A Good Lunch is "Easy" at the Over Easy Cafe on Sanibel!

Today, our last full day on Sanibel Island, we took Poco shopping at the Olde Sanibel Shoppes. After a stop at Island Paws, a fun shop catering to pets (mostly dogs), where we bought Poco a little bandana and us a set of Maltese drink coasters, we went for lunch at the Over Easy Cafe. The manager here at the Signal Inn, where we're staying, recommended it for its good food and dog-friendly service.

We sat at an outdoor table, under a fan-cooled canopy, and Poco did his charming puppy routine...which he's very good at! The server brought us a glass of ice water for Poco, which we poured into his foldable soft bowl. Then we got down to ordering and enjoying our lunch...

Lisa chose the lemon-pepper grilled mahi sandwich, and she selected a side of pasta salad from the choices of french fries, cole slaw, cottage cheese, or the pasta salad. Although she thought the mahi tasted more of blackening spices than lemon-pepper, she enjoyed it.

I had the crunchy grouper sandwich and it was a full filet and very crunchy! The grouper was very sweet and tasty, and the cole slaw I chose had a touch of onion. The sliced tomatoes we both were served with our sandwiches were very ripe and juicy!

Since they had some special desserts we decided to try them. Lisa ordered the apple crisp, which came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and I had the bread pudding, made from the Cafe's homemade cinnamon rolls. We both found the apple crisp to have almost too much cinnamon, to the point of being spicy. I liked the bread pudding but both portions were way too big to finish!

Check out the Over Easy Cafe when you visit Sanibel! (http://www.overeasycafesanibel.com/)

Sanibel Has "The World's Best Breakfast"!

Since we hadn't shopped last night we just HAD to go out for breakfast! We'd read that the Lighthouse Cafe has "The World's Best Breakfast" so we decided to see for ourselves...

As you might expect from the name, the Lighthouse Cafe (http://www.lighthousecafe.com/) is located right down the street from the Sanibel Lighthouse, and capitalizes on this with a decor of walls filled with photos, drawings, & paintings of lighthouses around the world. Shelves contain lighthouse figurines.

OK, to the food...Lisa selected the Eggs Benedict ($8.95), which was classic in its ingredients of the English muffin base (you could have it "Lighthouse-style" by choosing a croissant for $1.00 more) with ham and poached egg but took a different turn with a Key Lime Hollandaise sauce. You're served two "Bennies" sided by "Lighthouse potatoes", which are really delicious cubed home fries with onions. Lisa turned out be a little disenchanted with the tang of the Key Lime Hollandaise sauce and would have preferred the standard preparation.

I had the Blueberry Whole Wheat Hotcakes ($6.95) (the menu states, "Our own recipe made from Whole Wheat Flour, Brown Sugar, fresh Eggs and whole Milk")...there were three large beauties on the plate, chocked full of small fresh blueberries. They serve these with a small pitcher of warm blueberry sauce but I opted for the warm maple syrup (purist that I am). I selected a side order of smoked sausage links ($3.50), which had all the qualities one wants in a sausage...lucious links of smoky, salty, "porkiness".

The Lighthouse Cafe has tons of other breakfast items like "Pan-Handled" egg dishes, omelettes, frittatas. I filed the "Ocean Frittata" away for a future visit...it has shrimp, scallops, "krabmeat", broccoli, & mushrooms with artichoke hearts and an Alfredo Sauce topping.

Try the Lighthouse Cafe when you visit Sanibel Island! You won't be disappointed!

Gourmet Librarians go to Sanibel Island (Post #1)

We're spending the Memorial Day weekend on Sanibel Island, on the southwest coast of Florida. Since we'll be here until Monday, we'll let you know where we eat and how it was! Since we're staying at a nice little apartment we also can cook so we might create some island specialities!

Tonight we ate out since we were tired and didn't feel like shopping. Some of the guests who'd signed the guestbook in our unit recommended the Island Cow restaurant (http://www.sanibelislandcow.com/), and after reading the menu in the magazine here, we decided to try it. They also have outdoor seating and we're able to take our little Maltese, Poco, to dinner!

The menu at the Island Cow is HUGE...both in size and selections! It was hard for me to decide what to have. I eventually chose what they call the "Holy Cow!" basket ($23.99 with grouper). It was a fried seafood lover's delight of calamari, clams, scallops, oyster, shrimp, and a filet of the catch of the day. I chose grouper. Fries and Tropical Cole Slaw (with small pineapple chunks) and two hush puppies joined the seafood in the very crowded basket. Small cups contained cocktail sauce, marinara sauce, tartar sauce, and 1,000 Island Dressing.

This very ample dinner was crisply fried with not an ounce of oil anywhere! I needed a box to tote some leftovers back to our unit...

Lisa had the "Fishin' Rules" dinner, which basically lets you create your own plate...choose a fish (Lisa had mahi at $18.99), choose your preparation method (Lisa had them char-grill it), choose two sides (cheese grits & steamed veggies for Lisa).

The mahi was tasty with a pleasant grilled flavor, and the veggies were delicious. Unfortunately, the cheese grits were a bit watery.

We'll likely go back to the Island Cow before we leave Sanibel because, as their menu states, they have "Udderly Great Food"! We agree!

A "Cheesy" Luncheon!

Last Saturday we hosted a luncheon, and as Lisa described, we ordered a cheese platter containing 3 cheeses from The Cheese Course in Mizner Park in Boca Raton, FL. Because we're all about "gilding the lily" we decided to create three "kicked up" versions of a grilled cheese sandwich. Actually, they were more like paninis...

First, we decided on something with ham & cheese, similar to the sandwich we had at The Cheese Course but grilled. We chose Black Forest Ha, picked up a nice aged Gouda that we sliced on our slicing machine, and decided to add sliced pears. We baked a brioche loaf to hold all these goodies!

Next, we went traditional Italian veggie...grilled eggplant & red onion, mozzarella, and roasted pepper. For this we baked a rustic log of whole wheat.

The third sandwich had smoked turkey, Fontina cheese, and caramelized onions, also on the brioche...

We served a variety of accompaniments that we'd found while cruising the aisles at Whole Foods...fig preserves, honey mustard, spinach artichoke spread, and an interesting plum smoked tea spread.

Once the sandwiches were grilled we cut them into quarters and served them to our friends...and it was good!

The Cheese Course

An aged gouda

Oma




Cabbot Clothbound Cheddar

Winnemere

Tetilla

We had heard from friends about this shop/cafe and wanted to try it so were very excited when we learned that they were opening up a shop in Boca. We went there for lunch a couple of weeks ago then ordered a cheese platter for a luncheon we were hosting the following week. We were quite pleased with both experiences.



For lunch we ordered a 2 cheese cheese course and a Black Forrest Ham sandwich. The cheese course came with 2 cheeses, baguette bread, and one accompaniment. We ordered Winnemere cheese (a somewhat stinky, washed rind cheese) and Tetilla a semi-hard, very mild cheese. The accompaniment we choose was the raspberry/cranberry relish and we added a tapanade to go with. The Winnemere was rather mild and though I am not a huge stinky cheese fan, we both really liked it. The Tetilla was VERY mild and we felt lacking in flavor. The accompaniments and bread were all excellent. The sandiwch came with brie, raspberry/cranberry relish and greens. It was very good. They also had 2 different types if cheese for sampling. While we were there, we ordered a small cheese platter to go with a luncheon we were hosting the following week.



The platter came with 3 cheeses, 2 accompaniments, grapes and a baguette. For this, we ordered Cabbot Clothbound Cheddar (aged and rather sharp), Repenauer (an aged gouda also somewhat sharp) and the Winnemere with the raspberry/cranberry relish and sundried tomato pesto. During the week I received 2 calls from the folks there saying first that the Winnemere, being at the end of its season, may not be available and asking if she could substitute Oma, also a washed rind cheese. I said yes. She called again saying that though they had the Winnemere she was not satisfied with its quality (again because it was at the end of its season) and we agreed to substitute Oma. All cheeses were great as were the accompaniments.



The staff were extremely knowledgeable and great at customer service. Definitely this has become one of our favorites and we will return often.