Tallahassee Trip #3

This weekend we desperately needed an escape, so we drove down to Tally for the weekend to visit Casa Buchanan. We headed down on Friday afternoon with some random clothes thrown into a bag and the barkers. Since Desi and Sean love and relaxing as much as we do, this was destined to be a great weekend.

Friday night we hit up Siam Sushi, a Thai and sushi place, a recommendation from Desi's parents. Their menu was huge and inspiring. I could have eaten muscles for an app, red curry, and a hand full of rolls on the menu safely. What I ended up doing was ordering two rolls and being (sadly) very full. I guess this means we'll have to go again to find out what the Thai side of the menu tastes like.

Saturday we all went out on the boat for a beer-drinking, beach-dancing, fast-tubing, scenery-seeing good time. We were thankful to not be baking in the 90 degree heat next to any alligators. The overcast, mild day seemed more like an Floridian October. The lack of blazing sun just meant we could hang out eating egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches and goofing off. One of our friends that we were boating with recently started eating GF, due to her rheumatoid arthritis. She's feeling quite a bit better. I introduced her to Redbridge beer, and she introduced me to her peanut butter balls.

When we came home on Saturday night, we were starving. Sean fired up the fryer full of canola oil for wings and sweet potato fries. After cooking up a massive pile of chicken wings, we covered them in a mix of hot sauce and Sweet Baby Ray's. The mandoline-sliced sweet potatoes, naked when they were fried, came out perfectly crispy and sweet. A little Kosher salt on the fries made me think we'd died and gone to heaven.

Each morning, Saturday and Sunday alike, we took our time to lay around in pj's and make breakfast food. We cooked up bacon and GF Bisquick pancakes for breakfast on Saturday, sweet potato home fries and GF pancakes on Sunday. Sean and Desi both really enjoyed the GF Bisquick, which makes me believe it tastes "normal." (At this point "good" and "not-GF-normal" are no longer synonymous.)

Sunday afternoon we headed to the flea market for perusing, book hunting, and produce buying. There were quite a few farmers selling their veggies at the open air market. Sunday night we grilled burgers with Angus beef fresh from the farm. Our sides were made with the fresh veggies from the flea market. I fixed up a batch of guacamole, and Desi grilled a squash medley and potatoes drizzled with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.


Christy's Peanut Butter Balls

You'll Need:
Peanut butter (PB) (best if slightly chilled)
Peanuts/nuts
Dried fruit, such as cranberries, cherries, etc.
Dried coconut

How To:
It's not very measurement-dependent. Prep your area by taking out a mixing bowl and a small plate. Lay out a few large pinches of coconut on the plate.

You take a large scoop of PB (about 1/2 cup), and slap it into a bowl. You add a large pinch of the nuts and dried fruit- these help hold the balls together. Mix.

Take the PB mixture and form it into 1" balls. Roll the balls over the coconut. Enjoy!