Pina Colada Recipe.

Don't know if this is the best recipe ever but it was quite tasty with a more natural non-syrupy taste which we all enjoyed. When deciding to make our own Pina Colada mix I cruised through a bunch of different recipes before figuring out the ingredients which are needed to make a Pina Colada (pineapple, coconut, and rum at the least) and which ones we would use. What we decided on was Cream of Coconut, Crushed Pineapples, Grated Coconut in Cane Syrup, Ice, and Kraken Spiced rum, which if you like rum and haven't had it you should go get it... now. And this is how the drink is broken down in a pitcher sized container holding 48 ounces of deliciousness:
8 oz. Cream of Coconut (it is very sweet so if you want a sweeter drink use a little more and vice versa)
8 oz. Crushed Pineapple (this gives it a bit of a pulpy texture, so if you want it smoother I would use plain Pineapple juice but then would use 6 not 8 ounces)
10 oz. Spiced Rum (we used Kraken and it's amazing)
4 oz. Grated Coconut (as a side-note there is definitely a texture associated with this ingredient)
And as much ice as you can fit into your blender then hit the play button on the blender.

All Photos by Cayetana Polanco of Mangolandia.com

Waves for the Dogs.

Today was a wonderful day filled with a ton of laughter and sunshine. That may sound cheesy but that's kind of what it was, albeit a rocky start with more Hotel drama. The good stuff goes as follows though. We awoke and had a wonderful breakfast of bagels, queso fresco, and guava paste with Ben and Jessie before saying goodbye to them and packing up the car for Jupiter Beach. This beach is the last remaining free dog beach in South Florida. Seriously, Miami politics have engulfed the rest of Florida and made for some really awful laws regarding public spaces. Most of the laws revolve around what you can do on the beautiful beaches of Florida and yet at Jupiter which has the least restrictions we've seen, was by far the nicest regarding people, trash, and water. Everyone there was amazingly friendly and happy to let their dogs play off leash with each other and were just happy that the pups were able to run free and play along the beach.
When arriving at the beach, we saw many surfers and immediately decided that it wouldn't be Florida without a surf day so Jax and I headed to a nearby surf shop to rent a board for the day. We ended up getting a 9 foot long board which was pretty perfect for all of us to play in the waves with. While the human parts of our party took turns surfing, Hank spent the entire day running and jumping with all the other dogs on the beach. As of right now he is still sleeping like he has been since we left the beach.

Back to the surfing. We all spent a good deal of time on the board today but Jena and Jaxon really did quite well out there riding waves all the way in. We also got to talking with one guy at the beach who was paddle boarding and generously let us try his board, which was incredibly difficult but fun. As the sun set we packed up and headed back down the coast to our condo for some leftover fajita's and ice cream. Tomorrow we plan to head back to Juniper Beach and do it all over again.

Friends and Food.

 Very sorry that we haven't been keeping up to date with our ramblings but anyhow I'll try to catch you up now. First off if you want to know what we did on Monday you can click on MANGOLANDIA and check out their post about our activities that day which include spending time at Boynton Beach.

Now for what else we've been doing. Yesterday was a slow day. We awoke with bellies still stuffed from the POC Buffet so breakfast didn't really happen like it normally does for us. Everybody worked on a couple different projects including Grad school apps, blogging, photo editing, and more. After a bit of hardcore staring contests with computer screens I decided to get my bike down and go for a ride which turned out to be just the ticket. The weather was perfect with the temp in the high 70's, partly cloudy, and a slight breeze. The ride was fairly boring not much scenery besides man-made ponds and landscaped yards but I was able to ride with barely any traffic and almost perfect roads beneath me which was fantastic. While I was out riding the ladies and Hank went for a jog and Jax worked on some work (yeah I keep telling him we're on vacation). We found out mid-day that our friends Ben and Jessie were going to be able to make it over to hang out with us for the day and night. They ended up being only an hour away on their own vacation the same time we were here, awesome coincidences. So after my bike ride and a jump in the pool, Jackson and I headed to the grocery store to pick up some food for a dinner feast. We're pretty sure that neither Caye or Jena is going to allow us to go grocery shopping with each other unchaperoned ever again, but we felt like we did a great job. One of the main things we were going for was ingredients to make Pina Colada's. We had decided to make our own mix from scratch (aka internet recipes) and they turned out fantastic. I will have a post up shortly about what we made and how to make it yourself.

When Ben and Jessie arrived we were already mostly done with the prep for dinner - FAJITAS. Fajitas may be one of my favorite dishes around and these ones were fantastic. We had prepared a stir-fry of veggies (mushrooms, green/red/yellow/poblano peppers, garlic, onions), re-fried/black beans, tomatoes, lettuce, Queso Fresco, salsa, and corn tortillas - delicious. After dinner we headed out to the pool for some pretty amazing jumps, dives, and high-fives. The night ended with some vino and conversation before we needed to put our stuffed bellies to bed.

For more photos and some awesome GIFs of last night spent with Ben and Jessie head on over to www.mangolandia.com

Driving to Chillaxing.

Yesterday we drove 700+ miles from Mobile, Alabama to Weston, Florida. After packing up and locking down the boat, we packed up the car with the rest of our gear and all of us and headed down the road in the weighed down Prius. The drive was very long but luckily with more people in the car, there were more people to drive. Also, among other things, we had Hank to amuse us with his many positions throughout the car and his horrible gas. The drive didn't get too overwhelming, but we were all definitely excited to be done driving when we arrived at the "Vacation Village" around 10:30 at night.

The place we are staying at, which costs less than what we would be paying for a campsite here, is very nice with two bedrooms and three bathrooms including a jacuzzi, laundry, a patio, and a wonderful kitchen, which we are all very happy about after working with some less than prime cooking methods for the last couple months. We ended up making popcorn, drinking wine, chatting, and dancing to some Latin radio stations until early morning before settling down for a few hours.

We awoke to beautiful weather and lazy attitudes. Since we didn't have much food and were so excited about being out of the car and having a kitchen Jax, Caye, and I decided to walk over to the local Publix Grocery Store. None of us realized how far a mile or so walk was until walking back from the grocery store with enough groceries for a week for four people and a puppy. In the end though, it was all worth it because we had an amazing breakfast of toast, queso fresco, guava spread, and coffee before hanging out by the pool for a while.

 The post pool afternoon was spent with some heavy duty Food Channel watching while JnC (Jax and Caye) went through thousands of photos. As they continued to plug away at numerous projects Jena and I made a pasta dinner with garlic bread. The food turned out good and now we are all working on different projects, digesting, and wondering what tomorrow will bring.

Last Day Along The Dog River

Today is our last day at the Dog River Marina in Mobile, AL. We've been here for five days, and it has actually felt really nice to have a cozy place to stay for more than a night at a time. We are so grateful that Caye and Jaxon have been such great hosts, especially with such limited space in the sailboat. We will all be driving to Florida early tomorrow morning. The weather forecast is predicting upper 70's so hopefully we can do some ultimate "chillaxing", as Caye puts it, alongside some large body of gator-less water.

  

  It has been a pretty uneventful but excellent day here. While Jaxon and Caye prepared the the boat for hibernation, Morgan and I did more car organization and played with Hank before he passed out on a six pack of beer. We're looking forward to more adventures with these guys in the next week and then to going back home for the holidays.
Since most of our belongings are packed up for the trip, tonight we may treat ourselves to some Mexican food in Mobile. Hope you are all having a great December so far and happy Friday!

Pancakes, Haircuts, and Popcorn

Yesterday began with food and ended with food. We awoke and started muddling around Surkha and soon Caye had some granola pancakes mixed up and hot on the griddle. After we ate breakfast, we all migrated to the sunny dock where Jena cut my hair off because I was looking a little disheveled (case in point - click here).

Once the cut was done, I got to work tearing the Prius apart in order to fit the two Mango's legally into the rear seat for our drive to Miami. It actually didn't take very long, all I had to do was remove the lug bolts I put through the folding bed headrest and pop up two of the bed frame boards. It isn't that pretty but it is decently comfortable and there seems to still be room for everything including Hank. By the way, if you haven't realized how amazing of a vehicle the Prius is, you have missed a major point of this blog(Toyota, you can start paying us anytime now).  Not only are we getting better gas mileage than the majority of the cars on the road but we also are able to carry an insanely large amount of our belongings with us, even with 4 people and a dog in the car.

Anyways, once done we all did our own things - emails, writing, reading, drawing, and walking, before we settled back into Surkha for some hefty popcorn(topped with olive oil, fresh grated Parmesan, garlic and chilli powder) eating and Inception.

PuppyKitty

We haven't really plugged many of our friends exploits on this blog so I figured this was a perfect time. My friend Jennie is finishing up her MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute right now and in her free time put together a wonderful little book of drawings which relates a tail (get it) of feral cats and dogs and the monsters who try to take them. She is now attempting to get it published via Kickstarter and there is only a couple days left and since I'm not in the financial situation to help out right now (sorry Jennie) but I figured maybe somebody else could be and would appreciate a beautiful book of drawings.
You can check out her Kickstarter right here - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1263664726/puppykitty-a-book-of-drawings
Jennie's website with her other creations are over here - http://jennielennick.com/home.html