I would say it’s our Third Annual, but the first was 2019 and we didn’t meet in 2020, due to Covid. In 2021 we launched our toilet seat in the Toilet Bowl in the Bay with the words “Girl’s Weekend 2021, because 2020’s Been a Real S**t Show”, complete with a poop emoji. Last year, we couldn’t swing Girl’s Weekend since Chrissy had just started a new job as a Pickleball Pro in Naples and couldn’t take the time off.

But we were able to do a Girl’s Weekend this year- 2023- at my condo in Key Largo. In years past, I knocked myself out a bit with prepping, cleaning and cooking, so this year I was determined to plan a Girl’s Weekend as low-stress as possible. It’s my Girl’s Weekend too, after all! It came on the heels of my Book Club Meeting, so I already had some delicious Chipotle Rosemary Nuts, Summer Sangria and Key Lime Shortbread to bring to the weekend.

Girl’s Weekend started Friday around Happy Hour.

I’d gone down the day before to get things ready. I shopped, changed sheets, set fresh towels out, put little soaps and shampoos in the Guest Bathroom and set out a coconut patty on each bed. Flowers from my Book Club Meeting were brought down and put in vases to spruce up the dining and living rooms, with white twinkly lights and shells adding to the ambiance. Pool toys and floats were unearthed, ready for play! I set the table with raffia placemats , tropical napkins and flower napkin rings. Pandora was playing Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, of course.

Since I’ve been on the hunt for the Best Conch Chowder in the Keys, I picked up pints of Conch Chowder from three restaurants to have a taste testing and choose our favorite. I picked up some Sourdough Bread you bake at home, at Publix to go along with it. I offered a Welcome Cocktail of Summer Sangria, Rose Prosecco and Sparkling or Still Water and set out an easy Charcuterie Platter.

*A note on cheese. I’d heard a new Trader Joe’s cheese- Fromage Pave Red Chili Pepper-was good so bought it, along with my beloved Toscano in Syrah. I tried a small slice the night before- cold and straight out of the fridge. It tasted like a cold, peppery bandaid. So Friday, I took the cheeses out an hour before serving and it made all the difference. Always let your cheeses come to room temp before serving. It lets the flavors ‘bloom”, especially with this type, a soft-ripened French cheese (like Brie) that’s flavored with jalapeno, cayenne and bell peppers. If you like soft cheeses and you like spicy, this is your cheese.

I served the cheeses with plain water crackers, strawberries, Chipotle Rosemary Nuts, dried apricots and truffle honey. Truffle honey makes anything better, as far as I’m concerned. We sipped, snacked and chatted, since it’s been two years since we were all together. We had our Conch Chowder Taste Testing, which I served in little cups for us all to taste, one by one, with sherry on the side. All the Conch Chowders were Award-Winning, so I was curious to see which one we liked the best.

Between Mrs. Mac’s, The Conch House and Key Largo Fisheries, the overwhelming favorite was Key Largo Fisheries Conch Chowder, but, ironically, it isn’t even made on sight! I served the Conch Chowder with warm Sourdough Bread and butter and a Green Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette.

After dinner, we went down to the chickee Hut to have a drink and watch the sunset. Back at the condo, dessert was a delicious Key Lime Pie Elise had made. We chatted for a while, hit the sack pretty early. I was the first one up the next day, so I set up breakfast.

Coffee before everything (of course!), Orange juice, water with sliced strawberries and cucumber, three kinds of berries, yogurt, Homemade Granola, Blueberry Banana Bread and Eggs, Bacon and Bread for anyone that wanted it with butter and homemade Mango Jam.

Since I love doing yoga, especially in the Keys, I’d requested everyone bring their yoga mats and we did an easy Beginner’s Yoga (Boho Beautiful) in the Living Room. Everyone enjoyed this healthy wake-up to our day and then we got dressed and went Thrifting, another one of my favorite things to do in the Keys (much to my husband’s dismay).

We hit a couple stores I like to visit in the Keys- ReStore and Salvation Army– first. Chrissy, who was totally unsure about the thrifting idea, found a tureen and platter to match her sister’s very hard-to-find china pattern, for twenty bucks. Sweet! We also visited Jolene’s, which I’d never been to before. It’s a consignment store, with new and used things. Thrifting was fun- we all came home with treasures- and we’d worked up an appetite for lunch.

Lunch was the very easy “Make Your Own Sandwich.” I love sandwiches, so got the makings for a variety of options, with Sourdough and Whole Wheat Bread, mustard and mayo. I’d cooked some bacon that morning and had tomatoes and lettuce, in case anyone wanted a BLT. I also got sliced Boars Head Turkey Meat and Swiss cheese, with a slice avocado from my tree, creating a wide range of sandwich possibilities. Cape Cod Potato Chips and Homemade Pickles were the sides, with Iced Tea and Sparkling or Plain water to drink.

The afternoon was left for Free Play– Paddleboarding, Swimming, Reading or Napping (I choose the latter) and then we were off to dinner at the newly remodeled Marker 88. Dinner was good (I opted for sushi) and we were back home and in bed relatively early. This Girl’s Weekend was not a wild one! Maybe we’re too old to do wild.

The next morning, Kelley and Elise went Paddle Boarding, while Chrissy went to do Water Aerobics in the pool and I stayed home and read. For our Farewell Meal, Kelley had made an Eggplant Parmesan for lunch. I’d done a whole Spaghetti Dinner the first year of our Girl’s Weekend and it almost wiped me out, so thought I’d be easy on myself and pre-make the Eggplant Parm. Kelley volunteered to make it (our Aunt Josie’s recipe) making it even easier on me! Elise made a salad with avocado, tomatoes and red onion and I made garlic bread with the leftover sourdough bread. As my mother always says: “Many hands make light work.”

Doggy Bags (for husbands and boyfriends) were packed up, hugs were had and we all said goodbye for another year. Or two. We’ll see. I do know this was the easiest Girl’s Weekend I’ve ever had. Here are my tips to stress-free entertaining.

*Girl’s Weekend Tips*

1. Send out an invite or Evite with the Time, Place and Activities planned. This lets your guests know what to expect, what to bring and gets them excited about the weekend.
2. If possible, arrive at the location one day early to shop, clean, prepare and decompress. Doing it all in one day is exhausting.
3. Pre-cook as much as possible, so you’re not spending time in the kitchen. I made the Chipotle Rosemary Nuts, Blueberry Banana Bread and Granola ahead.
4. Don’t forget the special touches. Folded towels next to fresh soap, fresh flowers, scented candles and a coconut patty on the bed all make your guests feel pampered.
5. Eat out at least once or twice during Girl’s Weekend. You don’t want to spend the weekend in the kitchen!
6. Let people help. If someone offers to bring something you need, say yes. Elise supplied dessert Friday night, Kelley made the entree for Sunday. This made it easier on me and let my guests feel engaged and appreciated.
7. Do activities you enjoy. While none of my guests had done Yoga recently, they all enjoyed it and Thrifting was a hit as well. The weekend is about catching up with old friends, but also about introducing your latest hobbies, activities and passions to friends.
8. Make it easy on yourself. For breakfast, I set out a variety of items and Make Your Own Sandwich was a hands-on, easy-peasy lunch. Since I wasn’t sure of what people could eat (last time we gathered Chrissy ate no meat) I wanted to have options available.
9. Go with the flow. One never knows what the weekend will bring. While you want to have a schedule, also be open to the chance to go off on a tangent and explore.
10. Don’t forget to-go containers for your guests to take leftovers. They will appreciate it and their S.O. will be more inclined to let them attend the next Girl’s Weekend!

I just realized maybe I should be less worried about anyone mistaking us for “easy girls” than the fact that I’m calling us “girls” at all, since most of us are past 60 (except Elise). But my Grandmother and Aunts called each other girls till the day they died, so I’m going with that philosophy. Girls forever! Born to be mild.

Up Next: Nutty Blueberry Granola

There are three weeks left to get your Spice on and despite my best intentions (paving the way to hell) I’ve only been to ONE Miami Spice. That was Beauty & the Butcher in South Miami at the very beginning of August with friends. I am running out of time, but determined to do at least one or two more, before Miami Spice is over! Eating House is on the top of my Miami Spice Wish List.

The reason I haven’t tried more is being out of town- to D.C. for a lovely wedding and San Antonio for a long-delayed trip from 2019 to see the Alamo. Throw in a couple Girl’s Weekends in the Keys and U.M. football games and time is running out. I did have the most delicious dessert at a restaurant named Lutece in Georgetown, which I tried to replicate at home for dinner guests. Below is the original and my attempt at home.

Our server recommended it, with the caveat that it sounds weird but works and he was so right! It was a semi-fredo (like soft-serve) vanilla ice cream with Honeycomb crumbles and shaved Comte cheese on top. It does sound weird, but it was darned delicious, one of the best desserts I’ve ever eaten! The smooth, creamy ice cream, was topped with crunchy, gold honeycomb, which shattered into sticky shards; the silky and nutty shavings of the cheese added a bit of unexpected lusciousness and funk.

My attempt to re-create it at home was quite successful. This is a dessert I could eat all day. The ice cream I made was a simple vanilla custard (with vanilla bean) and my husband proclaimed it his favorite of all the ice creams I’ve made, but he is a vanilla guy.

Speaking of ice cream, Salt + Straw is coming to Miami Beach with a special ice cream served at the opening called Pistachio Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich! It’s pistachio gelato and dark cherry buttercream with an olive oil and chocolate pistachio cookie. To gild the lily, it’s topped with truffle fudge and gold leaf bourbon caramel. It’s a limited edition.

I’m also on the mailing list for Sweet Melody Ice Cream in Coral Gables, which has amazing-sounding rotating flavors, such as “I’ll Be Baklava“- a Rose Water and Marscapone Ice Cream with brown butter, toasted phyllo dough and honey-covered pistachios and almonds. Wowza! Azucar is another Ice Cream option with a new location in Pinecrest. Gourmet Ice Cream shops are flourishing in South Florida, while good old Dairy Queen on US-1 just closed. Whip ‘N Dip is hanging in there.

In other restaurant news, Harry’s Pizzeria in Coconut Grove is back with their Cuban Sandwich Pizza. This was a special pizza which Harry’s owner Michael Schwartz teamed up with Versailles in January 2019 to create; it was only available for one month. It was so popular, they are bringing it back. It’s a white pizza topped with Roasted Pork, glazed Ham, Bread and Butter Pickles, Fontina and Gruyere cheeses and mustard sauce. It’s topped with a croquetta and is quite delicious. It’s available September 1st through September 30th. Maybe, if it’s a hit, they’ll put it on the regular menu.

We attended the first U.M. Game against Miami, Ohio last Saturday. Luckily, we won and I always love the excitement of the first game. We took Subby’s Subs to eat in the car before the game at 7. Subby’s is a new Sub shop, with Hot & Cold Subs, located in South Miami. They have Chicken Subs, Steak Subs, Hot Subs and you can make any small sub a wrap, which I did with my Roast Beef and Cheese Sub. You can also customize your sub, order online and they deliver. My wrap was very good and they don’t skimp on the meat. Served daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

We finally went to check out a house for sale in Pinecrest, near my friend Christian. It was a two-story that reminded me of the Brady Bunch house, down to the lack of bathrooms and a major need of an update. The yard and pool were nice but the Master Bedroom was tiny, with a miniscule closet and a one-sink bathroom. I can’t see myself living there. Even Mike and Carol Brady might object.

I, like most of the rest of the world, was shocked to hear Jimmy Buffet died. A speaker at a meeting for South Florida Writers I attended Saturday blasely mentioned it and I was like: “What? I didn’t even know he was sick.”

But I think that is quite like Jimmy Buffet to not want people to treat him differently because he was ill. He always wanted to keep the party going, not end it, so he dealt with his diagnosis privately. Jimmy Buffet’s music is synonymous with the Florida Keys, so of course, we often turned our Pandora in our condo to Margaritaville. And most any restaurant in the Keys that has music will feature some Jimmy Buffet tunes.

While best known for his music, he was quite the Renaissance Man. A pilot, boater, writer, philanthropist, poet and businessman, he was that lucky guy who was blessed with creative and business smarts, a combo not easy to find. He turned his “laid-back” persona and extensive song list into an enterprise that made a boatload of dinero. But, it was his fun-loving, optimistic & generous vibe that came through on stage. With all the tributes from fellow musicians and regular people flowing in, he was truly loved and not just by Parrot Heads. He was, in the end, a person who valued his family and friends above all the rest.

I gave my parents tickets to one of his concerts in the ’80’s at Miami Marine Stadium for their anniversary. They had a great time. There were Parrot Heads galor, in the stands, on boats and in the water at this concert by the bay, singing along to his songs. Nine years ago, Zeke and I attended a Fundraiser for that very Miami Marine Stadium at the Coral Gables Museum. Jimmy Buffet played a private mini-concert there with a couple tunes and it was a blast. Gloria Estephan joined him to sing Margaritaville as his last song. Pictured below is a photo of his daughter at the Fundraiser, with me behind her a friend sent. And a Margarita!

It still doesn’t seem like he’s gone, but I guess as long as we have his music he’s never really far away. As for me, I can’t wait for my travels to end so I can go to my “happy place” in Key Largo, make myself a Margarita, look out at the bay and listen to some Jimmy Buffet tunes. Dear Jimmy: “I hope you’re enjoying the scenery, I know that it’s pretty up there.”

And now I must confess I could use some rest I can’t run at this pace very long Yes, it’s quite insane Think I hurt my brain But it cleans me out, then I can go on.

Jimmy Buffet, Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season

Up Next: Zucchini & Goat Cheese Tart

The line from the Jimmy Buffet song Margaritaville keeps ringing in my head. I haven’t been drunk for two weeks, but there’s definitely been some drinking going on at our house. Not that it helps. I wake up every day and it’s the same bad news- worse than the day before actually. First thing in the morning, I check my phone to see how many more people have died of coronavirus. You know things are bad, when you’re waiting for a peak of deaths, because at that point, it will go down. I keep waiting for someone to call “Olly, olly oxen free,” and tell me it’s all over and we can come out and play.

Sometimes when I’ve had too much to drink, I have an urge to run, to hide, to escape. I’ve had that urge since this whole thing started, but there’s nowhere to run to, no place to hide and nowhere to escape to. The coronavirus is EVERYWHERE. No place is sacred or exempt. I don’t think I ever took for granted my basic freedom of being able to get in the car and go wherever I wanted, or hop on a plane and fly somewhere new and exotic. Now- not happening .

I consider myself an introvert with a social streak;  I never knew how much I would miss people. Friends- to have lunch, drinks, dinner with, or just chat and hang out. I miss my Book Club, tennis team, yoga class, Cookbook Book Club, Happy Hour buddies. I think it’s why people kept going to the grocery store (and some still are) long after being advised not to. It was the last place you could see people (that you weren’t already stuck with), the last everyday task that felt remotely normal.

“Why are people still going to the grocery store?” my sister Kelley demanded to know.

“It’s the last thing we have,” I answered.

I even miss people on the street, total strangers, although now that doesn’t feel safe either. I’m staying far enough away that they can’t cough or sneeze on me, but what if the person walking in front of me JUST coughed or sneezed? The diabolical air droplets carrying dreaded coronavirus can linger in the air for HOURS.

Most of all, I miss my family. And Wyatt. It’s so hard to see him in the car and not be able to kiss and hug him. That’s what grandmothers are for. He would usually yell “Gigi!” and run into my arms for a big hug and a kiss. 

“I’m sorry I can’t be close to you,” he said yesterday, as he stood a safe distance away and looked at the radish sprouts we’d we planted in my garden.

It wasn’t lost on me that my four-year-old grandson has more common sense and understands the imminent danger of “the virus” as he calls it, better than a lot of adults I’ve encountered lately.

“Me too,” I told him. “When this is all over, I’m gonna give you a big old fat kiss and hug!”

It’s like what they would say when I used  to go to Mass: “when two or more are gathered in his name”. There’s something about the collective, the experience of a mass of people that is different than the individual. Netflix at home is not the same as going to the movies. Even though I often go to the movies by myself, there’s something about watching a movie in a movie theatre with other people. You feed off their energy, pick up on it, ride with it. You laugh with them at funny parts, cry together at the sad, applaud at the end. And now- gone.

I’d been watching Ellen reruns, for a cheerful thing to do at 3 p.m. Last Monday she started broadcasting from her home in L.A. Normally, of course, she has a studio audience. Now, she’s by herself. She interviewed JLo (who lives right down the street from me, by the way) and JLo said: “I miss people.”

Yep, JLo. Me too. 

And to quote another song, from The Boss, I can’t wait for someone to  “Meet me out in the street.” Sans mask. 

Good Friday to all and stay safe.

Up Next: How to Instacart (because you shouldn’t be going to the grocery store) and Foods to eat to fight Viruses!