Fabulous St. Lucia!

We just returned from a fabulous anniversary trip to St. Lucia that we have had planned for months. It really is an incredible island with wonderful people. It reminds me a great deal of Kauai Hawaii. Tommy and I have both been there in the past (with exes) and both wanted to re-visit this beautiful island and recreate memories with the "right" one and we did just that! We stayed at Sandals Grande in Rodney Bay which was wonderful. It's where I had stayed 11 years ago but was the Hyatt then. It was much much different now but wonderful.

Beautiful St. Lucia and her majestic Pitons

We arrived on Saturday March 3rd and were greeted at the airport by John and Sherma with Serenity island tours for our VIP transfer to Sandals. Along the way we stopped at a roadside creole bread stand for fresh baked bread!

The loaves in the back of the oven...amazing hot fresh bread!

You can have it with butter, cheese or Sherma's favorite...PORK!

we arrived at the resort, checked into our beachfront penthouse room and were greeted with a wonderful anniversary surprise in the room!

the view from our patio...tough to take

We had coffee and sometimes breakfast on the balcony every morning and wine every evening while looking at this fabulous view!

Tommy hit the beach bar for the first of many "pantyrippers"! YUM!

We headed out Monday morning for a day trip to the Grenadines on a private plane!

Our first stop...the beautiful Palm Island

Then beautiful Mayreau

we spent the day on a huge catamaran with 8 other people island hopping to tiny little islands in the Grenadines only accessible by boat

Here's our 4 seater plane

guess who's the co-pilot coming home? I knew I shouldn't have had all of those rum punches!

our beautiful views from the plane

Everyone wears headsets so we can hear and communicate

gorgeous Tobago Cays

We took a tour of the island on Wednesday again with Serenity and of course Tommy had to tour the Rum Distillery!

and make a stop at the rum buffet!!

then lunch at the Beacon restaurant...

Delicious!

and the view wasn't too shabby either!

then onto a catamaran for a boat trip back to Castries...the Pitons by sea

beautiful Marigot bay

Back to the resort and a beautiful Wind Star ship in Rodney Bay

My favorite place for lunch at Sandals, Barefoot on the Beach

love it!

the lobby at Sandals

more gorgeous views of Sandals

lagoon pool and views

One of the rondovals

lagoon swim up room

nearing the end of vacation and such a wonderful time with hubby!

A wonderful 5th wedding anniversary trip! Might have to plan a similar trip to the Greek islands for the 10 year!

Portobello flatbread pizza

We recently visited Las Vegas and had dinner at Todd English's restaurant "Olives" at the Bellagio after seeing Cirque du Soleil. While overall I wasn't a huge fan of the place (waiter with an attitude and generally overpriced food and wine) we did try his famous portobello flatbread. To say it was amazing and completely memorable would be an understatement. I found myself on a mission to find the recipe and somehow duplicate this amazing dish. I did indeed find a recipe that I think was adapted from his and the end result was sublime!

Roll out your pizza dough as thin as you possibly can... I use Tiseo's frozen dough from the grocery store. It's easy and very good. Transfer the dough to a cornmeal dusted pizza peel.

Best if you have a pizza stone that is preheated in the oven at 475 degrees for at least half an hour. Build your flatbread on the cornmeal dusted pizza peel so it slides off easily onto the stone. I sprayed the dough with olive oil and spread minced garlic on it followed by my wild mushroom puree, fontina cheese, diced portobello, porcini, shitake and other wild shrooms, diced red onion and grated fresh parmesan. The recipe below doesn't call for diced red onions but the flatbread at Olives had them on it and I loved em! The recipe calls for you to put the fontina cheese down first followed by the puree. That didn't really make sense to me so I put the puree down first and topped with the cheese.

Bake on the stone for about 10-12 minutes or until the crust looks slightly brown and crunchy

drizzle the top with white truffle oil....amazing!!

Here is the recipe I found online. It's not exactly the same as the one we had at Olives but it's a pretty close replica! If you are a shroom and pizza lover you will LOVE this!! Enjoy!

Wild Mushrooms, Mushroom Puree and Fontina Cheese Flatbread

MARCH 20, 2007

 print

(adapted from The Figs Table: More Than 100 Recipes for Pizzas, Pastas, Salads, and Desserts)

2 pizza dough rounds (see homemade recipe below or use store-bought)
cornmeal
olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher or sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
6-8 oz. Fontina cheese, thinly-sliced or grated
1 c. mushroom puree
1 c. wild mushroooms (portobello, porcini, shitake), trimmed and thinly-sliced
2 Tbls. freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
truffle oil (optional), for garnish

About one hour before cooking, set a baking stone in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees. Or use a baking sheet very lightly sprinkled with cornmeal

Roll out one pizza dough very thinly. If you have one, lay the round on a pizza peel (lightly sprinkled with cornmeal). Drizzle with 2 tsp. good olive oil, half the minced garlic, and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Make sure to leave the 1-inch outer lip ungarnished.

Evenly distribute one-half of Fontina over the round. Top with one-half mushroom puree, one-half sliced mushrooms, and sprinkle with one-half grated Parmesan.

Slide the round onto baking stone and bake until browned, about 6-8 minutes. Slice to serve immediately, garnished with a drizzle of truffle oil and a pinch of freshly-ground black pepper.

Repeat with remaining dough and ingredients.

The link to the recipe:

http://www.loulies.com/mushroom_flatbread/

Canine Cookie fun!

So I've joined Pinterest and honestly at first didn't really understand the concept or what the big deal was with it. Now I'm hooked as it seems to be a fun way to find different things and ideas for around the house, fashion and the best part for me...new recipes! I LOVE to cook and have really had some fun finding various different yummy looking recipes and things to try. One of the pins that my friend found was for Pumpkin doggie cookies! They looked easy and fun so I thought I'd give them a go.

the dough is VERY easy to make. I will post the recipe as well as the link to the very cute blog where I found this

roll out the dough, cut your biscuits and bake at 350

Dewey is anxiously awaiting...

Yes please, we would love to lick the spatula!

Mango waits her turn

and the finished product! Murphy gives two paws up!

I made two batches as one didn't seem to make very many. I'm going to try another version I found online that has peanut butter as well as pumpkin. With three dogs, treats can definitely add up in the $$$ department. This is a fun and inexpensive way to treat your doggies!

Here's the recipe and the blog:

Cleo’s Pumpkin Dog Biscuits

2 eggs
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
2 tablespoons dry milk
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 1/2 cups brown rice flour *
1 teaspoon dried parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

In large bowl, whisk together eggs and pumpkin to smooth. Stir in dry milk, sea salt, and dried parsley (if using, optional). Add brown rice flour gradually, combining with spatula or hands to form a stiff, dry dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface (can use the brown rice flour) and if dough is still rough, briefly knead and press to combine.

Roll dough between 1/4 – 1/2″ – depending on your dog’s chew preferences, ask first – and use biscuit or other shape cutter to punch shapes, gathering and re-rolling scraps as you go. Place shapes on cookie sheet, no greasing or paper necessary. If desired, press fork pattern on biscuits before baking, a quick up-and-down movement with fork, lightly pressing down halfway through dough. Bake 20 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully turn biscuits over, then bake additional 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely on rack before feeding to dog.

* Brown rice flour gives the biscuits crunch and promotes better dog digestion. Many dogs have touchy stomachs or allergies, and do not, like many people I know, tolerate wheat.

Makes up to 75 small (1″) biscuits or 50 medium biscuits

Please note: This is not professional medical advice. These biscuits are a healthy everyday treat, and useful for a dog with a sensitive stomach, or minor digestion issues. If your dog is showing any signs of serious distress, remove all food and contact your veterinarian immediately.

http://simmertilldone.com/2009/10/07/retriever-retriever-pumpkin-eater/comment-page-2/#comment-8276