Living Our Dream

An Old Favorite and a Couple of New Discoveries

Wauchula, FL - Events of Friday, March 8 to Thursday, March 14, 2019

A few days after the day trip to Sarasota we wrote about in our last post, we were treated to a beautiful view with palm trees silhouetted by a colorful sunset. We get a lot of beautiful sunsets, and we frequently pause whatever it is we are doing to admire them.

Palm trees silhouetted by a beautiful Florida sunset

About the time of the sunset in the photo in the photo above, we were finishing up the excellent key lime pie we picked up at Detwiler's Farm Market when we were in Sarasota. The day after that, we thawed out the frozen shoo fly pie we got from Der Dutchman Bakery on the same trip. It was good, but not as good as the ones we have gotten a couple of times before from Der Dutchman. Shoo fly pie is a molasses-based recipe that comes in two types - wet bottom and dry bottom. Wet bottom shoo fly pie has an ooey-gooey bottom whereas dry bottom is baked longer and has more of a dense, cake-like consistency throughout. Wet bottom is our favorite. The frozen one wasn't as ooey-gooey as the fresh ones we had from Der Dutchman in the past, so either they started making dry-bottom shoo fly pies or the freezing process caused the pie to dry out a bit.

After the shoo fly pie, we took a break from all the sweets for a couple of days before thawing out the lemon bundtlet from Nothing Bundt Cakes that we also got on our day trip to Sarasota. We're happy to say it was outstanding! It was moist and had a great lemon flavor that wasn't overpowering. Next time we stop, we'll have a hard time deciding whether to get lemon, chocolate/chocolate chip, or one of the many other flavors we haven't tried yet.

While passing through Avon Park on our way to Sebring over the past few months, we noticed construction activity at a restaurant that had been closed for a long time. That led to one of our new discoveries. A few weeks ago, that restaurant reopened under the name of Avon Park Diner, so we decided to stop for lupper last Tuesday to try it out.

Avon Park Diner

The new owners of Avon Park Diner are the same people who run the Lake Wales Diner where we have eaten a couple of times, so both restaurants have similar menus and prices. Burgers are $6 to $8, sandwiches and wraps are $7 to $9, and lunch salads are $9 to $11. Although both diners are only open until 3 p.m., they also have dinners that range in price from about $10 to $13.

Margery had a fried fish strip basket ($9.99) that included two sides, and Paul had a fried grouper dinner ($10.99) that also included a salad and two sides. Margery had cole slaw and fries for her sides, and Paul had cole slaw and sweet potato fries. Everything was yummy! We added Avon Park Diner to our list of favorite local restaurants.

Margery with her fish strip basket

Last Thursday, we headed about an hour northwest to the Ellenton Outlet Mall to shop for some new shorts for Paul and some new tops for Margery for summer. The outlet mall is right across the interstate from one of our old, favorite restaurants, Anna Maria Oyster Bar, so we planned to stop Anna Maria's for lupper.

We really liked the key lime pie we got from Detwiler's Farm Market in Sarasota the previous week. In fact, we liked it so much that when we made our second new discovery that there was another Detwiler's located 3 or 4 miles down the road from Anna Maria's, we decided to take a little detour on the way to lupper to get another key lime pie. After all, "we'll never be closer." Ya gotta think of these things when favorites are an hour away.

The Detwiler's in Sarasota is their original location, and both the store and parking lot are very small and cramped. The store near Anna Maria's just opened last summer. At 30,000 sq. ft., it is anything but cramped. It is the largest of the four Detwiler stores.

Detwiler's Farm Market near Anna Maria Oyster Bar

Once inside, we realized how immense the store is! The next photo shows just part of the produce section.

Part of the produce department

Like the Sarasota store, there are also departments with meat and seafood, but the ones at the new store are much bigger. There is a deli with a wide selection of cold cuts and cheeses and a bakery with various types of breads, rolls, and desserts including the key lime pie we were looking for. In addition to the pie, we also got some produce including an English cucumber, eggplant, a tomato, and some parsley.

From Detwiler's, we headed to Anna Maria Oyster Bar. It was a beautiful day, and all the outside tables were occupied, so we ate inside. After an appetizer of half an order of onion straws, Margery had a fried clam strip basket ($9.99), and Paul had fried shrimp ($9.99). We both had red potatoes and cole slaw for our sides. It was all delish!

Paul with his fried shrimp

From Anna Maria's, we headed home for an evening of TV and some key lime pie. Yum!

So those are our latest adventures. Thanks for stopping by.

Foodie Trip to Sarasota

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Food was the main reason for a day trip we took to Sarasota last Tuesday. We left around 8:30 a.m. because we wanted to stop for the breakfast buffet at Der Dutchman in the Pinecraft section of Sarasota. Der Dutchman in Sarasota is part of a group of 6 restaurants, the other 5 of which are located in Amish Country in Ohio. The flagship restaurant is the one in Walnut Creek where we have gone numerous times when we have stayed in Berlin, Ohio.

Pinecraft is a predominantly Amish and Mennonite neighborhood that has a few year round residents; but thousands of Amish and Mennonites from Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and other areas go there in winter to escape the northern cold. Most Amish arrive by bus, so there are no buggies. Their preferred mode of transportation in Pinecraft is by foot, by bicycle or by tricycle.

We pulled into the parking lot a little before 10:00 a.m. The breakfast buffet is only served until 10:30 at the restaurants in Ohio; but here in Florida things are a little more relaxed, so the buffet goes until 11:00 on weekdays and 11:30 on Saturdays. They are closed on Sunday.

Der Dutchman Restaurant, Sarasota

We had samplings of all our favorites - scrambled eggs, bacon, cheesy potato casserole, fresh fruit, bacon, sausage, ham, fried mush, frozen fruit slush, bacon, and sausage gravy and biscuits. Did we mention the buffet has bacon? Of course, we also had another favorite of ours - cream sticks (cream-filled, long-john donuts) with caramel icing.

Margery with her cream stick

We stopped in the restaurant's bakery on our way out looking for shoo-fly pie. Paul loves shoo fly pie, but shoo fly pie is a Pennsylvania Dutch thing that normally isn't available in the Amish Country of Ohio where we used to spend so much of our time in summer. However, since Amish and Mennonites from Pennsylvania come to Pinecraft, the Der Dutchman Bakery sometimes has shoo fly pie. There was none on display: but we also found out they had some in the freezer, so we bought a small, frozen one to take home with us.

Our next stop was Detwiler's Farm Market located about 5 minutes away. Detwiler's is a Mennonite-owned market that sells produce, meats, seafood, cheese, and other grocery items.

Detwiler's Farm Market

Just a small part of the produce at Detwiler's

Detwiler's has three locations. The one we went to is the one which is closest to Der Dutchman and is their original location. The building is rather small, as is the parking lot, but it's crammed with all kinds of goodies. We bought some Alaskan salmon, a flank steak, a tomato, and a key lime pie.

Our next stop was Nothing Bundt Cakes located nearby. Friends of ours from the Co-op brought us a chocolate/chocolate chip cake back from their recent trip to Sarasota, and we loved it. The larger cakes are a little pricey ($34 for 10" and $24 for 8"), but they have what they call "bundtlets," which are just about right for two people to split, for $4.50. In addition to the chocolate/chocolate chip our friends brought us, there are numerous additional flavors such as vanilla, red velvet, white chocolate/raspberry, carrot, lemon, and pecan praline. We took home a lemon bundtlet.

Nothing Bundt Cakes

Selection of bundt cakes in display case (top row - 8" cakes, middle row - 10" cakes, bottom row - bundtlets

Our last food stop was at Sam's Club to pick up some cheese and cooking supplies. After an additional non-food stop at a nearby Kohl's, we headed back home. We put the shoo fly pie and the bundt cake into the freezer and enjoyed our first piece of key lime pie later in the evening. It was outstanding!

So that was our foodie tour to Sarasota. We are still busy with Co-op activities, but they are starting to wind down just a bit. We have some errands we need to run in the near future, so means there will probably be more eating out in the near future. Stay tuned.

Project Report Part II: New Shed Skirting

Wauchula, FL - Events of Saturday, February 16 to Thursday, February 28, 2019

As we said in our last post, Paul had to remove the lattice skirting from the front of the shed in order to put concrete pavers down in that area. The lattice skirting that Paul installed when we first got our shed in 2016 looked nice at first, but the lattice buckled due to uneven thermal expansion and due to the fact the shed settled a little over time.

Buckled skirting on the shed

Since Paul had to remove the lattice from the front of the shed to install the pavers, he decided it was a good time to remove and replace all the lattice with regular mobile home skirting. Mobile home skirting is installed with a wide PVC strip at the top that allows the top of the skirting to float both vertically and horizontally so it won't buckle.

After Paul finished installing all the pavers, he got to work on the new skirting. The first step was to fasten down the bottom rail. He fastened the rail to the concrete pavers at the front of the shed with outdoor construction adhesive. Since the garden area at the side of the shed facing the street has river-rock mulch that is pretty uneven, Paul put a pressure-treated 2 x 4 under the bottom rail on this side of the shed to even things out. The bottom rail on this side is fastened to the 2 x 4 with galvanized roofing nails.

Bottom rail fastened to concrete pavers in front (right) and to a 2 x 4 at the side of the shed

The bottom rails on the remaining two sides of the shed rest directly on fine gravel and are held in place with 7" long aluminum spikes.

Bottom rail fastened to the ground with spikes on remaining two sides

The top rail is made up of two pieces that sandwich the top of the skirting between them allowing the top of the skirting to float. The next step was to install the back half of the top rail directly under the bottom row of siding.

Back half of top rail in place

Next, pieces of mobile home skirting were cut to length (about 1" shorter than the bottom of the white bead on the top to the top rail) and set in place in the bottom rail around the entire perimeter of the shed.

Skirting in place

Finally, the front half of the top rail was snapped into place under the white bead of the back half of the rail.

Skirting complete

In other news, when we haven't been busy with our own projects, with Co-op meetings, or with Co-op projects we have found time to eat out a few times at a couple of our favorite restaurants. Since we have written about those places numerous times before, we usually don't mention them anymore except occasionally in passing.

We did eat at a new place called the Faded Bistro that we wrote about in our last post. Last week, we went to a restaurant we have written about before, but haven't been to in a long time so we thought we would write an update. Last Thursday, we went to the Wauchula Family Restaurant.

Wauchula Family Restaurant isn't much to look at on the outside. It's a bit run down, and up until a few months ago didn't even have a sign outside because their old one was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in fall of 2017. They finally got a new sign, but the place still isn't very impressive. The inside is a little better, but is still dated. For one thing, the carpet really needs to be replaced or at least cleaned, and they need to replace the aluminum foil on the south-facing window with some blinds or shutters.

The food at Wauchula Family Restaurant, however, is very good. Dinners range in price from about $8 to $19 and include a small salad and two sides. Prices are up $1 to $3 from the last time we were there, but they are still pretty reasonable. Margery had a dinner called the Athenian ($13.95), which is lightly breaded and grilled grouper. She had potato salad and cole slaw for her sides. Paul had one of the daily specials - a 10-ounce sirloin steak for $12.95. He had mashed potatoes and cole slaw for his sides.

Paul with his sirloin steak

Paul's steak and mashed potatoes

Margery's grouper was excellent, as was Paul's steak. Paul was impressed by the presentation of the mashed potatoes; but sadly, they were instant. Except for the mashed potatoes, however, we were very happy with our choices.

So that's about it for now. Thanks for stopping by.