This morning after yoga we went to our first Gulf Shores author series presentation. It was given by Dolores Hydock. Her talk was “Through the Back Door, tracing cajun music from its early presence in North America to its modern-day sound.”

Being from Prince Edward Island, having Acadian friends, having taught in a dual track school (English and French) and knowing the background I was interested in what she’d have to say.

She was a very animated and dynamic presenter, showing overhead projections, and playing old recording examples of Cajun and Zydeco music.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajun_music

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zydeco

Most of what she said I already knew but I learned a few new things.

Next week the presenter will be Daphne Simpkins, writer and writing teacher, speaking on “Alabama’s Own Nat King Cole”. She’s to explore the legacies and musical genius of the artist, performer, and business man from Alabama. Hoping to attend.

This beautiful sunny afternoon was enjoyed by reading on the deck. ❤️

On Sunday, as it was raining, I spent some time researching salads and found an interesting one. We quite often make a Cobb salad for supper so upon finding the recipe for Alabama Cobb Salad I thought, “How appropriate for down here.”. So that’s what was on tonight’s menu.

Alabama Cobb Salad

http://www.akitchenhoorsadventures.com/alabama-cobb-salad/

This was delicious but too much food. Next time I’d only cook one chicken breast and split it between us.

A few issues I had with the recipe’s listed ingredients. No biggies but I really wanted to follow it exactly.

She lists Colby cheese but in her picture it looks like Colby jack cheese. I didn’t realize this beforehand and bought Colby.

She says chopped tomatoes but her picture shows them cut in small wedges. I did notice this in time.

The white circles you see on the right of my picture are hominy grits.

Hominy grits are a type of grits made from hominy – corn that has been treated with an alkali in a process called nixtamalization with the pericarp removed. 

I loved them.

I guess I really should have prepared a Cajun salad for supper tonight after today’s presentation but I never thought of that till now. Isn’t hindsight great?

It certainly is a colourful salad.

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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How wonderful to have great neighbours.

Joanne and Jean had us over for dinner last night and it was another great evening. Their friend Cindy, who we met last year, was also there. Always nice to reconnect with people.

Another lovely meal, a little 🍷 (ok quite a bit of 🍷) and stimulating conversation. Hard to beat that.

Thanks ladies for a terrific time.

A visitor followed Richard home from fishing.

It walked behind Richard all the way home and then perched on our deck railing.

This was a first. It’s usually on the deck of the house next to us. How very exciting.

Nite y’all

Thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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(I had originally posted this yesterday Jan. 24th, my birthday, but had technical difficulties.)

My birthday!

Started off with Richard cooking me breakfast: turkey bacon, eggs, fried tomatoes, sliced nectarine, and green tea. Yum.

And I got to enjoy this while doing the daily crossword. My kind of morning. Plus it was 17C and sunny. Love it.

Had lovely birthday messages from my children. Love them so much.

Then off to the gym and yoga. Today we took a change of clothes as we were going out after to celebrate my birthday. Those who know me know my love for shoes. Wish this photo was clearer to show how nice my red shoes really are.

First stop: Starbucks for my free birthday drink. Of course I ordered a venti Matcha Green Tea Latte with almond milk. Make that extra hot please. A little problem with my egg bites but that got sorted.

Second stop: Perdido Pass https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perdido_Pass

We took a walk along the boardwalk where people were fishing or sitting and enjoying the view (but not in this pic).

Found a pelican on our walk. I stood right next to it and it hardly even moved. Here’s a question for you. Is it a him or a her? I don’t know. How does one tell?

Did you know that Perdido Pass was originally man-made? Prior to 1906, there was only one way to enter the Gulf of Mexico from Perdido Bay – and the back bays of present-day Orange Beach – and that was a very narrow channel.

Read here to find out more. https://www.orangebeachal.gov/news/history-perdido-pass-man-made-channel-federal-waterway

Third stop: Cobalt Restaurant. https://cobaltrestaurant.net/

I found this photo online. I thought it gave a better view of the restaurant and it’s location than any of mine.

A super restaurant. Loved it. Great food, great service, great view.

What more could you as for.

I ordered the special Amber Jack for my entree. You can see it as the top selection on the specials of the day menu board. What is it? See the second picture.

It was delicious.

Doesn’t it look good?

Richard had the Jam-min BLT & E (the E was for an egg on the top). It was huge.

But sorry, I forgot to take a pic.

As it was my birthday I even had a glass of white wine. Scandalous. Lol.

Plus we splurged and had dessert.

Mine – Creole Cheesecake : Housemade Creole cream cheese with a roasted pecan crust, pecan praline & caramel sauce. Oh my. 🥰

Richard’s- Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee : Traditional French custard with a crisp shell of turbinado sugar. He said it was the best dessert he ever had.🥰🥰🥰

Stuffed. But feeling good.

Back home for some tea and relaxing.

What a great day!

Thanks to everyone for your lovely birthday wishes. I am truly blessed.

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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The last three days have been pretty quiet here.

Tuesday and Wednesday were our coldest days so far with 0-4C temperatures. We just did our regular routine: gym, yoga, Starbucks, groceries and back home for reading, tea, listening to music, and watching some TV. Too cold to sit on the deck. Brrrrr

Funny today the temperature was 14C but it still felt really cool. Weird how that works sometimes.

The Starbucks where we usually go is in Target. Today with our usual drinks we shared this bag of chickpea puffs. They were very good. Shows how lively the last few days have been if I’m posting this. Lol

While we were looking out the windows we were intrigued by how Target collects their carts in the parking lot. There’s a little motorized vehicle at the back and the workers click the carts into it, so they don’t have to physically push around carts. Guess they must program it somehow. Anyone know how that works? I googled but couldn’t find out. Here’s some pics.

Pretty cool, right?

That’s it for today.

What’s new and interesting with you?

Have a wonderful night.

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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Today was a great day.

Up and at it first thing this morning. Immediately after breakfast I made the creamy lemon squares for tonight’s dinner. I needed to get them made so they could chill while we went to yoga. So proud ’cause today we did two yoga classes back to back: a beginning yoga class and then a vinyasa class.

Back home and got everything else ready for this evening. I cooked and Richard cleaned. Worked out well.

Tonight’s Menu

Fresh Mozzarella Tomato Salad

https://greenvalleykitchen.com/fresh-mozzarella-and-tomato-salad/

This salad was delicious. I’ve made this salad in the past with multi coloured tomatoes but I couldn’t find them here. That really makes it much prettier.

Chicken Pasta with Creamy Parmesan and White Wine Sauce

https://whatsinthepan.com/chicken-pasta-in-creamy-white-wine-parmesan-cheese-sauce/

I used gluten free penne pasta even though the recipe called for spaghetti pasta.

Sadly the pasta was overcooked but it still tasted ok.

Creamy Lemon Squares

https://www.style-woman.club/2018/10/creamy-lemon-squares.html

I served these with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. They were very tart-just how I like lemon squares.

No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Bars

https://sugarapron.com/2017/04/25/no-bake-chocolate-oatmeal-bars/

Everyone was too full to try these so I sent some home with Jean and Joanne to have tomorrow. I ate one last night and they are delicious. I used gluten free rolled oats and substituted coconut sugar for the brown sugar.

This was the hit of the night for me.

Another great evening. So happy Jean and Joanne are our neighbours. We are really enjoying our Monday night get togethers.

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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On Richard’s breakfast list was The Pancake House so that was yesterday’s morning destination.

Reading about it he had seen it had great views, and he does love pancakes.

So off we went. A pleasant surprise was that it’s only about 10 minutes from our place.

It’s nice inside but more on the plain side. Richard asked for a window table and luckily one was available. I have to say the water view was ok but not nearly as nice as the view from our deck.

They have a substantial menu though not as much for me as I’m not a big pancake or waffle eater.

The menu continues on the back but, oops, I forgot to take a picture of it.

Our meals were ok (Richard – the Island Special and me – the Island Farmers Skillet). Glad we tried as it was on his list but we won’t return.

Something that we didn’t notice last year but are more aware of this year is alligator on the menus. We saw it at DeSoto’s and now again here.

Neither of us ordered it.

Then we just did more errands: a local yard sale, groceries, Starbucks, etc. Then back home.

As we didn’t hit the gym yesterday we decided to go today. It was a bit different because there are no fitness classes on Sunday. But at least it was a workout.

Richard joined the Mount Everest Challenge at the gym that begins January 27th so he’s been practicing his stair running on the back stairs at the gym.

52x up and down=1mile. His final total must be 22.75 miles to complete the task and he has six weeks to complete it. He will.

Made a new square for tomorrow as we’re having the neighbours over for supper tomorrow. I’ll let you know about them tomorrow.

That’s all for this weekend. It’s been cooler but nothing like PEI’s cold and stormy weekend weather. Snuggle up, keep warm, stay, safe, and enjoy your storm chips. 😉

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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Up earlier today in order to get everything done. Richard has been having trouble with his glasses so he had an eye appointment. From there we went looking for new glasses but why not first stop at Starbucks. Right? Any time is a good time. He likes his tall bold (dark roast) with a shot of espresso and I my macha green tea latte.

Richard found new frames he liked so his new glasses will be ready in ten days.

I took a little side excursion to Michael Kors and Kate Spade before meeting back up at T J Max. This is obviously Richard’s shopping holiday. He bought another jacket (that’s four now), more gym clothes, and a polo t-shirt.

Off to Marshall’s to return a yoga top and since it’s near the sports shop Richard was able to get a new fishing rod (remember he broke his on his first day of fishing).

The library to return a pile of books and check out new ones and then the gym and yoga.

What a full morning.

We have a list of restaurants to try this year so today we chose one close to home called DeSoto‘s.

https://desotosseafoodkitchen.com/

What a busy spot. Multiple parking lots. We arrived at 1:15 for lunch and had a 15 minute wait. Definitely a snowbirds’ place. Good food at great places.

Each table had these carriers (salt and pepper were on the other side). Kind of cute.

Something we’ve never seen before on a menu was alligator bites.

We did not order them.

They have a different lunch special for each day of the week but we opted to order from the menu.

We really liked that with each entree you could choose two side dished. And there were plenty of choices. Richard was looking forward to the coconut shrimp and for his sides chose mac & cheese and green fried tomatoes. My choices were blackened catfish with French fries and the sweet potato casserole. Richard loved all of his. I tried his sides and they tasted great. I’m allergic to shrimp so I didn’t sample it. My catfish was wonderful and I’m glad I tried the casserole as I’ve never had it, but I won’t ever order it again. It’s extremely sweet. Too sweet for me.

We’ll probably return another day as Richard would like to try Wednesday’s lunch special: chicken and dumplings.

Finally back home to relax. But not on the deck today. Too chilly for that.

Although our windy 19C is much better than the cold, stormy weather at home on PEI.

I hope everyone at home is safe and warm.

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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I’m sure some of you looked at the title and were immediately thinking yoga.

Nope. Not today.

We had our plans all in place. Do our regular gym and yoga and then head out to do some shopping.

Nope. Not today.

The weather forecast was cloudy with possibility of rain.

Nope. Not today.

After breakfast the sun came out and by mid morning it was 24C.

Now I’m not usually great with plans changing at the last minute but ——-

today we were flexible and went for it.

Decided to stay home and sit on the deck.

Plus walk on the beach.

We were flexible and enjoyed the day since a cold front could be coming in the next few days and the temperature might go down to single digits.

And I didn’t feel one bit guilty about not going to the gym.

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

The highlight of our beach walk was seeing dolphins in the gulf. What a sight. Sadly my phone photos didn’t show them. 😢

Hope your day was wonderful like mine-no matter what the weather.

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

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Every salad doesn’t need to come from a recipe or restaurant.

After deciding to try making Egg Bites for supper (next time I’ll add more cheese and peppers)

we thought we’d just buy a bagged salad and see how we could make it into a super salad.

That’s the great thing about salads – you can add whatever you’d like.

As you see we added blueberries, raspberries, spicy marinated tomatoes, and sliced almonds. Richard had his favourite English Salad Cream (which we brought with us from PEI) for his dressing and for mine I made a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. I thought the salad looked pretty, was healthy, and yes, it certainly tasted delicious.

I certainly hope you enjoyed your supper/dinner.

Nite y’all

As always, thanks for your interest and thank you for reading.

I invite you to click follow to receive timely updates, select like to show your love and support, share this post on your social media site, and /or comment in the box below.