Culebra Free Range Friday +

This is my Culebra

Let's just start right off with the food part of our program, because when I saw this photo on Closet Cooking, I thought, oh my! I'll be looking for jalapeños at the veggie guy's stand today, most definitely.

photo credit: Kevin Lynch

Because I'm already breaking a few of my own rules, I'm just going to set out his recipe almost exactly (if you want exact, go to the site and you'll see what I changed) as he put it down. When I make these, I may change some things, but probably not, because I think I can actually get everything on the ingredients list! 

Bacon Wrapped Buffalo Chicken Jalapeno Poppers from Closet Cooking

Jalapeno peppers stuffed with spicy buffalo chicken and blue cheese and wrapped with bacon!

Servings: make 4 servings

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

24 large jalapenos, cut in half with seeds removed

1 cup cooked chicken, shredded or diced and warm

1/4 cup hot sauce of your choice

1 tablespoon butter, melted

1/4 cup cheddar cheese

1/4 cup blue cheese, crumbled

6 slices bacon, cut in half

1/4 cup blue cheese dressing (optional)

Directions

Place the jalapenos in a single layer on a baking pan with the cut side down and roast in a preheated 350F oven for 10 minutes.

Mix the hot sauce and the melted butter and then mix in the chicken.

Fill the jalapenos with the buffalo chicken, top with cheese and wrap with bacon securing everything with a toothy pick.

Bake in a preheated 350F oven until the bacon is cooked, about 20-25 minutes.

Serve while still warm with a side celery and carrot sticks and some blue cheese sauce for dipping.

This looks like a great weekend fun dish to make, so I hope you do. I hope I do too. Buen provecho!

Yesterday afternoon, we went to a hilltop to bid adieu to Linda, who heads back, with Mackey, to Michigan in a day or so. 

We'll miss you, Linda and Macky Voo

Waiting for it to be time to go, I got to hang out at Dakity with Francie for awhile. Just another beautiful day...

I think this is one of the prettiest boats at Dakity right now. Or maybe ever.

Elusive, but I finally got him in up breath mode

Linda made us a wonderful dinner from apps to a dessert of Key Lime Pie, with only great restraint keeping me from licking the plate. The pie plate. The main course was this amazing salad, the Maurice Salad. The recipe comes from the JJ Hudson Department store cafeteria (RIP, dept. store, more on that below). It conjured up trips to department store cafeterias in my own past, and ones just in my imagination (where I go in with my mother who looks, amazingly, just like Audrey Hepburn, wearing our short white gloves and charming little hats, with flaring skirts to our dresses), as we certainly had no department store like this one where I lived in Florida. 

photo credit: unknown

For the recipe and some fun and interesting background on the hotel, go here, since I forgot to take photos of Linda making it and us eating it. I think it's better anyway to have someone from Detroit tell you about this place. 

What I can do is show you is what happened to this grand building. If you have bad reactions to building demolitions, as in personal trauma from 9/11, skip the video. Otherwise, it's amazing; at the time, the tallest building ever demo'd. Such a shame though, she looked to be a grand dame.

It was a beautiful late afternoon and evening up there on the hill. 

Yes, this cloud does look like a sea turtle

Have a fondness for your friends Friday. Do something friendly.