The last couple months have really been a blur for Amy and I. We’ve spent every free weekend and almost every evening sanding, spackling, painting, caulking, sorting, packing and cleaning. We won’t be making the move to Atlanta till the 1st weekend of April but we want to make sure the house is in the best condition possible before we put it on the market.

With all that constant work it was nice to take an evening off last night to celebrate my 30th birthday with a few close friends at Miyabi. It had been a few years since the last time I ate at a Japanese Steak House and I forgot how much fun it was. “Big Daddy”, the chef at our table, was hilarious and made sure to wish me a, “Happy birthday, sir Jason” every time he put something else on my plate.

The BakeCaker’s amazingly beautiful, bi-winningly delicious tres leches cake.

While it was tempting to eat every bite, Amy reminded us that there was cake waiting at the house so we all ended up leaving with pretty hefty to-go boxes. Anyone who has ever had one of Amy’s cakes will tell you how awesome they are and having tried most of her creations, I have to say my 30th birthday cake was the most delicious yet. It was a 4-layer tres leches cake with toasted meringue frosting that was so moist and fluffy I’m gonna die. I really have no words to describe it so I’ll just quote Charlie Sheen here and say that it melted my face and was bi-WINNING triumph. I’m making a note here, huge success. Seriously though, I couldn’t have had a better birthday or a better birthday cake and I’m a lucky (old) man to have a wife like Amy.

PS: If you want to try Amy’s Tres Leches cake, keep an eye out on BakeCakery.com. I’m pretty sure there is no tiger blood or Adonis DNA involved but she’s planning to post the full recipe soon.

Pro Tip: This might go well with a giant cookie.

We found a bunch of recipes for squash blossoms and zucchini flowers online. Several sounded good, but in the end, Amy decided to do her own thing and stuff them with goat cheese (since we had some in the fridge) and deep fry them with an onion ring style beer tempura. I don’t know how she pulls stuff like that out of thin air, but OH MY GOODNESS they were delicious. Click on the images below to see the process.

In case you find some of these at your local farmers market. Here’s Amy’s “recipe”:

Ingredients

6 squash blossoms
Frying oil (we used grapeseed)
Coarse salt for finishing

Filling:
⅔ c. of mild goat cheese (we used Chavrie Basil & Roasted Garlic)
¼ c. provolone cheese (chopped)
¼ tsp. black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ tsp. onion flakes

Batter:
¼ c. cornstarch
½ c. flour
½ egg
½ tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. black pepper
⅓ c. beer

Remove stamen & green leaves from the blossoms. Rinse flower inside and out carefully and dry with a paper towel. Combine filling ingredients in a small bowl. Pipe or spoon filling into each flower and twist petal ends. Dust the outside of each flower with cornstarch and then combine remaining batter ingredients. Dip flower into batter, coating completely. Heat 2 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pot to at least 350 degrees. Fry flowers in batches of three for 2 minutes per side. Remove and cool on paper towel to drain excess oil. Sprinkle with a little salt & EAT!

We both grew up in a little-known city on the East coast of Florida called Vero Beach. The main reasons Vero exists are tourism, retirees, and citrus. Our beaches are beautiful, but most tourists come because they’re less crowded – which is why you’ve still never heard of it. Retirees give a boost to the local economy, but don’t make it an exciting place to grow up – unless you enjoy golf & shuffleboard. The real reason I’m proud to be from Vero Beach is because we have the best citrus in the world. That’s right California, you’ve got nuthin’ on our juicy fruits. While you’ve probably never heard of Vero Beach Citrus, you may have seen Indian River Fruit before. Vero is in the heart of Indian River County, and Indian River County is to Citrus what Napa Valley is to wine.

So yes, Amy and I have deep rooted & geographically influenced opinions about OJ and we both strongly agree that the best orange juice on the planet comes from one place: Hale Groves. Hale Groves’ orange juice is like heaven in a cup. It’s so good that they drive traffic to their retail store with signs that say “Free Orange Juice”. They have fountains inside that are constantly flowing with ice-cold, fresh-squeezed OJ. Beware though, for if you partake, you will leave with a gallon of the stuff and will never look at OJ the same again. The only problem with Hale Groves OJ is that their 1 store (they had several when we were growing up) is the only place you can buy it.

Living in South Carolina, it’s hard to find a comparable substitute for Hale Groves’ orange juice. We used to buy Indian River Select’s 100% Valencia Orange Juice which is available at several grocery stores. It’s no Hale OJ, but the taste was as close as we could find….until this week. Publix, a Florida-based grocery chain, recently started carrying Natalie’s Orchid Island Orange Juice so we decided to give it a try. Wow! The orange juice snobs were impressed! On a scale of 1-to-10, I’d give it a 9½. After reading through their “our juice” page, it’s easy to see why. They’re all about the pulp:

Oddly enough, a good indication that your juice is Fresh Squeezed is to observe some separation. Technically speaking, Fresh Squeezed juice separates because of the interaction between enzymes in the fruit and the pectin in the juice. When the juice is pasteurized or concentrated, the heat neutralizes enzymes, thus preventing separation. By allowing the enzymes to stay in their natural state, Fresh Squeezed juice tastes great and gives it the “FRESH” taste customers love.

Tropicana and other national brands try hard to make good, fresh juices but they rely on some pretty intense pasteurization processes to extend shelf life. As a spoiled Vero Beach native, the “Pure Premium” OJ simply doesn’t cut it. Until the next time we make it home and get our Hale Groves fix, we’ll probably be buying Natalie’s.

Honestly, I didn’t see this one coming. I never thought of the idea of adding soda to my coffee or coffee to my soda. If you haven’t heard, Coca-Cola has added a new beverage to their lineup that is just that: Coffee and Cola. Even though Coke wasn’t the first to come up with this idea, they are certainly the first to market it with bongos and funk music riffs – Visit the official Coca-Cola BlaK site.

I actually heard about Coke BlaK back on April 10th after my friend Jeremy tried it during a national sampling tour. Apparently he grabbed one on his way to work in New York:

jeremy: Hey man
me: Hey Jeremy, how’s it goin?
jeremy: not bad…just tried the new Coca Cola Blak
jeremy: not good
jeremy: not good at all
me: LOL
me: haven’t heard about it…
jeremy: coffee+coke=sick

Ever since then I’ve been casually watching the aisles of the grocery store hoping to try some “Coke effervescence with coffee essence”. About a month later, the 4-packs showed up at Publix here in Columbia, SC. At over $7 for 4 I was a little hesitant to pick it up but I had to know what this stuff tasted like. After letting them chill in the fridge, I pulled one out of the pack and passed another to a friend that was visiting for the weekend. I tried giving one to Ames, but she wasn’t all that interested. At first swig it tastes almost like regular coke, but as you swallow you immediately get an aftertaste of coffee and aspartame (mmmm, aspartame). I’m sure the intention was for that coffee taste to be like that of espresso, but it tastes more like overbrewed regular coffee. It wasn’t akk (freudian slip) all that bad in my opinion, but not what I expected. My friend didn’t particularly care for it, but made the observation that the more you drink of it, the more you just taste the Coke and lose the coffee flavor.

If I had to give the stuff a rating, I’d give it about 6.5 out of 10. I would probably have one again if it were free, but at almost 2 bucks for a tiny 8oz bottle, I probably wouldn’t pay for one again. I don’t drink soda that often, but when I do, I want soda – preferrably a Dr. Pepper – not coffee. The same applies for coffee. If I want a good coffee, I’ll go to a coffee shop.

I was curious to see what other people thought about Coke Blak, and there are quite a few reviews out there about it. Here’s a quick sampling:

It didn’t taste like Coke with some cold coffee mixed in, it tasted like coke with drops of Coffee Flavor #57 dropped in. I don’t have a better way to describe it other than ‘artificial’. Michele gave it a taste and said, “My god, that’s horrid. I mean truly terrible!” Zoe took a taste as well and commented, “That’s yucky.”. Sadly, I tend to agree.

- via Cruftbox

Folks, I can say with serene confidence that yes, it really is f***ing awful. It’s really bad. Terrible, actually.

- via Plognark
(which also has a sketch of his experience…)

There wasn’t a soul in Times Square without a bottle of complimentary Coke BlaK, but for all of this clever/shrewd/whatever marketing to work, the drink really needed to not be awful. I’m happy to report that Coke BlaK is NOT awful. I will never buy it, but it’s not awful.

- via X-entertainment Blog

You could probably recreate the flavor of Coke BlaK by opening up a can of Tab cola and adding a small droplet of brewed hazelnut coffee. Seriously, Coke BlaK tastes a lot like Tab with a slight hint of bad, flavored coffee.

- via Brand Autopsy

It tastes like coffee candy. Also I don’t know how much caffeine is in here, but I feel crazy. My eyes won’t focus or something.

- via Pocket Pig

We tried a little taste and found it to be quite good. It’s really not that sweet and is much better than say a Starbuck’s bottle drink because of being less sweet.

- via Single Serve Coffee

They call it a “caffeinated fusion beverage,” but all they managed to fuse together is disgust and revulsion.

- via Needcoffee

Did it taste like coca cola? Not really, but it did taste good.

- via Slashfood

Coke Blak is suprisingly gross. After the first sip, my brain went: “Really? That?” It suffers from the same problem that afflicts all the big [brand-name cola + vanilla/cherry/whatever] sodas: the additives are too chemical-y, too fakey.

- via Knowledge for Thrist

It tastes like they’re using a low quality coffee extract… It is very artificial tasting.

- via Idea Sandbox Blog

So you’re wondering about the taste. Well, I give it two thumbs up. If this were a five star rating system, I’d probably give it four out of five stars. The coffee flavor is definitely there, but I almost feel like it could be a little bit stronger.

- via Drink It!

The taste of the product is enjoyably sweet and creamy, but the aftertaste is somewhat brutal, with bitter flavors of coffee and aspartame left behind.

- via BevNET

So I tried the new Coca-Cola Blak on my way to work this morning, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. It reminded me of Coke float with a hint of coffe, or maybe it was creme soda with a coffe flavor.

- via Brody Vercher

If someone left coffee sludge in the bottom of a mug and poured Diet Coke and sugar into it, you’d have Coke Blak.

- via Chicagoist

Now, I love Coke, and I love coffee. But even I’m not sold on this odd little concoction. But I’ve got 3 more bottles to decide.

- via Metroblogging Chicago

Today’s sushi choice: Dragon Roll. The roll consisted of freshwater and sea eel, cucumber, avocado, rice, seaweed, and was beautifully wrapped in thin slices of avocado. I used to always get the Spicy Roll when I lived in Gainesville, but the Dragon Roll was excellent and I would definitely get it again.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written about what I had for lunch, but a Free Joey Bag of Donuts from Moe’s Southwest Grill seems worthy enough. I thought they were giving out free food as an anniversary stunt, but apparently it’s all about establishing Cinco de Mayo as Cinco de Moe’s, a day of “doing absolutely nothing”. I think it’s particularly humorous that this propaganda page has an “Employment Info” link at the top, and that Cinco de Moe’s obviously means that people working at Moe’s will be working harder with the influx of customers there for a free meal.

All that said, Moe’s is still one of my all-time favorite lunch destinations in Gainesville. Since there is 1 (soon to be 3) Moe’s locations in Columbia, South Carolina, it stands to maintain that position even after Ames and I relocate in mid-July. I actually just got around to posting a few pictures from last weeks trip. Hopefully I’ll have some rafting pictures to post, but we still need to get the water camera developed…but it seems we only took digital pictures while we were camping at Chau Ram Park. I guess that makes sense since we were just driving around looking at houses the rest of the week. I’ll be sure to write about our experience and lessons learned from house hunting as soon as that’s all finished. I’ll also be writing soon about future employment. I would say that I found a great job, but it’s more accurate to say that a great job found me. Details coming soon…

I just had about 800 calories for lunch: Grilled Beef Patty, Macaroni and Cheese (Mexican Style), 2 pieces of Wheat Snack Bread, and some Nacho Cheese filled pretzels. According to the packaging this is Menu No. 8 Hamburger Patty. It was actually a pretty good lunch, but even after running 4 miles this morning, I probably shouldn’t have eaten the whole thing.

After hurricanes Frances and Jeanne cut through my hometown of Vero Beach, the National Guard was there passing out water, ice, and these meals. So this weekend, when my sister-in-law and her boyfriend came up for the Gator game, they brought some for me and Amy. It would have made a great meal for camping or hiking since they’re pretty much good forever, but I thought it would make a great novelty lunch in the office.

For those looking for something fun to do with the heater pack in an MRE, Chris (our programmer with military experience) says that pouring about 3-4 of the small bottles of Tabasco in the pouch will create a “pepper-spray like gas”. Fun! Unfortunately I opted for a warm hamburger patty rather than a dangerous prank.

Tonight’s theme is finger foods and we’re putting together an amazing fruit kabob tray with dip and a pot of bacon wrapped, brown sugar marinated, lil’ smokeys. I just transfered them from the oven to the warming pot this morning so they can continue to simmer while we’re working today and…well…they’re going to be GOOD!