Happy Wednesday! As I write this, I am still in Antigua and was able to take some more pictures of the beautiful scenery while out at lunch yesterday. The weather has been excellent as well as the food. I tried to take a couple of pictures of my lunch at “THE STICKY WICKET“.   Cricket is very popular here and this place is connected to the ever famous Stanford 20:20 Stadium. I attached the pictures near the end of this post.

Well remember how I promised to feature some baked goods this week?  This post will not let you down!  Before we begin, lets talk about these little morsels of goodness.  I first had these when I was a little grasshopper compliments of my grandmother who, as you might have guess by the title of this post, was French.

To describe galettes, they are like biscuits but with a tighter texture and more compact. The addition of a little bacon fat make these “UNBEATABLE“.   Whether you push a little indent in the middle of these for some molasses, smear some butter on them or dip them in your next over easy egg yolk - you will fall in love with these and possibly become addicted.

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It’s Tuesday and I’m spending it in Antigua!  Lets just say it is a whole new world over here, simply gorgeous.  It is hard to believe how time flies when you are busy and having fun.  I just landed here yesterday and I will be gone again tomorrow… but oh well.  It is a nice place to visit and enjoy the views.  I am staying at the Buccaneer Beach Club which is very nice to say the least.  I have my own little villa which you can see below and I am about 17 steps to the beach.  That is tough to beat.  I posted some pics at the end of the post for you to see… now on to some great cookies.

As with yesterday’s fatayer I wanted to focus on baked goods this week.  With that being said, I have a fun simple cookie that you will love - a versatile peanut butter cookie.  Whether you want a crunch, a soft chewy texture, chocolate or butterscotch chips, this cookie can handle it.  Next time you are in the mood for a homemade cookie, I suggest you try these.

To compliment the salty flavor from the peanut butter, you can try adding a handful or two of chocolate in any form or even butterscotch.  Let me know what you think of these peanut butter cookies.

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Happy Friday!  Wow - what a week.  As of 12:03am this morning I made it home.  I had some problems getting internet connection at the airports today so I am putting this post together on very little fuel.

I have been wanting to post this beef barley stew for a couple of weeks now but I keep forgetting.  That is until now.  With the recent stint of cold weather this wholesome comforting dish will make you warm from the inside out.

This recipe is compliments of my mom.  It is really an easy dish to make with either fresh stew meat or left over meat from a roast.
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Ever since I was a little boy, I always loved raisins. Whether they were right from a box, inside pastry, added in main courses or in my favorite… bread - I always loved them. Raisin bread is on e of my favorite things to eat. Freshly sliced with a butter on top….. I could eat it all the time. Now I tend not to get raisin bread that much at the bakery/grocery store but from time to time I like to indulge.

But this time around I thought I would try and make a loaf from scratch - it is an old family recipe and sometimes we use to add walnuts. I am not crazy about walnuts on their own but inside this bread they are actually quite tasty. They give the bread a nice texture as well. So below is the recipe for zesty’s raisin walnut bread - I hope you enjoy it!!

Ingredients

• 1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 2 cups lukewarm water (105° to 115°)
• 2 Tbs. honey
• 2 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 - 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1 cup walnut halves, coarsely chopped

Method

1. In a large mixing bowl, stir together honey and 1/2 cup of the lukewarm water. Add yeast and stir to dissolve. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water.
2. Add whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups of white flour and salt. Stir until well combined. Add enough of remaining white flour until dough leaves sides of bowl.
3. Sprinkle flour on a flat dry surface. Turn dough onto the surface and knead 5 to 10 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, until dough is smooth and elastic. Don’t make the dough too dry.
4. Lightly oil a large mixing bowl. Place dough in bowl and turn to coat. Cover with damp cloth and set aside in warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Place a piece of parchment paper on a large baking sheet.
5. Punch dough down and turn on to floured surface. Knead raisins and walnuts into dough. Shape (round, long, square,) into 1 large loaf and place on prepared baking sheet. Cover with damp cloth and let rise until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 425°F. Using a spray bottle spray loaf with water. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375°F and bake 30 minutes or until nicely browned. Cool on rack before slicing.

Their system of paying before you are seated takes the guesswork out of the process. The dinner was a thunderous bargain for the money.

They were attentive, and sat us at a table of our choosing. The waitress was there in a flash to take our tickets, and the order for our drinks. First off the buns baked in a muffin type pan, they were big, light, fluffy and very tasty not to mention warm from the oven.

The all you can eat mussels, with the drawn butter were great, and the refills we had made us think we would not eat our lobster, but we did. After the mussels came the homemade seafood chowder and beef barley soup. I went with the chowder - I must say it was delicious. After the starters came the salads - coleslaw, potato salad and garden salad - very tasty but just a preliminary to the big dance.

The lobster was next. It was hot, juicy and cooked just right. The shell was cracked in the right spots, making a shell cracker unnecessary.

Then came the desserts.  All you can eat pie, cake, ice cream and frozen yogurt. They were homemade and wonderful.

 I had to try a couple of desserts just to make sure they were good!  I went with a couple of old classics - Lemon Meringue Pie and Strawberry Shortcake.  The Lemon pie was excellent and a table favorite where as the shortcake was just fair.

We almost rolled out of there with the quantity of quality food we had… Absolutely Delicious