Florida!

After a somewhat annoying flight - I had not realized when booking my ticket that we stopped in West Palm Beach. I realize that flying is wonderful, and a a marvel of 20th century invention, but I am not a huge fan of landing.  So getting to the airport and realizing that I had to land twice in two hours was not an amusing prospect. 

I landed in West Palm Beach, (which was a rocky landing) and then I got on my phone to text message my sister and my cousin Potter, complaining about my own dumbness and airsick-ness. We took off for the second flight, and thankfully it was fast, about forty minutes in the air.

I arrived in Florida bearing compost cookies for G- I had made oatmeal with cranberry and white chocolate, and the traditional compost ones for her to try, and I think she liked them- especially "the ones with the pretzels in them!"

I got settled in, and hung out for a while, then went to bed. 

Getting up the next morning, it was early for a Saturday morning for me, (especially without a cat waking me up)  but I got up, and we made a grocery list to get the stuff I'd need when I was cooking over the weekend.  Off to Walmart, Sweet Bay, and Publix. We did more running around in the morning than I do on most Saturdays, and it was only eleven in the morning! After stashing the groceries, I made dill egg salad for us for lunch, which we had with Beets & Sweets chips. 

When I was originally talking to G about coming down, I told her that I wanted to cook for her, which she definitely liked the idea of. I asked her what kind of stuff she liked, and she said "I like everything!"  which, while true, I guess, I really wanted to make something special for her.  So I asked her what she goes out to order when she goes to a resturaunt, and she said seafood. So I landed on Seafood Risotto.  My risotto recipe is directly stolen from my friend Lisa,  but seeing as she does not eat seafood, I adapted pretty freely- seafood broth instead of chicken broth, once it was cooked, I folded in crab meat, and shrimp, and peas ( and a ton of parmesan cheese). Alongside we had salads that I put together.

Lynn, Uncle Richard and Aunt Dorie came over for dinner, and we hung out and relaxed on the Lanai (for people not from Florida: this is a sunporch or screened in porch) 

The next day we got up and hung out, and ran up to the store to get a newspaper and for G to check her lottery ticket (spoiler: not a winner)  and then went back to the house, where I taught her how to use her GPS system.   Then I made lunch, which was pasta salad with tuna, dill, mayo, celery, and kidney beans. That salad reminds me of summer dinners, and was good because it is a million degrees in Florida (also, it is MAY, and almost 90 degrees. WHAT IS THAT MESS) 

Lynn and Aunt Dorie came over a little while later, and then I began the prep for roasting a chicken. I chopped the herbs, prepped the bird, and cut up the potato and onions on the sides, and then slid that baby into the oven. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting and smelling the chicken roasting.  I steamed asparagus (over steamed, really, they were on the mushy side) and then as the piece de resistance, made hollandaise sauce for it. It was a tough sauce to make, with a lot of patience, and whisking, and a double boiler, and more whisking. But I'm proud to say that sauce was pretty darn tasty, and it didn't break, which was the most awesome part of all.  (sidenote: did you know how much butter was in hollandaise sauce? HOLY CRAP) 

We finished dinner with cookies- the ones I had brought, the pitzelles that G had already made, and the Reeses bars that G had made before I got there. mmmm. 

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out and reading and having an excellent time. 

Monday I packed to get ready to go home (packing, AWESOMELY, my own stack of pitzelles, and ball jars with handles that G was giving to me).  We made a half batch of pitzelles so that I could document the process for my list and the results were delicious: 

and then I made pimento grilled cheese, which was pretty freaking awesome.  Potter is right, you can only get really good pimiento cheese in the south. Sigh.

All in all it was a great and low key visit, and good to spend on on one time with my G.