Visit to Tarpon Springs

Here are said sponges!

Last weekend, Steve took me up to Tarpon Springs, which is about a half-hour north of Clearwater. We had never been before, but we knew it was the "Greek Town" of Tampa. I also heard from colleagues that Tarpon Springs is known for their sponge docks (?), so we wanted to check that out. And there happened to be a crafts fair that weekend as well, so we got to enjoy that, too!

The highlights:

Eating lunch at Hellas

Of course we had to eat Greek food for lunch. Hellas is famous up there, and we had to try it. While the restaurant is popular, it's huge, and you don't have to wait too long once your name is on the list. The restaurant has multiple dining rooms and is heavily decorated; it made me think it was the Greek version of Columbia, the Cuban restaurant in Ybor City. Our waiter, Demetrios, was Greek (obviously), and he was very friendly; we are visiting Greece in the fall, so he was giving us tips about where to go (or mostly just confirming that we're planning the right things!). 

I ordered the combo of spanakopita and tiropita. The first is spinach, while the other is several kinds of cheese. Yummy! 

Tasting at Tarpon Springs Distillery

After lunch, we walked to Tarpon Springs Distillery. We love trying different spirits, and they had A LOT to choose from. The place wasn't very busy, so we actually got a one-on-one tasting with their master distiller, Barry Butler. They offer several kinds of whiskeys, two gins, a rum, and several interestingly flavored spirits like Claresso (coffee but not a liqueur), Guaco Loco (liquid taco), and Aquavit (liquid Reuben sandwich). We skipped the ouzo, since neither of us like black licorice. It was fun trying things we had never tasted before, and it inspired us to get creative with our cocktails at home!

This is Barry. He gave us a private tour of where all the spirits are made and walked us through the process. The tasting and the tour were free (!), so we made sure to buy a bottle. We chose the Gramling Woods Rye Malt Whiskey: it was so good, and seeing as it won a double gold medal, other people like it, too! We'' definitely bring it out during our next bourbon party!

Visiting Breweries

After the distillery, we drove just a couple minutes to East Tarpon Avenue, which feels like the main street of the little downtown area. We visited Two Frogs Brewing Company, which had a large selection of beers, including several sours that don't taste like beer at all (which is how I like it!). We befriended the British man sitting next to us at the bar. He was a beer aficionado, and he had SO many recommendations for breweries in the area. We were driving, so we couldn't go to all of them, but we stopped by a few!

The two pink ones were fruity beers (not sour at all), and the dark one was a Christmas stout (tastes like coffee and chocolate). 

After our visit to Tarpon Springs, we drove south to Dunedin. We had gone there a few months ago and did tastings at Cotherman Distilling Co., the Dunedin Brewery, and HOB Brewing Co. But there were even more places to check out! This time we hit up 7venth Sun Brewing Company (and I had a grilled cheese from the Hop Scotch Cafe next door), and Woodwright Brewing Company. That's not even all the breweries in town, so we'll definitely go back. We might event visit Woodwright again, which had live band music trivia, which is pretty cool!

We have lived in Florida nearly two years now, and we love exploring our new home. There are so many more places to see and things to do! But our next adventure is St. Louis, MO. Stay tuned for that blog post!

Recipe: Easy Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

I had a ripe pineapple at home, and I had planned to make fruit salad with it. But the rings came out so perfectly with this coring tool Steve bought me, and he said, "You could make pineapple upside down cake!" I had never made one before, but I found this recipe from Betty Crocker, and I whipped it together just before dinner the other night. Easy is right!

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 can (20 oz) pineapple slices in juice, drained, juice reserved
• 1 jar (6 oz) maraschino cherries without stems, drained (about 18 cherries)
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• Vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pan).
2. As the oven is preheating, place the butter in a 13x9-inch pan and set it on the middle oven rack to melt. Set a timer for 5 to 7 minutes to remind yourself to check when the butter is fully melted.
3. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices on brown sugar. Place a cherry in the center of each pineapple slice, then arrange remaining cherries around slices; press gently into brown sugar.
4. Add enough water to reserved pineapple juice to measure 1 cup. Make cake batter as directed on box, substituting pineapple juice mixture for the water.
5. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.
6. Bake 40 to 46 minutes (44 to 53 minutes for dark or nonstick pan) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately run knife around side of pan to loosen cake.
7. Place heatproof serving plate upside down on top the pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake for 5 minutes so brown sugar topping can drizzle over cake; remove pan.
8. Cool 30 minutes. Serve warm or cool. Store covered in refrigerator.

Like I said, I used fresh pineapple, but I did use a can of pineapple juice for step 4. I used the correct size pan, but the cake was rather small; I only had enough room for 6 full pineapple rings. So I didn't need a whole jar of cherries, either. And while I didn't have boxed yellow cake mix, I did have Funfetti, which worked out just as well. 

As for the directions, I had to make a few changes. The butter took MUCH longer to melt than 5-7 minutes. For me, it took at least 10 minutes, so I might recommend just microwaving the butter and then putting it in the pan once the oven has come up to temperature. Then I followed the rest of the instructions until it came to removing the cake to make it, well, upside down. Both the glass dish the cake was baked in as well as the platter I was using for the transfer were very heavy. So I just quickly turned the cake over onto the new plate as neatly as I could, and luckily there was no disaster. But in doing it this well, I did not let the drippings of the brown sugar drizzle onto the cake. But that really wasn't a necessary step. The cake came out SO well! This recipe is so easy to make, plus the dessert is a real show-stopper to look at. I will definitely make this again (next time for more than just me and Steve!). 

One-Pan Chicken and Broccoli with Cheese Recipe

 

I knew we had chicken and broccoli in the house, but I didn't just want to make grilled chicken with air-fried broccoli on the side. That's boring! So I googled, "easy recipe with chicken and broccoli" and found this one from Christine Pittman's Cook the Story blog. It was simple and yummy!

Ingredients

• 8 skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1.5 pound head of broccoli
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly oil a large skillet or rimmed baking dish. Arrange the chicken thighs in the skillet in a single layer.
3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme.
4. Break the florets off of the broccoli. If you’d like, peel and chop the stalks to include them, too. Arrange broccoli around chicken pieces.
5. In a medium bowl toss together the bread crumbs, cheese, olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon coarse pepper.
6. Arrange bread crumb mixture over the broccoli in the pan. It’s ok if some gets on the chicken, but concentrate on the broccoli.
7. Bake until chicken is cooked through to 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, so about 40-50 minutes.

I'm not sure if I didn't use the right size pan, or my ratio between chicken and broccoli was off, but I had SO much of the bread crumb/cheese mixture that there's no way I could have only put it on the broccoli. I covered the whole dish with it (who doesn't like more cheese?). I baked the dish for 40 minutes, but I left it in the oven for another 5 minutes to allow some browning of the cheese (plus, that gave me time to microwave a baked potato for the side dish). This was definitely a quick dinner to throw together, and while it's cooking, that time can be spent enjoying a happy hour drink beforehand at home. I'll be sure to make this recipe again!