The Village Bread Cafe

I should start by saying that I love when a restaurant serves breakfast all day.  It just makes sense.  Why stop serving breakfast foods?   Who determined that eggs, pancakes, grits, hashbrowns, etc, etc, had to be eaten only before 11am.  Or even worse... 10:30am!? I say we stick it to the man and declare that all restaurants serving breakfast should serve it all day long!  Heck!  Why not serve foods like pizza and cold chicken with it?  Those are great foods to munch in the morning.  

Anyway, let’s get my train of thought back on track.  Especially considering the fact that Village Bread Cafe serves breakfast... wait for it... ALL DAY!!  

Now, what makes the above rant even funnier is that I’ve never actually ordered their breakfast.  My hubby feasted upon gigantic, puffy pancakes that were about to float off his plate.  And my Dad has enjoyed their eggs & grits with toast (baked in house), but I’ve never actually partaken of the breakfast goods.

To be completely honest, I’m a one trick pony with their food.  I always, always get the Village Veggie  Pizza with a side of Slaw (and occasionally a salad, as seen below).   Believe me, there is a reason for that.  It is absolutely, without a doubt, as sure as the day is long, the best personal size pizza in Jacksonville.  It’s not traditional pizza crust. Rather it’s baked on ciabatta (also made in house), but my oh my it is amazing.  The goat cheese and mozzarella, piled high with fresh tomatoes, red onions and olives.  I’m salivating just thinking about it.  We intend to go there for dinner next week. Maybe I’ll try something new.  Like breakfast.

Check these out and do some salivating of your own...

(look at that fluff!)

Happy Eating!

Get your delicious on...

At Soup’s On!  


In Florida, we really only have two seasons: summer and pseudo-winter.  During the summer time, I often lay around my house with the AC cranking and the fans at full speed praying for clouds to offer some respite from the blazing sun.  I feel like a Morlock in those months, squinting and cringing in the harsh light.  


But pseudo-winter... now there’s a different story!  Scarves, sweaters, coats, boots, hats!  I love it all.  But most of all, I love the food.  Hot soup and sandwiches, chili, stew.  So to my utmost joy and exultation, I have discovered Soup’s On.  Granted it’s not cold outside just yet, but I’m counting down the days.  And while I’m at it, I’m enjoying some “made-fresh with local ingredients” soup from Soup’s On.


So far I’ve had the Carrot & Apple soup (I enjoyed it hot, but it can also be served cold); Wild Mushroom & Barley Soup with an open-faced Roasted Eggplant sandwich with goat cheese; and Apricot & Red Lentil Soup with a Portobello Mushroom sandwich. My hubby has twice supped happily on French Onion soup (he ate a whole pint the first time).

(Sorry some of the pictures are blurry and the food half-eaten... usually I’m too excited about the food to remember to take a picture until it’s too late)

Wild Mushroom & Barley with Roasted Eggplant

French Onion Soup with Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Sandwich

Apricot & Red Lentil Soup and Portobello, Arugula & Pepper Jack Sandwich

Can’t forget the tea!  This was delightfully refreshing: Citronella Tea

No, not the stuff you put in candles to keep the bugs away.  But it is just delicious enough to chase the summer blues away. =)

Yum! Yum!  Happy Eating!  Tchau! Tchau!

Oh the places you'll go...

and the showers you'll throw!

For me baby & wedding showers are usually tossed into the same category as Mary Kay & Pampered Chef parties; that category being “Things I Avoid If At All Possible”. I would much rather hang out and watch a game with my hubby then ooh and aah over shiny things and baby blankets. But anyone who came to my sisters recent Baby Shower never would have believed that for a second.

Not including weeks of idea swapping, tossing, renewing, crumpling, uncrumpling and finally, deciding, my Mom, Little Sister and I spent about 15 hours (9 in a row... from 6pm to 3am) rearranging furniture and decorating for this Baby Extravaganza. It’s wasn’t a shower... it was a Deluge! And it was worth every minute.

We enlisted the help of old faithful - The World Wide Web - in our quest to find the perfect decorations for a Dr. Seuss themed shower. We made out like bandits! In our preparation for the big day, we shopped at Michaels , Joann’s and The Dollar Tree. It was exhausting and a bit of strain on the brain. I think I cracked a little at Dollar Tree...

In the end, we came home with bags and bags of all manner of bright and Suessy things.

The following Friday, the real fun began...

.

To make our “One of Three Cheese Trees”, I cut a tree shape from poster board and my lil’ sister painted it green. Then we trimmed the edges with bright green pipe cleaners... careful! Hot glue is hot!

The diaper cake was a blast to make! Whoa! That was Suessy! Anyway, LeiLani (or Mom... it was late and I can’t remember) had the nifty idea to wrap the pipe cleaners around a pencil to make them twisty. Then we proceeded to shove all manner of baby items around the cake.

To spice up the table clothes we found shiny tissue paper and used generous amounts double-sided tape to make sure the window unit didn’t blow anything away.

Just some final touches to the cheese tree... we hot glued puffy blue balls to the tips to make it look a little more festive; and to protect our fingers from the metal pip cleaner tips. We hung Chinese lanterns, balloons, and little paper Hats from the ceiling. We stuck Dr. Seuss characters all over the house, made Truffula trees and even had Thing 1 and Thing 2 running through the front yard ( I failed, much to my dismay, to take a picture of that** ). From the driveway to the bathroom, we went Suessical! And most importantly, it was a hit with our Mommy-to-Be!

Thing 2 & Thing 3 (Technically I'm Thing 1 because I'm the eldest)

**A word of advice: If you're planning something like this and want to document it, DO NOT rely on yourself to take all the pictures. I was too caught up in the hosting and forgot to take half the pictures I wanted.

***I forgot to mention (thank you, Bethany for reminding me) to really get people oohing and aahing, we hung pictures of Courtney when she was a baby. The guests just loved it! We joked about what the Lil' Momma would say when she saw them and I think it was my Mom that guessed it right: "I was such a cute baby!"

Happy Eating and Showering! =P