Vacation Food

What's a vacation without food?! Fortunately, we had some lovely things to eat while away.

First off, some mango with blueberries mixed with lime juice and topped with Greek yogurt:

Here's the nice little kitchen I had to work in -- definately a one-person kitchen, but perfect if the kids stayed out!

We had to drool over the cakes in the bakery section of the supermarket:

When I was a child and we returned home to Vermont for vacation, our family friend always brought us a loaf of cinnamon bread spread over the top with maple icing (from the local bakery). It was so good!

My mom just happened to bring us back some maple cream from her recent trip to VT so I thought it was essential to bake some cinnamon bread to enjoy it on. It was as good as I hoped!

Dairy Queen was a favorite stop one evening:

I waited all week to go to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. It was so fun and I bought a ton of stuff.

Fruit and veg were more expensive in the supermarkets in FL than up here. However, the Farmer's Market prices were closer in price to what I'm used to, so that was nice.

I came home with beets, green onions, tomatoes, red peppers, finger bananas, Georgia peaches, Florida oranges, star fruit, a native Floridian fruit that resembles the lychee (I really enjoyed them), the ripest mangoes, limes, lemons, bread, bakery items, zucchini, eggplant, handmade soaps, spices and herbs.

The items from the German Bakery made a good Saturday morning snack:

We had to have oranges while in Florida!

Sunday I cooked up a feast. We had bruschetta to begin with:

And then tilapia which was cooked in packets with olive oil, basil, garlic, tomato and green onions:

Beets were baked and then chopped and added to garlic, onions, and the beet tops. Feta was sprinkled over at the end:

Eggplant, zucchini, and tomatoes were roasted with a whole head of garlic in the middle:

Sunday dinner:

Dessert was peach shortcake (the cream was a mixture of whipped cream and Greek yogurt):

Leftovers were turned into omelets the next day. The beets were dressed with Italian salad dressing and eaten cold -- very, very good.

A highlight of the vacation was buying a few Foodie magazines -- Jamie Oliver's new magazine (very good!) and my old favorite BBC Good Food. What a treat! The beets, roasted veg, and fish were all recipes from the magazines.

And now our garden is starting to produce beans and tomatoes! Very exciting. Oh, and have I mentioned the fried squash blossoms? MY NEW FAVORITE FOOD!!!! I'll have to do a separate post. Happy Cooking!

The Water

The highlight of our vacation was, no doubt, the beach. We spent almost every morning there. Here are the kids, ready for swimming:



Across the street from where we stayed was this:

With plenty of white sand for doing this:

The water was beautiful, shallow, clear, and as you walked out you came to the "sand dollar bar":

It took David a few days to get comfortable with the water:

And of course we adults got our share of sunburns. Somehow the kids kind of escaped that:

Numerous sand castles were constructed:

"Quintessential Beach" (however, Michael and I never even bothered to try to read at the beach):

Sunday afternoons, and some evenings, we enjoyed walking on the beach:

And looking at the sunset:

The colors were so beautiful:

David did enjoy himself quite a bit:

Every morning a little 5 year old boy came out to fish (seemingly on his own -- I hope there were parents somewhere nearby):

Isn't it beautiful!

There's nothing like vast stretches of water to wash away the cares of the world:

I love the sea oats against the sunset:

The colors are definately the ones in "my palette":

We did get to one rock jetty:

Another Sunday afternoon stroll:

As you can see, we all enjoyed the beauty and the relaxation. Every day we thanked God for providing this vacation for us -- it's not something we could have just organized on our own. The memories will serve to tide us through the months ahead.