A Decade of Nature Blogging: Pure Florida At Ten

(NOTE: Unlike every other Pure Florida post, there are no photos in this one ... I'm just looking back on the 10th anniversary of Pure Florida.)

I started Pure Florida ten years ago on April 10, 2005.
Actually, that's a bit misleading, the roots of Pure Florida go all the way back to my teen years and the journals (logs) I filled with what is now the handwritten history of those times. 

Quite a bit of that falls into the "diary" category, which contains things far beyond the scope of nature and wildlife. There is, as might be expected, a fair amount of teenage angst, misadventures, and other stuff that will never show up on the internet.

Still, those journals, now taped shut and stacked in storage, were my boot camp, my training ground if you will for this thing called Pure Florida.

Along the way, there were also some nature articles published in FWC's "Florida Wildlife Magazine" back in the 1980's, before paper magazines became an endangered species.  I also published in a regional magazine called "North Florida Living" and "Old Bottle Magazine". 
A copy of "Writers Market", was a constant companion.

I thought, back in the late 70's and early '80's that a freewheeling freelance nature writer was a real possibility, which made my focus on my college studies more like an intermittent stream than a reliable, steady flowing river.

Somewhere along the way, life happened.
First the Park Service, then marriage, then baby one, then career switch to teaching, then baby two, then homesteading 10 acres in wild wonderful Levy County, then baby number 3 ... and for a while writing and even nature photography seemed secondary to all this amazing life stuff.

By late 2004, I was looking for an online platform to somehow share how awesome the real Florida was ... without somehow encouraging people to move here, because Florida is full and has been for some time.

During those super busy years, the internet had been maturing and becoming more user friendly. No longer did you have to be an HTML programmer to publish online. 
I tried different online programs ... remember going into any office supply store and browsing rack after rack of boxed software products?

None of the programs I purchased were satisfactory to me, and then, one day, up popped a link about "Blogger", a free, WSIWYG web publishing site.

This sounded too good to be true, but like a 20 pound redfish who knows better, I rose to the bait.
It worked!
I was hooked.

Oh, sure ... my very first post vanished into thin air after I clicked publish, but in the days of 14.4 k dial up modems, things sometimes went astray.

I rewrote the post, pushed send again, and at 10:09 am, on April 10, 2005, Pure Florida was born.


It was published by some guy who called himself "Florida Cracker". 
(Note: this was soon shortened to "FC" by some early regular reader/commenters and it stuck.)
In my early internet publishing innocence, I thought you could, and should be anonymous. 

And for a while, I was, but that vanished after a few years and no one on the net is anonymous anymore.

So a few years ago, I switched my user name to my actual name (or is it?). 
My really long term readers often still use FC when they comment ... it's our secret club handshake, and I like it.
You know who you are. 

When you first publish a blog, you are boldly going where no one has gone before... or so it seems. There's this vast internet ocean and each post is a blind cast that could sink to the bottom without ever being seen, but you cast anyway.
Certainly that is the case for a young blog like Pure Florida ten years ago. 

I'm sure some of those early posts have never been seen.

That's okay.

Pure Florida was created to be the post-paper version of those dusty journals I used to keep. A place where I could say what I needed to say and whether it was liked, or agreed with, didn't really matter that much.

This was all pre-public FaceBook, and the internet was exploding with personal and business blogs ten years ago. All kinds of people were writing posts, not FaceBook soundbites, but REAL posts about whatever interested them.

It wasn't long before I crossed paths with folks who loved the nature where they lived. We became friends, NOT by pushing a "confirm" button, but in the slow, old fashioned, true friendship manner of mutual admiration and empathy.

I have friends today from blogging who I have never met, but I have no doubt we would get along great over a cold beer and some wings. Some of those folks have been "with me" for almost the whole decade long ride and we have shared happy and sad times through blogging without physically meeting. 
I've watched their kids grow up, stressed over their surgeries, rejoiced in the new grandkid or puppy, and mourned their family losses ... as they have mine.

Sure feels like friendship to me.

My long term blog pals include a dairy farmer in NY, two older than me awesome hippies in CA, an island historian, a rascal in MO, a singing fisheries biologist in MN, an awesome young mother with multiple sclerosis who seems to let nothing hold her back, a snowbird - mountain bird retired psychologist, a first grade teacher in MD, ...too many to list and I apologize for that.

Some I have met in person and each time, they have lived up to their online persona. Warm, funny, crazy, sweet ... whatever they projected on their blogs was how they were in real life. 

I hope they saw me the same way.

Along the way, Pure Florida led me to neat coincidences ... like the email I received once from an older woman seeking datil pepper seeds. Her email had some history in it. She was of Minorcan descent (as am I) originally from New Smyrna, FL, and wanted some datil seeds. 
As I read her letter, I just kept focusing on her signature, "Mrs. Robert Marx".

As a kid in the 1960's-70's, totally crazy about the ocean, a treasure diver named "Bob Marx" was a hero of mine. He traveled all over the world diving on wrecks of all ages, like a wet "Indiana Jones" ... before there was Indy.

So I had to ask her, and yes, it was that Robert Marx who was her husband. I gushed about my early admiration and his influence on me, and she wrote back that Bob said thanks for the kind words. 

Dude! That never would have happened without Pure Florida.

Ten years of photos and plugging away can even provide the 15 minutes of fame moment.

Once or twice I've had people come up to me and ask "Are you that Pure Florida guy?" ...in a restaurant, slinging chowder at the Cedar Key Seafood Festival, or twice now, someone driving past the school as I happened to walk out to the JEEP at the end of the day. 

And then there's Julie Zickefoose, professional nature author, painter, and blogger. I don't remember when she first stumbled across Pure Florida, but I'm sure glad she did. I mention this, not just because she is an awesome writing mentor and all round nice person, but to make the point that we simply would not have "crossed paths" had it not been for blogging.

Crazy.

So now it's been 10 years, 2622 posts, and almost 1,000,000 visits to Pure Florida. In that decade, a lot of blogs have bit the dust, taken out by the crack-like addictive, easy instant gratification of FaceBook. 

I get that. If your blog was mainly family posts and photos of your dog, your lunch, your trip to Walmart, selfies, etc, well then FaceBook works great.  I use it for that crap too.

... and yes, Obie Wan, it is good for increasing your blog's exposure and snagging new readers. I get it now.

As a semi-self congratulatory history of Pure Florida post, (without photos!), this one has run its course. If you've read this far, you have a picture of how this blog came to be ... and why it will keep going.

Now that the first decade is complete, my plan is to keep blogging ... to keep writing about Florida and showing what makes it so amazing and worth protecting.

Pure Florida, where every post is a first draft, is ten years old.

Why I Went To The Space Coast Bird and Wildlife Festival

Here's the reason ... no, not the gopher above. I can step out into my yard and see an entire gopher colony.

The picture below is the reason.

(Photo by Phoebe)

If you don't read Julie Zickefoose's blog, or haven't read her book, " Letters From Eden ", you are forgiven, but only this once.


Let's get on that, okay?

Julie is one of those folks who must have got in line about 3 or 4 times when they were handing out talent. She's a writer, poet, painter, sings in a band, and ... I'm going to stop now, because I'm feeling somewhat akin to a stump.

Of course, talent is one thing, but I believe she works really hard to make things happen.
It always bugs me when someone attributes a person's accomplishments all to talent, ignoring the hard work that makes success possible.




Saturday, I hit the road early and drove across the state to Titusville, home of the Space Coast Bird and Wildlife Festival. This is an amazing festival with a seemingly endless list of classes, speakers. field trips, and displays.


A gopher tortoise walk with Julie was scheduled for 1400 hours at a county park called The Enchanted Forest. In an email several weeks earlier Julie had shared that she would be speaking at the festival and it would be a good chance to meet if it wasn't too far away.

I marked my calendar that day and informed the family that I would be in Titusville on the 29Th of January, so no family emergencies were allowed on that Saturday.


The young guy who was our guide on the gopher walk did a fine job. The event started with a bang up PowerPoint presentation in a classroom setting ... I covet his PowerPoint for my classroom.




As I looked around that classroom, surrounded by gopher lovers, it occurred to me that I was probably the only one in the room who had eaten gopher stew. The older folks were probably retirees from nongopher northern climes. One exception may have been "Crackerboy", a fellow Florida blogger. I didn't ask such an incriminating question.




Of course, the younger ones had grown up in a time where the gopher is a protected species and the idea of eating one now is a little akin to making roast Osprey for Thanksgiving.



(I have NOT done that.)


The gopher tortoise's protected status wasn't always the case. They were a legal game animal when I was a kid. It was very common for a church fundraiser or political rally to advertise "Fried mullet and gopher stew" during my childhood.
I clearly remember watching the man next door butcher live gophers ... not a pretty sight and probably not one that any of the people with me in that room could picture.





I kept that bit of gophertrophic information to myself since the legal disclaimer above might not have been enough to keep the crowd from staking me to the nearest fire ant mound, had they known.





After the classroom session, the group moved out of the park visitor center and we walked out along a trail that took us through both hammock forest and open scrubby gopher habitat. Gopher tortoises are not forest dwellers, they need open, sunny, fire maintained habitat. (Longtime readers know I have a colony of about 10 gopher tortoises who share PFHQ with me and that I manage the land around their burrows for optimum gopher-zenness.)

Personally, I think the park staff needs to burn their scrub again. The scrub oaks and palmetto are short at the Enchanted Forest, but way thicker than the open grass and forb growth that gopher tortoises need. (Miz S, this forb's for you)

When someone asked about brown trails of sawdust on sabal palm fronds, it was the girl from Ohio who dug around and found the culprit.

Julie and a friend investigate a palm frond.

She carefully teased apart the sawdust structure on the frond and found a tiny pupa case.

The culprit was apparently some type of moth. In the photo above, she's sharing that discovery. I thought this moment with the palm frond was a serendipitous example of what she does.

Julie looks a little closer, sees what we miss, or... take for granted, and then shares it in her writing and her art.


It was pretty cool to see her in action ... also tres cool to meet her two children, Phoebe and Liam.

Reading her blog, I always think, "These two kids are growing up in about the most wonderful environment possible."

If you read it, you know what I mean.

That ideal environment seems to have paid off.

They both stole the show briefly that evening in a question and answer session after Julie's presentation.

I'm sure she's used to this.

Julie gives a dynamite presentation that will take you through a range of emotions as she describes life on her much loved home in Ohio.

If you get a chance to go listen to her speak, do so.

FC, Julie, and Crackerboy. (photo by Phoebe)

An Old Coot's New Year's Resolutions

You don't know how it pained me to write "Old" in that title, but at 51.999 (Kevin, you are 51.9999), I must have earned that by now.

Besides, nobody ever says, "young coot or middle-aged coot", so I was forced into it.

Supposing I was a coot with experience ... and supposing I actually did make New Years Resolutions ... they might go something like this ...

Resolution # 1: Remember I'm part of something bigger than me and that future chicks are depending on me to not muck things up.

Resolution #2: Try to be a better team player, but continue to go my own way whenever I need to do so. I suppose that makes me a poor team player, huh?
Yes, but isn't that why you make resolutions?


Resolution #3: Continue venturing out and soaking up new experiences, but try not to take yourself too seriously ... Down Ego, Down! Good boy ...

Resolution #4: Remember you can be gone in a flash, each day is a gift and the next one is not guaranteed.

I suppose my resolutions would be similar to those ... if I were a coot ... and old ... and the type to make resolutions.

Happy New Years!

Predawn Bear

My current free time during the work week allows me this view in the morning, predawn ...


...and this view of Bear, on our predawn walk, (with flash) ...


Then, it's off to work and soccer practice, where I am treated to this view when I am finally free.

Point is, I hear there is daylight between dawn and dusk, but I have no current proof this is true.

This weekend is looking good though ... after a long ride to a Tallahassee football game.

It's senior Junior's next to last high school football game, so I'll be up at some school called McClay this evening.

It sure would be nice to win one for a change.

Wait,wait, wait ... gotta share this ...

THIS JUST IN BY TEXT MESSAGE FROM EMMA:

"I GOT A 100 ON MY GENETICS EXAM !"

Surviving Sunday, ... But Just Bearly.

The sun visor on my JEEP.


Sunday morning I was flying low heading out to Cedar Key Scrub to meet with Doug Taron of Gossamer Tapestry for a bug hunt. Doug is a butterfly restoration scientist down from Chicago for a gig at the UF museum in Gainesville. He had emailed me about being in the area, and we had agreed to meet at Cedar Key Scrub.

I was running a little late as usual, so I had the JEEP in warp drive as I headed out 345 to Cedar Key. Bear was with me. I thought it would be nice for him to go on a real adventure since much of his work week is pretty uneventful.

I glanced over at him as we blew down the two lane road through piney woods and swamps. He was looking mighty cute with his ears up, all alert and enjoying the breeze through the open window.

"Great picture" I thought. I reached for my camera, fumbled it out of the case, turned it on, and held it with my left hand while I steered with my right. I glanced too long at the viewfinder screen as I tried to compose the picture.

The road curved.

I did not.

In a flash, I was off the pavement at 60 miles per hour on a grassy shoulder of a banked turn.

Words came out of my mouth that I don't use on this blog, so use your imagination.

I dropped the camera in my lap and gripped the wheel as the rear of the JEEP began to slip out to the right. I think, "We are going into a skid, the rollover should happen any moment now."

FLASHBACK TO 1984.
LOCATION: FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING CENTER, GLYNCO GEORGIA, HIGH SPEED PURSUIT TRAINING TRACK ... the instructor puts his hands on the car we will soon be racing around the track, he speaks ... "Do NOT brake during the turns, if you do the car will spin out. If you feel the car beginning to skid left or right, TURN INTO THE DIRECTION OF THE SKID! I lean over to the cadet next to me and say, "yeah right, that's like, if a guy throws a right hook at you, you should lean in to it."
The instructor hears me and picks me to go first around the track. He has me purposely put the car into a high speed skid and pull it out by turning into it. Repeatedly.

FLASHBACK OVER.

I gently turn the wheel to the right, the JEEP straightens out, and begins to skid left, I turn left, keeping my foot off the break.

As much as I would like to stop the JEEP and have this high speed, shake your guts out of your body ride over, if I brake, the tires will dig in and we will roll. I may love,love,love my JEEP, but I am aware of it's faults ... rolling over is the big one.

I am seatbelted, Bear is not.

I focus on keeping us straight, turning this way, then that way, and letting friction with the grassy shoulder slow us. Eventually it does and I ease us back on to the road after a hundred yards of nail biting unscheduled offroading.

An oncoming car in the opposite lane has stopped a safe distance away to see the impending wreck, but I'm back on the asphalt and okay.

I give him a thumbs up as I zip past him.

I get to the meeting spot about 5 minutes before Doug and never mention the harrowing near death experience on the way out. In fact, he will hear about it for the first time when he reads this.

At Cedar Key Scrub State Preserve, I stuffed a park brochure/trail map in my back pocket and we take off along a sandy trail.

It's fun to get out there with someone who is excited to be there and Doug was. It was cool but warmed up as we hiked, and his beloved tiger beetles began to show themselves after a while. Bear and I let him go ahead whenever a good patch of beetley sand appeared.



Like the SS Minnow, what was to be a short walk turned into a marathon hike when we missed a turn, and then another, and another ... all the while me with a trial map in my back pocket.
It wasn't a big deal, we were having a good time, but Bear was warming up and needed breaks from time to time.


If we hadn't have taken the wrong trail, we would have missed this scrub jay on a powerline when we came out of the woods along the wrong highway.
Serendipity baby!




A few times, Bear just quit and plunked down in whatever shade was available, and we did the same, while he cooled off. He had a little swamp water once, and later a kind hiker shared his water with him.
I was feeling really guilty since I had not brought water along for the short hike we originally intended.

Bear, Doug (who is NOT an axe murderer), and FC at Cedar Key Scrub.

We made it back to the parking lot eventually, Bear drank a water bottle and all of my 52 ounce Bubba Keg mug of water from the house, so he was feeling pretty good back inside the JEEP.
Doug, and I had a coke at a little store and then we headed for Shell Mound.

The last time I endangered my sweet Bear was at Shell Mound where Doug hoped to find a different group of tiger beetles.
In the newly gravelled parking lot, I parked the JEEP and stepped out to get a photo of my new magnetic sign that the Harbor Branch folks had sent me. Any picture is better with Bear in it, so
I left him inside with the window down for the shot.
I clucked my tongue to get an alert expression from him ... and he leaped out the window ... with the leash still on, briefly hanging himself when it caught on the seat.
He only hung for a second before crashing to the gravel parking lot.
GEE WHIZ!!
He was okay and shook it off.

So, let's look at Bear's day ...

• Almost in a car accident.
• Overheated and dehydrated.
• Briefly hung by the neck before crashing to the rocks below.
• Narrowly missed stepping on a diamondback rattler ...

Oh ... I didn't mention the rattler?

Tomorrow.

Thank You Friends

Thank you all for the comments on Feather. I read them all ... more than once, and I'm not done.
I think I'll be revisiting that post for a while...
Your thoughts are a great comfort and just more evidence to me of the wonder of this new (hey, I remember black and white TV...so I still think of this as new) way of connecting with people.

The restraints of geography and location have fallen away to reveal friends in places you never could have known if not for the net.
And I do think of you as friends.

The combination of finally writing about her going and your heartfelt comments made all the difference yesterday.
I think I'm at that point where you start feeling less lonesome and more appreciative of the wonderful dog years Feather shared with us ... and you through this blog.

So ... I just wanted to thank all of you for being so generous with supporting comments yesterday.
Somehow, a thank you comment from me tacked on to the end of your words just didn't seem appropriate.

I thought I should just take a post to do so.

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.

To Quote General McAuliffe, "NUTS!" Let The Culinary Throwdown Begin

It's time children for the next installment of Chef Troll's Culinary Throwdown!

The secret ingredient? PEANUTS!
The rules?

• Create a dish that utilizes peanuts as an essential ingredient.
• Create 3 such dishes, one entree, one desert, and one of your choice for consideration as the GRAND PRIZE CHEFMEISTER!
• Post your creations and send an "I'm Up" comment here so everyone can go sample your dishes.

My personal peanut project is a random mix, not 3 courses meant to complement each other.

Let's start with desert ... a little dish I call, "School Teacher Hasn't Had A Paycheck Since June 12th Bananutty Surprise".




Here it is.
In the picture above, working from the plate up, we have a banana pancake and a scoop of Blue Bell Peaches and Cream ice cream, all topped off with a maple/peanut sauce.


The sauce consists of a little dark pure maple syrup from the frozen north combined with Smuckers Natural Peanut Butter. Zap it in the microwave to warm the ingredients and stir to mix.

A simple desert (or a bodacious breakfast) made with cheap, everyday stuff.


My entree continues the simple is good and affordable at the end of the summer theme.
What's in the bowl?
Well, rice of course. Complementing the rice is a straightforward, nofrufru stirfry of peanuts, chicken, red cabbage, garlic, green onion, and bell pepper.
The sauce coating it is a mix of teriyaki sauce, vinegar, wine, tabasco sauce, Black Widow Sauce (HOT!), and some cornstarch for thickening to a nice glaze.

It was deliciously simple, spicy, and good for ya' too. I love the way red cabbage holds up to the hot wok and retains a firm texture.


For my "your choice" entry, I give you Ada Marie's home made peanut brittle, produced on her granite countertop in her beautiful cypress log home. This brittle is thin and ... well, brittle, like peanut brittle should be. The peanuts are the star, not the sugar and you don't bust a tooth when you eat it.
It's amazing.
Full disclosure ... Ada Marie made this not me. That may not be allowed, so just to be safe, I include this one final dish. A dish I posted about back in 2005 and one I searched through my 1800 + posts to find for you.
This amazing, perfect, culinary combination of complementary flavors and textures ...
This southern tradition ...
This connection to my childhood ...
This snack, supper, lunch, breakfast, desert meal...
This pick me up, toss me back into the fray, fortitudinal food ...

THIS.

Blogger Mini Convention

Island Rider, FC, and Vicki at Crackers Restaurant showing they are not afraid of being photographed in the mid-day Florida sun.



Last week, I was lucky enough to meet two fellow bloggers down in Crystal River. Each of us have been regular readers and commenters at the other's sites for years. The week before, an email invitation to meet for lunch popped up and since I felt like I already knew them, I accepted the invitation. That feeling of knowing someone you have never met took care of any "first meeting" awkwardness and the conversation flowed over lunch. In fact, I talked alot more than I ate, which is pretty weird for me.


... but when you are in such charming company and at ease, it's easy for a relatively quiet guy to converse.





Now, ... I knew I was meeting 2 ladies, and ladies tend to be thoughtful and gifty, so I figured I'd better not show up empty-handed.


A quick trip to Dakotah Vineyards, our local muscadine grape vinter, gave me a pair of Noble wines to take along for my friends.



Here's my stash from our lunch meeting ... not shown is the amazing bread, delicious parmesean cheese, and squid ink (remember?) pasta that Vicki brought along. The Florida Cracker bumper sticker actually came after the meeting in an envelope addressed to my JEEP. I can honestly say this is the first time my JEEP has received personal mail.


"Spartina" is next on my reading list, and was chosen by Vicki. I think the main character made her think of me ...




... I see why.

This beautiful bit of glass artwork was created by Cathy (Island Rider). She honored me by using a photo of a reflecting little blue heron I had posted as her inspiration for the work.

She also honored me by doing this piece twice as the first piece did not survive the post office.

Cathy also created a piece for the missus as I have let slip a few times here that Mrs. FC is a rabid UF Gators fanatic.

The little blue heron piece fits perfectly with our rustic Florida living room and should be relatively safe from Bear's amazingly high browse line.

It was a nice visit and none of us turned out to be axe-murderers, which was a great relief.

Stewie's First Impression Of Hughesnet Satellite Broadband

SSSSSStewie here.
FC sssspent sssome of thosssse billsssss he hatesss to part with today and had Hugehssssssnet Sssssatellite broadband insssstalled.
Here are a few firsssst day impresssssssionssssss:

1. Mark the inssssstaller guy was here on time assss promissssed and went right to work. He was helpful and ansssswered all of FC'sssss questionssssss.
2. The sysssstem was inssstalled in about 2 hoursssss. That included putting in a pole mounted disssssh since FC's roof pitch wassss too ssssteep.
3. That was an extra 100 dollarssss ... would have been 125, but FC volunteered to bury the coaxial cable and that ssssssaved a few buckssss.
4. After Mark the handy installer dude left, FC dashed to Walmart and bought a Belkin N wireless router, so now he's sitting in the kitchen blogging this as I dictate ... a little hard for a sssssnake like me to keyboard.
5. When FC had an isssssue during the router setup, he called Hughessssnet and had a correct anssssswer in about 4 minutessssss. Pretty ssssssweet.
   

There was a brief stoppage of the signal during a heavy thunderstorm, but FC isss ussssed to that ssssssince hissss Disssssh TV ssssyssstem does the same thing in heavy rain. FC sssaid that isss a ssssmall price to pay to essssscape dialup.

He uploaded my picturesssssss in sssseconds rather than minutesssss, sssssso he'ssss pretty ssssstoked.

Sssssso far sssssssso good!

The Tree Frog Song Video

Like they say in "Sweet Home Alabama" ...

"TURN IT UP!"

This is the tree frog video from last week. I dropped by school today and took advantage of their multimegaboops broadband connection to upload a few videos.

My buddy, the delightful and newly athletic Miz S, asked me about froggyfoto technique in a comment, so, ... here's what I do.

• Walk quietly and don't turn on the flashlight too soon.


• Zap the frog with your light beam so they sit pondering this bright apparition from above... "Is it god? Is this the bright light at the end of the tunnel? Is a Florida East Coast Railroad locomotive about to run over me?"


• The light of the flashlight should give your camera's autofocus a chance to hone in on the scene.


• Shoot alot of pics and have extra batteries in you pocket, not back in the house.

Speaking of broadband and my lack of it at the house, I have been experimenting.

Remember now, I live too far away from civilization for cable, fiberoptics, or dsl to reach. That means I do almost all of this Pure Florida posting by 49.2 kiliboops dialup.

So ... don't whine to me about how hard it is to post daily, ...'cause I might just come through the screen, grab you by the neck, and shake vigorously.

Anyway ...

Experiment Number One has been completed. I purchased a clever little USB Air Card from Alltel (now Verizon) and have been using it for one week. Here's the data:

• It is better than dialup ... duh.


• The signal out here on the edge of their coverage fluctuates maddeningly. Strong, weak, strong, weak ...


• I need a connection strong (fast) enough to hook a wireless router to, so multiple users can jump on at the same time. The cellular signal just can't cut that out here.


• I'm taking it back and turning it in to Alltel after I post this.

Experiment Number Two begins on Friday. That is the day the Hughesnet Satellite Internet Service folks will come out and install their system. I will let you know how that goes.

If it works well, I'm going to sever my relationship with MaBellATT and drop our land line as the only thing we use it for is dialup internet connectivity. For some reason that feels really weird ...

Have you done that ... gone totally cellular?

Chef Troll's Party Food Smackdown

So, a while back, Chef Troll sponsored a little culinary challenge involving southern food and I participated even though I usually avoid bloggy games. I admit it was fun and I did okay, coming in second to Hef and Donna, who definitely outpaced me in both the food and presentation category.



I was still basking in the glory of coming in second, when Chef Troll tossed out another challenge ... one involving "Drunk Food". This translates into the kind of food you might nibble on at a bar, after being at a bar, or even hangover food for the next morning.



I'm not much of a drinker ... a beer or two on the weekend with something spicy is about all I do these days, so I thought I would sit this one out.



Then, inspiration hit when I least wanted it to, ... so here we go.


Here's my token beautiful girl in the background. That's my daughter Katie breading some chicken gizzards.

We were frying wings for a family gathering, when it hit me to poke around in the fridge and seek out other fryable snackin' foods ... the kind of thing you might munch on with a pitcher of beer on the table.


We came up with this little assortment.

From left to right ...

• Fried fresh mushrooms


• Naked wings


• Naked fried pork chunks marinated first in lime juice and spices.


• Breaded pork chunks also marinated as above.


• Two different wing sauced wings ... Texas Pete's vs. Frank's


• Slow smoked BBQ ribs ... not fried of course


• Breaded and fried chicken gizzards.


• Accompanied by good American beer, ranch and blue cheese dressings, and the usual cast of veggies.
  

Yes, they are huge.

Coincidental, on the same weekend, the recipe for these came in on the cover wrapper of the Southern Living magazine .



I think they were called "Brownie Pillows" or something like that ... and you know how SOME partiers get the munchies for something sweet after they get silly, so we had to make these also.

They look like just a humongous chocolate chip cookie, but inside there's ...



... a brownie!

Party on Dudes and Dudettes!

Chef Troll Throwdown Entry: Shrimp Minorcreole With Stir Fried Green Beans And New Potatoes

Generally, I avoid those internet entangling alliances called "meme's" like the plague, but last week, Chef Troll tossed out a challenge that peaked my interest.

I took the bait, like a spring time Cobia circling a channel marker ...

Above, just a few of the ingredients for my Chef Troll Culinary Throwdown Challenge.
The challenge?
... To put your own spin on a traditional southern dish and post it by today, May 13.

I decided to stick with fresh, simple Florida ingredients, with an eye to keeping it light and healthy.

To that end, my simple entry consists of ...


... fresh green beans from south Florida.
These I stir fried in a little sesame oil on high heat to sear them here and there ... but not too much ... they should still be firm when they come out of the wok.
Traditionally, we southerners would cook these to mush in a pot with a big ol' hunk of bacon or ham hock. While that is delicious, it adds a lot of fat and cholesterol while leaching out a bunch of the nutrients.
Fresh beans really don't need that treatment. The only seasonings these received was a shake of kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper.

They were amazing and vanished as fast as I could cook them.


My main dish is a St. Augustine Minorcan twist on a Gulf of Florida favorite, Shrimp Creole. Traditionally, this dish is often made with canned tomatoes. In addition, it usually has cayenne in it, which adds nice heat, but no real flavor.

For Shrimp Minorcreole, (which I invented in my kitchen about 6 hours ago now), I decided to go completely fresh, skip the cayenne, and toss in some of my homemade datil relish for both flavor and heat ala Minorcan.

In my mini food whacker thingie, I chopped 4 fresh plum tomatoes for my sauce base. I also chopped the good core of two green onions, tossing the grassy outer stems away. One big clove of garlic was minced and a mix of thyme,chili powder, salt, and oregano was assembled before cooking.
It's worth mentioning that this is a recipe for one healthy serving and you would need to expand things a bit for company.
In my case, I was simultaneously cooking a Mexican dinner of tacos and burritos for the kids and myself, while inventing and cooking my Throwdown dish.
Multitasking r me.

The Shrimp Minorcreole dish was for Mrs. FC who was my official taste tester.

In a cast irons skillet already sizzling with EVO, I tossed in the chopped green onions, the garlic, and the freshly chopped tomatoes. About 5 whole grape tomatoes were tossed in for sweetness and visual appeal. After that mix had simmered a few minutes, I stirred in my mix of spices, and a splash of cheap wine.

A little bit of sugar went in to the sauce to balance things out. I like this sugar.

Then I tossed in three of these big spoonfuls of home made datil pepper relish.


You can find the recipe for this datil pepper relish in previous posts at Pure Florida. Just use the search this blog feature at the top of the page.


(Now, while all this was going on, I was also boiling some cubed new potatoes from Hastings, Florida, the potato capital of the universe. More about them later)


After the sauce had simmered and had time to blend, I added the shrimp.


10 large shrimp were added and allowed to just barely cook through. Shrimp should never spend much time on the heat unless you like 'em rubbery.
They go in, get tossed around a few times and get their little decapoda butts off the heat as soon as that color change occurs.


Now ... about those potatoes ...
Long before the shrimp entered the sauce, the new potatoes had been boiling away. By the time the shrimp went into the sauce, the potatoes were cooked, strained, and basking in a little butter, salt, and pepper... 'cause that's all new potatoes need.
They are too tasty to gussy up with any silliness.



In the end, it all came together like this:
Shrimp Minorcreole
Stir Fried Green Beans
Hastings New Potatoes



I was allowed to taste part of one shrimp and then warned away from the plate.

So there you have it ... all from Florida, all fresh, all healthy, all tres, tres, flavorful.

Look upon my works y'all mighty and despair!

Livestock Fairs, Science Fairs,Career Fairs, And Of Course, Meteor Strikes, Make For A Busy Week

Well, it's been a busy week here at PFHQ.

First there was the livestock fair. That consumed much time between last Saturday and Wednesday. Junior's pig won her class and then she went on to win her division, but in the final round did not win grand champion or reserve champion, but she did better than any other pig from our FFA group.
We were pretty pleased with his two blue ribbons. He made some cash at the auction and Porki went wherever all the other fair pigs we've raised go after the auction.

I think it's some kind of pig resort, with mud baths and other piggie stuff.

Immediately after the livestock fair, it was science fair time.
That was Thursday. The students have known about the science fair since January 8th, and have received direction and assistance along the way, but as usual, there was much science fair panic and last minute compiling in the days before the event.

Myself and two other dedicated science teachers ran the event from initial planning to implementation. Science Fair day was a 12 hour day for us with only about 7.5 of those hours paid.
Junior's hydroponic project received an honorable mention, so he was pretty happy about that, even though his hypothesis was not supported by the evidence. He and I were both surprised that the tomatoes did not seem to like constant access to moisture.
Apparently intermittent access as in commercial systems is more appropriate.

The day after the Science Fair was Career Day (a jobs fair) at our school. Different employers set up booths in the gym and the classes rotated through the fair throughout the day. The boss asked me to represent the teaching profession and I had agreed, not thinking at the time about the fact that the Science Fair and the Career Fair fell back to back.

Like I said, a busy, busy week. Friday morning dawned and like a kid with a science fair project, I was scrambling to put together some teacher info and pictures for my career table.
Let me tell you, the loneliest table at a high school career day is the teaching table. These kids are around their teachers more than their parents ... they KNOW what teachers do.
So I made my display as funny and factual as I could without lying outright about teaching.

AND ... I brought Stewie the cornsnake along as my attention getter. That was brilliant if I do say so myself. He was a kid magnet and lots of kids petted a snake for the first time yesterday.
Stewie was perfectly behaved as usual and represented the serpent world well.

Immediately after the career day deal, Junior had a track meet in a nearby town, so it was off to see him run like a deer for a few hours. I was pooped last night and just crashed when I finally got home.

Crazy, crazy week ... and that's not even including all the hubbub about the backyard meteor strike. By the time we got all the press vans and reporters off the property, I was ready to toss that meteor in a UPS box and ship it to some distant land like Missouri.

Anyway, sorry for the lack of posts the last few days.

I will try to do better in the future.

I'm Here and There.

I'm here and there today.

It's my 15 minutes of fame day I guess.

Think I'll celebrate by taking the blog day off and visit your blogs.

Wordless Wednesday On Thursday Evening

Merry Christmas Y'all

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE WACKY CREW HERE AT PURE FLORIDA!

GO HERE FOR SOME TRUE JOI DE VIE...

http://www.dogwork.com/dogsnow/

Sunday Supplement and A Picture From Patti

It is Sunday, right?





The last few days have been a blur and now with Christmas break stretching out in front of me, I'm sure to lose track of what day it is.





I haven't pushed the on button of my camera for days and I'm feeling the pain. Perhaps today I can find something to share with you.

Lucky for me, Pure Florida commenter Patti sent me a beautiful photo she took when she stayed at the same beach area I posted about last week.
Thanks Patti!


So while I try and "get out there" some today, here's a few tidbits of data ...

• Dad is doing okay. Thanks for the kind words.
• Mom is doing okay too. Thanks for thinking of her too.
• My garden has lettuce, snow peas, and hopefully carrots and spinach.
• The deer fencing is working, which is why the statement above is true.
• The pig still has no name, but she is doing fine.
• Bear has been remarkably good about the Christmas decorations. Right now I can hear him shredding a huge palm frond on the front porch.
• The whiting are biting on the beach in St. Augustine and I may just take my wetsuit and fishing rod when I go over to help with Dad this week ... all work and no play ...
• I sanded the hallway pine floors last week and today while everyone is scattered to the 4 corners, I am going to stain it. I may put the first coat of poly on it tonight at bedtime.
• I have not FINISHED Christmas shopping.
• My brother and his sweetheart (who is NOT imaginary as I once feared) are travelling to her home state of Missouri this week. The were going to cancel after Dad fell, but we told them we'd take the first shift. Being the local son, he's going to catch most of the work when he gets back anyway.
• By the way, they took enough fresh picked citrus to feed everyone in Missouri, so if you live in that fabled land, be sure to stop by and get your tangerine.
• I forgot to mention that the robins have been back for weeks now.

Now, I have some grits to eat and work to do.

I DID IT! NATIONAL BOARDS CERTIFICATION!

IF YOU WERE WITH ME, ROOTING FOR ME, SUPPORTING ME, OR JUST PUTTING UP WITH MY WHINING DURING THIS POST, THIS POST, THIS POST, THIS POST, AND THIS POST ... WELL, WE DID IT!

THE GOOD FOLKS AT THE NATIONAL BOARD FOR PROFESSIONAL TEACHING STANDARDS RELEASED THE 2008 SCORES TODAY AND I MADE IT!

SURE, I HAD TO EAT A LITTLE HUMBLE PIE LAST FALL WHEN I MISSED IT BY 7 POINTS, BUT I TOOK THE ADVICE THAT I'M ALWAYS GIVING MY STUDENTS AND DID NOT GIVE UP.

IT SEEMS THE SECOND TRY IS THE CHARM.

SO, I'M TOTALLY STOKED!

T-O-T-A-L-L-Y.

I'M GOIN' OUTSIDE NOW TO HOWL AT THE MOON!

WOOHOO!!

Bear Eggs

Here's something really, really cool that a reader in the fabled land of Kansas sent me. I had such fun showing it to my students ... first they had to guess what was in the mailing box using a few clues and their own questions to narrow it down.

Then, when I walked around with it allowing them to touch and hold it, many of them refused to believe that such a thing could have come from a bird ... even an ostrich.
"It's too smooth .... It's made of plastic ... "

It fit in well with our discussion of nutrients, the periodic table, and the importance of element number 20.

Thank you Ostrich egg sender!! What a cool surprise ... and I'm definitely making the apple coffee cake on page 178 of that amazing cookbook that came along with the egg.

Ya "meet" the nicest people blogging.




Here's a little Bear silliness ... he's not totally into this chase, I think the smell of the deer decaying about 20 feet from where the video starts was a distraction.

The blow dryer video didn't happen ... like any child when you want them to perform, ... he didn't!