Summer Warm & Fuzzies

An apple a day keeps the doctor away ... or so they say. But this recipe isn't one of those. Oh no. Loaded with "buttah" and "sugah" this is definitely not doctor's orders. But it is darn good comfort food!

Perhaps its the comfort of the quintessential scent of Fall that makes me all warm and fuzzy. And I know you're thinking, "Rachelle, why on this green earth would I need something warm and fuzzy in the middle of June!?"

Well, the answer to that is this recipe is extremely diverse. Swap out the apples for summer blueberries or peaches and you've got a great 4th of July family brunch or dollop on some vanilla ice cream for a backyard bbq dessert. I just baked it in it's original form, but one could definitely get creative with the fruit.

So turn off the latest news, turn on your oven and create some smiles with this recipe.

Check out the whole recipe and my baking photos here:

Apple Puffed Pancake.

--Rachelle

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Yappy Hour

The only thing that could possibly be better than happy hour ... is yappy hour.

The Wine Den and Piglet's Pantry had a genius moment when they started this event ... where tail wagging friends can bring their humans downtown for some wine while they bark about the latest news.

Each time I go it gets bigger and better! Every 3rd Friday ... come join us!











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Top 10 Weird Luggage Items Revealed

There was an article recently that caught my attention. It was discussing the strange things TSA find in airport inspections.

It made me wonder, what are the oddest things people travel with?

Well, I googled it ... and then posted my favorite (or most jaw dropping) once on Twitter.

Here they are ... Top 10 Weird Luggage Items.


#1: For the cool stuff you WISH you would find ... go here: http://www.unclaimedbaggage....

#2: A bag full live roaches. Glad I wasn’t standing in THAT security line barefoot w/ my shoes in a bucket.

#3: A 40-carat natural emerald, & once $1.2 million in diamonds … wish I found that one! http://bit.ly/wxDSZ

#4: Eyeballs. http://bit.ly/2yvxV Sure that was a sight! Ha! Starting to sound like an episode of Bizarre Foods

#5: A human skull http://bit.ly/3S9a1k. And I was worried about a carrying on bottle of lotion that was an ounce too big!?

#6: Pigeons In Pants. http://bit.ly/QPt1W

#7: Found ... A guidance system for an f-16 fighter http://bit.ly/Gfexb

#8: A Live Cobra. Whoa. http://bit.ly/2nLVDM

#9: Full Suit of Armor http://bit.ly/1exxG

#10: Life-sized Jim Henson characters & the Muppet character Hoggle from the movie Labyrinth http://bit.ly/vdwE7

We innkeepers usually don't find anything unusual left in rooms. Almost always there will be a cell phone charger left behind. If you are traveling ... when you leave ... double check to make sure you have your cell phone charger. We've collected at least 20 of those this past year.

Got any others you could add to this list? Let me know in your comments below.

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Top 10 Travel Trivia Revealed

Last Monday, I ran a series of goofy (but interesting!) bits of travel trivia on Twitter. It was our first contest run through the Twitter machine, and I have the winner listed at the end of the post.

I hope you have as much fun reading these as I had collecting them! Keep watching Twitter on Mondays ... if I find something that makes Monday a bit more bearable by inspiring a laugh or a smile, I'll tweet it.



Travel Trivia Top 10

#1: Each US hh would pay $988 more in tax w/o the tax rev generated by the tourism industry. Go TRAVEL!

#2: In 1987, American Airlines saved $40,000 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first class.

#3: The word taxi is spelled the same in English, German, French, Swedish. Dutch, and Portuguese ... convenient!

#4: Hurricane Season now in Florida ... but did you know in Australia a hurricane is called a willy-willy?

#5: On an average day 102 people visit the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco, TX

#6: Covering 47 square miles, Walt Disney World Resort is about the size of San Francisco or two Manhattan islands.

#7: The Tokyo Zoo in Japan, closes down for two months every year to give the animals a little break from the people.

#8: There's only one mobile U.S. national monument: the cable cars in San Fransisco.

#9: The “you are here” arrow on maps is called ... an ideo locater.

#10: The country with the most number of islands ... Finland

And the winner is ...

@LepowPhoto

Congrats!

--Rachelle

Lake County Green Symposium

Every once in awhile we get the rare opportunity to look outside of our comfort zones and be challenged to break out of our regular habits and patterns.

This morning was one of those mornings.

I woke up early and walked down to Mount Dora Coffee House for a cappucino and then strolled across the block to the Lakeside Inn where Lake County hosted their first Professionals Turning Green Symposium.

The first panel of speakers, including yours truly, were discussing the green initiatives of the Florida Green Lodging Program. I discussed methods we used to incorporate the four main initiatives of the program which included Water Conservation, Energy Conservation, Waste Reduction and Clean Air Practices.

My perspective of these issues broadened while hearing from other industry experts regarding water and waste management issues. Sometimes the subject of conservation can be so heavy and dull with technical jargon that it seems far removed from our daily lives. However, today's speakers really painted a picture of what these municipal processes entail and how if each person really can make a difference just through making conscious choices.

I was reminded about small things such as vitamins, prescriptions and batteries that so often get tossed away, yet should be recycled properly. A handful of vitamins seems so insignificant, but when multiplied by the number of people in the state it does have an impact on our water supply.

This is just one of the many "ah-ha" moments I experienced this morning. It's always good to exercise the mind now and again to be reminded of the things we forget about in our busy day-to-day.

Rachelle Lucas & Sharon Tatum

Debi Dyer, Rachelle Lucas, Greg Mihalic

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Pillow Talk

To bleach,

or not to bleach,

that is the question.

The answer? I hope you've got some suggestions for me.

Soooooo ... one of our pillow shams snuck into a load of reds.

And what do you guess happened? I now have a pink pillow sham.

I like pink.

But I now have an un-matching white comforter and used-to-match sham.

What to do?

I can't bleach it. First of all, we're "green."

Second, it would have ruined the design on the other side.

Any suggestions for getting the pink out?

Otherwise, I'm just going to throw the whole dang thing in with a load of reds and call it my pink-dye experiment.

At least then I'll have a matching set!

Ah well. Back to laundry. A day in the life of an innkeeper ...

--Rachelle

Beer ... with Breakfast ...

So, it's been one of those crazy busy weeks where I just had to pop one open at breakfast.

(Pause)

Crickets ...

Gasps ...

SIKE!

Just kidding!

I had a fun afternoon in the kitchen last week shooting a couple of recipes with my friend Jim Hobart and his fancy schmancy camera. One of those recipes was deliberately paired with beer.

I'm not usually a beer drinker. I'm more of a wine kinda gal.

Specifically red.

Pinot. To be exact.

Anyway. The recipe is an apple and goat cheese omelet paired with a Brooklyner Weisse. I LOVE goat cheese, so I think that's what sold me on it. It was from the Brooklyn Brewery and I was inspired to give it a try after a visit from our friends Tom & Gayle. Read more about their visit here.

Too my shock and surprise ... the omelet was FANTASTIC with beer! Wow.

Try it for yourself. Test out the recipe posted on my other blog, Inn The Kitchen.

--Rachelle

Travel Trivia Tweet Contest

Today I posted my favorite Top 10 pieces of Travel Trivia @Travelblggr.

Some are hysterical ... ALL are TRUE!

The 10th person to email TremainStreetCottages (at) gmail (dot) com all 10 of my trivia tweets will win a BOGO night at Tremain Street Cottages.

What is a "BOGO" night, you ask? BUY ONE night, GET ONE free.

How to participate:

1) Follow Travelblgger

2) Find all 10 Travel Trivia.

3) Email them to TremainStreetCottages (at) gmail (dot) com along with your Twitter ID.


Happy Tweeting!

--Rachelle