We met Tom and Doray at our local pub for dinner, brews, cards and to catchup. The girls cleaned up (and I don’t mean bussing the table)! 🙂
Almost Friday.
Category: Food & Drink
Staycation.
Back home now, Monte and I are enjoying the time together. We took a drive to Brenham to see the BlueBell ice cream factory (and the accompanying large scoop of ice cream after the tour). Every other time we’ve driven by Brenham on the way to or from somewhere, it has been a weekend, and the factory is closed on weekends. So we made a special weekday trip. It was worth the special trip 🙂 We dallied on our way home stopping in at antique stores along the way.
If you are not blessed to live where BlueBell is sold, you can move to one of these places to see what you’re missing:
Yummmmmm.
Blackberries.
One bunch of the seemingly endless supply of blackberries growing in these parts.
What a difference a week (and 2-3 feet) makes.
Today’s low tide was 4.5′ higher than last week. So…no problem getting out. We spent the entire day on the boat crabbing. And boy did we get some big ones.
This is the same place that we were high and dry last week. 
One of the pots:
And one of the huge dungeness crabs:
Oh, and I learned that Pacific rock crab is pretty much the same as Florida stone crab. Delicious lesson. Yum!
Crabby patties.
Francine brought over a humongous bowl of dungeness crabmeat from their haul over the weekend – ginormous hunks of claw meat already cleaned and ready to eat. So, I made crab cakes tonight for the first time, and I think they turned out excellent.
Spongebob would be proud. 🙂
Here is the recipe I used:
– 2 cups dungeness crabmeat, flaked
– 1/3 c crushed cracker crumbs
– 2 Tblspoons mayo
– 1 egg
– 1 tsp mustard powder
– 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
– 1/4 tsp garlic powder
– 1/2 tsp kosher salt
– Juice of 1/2 lemon
– 2 green onions sliced and diced thinly
– 1/2 green pepper diced finely
– Black pepper to taste
1) Mix all of the above together well in a bowl.
2) Form into cakes (6 or so) and dust each with:
-Flour
3) Heat in large skillet on med high:
– 1/4 c olive oil
4) add crab cakes to pan and cook 4-5 mins, then flip and cook another 3-4 mins.
5) remove and place on paper towel.
Plate with lemon and Dijon mustard remoulade.
SoCo birthday night.
I went downtown tonight to celebrate Laura’s birthday. We ate at Perla’s, and strolled up and down South Congress til it was time to call it a night.
champers night cap at Hotel San Jose…
the (blurryish) soco view towards downtown… 
A reflection of the Frost Bank Tower on the building next door… 
Happy Birthday, Laura!
Ripe for the picking.
Our friend, Doray, gave us a couple strawberry plants (thankyou!). One has a rosy red berry on it. We’ll pick it and eat it for dinner tonight. 🙂
April 1 – Destination Jost van Dyke.
Tuesday, April 1.
We got up and headed out for our first snorkel of the trip at the Caves in Privateer Bay on Norman.
Afterwards we sailed to Great Harbour on Jost and all three boats met up again.
We took the taxi-ride-from-hell to Abe’s in Little Harbour for dinner: 11 ginormous lobster, many painkillers from the honor bar, and nonstop stories and laughing. 🙂
It’s a good thing we ordered “medium” sized ones, i’d hate to see the “large” ones!
Afterwards we spent the evening dancing at Foxy’s – and seeing some of the more bizarre sights of the trip.
Some found objects from today:
March 30 – Viejo San Juan.
Sunday, March 30.
We headed out to visit Old San Juan this morning. Caught a bus right outside our hotel. The old town is a beautiful place to see. Here are some of the sights….
A guard turret in the old wall — called a garita.
A view looking out at the sea from one of the garitas. 
The colorful building facades:
A view of the stunning Castillo de San Felipe del Morro, built in the early 16th century.
We went back to the hotel in the afternoon to meet up with Susanne and Laura. Then we all went back to Old San Juan. We ate dinner at a restaurant Irene recommended – El Jibarito, and I recommend it, too! Great home cooked Puerto Rican dishes. They also make a yummy sangria.
Thirsty Thursday.
Cheers!
And, some daiquiri humor:
One doctor always stopped at a local bar after work for a hazelnut daiquiri – a special drink the bartender created just for him. One day, the bartender ran out of hazelnut flavor so he substituted hickory nuts instead.
The doctor took one sip of the drink and exclaimed, ‘This isn’t a hazelnut daiquiri!’
‘No, I’m sorry’, replied the bartender, ‘it’s a hickory daiquiri, doc.’
Birthday!
We enjoyed a nice night on the boat last night, and spent a leisurely morning at anchor. We were back home in time for me to bake a cake for the birthday boy. And, taking liberties with being the big kids that we are, that’s what we had for dinner! #notgonnagrowup
Polar vortex strikes again.
While we were driving home last night from Louisiana we watched the temperature drop from the 70s to the 40s in a matter of minutes. By the time we got home it was freezing in our neighborhood. Spring is only 17 days away, but it’s a tad chilly here!
Tonight I joined Doray, Laura, Irene and Ann for dinner to celebrate Lori’s birthday. Back home in time to wait for the rain and sleet to come in from the west. I hope it lingers over the lake.
An interesting chandelier from Justine’s tonight:
We’re having a ball.
We had a gruelling Saturday: breakfast at Poupart’s bakery, driving around seeing the sights and (for me) reminiscing; poboys for lunch at Old Tyme Grocery – the world’s best poboys by the way; another parade (and more beads) this afternoon; then off to get showered/shampooed/shined so that we can get dressed up to attend the Krewe of Triton Mardi Gras Ball!
Road trip.
We’re goin’ to see the Mardi Gras!
Got my swamp-fix.
Yummmm, mudbugs for dinner!
I love a parade!
Our bead-haul from tonight’s parade.
Sheila365 