part of their full service catering for any special occasion but I imagine they fire it up on premises as well.

We dodged the rain, noting patrons enjoying a drink and bit of quiet time on the covered patio shielded from the rain.  It looked cozy and inviting but in Florida with rain comes humidity so we made our way into the restaurant to the comforts of air conditioning.

Oh my, this place immediately hit you with a warm and welcoming feeling.  It has almost a British pub feeling yet more.  The restaurant is two levels high, with a lot of wood.  To the right on the lower level is an open fire grill.  The picture was taken from our table just to the bottom of the picture right beside the last opening in the wood railing.  There were an abundance of HD televisions to indulge in as many sports as desired.  Now this place definitely had atmosphere!

We were promptly greeted and the wait staff made us feel like they had nothing else to do but wait on us.  They were extremely friendly, very attentive to our needs, and just downright pleasant.    The wait staff themselves make this a must stop at restaurant.  They are absolutely delightful!  This is a very good indication that management here treats their staff well which is reflected in the service they give to their patrons.

The restaurant offers a variety of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes, chicken, ribs and seafood.  My husband told me to order the lobster tails which normally I would be very tempted but I was in the mood for good BBQ.

After our drink orders, a photographer came around to take our picture.  We declined.   We often get one of the waitresses to take a picture of us anyway but we prefer having the photo on our camera where we have control of where it goes.   We aren't comfortable having our pictures online but that doesn't appear to be the case with WildSide.  It's more of a souvenir photo to remember your visit to the WildSide.

We knew we had to meet a flight so didn't have a lot of spare time after encountering a large detour to get around a massive accident.  Surprisingly, we did not have to wait long for our meals at all even though we never told our waiter that.  Our meals came with a small loaf of warm bread that was brought out within a few minutes of ordering followed by my salad.  My husband ordered the half rack of baby back ribs ($15.99) that came with a choice of two sides.  Extra sides are available at a small charge if desired.  The ribs were dry rubbed then grilled to perfection.  He had macaroni $ cheese and BBQ baked beans as the sides.  As promised, the baby back ribs were grilled to perfection -  mouth-watering, tender and flavourful.  He was quite pleased with his meal!

I ordered the half smoked chicken ($12.99) that came with a choice of two sides.  My side choices were roasted red potatoes and a garden salad with Thousand Island dressing (not pictured).  My gosh, the potatoes were delicious perfectly complementing the chicken.  The chicken was nicely seasoned, delightfully tender and aromatic.  They really could have done without the nachos to help fill up the plate as they didn't go with anything.  Besides, with warm loaves of bread who needs nachos?  This proved to be too large of a serving for me but then I wasn't feeling well to begin with.  I would have loved to take the left-overs back to the vacation home but we didn't have a cooler with us.  We still had to pick up my husband's sister and young one at the airport then make our way back to our vacation home.

The only negative thing I can say about this restaurant is I wish we had a bit more time to relax and enjoy it. With Lucy taking us on wild goose chases we lost a bit of time and even though their plane took off 15 minutes late, they arrived early so we got the phone call midst meal they had just landed.  It was skedaddle time but rest assured this is going to be one restaurant we will be revisiting during our winter vacation!

New York Strip Steaks

My husband and I love our beef.  We are used to eating very good quality, hormone free, grass-fed beef that we buy as a calf that is then raised to slaughter age by one of our friends.  It is not surprising that we do enjoy our steaks.  The first dinner at our vacation home with the exception of our very first trip when we were just setting up the house, has been grilled steak.  The morning following our arrival we head into town to get groceries for a few days.  Good steaks, ingredients for a salad and potatoes are always part of the groceries the first trip.

At home we are well acquainted with local growers and know where to find the best quality meat possible.  Unfortunately, we cannot say the same about the area around our vacation home although we are learning quickly.  At home, I'm used to buying from a small mom & pop butcher shop or the abattoir aside of our annual bulk meat purchase.
We like shopping at Publix when at our vacation home although we have bought groceries at Sweetbay, Sam's Club and Wal-mart.  The Publix closest to us has just had a gorgeous make-over but it was nice before.  Their meat counter is very nice and we can get custom cut like we are used to.  Our bulk beef purchase for 2012 cost us $2.52 per lb so seeing a $7.99 price per pound was a bit discerning on the surface.  In perspective, a steak entrée will cost $25 or more in restaurants so the price per pound really is not that bad.

Aside of having nice quality meat at reasonable prices, Publix prints out the cooking instructions on the labels for their custom cut and meat counter meats.  This is an extra feature I haven't seen elsewhere.  I've seen cooking instructions on pre-packaged meats like those wrapped in plastic wrap on a styrofoam tray but not this custom print-out.  Another nice thing Publix does is if you buy a cut of meat that should be baked, they package it in an ovenproof container, something that was very much appreciated during our first trip to our vacation home when we literally had zilch as far as far as kitchen supplies and equipment.

As steak lovers we both agree that a good steak should be close to an inch thick.  Thinner cuts can quickly turn into shoe leather when grilling.  The only time we use a thin cut of steak is when delicating it or making a rolarde.  Leftover steak can be used to make wraps, stir frys or soups.

We bought two inch thick, custom cut New York strip steaks for $12.30.  New York strip steaks are cut from the short loin.  This is a muscle that isn't used much so the meat is quite tender.   Don't they look delightful?  They grilled up perfectly, just what we needed to start our fall vacation off on a good note.

Honestly, the meat counter at the Publix we go to is just as friendly as our local butcher shop and they do cut the meat to our specification.  They are quite attentive to our needs and aim to please.  It's nice that we have found a solution to our meat purchases at our vacation home.  I'd still like to find a mom & pop butcher shop there but so far have had no luck.  I think a lot has to do with the location.  The town is actually considerably larger than the closest city to us at home but it is very much geared towards snowbirds visiting for the winter months.  At any rate we shall keep looking...

Hockeytown Cafe (Detroit Metro Airport) - The Start of Our Fall 2012 Vacation

My husband and I own a vacation home in Florida where we spend anywhere from three to five weeks per vacation in the spring, fall and winter.  In all, it amounts to about 3 months per year.  Logistically this creates a bit of a culinary dilemna at both residences during the time we prepare to travel to one or the other.  When we are preparing to leave for our vacation home, we don't buy any perishable food for a week or so before.  This means if we are out of eggs a week before we leave, we simply don't cook anything requiring eggs.  I clean out the refrigerator, with anything we didn't use (eg. produce, eggs) going to one of our kids then wash the refrigerator from top to bottom.  We we arrive back home the refrigerator is pretty much empty except for condiments and a can of coffee.  On the vacation home side, depending on the time period we arrive to a completely bare refrigerator.  We rent our vacation home out when we aren't there so cannot leave anything in the refrigerator or freezer.  We do store a small amount of non-perishable food in a locked closet.  We are able to leave food in the refrigerator between the fall and winter vacation which helps somewhat.

We left for our fall vacation on October 2, 2012 return home on October 23.  We travel light with only backpacks, computer case and purse.  That means we don't take much in the way of food with us either way.  The night before we usually eat out so as to not create any garbage in the house.  Travel day is a light breakfast with coffee or tea, home canned soup or other home canned quick meal and dinner at the airport.

We usually fly out of Detroit Metro Airport when going to our vacation home so enjoy eating at the Hockeytown Cafe.  Airport food in general tends to be a bit more expensive. The food is good and prices reasonable.  My husband ordered the Double Play Burger which consists of two half pound patties of seasoned fresh ground beef served with lettuce, tomato, red onion and choice of cheese.  It came with a side of nacho chips and salsa.  At $11.95 this was a rather good deal.  He declared the burger delicious and filling!


I ordered the Chicken Caesar Wrap ($8.95).  It consisted of a grilled sliced chicken breast wrapped in a flour lavash with romaine lettuce, Caesar dressing, croutons and Parmesan cheese served with a dill pickle, nachos and salsa.  A lavash is an Armenian flatbread similar to a Mexican flour tortilla but rolled into a larger rectangular shape rather than a round.  Traditionally, a lavish is shaped then slapped against the sides of a clay oven to cook.  It is made from flour, salt and water.  This was a large wrap!  It was very tasty.  I ate one half of the wrap then popped the other half into a zipper sandwich bag to enjoy during the flight.

Chicken Caesar wraps are one of my favourite summertime meals.  I keep packets of grilled and pan fried chicken breast strips in the freezer specifically for this purpose.  I usually do up a batch of 15 to 20 chicken breasts at a time.  I like to grill (preferred method) or pan fry the chicken breasts with a light seasoning of lemon pepper that really accents the flavour of the Caesar dressing nicely.  Once the chicken is cooked, I let cool enough to set the juices then slice into strips and place in the refrigerator to finish cooling.  When the chicken is fully cooled, I package into quart vacuum sealer bags, vacuum seal and freeze.  With these on hand it is always easy to whip up a quick yet delicious wrap with little effort!

Captain J's Ocean Front Restaurant in Cocoa Beach, Florida

We arrived at our vacation home in the later evening hours of May 8 with another couple who would be staying with us until we returned from Aruba.  It had been an uneventful flight.  We were tired and decided to cook at home the following day.  On the Thursday we headed down for a road trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida to connect up with our friend's (the other couple) son who works on the cruise ships.  After our scenic drive, we met up with their son at Captain J's Ocean Front Restaurant.

Captain J's Ocean Front Restaurant is located at 211 E Cocoa Beach Cswy in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  The cozy, casual dining restaurant is on the beach so you can dine while enjoying all the sights and sounds of the beach.  We ate at the tiki bar, just off the upper deck over looking the Cocoa Beach.  The view was gorgeous and the atmosphere was relaxed and casual.  The service and food was average for this type of restaurant.  Despite a few less than stellar online ratings, we enjoyed our food.

We ordered the coconut shrimp (not pictured).  I ordered the grouper.  This was a delicious, light meal perfect for a hot day.  The meal would not score a ten on presentation but it was definitely better than some of the reviews indicated.  What I didn't like and this is a very common practice at many pub-style restaurants is the baked potato came wrapped in tin foil.  Not only does this get the diner's hands dirty while leaving the potato skin almost soggy, it is a safety issue if the potato has not been kept in the proper temperature zone prior to serving.  Potatoes in foil present a very good opportunity for food born illness including botulism.

My husband ordered the baked scallops.  They were served with a baked potato and mixed vegetable of the day.  The scallops were quite tasty!

On a scale of one to ten for pub grub food, I would rate this restaurant a six but will admit the view definitely helped tip the scale.  The food itself was very much average for Florida beach side bars.  What was nice, is most of their dishes could easily be duplicated at home.  In fact, I would almost call their food home style cooking because there was nothing pretentious about it.  The food was simply good.

When it comes to restaurants, you don't always need spectacular food, you need good food.  Captain J's did not disappoint.  This really is a nice beach front restaurant to visit.  The view is well worth it!

Back From Our Spring Vacation

For the past two years we have spent our time between our permanent home in Ontario, Canada and our vacation home in Florida, USA.  We left for our vacation home on May 8 with another couple, then flew from there to beautiful Aruba on May 12 where we stayed at the gorgeous Costa Linda Resort.  We returned to our vacation home on May 19 and our friends departed the next day leaving us to enjoy the sunny Florida weather until May 29.   I have spent the last few days getting my home kitchen back to full gear.   That means I have a lot of foodie fun to share with you!

If you have been following this blog, you will know that we also cook while at our vacation home.  The timeshare in Aruba also had cooking facilities.  At the same time, we very much enjoy exploring the local culinary opportunities when we travel.  One of the highlights of this trip was the manager of a very, very lovely restaurant in Aruba with dining on the beach took me on a tour of their kitchen!!! [more on that shortly]  Another in Florida where we have dined several times and knows I blog about them came out to great us at the table. 

Over the next couple of weeks I will share our culinary and travel adventures with you,  Mind you I'm into full gardening mode, took on a huge community project and starting the heavier canning season.  I'm hoping to still be able to get local asparagus and strawberries are just around the corner.  A lot of exciting culinary chit chat and recipes are just around the corner!

Caesar Salad at the Airport

Although I am sure some of my readers realized I was way for the past three weeks, some do not.  We left southwestern Ontario (Canada) on May 8 for our vacation home.  Then we flew out of Fort Lauderdale on May 12 to spend a wonderful side trip to Aruba.  We returned to our vacation home on May 19 where we stayed until May 29.  It was a wonderful, food filled vacation of which I will share some of our foodie finds and favourite restaurants in the next couple of weeks.!

We always fly out of Detroit Metro Airport usually on Spirit but occasionally on Delta.  Now Spirit is a low budget air service that provides a seat and washroom.  You can't even get a glass for water without paying for it!  Once clearing security you can buy food and non-alcoholic drinks that can be brought on board if desired.

Airport food is expensive compared to other restaurants but you are paying for the convenience of getting food before boarding.  We have arrived several times where the airport restaurants a closed so which is really a pain if your flight is delayed.  Spirit does sell non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks as well as limited number of snacks but they only accept credit cards or debit card, no cash.

We get there early enough to get through security so we have a bit of down time in one of the restaurants.  Once cleared security, we head to one of the bars where we can order fairly decent, all be it pricey food.  We stopped at the Redwing Bar for lunch.  I seriously do not like much in my tummy when flying.  Quite frankly, my choice would be no food at all before flying by my husband insists I eat a little.  Don't worry about me going without food for part of the day as I do make up for it once we are safely at our destination.

I ordered the chicken Caesar salad and ate just enough to appease my husband .  This is just a lovely salad that can easily be made at home.  Chicken strips are one of my favourite quick meal starts.  Look for chicken on sale then skin and debone.  Pan fry or barbecue the chicken and cut into strips.  Package in meal sized servings then freeze until you want to use it.  Use the chicken strips for Caesar salad or wraps. 

Dining on the Yacht StarShipII, Channelside Dock in Tampa, Florida

My husband and I returned home yesterday day from a wonderful two and a half week vacation to our vacation home in sunny Florida.  I'm sure some of my regular readers realized I was blogging from there.  We had a wonderful, delicious break from home flying out first to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to spend a couple of days then onto to Florida where we spent the remainder of the trip.  We had a lot of fun and ate a lot of great food.  The day of our departure, I tripped at the airport suffering a rather nasty looking shiner.  I'm not impressed especially since my husband said my fancy rocker sole trainers have to go since this is the third time they have tried to kill me.  Anyway, today I wanted to share a very special dinner my husband and I enjoyed during our vacation.

My husband and I do a lot of boating home side since we own a boat.  The last two visits to our vacation home we have made it a point to include boating of some type into our side trips.  The beauty of boating is you get to see a lot of things you would not see by land.

My husband bought tickets for a dinner cruise aboard the Yacht StarShip II docked at the Channelside Dock at 603 Channelside Drive in Tampa Bay.  Isn't she a gorgeous vessel?  Tickets included a three course dinner prepared by Executive Chef Bob Barfield with an optional fourth course.  The YachtStarShip II is America's first three diamond rated dining yacht.  The two and a half hour dinner cruise also featured dancing on the second level, ane amazing view on the promenade.  The total retail value for two was $181.90 but going through Groupon he got the tickets for $80, gratuity not included ($8 per person).  Alcoholic drinks were not included as well.  We spent a total of $150.82 but it was well worth it!

Looking back on the pictures I took, I realized I did not take a picture of the dining room, on the main level below the entertainment room (pictured).  You are assigned a table in the dining room that is tastefully decorated.  It had a warm and cosy feeling with a navy blue and white theme to accent the beautiful cherry wood. 

The entertainment room carries through the them of blue and white accenting the cherry wood.  There is ample windows to enjoy the beautiful view while relaxing after dinner.  The door on the end leads to the promenade where you can take drinks or simply enjoy gliding over the water in open air during warmer weather.  We went up to take a few pictures but didn't stay long as the air had turned cool

The dinner cruise is designed so that not everyone eats at the same time.  The wait staff take your order then bring out the courses when you want time leaving you free to enjoy the sights and dine at your leisure.  They recommend the first hour and a half for dining leaving the last hour for relaxing and dancing. 

The spacious windows and promenade offer many photo opportunities.  Pictured is the city of Tampa as seen from the cruise ship with the setting sun on the buildings.  Gliding along the water taking many, many pictures was just a wonderful way to dine!

I really apologize as I got so captivated in being on the yacht and enjoying the water I did not take as many pictures of the food as I should have.  We ordered citrus peppered calamari served with two dipping sauces as an appetizer (not pictured).  The calamari was flash fried.  The sauces consisted of a very lightly seasoned puréed tomato sauce along with a tomato based tartar sauce.  Also not pictured are the dinner salads served before the entrées.

The dinner rolls were not rolls at all but rather squares of delicious flat breads.  There was a white, whole wheat, multi grain and sourdough each topped with a suitable topping.  The rolls were served hot with a side of butter.  This would be very easy to duplicate at home by rolling out the prepared bread dough then cutting into squares before baking.

The menu selection on the Yacht StarShipII is limited.  There were four available entrées - chicken benville, fresh catch of the day, pumpkin ravoli and premium reserve pork chop.  I'm sure this varies by season.  My husband ordered the angus filet ($11.95 additional charge) medium rare with the au jour on the side.  The entée consisted of 8 oz of black angus filet of beef with porcini marsala sauce served with bleu cheese yokon gold mash and roasted broccolini.

I liked the presentation!  It was clean, sleek with nice eye appeal.  My husband said it was quite delicious, well worth the extra price. 

I ordered the fresh catch of the day which consisted of Atlantic wild salmon topped with a delectable creamy sauce.  The generous portion of salmon rested on a bed of seasoned rice and side of steamed green beans.  I did not catch the name of the sauce used but it was slightly citrus flavoured. 

The piece of salmon was absolutely delicious but far more than I could eat.  Salmon is a dense and filling fish as it is but this was quite a large serving.  After dinner we retired to the entertainment room where we enjoyed cocktails and dancing before the yacht returned to port.  Waiting for us on our table were two slices of pumpkin cheesecake in take-out containers as we had opted for no dessert with our meal.  It was rather good with coffee the next morning for breakfast!

I will leave you with one of the sunset pictures we took during the dinner cruise.  We have very fond memories and a lot of photos of our dinner cruise.  It is something I would highly recommend to anyone.  The experience was quite delightful!

Yes, it was a bit more expensive and had we paid full price it would have been about $260 for the evening but it still would have been worth it.  My husband and I don't gift each other at Christmas.  Instead we pamper ourselves  through-out the year.  You only go through life once and while most of us would not dream of paying that price for dinner on a regular basis, a one time splurge makes it worthwhile be frugal 99% of the time.  This dinner cruise was definitely well worth it!  Just look at that beautiful sunset...

Easy Red Velvet Cake

'Tis the season for yummy treats!  There is an abundance of cookies, desserts and snacks at every holiday get together.  I have a repertoire of holiday recipes that I use during the Christmas holiday season.  One thing I look for when adding a new recipe to that collection is that it must be easy.  I don't want to be rushing out the door to pick up an ingredient to make a treat an hour before company is coming.

Red Velvet Cake is a nice, easy to make holiday cake.  I use the Easy Red Velvet Cake recipe from the Betty Crocker website.   The nice thing about this easy recipe is it is a perfect recipe for Christmas baking with kids to make holiday baking a family affair.   Like many easy recipes, this recipe does not require a lot of ingredients or special equipment.  The recipe uses buttermilk or water.  I recommend using buttermilk for a richer flavour.  The red food colouring does not add any flavour, it just adds a festive touch to the cake.

Red Velvet Cake is generally served as a cake, cut into pieces but I like making mini Red Velvet Cupcakes for a delectable tiny treat.  I use the Christmas theme mini cupcake paper liners for the cupcakes to add a festive look.  After frosting the mini cupcakes, I garnish with a few chocolate sprinkles.  These are perfect for the dessert table and for bake sales.  They are a keeper  for the holiday season!