Moon River Brewing Company

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A Trip to St. Augustine

Last weekend we took a trip to St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US. It is only an hour and a half drive from us. We took our friend Dave who was visiting from Utah. Zelda had a blast running around the old Spanish fort and we had a fun day which included a visit to the local winery, a walk down St. George's Street(a walking street with lots of shops and curiosities), a craft fair, an old drug store with medicines from the 1800's (Anyone heard of sugar of lead?), an old cemetery and a drink at an old 18th century style tavern. Zelda tried peanuts for the first time and loved them.

Cuban Steak with baked Yuca and Arroz Armarillo

(Transferred from the old blog, Numeenum)

One of the great things about living in Florida is the access to Cuban cuisine. I experienced the best I've had yet while on vacation with my Mom, Ry, & Kenna in Miami a few months ago.

We were recommended a little place quite nearby our oceanfront hotel. We weren't in touristy South Beach, so everyone at this restaurant was a local except us. The food was absolutely divine. My mom ordered snapper in a red sauce (which after looking through recipes I believe it was a paprika sauce), I had Cuban fried chicken, an amazing dish of well seasoned thin chicken layered with ham, cheese, and a tomato based sauce, and Ryan ordered what I have here: Cuban steak.

Needless to say that memorable restaurant visit inspired me to go to the library and pick up some Cuban cookbooks. I have many recipes now, and just started my effort at them in the past week.

My first try is this thin beef steak, marinated with onions, garlic, cumin, and sour orange juice (think sour like a lime), grilled, then seasoned with a bit more lime. Way good! The following recipe is from the book Cuba Cocina by Joyce Lafray, as with all of the Cuban recipes for the week to follow.

Cuban Steak 4-6 servings
8 (1/4 inch thick) slices top round or top butt steak, butterflied
3 tablespoons olive oil or salted butter
1 onion thinly sliced
1 lime cut into 8 thin wedges
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Marinade:
8 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3/4 cup sour orange juice ( or 1/2 cup orange juice and 1/4 cup lime juice)
1 large onion, diced

Using a metal meat mallet, pound steaks on both sides to tenderize. Mix together marinade ingredients well and pour over steaks in a large glass bowl. Put in refrigerator, turning often as to get the juices evenly distributed.

Heat olive oil in large heavy skillet. Place onions, steaks, and just enough marinade in the pan to make a sauce. Cook until done, and until onions have wilted. Place steaks on a plate and pour the sauce over them. Garnish with parsley & lime wedges, squeezing the lime juice on the steak when ready to eat.


For the side dishes I had baked Yuca and yellow rice. The yellow rice I simply bought in the Hispanic isle at the grocery store. Yuca is a root, and may or may not be available in your area. If you can get it and want to give it a try, was the root off well, coat with vegetable oil, then bake in an oven at 375 for at least 45 minutes or longer. Yuca will be soft when done.

I accidentally did not cook mine long enough, and the parts that were still hard were quite bitter.

Everything else turned out well enough and quite yummy. Kenna adored the rice, asking for 2nds.

Miami...my mammy

Zelda is sleeping in way late this morning, so I am going to take advantage of this and catch up on my blog. She is so cute, she stayed up watching the third Star Trek movie with us, eventually falling asleep toward the end although she tried to fight it. (I know, I'm actually watching Star Trek now…Shauna, I know you are proud ;) ) The cat also decided to sleep next to her…see how sweet:

Ok, so anyway, I've been wanting to write about my last little trip. My mom flew out on June 12 so she could watch Zelda while Ry & I went to a few shows in Miami. It was great to see my mom, she is looking good, and I know the trip was good for her. The drive wasn't too bad…about 3 hours. Our hotel was on the beach in North Miami Beach, right between the Trump Towers. No…it wasn't as posh as Trump, but the beach was so nice I could have stayed in a shack and have been just as happy. The weather was gorgeous, little rain in the afternoon that kept any insane heat at bay. The ocean water was a stunning turquoise, like the Keys, but unlike the Keys there were beaches to hang out on. Zelda was still a bit intimidated by the water, but she loved to try out every seat in every cabana, and wash the sand off her feet using the little sprayers.

She and my mom had a great time while Ry & I were at our shows. The resort we were at was very family oriented, so they always had something going on. There was almost always live music, which Zelda adored. She would go right up to the band to be able to dance. My mom even got hit on by a Cuban guy asking her to dance, too. Wish I was there!

Speaking of the Cubans…going to Miami was the first time I took a trip in Florida when I actually felt like a tourist, as in I didn't feel like I was in Florida. Very few people spoke English as their primary language. I really enjoyed the rich cultural difference. It was refreshing. We found an awesome Cuban restaurant nearby the hotel, one frequented by locals, and it was amazing.

So our first night Ry & I headed out to see The Cure in Sunrise/Ft Lauderdale. I was so blown away from their performance. Having recently come from Duran Duran, a band of about the same age, I was expecting a similar show…enjoyable, fun, but good enough to see once and be happy with it. I didn't expect to have the band full of energy that reminded me of seeing Placebo back in the day. They filled the whole arena with it. Robert Smith's voice was as clear and beautiful as can be. The music spoke with its own aura. Their opening act, 65daysofstatic, was quite impressive as well. After this show I definitely plan on going to see The Cure as often as possible. I'm so glad I actually had a chance to catch them this time around.

A camera phone pic of The Cure from our first seats...we eventually moved lower because the people around us were lame and sat down through the entire show

The next day we drove down to South Beach and I was immersed in memories from Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City. I'm glad I wasn't driving, as I had impulses to ram into lights, buildings, and honk @ the hoes. ;) I love that game, heh heh! We stopped off at Escondido which was an area that was highly Spanish influenced, even more than the rest of the town. It was gorgeous, but not wanting to spend money we left after walking around a bit, heading back to enjoy our resort. Later that evening Ryan and I took the bus back down to South Beach, enjoying the variety of architecture and different neighborhoods. 

We then got to enjoy a wonderful show from Eddie Izzard, who was brilliant as ever, and who made a sure point in a tactful way that red-neck ignorant Americans need help ;) ha ha…even though that was just a little snippet, the rest of his act delved into daisy eating dinosaurs, the insanity of Moses and that his followers believed in a guy who talked to a burning bush, followed him from a desert to another desert, staying for decades…to the ridiculous fashion of the length of words in latin....believe me he made it work. A definite must see, I will so go to him again if the chance arrives.

Walking around South Beach @ night, we almost got hit several times, it was crazy, as was our bus ride back to the hotel which took half as long as the bus ride previously, since they were going twice the speed limit and had run some red lights. I felt like I was getting my just rewards for running people down and stealing buses in Grand Theft Auto. Karma! ;) We enjoyed the beach @ night, then the next morning the water was as still as a lake, which made for a wonderful end to a great little vacation.

My mom stayed a few more days, and it was not long enough…never is. Zelda had a wonderful time and easily recognizes who Grandma is now. Hopefully we'll all get to visit again soon….I'm trying to make a way to come out to Salt Lake again this year.

I've been craving going back to Miami since leaving. I just really enjoy going places that are exiting and tropical at the same time. Every time I see the sign on I95 showing how many miles to Miami, I think how awesome it would be to get some girls together and stay a weekend in South Beach. I'm going to start saving up for that very idea, and any of you ladies reading this that want to join in, you should! It would be a blast!

Ok, now that I've gotten that down, I'm going to go wake Zelda up before she sleeps through half the day. What a cutie.

Cheers,

Heather

My lovely Las Vegas!

(transferred from my old MySpace account)
 
This weekend is going to be fabulous. Tomorrow we fly out to Las Vegas, one of my favorite cities. It is what I liked about living in Salt Lake...the fact that Vegas wasn't a far drive. It has been almost two years since we were last there, one of the longest breaks I've had from the city.

Most importantly, at approx 4:30 tomorrow, Vegas time, I see my family. My parents and Andrea are driving down to stay the weekend with us. We had booked rooms at the Flamingo, but last week they called to say they were overbooked. So they are putting us up in Caesars' Palace for no extra charge. Score! I have been wanting to stay at that hotel since I was rather young, but it has always been so expensive. I looked at the price to book a room for this weekend and it was $500-$600, but we are getting it for $160. Ha! If only we were staying more than 2 nights.

This will be my second birthday celebrated in Las Vegas. Last time was 5 years ago when I turned 21. What a memorable time that was. I cannot believe I'm turning 26 tomorrow. Aaah! Good thing I'll be celebrating in a wonderful place with wonderful people.

Well, I've got to go....got an ultrasound to get ready for.