SOB's sweet roses

Yesterday when I was driving out and I noticed that our friend SOB (Sweet Old Bob) was walking toward his garage so I stopped to say hi. As he's so sweet like what we call him, he invited us to pick some roses from his front yard anytime we convenient.

Every time we were walking around (yes, we did some exercise! but not very often as this busy moment, ha ha ha) our neighborhood at the evening we always keep our eyes looking for him but his house seems so quiet and dark. He revealed that because he goes to bed very very early at 5 pm.

Before I met him yesterday, my husband and I actually wrote him a card for Christmas and New Year and also plan to bring him some cake I made so I was so glad to see him. I made some cup cake last night but by the time I finished it was five minutes before 5 pm. oh, that's too late to see our old friend.

So, we went to see him this morning with the card and my lovely cup cakes and we had a good very long talk generally about pretty much everything on his hobbies and life in the past. He also gave a lot of advices to my hubby about rose planting and wood craft techniques.

He cut some roses and put in a bucket for me, so sweet!

But we promised to return this bucket so I trimmed the roses and put in glass vase. It turned out very wonderful

HAPPY THANKSGIVING OUR SOB

For you, Mom

Dear Mom,

I thought tomorrow we are going to have dinner together and I did experiments on baking cakes and made one for you.

Anyhow, I just heard from hubby that you not very well and we changed the plan to see your folks (but you will be home if you still not get well soon) at Linda's instead.

So, I'm not sure that you will see the whole cake I made or not and Eddie think if we post it here once you've taste it then you could imagine the picture of it!

All right, it might not be the most pretty cake in the world

but we hope you like it and...get well soon!

.....

Eddie & Sutida

More Cakes WE LOVE

I think we had too much of cakes lately but we couldn't stop it!

These baby too good!

This one is my home-made Red Velvet Cake;

Another one of them is this Chocolate Cup Cake ...

I couldn't believe that we love Walmart Cake

but I guess that's because we never expect too much there and this guy was soft, nice, smooth, quick and easy.

Yes, it's just easy, go grab it and one cup is called enough!

Welcome home "My Poor Doggies"

Let me introduce my lovely dogs.

Oh, I never name them yet, shame on me!

Anyway, I believe she is very smart and sweet mom also her baby dog is a cute little one.

They're very royale to us and always there at the front door welcoming us home all the time.

This was when they're so bright and cheerful on April 3rd this year

before we left them home alone.

............

After that, summer came and we're away from home for a very long period so we asked our kindly nextdoor neighbors to help by watering them and putting them in shade.

Sadly, my helpful neighbors were away too but so nice they are that they tried to keep my doggies lives by asking their parents to take care.

Anyway, they were away from us for a very long time and came back home last Sat with a deadful brushes behide.

Oh my poor boys!

....

So, I took them a shower and add some cactus behide which more suitable for a weather here.

Look, they're very nice and clean!

WELCOME HOME AGAIN, BABIES.

Say Yes to "The Red Velvet Cake"

Cloudy Day Time

When we start this morning - French Toast

Good Morning

........

The thing is we love breakfast and we love French Toast!

Our way of cooking French Toast is the bread turned out golden brown and warm crispy toast serving with Maple Syrup and don't forget a cup of fresh brew coffee or a glass of milk ... oh yum!

This was not a time of diet and we had crisp Bacons together with!

Big smile for my hubby's compliments

At the end of the day

When we start this morning

Florida : Tuesday going back home

Tuesday, we're going home but even not in a hurry we still had no time for nice breakfast because...we woke up late.

Anyway, we needed to fill up gas before return this boy;

Oh NOOOOO, not my husband! He is no return but it's actually this boy

Am I look good with him, hubby?
I asked him I'd like to drive the car since the first day we got it.

Truely, I drove it that morning but in fact it was just so short distance only from the hotel to gas station, :(

OK, we returned him and since we checked in our flight one day before and no lines at the baggage counter so we had plenty of time for breakfast.

A bit sad that we got to an airport after 10 am. most restaurant didn't serve breakfast after that and by the time we about free for food it's almost 10.30 am the only choice we got was
Burger King.

We thought we would not get breakfast menu but they had some left so we got it

Taste OK but nice to had some and better than nothing.

At the airport before getthing through the security;

Flight was about 5 hours and we got some snacks and drinks on the plane.

Once we landed, I felt like it's not Vegas. The weather just so cold, windy and very cloudy.

Winter come and I do love it.

By the time we got home was about 3 PM so we stopped at Wholefood Market

for ummm ... lunch+dinner.

Yes, we're so hungry and the food just good.

We're finally home.

Florida : Monday Breakfast at Cracker Barrel and Papaya restaurant

This morning was another relax day we had together since we both had good sleep and no more hassle. We both woke up late but it was OK since his business was going on the afternoon and it's just short period.

Looking for breakfast and we knew that we were not going to have a hotel one. We like something we usually do when we travel which is going for a good local breakfast or some restaurant that we not having at home.

We went to Cracker Barrel old country store. We went to this one last time when we here in Jacksonville and he said I will love it...yes, I do.

I like the concept that bringing you back to the warm old day just like home made breakfast and it's more than food.

The entry hall was full with nice stuffs.

(I didn't get any good pictures up front, so shame)

OK, let's start with the menu;

a cup of coffee,

an always busy hubby,

oops! now he knew

the atmosphere was good

He had two bacons & two eggs

...but there's more...

Buttermilk Pancakes with very cute bottle of Syrup (I save it!)

Hey, looks good & and taste great.

How about mine,

I order "Uncle Herschel’s Favorite®" which is all of these...

Two Eggs with Grits, Sugar Cured HamSawmill Gravy,

Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits and Jam & Butter

~plus~
Fried Apples or Hashbrown Casserole

Oh My ....

and that's me, the fat lady afterward!

Afterward he went to a meeting somewhere nearby and dropped me here at the Riverside shopping mall for killing time. He got back after a meeting about 2-3 hours later and by the time I brought him to try on some pants I found his size at Old Navy.

This was phenomenon because it's hard for both of us to find any right size of cloth availiable in store since I'm PETITE and he's EXTRA TALL...ha ha ha.

We back to the hotel and after some rest then we figured out that we wanted to go back to Asian Restaurant "PAPAYA" that we went to a dinner the night before after Kingsley Plantation trip.

..................

We picked it because we wanted light meal and it was presenting Thai Food. At first the place looked a little bit too contrast for me. I thought they are trying to be a modern style restaurant which mostly good but the green light was too funny and the chair is not my style also even mainly on the menu were Thai food but some part of the interior was about Chinese so I a bit confused and easily assumed that the owner is not Thai.

Well, nice presentation food and it was incredible good especially Larb Moo (spicy minced pork) etc...all great. So my husband requested to talk with the chef since he so appreciated him but we got to talk to the owner instead and that's turn out to be very long nice conversation. Yes, ...I was right she's Chinese.

That night I didn't bring camera, so no food pictures...shame!

........................

We decided to go back there since hubby wanted to try more;

First item was clear soup - bean spout with minced pork and spring onion

(tasted like Noodle Soup Base for me....light but just OK)

Second one was Ginger Salad which is the owner recommended since the night before
- this was goooooooooood
Last one was a whole Seabass crispy fried in deep oil serving with the house recipe sauce
- it's more like a gravy, heavy, curry sauce for me...nice but way too heavy and it's a little too much of sauce but I love the fish especially whole crispy fish.

I missed my mum's "chili, garlic, lime & fish sauce" dipping sauce!!

But I do love the way I can see whole fish and we ate them all!

and that's the night...

....so green, isn't it?...

Florida : Sunday afternoon at Kingsley Plantation

After Big Lunch at Red Lobster, we're looking for something fun. First, we drove to a zoo and my hubby saw a sign for "Kingsley Plantation" then we changed our minds since we did a lot on zoo trip lately. We're heading to its location by crossing a bridge at the northern tip of Fort George Island. Along the way, it's very beautiful and really peaceful just like go back in time.

Once again, with the car.

I think it's pretty cool, a modern car surrounding by old day woods.

Hey, we got here at the front gate of

Kinsley Plantation

Looking to the past

and looking back
oh, here he is ...
around the plantation (very much like Thailand)
In the old day, they planted "Sea Island Cotton" and made a lot of money from this quality seeds. This one is part of some that were showing there at the time
(Looks so dry so I guess it's out of the season)

Inside the old kitchen building which is nowsday notthing much about cooking.
There exhibited how they transfers Slaves in the old days
from Africa to the plantation.
This picture scared me a bit about the way they punished slaves by locking their legs with this wood.


Beside the above traditional punishment, all in all by history the Kingsley seems to treat the slaves well.
The cotton processing;

From the kitchen there were a walkway to the family house and it is located on the riverside which is very pretty and peaceful.

We walked through the deck and see some people were enjoying their boating day.
So wonderful!

See behide is the Kingsley House

All pretty scenes along the way from deck back to the house.

Our dream house

The weather was very nice, we took a rest by sitting on the bench in front of the house and in front of us is the riverside scene which was stunning.

I asked my hubby for an amused shot with the pile trees behide.

Yeppp, he as tall as the trees!

But this is us, we always together.

When we walked back to the backyard of the house,

there were an old well which we guessed it's still work(?)

Oh, my boy...

There were a barn behide.

Inside the barn, its ground was like grinded shells.

Another view of the barn

We walked cross the street and parking lot to the Slaves house behide.

There are aligning in a row, actually a unique pretty scene.

All the buildings here is very interesting by its construction.

They were called "whole shell tabby" since it is whole oyster shells with concrete.

Each slave cabin is a small unit in a same floor plan - one main entry way to a small room inside and another same size room which had a fire place.

The last cabin was under restoring and it's more in good condition especially the roof

As I said above I felt like the Slaves were not been treated so bad since the place showed us how well the individually cabin they were one time living here which I'm glad.

They more like a big family and actually the owner was married one of his slaves and she became the owner of this plantation later.

We do like this experience and happy that we made this trip.

The day was just perfect.

and it's another great memory we'll never forget.