Menu Monday

Dessert anyone?



This past weekend we headed to my mom’s for her annual Dessert Party.  The wine was flowing (Fre for me), weather was perfect, company was wonderful and the desserts were absolutely delicious.




On the menu:

• Cheese Danish
• Pumpkin Pie Bars
• Glazed and Regular Brownies
• Danish Wedding Balls
• Warm Winter Lemon Cake
• Chocolate Chip Cheese Dip w/ Graham Crackers
• White Chocolate Sweet and Salty Pretzels (recipe coming soon!)

I also got a peek at part of my (upcoming) birthday present:  an adorable changing pad cover my mom ordered my from Etsy and personalized Grocery Lane recipe cards!  The changing pad cover is SO CUTE and looks perfect in the nursery while the recipe cards are adorable as well!  Well done mom!

Changing Pad Cover (green and white) and Burp Cloths

I also have to share with you the homemade burp cloths (LOVE THESE) that my Nana made for Baby A along with his first Teddy Bear (Nana has made one for all of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren).  So sweet.




We also checked a baby carrier and Pack n Play off of our list (Thanks Pam!).  Slowly but surely we are getting there!

As for this week, I’m so excited!  We are headed up to Gainesville on Wednesday after work for a quick trip to watch the Florida Gators play the University of Wisconsin Badgers in basketball. 

This will be the first time that our teams have played each other since we have been together (usually we just root for each other’s teams to do well)…so this means war .  We haven’t quite figured out what we’re going to bet, but I did her Mike mention something about the loser driving home.  I sure hope the Gators are on their A-game!!!

We will also be seeing our friends Leigh and Kevin this weekend, with their two boys Tyson and Jackson who are coming in town from Charlotte in route to Sarasota for Thanksgiving along with celebrating with our other friends at the Winter Park Harvest Festival.  Our friend John is the founder.  If you are around Orlando on Saturday, check it out!
As for food – here’s our plan:

M: Mexican Stuffed Shells w/ Salad
T:  Stuffed Burgers w/ Corn on the Cob and Sweet Potato Fries
W: Gainesville – Hopefully eating at Satchel’s Pizza (about a block from the house where
I grew up)!!!
Th:  Girls’ Night Dinner at P.R.’s Taco Palace
F:  Chicken and Wild Rice Soup w/ Crusty Bread
Sa:  Cobb Salad
Su:  Beef Stew w/ Veggies and Mashed Potatoes

Have a great week!

One Day Getaway

 

Last Saturday, after our night of chocolate making, Mike and I headed to the second part of our Anniversary adventure with exploring the small town of Tarpon Springs on our agenda.

I thought I had never been there before (apparently I was there when I was about 4, but of course don’t remember), but had heard many cute comments about this small Greek town.

We set out from Orlando at around 10am with great weather on the horizon.  Knowing that we were going to stop for lunch on the way over, I started looking at my Trip Advisor app for a mom & pop lunch spot near our final destination.  Clearwater was only about 10 minutes from Tarpon Springs, and one restaurant stood out in my search:  Lenny’s.

 

The reveiws were fabulous and the pictures of the food looked delicious.  Knowing that our friend Jeremy is from Clearwater and remembering his wife, Jenny, talking about their favorite breakfast place when they visit, I had a hunch that it might be the same one I texted her right away…

 

 

Sure enough – it was the same one, so we knew we had to stop!!!

 

 

Lenny’s definitely did not disappoint.

The menu was HUGE and the staff was more than accommodating.

 

I opted for a breakfast dish which came with a pastry basket filled with delicious treats.

 

 

My favorite was this little gem…a mix between a cheese danish and crumb cake.  So delicious.

 

 

Our meals-  Mushroom and Cheese omelet with onions and home fries for me…

 

 

while Mike opted for the “Triple Threat” – a meat lovers dream.  3 halves of turkey, corned beef and pastrami piled high with potato salad.

Plus, a “relish dish” of macaroni salad and pickles.

 

The before and after shot.  As always, the boy cleaned his plate!

 

After lunch, we headed to Tarpon Springs and drove around a bit to get acquainted with the surroundings before we planned our attack.  Since the Gators were playing, we decided to stop by this cute watering hole, Lagerheadz Bar & Grill, to catch the second half before “hitting the docks”.

 

 

They even had real gators!

 

Hers and his.

 

 

After finishing our drinks and finishing the game with a win (a bit of a nail biter if you ask me), we headed to the Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks.

Known as the “Sponge Capital of the World”, this quaint waterfront has many Greek influences.

 

 

According to Wikipedia:

In 1905, John Cocoris introduced the technique of sponge diving to Tarpon Springs. Cocoris recruited Greek sponge divers from the Dodecanese Islands of Greece, in particular Kalymnos, Symi and Halki leading, by the 1930s, to a very productive sponge industry in Tarpon Springs, generating millions of dollars a year. The 1953 film Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, depicting sponge diving, takes place and was filmed in Tarpon Springs.

 

 

There were sponges everywhere.

 

 

Although most of the shops are full of tourist type trinkets, we did a bit of shopping for some sponges and homemade soaps.

 

 

 

Check out this “vase” sponge – I didn’t know there were so many different varieties.

 

 

This shop had adorable hand stamped soaps, made out of both olive oil and goat’s milk with tons of different scents.

 

 

After shopping, we headed to the Tarpon Springs Aquarium for some aquatic fun.  Although small, it was very inexpensive (around $7 a person) and we had a great time checking out the feeding shows and learning about all the different marine animals.

 

 

Nursing shark feeding time, and Mike feeding the rays.  He loves doing this, but it is a bit too close for comfort for me.

 

 

I opted to feed the baby nursing sharks…under the metal barricade.

 

 

Then it was on to the candy shop!  This place had any and every piece of candy you could ever imagine.

 

 

Mike was seriously like a kid in a candy shop.  I had fun picking out some specialty gummies while he stocked up on taffy.

 

 

Then it was time for dinner.  We were lucky enough to have visited on a night when they were featuring their monthly “A Night in the Islands” event.

 

 

All of the restaurants set up their tables outside on the docks and offer service there while the guests can listen to the live Greek band.  It was so festive!

 

 

We decided to eat at Hellas and weren’t disappointed.  The food was delish!.

We started with some drinks; and I found my new favorite N/A beer made by Guiness called Kaliber.  So yummy!

Mike drank Mythos while we feasted on pita and hummus.

 

Then the real food came out: 

 

Gyro platter for him and Chicken Souvlaki for her.

 

After finishing dinner and watching a bit of Greek dancing, we opted for one last stop by the Hellas bakery; not to eat, but to get a treat to go.

 

 

Two things I learned while at the bakery: 

1.  Pasta in Greek means cake.

2.  The Greek Canolli absolutely makes the Italian Canolli look like a wimp (see below).

 

 

All in all, a great day with a great guy!

 

Sweet Treats

As part of our anniversary weekend I decided (since it was my year to plan our activities) to try out the Farris and Foster's Date Night chocolate making class.  I had heard rave reviews and couldn't wait to see what it was all about.





Farris and Foster's (a local Orlando Chocolate Factory) has multiple locations and offers many different types of classes throughout the week.  We opted for the "Date Night" class which is every Friday night at 7pm or 9pm.  Since I was making dinner at home, I thought the 9 o'clock class at the Baldwin Park location sounded the best.




We arrived a few minutes before class started, signed in and then started looking around.  The store was still open (which I thought was so cool) but we had the "behind the scenes" access.





There were 10 workstations set up for 5 couples.  Each place setting even included an apron and chef's hat.





The mold wall was insane...so many shapes to choose from!




Once all of the couples arrived, our instructor "set the mood" with low lighting and a Michael Buble CD.

Then, it was time to get to work.  He (sorry, I can't remember his name) showed us some of the basic techniques of a chocolatier, where to find all of the fillings and toppings and then he set us free.

The only limit was our imagination!









The price ($29 per couple) included 1 pound of chocolate to take home with us at the end of the night which I didn't think sounded like a lot initially (boy was I wrong - it made a lot!).  They had a scale and encouraged us to weigh our box throughout the evening to make sure we didn't go over.

We started off by making some chocolate cups - this is one of mine that included walnuts in the middle and on top along with white and milk chocolate swirled together.  YUM!







Since you couldn't eat your own chocolate (since it had to be weighed) as you made it, they also had a "tasting tray" that you could munch on for inspiration.

The best part?  You're also allowed to bring your own drinks to wash it all down.  I will admit that I was a little jealous of the wine drinkers in the crowd...the mood was perfect for some red!!!





Some of our other favorite concoctions included dark chocolate dipped strawberries with a milk chocolate drizzle and a peanut butter truffle.





The "Lucy" machine (named after the famous I Love Lucy episode) wasn't the fastest, but it was one of my favorites.  We had the option of picking out of an array of items to be put on the conveyor belt and covered (top and bottom) with dark chocolate. 

They had everything from potato chips to Twinkies to Oreos and gummy worms.  The possibilities were endless!  My favorite was my dark chocolate covered Nutter Butter topped with peanuts.  Deeelish!





After making what seemed to be A LOT of chocolate we came in jusssst over our goal weight at 1.01 lbs.  I'd say that was a success!






Mike and I both had a blast and I would recommend this to anybody for a fun night out.  The work area was clean, the instructors were so nice and the price was right.  All in all an excellent date night!