on with the adventure eating! In our continuing efforts to refine and reduce our possessions we spent a Saturday sorting and packing up items we wanted to divest ourselves of. Around five we decided to reward ourselves with a fun dinner. We didn’t plan ahead at all and decided it would be nice to get on Disney property so we got online to look around. I had been wanting to try Maya Grill for a while and when we called for a reservation they could get us in so we headed over. It is located at the Coronado Springs resort which is a Disney-style riff on Mexico. The restaurant is dimly lit with some fun faux torches lighting the path into the ‘temple’ of eating.
Our server quickly brought us some crazy-fun margarita jello shots as an amuse. Lucky girl got to eat both hers and his. They had a tang of tequila and salty lime. Also quickly arriving was a basket of fresh chips with two salsas-one green and one red. I liked the red and he liked the green. I ordered shrimp tacos and they were delish! Crisply battered shrimp with chipotle crema and crunchy slaw. Z had a humongous slab of salmon on a bed of roasted potatoes and squash. We finished off the meal with yummy flan. I don’t know when I went from hating to loving flan. It’s so creamy and luscious. It was very solid for Disney food and we enjoyed the flavors and our evening out.
Category: orlando
break-up dinner
the latest fallout from the fall (not the original fall, just last fall) was the breakup of our small group. We had ebbed and flowed with these folks for a year or two, surviving the cross-country move of the original leaders, the finish of an internship, a work transfer, a baby and strangely, more than that even. But, this time we decided to call it quits. It isn’t you, it’s me and all that. It’s funny how something like this makes you wonder, did I talk too much? Not enough? It was amicable enough that we felt like we should all go out for an evening on the town. Something easy, like bowling. No, bowling isn’t easy. You’d think it would be, but it isn’t. Too expensive, too hard to get a reservation, too many people wearing the same shoes. So, in the end we went out for dinner, and to a new place. New to me and Z anyway. Benihana. Have you been there? It’s cook-driven entertainment eating where the cook chats you up while you sit waiting for food that I felt was actually cooked a bit too long but was tasty in that I-drive kinda way. I ordered the teriyaki steak, maybe a little safe but I don’t care. I wanted the comfort of the familiar in the end moments. Z had the chicken. They over deliver with side dishes-funny fried onion soup, sauteed shrimp, salad with house dressing, fried rice. I could have done without all those sides and just had the beef with some rice. It was good to see everyone and enjoy the time together, which is really what good relationships are all about.
florida sunshine
breakfast in the pasture
a couple of weeks ago we had the joy of getting up early on one of the coldest days (that is relative I know) of the year and heading off to parts unknown (Ocoee) to tour Lake Meadow Naturals Farm and eat breakfast prepared by local chefs in the pasture. I had bucolic images of sitting at a white tablecloth listening to a brook gurgle past while I sat all dainty-like in white flowing dress with Hunter boots a la Beekman….. oh my word. Get real. I did have an image of something other than it turned out to be but it went a bit like this… 
We drove up to the farm and parked in a field where some adorable goats and their donkey shepherd usually live. We saw one of the little goats escape out the fence and wander around the cars until he freaked himself out and squoze back in. We walked down the drive seeing small chicken houses, bunny houses, a large garden and a little store and a big house with a well kept ornamental garden. We met our farmer-guide who walked us through the premises explaining all they do there on their little farm. They garden and tend the animals and this is fun, have u-pick eggs. We had a little talk from a local seafood purveyor called Wild Ocean told us about the shrimp we would be eating a little later and how they wild catch them off the eastern coast near Cape Canaveral. The tour continued in the egg washing room where they clean up the eggs and then to see 100 or so newly hatched chicks…fuzzy and peepy in big heated washtubs. Then into the main free-range open to the great big chicken house. The chickens swarmed around our legs and pecked at my jeans. I love those birds. They do have a terrible reek but they are so friendly and interested in visitors. Then out the door to the field where we shared breakfast with the birds. Tables set up in the yard with mason jars filled with rosemary, eggs, and straw, each table supplied with locally bottled hot sauce by Fat Cat. We went through the line and picked up shrimp and grits smothered with a tomato sauce, fresh Maldon salted biscuits with fresh kumquat and strawberry jalapeno jam and roasted vegetable and egg frittata. I think the biscuits and jam where my favorite taste of the morning besides hot coffee-so fresh and bright. It was one of the few times I have been cold in Florida so far. While we ate, the chickens ambled around our feet and gave little innocent pokes with their beaks. We watched the more timid geese, ducks and guineafowl who kept their distance. We finished off our visit with a trip through their little farm store where we picked up some blood oranges for marmalade and a slab of crazy bacon. Then home to dump all those clothes straight in the washing machine.
heyyy muffaletta
this fat Tuesday we tried two new incarnations of the muffaletta that weren’t purely sandwiches. A muffaletta is a strictly New Orleans born sandwich of cured meats, cheese and olive salad that can rightly be called big mouth. The friday night before fat Tuesday we dropped in to one of our favorite restaurants, Tibby’s for a hit of dinner. We don’t usually have apps as we really want a beignet after dinner and apps and dessert are just too much. Our server talked us into trying one though – a muffaletta spring roll. Bizarre right? To me, a spring roll is rice paper and may or may not be fried. This came to the table as two large scale wonton wrapped bombs! The standard meats – capicolla, mortadella and ham, provolone cheese and a vinegar hit olive salad wrapped in a pasta wrapper and deep fried. I didn’t actually expect it to be any good at all. They served it with a kind of mayo based creole mustard dipping sauce. They turned out to be tasty in a bar food kind of way. I might order them again but likely not since I’d rather have a beignet and this put me over the top. 
A few days later I shot a skype to Z with a slideshow of Muffaletta inspired foods that included this burger. He thought it sounded pretty good so we added it to the weeks dinner menu. It’s our standard turkey burger but topped with a slightly mod-ed pile of muffaletta toppings – I pan fried the salami to crisp it up, added provolone and a homemade olive salad that include gardiniera I made over the summer, a heaping spoon of capers and red pepper flakes. We didn’t follow the recipe exactly but it tasted perfect.
My Urban Pantry 