Graduation is just a few hours away-- let's eat again & again...

Caroline does not want to leave Greenville and Furman University.  I have been afraid that she will decided not to graduate and stay another year. Saturday begins with lunch at noon on campus for students and family.  After lunch, we returned to Caroline's apartment for more packing.  She and Steve loaded the trailer while I cleaned her kitchen.  Katy and Lainey made everyone laugh with their comments.  Caroline's friends had brought over breakfast with mimosa's.  Katy and Lainey made some more for everyone to enjoy with the remains of the champagne bottle.  

Once the trailer was loaded, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap, while Caroline went to visit friends one last time.  We were to meet Caroline and Connor and Lannon at  The Cazbah for appetizers/early dinner.  We were going to try to get downtown early to visit the boutiques, but we didn't quite make it.  The skies opened up to release  the rain that had been threatening for hours about 4:45.  We headed into the restaurant to wait for Caroline's arrival at 5:00.  

The Cazbah is a Tapas bar for a for creative, sophisticated, high-energy diners (so says their advertisment).  We believe we fit the bill.  After ordering the warm spinach artichoke dip in a bread bowl, we watched all the people with umbrellas passing by--thankful to be inside.  


Caroline arrive with Lannon and Connor.  She was wearing a beautiful lei made from orchids shipped from Hawaii.  Her sorority sisters gave one to each of the seniors.  

I remembered to get some pictures of the food this time--yes I am a foodie--it drives Steve nuts that I photograph food

Lobster Cigars

 

 

 

 

Spinach and Goat Cheese Salad

Free Range Chicken Enchiladas

Caroline and her friends left at 6:00 to head over to the graduation ceremony. We walked around Greenville for a few more minutes, went into Mast General Store.  Katy had to leave before the ceremony because she had to work on Sunday.  We hugged her goodbye and drove on over to campus.  More tomorrow....

Joy

St. Pete to St. Simons- Day One

Steve left St. Petersburg, FL today to move the boat to St. Simons, GA.  As I have mentioned before, our insurance company prefers we have the boat above the hurricane Line by June 1. They don't just prefer, they insist, unless we want to pay more for our insurance.  We don't--so we move.  The hurricane line is at Brunswick, Georgia.   I am not making this trip with Steve, because we thought I would stay and help Caroline move back home after graduation.  Alas--she has found a place to stay free of charge until the end of May when she will come home to be in a wedding--so I could have gone.  Steve found three willing souls to go with him on this trip--Robby Paul, Charles Sanders and Spencer McCrosky. 

They all arrived at the house yesterday morning.  I gave them all my rules about the boat--mainly--get her to St. Simons safely or don't come back.  I gave the cooking instructions to Robby because he seems to be the only one with kitchen skills.  I don't want to sell Charles short--he may have some cooking skills, I just don't know.   Spencer and Steve know how to find a restaurant when hungry but that's about it.

The plan was to leave Isla Del Sol this morning and head out into the Gulf of Mexico, make it to Captiva Island and go inside to the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway).  If I remember correctly this is an 80 mile trip--should take about 8 hours.  Last night when I spoke with Steve, he was concerned that the winds were about 22 knots and it might not be a good day to go out.  I cautioned him not to do anything risky just because he had the boys with him.  

I received this picture early this morning--looks like they are doing well this morning!

Joy

Friday Night before Graduation

Friday, May 9, we all headed to Greenville to celebrate Caroline's graduation.  We were also enlisted to help her load up all her belongings and bring them back to Cross Lane Road.  Steve and I headed up with an enclosed, lockable trailer attached to the truck.  When we arrived around 2:00 we found that she had already packed many things.  After working for about an hour, the rain began and we stopped.  Caroline headed over to graduation practice before joining us for dinner at American Grocery in downtown Greenville. 

If you haven't been to Greenville, it is worth a trip.  Friday's are always fun on Main Street.  The streets were closed to traffic for an art show on the Friday we arrived.  On the first Friday of the month, there are bands playing along the street.  The river runs near Main Street and provides a park area for visitors. Dinner at American Grocery is definitely a SPLURGE affair--but Caroline will only graduate once from Furman. 

Dinner was delicious--no pictures because I was distracted trying to follow the conversations of all of the girls and repeating things for Steve who was having some serious hearing problems all evening.  Steve and Lainey had the Grilled Red Royal Shrimp, chorizo, fava beans, asparagus, grilled escarole, gnocchi alla romana.  Katy and I had

Sunburst Trout, pommes darphin, asparagus, Lusty Monk mustard aioli, on a bed of arugala. Caroline had Confit of Local Rabbit, horseradish gnocchi, wild mushrooms, arugula, sauce moutarde. 

Greenville is definitely the place to take a walk after eating all that delicious food.

Favorite of the weekend!

We closed out the night with a trip to Spill the Beans  for ice cream.  

Joy

Husband's Delight

Cook, Cook, Cook and more Cooking... That is what I have been doing this week.  Steve is taking Meandering Joy from St. Petersburg, to St. Simons Island next week.  He has a crew of three other men.  I am not going along on this trip in person, but I am sending food for the crew.  Why? 

Steve can do many things very well---cooking is not one of those things.  While he is content to eat a frozen pizza or chips and salsa for every meal of the day with some Pop Tarts thrown in for good measure, I was not about to let his crew starve to death while they are with him.  I am sure they will stop for dinners, but it is not feasible to stop for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if they want to cover 600 miles in ten days.  

One of the family favorites is Husband's Delight.  It is an old recipe I got out of the First Baptist Lawrenceville Cookbook many many years ago.  

I I like to assemble all my ingredients neatly now when I cook.  I have become a little bit more organized .  

Mixing the green onions and sour cream

After stirring the browned ground beef and the spaghetti sauce, begin layering 1/2 the noodles, topped with 1/2 the ground beef topped with 1/2 the sour cream mixture.  Repeat the process once more and then load on the cheddar cheese.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, throw together a salad during that time and dinner is ready.  This is a great recipe to freeze.  I doubled the recipe and made several--two for the boat trip and one for Lainey--this may be her favorite recipe except of course for any of my cheesecakes.

Ingredients

·         8 oz pkg cream cheese

·         3 green onions, chopped

·         2 TBS butter

·         1- 8oz pkg egg noodles

·         1 tsp salt

·         1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

·         2 cup sour cream

·         1 1/2 lbs ground beef

·         2 -8oz tomato sauce (I substitute 16 oz spaghetti sauce for this)

·         1 tsp sugar

·         Dash pepper

·         1/2 cup shredded cheddar

 Directions

In bowl mix softened cream cheese, sour cream and green onions.  Brown the ground beef, drain, add tomato sauce, sugar, salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce OR (16 oz of your favorite spaghetti sauce).    Cook noodles as directed on package.  In 2 qt casserole, alternate layers of 1/2 noodles, 1/2 beef, 1/2 sour cream mixture and repeat.  Top with shredded cheese.  Bake at 350 degrees until warm throughout and browned.

 Printable recipe here.

Let me know if you try out the recipe.  I would like to know if you like it as much as my family.  

Joy