Birthday Dinner

I took Jeff out last night for dinner at Taverna in San Marco. We sat outside and the weather was beautiful! This was our first time dining at Taverna (we'd only been there for drinks previously) and we were not disappointed! We decided to eat tapas style, ordering 5 appetizers to share. We had the homemade ricotta with lime, peasant bread and fig compote; citrus marinated olives; caprese salad (one of the best I've ever eaten!); calamari with tomatoes in herb broth; seared scallops over butternut squash risotto (so good!). We finished it off with the cheese plate. Delicious!!!











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The North End

Our last day in Boston was absolutely beautiful, sunny with blue skies and a cool breeze. We walked all over and ended up in the North End. Jeff heard of a place that makes THE BEST lobster rolls: Neptune Oyster Bar. The place is tiny and the waits are long (we waited over an hour and sat at the bar), but the food is spectacular! We had hamachi ceviche, Kumamoto and Wianno raw oysters, huge Indonesian shrimp and split a warm lobster roll with seasoned fries. It was amazing!!! We finished lunch and had fresh cannollis from one of the local Italian bakeries. What a wonderful way to end our Boston trip!
























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Not-So-Spicy Fish Tacos

Jeff & I had a craving for fish tacos, but didn't feel like cooking them ourselves, so we headed over to the Moss Fire Grill in the 5 Points Area. We had the tuna rare and it was tasty! Kai enjoyed the black beans and rice, but can't have fish for another few months yet. The only things lacking was a more spicy hot sauce. They had a honey-habenero sauce on the table, but it just tasted sweet. We'll have to work on that for when we make fish tacos next time.

The Green Papaya

Jeff & I took Kai out for lunch today to a new Asian fusion restaurant called The Green Papaya, up on the northside of Jacksonville. The decor was very modern, with glass tables and a lot of metal in the design. The waitresses were friendly and didn't seem to mind Kai's squeals of enjoyment.

"The Amazing"

Red Curry Chicken

We ordered the Green Papaya Salad with chicken (no pic, sorry) for an appetizer and it was spicy! It was tasty, but I think I'll chose spice level 2 next time (strange coming from us, huh?). I had the red curry and Jeff had a dish called "The Amazing." Both were spicy, but not as much so as the papaya salad, whew! The Amazing had a sweet peanut based sauce with fresh steamed broccoli and chicken. Both entrees were delicious, would definitely go there again!

Crack Jack Cherry

Jeff's Mom, Mary Ann, introduced me to the Publix brand low fat frozen yogurt. Now before you pooh-pooh this, let me just say: IT ROCKS!!!! We have had multiple flavors before, but on her last visit Mary Ann picked the Black Jack Cherry. Now, I must admit that I am usually highly opposed to combining fruit with chocolate, but in this case I will make an exception. The Black Jack Cherry is reeeeaaaaaalllly good! This is the third container that I've bought recently and it is really like frozen crack (not that I know what crack it like, LOL)!

Recipe for Two

I got this new cooking magazine from the makers of Cook's Illustrated which takes a bunch of supposedly awesome recipes and pares them down for two people, which seemed like a great idea for us. The recipes all look delicious and as with all the Cook's Illustrated recipes, they break down why the recipe works and why they chose to create it as such.

I decided to try the Glazed Pork Chops with Sweet Potatoes tonight. Although the recipe is for grilled pork chops, we had a sudden rainstorm around dinner time, and I had to make do with just broiling everything. The flavor was still excellent and the chops still turned out juicy. Kai even liked the sweet potatoes with tarragon. I would definitely make it again, trying it next time on the grill.

The pork chop is glazed with a maple syrup and mustard sauce and served with roasted sweet potatoes with tarragon, shallot and balsamic vinegar. Yum!

Beachy Day

After taking Kai to the beach this morning, we stopped off at the Safe Harbor Seafood Market in Mayport to pick up some fresh fish and shrimp. While Kai slept in the car, I ran in and got some mahi mahi, grouper and something new: Vietnamese basa. The clerk told me that the basa is catfish like, so I thought we might try it since we always see it posted on the "Specials" wall at Taste of Thai.

We decided to grill up the shrimp as an appetizer and have fish as the main course. We used the spicy Asian barbecue sauce that we loved over chicken on the shrimp. Jeff made up an avocado and mango salsa to go over the Mahi, which he grilled simply with olive oil, lime juice and salt and pepper. We had our new favorite salad, arugula with prosciutto and goat cheese (thank you again Lisa). For dessert we had fresh peaches topped with vanilla ice cream. YUM!


The meal came out good: fresh, light and summery. It paired very well with our summer wine pick!