The Florida House

I feel like a food critic with my restaurant reviews. 

I did find a new one this morning and thought I'd post it for all of my Canadian snowbird friends (and U.S.) as most of them are back up north now.  We have only a few decent breakfast places that I have found so far -- three locations for Another Broken Egg, two for the Donut Hole, and then down in Seaside, The Great Southern Cafe with their famous Grits a Ya Ya -- so I am always asking people if they know any good breakfast places.  Usually they come up with these same ones and nothing else.

But I stopped into The Florida House this morning, a cute little red-painted, flower-boxed eatery along #98. It's right next to AJ's, a popular casual seafood place which hosts live bands and is a favorite for snowbirds when they are here, as well as the young during Spring Break.

To my delight, it has an inviting interior, tables and comfy booths, and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner.  And they have a good selection.  Breakfasts range from the usual bacon and egg dishes, to omelets, specialty egg dishes, French toast, pancakes made with almost whatever you want, Benedicts and fruit, yogurt and granola.  Lunches offer appetizers (try the fried artichoke hearts) to soups and salads, entrees of fish (grouper, salmon, crab, shrimp), turkey, chicken, and meatloat to burger and sandwich platters.  And dinners offer their own different appetizers (my favorite being coconut shrimp) with soups and salads and a good variety of entrees, a few of which are Baked Stuffed Shrimp, Pan-Seared Grouper, Beer-Battered Fish and Chips, Salmon, New York Strip Steak, Filet Mignon,. Seafood Fra Diavlo, Surf and Turf, Chicken Marsala, Chicken Mediterranean, Tortellini Carbonara and Alfredo Cajun.  More children's choices, too, than just hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken nuggets.

Take a look and click to enlarge photos, if you wish:

Front door

Inside

Sitting at my booth (taking photos)

Cheery flowers inside and out with little cafe curtains

So there you have it.  A new eatery in Destin, sure to become a popular place, not even "officially" open yet, but serving the public until the Grand Opening soon.  I'll give it two thumbs up (because, um, that's how many I have.) 

Just another beautiful evening in paradise........

(Yeah, now it's paradise....LOL!)

Excuse the clarity...it was taken through the screened porch.

P.S. Eat, Pray, Love

Just read that in 2008, Time magazine named Gilbert one of the most influential people in the world.  If you'd like to know more about her, her website is http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/.

Haven't been to it myself, but thought I'd include it.

(If anyone finds a photo of her husband, Felipe, I'd love to see it!)

Eat, Pray, Love movie-to-come

'Eat, Pray, Love': Delicious Details About the Movie
By Amber James Posted Mar 23rd 2010 04:10PM  (reposted from PopEater.com)

The trailer suggests that the movie will offer a lot more backstory than the book, where Gilbert's ex-husband and former lover are discussed only in flashback. The film was also shot in exotic locals, so the gorgeous scenery will definitely set the movie apart from the book.

Roberts admits the role "was quite a huge undertaking. It was a little bit daunting, dragging three little kids around the world, but well worth it." (via Women's Wear Daily.)

"I think that [Gilbert] just showed so much courage and humor. I just felt an incredible sense of need to accomplish the task on a great level. Ryan Murphy, who adapted the screenplay and was our director, was incredible."

"It was really like the acting Olympics. It's been a long time since I've had a full-time acting job. I am really glad that I made the decision to go off and do that movie. I hope that Liz [Gilbert] really likes it more than anything. She's a really interesting woman. I'm pretty fascinated by her, and I think a lot of people relate to her. So that's the greatest challenge [with] a book that's so well-known: You want people to see the movie and have that same sense of interest and comfort that they got from reading the book," Roberts continued.

Gilbert gushed about the new film on her Web site. "There is something surreal about the whole experience, but then again, there has been something surreal about 'Eat, Pray, Love' from the beginning. I have never entirely understood the rocket-like trajectory of that book, and so -- with the movie as with all of it -- I stand back, amazed, watching it all unfold and wondering at this strange turn of destiny."

Of course, readers may already know the big spoiler. In the book, Gilbert falls for an older Brazilian man, Felipe (Javier Bardem). The story ends there, but their love lives on. We can expect a sequel.

(My note:  And if you've read Committed:  A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage by Gilbert, you know the interesting dilemma that led to Felipe's and her eventual marriage!)

The Book versus the Movie

Since offering my opinion on this topic not too many posts ago, usually liking the movie over the book, I  learned some exciting news at the theater last night (in the preview trailers before seeing both Alice in Wonderland in 3D and Bounty Hunter...the former very entertaining and fun in 3D, the latter fairly lame, but sometimes ya just gotta go for the light stuff.)

The exciting news is that one of my favorite books, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert will be out as a film this summer!  Julia Roberts plays her ("her" being Elizabeth Gilbert, as the book is really autobiographical.)  Not my first choice.  I think I might have preferred Gwyneth Paltrow.  It will be good to see Javier Bardem in a role that might help fade from my memory his sinister No Country for Old Men role.  Scared the bejesus outta me.

But I am looking forward to comparing it to the book.  We might have a winner in the book this time, but that remains to be seen.....

And the movie trailer:

Sailing to the Mediterranean

And by that, I mean I'm slowly experimenting with more Mediterranean dishes, as I posted what seems like a year ago.....

So I'm "sailing" there rather than "flying"....it will take some time.  But I am cooking more.  And I'm so proud of my little creation that I thought I'd share it with you. 

I now make my own version of guacamole (stop snickering over there...anything not ordered in or cooked from frozen is a step up for me.)  I'll even tell you what I put in it, although I can only estimate amounts (hey, I think that's what a real cook would say!  Wow!)

Two ripe Hass (or is it Haas?) avocados
Two packages of prechopped tomatoes (sold at the Publix, so I can't tell you how many ounces)
Maybe a sixth of a package of prechopped red onion  (ditto)
A whole lotta fresh cilantro chopped
Half a small lime's juice
Maybe a T. of cumin (might be a bit less....I just shake it in)

Mash it all together and it is so fresh and yummy!  But don't eat it with chips....just toast some pumpernickle bread and spread it on.  And you have a major healthy, what, open-face sandwich?  Snack?  Or dip some Triscuits in it.  By adding all of the chopped tomatoes, you really add volume, so the calorie count isn't bad, either.  And hey, it's the good kind of fat....monosaturated!

And it is that healthy fat that links it to my Mediterranean venture.  (What a segue!)

My Favorite TV Commercials

I have many faults, but one of them is not doing the "Oh, I'm soooo not into television....I don't do the couch potato thing" thing.  As if people who enjoy television don't also enjoy being active.  Or using their minds.

Now, some people truly aren't television watchers.  But you know the ones I'm talking about:  The "Oh, I am so above the rest of you who waste your precious earth moments sitting staring at a rectangle" people.  As if anyone who likes television only watches reality shows, The Bachelor, and inane sit coms.  (Oh oh, now I'm sounding judgmental, aren't I?  And not all sit coms are created equal, let me admit right now.)

Anyway, I love film and for all of its aspects, not for merely a good story or escapism.  So I will watch movies on TV all the time (not Lifetime stuff....real movies....judgmental again.)  I also like smart sit coms like the unfortunately now-defunct Sex and the City on HBO.  And let me add that My So-Called Life of long ago was the only show to date (sorry, Room 222) that depicted high school true to life (and I should know, since I spent my entire pre-retirement years teaching there.)  It presented timely issues and made the audience think.   In addition, I sometimes watch the Weather Channel as if it were a movie, some fascinating recounts of disasters and important information for viewers regarding safety in "what if" situations.

I depend upon CNN to keep me up to date (sorry, conservative Fox viewers....) and am glued to the educational programs that have been created either in specials (HBO is excellent at this) or on channels such as A&E or the History Channel.  And hey, I never would've become interested in cooking, which I just didn't do in my married life or while raising my poor little ravioli-out-of-the-can son, had it not been for the Food Network.  Thanks to Rachel Ray, Paula Dean and The Barefoot Contessa (plus retired, unstressed days and rested body), I now have started a like affair with the activity.

That said, let's get back to the real subject of this post, which is television commercials.  Most stink and are annoyingly too loud.  (Isn't some congressman/woman sponsoring some bill to outlaw that devious automatic volume-raising?)

I have to admit, I do sometimes get my daily quota of laughter from television commercials.  Others I think are either so touching (they really know how to manipulate us, don't they?) or clever, that I am impressed! ( A college sorority sister of mine wrote commercials for a living and ascended through the ranks way back when to head up Leo Burnett in Chicago.  She was always so creative and I really admired that.  Digression, digression....)

So here are a couple of my favorite commercials.  Have you seen them?

The Betty White Snickers Commercial

The Geico Pothole Commercial




and as acted out by a five year old:

I can just see my little granddaughter and grandson acting like these kids do....he watches and copies her and laughs at her "stuff."  :)  And sorry, they didn't offer a screen size small enough to entirely fit onto my blog with this commercial.....