Smoke on the Water

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central florida, fishing, Florida, nature, st johns river

Fishing on the St Johns river last Saturday.

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Brooklyn Water Bagels

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american food, Bagels, breakfast, breakfast sandwiches, brooklyn water bagels, central florida, coffee, Florida, food, Foodie Finds, great food, water purification, winter park

We found a great little bagel shop last weekend called Brooklyn Water Bagels.  Not only did they have good breakfast sandwiches, it was educational as well.  The idea appears that they start by purifying the water that is used in the process of making the bagels.  You can watch the entire process of making the bagels through the windows – from water purification, to mixing, all the way to baking.  One thing that I didn’t realize before was that they boil the bagels in water before they go in the oven.  It appears that they use the purified water to make their coffee as well.  The restaurant had a great feel to it, with old black and white sitcoms playing on the mounted flatscreen.  Others seem to have caught on as there were several people in line.  It was a chilly day so seating was limited.  

Everyone is was very nice and willing to take the time to explain the process to us.  The lady behind the register was very helpful & patient as we made our selections.  You can get your bagels to go and they will give you a freezer bag to keep them fresh. A great experience that I’m sure we will try to re-create in the future.  

Honey Harvest

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bee keeping, beekeeper, bees, central florida, Florida, Honey

I have to say that I have been wanting to write about this for several months now.  This past Saturday I was invited to one of my favorite family’s home to participate in the harvesting of honey from one of their bee hives.  What an absolutely fascinating process. 

Festival of Bacon

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bacon, central florida, chocolate covered bacon, festival of bacon, Florida, hog, orlando, pork

You heard right – I went to the Festival of Bacon in Orlando with my son and some of our friends yesterday.  The atmosphere was electric, as in griddle, over the famed pork belly.  Let me say that having grown up on a hog farm and hearing my dad spin this into a patriotic experience by referencing the animal as “The Great American Hog” – I’ve had my share of bacon.

Lazy Moon Pizza

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calzone, central florida, college, college life, Florida, florida student, Foodie Finds, giant pizza, hawaiian pizza, lazy moon, local university, mojo, orlando, oviedo, pizza, slice of pizza, Student, UCF, University of Central Florida

Last Friday night we met our friends at another local University of Central Florida student favorite the Lazy Moon Pizza. We took our resident college student along as the preverbal guide. If college students love pizza then what better way to improve on that then serving up giant slices (20″ & 30″ pies) of this higher education staple?

Burger 21

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black cherry soda, burger, burger 21, cane sugar, central florida, Florida, food, Foodie Finds, fries, haystack, local restaurants, orlando, oviedo, oviedo florida, shakes, tex mex, UCF, UCF Knights, University of Central Florida

My wife and I took our oldest son to Burger 21 today after church today.  He’s been feeling a little left out of the food blogging experience.  Since he is a new UCF Knight this fall, I decided we should see what this restaurant has to offer the college students.

The burgers were very juicy with a lot of flavor.  I ordered the Black and Blue angus burger, my son the Tex-Mex Haystack burger, and my wife got chicken at the burger restaurant with the Buffalo Chicken with a lettuce wrap.  Everyone felt their selections lived up to their expectations.  We had the an order of their Cheese & Ale Fries to split among all of us.  For drinks I tried the Boylan Black Cherry soda made with cane sugar.  I wasn’t completely impressed with the soda, but I also sampled the shakes that they had ordered – the Chocolate Malted Milk Ball shake & the Strawberry shake.  The shakes were very good and would be worth stopping in just for one of them.  They offer several different sauces at their sauce bar for either your burger or fries.

The restaurant has a feel almost like you are at an IKEA store.  There’s plenty of space even though there were quite a few people there for lunch.  They do a play on the letter B wherever you look.  B kind, B Shaken (shake bar), B Saucy (sauce bar), and for the bathroom B a Man.

I try to keep my blogs about local restaurants to those that areindependently owned but in this case I made an exception.  After all it’s my blog so it’s my rules.  I’m glad I broke my own rules today and tried Burger 21.  I’m sure that we will go again, and the next time I will order my own shake.

Adventures in Fishing

Tags

bass, bass fishing, boat launch, boats, central florida, fish, fishing, fishing lakes, Florida, God, kissimmee fl, lake tohopekaliga, monster bass, orlando, trophy fish

It seems like I must be the only blogger on the planet that is writing about fishing without actually catching any fish.  I can’t figure out why that is not driving all kinds of traffic to this site.  Opps … there’s another $.25 to the jar (see Sarcasm 25 Cents).

Today, my friend and I were super pumped about going to one of the best bass fishing lakes in the world (so they say), Lake Tohopekaliga, in Kissimmee, FL.  We were supposed to go a couple of weeks ago, but he ended up having to go to the emergency room that same morning.  It’s always exciting to think of slaying the big one and trying to decide what’s big enough to “mount on the wall”.  When we got to the boat launch, there was a store where they had some monster bass mounted and on display.  In the picture there are two, yes two, 14 pounders on the wall.  So now I am about as giddy as a school girl about what we are in for.  Heck, by this time I’m thinking of all the endorsements that I will get by the end of the day.

I have to say that we had some close encounters with some big ones.  There were three or four that broke the water surface that got the adrenaline pumping.  But when the day was done, I didn’t have to worry about all the trouble it was going to be to find a taxidermist to mount that trophy fish.

I have never had a friend with a boat that actually invited me to go fishing with them, so I’m not going to be upset because the fish aren’t participating in my adventure.  I am just thankful to be able to spend time on the water, and if you will look around in life, you are surrounded by some pretty amazing things.  God has done some amazing work here!  So I leave you with some more photos from “Fishing”.  Maybe next time there will actually be some fish in the photos!

That amazing!

Man it’s early

Yes, that’s a bench in the middle of nowhere with a spent fire works cartridge next to it.

We tried them all, but the fish didn’t

Look a those Leviathan on the wall.

Panorama using an iPhone app called 360

Wolfies Pizzamia

Tags

Florida, food, Foodie Finds, orlando, pizza, white wolf, Wolfies Pizzamia

Update from 12/20/2013
My Family and I stopped by the other night for some pizza and dessert before seeing A Christmas Carol  just down the street at the Downtown Theatre.  The dinner experience was really nice.  The chef was interactive with the tables.  He made recommendations for desserts which he personally brought to the table.  We all sampled the creations and all thought they were DELICIOUS!  He was definitely on his game that night.  While the first experience left me feeling as though there was much unrealized potential, this visit surpassed my expectations.

Original Post 8/17/2013
Our ventures out today took us to Wolfies Pizzamia restaurant on North Orange Ave. in Orlando.  While there was just one other couple dining there, the food was really quite good.  The restaurant is under the same ownership as The White Wolf Cafe which is only a half a block away.  While I have never eaten at the Cafe it has been there since 1991 and if the crowd is an indicator they have a good thing going there.

Back to the Pizza.  The concept is that everything is as local, fresh, and organic as possible.  They make their own dough, sausage, pasta, and most cheeses right there.  Our waitress who was very nice said she got to watch them make some cheese the other day and thought the process was pretty awesome.

We had the Meatball App to start out, which was very good.  We followed that up with the Specialty Pizze’ the Burano Mozz which is topped with prosciutto, Rochet salad, and goat cheese.  The crust of the pizza was perfect and the toppings really gave it all a great flavor.

The decor has kind of an old world feel to it with music playing across the audio system from the 60’s to today.  Over all it’s another good local restaurant to make your way to that’s off the beaten path.

DeAzúcar Bake Shop

Tags

bakery, cafe, cakes, central florida, coffee, Florida, food, Foodie Finds, local eats, oviedo, pastries, restaurant, sandwich

My wife really seems to be getting in to me writing about independent food finds. I just can’t figure out why. Lately the ladies in her circle of friends have been chatting up a local Oviedo bake shop – DeAzúcar Bake Shop.

DeAzúcar [day ah-thoo’-car] is spanish for sweet. The place has a very simple yet charming decor. When you walk in the pastries certainly make a great focal point. There were two very nice girls that took our order and gave us a little bit of background behind this great little find. They were happy to share with me that the owner had once owned a bakery in Texas over twenty years ago, and that since moving to Oviedo way back then she has always wanted to open another bakery. Fortunately for us she has taken the leap of opening up the business this past January.

My wife enjoyed a Café Con Laché that was made from espresso beans roasted locally in Clermont Florida. It was really crafted well and had a nice strong (but not bitter) taste. The young ladies suggested that I try one of the owners favorites the Almond Tart. I also had my eye on the Coconut Cake Bar. I ordered both and we sat there sampling each with much enjoyment. We even brought home a couple of the Maple Bacon Cinnamon Rolls for our boys to try out. They were a great hit.

It’s a great little find in Oviedo and I certainly hope that others find their way to DeAzúcar to try out some of the really good looking selections on the menu.

Beach Day

Tags

beach, central florida, communication, day at the beach, Florida, marriage, married life, new smyrna, new smyrna beach, relationship, sea breeze, sun

Our little “camp site” – got that at a garage sale for $20 never opened

It’s a day at the beach with my wife. A much needed day of just being together as a couple. Things have been a little stressed around the old homestead this past week. We seem to be busy all the time which means that time to communicate is taking it on the chin. One thing you can count on in married life, if you’re not working on relationship you are going to hit some bumps in the road. Yesterday I thought to myself this summer is almost over and I haven’t even been to the beach. This is a real shame considering that it takes less then an hour to get there from my house.
My youngest and his friends bailed on us this morning as the skies didn’t look promising. What was their loss was my gain. It was nice to work through some things with my bride and clear the air. It was good to just relax in the sun,enjoy the sea breeze and even a few pastries.