Continuing with the food theme….

2 Jellyfish – one’s headed for the bottom

Saturday, October 4, 2014, Pensacola Florida.  Very strong winds from the NORTH….temperature has dropped like the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball…..it is kind of cool here.  As we walk north on Palafox Street to the farmer’s market, we notice that the natives….Floridians that is, are dressed in sweaters, long sleeved clothing, pants, no shorts, some are even wearing jackets.  It isn’t too bad for us, we are still in shorts, Beth wearing a long sleeved tee shirt, I’m in a short sleeved one.

We were slightly delayed in getting to the farmer’s market, as we were walking by the parking lot where we leave the car, we both noticed that it looked strange.  Our immediate thoughts were crap, someone broke into the car, but as we got closer, we knew that we could be not further from the truth…at least so far.  I had parked the car under one of the many parking lot light standards, and apparently the local birds just love it when people do so.  Our grayish-blueish whatever color the car is, was now pretty much white….as in bird poo white.  Totally covered.  Eeeew!  So, off to find a car wash to remove the fecal bombs left behind by our feathered friends.  $5 later, the car looked much better, and while we were out, we filled up the gas tank. $65 for premium at $3.75 a gallon at the local Shell station.  Back home, this was at least a $95 fill up, as we were pretty much running on fumes.  So, for those of you wondering, there you go, about a $30 savings in fuel.

Jellyfish and Mullets

So, off to the farmer’s market.  It was very busy, all kinds of street vendors and entertainment.  Bands with vocals, duos with just a banjo and guitar, solo guitar players, solo banjo players…..Mugger, if you ever retire you can come down here and make some money<grin>  The vendors consisted mainly of food type folks, we purchased a “tomato pie”, which is just like a regular pie but contained tomatoes, bacon, cheese and some kind of special sauce.  It actually tasted ok, but not $15 ok, maybe $10 ok.  We also purchased some “Dixie Smoke” homemade mustard, and fresh organic pork Louisiana sausage.  The usual jewelry and art vendors were there as well, but we managed to get by them unscathed.

Our plan had been to sail yesterday, but the winds were very high, there was a small craft warning, and I did not want to try to re-dock Moorahme in those conditions.  Sailing would have been great fun, docking not so much.  So, we fiddle farted around on the boat, I had a wee bit of retirement style afternoon nap after the walk to the farmer’s market, and we both enjoyed the people’s comments on Moorahme as they walked by on the causeway above us, which, by the way, is a very popular walkway for the locals here.

Aaron and Caroline successfully completed day two of their sailing classes, and we invited them for dinner.  We had visited Joe Pattis on Friday and purchased some “Royal Red” shrimp, and a very nice swordfish steak.  The barbeque was about to be well abused by my culinary skills, as we planned on thinly slicing up some previously cooked rib eye steak, baked potatoes with garlic cloves and of course bacon, and these famous “red” shrimp.  There are a large variety of shrimp in the waters out there, and apparently the Reds are the most prized of the lot.  The Reds reside in the deepest part of the waters here, and this is why they are the color red when caught, much the same color as other shrimp after they have been cooked.  Beth put together one of her delicious salads, and we were in business.

The prep and cooking of the dinner went well, down here the barbeque is called a “grill”, hence, you are “grilling” dinner…so, I grilled dinner last night on the grill, y’all!  Last night was the first time I had ever had Swordfish, it is awesome!  The steak was about an inch and three quarters thick, and with the grill cranking, three minutes per side, give or take a nano second or two, and it was done!  The shrimp was divided into two methods…I put some butter in tin foil, threw in some blackened old bay spices, and threw the shrimp in on top.  The steam from the butter melting and the water from the shrimp quickly cooked the tin foil contents, and the remainder I placed on the grill and cooked them straight up.  Oh My Goodness!  The reds are sweeter, and the meat has a slightly different texture than any other shrimp, hard to describe the different texture, make sure you get some FRESH reds and try them out!  Your best bet….come on down and join us, we’ll take you to Joe Patti’s, then back to Moorahme for an awesome dinner, great wine, funny stories, especially if Aaron is here…

I learned a new saying last night….it’s one of those that will stick…lol.  We were talking about steak, and how we like it cooked.  Aaron piped up and said…I tell the waiter to “lop off the horns, wipe it’s ass, and run it by the grill”……I just find that one hard to forget, especially with the way Aaron talks.  Not saying he has an accent….but.

So, today, it looks like we can get out sailing, which we will.  More practice on the big girl here.  It is 65 degrees here in Moorahme this morning.  I closed all the hatches last night, we had shut the air conditioning off early yesterday morning…..so that should give you some idea what the overnight temperature was like.  Not sure what the temperature actually dropped to, but it was supposed to go down to 50 degrees over in Daphne, Alabama, about an hour away where Aaron and Caroline reside.  The locals will be COLD this morning!

a few dolphins off in the distance

Till next time, keep your stick on the ice.