Monday, June 7, 2010

Beach Pics from Weekend: Manasota Beach

So far we haven't noticed evidence from the oil spill, though I think it just caught up to the Florida beaches sometime today or yesterday.  These are shots from our trek to the beach just before sunset this weekend.  Great breezes, though inland it was hot, hot, hot.  The air was hazy, like looking through colored veils at the sun.  It's amazing how many colors display themselves in the short time it takes to garner a few random photos.  Note to self:   I need to get out here more to these beaches...we live within an easy drive and there's simply no reason not to soak this in whenever possible.

I just finished cleaning up the supper table from tonight's meal.  With some of the new spices received today (!!!) I used what I had on hand to make a black bean dal with some spice mix, extra cumin and ginger, couple tablespoons coconut milk, 1/4 c cream blended in blender with 1/4 c pine nuts (didn't have cashews).  The spices got heated in a bit of hot oil to bring out their fragrance, and some leftover diced potato went into the dish, too.  It turned into a thick, creamy, fragrant entree when  combined and served over hot basmati rice (in which I had sprinkled some finely crumbled dried mint).  I seared some cubes of roast beef separately in a dot of oil and some ground garam masala spices and served that on the side.  Green smoothie rounded all of it off, and cold glass of orange juice.   Wow...replete, and the house smells SO good!  And Jack's a very happy man, so I'm really happy :)

Good news on the "goals" front...I think the CNA class may happen later this summer.  Preliminaries are going well so far, with some things falling into place that, happily, are accomodating the necessary arrangements.  We'll see!

Finished off some books begun last week.  I'm still concurrently reading journals of early Florida settlers, etc...more interesting than fiction :)  Also ripped through The Historian, La Lacuna, (hard to put them down) and two more historicals...one a book about "Tokyo Rose,"and the other one called Slaves in the Family (set in the Carolinas and South and about just what it sounds like it's about), and in the fiction category,  a couple Mitchard novels (she's my recent read-through-entire-works-of author).   I hate back-editing, so am leaving that last sentence as possibly one of my worst run-ons of note.   I should never read Mitchard's palm-sized Christmas, Present for a pick-me-up, though...I snotted through a half box of Kleenex with that one (it's not about Christmas, btw).  But it's a really good story.

OK, that's about it for now.  Just had to show the shots of the beautiful sunset...so nice that my camera will adapt to the light.  It was like gazing at a subdued sun amid atmospheric mists that filtered the light as through frosted glass.

Shehecheyanu :)

6 comments:

Melodie said...

Beautiful pictures! Makes me want to drive down to the shore.....it would be a nice break from this humidity!

Mr. H. said...

What a beautiful place! Congratulations on your CNA class.

Robbyn said...

Melodie, thank you...yes, we're having the humidity here, too...after such a prolonged cool winter and spring the heat is back with a vengeance :)

Mr H, thank you...I'm really looking forward to it! Hopefully we can get everything in place in time...who knew? :)

Judy T said...

Oh, what lovely pictures! It makes me long for a week at the beach. We haven't been there for several years but I often go back to the beach in my mind for a mini-vacation every now and then. Thanks for the vacation.
Judy

Meems said...

I'm not sure what excites me more... the beautiful beach photos or thoughts of all those yummy delicious spices filling up your kitchen.

We drove over to Longboat Key last weekend for the evening. Didn't have a showy sunset but the company was fine and the breeze was glorious. Manasota Key is paradise... so private still. Love it there. You definitely should take advantage of being so close. It's a great stress-reliever and so cheap!
Glad your CNA class looks like it will happen soon. I know it's all part of the PLAN.
Meems

Robbyn said...

Judy, thanks...we're going to make a point of taking advantage of the beach more this summer, especially late afternoon on our day of rest, Saturday. We mostly go there to walk along the water's edge and then sit in folding chairs and just take in the beauty, and be together and talk if we feel like it. very relaxing :)

Meems,
When I first moved here, Jack took me to a lot of different beaches all up and down the SW coast. I can't remember if we've been to Longboat Key or not. It seems each area has its particular charm. I still prefer the ones that have something left of that not-so-commercialized feel, but really anywhere with Jack is nice. I'll be cranking out those spices tomorrow night for his belated birthday dinner...he requested lamb curry, and we gathered the ingredients over the weekend. I'll waft some of the fragrance your way :)