First, Zeke and I celebrated 18 years of marriage on June 5th. This officially puts us past the mark of my first 17-year marriage, so Zeke can breathe a sigh of relief. We drove down to the Keys on a sunny Sunday, grateful for sunshine after a week of rain. We stopped at Gilberts for lunch and got a Seafood Appetizer Platter.

Dinner was at Ziggy and Mad Dogs, an upscale (if there is such a thing in the Keys) steak and seafood chophouse. Our dinner and server was very good, but the table they gave us was awful- next to the restrooms and a service area. Ziggy and Mad Dogs is already a kind of noisy place, with terrazzo floors and this two-top was in the middle of everything, not ideal for a quiet, romantic meal.

I made the reservation through Resy and, even though I mentioned it was our anniversary, they stuck us with this stinkaroo of a table. The table next to us were also celebrating their anniversary and tried to get their table changed as well. The moral of this story? While online reservations are convenient (and sometimes there’s no other choice) it’s always better to call the restaurant directly especially for a special occasion. They are also usually more flexible with dining times (Open Table is notoriously bad for this). In this case, according to our waitress, I should have called and asked for a table “along the wall.” Live and learn.

We ordered a bottle of Albarino and split the Mad Dog Wedge ($12) to start. I got “Big Ben’s” Smothered Medallions– two filets covered in caramelized onions, blue cheese and au Poivre sauce. Zeke got the Crabmeat Stuffed Snapper ($36); Roasted Asparagus and Potatoes Au Gratin ($8) were our sides. Everything was very good and our waitress helpful and sweet.

Wyatt’s last day of school was Wednesday. A.J. asked me to pick him up, since traffic is a nightmare on the last day of school, so I walked there and got him; he was red faced and happy. On the way home, however, a deluge of rain poured down on us. Even my umbrella was no protection. Wyatt gleefully jumped in puddles and sloshed through flooded grass on our way home. I quickly dried his clothes and shoes, as he had an End-of-the-Year Party to go to and a dinner for his cousin Gracie’s Graduation from Kindergarten. They’ll both be big First-Graders soon!

I whipped up some Egg Foo Yung for A.J. and Phoenix that night, which I served with Won Ton Soup and Stir Fried Veggies. I had a craving for Egg Foo Yung, but that is one of those dishes that seemed better in my memory than it was in actuality.

The next night I had BOTH Wyatt and Phoenix, so A.J. could go out to dinner. It was pretty much of a S**t Show, with me trying to get dinner ready, Wyatt wanting dumplings to eat instead of shrimp and Phoenix opening up every cabinet in the kitchen, trying to pull out hazardous materials to ingest. Zeke came home (after drinks at Riviera) to grill the shrimp and veggies I’d skewered ahead of time. I tried to eat, while also feeding Phoenix little bits of food. We then hurried into the family room to watch Jeopardy, which had already started.

Wyatt had found a marble he wanted to make a marble game with and was whining no one would help him, Phoenix was pulling board games off the shelf at a rapid rate, as I tried to remove all breakable objects and prevent him from eating the marble Wyatt kept leaving on the ground (can you say choking hazard?). For some reason, I stubbornly tried to answer Jeopardy questions against all odds, while Zeke sat there drinking his wine, oblivious to the chaos.

Just to let you know, you’re losing.

Zeke said.

“Are you f**cking kidding me?” I answered. I couldn’t even hear the questions!

I’d watched the last episode of Grace and Frankie that day, so I was kind of in mourning. Dolly Parton makes an appearance in the last episode, as a receptionist in heaven, thus reuniting the whole 9 to 5 gang. I will certainly miss these two wonderful characters and their quirky families.

I read about a Jennifer Aniston Salad that she invented and that she, Courtney Cox and Lisa Cudrow ate EVERY DAY for lunch on the set of Friends, so of course I had to try it. Although I don’t know if I could eat it every day, it was delicious and would be an excellent once-a-week addition for lunch, especially on Meatless Mondays.

I shopped at Trader Joe’s Friday and tried some products which I can recommend. The Chunky Spicy Guacamole ($3.79), Kalua Pork Spring Rolls ($4.79), Organic Dark Chocolate Rice Cake Thins ($1.99), Hold the Cone ($3.79), mini Ice Cream Cones ( in different flavors) and Truffle BBQ Sauce ($3.49). I also bought prosciutto and melon to bring to Kelley’s house as an appetizer. the next night. Peonies ($9.99) are also at Trader Joe’s, which are only available for a short season.

On Friday, Kelley had a ceremony at Temple Judea announcing her conversion to Judaism and introducing her to the congregation. During the service, the rabbi told us to name something we were grateful for, and Elise and I agreed we were thankful for our family. Kelley choose the name of Ruth as her Jewish name, as she was the first Jewish convert. It was a lovely, uplifting ceremony with lots of music and blessings. We went back to Kelley’s house for a Shabbat Italian Dinner. Mazel Tov!

Emory Guilford, my niece, got hired by Delta airlines and starts training this week. Her parents gave her a going-away party (which happened to fall on her Dad’s birthday), which was at the same time as Kelley’s dinner, so Zeke went there after the ceremony. Becky made Gregg’s favorite dish- Chicken and Dumplings with Creamed Corn and Peas. Imagine my dismay when Zeke came home empty handed, after I had specifically asked him to bring me a plate. I do think I have a great husband though, because he made special trip down to Cutler Cay the next day to pick me up some Chicken and Dumplings, with all the fixings.

Saturday I had a lunch at Lan Pan Asian with friends Sara and Christian. We all ordered the same thing- the Lunch Special of Thai Basil Chicken ($11.95) with rice instead of Miso Soup. We split two Passion Fruit Creme Brulees, which I didn’t even know they had on the menu. Their lunch specials are a great deal! You get a big salad and California Roll with your entree. Pro tip: Arrive at 11:30 a.m., as we did, and the restaurant will be empty.

It was actually my second visit to Lan Pan Asian that week. I met Courtney there for lunch Tuesday before she left for Colorado. She needed her sushi fix (Sashimi Lunch Special for $11.95) and I needed my Liam fix. Both missions accomplished!

Saturday night, thankfully, was a low-key one at home where we ate Grilled Chicken Thighs, boiled Corn on the Cob and Faux Cauliflower Potato Salad I made from a Parade recipe. Now, you would never confuse this dish with actual potato salad- the cauliflower is firmer and has a different mouth feel- but it was really good and had the Potato Salad vibe to it.

We had to be at Key Biscayne bright and early Sunday morning to participate in the Rescue a Reef boat trip to harvest coral and replant them. As I mentioned in a previous post, 90% of our coral reefs have disappeared in the last 50 years, which is devastating for our environment. This trip was through U.M.’s coral restoration program, which conducts research and educates people about the importance of saving our Coral Reefs.

Zeke and I were “Citizen Scientists” on the expedition aboard the boat chartered through Divers Paradise. You could dive or snorkel; we choose to snorkel. The first stop was to the coral “nursery”, where coral is grown on PVC “trees”. The divers cleaned the trees with metal brushes and snipped small pieces of coral, to be planted at the second location of Rainbow Reef.

Since we were snorkeling, Dalton, a scientist from U.M., harvested coral pieces for us, which we secured into “cookies” with epoxy. I then free dove down about 20 feet to plant our precious cookie on the ocean floor of Biscayne Bay. It was a beautiful, sunny morning- a perfect day to rescue a reef. We had fun and learned a lot. If you’re interested, the organization is called Coral Restoration Foundation at www.coralrestoration.org.

I couldn’t wait to get home to my lunch of leftover Chicken and Dumplings! I only have them at Becky’s house for Gregg’s Birthday once a year and that’s if they’re in town and we’re in town, so eating them is a real treat. They were probably the best leftovers I’ve ever eaten and will have to keep me satisfied for another year. I could make them myself, but these Chicken and Dumplings and the Creamed Corn are truly a labor of love.

Love, love, love. There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done. Nothing you sing that can’t be sung. Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game. It’s easy.

The Beatles

Love may be easy. Chicken and Dumplings, however, are not.

Up Next: The Jennifer Aniston Salad

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey.

I voted early. I’d requested a mail-in ballot but decided it was best to drive it to Pinecrest Gardens, in the pouring rain last Wednesday, and hand-deliver it to a person who put it in the ballot box. They check your driver’s license with your signature on the ballot and easy, peasy, my civic duty’s done! And you can track it online, to make sure it arrived.

I also ate my first Stone Crabs on Saturday, two days after the season opened on October 15th. The weather wasn’t great so Zeke and I just lay on our boat, docked at the Sanctuary and listened to music. Around sunset, we took it out for a short jaunt, anchored and toasted to our first sunset cruise with Prosecco and cheese and crackers. After we returned, we went home to a feast of cracked Stone Crabs, hash browns and Joe’s tomatoes.

On Monday, my tennis match got rained out so I took the extra time to make a light and healthy lunch of a Sweet Potato, Egg and Broccoli “Rice” Bowl. Rice bowls are all the rage, but this one was made with “Riced” Broccoli. Since I didn’t have broccoli, I used the Riced Cauliflower that’s been lingering in my freezer from Trader Joe’s. It was actually very tasty and I would definitely make this recipe, from People magazine of all places, again.

I decided to make it easy on myself Monday night and picked up a Publix rotisserie Chicken (Peruvian?- must be a new flavor). I served this with Salsa Verde and smashed potatoes and a tomato and mozzarella salad. Delicious and easy. Tuesday I picked Wyatt up from school and did a Fall photo shoot with him at the entrance of Miracle Mile. They are trying to get people back to the Mile and have an old school truck, with bales of hay and decorations set up that made the perfect backdrop. As we walked down the street to look at the scarecrows, it started pouring so we made a beeline to my Mini Cooper and hopped in to listen to the Monster Mash, Men In Black and the Adams Family on my Halloween CD.

We came home and made Candy Apples. I couldn’t find the kit (normally located in the Produce section by the apples) so made them from scratch. Wyatt helped me make them and then wanted to taste one “for a treat”, which he did as I carved two pumpkins. One was a large one he’d picked from the grocery store. He also picked the design (kind of looks like Phantom of the Opera) and drew a face on his little pumpkin, which I also carved. I couldn’t let those pumpkin seeds go to waste, so roasted them with olive oil, salt and cumin. Next, we read some Halloween books, so by the time Zeke came home with Miami’s Best pizza, I was ready for a break.

California Dreamin’ is our favorite pizza at Miami’s Best- artichoke hearts, goat cheese and spinach and I was hoping Wyatt would like it, but according to A.J. he’s “very picky about his pizza”, vegetables on it are no bueno, so we scraped them off for him. He then wanted to play Candyland (beat me twice) and then it was time for The Bachelorette. I turned a show on for Wyatt, as Zeke and I watched our inane show, then came upstairs and said “Ok Wyatt, it’s time for bed.”

“Oh fine, I’ll watch your boring show,” he said so I turned on The Bachelorette. Claire, the Bachelorette, was on a one-on-one date with Blake where they’d been instructed to write down every bad thing that people had said about them. As they read their lists to each other, Blake said “I have a lot of demons.” Claire said: “That doesn’t scare me. Nothing scares me.” To this Wyatt said: “What if a bear ate you? Would that scare you?” And, at this, we both cracked up for a while. The next Group date was Strip Dodge Ball. “What does strip mean, Gigi?” And it was time to turn off The Bachelorette (which is becoming stupider by the minute) and go to bed.

Speaking of scary, Coronavirus cases hit an all time high last Friday, with 83,000 cases being reported. Experts are worried about the winter, with cooler temperatures sending people inside and at greater risk. We’re lucky in Miami that this isn’t as much as a factor as it is in other states, but it’s still troubling. Didn’t we all think it would be over by now?

I met A.J. for lunch Wednesday at Lan Pan Asian, in Dadeland Station. It was the first time I’ve been since the Pandemic began and there was a wait to get in. It’s already a very small restaurant, so with Social Distancing, even more so. The menu was a scan-able one on your phone and we both ordered the Lunch Special with Salmon for $11.95. It comes with miso soup, a green salad of soft greens, a bean sprout salad, California roll and your entree. Although I don’t like baked salmon normally, I love the one at Lan Pan, which comes in a teriyaki sauce with pineapple chunks. I also like the Tamarind Shrimp and Chicken Dumplings for lunch special at Lan Pan. The lunch specials are big servings of fresh food for a good value. They also offer curbside pick-up and weekly specials.

Wednesday night I turned my leftover chicken from the rotisserie into Chicken Enchiladas with an easy recipe called Easiest Chicken Enchiladas Ever by Stephanie Wilson. The recipe called for flour tortillas, but I was curious to see how they would taste with different tortillas and besides that, I had a hankering for corn tortillas. So I made the batch with three different kinds of tortillas- flour (100 calories), corn and wheat (90 calories) and Carb-savy Whole Wheat (45 calories). The flour tortilla was my favorite, but the other two were also good and once you stuff the tortillas with chicken and other fillings and smother them with enchilada sauce and cheese, who really cares? I served it with a simple avocado salad. It made enough for 10 so I froze the rest for another dinner.

I’ve been having political discussions with my son Christopher (always a mistake) and as he makes one point after the other, I tell him “a tuna fish sandwich”, “as in I will vote for a tuna fish sandwich over your candidate.” Which, truthfully, is a disservice to tuna fish sandwiches everywhere, which are a very tasty lunch. My sister Kelley claims she could eat a tuna fish sandwich for lunch every day. I wouldn’t go that far, but paired with a cup of soup, it is one of my favorite lunches. The beauty of a tuna fish sandwich is the ingredients are usually on hand- tuna, mayo, celery, onion- so whipping one up is always an easy and filling option.

For the occasion of my tuna fish sandwich, after a tennis loss on my first Beta team, I tried Tuna Salad Sandwich, Julia Child Style. The recipe was conveyed by Dorrie Greenspan, a women that helped her write Baking with Julia, a cookbook my Dad got me for Christmas signed by Julia herself. The woman said Julia liked to make this tuna salad for lunch and served it, either with Pepperidge Farm sandwich bread or, open faced, on a Bay’s English Muffin. I served it in half a pita bread with soft lettuces and a slice of Vidalia onion. It was perfection- the salty capers, chopped onion and celery mixed with the creamy tuna. I would’ve changed nothing about it, not even the chopped cornichons in place of my normal sweet relish. Yum!

That night was the last Presidential Debate. I drank too much and yes, those two statements do have a relation with each other. Since Zeke and I are supporting different candidates, watching the debates together is never a good idea and usually ends disasterously, with us screaming at each other. I sometimes doubted we were watching the same debate. “Can you believe he said that?” I ask. “What? I thought that was a good point,”answers Zeke. Oh brother. This election can’t be over fast enough.

I made Salted Caramel Popcorn Bars, a recipe out of Oprah magazine, which plugged it as a “grown up version of a Rice Krispie Treat.” It had air popped popcorn, marshmallows, caramel sauce (homemade), chocolate chips and Maldon salt. It didn’t turn out great (the caramel didn’t completely coat the popcorn) and was a pain in the a**, making it a recipe I wouldn’t repeat. I do find, in general, Oprah’s magazine has good recipes. I sent a tin of it with niece Allison when she went to visit her Grandpa Dick at an Assisted Living Facility and he said it was the “best popcorn he’s had in 90 years”, so I guess it was worth making it after all.

I played a fun tennis match on Friday and, on the way home, ordered Shorty’s take-out. I don’t eat Shorty’s that often, but sometimes, I really get a craving for it and, on this day I was starving. Shorty’s has tables set up outside, under tents and inside they are Socially Distancing, blocking off some tables, so it seems quite safe. My order was ready so I paid and took the steaming styrofoam container into my car. I opened it, dumped some salt on the crinkle-cut fries and frantically dipped them into the Shorty’s Bar-B-Que sauce and munched away as I drove home. They were delicious, as was my Pork Sandwich and coleslaw. If I ever moved away from Miami, Shorty’s is one restaurant I would truly miss!

I got to babysit my Great Niece Gracie Friday, who didn’t have school. We colored, did puzzles, played with play dough and when I took her to do an errand in my Mini Cooper, she asked me why my car was so little. “This is the littlest car I’ve ever seen in my life,” she commented. “Well, it’s usually only me and Wyatt in this car,” I told her. But soon, I am going to need a bigger car. Courtney and Chris’s baby is due in November and A.J. and Justin are expecting a little boy next April. Three grandsons! If I have all these babies in my two-door Mini, it’s going to look like little clowns coming out of a circus car. I need to start looking at four door options and trade in my ten year old car.

We went to the Keys for the weekend. After tennis and Gracie, I was so wiped out on Friday night we ordered take-out from The Key Thai and Sushi; I could barely move from the couch. On Saturday, we sat under the chikee hut for sunset with other owners, enjoying a cocktail. The subject of kitchen remodeling came up and someone mentioned granite as a surface and how hard and impenetrable it is. When we designed our kitchen five years ago, I found a marble that I loved but was warned it would chip, stain and scratch, as it is a soft stone. “But in Italy, they believe all those imperfections make the stone more beautiful,” the stone guy told me. Well, maybe he was making a sales pitch but, nonetheless, I decided to “Be Italian” and got the marble. I mean I am 13.9% Italian, but I needed to think like an Italian in relation to my marble countertop.

On CBS This Morning, my favorite show on Sunday mornings, one of the segments discussed how patience and resilience were important qualities to possess when dealing with the Pandemic. The resilience part made me think of my Aunt Josie, who was 100% Italian and lived to be 99. She had to watch as each of her sisters and many of her friends passed away, leaving her behind. But, she always found a way to bounce back and found things in life still engaging. Like the movie said, she believed “Life is Beautiful.” As proof of this, my transplanted rose bush from my neighbor Maggie’s house bloomed for the first time this week. I will take this as a good omen.

No matter happens in this election, I have to still believe life is beautiful and, with resilience, we can bounce back from anything. Please vote!

Up Next: Orange Crush Cocktail