Good Eats
Now, being a product of the great state of Texas, I KNOW me some GOOD FOOD Y'ALL! When we found out we were moving to FL, I was excited about DisneyWorld and great beaches and palm trees AND GREAT SEAFOOD! But, there's just one problem....we don't really have seafood! When we came on our first official visit for an interview back in Sept '06, we asked the pastor where we could go for some great FL seafood and he said, "There's a Red Lobster near the mall." I just about croaked. Red Lobster? Come on! We have those in Dallas, hundreds of miles from an ocean! I mean S.E.A.F.O.O.D.!!!!!! I thought, I know this place is surrounded by salt water on 3 sides, there has GOT to be some good seafood nearby! Well, we do have The Catfish Place in town. That hardly qualifies to me as "seafood" since well, catfish, well, you know! I guess what I had in mind was more like a wooden shack up on stilts, where you can sit outside over the water and hear the seagulls and smell the saltwater in the air and listen to Jimmy Buffet music! So we headed to the coast, about 45 minutes away. Still no seafood!!! Apparently the Atlantic ocean doesn't have shrimp or fish or something??? We have since discovered that to fulfill our seafood fantasies, we really have to drive about an hour and a half the other direction, towards the gulf side, to get our seafood fix. Which, with our current gasoline crisis, is not going to happen any time soon! Oh, our favorite place is in St Pete. It's called Sea Critters. HOLY FREAKIN COW! So good! But...remember the great Publix meat sale I told you about? Well, I went! And I loaded up on SEAFOOD! The other meats like the steaks, ground beef, and chicken were still higher priced than Walmart even while on sale! So I didn't buy any of those. But I did get 2 pounds of crablegs and I got 2 shrimp rings, with some new pototatoes, sweet corn on the cob, and a watermelon (for $2.75 from the produce stand!) And folks, we had us some SEAFOOD last night! Oh, it was HEAVENLY! I kept eating and eating and eating. And it was a $20 meal easily, but we didn't have to spend $80 to drive to the beach and $40 on a restaurant meal, so I think $20 is pretty good for a meal such as this! It was so good, I'm actually considering going BACK to Publix before the sale ends and loading up AGAIN!
Today, before I went to church, I put a roast and some carrots in my slow cooker. Then after church, I made us some homemade mashed potatoes and cornbread in the cast iron skillet. YUMMO! It's been some good eatin' round here lately! Just call me Martha Stewart! Actually, please don't call me that! She's a little too uppity New Yorkerish for my liking. And her voice puts me to sleep. Call me Paula Deen! She's much more my style! And I did use a half stick of butter in my mashed potatoes...Y'ALL! Mmmm, mmmm, gonna go fix me some left overs now!
8 comments:
will you come cook for us? My Mississippi husband would pay greatly!
Go to Ponte Vedra Bch - head toward Lu lu's - wonderful seafood, and I mean S.E.A.F.O.O.D.! I'm talking homemade minorcan clam chowder, shrimp, clams, scallops, oysters - hushpuppies and all in baskets !!! In this shack of a place - overlooking the intracoastal! They even let you hit golf balls into the water - as you watch boats pass by! My favorite, I miss it so much!
On the ocean - I'd hit St. Augustine, A Street, the beach comber - literally on the ocean - sand blowing in your face! I've only gotten chowder and oysters there - can't recall the rest of the menu. They serve great breakfast too!
Only half a stick of butter? That would be just MY serving! There are some great seafood places around Winter Haven and Lake Alfred, depending on what you specifically like - one is a "shack" with the best oysters around (or so hubby's family says) :)
Look...I finally added a profile picture!
I am hungry!
That sounds SOOO good!! You're making me very hungry. Do you think it would be bad to eat seafood at 9 in the morning??
Not sure where you are in the Florida area.. if you are close to Winter Park (north of Orlando) there is Boston Fish. It's near Forsyth.
The folks who own it are from Mew England and the food is wonderful real clam chowder and whole belly clams. All of their seafood is fresh and delicious!
We are originally from new Engalnd and live in central Florida and just love it.
I like Johnny Caces....have you ever heard of it. As far as I know, I think it is a Texas restaurant by Galveston and one in Tyler.
When we go to South Carolina beaches, there are some good seafood restaurants on the beaches of Hilton Head Island and Isles of Palms that have REAL seafood and we try to eat there at least one time while we are there. Probably my REAL favorite restaurant is Queen Anne's Revenge on Daniel Island, SC. It is a really cool restaurant with all kinds of piracy stuff in the restaurant about Pirate, Black Beard...a place kids really love and Historic Charleston nearby.
Gotta comment on Jimmy Buffet: I have wanted the boxed set since last summer. I even had it on my blog wishlist for awhile as a hint for Stephen. Hints don't work with men..anyway, now that it's summer again, I've been telling him I am going to use my b-day money to buy that boxed set. Problem is....I haven't had time to get up to Hastings and with gas prices and the recent move south..south..south, I haven't made a special trip to buy it.
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