Heading to the beach from Solivita is easy, with a quick hour and half drive to either coast. I love the East 1w beaches because the water is cooler and a bit wilder, and the beach on Cocoa reminds me of the NJ beaches from my youth. Lee loves the beauty, warmth, and calmer waters of the West Coast beaches. Whichever way we go from Central Florida, east or west, the Florida beaches are beautiful with warm water and soft sand. Growing up in New Jersey, the beach season was short and our beaches were so crowded you could hardly find a place to plant your blanket and umbrella. Florida beaches never seem to be that busy, the palm trees gently sway in the breeze, and the Florida State beaches usually provide picnic tables, a place to park your car, and changing facilities, making a “day at the beach” really an actual day at the beach.
We love to go to Cocoa Beach and when time provides, we stay at the Inn at Cocoa Beach for a night. It’s a lovely beachfront inn, spotlessly clean with a nice pool and public rooms. The Inn brews coffee every morning and provides a good breakfast, plus every evening it hosts a cocktail hour for their guests, which is a nice kick off to the day and a great start to the evening. We park our car at the Inn, enjoy the morning at the beach, the afternoon at the pool, and walk to one of the local spots for dinner, resulting in a truly relaxing overnight.
When we go to the West Coast we love to swim at the beach at St. Pete. St. Pete is a bit busier than Cocoa but just as nice with gorgeous sunsets. We usually pack an overnight bag and spend an evening, grab a great fish dinner, and head back the next morning refreshed and ready to get back to business. Seems wherever we go in Florida, natural beauty surrounds us, blue skies fill our vision, and we always meet some very nice Florida folks who are willing to share recipes. We enjoyed this grouper and want to share the easy recipe with you.
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1 TBSP Honey
1 TBSP Orange Marmalade
1 TBSP Orange Juice
¾ TSP Dijon Mustard
½ TSP Light Soy Sauce
1/8 Tsp Ground White Pepper
¾ Pound Grouper Fillets
Preheat broiler. Combine all ingredients except grouper, mixing well. Place fillets on an oiled broiler pan and brush with honey glaze to cover. Broil 5 to 6 inches from heat for 4 to 5 minutes until browned. Turn fillets, brush with honey glaze and broil additional 5 minutes or until fish flakes easily.
Bell peppers, squash and snap beans are being harvested and available in our gardens and markets this month. I love to slice the peppers and squash into cubes, toss the beans in and add olive oil, a touch of salt and roast them in the oven. Easy and delicious. Not to mention a great side dish to Honey Glazed Florida Grouper.
On Memorial Day, before we light the BBQ or enjoy a swim in the pool, I would like to ask all my readers to say a prayer of thanks to all the brave men and woman who died in service to America. It is through their sacrifice that we enjoy a free and wonderful America. Happy Memorial Day.
Solivita has so many events going on this month between the Easter Brunch, the Rally for the Cure Village Event, the Annual Queen’s College Golf Outing, the Community Yard Sale, and the events scheduled at Mosaics and the Grille. It’s hard not to be busy! This is also the time of the year that our snowbirds start their flight north, and I would like to wish all of you a safe trip and a safe return to Solivita next season. We will miss you! The longer we reside in Florida the more we find to do, even after living here for over 17 years. In fact, we are SOLIVITA PIONEERS and PROUD OF IT.
Your Invitation to Central Florida Life
Living in Central Florida means we are central to lots of activities. I would like to extend an invitation to you to visit Solivita to experience this wonderful community. Call me at (407) 641-2688 and I will sign you up for Solivita Discovery Days, which is Three Days and Two Nights to discover for yourself the beauty of Solivita.
We recently met with family and celebrated a birthday at Buca di Beppo in Celebration. I must say we had a really good time. This is a fun restaurant – loud, happy, filled with locals and tourists all out for a fun experience. Not a fancy restaurant, but clean and comfortable, and a great place to celebrate. The food was generous, hot, and delicious. The service was good, and the laughter was plentiful – all the ingredients needed for a great night. Celebration is only 30 minutes from Solivita and an evening in Celebration is always a good night out. Lots of restaurants, a wine bar, a tavern, a pizza store, a lake to stroll by, a few shops to poke around in and a nice pastry shop to complete your evening.
April is Blueberry Season in Central Florida.
Whether you get your blueberries from a bush, a roadside stand, or the local Publix, this season’s berries are predicted to be sweet and delicious. Florida’s blueberry industry is estimated at $82 million dollars a year, making Florida one of the larger berry growers in America.
Central Florida has lots of “Pick Your Own Fruit” farms. We recently took a ride north and found a few farms in Clermont, Yalaha, and Tavares. You can always search the web for a farm, by visiting www.pickyourown.org or just enjoy a ride in the country and see what you find. We enjoyed a great day in the hills of Central Florida, visiting a farm, stopping at the Yalaha Bakery for lunch, and returning home with a loaf of delicious bread and lots of berries. Central Florida is quite diverse and offers a range of activities beyond the giant resorts and parks. We brought home quite the bounty of berries, that I washed, dried, and then put some in the freezer for later. In addition to eating some fresh from the blueberry bowl, I tossed a few in a green salad with feta cheese, we had blueberry pancakes, and I cooked up a batch of blueberry muffins, that I’m freezing to server when company comes.
Please enjoy my blueberry muffin recipe:
Blueberry Muffins
3 ½ Cups All Purpose Flour
1 ½ Cups Granulated Sugar
4 ½ TSP Baking Powder
1 TSP Baking Soda
1 TSP Kosher Salt
2 Cups Buttermilk shaken
1 (1/4 lb) stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 ½ TSP Grated Lemon Zest
2 Extra Large Eggs
2 Cups Fresh Blueberries
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line Muffin Tins with paper liners. This should make about 20 muffins.
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate blow, mix the buttermilk, butter, lemon zest and eggs. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a fork just until blended. Fold in the blueberries. Do Not Over Mix. Scoop the batter into the muffin liners, filling them almost full. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes until golden.
We were fortunate to be invited to share an afternoon with some friends at the Center for Great Apes in Wauchula, Florida. What an amazing afternoon at an amazing sanctuary! The Center provides a safe environment in a small community with over 100 acres of peaceful tropical forest. The apes and chimpanzees in residence were all raised in captivity by humans and as a result, lack the basic survival skills their chimpanzee or orangutan mothers would have taught them in the wild. Unfortunately, apes and chimpanzees raised in captivity can never be successfully released back to the wild, and this is where the sanctuary steps in.
The sanctuary provides permanent lifetime care to all residents. In fact, Bubbles, who was the late Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee, is one of those residents! In tropical forest surroundings, the chimpanzees and orangutans live and play in large three-story high domed enclosures, the largest being about 70 feet long and 34 feet tall. The enclosures are connected by elevated tunnels giving these great apes the freedom to explore, and in the evening, the residents have “Night Houses” located in high nesting areas. With hammocks and bed shelves, and heating for the winter, they’re strong enough to withstand a hurricane. Additionally, the Center provides for the unique needs of handicapped and older apes as well.
How did the apes come to this sanctuary? Many apes raised in captivity come from the entertainment industry, and once they are done performing, they come to reside in this peaceful environment surrounded by orange groves and away from human development. The Center for Great Apes does not breed, as it would be irresponsible to continue to breed apes for captivity, but focuses on providing the residents with the potential for a safe, healthy, long life.
When living in New Jersey, it was a short trip over the bridge to the Bronx Zoo where the animals were well cared for, but nevertheless I always felt a bit sad for them, as they had lots of street and air traffic noise to contend with. After visiting the Center and enjoying the quiet surroundings, I feel that these apes are lucky to be so well cared for in such a beautiful, tropical spot. The sanctuary has wonderful keepers, all of whom were happy to share the background of each of the residents with us. It was a beautiful day shared with beautiful group of animals and their supportive and knowledgeable caregivers. Please visit the website and meet the apes at: www.centerforgreatapes.org
Spring has arrived and with it, St. Patrick’s Day.
My Niece, Michele and her Mom will be visiting from New Jersey again this year over the St. Patrick’s Day Weekend and we have a nice visit planned. I am cooking Birthday Dinner for Michele on Friday and we will Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday. Included in our Weekend Celebration is the Solivita St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Street Party. Solivita put on a great Street Party for Mardi Gras this month; the Parade was fun, the Street was packed, and the weather was beautiful. Seems like the Solivita Parties just get better and better. It is always fun to Party in Solivita, we have No Driving Worries, We Party with our Golf Carts, We are Close to Home, and We Have Fun in our Own Community with Our friends and neighbors. Time to tiptoe through my closet to find something Green to wear.
My Mom and Sister are turning their Lanais into Gardens of Green for St. Patrick’s Day. The Clover has been planted in Pots, the Dining Tables will be covered in green, the good china, and lace napkins will come out of the cupboard and we will sit down to our Annual Corned Beef and Cabbage Dinner. My favorite part is always the next day, when I make a Corned Beef Sandwich on Rye Covered with Spicy Mustard.
In our Family we are all Irish for one Day and We share the following Irish Blessing.
May the Good Lord take a liking to you…..but not too soon!
We then share a cocktail. Some of us drink wine, some of us beer, and one of us water, but there is always a Signature Drink. My brother-in-law is the Bartender at most parties and he has been busy mixing and testing recipes and it looks like the winner is an Apple Ginger Martini. Gregg has provided us with this year’s Signature Drink Recipe here: https://bellaverderealty.com/greggs-recipe-for-a-green-apple-ginger-martini/
Part of our Holiday Weekend with the family will be spending quality time together. Michele is a Graduate of the University of Miami, and has been an Event Planner with the NBA for over 10 years, she is a world traveler and always on the road. A few days of R & R in Solivita will be a welcome break for her. Although most of our family is up North, we do seem to spend more quality time with family now that we live in Florida. When family and friends visit Solivita we have Pajama Parties, we share leisurely meals, and spend afternoons together at the pool, we do a bit of sight seeing, or we play some golf. Entertaining is Easy in Solivita, there is so much to do. Seems that we have Much More Time to be together now that we live 1,000 miles apart. A nice bonus to living in Central Florida; everyone wants to visit.
See you at the Street Party I’ll be wearing Green!
From Our Family to Yours Happy St. Patrick’s Day:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sunshine be warm upon your face
May the rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.
4 Oz of Ginger Infused Vodka
4 Oz Fresh Green Apple Lime Juice
2 TBSP Honey Simple Syrup
For the Ginger Infused Vodka take 1 Cup of Vodka and infuse a 2” slice of fresh ginger peeled and grated.
For the Green Apple and Lime Juice slice 2 Large tart green apples, add ½ cup water, and the juice of 4 limes.
Infuse the Vodka for about two hours. The longer you infuse the stronger the ginger flavor will be. Strain the Vodka.
Take the Green Apple Mix and blend on high speed. Strain through a mesh strainer pressing the liquid through the pulp. Reserve the liquid. Dispose of the Pulp, all the flavor will be in the liquid.
Add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously till frosty. Strain and Enjoy.
“A Good Green Cocktail with the Power of Antioxidants plus the Power of Vodka”.