Anna Maria Vacation

We recently took a vacation to Anna Maria Island, Florida. This was our third visit to the Island and is one of my most favorite places in the world.  The beach is heavenly, enough said!  We spent most of our time between the beach and the pool at our condo. The other time was spent eating fabulous food and shopping!

So here are my top picks of food on Anna Maria:
1. Burgers at Skinny's place
2. Eggs Benedict Cobb style at Peaches
3. Fruit Cocktail smoothie at Holy Cow Ice Cream

 

Here are my favorite pictures from the trip!

Daddy and the girls digging for little clams.  They love to dig them up and then watch the clams burrow back down into the sand.

Walking together at sunset

Anna Maria has the most amazing sunsets you'll ever see

Summer holding Tiny the ball python

Sydney holding Tiny.  She LOVES snakes!

Morels

So a favorite thing of ours to do in the spring is to hunt for morels. As a kid I LOVED to eat morels and I wanted to share that with my girls.  So we took a day and went over to our friends home near Secor and did some hunting.  Summer was quite good at it and Sydney just loves to be outdoors.  We found nearly 60 that day and boy did they taste great!

The girls with their Daddy and all the mushrooms they found!  So proud!

Our success!

Have you ever made morels?  They are so tasty!  I did not take photos of the cooking process, but it's so easy.  You first need to soak the morels in water to clean them.  Then cut them in half.  In a small bowl, whisk an egg with a bit of milk and set aside.  Take a large zip lock bag and stuff it with saltine crackers and close the bag.  I use my rolling pin to then crush up the crackers.  Take the morels and dip them in the egg mixture.  After the egg dip, put them in the bag of crackers and shake it.  Make sure to coat them well with crackers.  Place the mushrooms on a plate until you are ready to cook.  Heat a skillet on med heat with butter.  When the butter is hot start placing the mushrooms in and cook until brown and crispy.  Remove to a plate covered with a few paper towels.  Sprinkle with a bit of salt and there you have it! The most delicious treat that comes once a year!

Hello Kitty Birthday

Well for my first blog post, I'll tell you about my daughter's birthday party in Hello Kitty Style:)  I made the cupcakes myself.  Easy peasy!  And they turned out pretty darn cute if I do say so myself!  We also made the decorations.

The birthday girl herself with her Hello Kitty headband that we made.