Christmas Morning

Our social calendar has been way booked up lately so when I discovered no one in the family made plans for Christmas day I was excited. I had dreams of sitting at home in my pajamas all day. We would eat while watching sappy Christmas movies all day (Most years we record a bunch of lifetime or hallmark movies but this year we had a good share of Ion channel movies. They were perfectly corny for the day).
I started my day with an Amaretto iced coffee. I love the creaminess of soymilk in my coffee.

Pinterest has ton of recipe ideas that I say I am going to try but never do and when I do they look nothing like the beautiful photos that are taken. For breakfast I prepared pumpkin French toast the night before. All that needed to be done was throw it in the oven in the morning. Some substitutions I made was multi-grain bread for French baguette, 6 eggs instead of 8, wheat flour instead of white, and I added slightly less sugar in the topping (I am not a dessert for breakfast kind of girl). It was good but some of the toast was soggy; except the part that we reheated the next day. I love savory French toast (I am the girl who asks for no powder sugar and uses no syrup) so I probably won’t make this particular recipe again. My husband seemed to enjoy it though.

 
 
After the coffee was done, I treated myself to peach bellinis.
 

 
The day would have been perfectly lazy except we realized later we had no food prepared for dinner. We had to get dressed and luckily a great Vietnamese restaurant was opened for dinner.
I hope you had a happy holiday too!

East End Market

One of the things I love to do when traveling is to visit the local markets. I have fallen in love with markets in Spain and Provence. In the last week my city of Orlando got a market of its own. The East End Market opened up in Audubon Park. We were lucky to visit on a rainy day before the crowds arrived. It was delightful. I can tell I will be spending much more time here.

Local Roots

Local foods and beers.

La Femme du Fromage

Houndstooth Sauce Company

Fatto in Casa

Gardens out front.

 

SkyeBird Juice Bar

I stopped by to get a tasty drink at Skyebird juice bar.
 

 

Lineage Roasting

A couple of days after my first visit I stopped by the market at 7:00 am to get some really good and strong coffee at Lineage and a tasty morning treat from Old Hearth Bread Company.

 

Jake’s Beer Festival

Last weekend I was able to attend Jake’s Beer Festival with the Lady Crafters. This festival is in its inaugural year. We were lucky because this year it wasn’t too crowded. It is sure to be busier next time when word gets around what a great deal this festival is. For $35 you are able to all-you-can-eat German inspired dishes  paired with craft beers.  I got to sample numerous beers and the folks at Jake’s were very welcoming to our group. We were given reserved seating and even got a chance to sample some special beers.