Star Struck and Sun Burnt

We've been back in soggy CT for over a week now so I figured it was high time to write about our adventures in Miami & West Palm Beach, FL.

On a bit of a whim Dave planned a weekend get-away for us. The trip was based around going to a Mets preseason baseball game and visiting his friend Chris but of course he also made sure I'd be able to get some beach time in!

We landed in warm, sunny West Palm Thursday afternoon and decided we'd drive half way to Miami and spend the night somewhere inexpensive. And since I'm apparently super frugal when it comes to staying in hotels (although also super cautious of bugs and cleanliness) the hotel I picked ended up being some kind of religious retreat.

If you look closely you can see all the services they offer

In my defense hotels.com had it listed as 'The Forum' with 4 out of 5 stars, if it was listed as 'The Marie Green Forum for Global Missions' a red light may have gone off! Tricky hotels.com!!! But it was a clean, quiet hotel with a comfortable bed, which is exactly what I was looking for -- needless to say Dave has ban me from picking hotels.

In the morning we couldn't get out of there fast enough to head to South Beach! On the way to getting our Duck Tour tickets we saw Kim Kardashian was in the city! Unfortunately our tour was at the same time.

On our tour got to see old art deco buildings Miami is famous for as well as the man-made islands "stars" and other very rich people have built homes on.

Downtown Miami

Some oil mogul's mansion (L) and the Miami Vice house (R)

Andre Agassi & Steffi Graf's house (R)

And of course most houses had their "rides" out front. What mansion on the Bay is complete without a yacht?!

After our tour we headed straight for the beach! (Which for some reason I don't have a single picture of) There was a really nice boardwalk that seemed to go on for miles but because of all the vegetation you couldn't see the beach, even though you literally are ON the beach! And of course the beach itself was really nice! It's so wide the whole back section is used for biking and running [and the life guards ride their 4 wheelers]. We actually didn't even test the water - we figured the # of people on the beach compared to the # of people in the water must have meant the water was cold! There were some pretty big waves too. And the sun just felt so nice! So nice in fact that we didn't want to move and ended up burning to little crisps!

After the beach we headed to hotel #2 - The Kent

Considering this was the most expensive hotel of our stay I expected it to be more cush even though we were warned the art deco hotels were different (not in a bad way). But it was exactly what we wanted - we were a street in from Ocean Dr. (where a lot of the night life is) so we could enjoy all the outdoor bars and restaurants and then return for a quieter night of sleep. (If only that ended up being the case - more on that later...)

After we dropped off all our stuff we changed and headed out for drinks. Dave took us the round about way to Ocean Dr. so we could walk past DASH and to our surprise there was a group of people and security guards outside.

So of course we had to stop to see what was going on (after all we knew Kim was just down the road a couple hours earlier). After a half hour of rumors flying that Kim and Kourtney Kardashian were inside 2 Escalades, a Rolls-Royce, & a Maserati roll up and with that the crowd outside quadruples in size and paparazzi people start showing up. So of course now we have to stay! So all in all after 2.5 hours (yea, we couldn't believe it ourselves - it's not like these people are Julia Roberts and George Clooney!) we saw Birdman, Scott, & we were 5 people away from Kim even though we couldn't see her through all the crazy people!

Birdman (L), look closely you can see Scott's greasy head (R)

Reason we couldn't see Kim

Since we got so caught up in this fiasco we just ended up grabbing a bite and then heading back to change again into nicer clothes to check out the night life. In South Beach $50 cover charges are the norm as is bottle service and being turned away at the door! While I would have loved to experience all of that we had to be up early to get to our Mets game, so we just went for a couple drinks at the Clevelander. And it was probably a good thing b/c I was wiped from the couple hours of sun we soaked in. Heading back to the hotel it was amazing the noise difference of just one street away! We prided ourselves in making such a smart decision! Little did we know we'd barely get any uninterrupted sleep b/c our neighbors must not have been able to afford the cover charges and decided to party in the hotel.

We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed regardless b/c we were so excited to see our Metsies!! Unfortunately the players we were hoping to see weren't there though :-( You just never know with pre-season games - sometimes you get lucky, we did not! But it was fun non-the-less. As Dave always tells me it's the name on the front that matters not the one on the back! And we had another celebrity siting! Jerry Seinfeld was 2 sections over with his family!!

Our awesome seats thanks to Dave's friend Chris

After the game we had a couple drinks with Chris, his wife Bevin and her brother and his girlfriend at the Yard House - really wish we had one in CT! And then we went to check into the last hotel of our stay. Since it was a Holiday Inn we figured it was a safe bet it was going to be more what we are used to!

On our last day in West Palm Beach we went to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center which had more turtles than they had room for due to injuries from cold shock since FL was hit pretty bad this year with cold weather. These were just a few of the turtles we saw.

This guy lost his front flipper

This green turtle (L) has a buoyancy deficiency so he can't clean himself but he loves when the volunteers give him a good scrub down.

Once we saw all the turtles we took a drive along the A1A and went to Juno Beach which I actually liked more than South Beach b/c (1.) there weren't any spring breakers (2.) every other person had their dog with them (3.) there were shells! It was really windy so we were glad we had gotten enough sun for 4 days in just 2 short hours in Miami (we're efficient like that!) So we did some "shelling" and then went to Captain Charlies Reef Grill for dinner. DELICIOUS!!!!

Juno Beach

I'm so glad we got to take this unexpected weekend getaway (even if the sun decided to finally show up in CT for the same weekend and heat things up to the high 60's - no we aren't bitter about that or the fact that we came home during a rain storm and haven't seen the sun since...Not bitter at all!!)

Happy St. Patricks Day

What's for supper Saturday

Chicken Parmigiana (from: Martha Stewart)
serves 6
12 Triscuits

1/3 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley (I used a little less than 1/3 cup dried parsley)

½ tsp. dried oregano
1 can (28 oz.) diced tomatoes, with juice
½ med. onion, coarsely chopped
2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 large egg whites (I used 1 whole egg)
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I used 1 lb. chicken tenderloins)
1 cup part-skim grated mozzarella cheese
½ cup finely grated Romano cheese
salt & pepper

1.) Pulse crackers, parsley, oregano, & 1 tsp salt in a food processor until finely ground. Season with pepper, and transfer to a plate. Puree tomatoes with juice, onion, garlic, and ½ tsp. salt in clean food processor until smooth.

2.) Coat a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with oil. Lightly whisk egg whites, and transfer to shallow dish. Dip each piece of chicken in egg to fully coat; let excess drip off. Dredge chicken in crumb mixture, lightly pressing to coat both sides.

3.) Transfer chicken to prepared baking dish, and flip once to coat in oil. Bake at 425^o until crisp (~ 10 min.)

4.) Pour tomato sauce over chicken, allowing some sauce underneath each piece. Top with cheeses, and continue baking until bubbling and top is lightly browned, ~20 min.

Has spring really sprung?!??

A couple weeks ago we had one really nice weekend day and I made the mistake of thinking of putting my winter coat away and it snowed the next day! So I was very weary of getting all excited this weekend when we had 2 beautiful days in a row (3 counting today!!) but I couldn't contain it any longer when I saw our perennial garden had begun to bloom!

Our little crocus's are all up!!! Well I can't take much credit - the woman who owned the house for 41 years before us planted this garden, it just took some time to find it under all the weeds and poison ivy when we moved in. And we only learned of the poison ivy after I'd gotten it all over my arms! But now I do my best to maintain it - and boy is it a lot of work! Mostly because I've been learning as I go but also because she did such a good job making sure something new is always in bloom, I have to do regular maintenance (which began this weekend when I spotted all the crocus and will continue up until our last day of fall raking). But I love it!!! I'm still trying to get a grasp on what I have growing in the garden so hopefully next planting season I can add a couple of my favorite flowers.

Apparently some of the ornamental grass must have been hiding pretty good when I did a thorough cleaning of the garden last year! Even the daffodil shoots are up and the iris and day lilies are just starting to pop out too and the wood peckers are back --> this has to mean spring is here to stay, right?!?!? I know, I KNOW... anything is possible in New England including snow in May so I won't be putting my winter coat away just yet but I'm VERY hopeful!

What's for supper Saturday

One of my New Year's resolutions was to add new dinners to my recipe box. It's tough during the week to try new recipes so I've been using my weekends to try new things. Because I don't love cooking I have a couple pre-reqs. for recipes I'll attempt: (1) cook time less than 1 hour (2) I know of all the ingredients on the list. I will share anything that comes out delicious!

Broccoli and Pasta Casserole (from: Martha Stewart)
serves 6
2 slices whole-wheat bread
1 lb. broccoli, cut up
8 oz. whole-wheat fusilli pasta
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 med. onion, finely chopped (~1 cup)
3 tbsp. + 1½ tsp. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground mustard
4 cups skim milk
¼ cup part-skim ricotta cheese, pureed
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

1.) Process bread in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Transfer to a rimmed baking sheet. Toast for 8 min.

2.) Cook broccoli in a large pot of boiling water until slightly tender, about 2 min. Transfer to a bowl using a slotted spoon, reserving water in pot. Add pasta to water, and cook until al dente, about 8 min. Drain pasta.

3.) Add oil and onion to clean pot over medium heat. Saute, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, about 7 min. Add flour and ground mustard. Cook, stirring constantly, for 1 min. Whisk in the milk in a slow, steady stream. Bring to a boil. Cook, whisking for 5 min. Remove from heat. Add cheeses and 1 tsp. salt. Season with pepper.

4.) Stir in broccoli and pasta. Transfer to 6, 1½-cup ramekins or an 8½ x 11-inch baking dish; top with bread crumbs. Bake at 425^o until bubbling and tops are browned, 25-30 min.

Just your typical Saturday night

My little sister is getting married in August and while I thought I put a lot of thought and "handmade" into our wedding she's putting me to shame! Her reception is being held at Costa Azzurra which is on Milford's waterfront; perfect for her beach/ocean themed wedding.

Courtesy of Costa Azzurra

And she's just as controlling as I am when it comes to anything "handmade" especially when it comes to her wedding so I was thrilled when she came to me with a problem she was having. She found shell boutonniere's that she wanted to use in place of flowers for all the groomsmen, fathers, grandfathers, and godfathers.

Courtesy of beachbridejewelry.com

And since we're the type of people who see something we like and rather than buy it, try to make it ourselves for cheaper, she dove head first into this project! So Saturday afternoon she brought all her shells and floral tape over and I got to work. She was having problems getting the floral tape to stay attached to the shells.

What I did:
1.) Cut 2" squares of cardstock

2. Rolled them on a dowel (a pencil would work just fine) and scotch taped the end to keep it curled


3.) Cut off one end making it even straight across


4.) Hot glued the cut end of the cardstock to the tip of the seashell


5.) Cut the opposite end of the cardstock at a slant to make the entire project between 3" and 4"


6.) Wrapped the cardstock in floral tape to my liking


7.) Now it just needs a raffia bow and some other decore - Jen is in charge of that part, my fingers are still stuck together from making 15 of those!

I'll be sure to post pictures of them in action after August 13!

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