Category: holiday

thanksgiving burger

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wait for it…. happy thanksgiving! I actually started this blog one year ago with a post about thanksgiving. No spice rubbed whole turkeys this year although I am still longing for football in the snow.
We had harbored the vaguely ridiculous idea of making our own thanksgiving burger. No help taken (although some would argue we need it) from Bobby Flay. Z made the buns from scratch and they were flavored like stuffing. A little dense and heavy but they actually tasted like stuffing.
A super lean (to taste like the real thing) turkey burger with cranberry apricot chutney, those super salty onions that people put on green beans and just because I like it, goat cheese.
To take the burger to thanksgiving proportions, steamed green beans with a balsamic reduction and macaroni and cheese. We also cracked out the cloth napkins and Hornsby’s hard cider. We have a lot to be thankful for and the next year to look forward to. Based on last year I sure can’t imagine what it will bring.

Whimsy

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For lunch we went to the first of today’s two office Christmas Parties. It was held at the Gaylord Palms Hotel which is a couple of miles from the mecca that is Disney. It is a bit of Disney in itself with a huge atrium in the center that boasts areas that are ‘historically’ Florida by nature – Key West, the Everglades and St Augustine. What it also boasts is a free (if you pay $12 for parking) Gnome hunt. That’s right, they give you a hint sheet and you wind your way through lagoons, waterfalls, castles and swamps looking for twenty hidden gnomes. We found 16 including the gnome who had plummeted from his ledge to his destruction. Not bad for first timers.

We also ate at the Villa de Flora Italian Buffet. As buffets go, it was pretty good. I would recommend the tomato basil soup with sun-dried tomato pesto and parmesan on top and the lovely chicken piccata and I hear that the salmon w/ pesto was good but not terribly pesto-y.
The desserts were pretty good – the chocolate chip cookies being the standout.

We had fun searching for gnomes and wearing sweaters in the air conditioning. This is a nice Floridian thing to do, after you mow the lawn of course.