Bananas!

My new favorite treat is bananas and almond butter.
The recipe is simple: one ripe banana sliced and topped with crunchy almond butter (freshly made from whole foods with no extra ingredients added).
It is so sweet and so good.

New Orleans: Antiquing on Magazine Street

I went to the gulf coast last April to celebrate my good friend’s 40th birthday. While I was there we spent some hours in New Orleans antiquing in the garden district. Magazine street contains many interesting stores and restaurants to check out. If you have a chance to visit New Orleans, don’t leave out that part of town. Here are some photos from our antiquing adventure at the Magazine Antique Mall New Orleans.

Late Spring Garden

Some photos from the garden at the end of spring.

Some work still needs to be done….

Maybe these will make it. Not having good luck with citrus this year.

Greens are becoming a feast for bugs.

UK Food and Fun: Edinburgh

A couple of months ago I spent a couple days in Edinburgh.
We spent much our time eating and drinking around town.
Many of our days started with a hearty gourmet breakfast at our bed and breakfast.

And on the day we couldn’t make breakfast, we were given this breakfast to go. It made our entire tour van jealous.

I got to try my first cream tea at Clarinda’s Tea Room. It was a delightful experience.

One day we took part in the touristy Scotch Whisky Experience. The highlights of the experience is the whisky tasting and entrance to the largest Scotch Whisky collection in the world.

We got to see some interesting looking whisky bottles.

The evening is complete with a nice dinner made with fresh ingredients. We had a great meal at The Outsider and it was completed with a dessert platter and a sherry.

Edinburgh: Whisky Distillery and Pub Grub

We took a lovely day tour of Stirling Castle, Loch Lomond and a Whisky distillery with Heart of Scotland tours. More about Stirling castle and the Loch Lomond later but below are some pictures from the Glengoyne Distillery we visited during our tour. We got to sample some of their 12 year old single malt scotch whisky after our tour. No photos were allowed during our tour inside (something about the camera clicking can cause a spark and set the place on fire!). Here are some photos from the grounds.

Pub Talk

Other days in Edinburgh, we tried to get some pub grub at some historic pubs. This started the tour of disappointing “chain” pubs. In the US, we romanticize about getting a beer at an old pub with some home cooked comfort food. Big companies in the UK have capitalized on this and bought out many of the historic pubs. Many of the names are unchanged but their menu and beer selection is carefully duplicated at many pubs of different names. Most tourists probably wouldn’t notice this but we did. We saw this the most while in London but our first experience with it was at Greyfriars Bobby’s Bar, a bar that capitalizes on its proximity to a beloved statue of a loyal dog. We ate at this bar but discovered to see the same beer selections and menu duplicated at bars in London.

Sweet potato pie over peas and potatoes.