We were out of town for Christmas, so we had it a little late. :)

A lovely brunch of mimosas, hashbrown casserole and Brunch Egg Casserole.

(I forgot to snap a picture before I started serving!)

I also got Twain’s Feast for Christmas!

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays and a fantastic New Year.  In 2011, hopefully you’ll see more posts!

So, I made my baked potato soup last night (and had more for lunch today) and I’ve decided there is something just not quite right with it.  It’s certainly not bad, but there is something a tiny bit off.  I keep coming back to the basil & thyme.  Maybe it just doesn’t need them and the salt & pepper is enough?  Throw in some celery with the onions & garlic to add a bit more in the aromatics department to offset any “loss” from the basil & thyme?

I’ll have to keep that in mind the next time around.  And to cut the recipe in half because it makes WAY too much for two people!

Couldn’t have been easier.
1. Brine for several hours beforehand.  (8# turkey breast, had it in the cooler for ~6 hours.  Don’t want more than 1 hour per pound.)
2. Melt a stick of butter and cover the turkey with it.
3. Cover w/any kind of cracked pepper goodness – whatever your favorite rub is.
4. Roast @ 325 degrees until it has an internal temp of 165 degrees.

Juicy and awesome.

It would be great if everything we thought was fantastic was organic, local, fair trade and eco-friendly.  But, things just don’t always work out that way, and sometimes some great guilty pleasures do nothing more than make us smile and put money in the pocket of a large corporation.  It’s not the end of the world – it’s just how things work sometimes.

Having said that – holy crap, I have a few new guilty pleasures!  First being Starbucks Via.  I am a woman who is not the biggest fan of instant coffee – at least when it comes to anything that is supposed to be a replacement for brewed coffee.*  I had been using Folger’s singles in a pinch when I either wasn’t in the mood to make a full pot of coffee, or out of regular coffee altogether.  Those worked quite well, and were better than any instant crystals I’d run into.  I was quite skeptical that an “instant” coffee could be better than anything I’d run into before.  When Starbucks did their initial rollout, my local store did “mocha mousses” with whipped cream & the Via crystals mixed – they tasted like coffee whipped cream with no graininess.  So, I knew it would least dissolve in water.  Let me say – this stuff is pretty good.  It’s not the same as a pot of coffee, but it is NOTHING like instant/freeze-dried coffee.  It’s more expensive than instant – I picked up an 8 pack for $8, but if you’re using it as emergency/backup coffee, it’s worth it.

My second guilty pleasure, courtesy of my new fridge/freezer.  It has been empty, cause the old one had defrosted and re-froze things multiple times, so it all had to go.  I happened to walk down the ice cream section of the market the other night…  I spied Twix Mini Ice Cream Sandwiches.  (Crappy flash link, but it’s there.)  AWESOME!!!!!!!  They’re very mini, which is fine – I am someone who can have 3 bites of ice cream and be happy.  It’s French Vanilla ice cream, with a ribbon of caramel, Twix cookie bits on top, and the whole thing covered in chocolate.  Just AWESOME!  Reminds me of the ice cream bars that Baskin Robbins used to have.  (And may still have, but I’ve not been in for a while.)

The third one is also ice cream…  Dove Cafe Collections.  Coffee flavored ice cream minis with chocolate chips & chocolate coating, or coffee ice cream with milk & dark chocolate coating.  Again, just a couple bites, but so insanely satisfying!!!!

*I will admit a love for GFIC’s Cafe Vienna & Orange Cappuccino.  I will readily admit that they aren’t really coffee, but a flavored delivery system for caffeine and sugar that presents itself in a hot-drink manner appealing to me.  I won’t say it’s really coffee.

Met up with my friend Stephanie tonight and we went wandering about Old Town Alexandria for dinner.  As we approached the Majestic Cafe, she asked if I’d ever been there.  Nope.  I’ve walked or driven by it countless times, but never been inside.  (And honestly thought it was a diner.)  She said, “It’s pricey, but good.”

Well, when it comes to good food, I am totally OK with pricey, so in we went.

And it kicks ass.  To start off with, the water is awesome.  I know how totally bizarre that sounds, because it sounded a bit strange to me when she said, “Get the still water – it is incredible!”  But it was also a million degrees out and I wanted water – and as much as I love sparkling water, at $4.50 for sparkling vs. $0.00 for still with a very emphatic recommendation – I went with the still water.  I have no idea what filtration/water softening system they use at the restaurant, but it makes water actually TASTY.  And from me, that is actually saying something, because I really am not much of a water drinker at all.  I downed 2 LARGE glasses of this water without even blinking an eye.  In the normal course of a day, I have to *force* myself to down 8 to 16 ounces of water.

As humid and sticky as it was, I wanted an icy cocktail, but wasn’t quite in the mood for one of their many tiki-rum drinks, and the Salty Dog I ordered was top-notch, but the “Missionary’s Downfall” in the awesomely goofy tiki-glass that Steph ordered seemed to perfectly fit the bill for her.  (I have to be in a certain mindset for rum drinks.  I have no idea why.)

For dinner, I got the sauteed soft shell crabs.  Outstanding.  They were smothered in perfectly ripe off-the-vine-this-morning tomatoes, sweet corn and lima beans.  (And I SO love lima beans!  My only argument would be that they need *more* lima beans in it!)  Steph had the Amish chicken, which she definitely seemed to enjoy and took the rest home for tomorrow’s lunch.  (Bonus:  When you get a to-go box, they put the date on it.  However, I can’t imagine anything from this restaurant lasting in the fridge more than 24 hours.)

By the time the dessert menu came around, I was perfectly stuffed and felt I couldn’t really avail myself of their selections (though I was tempted by the chocolate & bourbon beignets, as was Steph!) but I couldn’t resist their Irish Coffee.  I **love** Irish Coffee and if someone is bold enough to include it as a menu item, I have to see how it stacks up to the rest.  And the Majestic indicated that it “looked like a Guinness!”  Well, I love Guinness, too, so I had to check this out.  It’s coffee, Irish Whiskey and brown sugar, topped with their homemade whipped cream.  And it really does look like a Guinness!  And is very, very tasty.

The cherry on the top was chocolate truffles rolled in coconut that came with the check.  Beats a peppermint any day of the week.

Seriously, if you want an un-fussy place to eat with spectacular food – hit the Majestic.

I was able to make perfectly sized pancakes that turned out wonderfully!  An excellent breakfast for dinner.  It comes apart easily for cleanup and does a great job controlling the amount of pancake batter hitting the griddle.  I love it.

If you want a pancake dispenser like this, Avon has it.  I am also an Avon rep, so if you want to order it from my site, that would be kinda awesome, too.  Just search on “pancake dispense” – and while you’re at it, browse the “Gifts for Home” section – they’re really rocking the cute kitchen stuff these days.

I wish I had a photo – I took some quick shots, but when I pulled them off the memory card, they were blurry – and I’d already finished the grits by then.  (I’m quite certain I’ll be making this again, so there is hope that I can get a shot.)

Best Cheese Grits Ever:

1/4 c. old fashioned grits (NOT instant)
1 1/8 c. chicken stock or broth
2 ounces shredded chipotle cheddar cheese
salt & pepper

Bring the stock to a boil, add grits, stir well.  Set heat to LOW and cover.  After about 6 minutes I hit it with the salt & pepper.  Then at the 12 minute mark, I stir in the cheese.  I did notice that with the chicken stock, it was still a touch soupy at the 12 minute mark, so I let it go another minute or so.  (In the future I may just cut it back to 1 cup of stock.)

Once the cheese is stirred in, sit back and enjoy!

According to the grits package, 1/4 c of grits is 2 servings.  Maybe if you’re eating it with something else.  Otherwise, it’s one perfect serving on it’s own.

I really do.  When I gave my brother a choice of baked or fried potatoes with dinner and he chose baked, I certainly couldn’t argue it.

So easy, so simple, so good.  Prep time of a whole 2 minutes of washing them off, poking them a couple times with a fork and tossing in a pan. An hour in the oven at 400 degrees and that’s that.  Even twice baked are easy, another 5 minutes of mashing them up and a couple minutes back under the broiler.

They’re healthy (even with toppings – just don’t use an entire pint of sour cream) and easy and one of my favorite sides.

All hail the lovely baking potato!

I’ve gotten poked for not getting the food reports out, so here they come – expect a slew in the next day or so. Here we go!

Barefoot Bernie’s Tropical Bar

New for us this year. They have all the standard beach seafood fare with some Jamaican and Tex/Mex thrown in and the usual fruity beach drinks.

Got the Tex Mex chicken potato skins, which were really good. Though, they don’t come with sour cream… Some other sauce, which was very good, but it was all I could do to not ask for sour cream. My brain can’t really process potato skins without sour cream. For dinner I got plain old fried shrimp. Not exciting, not exotic, but just what I wanted and they just hit the spot.

Little bro got wings to start and the steamer platter (clams, shrimp & crab) and polished that off in short order.

Not fancy or outlandish, just good and worthy of a return visit.

MP 4.5 on the Bypass. No reservations needed.

The Black Pelican

This is the third time I’ve been here and it’s been kind of all over the place. The first time I got the Prime Rib and it was delicious. The second time we went with Tev & Lisa, and it was a comedy of errors in getting our orders right, but the food was good and we got a free round of drinks for the issues.

This year – not so great. Started with the crab rangoon which was very good. Then moved onto the Cajun Fish bites – cajun fried catch of the day, which was swordfish. Not bad, but not much that was cajun-y about it.

Then I got the shrimp and grits. Shrimp sauteed in onions, garlic, peppers and tomatoes, over jalapeño cheese grits. I just hoped that the jalapeños wouldn’t overpower everything. Turns out that was the least of my worries. They neglected to mention to half a jar of chili powder that was dumped in while they were cooking the shrimp as well as the chili powder dusting on the rim of the plate. (Every time the air currents changed, you’d get lungful of chili powder…) Even with the grits, the shrimp were WAY too hot, and I do like spicy food. However, the grits all by themselves were stupendous.

Donald had the same problem with the ribs he ordered – all spice and no taste. There’s a line between being spicy and inedible, and they seem to have lost sight of where that line is. Probably off the list for next year.

MP 4 on the beach road. No reservations needed.

Kelly’s

Kelly’s is weird. The food is quite good but there is always some odd thing that is more memorable. First trip it was the weird cocktail waitress that I was quite sure was trying to kill us. The the odd little room the four of us had to ourselves last year. (I guess we looked like we were going to cause problems.) This year it was the hostess with pink hair and a sternum piercing. (Not gross, just extremely painful to contemplate.)

Also, there is a bit of a fading glory thing going on. In 2000 it was named the best place to meet babes by Playboy magazine. I don’t think it still holds that distinction. It also seemed that the average age of the clientele had jumped about 15 years in the past 12 months.

But, weird or not, the food is great. You start with a kickass bread basket with 3 or 4 types of bread and biscuits, so everyone will find something to fill up on even before dinner arrives.

I got the clams casino started, and they were very good. (Awful Arthur’s is still #1 for those in my book, though.) The rest of the table shared a plate of calamari, and happy “this is good” noises were being made all around. (I was too busy with my clams to pay attention to any actual words.)

I got the special – rockfish with crab over rice and veggies. VERY good. (I also just love rockfish.) In an unusual turn for me, I ate all the vegetables – green beans that had a ton of butter and a touch of cumin of all things. (Took me forever to figure out what it was, and then when I figured it out I yelled, “IT’S CUMIN!” like some culinary tourette’s patient.)

Tev got the softshell crabs and said they were quite good. At this point, neither myself or my brother can remember what else we ordered, but that we were all happily stuffed at the end of the night. (As I said, there is always something else that prevents us from remembering what we ordered…)

Definitely a repeat.

MP 10.5 on the bypass. Still working out the kinks of call ahead seating.

Ah, the beach. Where my diligent monitoring of calories expended vs. consumed goes out the window. Not only is there food, wonderful food, but tons and tons of SEAFOOD. Sure, we’ve got the bay right next door back home, but it’s not quite the same.

Last night we hit what has become our traditional first night spot – Awful Arthur’s. Sure, I suppose it could be considered a tourist trap, but you could say that about every place down where between May and September. And the food is great, so, whatever. No matter what time we go, it’s always an hour wait. But that’s not so bad, because after they inform you of the wait time, the hostess says, “But you can go up to the bar and we’ll come get you when the table is ready.” Gosh, go upstairs and drink beer and have a great view of the ocean. Yes, that sucks.

So we went upstairs and knocked a few back and watched the waves and Nascar and TdF, and in a near Rainman move, my brother closed out the bar tab a mere 2 minutes before the hostess arrived to take us to our table.

I have had a craving for clams casino all week, so a half dozen of those was a given. Fresh clams, sweet peppers, butter and bacon. Tell me how that could possibly go wrong? Oh – it can’t. We were also right under one of the a/c vents so coup was a must as well. The crab and lobster bisque is awesome. It’s think and creamy and tomato-y and just spot on. And then there were hushpuppies. Don’t think you can really go wrong with fried cornmeal and butter, either.

Little bro got the soup and the crabmeat in butter. I’d say it’s a classic rookies mistake of getting two insanely rich items, but I’ve made the same error myself many times. The crab in butter was great, too. I supposed it’s a good think I have a 5 mile run this weekend.

Matt – I didn’t get the oyster shot, but there is still plenty of time.

Tonight it’s Meridian 42, which in the past has been fantastic. I’m a tad concerned it’s been basically Mediterranean influenced seafood and such, and now they’re billing themselves as “Italiano” – which could mean new owners and/or management, or someone just decided that Italiano sounded a little less intimidating somehow. I’m hoping for the latter, as the couple items on the sample menu looked to be in the same vein as years past, and I really hope they haven’t “dumbed down” the food. If nothing else, they make a killer dirty Goose martini.

If you’re seeing this twice, it’s also over at my personal journal, so no stealing has occurred. Pretty much all the beach/food posts will be in both places.