Alfie's Restaurant Ocklawaha Florida

Located along Route 25 in Ocklawaha, Alfies is rather a nondescript sort of building. It doesn't in any way hint at the delicious things that you will find inside. Don't get me wrong, it is rustic inside, you can feel comfortable in your shorts and tank top. It is more of a bar than a bistro but don't let that put you off. The menu provides some delightful options.

Monday is prime rib day and the price, quality, and quantity is excellent. My brother and sister-in-law go there for their fried fish sandwich. As you can see from the picture it is quite huge. 

I got the grilled shrimp and chose the coleslaw and sweet potato fries as my sides. It was all so good!!

Al got a patty melt and it was cooked just the way he likes it. 

We had a very enjoyable meal with great service and nice cold drinks. It is a popular place and it is a place you can feel comfortable bringing the entire family. Prices are reasonable for the quality that you receive. 

Green beans and bacon

It sounds like such a simple combination, green beans, and bacon and yet the flavors are so luscious and so complex that you will swear that there has to be more to it to have this depth of flavor. No, there are only four ingredients to this first variation of the old southern favorite.

• 8 slices of bacon
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 pounds of fresh green beans (2 16oz cans may be substituted)

Rinse, trim the ends and slice the fresh beans or open the two cans of beans and drain.

In a small frying pan cook the bacon. Remove from pan and set aside on a paper towel. Add the sugar and vinegar to the pan and mix into bacon fat. Add the green beans to the mixture crumble the bacon on top and cook an additional 5 or 6 minutes covered.

This makes enough to feed 8 people or 6 really hungry ones.

Transfer to a large serving bowl and watch the faces of your family light up. This dish will tickle your taste buds and make you wish that every day was green bean and bacon day. 

If you want to make an even simpler version of this delicious classic try this one which is bound to become a favorite at your house.

Steam one pound of green beans, after cutting off the ends and slicing French style.

In a frying pan cook 8 pieces of bacon. When nice and crispy remove and place on a paper towel to absorb the extra fat.

Peel and dice one small onion and add to the bacon fat in the pan. Sweat on low heat until the green beans are translucent. Turn the heat up to medium and add the green beans. Turn often so that they get a little crispy but no burn spots.

Transfer to a large bowl and crumble the bacon over the top.

Serve to rave reviews.

This is so simple and so delicious I bet you are asking yourself why you never thought of it. It will get even the most finicky eater to love their nutritious green beans. If you want to make it a little healthier you are out of luck, this recipe wouldn’t work with turkey bacon because you need lots of bacon fat. But for an occasional splurge, this is the best. And surprisingly, bacon has only 50 calories per slice so it probably isn't as big a splurge as you might have expected.

Simple white pizza at home

Everyone loves pizza and if you want to make a quick and simple white pizza at home there are several ways to do it. First, you have to decide how involved you want to get in making the crust. You can make your own if you have a few hours. If you are pressed for time, you can pick up a bag of pizza dough at the supermarket or you can buy frozen bread dough. With the frozen bread dough, you need to plan ahead at least a day. It needs to thaw and rise. If you have no time then pick up a Boboli at the store and build your own pizza from there.

A family favorite at my house is a Hawaiian pizza. It is what is commonly referred to as a white pizza. What that means is that it is constructed without a layer of tomato sauce. What you will do is pour some extra virgin olive oil on the crust. Make several circles on the crust with the olive oil, right along the edge of the crust. Use a pastry brush and spread the oil over the entire crust.

Place 10 slices of bacon on a piece of paper towel, cover with another sheet and cook according to package directions, about 5 minutes in the microwave. Open a small can of chunk pineapple and drain. Cut each slice of bacon into four pieces spread on the pizza crust. Place the pieces of pineapple around the crust. Take one package of Italian blended shredded cheese and sprinkle over the top of the pineapple and bacon.

Preheat the over to 400 degrees. Move the rack to the top position. Place your stone in the oven and allow it to get warm. Move the pizza onto the stone. Cook for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden underneath and the cheese is melted.

There is something decadent about the combination of salt and sweet that you get from a pizza covered with pineapple and bacon. If the combination sounds weird to you that’s okay try it anyway, you never know, you may be the latest convert. If you don’t have any bacon you can use ham, the taste is slightly different but the sweet-salty components are still very evident.

Another white pizza that is a favorite at our house is barbecue chicken. You can pick up the precooked fajita chicken and that will work great with this recipe. You will also need a jar of barbecue sauce, use whatever is your favorite, I like Masterpiece.

Place the chicken into a large bowl and pour one cup of the barbecue sauce over it and mix well. Prepare the crust in the same way as you would for the Hawaiian pizza. Place the chicken on the prepared crust and then cover with 1 bag of shredded mozzarella cheese. Place on a stone in the oven on the top level of the oven and cook for 25 minutes.

This is one of the most delicious pizzas you will ever eat. Make sure that you have plenty of napkins available to wipe the barbecue sauce off of your chin. It is a little messy to eat but the mess is worth it. If you want to have the sensation of eating ribs on a pizza try using pulled pork instead of the chicken. There is only one word to describe it, awesome.

Sugar and Spice Mendon, Vermont

We have been coming to Sugar and Spice for more than 30 years, maybe even 40. It is located on Route 4 and has rustic brown exterior. They serve breakfast and lunch and in all these years we have only come for lunch once, breakfast is what we come here for. 

Pancakes are king at Sugar and Spice but you can also get waffles, French toast, eggs done a variety of ways of ways and things like oatmeal or a fresh fruit plater with yogurt or cottage cheese. 

On this visit, I ordered 2 scrambled eggs with home fries, and instead of toast a pumpkin pancake. Pancakes are served with real maple syrup, if you want anything artificial, it will cost you extra!! This is Vermont after all. 

Al and Dora both got an egg sandwich and were both equally surprised when it came served on an English muffin, both were expecting toast. Fran got an egg white omelet which was a three egg one with lots of stuff inside including cheddar cheese. 

On this particular visit, service was not the best, We had to ask for a refill on our coffee and ask twice to get our bill. Still, we were in and out in about half an hour so we didn't really complain. 

They sell a variety of Vermont products and it is very tempting to pick up some buttermilk pancake mix or Vermont made jams and jellies. Of course, maple syrup in lots of different sizes is also offered. 

While this is not necessarily our favorite restaurant in the area, it does have a very nice atmosphere and the pumpkin pancake was excellent. 

Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Cookies

Have you ever just wanted a quick snack, maybe like a peanut butter cookie, but didn't feel like getting into any really big baking project? That is what happened to me. It was July, it was hot and muggy and I wanted a fresh peanut butter cookie. Lucky for me, I had seen a recipe on Facebook that I thought was impossible. A three ingredient cookie. Really? 

I had the three ingredients:

2 cups of peanut butter 

1 cup of Sugar

2 eggs

I set the oven at  350 degrees, grabbed out a bowl and mixed the three ingredients together. The beauty of this recipe, of course, is that they are gluten-free!! I used a metal ice cream scoop to scoop out the dough. I didn't really form them into formal balls, but you can if that is what you prefer. In order to make them an official peanut butter cookie, you need to use a fork and place the marks on top. If you want to keep them gluten free use corn starch on the fork tines. 

I placed a parchment on my cookie sheet to avoid sticking. I also placed a half pecan on half of the cookies. Bake 10-12 minutes.

#peanutbuttercookies

I was amazed at how well they came out, they are delicious. You will notice mine have a rather rustic shape if you make them into balls before baking they will be more regular in shape. 

Rabia's Seafood/Oysters and Italian Restaurant Boston, Mass.

What a lucky find this was. We planned to have dinner at Goody Glover’s Irish Pub (which has since closed)  but after sitting there for 10 minutes and being ignored we decided that the North End has way too many delicious restaurants for us to waste our time here. I had seen a sandwich board outside Rabia's on Salem Street offering the stuffed fig appetizer when we walked by so it seemed like something we might want to try.

We walked in and were greeted and seated immediately. We declined the table for two in the window preferring to leave the limelight to someone else. We were seated at a banquette along the wall that had about 5 tables for two at it. We had a basket of bread and dipping oil in front of us while we decided what we wanted to eat. Irene ordered a house wine and I had a Pellegrino to drink.

The menu is eclectic running the gamut from the expected pasta dishes to the unexpected a raw bar and sushi. It was a hard decision there were so many delicious sounding dishes. 

After some discussion between Irene and I agreed to split a Caprese salad and the dish that had drawn us in,  the stuffed figs.

They arrived together and the figs were actually beautiful with the wonderful gorgonzola sauce covering them and a sprinkling of pine nuts. That gorgonzola sauce was so good that we used the bread we had left to wipe up the sauce. The Caprese was as expected with sliced tomatoes and mozzarella with the addition of slices prosciutto. It was not large but was well presented and tasty.

For our main courses, we went our separate ways. Irene ordered the pumpkin and butternut squash ravioli with the same amazing gorgonzola sauce and I chose the penne with broccoli and artichoke with a lemon, garlic, and olive oil dressing. Irene’s portion was small but she was not complaining, actually, she wasn’t speaking at all she was too busy enjoying her food.

My portion was more than I could eat but it was very good and the sauce was very light and lemony. There was a nice ratio of vegetables to pasta.

Service was excellent. We were taken very good care of. The timing of everything was perfect. We finished up with a decaf cappuccino being too full for dessert. Our neighbors who were two college girls in town for a comedy show shared a tiramisu and they let me photograph it. It looked beautiful and they assured me that it tasted even better.

Our meal for two with appetizers, a glass of wine and cappuccino was $78. We thought that this was a very good price for the quality of the meal. We reluctantly walked back out into the cold dark rainy fall night and vowed to return to this little gem. I have returned to Rabia's several times and everything is always wonderful. 

I Bambini Mooresville, NC

In January 2018  an ice storm hit the eastern part of the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. We were on our way to Florida and stopped for the night in Mooresville, NC which is a usual stop for us. We ate dinner the first night at a restaurant we have tried before and like very much. We didn't expect to need to eat anywhere else. We were wrong. I Bambini as it turns out, was right down the street from our hotel, The Candlewood Suites.

I checked Google looking for a place for lunch and Italian seemed like a good choice. I Bambini is located in a strip mall and the exterior will not blow you away, it is rather nondescript. Inside is cozy and we were given a friendly welcome. They have a very well-priced lunchtime buffet, Al decided he wanted veal parm and I chose the lunch buffet.


#IBambiniMooresville

The lunch buffet lasagna was very good as was the spaghetti a la vodka. Lots of other choices were offered and I sampled a little taste of many different things. All were good, not exciting but good. Salads and soups were offered as well as desserts. For $7 how could you possibly go wrong?

We had good service and liked to food enough to order two meals to go for dinner. I certainly would not hesitate to eat here again when we stay in the area.

Other restaurants we enjoy in the area:

Jeffrey's 

Duckworths Grill