Mother’s Day in the Canoe: Crystal River, Florida

Mother’s Day, 2023

Our Pretty Mother’s Day Table

(The mini wine bottles are leftover from our Baby Shower that was a few days before.)

Brussels Sprouts Beignets…

..with a Bacon Aioli Sauce

This was a perfect Mother’s Day Meal

The Mini-Wine Placed into Lovely Flutes with Paper Flowers Attached

Marinated Grilled Chicken Breasts and Glass Noodles

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Our Flowering Purslane Weed

This lovely garden essential does play a tasty and healthy role in our Mother’s Day Foods.

Cutting the Purslane Flowering Weed

(Recipes are Down Below)

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On Our Way to Crystal River

My seat in the car always looks like this.

Plenty of bags full of books, cameras, extra this and that, and lots of snacks. The little colorful cushion belonged to my Grandmother, I use it to sit on while in the canoe.

Crystal River is a very short river in Citrus County, Florida, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. It is just seven miles (eleven kilometers) long, and has a drainage basin of five square miles (thirteen square kilometers), joining Kings Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. The river’s significance is in the thirty natural springs that add an average of 300 million gallons (1,135 million liters) of warm water to the river every day. These springs include Three Sisters Springs.

The warm water in the river attracts large numbers of manatees, and Kings Bay, at the head of the river and the location of 28 of the springs, harbors approximately 350 manatees during the winter. Some biologists consider Crystal River to be the most important refuge for manatees in the United States.^[1]

In the first half of the 19th century Crystal River was known as Weewahiiaca (wee-wah-heye-ih-YAH-kah), believed to be from the Creek language words wewa, meaning “water”, and haiyayaka, meaning “clear”. The city of Crystal River is located on the river. The Crystal River Energy Complex, which consists of four coal-burning power plants and the Crystal River Nuclear Plant, is located near the mouth of the river. The Crystal River Archaeological State Park is located on the river.

As Taken From:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_River_(Florida)

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This particular trip I had Gordon to determine the location via various books that we have on canoeing and kayaking in Florida.

He is the one that chose Crystal River as our Mother’s Day Canoe Adventure.

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When we entered the park, we paid to park here, right near the Canoe/Kayak Launch.

Our Canoe on Top of Our Car

I Wanted to Bring the Dogs Along for My Mother’s Day Canoe Ride

Sparky and Spooky, Excited About Their Canoe Adventure

(Well, not really but…)

There is Paid Parking, I Believe it Was about $10.00 For Us to Park Here

Me, Consoling Spooky and Sparky…

…they so tend to Freak Out About Everything!

Sparky and Spooky

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Gordon Removing the Canoe From the Car

(I love it when he says, “Hey Julie, can you grab the back end of the canoe and lift it up so that I can then slide it off the top of the car?” Me: “Are you kidding? I can’t lift that heavy thing!” To which he will then do it himself.) 🙂

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The Canoe Launch

Crystal River is very wide, open, and large.

It is also very beautiful.

Gordon Doing the Paddling

There Were Many Boats Out That Day!

I didn’t particularly like the deep water areas.

I tend to prefer the smaller intimate areas.

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The Homes and the Boats Were Beautiful

This Water is Way Too Deep For Me

I love how Spooky is using Sparky as a foot stool here. 🙂

Paddling Underneath a Pass

Now we are getting into more of my preferred territory.

Smaller and more intimate areas of Crystal River.

I love viewing the lovely homes!

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It was a pretty hot day. We made sure that we had plenty of food and water for Spooky and Sparky.

I did a few times splash water on them from the river. Just to cool them down.

We also had plenty of water for them in the canoe. Also, some towels for them to lie down on.

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Pete’s Pier Marina

(Gordon’s parents used to own a marina in Shallotte, North Carolina in the 90’s. They are a family of boat people.)

I think it’s funny that Spooky is now sitting on Sparky so that she can see what’s going on. 🙂

She is the smart one. Very intelligent, she is.

Gordon Paddling Around Looking for a Great Picnic Spot

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We Came Across Some Beautiful Manatees

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Spotting Our Picnic Spot!

(I would like to think that the Manatee’s led us here.) 🙂

This is me getting all the food ready to fix our plates.

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The Delicious Canoe Food Mess

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Very Proud of our Delicious Grilled Chicken and Glass Noodles w/ Herbs main course.

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Everything Was Delicious!

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Gordon Eating

He Has Us Tied To A Tree

Always Bring Along Some Rope, Just In Case

(Also, brush up on your knot tying. It’s important!)

I Don’t Necessarily Eat, I Just Tend to Snack

Putting Away the Slaw, and Getting out the Cantaloupe

Eating Cantaloupe Boats for Dessert

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I Do So Love Everything Swampy

Having a Look Around The Area

I Also Love These Homes

(The reason so many of them have these kind of docks, is so that the alligator’s can’t climb on to them and be in their yards.)

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Boaters Watch Out For Manatees

I always find that interesting. They leave it up to the boaters to decide how they want to proceed. Boaters aren’t about to curtail their activity to protect anything, much less the Manatees. Their boat propellers will chop up these beautiful creatures leaving marks on them for life, that is if they don’t kill them at the time of the abuse.

You know, a kind of cage could be constructed around a propeller so that no human or animal can get hurt by a propeller. I don’t see why that can’t be? It would prevent so much damage.

Three Sisters Access Path

We would have loved to have been able to go down this waterway to Three Sisters. However, it was under some sort of construction and the connection from Crystal River to Three Sisters was closed.

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Boaters do tend to be very friendly people. As we pass others people just seem to smile and say, “Hello.” When women and children see our dogs they seem to perk up and react positively by waving and commenting on how cute they are in their little life jackets. 🙂

Manatees Around That Boat

You can see how Manatees are around boats. All that boat captain has to do is turn on it’s engines and if a Manatee is close, then that Manatee gets chopped up. It’s really quite sad. I wish there were more regulations to protect them.

I LOVE Swamp Flowers!

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Heading Back Toward the Open Water

Spotted More Beautiful Manatees

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You Can See The Boat Propeller Scrapings On Their Backs

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Goodbye Beautiful Sweet Peaceful Manatees…

…Time To Head Back To The Boat Launch

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Leaving Crystal River, Headed Home

I saw this beautiful Coral Fence!

This is what I love about Florida. The uniqueness of it all. 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day Lovely Ladies,

Julie and Gordon

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RECIPES START HERE

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Our Colorful Mother’s Day Slaw

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Ingredients:

¾ Cup of each – Carrots (Yellow, Orange, and Purple) – peeled and grated

½ Cup Jicama – grated

½ Cup Celery – small dice

¼ Cup Banana Peppers – sliced

½ Cup Red Onion – diced

½ Cup Red Bell Peppers – diced

1 ¼ Cups Red Cabbage – sliced thinly

¼ Cup Parsley – chopped

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Jicama Sticks

Gordon, using a peeler to peel the bright purple carrot.

These look and taste vastly different from the normal orange variety. Also shown are some Home Grown Peppers from our garden that we used in this recipe. Be sure to taste them as you might not want Hot Peppers in this slaw.

In a medium sized bowl, add your Orange Carrots then grate your Yellow Carrots in with them.

Then do the same with your Purple Carrots and the Jicama.

Grating…

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Now add your Diced Celery to the bowl.

Nice close up of the ingredients Julie!

For your Peppers, remove the stem and slice the pepper in half to remove the seeds.

Taste a small portion of the pepper to see if it is Hot.

If you like the taste, slice it in sections then slice it in strips as shown, and add it to the bowl.

For your Red Onion, slice of the root and top portion of the onion. Remove the outer skin and slice the Onion in half as shown. Then slice the Onion into small section or dice. Add it to the bowl

Slice your Red Bell Pepper in half and remove the stem section as shown.

Remove the seeds as well.

Now, slice the pepper into long strips as shown, then into a dice and add them to the bowl.

Slice the root off your Red Cabbage, then in half and using a V-cut, slice out the white core.

Then slice the cabbage into thin strips as shown

Add the thin strips to the bowl and mix all the ingredients well using a rubber spatula.

Just look at all the beautiful colors!

Here We Are Placing the Slaw Into a Container For Our Canoe Trip

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Ingredients for the Slaw Dressing:

¼ Cup Parsley – chopped

1 tsp. Chili Powder

1 tsp. Hot Pepper Flakes

¾ Cup Rice Vinegar

½ Cup Olive Oil

1/2 Cup Lime Juice

1 Tbsp. Sugar

½ tsp. Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper to Taste

3 Tbsp. Apple Cider Vinegar with Turmeric and Honey

3 Tbsp. Mirin or Sweet Cooking Seasoning.

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Here is the Curly Parsley we used for the dressing.

Chop the Parsley thinly, but leaving it with a few larger pieces to give it some texture

Place the Chopped Parsley and Chili Powder in a bowl.

Then add your Hot Pepper Flakes, Rice Vinegar and Olive Oil to the bowl.

Now add your Lime Juice and sugar to the bowl.

Whisk the ingredients together.

Here is the Asian Salt we used. I like to use interesting ingredients.

Add your Salt and Pepper to the bowl.

Whisk and taste. I felt the dressing needed a little more vinegar/acid so I added some Apple Cider Vinegar with Turmeric and Honey in it.

Stirring Together

I also wanted a little more sweetness, so I added some Mirin or Sweet Cooking Seasoning and some more Lime Juice. I then tasted the mixture again and loved it.

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Add it to a container to pour over the Slaw just before you are ready to eat.

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Our Brussels Sprouts Beignets with Bacon Aioli

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Here are the ingredients for the Brussels Sprouts Benignets

Ingredients:

~30 Brussels Sprouts

8 Garlic Cloves

¼ Cup Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

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Remove a thin slice away from the base of the Brussels Sprout and remove any leaf that may be discolored. Wash the Brussels Sprouts well with fresh water in a colander. Add them to a large pan and turn the heat to medium. Add your Olive Oil and toss the Sprouts in the oil.

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You will also need a package of BACON!

Here we cooked the bacon in the microwave, and it turned out great. Save the Bacon Fat for the Aioli.

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Here you can see the Sprouts are getting a little brown… do this for all of them. The heat is also brining out the nice green color. Toss/turn the Sprouts in the oil as needed.

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Slice your Garlic thinly then chop them to an almost mince.

Julie caught a nice action shot of me tossing the Sprouts.

Here I am continuing to cook the Sprouts… this will take some time as there are many of them. Be sure to toss them in the oil for even cooking.

Here, you can see they are getting a nice browning to them as they are done.

Add some salt to the Sprouts and toss again.

Beautiful!

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Add your Freshly Ground Black pepper and Chopped Garlic to the pan, toss and cook for another 5 min. or so.

The last picture shows them done! Set them aside for use later.

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Now for the Benignets.

Here is a pepper we used in the Benignets flour mixture.

For the Benignets Dough:

1 Medium Hot Pepper – chopped thinly

1 Cup Flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Tbsp. Baking Powder

~3 Tbsp. Corn Starch

1 tsp. Hot Pepper Flakes

1 Cup Milk

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Then add some Salt and Pepper to taste, and then your Corn Starch.

The Corn Starch give the batter some nice crunch when fried.

Add your Hot Pepper Flakes and freshly chopped pepper.

Add enough Canola Oil to a medium sized pot to submerge the Brussels Sprouts.

Turn the heat to medium high.

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To Fry the Benignets:

6 Cups Canola Oil

I remove the stem section of the pepper and then sliced it in half and removed the seeds.

Then dice your pepper. Add your Flour and Baking Powder to a medium sized bowl.

Here you can see the dry ingredients in the bowl.

Add your Milk to the bowl.

Mix the ingredients well. It should be a little thin so add more milk if needed.

I dropped one of the Brussels Sprouts into the mixture and used a spoon to help coat the Sprout. The Oil is not hot, so carefully place the coated sprout into the oil.

Do this for about a dozen Sprouts at a time and cook them until browned, turning them as needed.

Here you can see they are nicely browned. Place them on a plate lined with paper towels.

Continue to fry the rest of the Sprouts.

Here are all the Sprouts and they look great!

Delicious Flavor

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Mother’s Day Brussels Sprouts Benignets and Aioli

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Aioli ingredients:

1/2 Pkg. Bacon – Cooked/Broken into small pieces – save the bacon fat

3 Egg Yolks

2 Tbsp. Bacon Fat

2 Tbsp. Green Onions

Salt and Pepper to taste

2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice

3/4 Cup Olive Oil

1 Tbsp. Sugar

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Another shot of the Beautiful Benignets

Here you can see I am using a large bowl as you will have to vigorously whisk the ingredients and you will need the space to do it.

Add your egg yolks to the bowl. I do this by breaking the egg into my hand letting my separated fingers remove the egg whites. Save the egg whites for your eggs in the morning as they will last a long while.

Add some of that great Bacon Fat to the egg yolks

Here is a great close-up from Julie!

Add your Chopped Green Onions to the bowl.

Now your Salt and Pepper to Taste

Then your Lemon Juice

Now, whisk the ingredients with one hand….

While the other hand is used to pour in the Olive Oil.

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Here is a great shot of the bacon.

When nicely combined, add your Bacon

Add a touch of sugar to give it a nice little hint of sweetness.

Whisk the ingredients to just combine the bacon and you are done!

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Julie set a great table to this Wonderful Mother’s Day!

Add the Aioli to a bowl.

We hope you enjoy this Mother’s Day Brussels Sprouts Benignet and Aioli recipes!

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Grilled Teriyaki Chicken with Glass Noodles

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Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. Canola Oil
Aloha Soy Sauce
3 Tbsp. Splenda Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Ginger Powder
1 tsp. 5 Spice Powder
3 Chicken Breasts – rinsed with cold water and drained
1 Bag. Rice Noodles
2 Tbsp. Sesame Oil
2 Tbsp. Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce

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Start by adding your Canola Oil to a large zip lock bag.

Now, add your Soy Sauce, we prefer the Aloha brand as it just tastes good.

Then add your Splenda Brown Sugar. Here you could add most any type of sweetener
or like white sugar, cane sugar, Sweet Soy Sauce, light or dark brown sugar or honey.
You could also use a combination of those. You just don’t want it too sweet or too salty
so you will have to taste it.

Now add your seasoning of Ginger Powder and 5 Spice Powder. You could also use
fresh grated ginger if you have it.

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Here I am rinsing the chicken to get any blood or bone fragments off the chicken. Then
place it on a plate lined with paper towels to let it dry some.

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Now, add your Chicken Breasts to the bag with the marinade.

Seal the bag tightly, the move the Chicken around inside the bag to ensure the
marinade covers all the chicken.

In a large pot boil some water then add your noodles. Cook them for just a few minutes
or as directed by the bag. In no time at all the noodles are already cooked and
softened.

Pour the noodles into a large colander as shown.

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After the noodles have drained a bit, place them in a bowl and add your Sesame Oil and
mix them well.

This will help prevent the noodles from sticking together.

To give the noodles even more flavor, add some Hawaiian Teriyaki Sauce.

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Grilling The Chicken Breasts

This is easy enough for anyone to do. I was able to get this great cast iron skillet made for grilling from a neighbor of ours at her yard sale who said it was in her family for a while. When I got it was rusty and needed some TLC. Her family didn’t want it and was waiting for me to come over as she knew I would like it and get it back to a usable state. As you can see, it looks and works great.

For this recipe, I used three large chicken breasts and some peanut oil for the skillet.

Start by adding about a Tbsp. of peanut oil to the skillet, using a paper towel to spread it all over. Heat the skillet to Medium High Heat and when the skillet is at temperature, place in the chicken breasts and don’t move them. While they are cooking, turn your oven to 350’F. This method of cooking the chicken is easier as you can see the chicken turn from pink to tan as it is cooked. After about 6-8 min. you will see the tan color go up the side of the chicken. When it reached just above halfway, turn the chicken breast over. Here you can see by not moving the chicken, I have some great grill marks.

Place the skillet in your oven and bake the chicken for about 6-10 min. or until the chicken is at an internal temperature of 160’F.

Remove the skillet from the oven and let it rest for at least 8 min. This will allow the super-heated juices from the outside of the chicken to flow back into the center of the chicken cooking it to 165’F. If you were to cut into the chicken during this time period, the flow of juices would be interrupted and juices would simply flow out from the cut, producing a dry chicken.

The Chicken Ready to Plate

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Cantaloupe

I suppose that to many a Cantaloupe would be considered in the ‘salad’ category of a picnic meal, but to us it is the dessert. Especially when it is cut into boats, just like my Grandmother Nellie Mae would serve them. She loved Cantaloupe. I think of her every time I see one, let alone, eat one. 🙂 Happy Mother’s Day Grammaw!

Cantaloupe, the Grand Finale of our Mother’s Day Picnic

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And, there are always leftovers in this house to enjoy for days and days. 🙂