Playing Around in Panama City Beach, Part 2

This is continued as I was unable to upload any more pictures to this post for whatever reason.

Enjoy.

Now, there is nothing stranger to a Northerner than seeing palm trees and Christmas decorations in the same scene.



Have you ever tried to take pictures at night from a moving vehicle?

Still, I like the effect.




Well, I found the beach.

And I have no idea why my camera insists upon turning this picture 90 degrees.

We even got the dear husband (who's idea this whole trip was to begin with) down to the beach once.

The family enjoys the sunset.

Another thing we Yanks just have trouble wrapping our minds around is the idea of being able to wade in the surf in late November.

And why does my camera turn the pictures sideways?

Is it senile?

Is it a control issue?

The family in the surf.

The waves wash on shore.

Look for photo opportunities everywhere.

Decorative grass blows in the breeze.

Lovely views from our private balcony.

At home this sign would show a bicycle.

We saw this abandoned hotel that had obviously been hit by a storm surge during a recent hurricane.

Statistically speaking, this area can expect a direct hit from a hurricane every 12.55 years and is affected, either directly or indirectly every 3.54 years.*

*Source: hurricanecity.com

The Foodie Daughter and I ventured down to the Fourth Floor pool area.

The pool has what is called a "zero edge."

Interesting.

Seagulls on the beach.

I found a pretty shell on the beach, only to find that it had an occupant.

I decided to let him be.

I also found an interesting insect on the beach.

Definitely don't find these up north.

A seagull stands on a shoal at lower tide.

Seagulls in flight.

While waiting for the sunset, the Foodie Daughter decided to bury my feet.

Such a nice, thoughtful daughter.

Did I mention that the sand was chilly?

The Boatyard Restaurant as seen across Grand Lagoon.

Their web site gives directions on how to reach them, either by land or water.

We plan on going here later.

See, I told you so.

The restaurant is essentially an open-air affair, with a roof and removable plastic walls for cooler weather.

We were seated next to the dock.

My husband ordered the "Pan Roast of Fish & Shellfish."

This was described as having "Fresh Local Fish and Jumbo Shrimp sauteed in Pan Butter Sauce with Andouille Sausage and Mushrooms, served over Smoked Gouda Cheese Grits.

Savory, hearty and full of flavor."

He agreed with their assessment and enjoyed his meal.

The Foodie Daughter ordered "The Fried Shrimp You Can't Live Without."

The menu promised that she would have "Large butter-flied (why did they hyphenate that?) Shrimp, hand-battered and fried to a crisp golden brown. Served with spicy Cocktail Sauce."

She chose sweet potato fries to go along with her dish.

These were good, but as she couldn't eat all of this, she took the rest back to the condo and reheated it for lunch the next day.

She has enjoyed being able to eat shrimp as the boyfriend was at home and she didn't have to worry about his allergy to shrimp.

I ordered the "Key Lime Garlic Shrimp."

This tempting dish was described as being "Colossal Pink Shrimp broiled in Garlic Butter and fine herbs, topped with a Garlic and Cilantro sauce and served with Black Beans, Yellow rice and Sweet Plantains."

Now, if you look at the photograph, it is obvious that those are not black beans and yellow rice.

I opted to switch those out for the Smoked Gouda Cheese Grits.

You see, grits are just not a dish that one typically finds up north and I really wanted to try some.

What can I say?

This dish was inspired and I loved it.

The shrimp were cooked perfectly and the grits were divine.

The plantain (another food I had never had before) were tart, starchy but irresistible.

I'm hooked.

Too bad I hadn't left any food to take back to the condo for the next day!

A lighthouse sits near the restaurant.

And now, enjoy the sound of the surf in the early morning.

6 am to be exact.

The sea changes, yet the sea remains the same.

The surf at sunset.

I think Panama City Beach has stolen my heart.

Playing Around in Panama City Beach

Luckily for us, the weather decided, for the most part, to cooperate with us while we were in Panama City Beach, Florida.

The sun was shining and it was warm. Well, warmer than Southern Indiana at least. We were told by a local that we had arrived during a cold snap. Lucky us indeed.

Don't you just love the Foodie Daughter's idea of a night light?

How can she sleep with the TV on all night?

Let's just enjoy the view from the balcony.

Would you like some cheese ball and crackers and a glass of wine?

The sightseeing helicopter travels back and forth several times a day.

Heh, some of these places really take the beach theme seriously.

The Treasure Ship's ads promise that they have "live pirates roaming the decks."

Well, I guess that's better than them carting around dead pirates on trolleys.

And in case you are wondering: no, we did not go there.

These are really pretty plants, but I'm not quite sure what they are.

Can one of my Southern readers help me out?

To be continued (as Blogger isn't cooperating with me today)...

A Disappointing Thanksgiving Dinner

As is my wont, I had researched places to go, things to do and restaurants to eat at prior to our trip to Panama City Beach, Florida. One of the restaurants that I had picked for us to try seemed particularly promising. Besides being lauded as being one of the best restaurants in Panama City Beach, the centerpiece of the the Saltwater Grill Restaurant is a 25,000 gallon salt water aquarium. We decided to eat there on Thanksgiving Day, foregoing the traditional day’s dinner.

Well, that was the plan. Too bad the restaurant had other ideas. Upon being seated, we were informed that ordering off their extensive and tempting menu was not an option. We were instead directed to the impromptu buffet that had been set up in a corner of the dining room.

Now here is a cautionary tale for restaurateurs. Stick to what you know and to what you do best. If, for example, you are an upscale seafood and steak eatery, don’t try to suddenly become a common family buffet, serving foods that normally don’t appear on your menu. If your customers really wanted the traditional Thanksgiving Day fare they wouldn’t be venturing into your restaurant to begin with, now would they? No, of course not. They would be coming to you in order to escape the same old boring menu that can easily be found at the clichéd family restaurant/country store chain just down the street. If you do try to venture into these unfamiliar waters, the results will likely be less than spectacular and those customers who do dine with you on this occasion will probably be vastly disappointed with your food. So do yourself and your reputation a favor by playing to your strengths.

Now back to the matter at hand: perhaps we should have just left at this point, but we were playing the part of meek little mice (we have that role down pat, thank you very much), so we stayed. Obediently we made our way to the buffet to see just what our choices were.

A tossed salad and a Caesar salad started off the buffet. Lobster bisque (where’s the lobster?) and some other soup were up next. Roast beef to be carved by the attendant preceded the turkey, honey ham, mahi mahi with mango salsa and a vegetarian dish consisting of penne pasta in tomato sauce sitting in their chafing dishes, slowly drying out, diminishing into the sunset as they awaited the diners. Similarly, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, stuffing (made with chicken stock and thus off limits to me), corn and rice pilaf suffered the same ignominy.

Cranberry compote, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and pecan bread pudding finished off the buffet.

The ham was decent, but the mahi mahi might as well have dated from the time of the Pharaohs. That poor fish, which is one of the most expensive fish in our neck of the woods, was dry, dense and tasteless. The potatoes (both varieties) were dried out and would have been tossed if found in my kitchen. Fortunately, it is nearly impossible to ruin corn, even on a forsaken buffet.


In the end I would have to say that the bread pudding was by far the best item on the buffet that I tried that evening.

Sadly, this ultimately disappointing fare set us back $90 with tip and that was entirely too much money for a sad excuse of a meal for these admittedly cheap Yankees*. Now, I want to believe that this truly is a very nice restaurant, but this meal did not advertise this fact and indeed leads one to believe the opposite.

*Please understand that we have no problem with paying good money for exceptional fare, but this barely qualified as edible food in our book.

Restaurateurs, please heed my advice and don’t try to be what you are not. You can only hurt yourself in the process. Either do what you do proudly or close for the day and save your reputation.

I really cannot tell you how much writing this post hurt me as I hate to disparage anyone. I hope to return someday to Panama City Beach and perhaps learn firsthand that this truly is a great restaurant. Unfortunately, this trip did not prove that fact.

Sunrise and Sunsets on the Gulf of Mexico

The devil, as they say, is in the details, and our Internet at the condo, while “free” as advertised, is limited. This has meant that I have been having to ration my time on the Internet, including my time spent blogging our experience here.

But not to fear, I have been busy taking pictures and I have been “sacrificing” myself by relaxing away from my computer in the interim.

To tide you over until I return home to my paid, but unlimited Internet access, I present these pictures of a sunrise over the Gulf and a couple of sunsets. Enjoy.

Despite having been up 36 hours straight a couple of days beforehand, I was still up in time for the sunrise on Thanksgiving morning.

The Foodie Daughter was nice enough to travel down with me to the beach in the chilly weather.

Our condo is up there. Sweet.

Later that day we again ventured down to the beach to see the sunset.

Lovely.

Friday evening the Foodie Daughter and I went down to watch the sunset.

Hope you enjoyed the show.

Lucky you got to see this without having to deal with the cold sand and the chilly winds.

Thanksgiving in Panama City Beach

After finding out that my husband’s family would be celebrating Thanksgiving on the Sunday before the big day, I looked forward to actually being able to prepare my first ever Thanksgiving Day dinner for my family at home. For not once in our 26 years of marriage had we ever been home on Thanksgiving Day.

Those plans all changed with an email that I received from my husband on Monday, November 16. In it he asked what I thought about going to Panama City, Florida for Thanksgiving. My response was, “Who are you and what have you done with my husband?” After determining that he was indeed my husband and he was quite himself, thank you very much, I answered that yes, I would love to go.

Of course, it was then up to me to make all the arrangements for our stay. Once again the Internet saved the day as I was able to search hotels and condos and compare rates and features online before making a decision. A few clicks later and our reservations had been made.

The Foodie Daughter was brought on board and she immediately “voluntold” the Foodie Boyfriend to housesit and watch the cat for us while we were gone. Luckily for him, all our fish recently died, so there was that much less for him to do. Looks like we’re ready to head south for Thanksgiving.

Now we just had to prepare for the 14 hour drive down to Panama City Beach and schedule our departure from chilly Southern Indiana so that we would arrive in the warm Florida Panhandle in the late afternoon. Oh, you mean we have to leave home at 2 am? Well, if we must, we must.

The husband was able to go to sleep in the evening before we had to leave, so he took the first driving shift. Unfortunately, I had too many last minute things to do and I was too keyed up to be able to sleep, so I did without. In the end I couldn’t sleep in the car either, so I was awake a full 36 hours before I went to bed once we got to the condo and finally settled in for the night.

The first part of the drive was rather peaceful and we decided to stop in Kentucky at 4 am for a “midnight” snack. I’ll let you in on a deep, dark secret: I normally have little use for McDonald’s and view it only as a necessary evil when on the road and a quick, travel-friendly meal is needed. One of the many problems I have with their food is that I am always hungry an hour after eating there. I maintain that is because the food is mostly empty calories, but of course that is just my opinion. That being said, I do have a serious love for their Bacon and Egg McGriddle Sandwiches. And I have no problem with only very occasionally treating myself to one, despite the fact that I know I will be getting all or most of my daily allowance of calories, fat and sodium in that one little sandwich. I just couldn’t imagine eating this kind of food on a regular basis.

Now where were we? Oh that’s right, we were headed south on our way to Florida.

During a stop for gas in Franklin, Tennessee the Foodie Daughter and I switched seats, hoping that I could get some sleep. Alas, it didn’t work, but the daughter did take some pictures of the sunrise and early morning mists for me.

We stopped for a true breakfast at a Cracker Barrel in northern Alabama before the Foodie Daughter took over driving duties.

Alabama broke my heart.
No, wait. That wasn’t it.

Alabama broke my windshield.

The poor Foodie Daughter nearly had a heart attack when a rock hit the windshield on the passenger side where I was sitting, putting a not-so-very nice hole in my pretty windshield. Bad Alabama.

Guess we need to add the price of a new windshield to the cost of this vacation. Good thing I came in nearly $200 under budget on the accommodations. We are also saving money by eating in the condo for breakfast and lunch each day. What, us cheap?

Spanish moss on a tree.

Now that's something we Northerners don't get to see up our way.

Falling to the lure of quick, easy food, we did end up stopping at a McDonald’s for lunch and the food was predictable and forgettable. What else were you expecting?

Hello Florida.

Cotton fields.

That's another thing we never see up north.

There's still fall color to be found down here.

We crossed the Mid-Bay Bridge on our way to our destination.

Our condo is in the building on the left.

Finally, after hours and hours on the road and an hour detour to Destin, Florida so my husband could look at a piece of property for the bank he works at, we arrived at the condo. The friendly staff quickly signed us in and we were directed to our room on the 9th floor.

We then parked and took as much stuff as we could handle to the room to find … that the room had just been painted that day, tarps were still on the floor, the furniture was in the middle of the living/dining room, the workers’ tools and drinks were on the kitchen counters and the TV and lights had been left on. Well, this obviously would not work. Disheartened and tired, the Foodie Daughter and I trudged back down to the front desk to see about getting another room as this one was obviously not ready and I would not be able to stand the odor of the paint even if it were. Thankfully the nice lady quickly changed us to a new room and we moved our things.

What a difference. The first room was nice, but had no direct gulf view. Also, the bathroom was only accessible through the bedroom, which was not to the dear daughter’s liking. The new room is up on the 14th floor and directly faces the gulf. The floor plan has 1-1/2 baths so she doesn’t have to tramp through our bedroom in the middle of the night. In short, we are now happy condo-dwellers and I want to thank the staff of Origin at Seahaven for taking care of us.

I think I could handle having a place like this to come down to a few times a year. Guess I need to write my Great American Novel and get rich and famous so we can afford to do just that.

This is the floor plan for our unit.

Is this sweet or what?

Don't you just love this view from our balcony?

The pool is down on the 4th floor level.

We missed the sunset the first evening.

As tired as we were, we opted to walk across the road to Sharky’s Seafood Restaurant and Beach Club. The sun had already set, but the temperatures were still in the 60’s, so I made an executive decision and asked to be seated outside. Our table overlooked the beach where young children were happily playing while their parents sat in the restaurant.

One definite disadvantage of arriving after dark and sitting outside was that we couldn’t see either the menus or the food once it arrived. Guess they haven’t heard of lanterns? Our waitress, Michelle, was a gem and laughed when I asked to keep the menu long enough to photograph it for my blog.

We decided to order an appetizer and asked for the Caribbean Fritters. These are described as being “a Caribbean favorite, a blend of diced seafood, seasonings and onions in a traditional batter, crispy fried served with Sweet Thai Chili sauce.”

We all liked the fritters, and I will have to try to figure out a recipe like this at home.

The Foodie Daughter ordered the Classic Caesar Salad with Grilled Shrimp. She was very happy with her salad and practically inhaled the shrimp.

The husband ordered a basket of scallops.

These were deep fried bay scallops served with French fries and hush puppies.

He loved the scallops and thought they were perfectly prepared.

I opted to get the Firecracker Salad which is “lightly breaded Popcorn shrimp tossed in a sweet Thai chili sauce and served over a bed of mixed greens , tomatoes, onions and cucumbers.”

I did realize, even in the dark, that the “mixed greens” consisted solely of simply iceberg lettuce, but other than that tiny detail, this was one terrific salad and the shrimp were simply divine.

By now we were full, chilly and tired, so we headed back to the condo and turned in for the night by 8 pm local time (9 pm EST). Do we know how to live or what?

Stay tuned for sunrise and sunset on the beach, relaxing on the balcony and a disappointing but expensive Thanksgiving buffet.

Minx at Home

Our dear Minx certainly has made himself at home, both in our house and in our hearts.

Why do cats like shoes?

What's in there, Minx?

Minx likes to help his family "read" the paper.

Minx likes to sit in the bath tub.

Silly Minx.

Minx is helping us put the Halloween decorations away.

Minx is making sure the fish have fresh water for their aquarium.

Well, what do you know.

A black and white cat photographed in black and white looks just the same.

Minx likes to help pack the cooler.

He knows his humans need all the help they can get.

We are some lucky people to have a cat like Minx.

Turkey Cutlets, Two Ways

I had a dream

A dream of turkey cutlets.

I also had a dream of achieving five-star reviews for my turkey cutlet recipe.

Let's just see how that turned out, shall we?

*

Attempt number 1:

Lemon and Thyme Turkey Cutlets

I set up my breading station with flour, an egg wash and the bread crumb mixture in three separate containers.

The zest of one lemon and 1-1/2 teaspoon dried thyme were mixed in with the bread crumbs before the cutlets were coated.



I have found that it is important to bread any meat that you wish to fry at least a couple of hours before you will be cooking it.
After breading, place the meat, uncovered, in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
About half an hour before you are ready to cook, take the meat out of the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature.

Cook as usual.

This extra step allows the breading to properly adhere to the meat so that the coating will not separate or "blow out" when fried.

The turkey cutlets were cooked in oil over medium-high heat until golden brown on each side.

Do not crowd the meat in the pan.

They were then removed to a serving platter.

*

One tablespoon butter and 1/2 cup sherry were used to deglaze the pan and the sherry was reduced before the sauce was poured over the cutlets.

The cutlets were served with roasted potatoes and pea salad.

So how did the ratings go?

I gave this five stars since I liked the balance of the lemon and thyme.

The Foodie Daughter gave it four stars as she thought the lemon flavor was too pronounced.

The Foodie Boyfriend gave it four stars because he thought it needed more zip, more flavor, more spice.

The dear husband thinks that any lemon flavor is too much, so he gave this three stars.

Guess I need to keep working.

*

Attempt number 2:

Spicy Turkey Cutlets

After finding out just what the Foodie Boyfriend meant by "more flavor", I looked through my many bottles of herbs and spices to see what flavors I could bring to this mild-mannered meat.

I decided on a Lemon-Pepper Blend,

Ground Cayenne Pepper

and

dried Herbes de Provence from my garden.

The breading station was set up as before and the cutlets were ready to be cooked.

This time around the turkey cutlets were accompanied by macaroni and cheese and a fresh salad.

And now for the ratings:

The Foodie Daughter, Boyfriend and I all gave this five stars and agreed the cutlets were moist, tender and very flavorful.

The dear husband, who has yet to earn his Foodie designation, gave this three stars,
saying it was "just okay and a touch too spicy."

Sigh, what's a Foodie to do?