Coming backAs I sit here at my laptop, I think ... "How am I going to do this?" Where do I start? What am I going to talk about? HOW am I going to even begin writing about the journey that I have been on?
Countless times have I started typing and set aside a few words, a paragraph or two, or even a whole page. Though, I never did post. I didn't think I was ready. Thoughts, feelings, insights, etc... entries in my email or journal, in personal texts, on scraps of paper, or swimming in my mind. And I am finally deciding to bring it all together. To share my burdens, my joys, my strengths and weaknesses, my insights, ... my life; this blog is no longer just about food. And if there's an ear out there, I am blessed. And perhaps I can bring truth to your world, as God has brought it to mine. Truth. About our purpose here. Truth. About my struggles. Truth. About my joys. Truth. About health. Truth. About our world. There are so many lies we were born or taught into believing and their manifestations are far beyond UgLy. But when we learn the Truth, we can make the changes we need to be better for our Lord and Savior. The changes that perfect us and make us new. I am becoming new. It is no easy journey and I am certainly not through, but I will no longer let the waiting period dictate the postponement of sharing my story. And so let it begin. This is my story... |
"Food is an infinitely rich subject, and there's always something about it to understand better, something new to discover, a fresh source of interest, ideas, and delight." |
Today was such a great day that I feel just too inspired not to share at this very moment. It was most specifically the venture out with my friend to a new (though established for nearly 5 years now) cafe and coffee shoppe: The Sleeping Moon Cafe (https://www.facebook.com/sleepingmooncafe) located in Winter Park, FL. It was seriously one of the best coffee shoppes I've ever been to. (The other best is Tryst in Washington, DC.) Upon first walking up to the cafe, your first thought is that it may just be a typical coffee shoppe - since the store front is fairly plain. But the moment you walk in, your life is transformed and the coffee shoppe that once was alongside a major highway is now situated in a cool, quaint town that only true cafe dwellers know about. I would describe this getaway as aesthetically Bohemian. There were branches with birds, paintings of various colors, bottles of colored glass, and other crafty decor that dressed up the atmosphere. They even had a stage for live performance. Open mic nights are key to true coffee shoppes by the way... As for the cafe itself, they offered a variety of paninis, wraps, salads, and finger foods all prepared fresh, in addition to whole leaf teas, coffee drinks, milkshakes, and smoothies. I mean, even their hand-crafted beverage syrups were homemade! And they were still cheaper than Starbucks. Go figure. I loved speaking with our barista and chef. Our barista, Jade, had worked there for a few years, went off into another career and then came back for the love of it. As for the chef, Erin: he started his own catering business, but due to a lack of profit had to close it down. Nevertheless, with his culinary degree, he became a chef at the SMC. My friend, Rachel, and I each chose to order a panini due to the size and visual appeal. She ordered their Ham and Apple Wow panini with Blackforest ham, sliced apples, cheddar and Havarti cheeses, and whole berry cranberries whereas I was deciding between that and the New Zealand Bistro (sliced turkey breast, house kiwi chutney, and Havarti cheese), both of which are served on French bread. And so what did Jade recommend?? BOTH! Half and half to make a whole sandwich, and no up-charge either. And so that is what I ordered and my favorite turned out to be Jade's favorite: the New Zealand Bistro. The Havarti cheese was cut up into very small cubes and the kiwi chutney was spread on the bread at just the right thickness, with just the right taste, and just the right texture. Now don't get me wrong, the Ham and Apple wow was delicious, but the New Zealand Bistro was better (and Erin was very happy to hear that since the kiwi chutney was his own recipe). And the bread was so fresh that with every bite came a crunch of glory. As for drinks, Rachel ordered a mocha latte - which Jade made - and I was waiting until after we ate to order a drink. Since we sat at the bar, we were able to talk to Jade and watch her craft each beverage. It looked as though she tasted each beverage via the 'straw method' (dipping a straw in, capping your figure over the top, and releasing the captured fluid in your mouth without ever touching the beverage) before delivering it to its owner. She was a true chef of sorts. In other words, a real chef - good and true - tastes what he (or she) makes before he serves it because he wants only the best, almost euphoric experience to come out of eating or drinking what his hands have created. And that was Jade. She admitted to not having the expertise of designing the coffee's 'face', but rather having the ability to create a darn good cup of bliss. Toward the last few bites of our paninis, Jade handed Rachel and I a sample of their Rose tea (freshly brewed Rose petals (? - some part of the plant) with sugar and then chilled), in a tiny espresso cup. It was true that the tea was of a delicate, sweet flavor, with a lingering suggestion of Rose. Erin then jumped in and made a cold thai tea (fresh brewed thai tea with sugar and then chilled, with a splash of cream), which he then sampled in a tiny espresso cup. We all know that cream means fat means flavor so this tiny cup had quite the taste. Thankful for their efforts and intrigued at their crafty minds, I had a challenge for Erin: "make me something I would like. My only requirements were that it : 1. Was hot, 2. Had skim, almond, or soy milk, 3. Involved tea, and 4. Tasted like autumn." He immediately went to work mixing, tasting, and heating, until the final product came out: an original spiced thai tea latte made with fresh brewed hot thai tea (from thai tea leaves), soy milk, pumpkin spice syrup (which they made in house with a homemade simple syrup and pumpkin extract), ginger, and cloves, topped with a cloud of whipped cream. It was delightful. That's the magic of the culinary arts; there is always something new and exciting waiting to be created and shared. That is why I love food. And I love to share. Which is the inspiration for my blog. This is also why I will sometimes tell my waiter/waitress/barista/bartender to surprise me from either a set of ingredients or a few choices from the menu. Because once it all comes down to the decision, they usually know best and will do the most to make your experience a 'one and only' kind of experience.
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Howdy folks. Living the southern life down here. Meaning it's hot. That's about it. Otherwise I'm living my life as best as I can. Being the month that it is, it's the slow season here at Disney so work is slow (and my weekends are longer than expected. Good but still need the money.) During these lovely days, I've been my typical foodie, workout, cleaning, ___fill in the blank___ self. A day worth mentioning however was last Saturday.... Saturday was a beautiful day. Both in the events and the weather (well ... for FL at the least). Joe and I went to Wekiva Springs and rented a canoe for a few hours. Paddling through the lily pads and plants, under the trees, and around other such barriers of beauty, we spotted several turtles and a few birds, one of which was a Great Blue Heron. We took a detour at one point, but then felt that we should turn around since the water looked rather stagnant and the path a bit foreboding (and fit with more barriers than the commonly traveled path - but isn't that how life is anyway?) After canoeing we went to a coffee shoppe and shared a vegan muffin and each ordered a chai latte(me) and coffee(Joe). The coffee shoppe was very unique with an artist in the back painting the wall with willow trees and nature. We soon went to a used book store called Brightlight Books and got lost in a sea of wonderful books, cds, and dvds. With much desire to buy so much, I permitted myself but one purchase and that was a 15$ ($40 originally) book called On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. And this book. is. AWESOME. I've barely even skimmed it and I'm addicted. It's an 818 pager full of facts on food and the science and history of it all. The first chapter is on mammals and milk. .... Did you know that goats and sheep were the species first milked by humans? THEN they milked cows. Even more, the first milkings were collected into containers made of animal skins or stomachs? Fascinating. Milk was highly valued (still is) in the past because cows, goats, etc could produce this high quality milk off of a diet of dry, cellulose-worthy grass. So when conditions of drought were hurting their crops, farmers were still able to yield a high supply of milk from their head of cattle or whatever spp they had. There's a bunch of other information, but that's just a dusting of a viewing of the book. After the bookstore, we went out to Prato (http://www.prato-wp.com/): a true Authentic Italian restaurant in Winter Park. I had been there only once before with my roommate Brittany and so I knew that they were good. Joe and I sat outside and were instantly served herbed focaccia bread with extra virgin olive oil (to which I added salt and pepper to make the flavor a bit more robust). Our server Taylor helped us decide between their selection of pizzas where their Diavolo and Florentina were the best on the menu (well... in his opinion). Since the Diavolo was so meat-focused, we decided to split their Florentina, enjoying creamed spinach and prosciutto with fontina cheese. I ordered a red glass of either their Supertuscan or Primitivo (I can't remember! They were just the cheapest on the menu haha. But that did NOT take away from the good flavor that wine should have.), from which Joe stole a few sips. Though I was sharing so maybe he really wasn't stealing. ANYWAY ... for dessert we shared a scoop of chocolate gelato with a salted olive oil drizzle. Might sound weird, but it was truly delicious. An interesting story to our dinner excursion ... we were sitting next to a daughter and her mother, where the daughter was treating her mom for her birthday. The daughter's two little dachshunds were below the table trying to catch any scraps falling from above. At one point, the daughter hand-combed her dog's hair and it went flying in our direction toward our pizza (though neither Joe nor I really minded - is that weird? I mean we grew up with dogs..). The girl immediately apologized and at the end of our meal, our server Taylor told us that our wine and dessert were covered!! Of course we were open to paying for our entire meal, but she wouldn't accept it. Sweet girl. And good conversation. The night ended watching Rio 2. It was a great Saturday off. The month of October has a lot to offer and so I hope it speaks for itself in the coming blog posts... And it is with a farewell and good night that I leave you with this: "Food is an infinitely rich subject, and there's always something about it to understand better, something new to discover, a fresh source of interest, ideas, and delight." - Harold McGee (on food and cooking: the science and lore of the kitchen) Helloooo folks. Might I just preface my post with the fact that I will not be providing a whole work-up of an ingredient in this post and I apologize. I guess you could say my self-assigned 'homework' fell through after the first post. But that's okay. Because I'm just here to share my life experiences and love for food. You can live vicariously through me and my foodie fantasies, you can just choose to look at my pictures, or perhaps just ignore my blog altogether. But no matter. This is just a fun way of sharing my life and remembering the experiences I've had down in FL. And so I begin with my date at Bubba Gump's. Joe and I ventured out near Universal Studios, on their City Walk with the intentions of enjoying some seafood. (http://www.bubbagump.com/) Despite our attempts to maintain a gluten-free and healthy meal, I'm sure we enjoyed a good deal of cream and butter. With that in mind, the answer to your question is yes: "But more fat means more flavor, right?" We started off with a crab-stuffed mushroom in cream sauce appetizer and then both split two fish dishes of mahi-mahi and tilapia. The restaurant itself was very fun and unique. For those who don't know, Bubba Gumps is ALL about Forest Gump. One of the ways to inform our server when we did or did not need service, we would flip a license plate on our table. One said "Run forest, run" and another said "Stop forest, stop". I gather you can figure out which sign belongs to which form of service (or lack thereof). Following dinner, we simply walked around CityWalk and enjoyed the stands and stores packed full of harry potter, despicable me, big bang theory, betty boop, and so much more merchandise. Between then and now, I've been working almost every day between training as a waitress (for the Rainforest Cafe outside of Animal Kingdom) and then my other job as an 'animal chef' working at Animal Kingdom. So yes I've been a bit busy. But when you become busier, you become more organized right? Right. And soo for Labor Day (the day before actually) I brought both sweet and savory homemade crepes to a cookout with my friends from church. It was a potluck style cookout (always the best) so I left feeling pretty darn full. But the greatest dish I had was the crockpot peach cobbler a la mode. HIGHLY recommended. Perfect for the coming cold months (cool months for those trapped in a warmer climate..) On actual labor day, I worked but still got to enjoy a great BBQed meal with my co-workers. The next evening Joe and I were invited out to our friends' house for dinner and a movie. They are 'flexitarians' meaning they try to mostly eat vegetarian if not vegan meals. For the evening, they made a curry vegetable dish over white rice and we brought drinks and whole wheat rolls. We watched Divergent (REALLY GOOD) and were surprised with an apple cobbler dessert that was DELICIOUS. The funny thing is the recipe was the simplest and not-so-very-healthy: canned apple pie filling, yellow cake mix (with egg, water, aka whatever the box specifies mixed in), and a stick of butter on top. Sounds bad. But my taste buds absolutely danced. Only two days later (last night) we all went out on a double date to Dandelion - a vegan restaurant in downtown Orlando. This food was AMAZING. And Joe can say the same (this is coming from a guy who 'needs' meat so there's your proof of the power in the food there). You can also look up the reviews, but if you're still not convinced then just come on down and taste for yourself!! (http://dandelioncommunitea.com/) ... We all started off with the Side Sampler (black bean dip, sassy salsa, whirled peace guacamole, subtly spicy vegan queso, served with organic blue corn chips. For dinner, Joe ordered their Buffalo 66 Sandwich and I ordered The Giddyup with Green Goddess Dressing over greens a tri-colored quinoa. Of course, we shared our entrees. I would tell you what was in/on our dishes, but I really want you to look at this menu so here ya go. Do some research: http://dandelioncommunitea.com/eat/menu/ Tonight was a date night with myself: eggplant parmesan with a glass of pinot noir and some tv watching I'll admit. I also made a large dish of eggplant parmesan that is ready to just be popped into the oven for tomorrow's dinner. I'll be working until about 7 tomorrow so prepping that and cooking it would take too long to the point of eating at 10. You can see the set-up in the second-to-last photo below. First I pan-fried shallots and onions in sunflower oil, placed that in the dish and topped with a bit of tomato sauce. Then I pan-fried thick beefsteak tomato slices and placed them on top. This was just the base. It then followed with eggplant and mozzarella cheese slices with fresh basil and more tomato sauce. But the eggplant was first sliced, dipped in an egg wash, and then breaded with a mixture of panko, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and parm cheese, and was then pan-fried and layered into the dish. Since I made myself a personalized dish for tonight, the chef can say that it is perfecttt and ready to go for tomorrow. .... Well I must get back to my date with myself. Until next time when I talk you up with all of my adventures. Thanks for listening :). |
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February 2017
"Food is an infinitely rich subject, and there's always something about it to understand better, something new to discover, a fresh source of interest, ideas, and delight."
From Pennsylvania to France to Washington DC to Florida, I've had myself many an adventure. Now it's time to indulge in the life of a Floridian. With great food, great friends, and great experiences, I offer you stories and pictures to take you away, into my world at Disney. Categories |