Faith, Family, Food and Dogs

This has been a long time coming. It was close to 3 months ago that my friend, Savannah, and I took a long weekend trip to the mountains of North Carolina. We rented a wonderful 2 bedroom house not far from where I used to live that was pet friendly so the girls got to join us on the weekend excursion. Now here is a heads up. This was a 5-day trip and there are 4-days worth of photos here. Over the course of the trip, on my camera alone, Savannah and I took just over 70 photos, plus the ones she took with her phone. I slimmed this down to a mere 24 photos. On with the adventure. We rented a car and early morning on Friday, October 6th we hit the road heading for Foscoe, North Carolina. We had rented our weekend home way back in March and had planned our menu. We both love Mexican so I made a pan of beef enchiladas which I froze and we took up with us. They turned out very good. Savannah was a good sport and tried to take pictures of each state line sign we passed but with me dr...

Living in Florida you learn to cope with things like mosquitoes from hell, cockroaches, oppressive humidity and an autumnal equinox that is really just an extension of summer and the occasional hurricanes. Last year when Matthew breezed by offshore I was on the east or the "clean" side of the eye of the storm. I got tropical storm force winds and never lost power. Irma was a whole different story. She was weaker than Matthew but I was now on the west or "dirty" side of the eye of the storm. The eye actually passed further away than Matthew's did, but the winds were stronger tropical storm force, but still not hurricane force. At this point I need to interject my thoughts on evacuation. The Governor started calling for the evacuation of the Keys and the Miami-Dade area days before the storm hit. Friends and family were telling me that I should evacuate also, but I have a full time job and I cannot just up and leave. I close and fund loans for a living and I had...

Greetings and salutations. I am sure that we all remember the black thing was supposed to be a Peking Duck from a short time ago. Well this my friends, is my second attempt at Peking Duck. New duck, new recipe, better results but still not what I remember. Anyway,,, Here is the new quacker. This one came in at 4.99 pounds, the recipe said a 5-6 pound duck so this works. Once again boiling water comes into play. But instead of dipping the duck into the water several times you pierce the skin of the duck and pour the boiling water over it. I am good but not good enough to take a photo and pour boiling water at the same time. Once the duck has been doused with the water you let it sit for a few minutes. Next you pat the duck dry and place it in a baking pan on a roasting rack. You would think with all the kitchen stuff I have that I would have a roasting rack, nope. Next you make your sauce. This was 6 tblsps of honey, 6 tblsps of water, 4 tblsps of Chinese 5-Spice powder, 2...

I love shrimp, I love goat cheese, so what could be better than shrimp cooked with garlic and onions then simmered in a velvet smooth goat cheese sauce that is ladled over pasta? Answer, nothing! It is an easy and fairly quick meal to prepare and so very tasty. Start out by getting your pans ready. One pot of water for the pasta and another for the rest of the cooking. Don't you just love my dish towel? I think Hydrangeas are super neat and the shades of lavender on the blossoms is so pretty. Anyway, back to dinner. Pus some olive oil in your pot, add onions and cook them, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft. This is when your water should be on for the pasta. Add the shrimp and some garlic to the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are done. Remove the shrimp, onions and garlic to a bowl until later. Get your pasta cooking. I used bow tie as I think it holds the sauce better. I should have started the pasta sooner as the sauce was ready b...