29 South, The Best Restaurant in Fernandina Beach, FL

If you are ever in the Fernandina Beach area, you MUST stop what you are doing and go to 29 South restaurant.  The food is Ah.Mazing.  But it is also the kind of place where you feel like you are getting good Karma by supporting it. They get their food from their own garden out back, or from a selection of local, organic farmers.

Fernandina Beach, is a place that is near and dear to me and my husband's heart.  We just love the town, it is on our very short list of places we want to live, if we can ever escape the death grip Tallahassee holds on us (I love it here, don't get me wrong, but we want to move the beach one day).  We also got married there in 2009, when I was very pregnant with Penelope.

Recently, we stopped by for a night, on our way to Savannah, to get a quick, celebratory, anniversary lunch in.   We went last year for our anniversary as well, hopefully, we can make it a yearly tradition.

This is their backyard garden.  How cute is that sign?  I need one for my garden.  Recognize that dress?  It's from her 1st birthday party.  One of my favorite things about pillow case dresses, is that they turn into perfect tunics as your child grows.

Using cement blocks, as a border, is such an easy way to make a garden.

Here is a picture of us last year, before we went to 29 South for dinner.  This was our 1st wedding anniversary.

And here we are at our rehearsal dinner.  So much fun.  I can't freaking wait till my hair gets that length again. It's been a year since I chopped it off as short as my husbands, never again.

This is the Chef on our Rehearsal Dinner night.  I can't remember who got him to take a picture with us. I was highly embarrassed at the time, but in the end, I am glad we have this shot.

Do you have any great restaurants in your town that have their own garden and support local farmers?

Cornais Family Pizza

I found this recipe in a magazine several months ago and tweaked it a bit to make it our own.   It has become a family favorite and we make it at least once a month.  And now that Penelope is trying meat, she gets to eat a little bit of everything on the pizza, except for the goats cheese.  Remember the pizza I was talking about on my first post about Once a Month Cooking? Well, this is it.

It is so yummy. And healthy. And substantial. It will fill you up and leave you feeling satisfied.  And it is EASY to make!

This is a picture of all the ingredients:
-pizza dough (I buy the pre-made dough at Publix, they have a white and multi-grain and we use the multi-grain. I have also used the sprouted whole wheat pizza dough from New Leaf, but its not as good as the Publix dough),
-a pound of ground beef. I almost always use organic, grass fed beef.
-mushrooms. I started out using only one container, but they cook down so much and I like lots of veggies on my pizza, that I started using two.
- a can of chopped tomatoes, or one big tomato chopped up.
- one onion, chopped.
- a package of goat cheese. Usually I use goat cheese from Sweet Grass Dairy, but this time I just grabbed a random brand from Publix when I went to get the dough.

First you saute the onions, then add the mushrooms, till they are fully cooked and tender. Then you set the onions and mushrooms aside and brown the meat in the same pan. I flavor the meat with a meat spice mix that we bought in Miami at Norman Brothers. Once the meat is browned, you add the vegetables back in and also add the tomatoes. Mix all together. Then put on top of your pizza dough. Lastly, add the goat cheese. I just drop little spoon fulls all over the pizza. Goat cheese does not spread when cooked, so fill in all the spaces of the pizza with cheese now.  I never put enough on, so be generous!  Bake in the oven, at whatever the directions on the pizza dough say. Usually at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

And enjoy!

Semi-Homemade Blackberry Cobbler

Last week I picked a gallon of blackberries from a neighbor's yard! They are crazy yummy, very sweet and not tart. I made a blackberry cobbler with the majority of them, but still had plenty of leftover to put in my oatmeal (it's good for your milk supply) I eat for breakfast all week.
























I have never made blackberry cobbler before and to find a recipe, I did a quick google search and picked the first one I saw. I was in a rush to get to the grocery store during my small window of time that I didn't need to be feeding Penelope or pumping, or putting her to sleep, or changing her diaper, etc.

This is the recipe I used. I did not make my pie crust from scratch. Come on people, it was almost an act of God just to get the cobbler made, even with a ready made crust!

The finished product! I had some extra berries and pie crust so I made two extra thingys ( I know there is a proper name for those dishes, but I am too tired and I can't think of it.) I thought it came out really tasty. Especially, when it was still warm, right from the oven. Peter, not so much, after eating a slice he says "um,I don't really like blackberries." Whatever. It's not like I am not capable of eating the whole pie myself.