By Christine, on February 23rd, 2012 My niece, Miss S, just achieved another glorious year .. so when she came to visit shortly after her birthday, I of course had to make a cake!
It was so much fun to make.. and the chocolate and red wine cake turned out very good. It could have been a wee bit moister and a touch more chocolately but I think I might be jaded. It didn’t take long for everyone to clean their plates!
I saved a slice for the boys (they were camping all weekend) and that pretty much finished off the cake. Sad but glad.. as much as I would have loved more bites, my waist sure doesn’t need it lol!
By Christine, on February 14th, 2012
I love getting flowers on Valentine’s Day.. especially red and purple!
I have cake posts to add soon.. a chocolate-red wine recipe and my first attempt at buttercream flowers.
By Christine, on February 3rd, 2012 Here we go into February! The month of pink, red, flowers and hearts… and I know I’ll be making something sweet and delicious for Valentine’s day. It’s one of the few months left of relatively cool weather so I’m hoping to get plenty of outside activities worked into my schedule. We’ve also got a 3 day weekend in honor of President’s day this month, so I have hopes of a jaunt up to Jacksonville to visit family.
Other possibilities on the Space Coast and beyond include: Continue reading Possible February Adventures
By Christine, on January 31st, 2012
Thanks to hubby and son, my horizons were widened by MONSTER margins this past weekend! It all started a few weeks ago when the Mister casually inquired if I might like to go to the Monster Jam at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. I didn’t think hard on it, and just stated that it wasn’t something I’d thought about but if he and C wanted to go, he was welcome to. No more was said until this past Thursday when he brought it up again. A second inquiry meant that he really wanted to go; so I went and took a look at their website to see what was what. Prices weren’t bad about 15 bucks for the seats way up high and what do you know!? There was a coupon for 3 bucks off per ticket! A bit more looking and I found that if I could get to the nearest south Orlando Ford dealership, I could pick up 4 pit passes for free (10 bucks the day of the show). Both teen-kids were all for it; Miss R’s only request being a reminder to bring her earplugs. The Mister and I pooled our entertainment funds and tickets were purchased!
Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day. Sunny and cool and blessedly DRY (humidity can ruin my day). Since we had gotten the pit passes, we headed out early. Before long we were exiting at the Citrus Bowl and locating parking.. $10 dollars at a little lot in between W. Pine and W. Church on S. Orange Blossom Trail (and fenced in too!) It was a short walk up the stadium and it was already busy. We passed several parking lots full of people tailgating and spotted an amazing Hello Kitty truck in one of them. It took us quite a bit longer to work our way around the stadium to Tinker Field and the pit, but eventually we made it. Until then, I hadn’t realized how many people loved monster trucks!
The pit was pretty neat and PACKED! It gave fans a chance to get an up close look at the trucks and get autographs from the drivers and photos taken with them AND the trucks. There were was also a graveyard (har har) and also the coolest full size Grave Digger made out of K’Nex! Neither of my kids ever were interested in those (legos all the way) so it was interesting to learn that they are celebrating their 20th Anniversary this year. I can only imagine how long it took to put it together. I also learned that the huge tires are hand grooved. At least that’s what the Mister told me when I asked why they were so uneven looking. And those tires were taller then me! Continue reading Monster Jam in Orlando
By Christine, on January 22nd, 2012
There was so much going on this weekend, and I really meant to get out and participate, but that thing called life intervened and the next thing I know.. it’s Sunday afternoon! And you know what Sunday means this time of year, don’t you? Football! If there’s football on, the Mister doesn’t go far and that meant a trip to the Fellsmere Frog Leg Festival was out of the question. I’d already missed the pie festival yesterday so that left just one thing… the Indialantic Art Festival. Let me tell you what… art festivals are a hard sell when it comes to the man of the house. It took a few sighs and some begging sad faces to get us out the door (and a time limit) but finally we were out the door!
Only I had forgotten what traffic can be like on A1A. Especially on a lovely afternoon featuring sunny skies and calm seas. After some good natured debating and a stop at the beach just north of Patrick Air Force Base, we adjusted our course of action from Art festival to BBQ lunch at Slow and Low Bar-B-Que. Quite the jump, I know, but lunch and a Sunday drive with my fellow on a beautiful day is nothing to complain about either. (And I was even more satisfied with life once I got a bite of my lunch.) Continue reading Slow and Low in Cocoa Beach
By Christine, on January 16th, 2012
Last night after our football interlude; I got to have the final say on where we went to eat. The Mister’s only input was that he wouldn’t mind some Greek food and well, I love Greek so that was noooo problem. While we lounged in our hotel room watching the game, I surfed the web reading reviews on my Thrive (best Christmas gift ever!) and narrowing down my choices. The closest and most interesting sounding was Taverna Opa which is located inside “Pointe Orlando“. This part of International Drive was new to us; we usually avoid I-drive on the rare occasions that we have shopping to do in Orlando. Oh and there’s also the fact that usually the teen-kids are with us so “elevated dining and diverse specialty shops” are not on the list of things to see. It was easy to get to and with a multi-level parking garage next to it, parking was a breeze. FYI, the first 2 hours costs $3 and a lot of the Pointe restaurants will give you comp tickets (it ended up costing us only a buck at the end of the evening). Just be sure to ask!
The Pointe Orlando area is really nice. Since it was Sunday evening, it was pretty quiet and the only thing open was the restaurants. Guess that means I will have to make another trip in the future! From what I could tell, the Pointe is made up of several different levels, connected by stairs and escalators. There were plenty of benches and roomy walk ways and I made the Mister take his time as we found our way to Taverna Opa.
We came in by the bar and the music was pumping. It was loud but not enough to faze us and we quickly snagged a seat at one of the tables by the bar. I was a bit disappointed that the Mister didn’t want to be in the middle of the action but it was busy and we probably would have ended up with a much longer wait. Add that to the fact we had already planned to skip a main course and only have appetizers and dessert; and I had to admit that was the best place for us. Within minutes a waitress had taken our order for two Stellas and a sample platter of appetizers and we were free to people watch. The reviews had said the food was great but that the action on the floor would distract you from it and I can see where that would be true! Belly dancers worked their way between the tables, stopping to pull diners up onto the tables and giving condensed shake and shimmy lessons. While this was going on, passing waiters and waitresses would throw piles of napkins into the air while shouting “OPA!” I ended up being glad we were seated where we were as I am definitely NOT a table dancing type of person. (More of a trip and fall off the table kind of girl, actually). Continue reading Our Taverna Opa Experience
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