What’s cooking, baby

I’m backtracking here for a sec.  Thanksgiving.  The four-day weekend was much-needed and very welcome.  I wanted to take the four days and go on a bender of sorts — lots of eating, drinking and sleeping.  Not necessarily in that order, though, it would make sense in that order   And, to my surprise, great success!  Anywho, and now that the pictures are off the camera (hence this belated themed post), thought I’d share some of the fun we had.  In the kitchen, at least.

My bro, CK1, had Thanksgiving at his pad this year and offered up the staples of turkey, stuffing and mashed hella’ good potatoes.  Seriously, could have eaten the whole bowl by myself.  So, I decided I wanted to make butternut squash ravioli.  Taking on this task (along with a recipe from Michael Chiarello that I very loosely followed), I realized, yet again, how much I love my KitchenAid.  I love it like I love sporks.  As in, I know it’s not a must-have kitchen gadget like, say, a fork or fire extinguisher.  And, like a good knife, using a KitchenAid makes you feel like a pro.  Martha uses a mixer like this, Emeril uses one, too; I must be channeling Martha and Emeril.  Not.  Sans Martha, I still manged to squeak out some semblence of butternut squash ravioli.

 

And outside the kitchen, JP and I managed to dust off our bikes and get some exercies and fresh air.  We biked downtown on Thanksgiving night, which was a quick 10-minute ride!  Good to know!  With that ride under our belt, we felt confident we could do it again.  So we did.  On Sunday (or was it Saturday?), we made our way to the beach.  Blue skies and perfect puffy clouds made for some good scenery!

 

Snorkel cam!

What a find this weekend!  Don’t you love it when you find something cool that’s practically in your backyard!?

JP and I were going to check out Blowing Rocks Preserve, but when I called my brother – C1 – to see if he and the fam wanted to join, he suggested Coral Cove Park instead.  Just south of Blowing Rocks (and north of the Jupiter Inlet), Coral Cove Park is a two-acre artificial reef and a great place to get our snorkel on!  The reef started practically at the shoreline; ankle-deep and you’re already stepping on reef.  The water clarity was pretty good, and the fish were everywhere.  Parrot fish, puffer fish, sea urchins…the scenery was great!

Have I mentioned today how awesome our underwater camera is?!  Check out the underwater video we got along with some other pics on our Flickr page

Thanks for the recommendation, C1!!

Because weekends were made for fun

I heart weekends.  Who doesn’t?

Last weekend, we headed to the West Coast for a wedding in Palm Harbor, FL.  While we were there, we got to check out Honeymoon Island, and it was a great state park.

This weekend, my brother & sister celebrated their anniversary!

We also got to enjoy a summer favorite – snorkling!  Did I mention how much I love my underwater camera?!  There’s a small reef directly behind the Breakers Hotel on Palm Beach, and it was filled with little fish

What’s a weekend without some good food.  The Kona Grill in City Place has “reverse happy hour” – and it rocks!  This definitely counted as our “free” day on the diet

Bye bye, bottled water!

Buh-bye.  That’s exactly what one town is saying to bottled water.  Residents of Bundanoon, New South Wales, voted to ban the sale of bottled water in their town. 

It was the second blow to Australia’s beverage industry in one day: Hours earlier, the New South Wales state premier banned all state departments and agencies from buying bottled water, calling it a waste of money and natural resources.

“We’re hoping it will act as a catalyst to people’s memories to remember the days when we did not have bottled water,” he said. “What is ‘Evian‘ spelled backwards? ‘Naive.’”

I hate buying water.  I am a sucker for a bottled beverage, true that.  Why do they have to put the little cooler of tasty beverages right by the check out lane!?  But, water?  Even if I want water, I won’t buy it - instead I’ll opt to purchase a tea or soda.  

In any event, a neat victory Down Under.  And I hope it sends a message to the bottled water industry – and hopefully to other parts of the world!  Read the entire article here.