Taste of the Azores Winner

Good morning everyone. I just wanted to post the winner of the Taste of the Azores Giveaway. The winner was selected at random using www.random.org

Congrats to the winner: foodfitnessfreshair

Please email me (melinda_seff@yahoo.com) with your address so I can get this in the mail to you.

I'll be back to post again tomorrow. I hope everyone enjoyes their Monday.

Azorean walking trails, TAKE ONE

Since the weather has been beautiful here over the past few days, we decied to take the dog up to some official Azorean walking trails not too far from where we live. This particular trail is 5K and considered an easy circular path. What they don't tell you is that the trail might be easy, but finding it isn't. In all seriousness we did not locate the trail itself until we were driving out of the parking lot and realized the trail started in an open field across the stree, not the wooded path right next to this sign (go figure). So here are some pics from our first attempt at taking the dog hiking. This is apparently the camping area.

My dog in the parking lot.

Sniffing around

The view when we were driving back home. You can see the ocean in the distance.

In the other direction is a mountain ridge.

We also finally got a chance to try this soup restaurant. The owner only stays open for lunch and once the hot meal items are finished she does not make more. She makes all soups from scratch and has a salad bar, 4 hot entrees a day and also makes paninis.

The is the server dishing up food. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and she was slammed with American customers. We knew we were in for a good meal because there was barely a place for us to sit down inside.

Ryan had the chickpea soup, which had Portuguese sausage in it.

I had pumpkin soup, with carrots, garlic and onion. It was really good.

My eyes are bigger than my stomach. I ordered a guant sandwich too and thankfully Ryan took the other half. This is a veggie panini. It tasted like cream cheese, and also had tomato, onion, and broccoli. It was really really good.

On our way home we found ourselves in another one of these traffic jams. Three cars ahead you will find the culprit(s).

Thankfully they all turned up here so we could get home at a quicker pace.

QUESTION: What's the worst traffic jam you ever got stuck in? And now I hope that never ever happens to you again!

If you haven't already entered my giveaway, please enter now by CLICKING HERE . There were 4 ways to enter so make sure you get those entries in. This giveaway ends tonight!!! Check back at the start of next week for the winner.

Pre-Thanksgiving Fajita Quesadilla Action

Before we started with all of the Thanksgiving festivities, Ryan and I got a little creative with the digital griddle. The possibilities are endless, but here is what Ryan came up with.

Nice veggies!
Cook 'em up fajita style! Sizzle, Sizzle!

He was kind enough to do my meatless quesadillas first. I had corn tortillas with melted cheese and refried beans...

and added in the veggies...

Then Ryan added chicken to his veggies...

and he made some fajita style tacos...

Here is my finished product.

QUESTION: Ryan and I have been thinking about all of the great and creative uses for the digital griddle, including grilled cheese and french toast, but I am curious what you can come up with. If you could make anything using a griddle, what would it be?

REMINDER: TASTE OF THE AZORES GIVEAWAY

If you haven't already entered, please click here . I am giving away lots of great food items and some souvenirs from over here in the Azores. Good luck!

Thanksgiving Abroad

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. We had a great time and I have the pictures to prove it. We started our day by heading out to breakfast. Oh yes, you heard me right on that one. We just had to go out for some pancakes and eggs by the ocean. Oh I should mention we also had no power in the house and so we didn't want to open the fridge ir anything.

Well, we may have gotten carried away. Good news, I did not finish my food from either of my plates shown below. Ryan and I were at Make Me Nuts (like Dunkin's).

This donut was filled with apple and cinnamon and was delicious, but I only ate a couple bites.

Also ordered some pancakes and eggs, hold the side of meat!
This is what happens when you order sausage with yours. You get a hot dog!!!
Then we went to the furniture and electronics department store. I could not resist taking pictures of the awesome kitchen displays. I would die to have any one of these kitchens.

Then we went home and fired up our new gas heater. Finally some warmth.

Once we had the fire going it was time to get to the cooking for our dinner later on in the day.

That's right, we made devlied eggs. It was the first time for me and it was a lot easier than I expected.

We even got this cool syringe like device for filling our eggs.

YUM

Then it was on to the sweet potato casserole.

Mashed them all up...

Looks of good stuff...

Made the topping...

Time to bake it...

and then we were ready to go to the dinner.

Here are some pics of all of the food at the party we went to...

The dessert table...

My Thanksgiving meal...

and Ryan's...

The view from the house we were at and their vineyards...

After some time to digest my dinner I was ready for some dessert...

and mulled wine, AKA grog!

Well, that was it for our Thanksgiving. Believe or not we were there almost 8 hours and it was nearly midnight when we returned home. The guys played poker and the wives sat around and talked. I hope your day was as nice as ours was.

QUESTION: What was your favorite dish yesterday?

GIVEAWAY ALERT:

If you have not already entered my contest, you can enter now by CLICKING HERE for a chance to win some great products from the Azores.