Greetings from Fort Myers, Florida, the City of Palms

Greetings from Fort Myers, Florida, the City of Palms. Because I haven’t written a post for a while I wanted to check in and say hello. I miss all of you so very much and want to thank those that have written to check on me and to ask how I’m doing. Thank you. Your friendship is one of the greatest pleasures of blogging.

Believe it or not, we’re still in the midst of settling in. Don’t let anyone tell you that merging two completely furnished houses into one is easy – far from it. I still have numerous boxes in the garage yet to be unpacked, including my vast collection of cookbooks (there are no bookshelves in this house – yet, but hopefully we’ll have some soon). To further complicate things, we are planning to rip out and replace our original mid-seventies kitchen and laundry room this spring or early summer and replace them with an up-to-date kitchen and turn the laundry into a butler’s pantry & bar that will include more storage for china & glass. For those of you that have been through this kind of “tear out and replace everything” experience, I know that you’ll understand how busy we’ve been working with various kitchen designers, plumbers, electricians and contractors to find the ones that are right for our job and budget.

We are enjoying Fort Myers very much. Our home is in Whiskey Creek, an older, established neighborhood off of McGregor Boulevard that includes a golf course and country club. It is very convenient to shopping and nice restaurants. McGregor Boulevard is one of the main arteries in the city from downtown, running alongside the Caloosahatchee River, and is often referred to as the “Grand Dame of Fort Myers.” It is also the route to Sanibel and Captiva Islands and Fort Myers Beach. McGregor Boulevard is lined on both side of the street with lovely old royal palm trees. Because Thomas Edison had a deep respect for nature, he was determined to beautify the Fort Myers area, so he imported and planted the royal palms lining McGregor Boulevard and those palms are how the “City of Palms” nickname came about.

Thomas Edison ("Seminole Lodge") and Henry Ford’s winter home (“The Mangos”) are located side by side on McGregor Boulevard on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. Long time readers of My Carolina Kitchen will remember my post several years ago that featured Seminole Lodge, Edison’s home, link here. Both the Edison & Ford’s home, including Edison’s laboratory, are open to the public and a do-not-miss when visiting the area. Edison and Ford, along with Henry Firestone, who also had a home here, were generally considered the three leaders in American industry at the time, and often worked and vacationed together.

Thomas Edison's Estate

I’ve long been fascinated with history and more precisely, what role women played in history. Recently I discovered that there 2 women who are responsible for the gorgeous palms that line McGregor Boulevard.

One was Mina Edison, Thomas Edison’s wife. Thomas Edison donated the royal palms along the boulevard from downtown to their estate, but after Edison’s death it was Mina’s efforts that continued the beautiful stately palms that line McGregor Boulevard from the Edison estate to Whiskey Creek, about 3 miles south, where our home is located. Mina Edison had been around famous people all of her life. She gracefully entertained many famous guests such as Presidents Hoover and Wilson, the kings of Sweden & Siam, educator “Black Jack” Pershing and Helen Keller, industrialists Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and George Eastman. Other guests included Orville Wright, Charles Lindbergh and famed musical artists of the time that Edison had recorded on his phonograph records.

The other is Tootie McGregor, wife of Aston McGregor, a prominent Fort Myers pioneer who became the President of Standard Oil and for whom McGregor Boulevard is named. At Aston McGregor’s death his fortune was estimated at 12 million dollars in today’s economy. Not many people can say they made the world a bit more beautiful, but that’s exactly the legacy of Tootie McGregor. Tootie is considered one of Fort Myer’s founding mothers and is credited for converting Riverside Road, now McGregor Boulevard, from a dirt cattle trail to the elegant tree-lined McGregor Boulevard of today. It was Tootie who continued the Edison's elegant palms from Whiskey Creek all the way to Punta Rassa. Punta Rassa was named by the Spanish Conquistadors in the mid-16th century that unloaded cattle in the area. It was a thriving cattle shipping town in the 1800’s, where cattle would be loaded at the port on ships destined for Cuba. It was one of the home bases for Jake Summerlin, who was one of the wealthiest cattle barons in Florida by the time he reached age 40 and believed to be the first child born in Florida after the land was ceded by Spain. Today the palm lined McGregor Boulevard stretches 14 miles from downtown to Punta Rassa. Punta Rassa fell on hard times and most people today know it to be nothing more than a quaint section on Summerlin Road that links Sanibel Island with the great Fort Myers area.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the history McGregor Boulevard and how Fort Myers became the “City of Palms.” Of course the Edison’s and McGregor’s contributed much much more to Fort Myers that I’ve covered today, but we drive along McGregor Boulevard almost every day and I always think of Mina Edison and Tootie McGregor when I see the magnificent palms that grace the old boulevard.

To close with a bit of trivia, with almost 1100 patents to his credit, Thomas Edison has been dubbed “America’s prolific inventor.”  We all know his achievements include the electric light bulb, phonograph, movie camera & projector and the ticker tape machine. However, you might not know some of his lesser known inventions - wax paper, tin foil and mucilage, the “sticky stuff” that is affixed to postage stamps, envelopes, and labels.

For better viewing, click photos to enlarge. 

Have a nice weekend everyone and thanks for stopping by My Carolina Kitchen.

The Dock at Crayton Cove - a Tropical Taste of old Naples Florida

The Dock at Crayton Cove is a seafood restaurant located on the Fishing Pier in Naples, Florida that advertises a laid-back attitude with bay views and great food. They like to think of themselves as a little piece of Naples’ history. They’ve been there for more than 30 years, and for a lot of locals and visitors too, they’re practically part of the family.

For us that is really true. A trip to Naples always includes lunch at the Dock. We’ve been dining at the Dock in Naples since the seventies when Meakin’s mother retired to nearby Marco Island.

A little history of the area - The Naples Fishing Pier was originally built as a freight and passenger dock in 1888. In the 1920’s the area was known as “The Back Bay” because it provided the town’s first sheltered moorage. It became the community center for the year-around pioneers who were building the Tamiami Trail, creating a fishing industry, and laying the foundation for Naples. Renamed “Crayton Cove” in 1936, it remains an integral part of  Naples’ social and business life while providing a rare glimpse into the town’s earliest days.

The Dock is an open-air restaurant overlooking Naples Bay. You can come by car or boat.

Seafood has been a three-decade love affair at the restaurant where, according to their menu, they offer "seasonally superior fin-fish, shellfish and crustaceans energized with tropical flavors. The preparation reflects the area’s cultural history of the Caribbean and Latin cuisines." In our opinion, it's some of the best seafood in southwest Florida.

On our most recent visit I had the porcupine grouper with mango Thai chili sauce and pineapple salsa that was not only crispy and delicious, but also very colorful as you can see.

Meakin can never resist calamari, so he chose the flash fried calamari “Ropa Vieja” with a spicy red sauce and a drizzle of secret sauce. His favorite way to start his meal is with a wonderful bowl with steaming clam chowder. The Dock's chowder was chock full of clams and had a very nice consistency, not too much of a flourly taste as some inferior chowders are inclined to have.

Meakin’s mother’s favorite item was always the Dock hotdog, a foot long affair with all of the trimmings. I can still hear her saying, “Tell 'em to burn it.” Many times since her death we’ve ordered the hotdog in her memory, which is no longer on the menu. You almost have to be a local to know about it. Last time I ordered the hotdog, an older gentleman at a table near us (who was very snappy dresser in his starched shirt and bow tie) nodded and winked as his sign of approval when he saw the waitress serve my hotdog.

We recommended The Dock to our friend Larry of Big Dude’s Eclectic Ramblings when he was in the area last fall. He ordered the seafood tower which included 6 raw oysters and clams, 12 steamed mussels, 6 boiled shrimp and half a snow crab, plus 3 sauces and lots of napkins. To quote Larry, “I enjoyed every bite and while it looked like a lot to eat, about 75 percent of it was still on the tower when I finished and I was pleasantly full. The waitress said she’d served several sea food towers as a table-wide appetizer, but never to a person as a meal. She can count on her second time when I come down next year.”

We never leave Napes without a stroll down the glamorous and ritzy shops on Fifth Avenue South, one of the nation’s premier shopping districts. One of my favorite stops is Cleopatra’s Barge.

This fine jewelry shop has been in business for 44 years and owner & designer Marilyn Janss is one talented lady. She was trained by two premier jewelers, one of whom designed and manufactured jewelry for Cartier, Tiffany & Co., and Van Cleef & Arpel. I have an “I Love You” gold charm that was designed by Marilyn for Meakin’s mother as a gift from her husband and every time I wear it I can count on getting compliments.

Among the many other unique creations at Cleopatra's Barge, Marilyn has designed a lovely Naples Medallion in 14k yellow gold or sterling silver to celebrate the Naples Fishing Pier, where we just dined. Don’t leave Naples without a stop at Cleopatra's Barge.

Cheers and good-bye from Naples, Florida and The Dock at Crayton Cove where locals and visitors alike have been enjoying consistently excellent seafood, tasty salads and sandwiches, tempting beef, poultry and pasta dishes in a casual, laid back setting for over 30 years. In a town full of jewelry stores catering to the wealthy and elite, Cleopatra's Barge is the insider's favorite (sorry Tiffany).

The opinions in this post are solely my own and I was not compensated in any way. I will be linking this to Miz Helen’s Country Cottage Full Plate Thursday and Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum.

A stroll down Duval Street in Key West, Florida

One of the first things you notice when you arrive in Key West is the roosters and chickens that roam freely on the streets. While it’s perfectly legal to keep chickens here and they’ve become a legend over the years, the chicken population has stirred up quite a controversy among the locals. Read more about the chicken wars here. We photographed this handsome fellow near Duval Street, happy as a lark, walking right along with the tourists with not a care in the world. Come to think of it, maybe being a rooster in Key West isn’t all that bad after all. Nice work if you can get it.

Duval Street in Key West, Florida is often called the longest street in the world because it runs across the island from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. To say it’s a tourist attraction is an understatement. In addition to people such as ourselves that drove last month to the Keys to spend a couple of days soaking up the sun and relaxing in one of the many Victorian homes that now operate as lodges, hordes of day-trippers disembark from cruise ships that pull up to the dock in Key West daily and join the others that stroll Duval Street.

Sloppy Joe’s Bar, a favorite haunt of Key West’s legendary resident Ernest Hemingway, is one of the first places day-trippers stop on Duval Street. Hemingway once branded the offbeat ambiance of Key West “the St. Tropez of the poor.” Sloppy Joe’s opened the day prohibition ended in the US, December 5, 1933. However, the bar hasn’t always been called Sloppy Joes. As the story goes, it was originally a bar/club of shabby discomfort, good friends, gambling, fifteen-cent whiskey, and ten-cent shots of gin. The club also sold liquor and iced seafood and consequently the floor was always wet from the melted ice. Hemingway and his mob of cronies taunted owner Jose Garcia about running a sloppy joint and the name stuck. Sloppy Joe’s is now a Key West institution attracting the day crowd where the music gets louder as the day goes on and the word on the street is they serve a good “sloppy Joe.”

We opted to start the morning off down the street at Fogarty’s Flying Monkey Bar with a Bloody Mary. The white “cloud” coming from the roof is mist that’s sprayed in the air along the sidewalks up and down Duval Street. Supposedly it’s to help the tourists stay cool. Believe me, it definitely doesn’t make for a good hair day (you’ll see my hair later and agree). The bar specializes in frozen drinks, but we stuck with our first choice.

When we took a sip of the Flying Monkeys Bar’s very hot and spicy Bloody Mary, Meakin asked the bartender if there was a secret ingredient in them, dried thyme perhaps? The bartender shrugged his shoulders, then turned around, opened the cash register, took out a slip of paper from under the till, and casually handed it to us. Much to our surprise, it was the list of ingredients that he had added to the tomato juice just minutes earlier to make the Flying Monkeys Bar’s Bloody Mary. I asked if I could write them down and he said “sure,” so I did. You ask for a recipe and they hand it over. How often does that happen? Not often enough.  As I scanned the list, it appears that Old Bay seasonings is their secret ingredient.

Flying Monkeys Bar’s Bloody Mary Mix
Here are the seasonings that were added to a gallon to tomato juice at Fogarty’s Flying Monkeys Bar: 2 ounces Worcestershire sauce, 5 tablespoons prepared horseradish, 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasonings, 1 tablespoon celery salt, 2 ounces lemon juice, 1 tablespoon Kosher salt, 1 tablespoon pepper, ¼ ounce Tabasco sauce, and 2 teaspoons blacking spice. Add vodka, gin or Cruzan gold rum (my personal favorite) to taste. It’s hot enough to bring tears to your eyes.

There are all sorts of ways of navigate your way around Key West.

Soon we were hungry and ready for some seafood for lunch. We decided on The Conch Republic Seafood Company, located on the historic harbor walk right around the corner from Duval Street. Meakin snapped this photo of a lovely lady sitting at the bar enjoying conch fritters with a key lime mustard sauce.

We started our meal with a tropical Rum Runner cocktail and no, unfortunately I wasn’t lucky enough to get the recipe this time. However, after living in the islands for years, we make a mean rum drink and here’s our recipe below, fashioned after the famous Guana Grabber drink in the Bahamas.

Bahamian Rum Runner Cocktail
Mix 1 ounce grapefruit juice, 3 ounces pineapple juice, 1 ounce orange juice with 1 ounce light rum, 1 ounce coconut rum, and 1 ounce Myer’s dark rum. Add a dash of grenadine, combine with ice and shake well. Strain and pour over fresh ice. Garnish as desired. Serves one.

The dozen oysters Meakin enjoyed for lunch were so briny and sweet he almost ordered a second round.

I had my heart set on a conch salad, but unfortunately it wasn’t on the menu, so I chose their Island Salad mixed with greens, avocado slices, mangos, oranges, tomatoes and cucumbers, tossed in a citrus vinaigrette and garnished with plantain chips. Very refreshing and healthy.

We chose the elegant, yet laid back Bagatelle’s restaurant on Duval Street for dinner and dined on the porch. The chef combines classical French cuisine with the indigenous tastes of the Keys and the Caribbean in his dishes. Again I was hoping to have a conch salad as an appetizer. The waitress informed me that conch wasn’t in season, so I enjoyed their rich yet delicate creamy fish chowder loaded with local seafood.

Meakin enjoyed another rich, decidedly French appetizer, mussels (or moules if you wish) in cream sauce while he sipped on a drink called An Old Cuban, which tasted similar to a margarita with mint.

The Florida Keys are not at all typical of the rest of the state. In the early 1800’s, they were founded on a seafaring, salvaging economy rather than agriculture or tourism.

Thousands of ships sailed between Cuba and Florida during this time, making it one of the busiest shipping routes in the world. The ships were square-rigged and often overloaded, making them difficult to sail and they didn’t go into the wind very well. Among the hazards facing the captains of these ships were the currents, weather, and shallow waters over the coral of the Florida Reef. Many of them ran onto the rocks and the hull of their ships ripped open and sank, while others were left on the rocks. Almost no charts were available to show were the reefs were, no lighthouses guided the captains into safe waters, and they had no warnings about threatening weather. Worse still, legendary pirates such as Blackbeard roamed these waters.

This simple white frame cottage is now the Wrecker’s Museum and was built by one of the earliest Key West settlers who came north from Nassau in the Bahamas, hence the Bahamian flag flying alongside the American flag.

The term “wreckers” refers to the people who went out and salvaged the crew, ship, and cargo of ships that had run aground. Some of this happened out of heroism and some out of piracy.

Because of the location and climate, the residents built eclectic style cottages and were called “Conch Style” after its creators - islanders who ate the meat of the large seashells. From the Bahamian settlers came airy cottages with open porches, hinged and louvered shutters, and verandas. From New Orleans came filigreed trellises and balustrades. Greek and Gothic Revival style homes swept the nation during Key West’s heyday, which ended about the time of the American Civil War. Many of these cottages survived and are lovingly restored into lodging and private homes. Here are some examples, including a regal white church proudly occupying its corner.

We stayed in the heart of the Historic District at the Pilot House, so we could walk everywhere and not have to worry with parking. Our room was in the restored Victorian Otto Mansion, one block off of Duval Street.

You see it all on Duval Street. Here someone has turned a dog into a sophisticated beggar of sorts, asking you to “give the dog a bone.” What can I say? The dog seemed content and looked well fed.

This trip to Key West was a month ago. We drove from Fort Myers, which took us about six hours. Next time we might fly or take one of the four big catamaran boats operated by Sea Key West that operate between Fort Myers Beach and Key West daily. Why not arrive in style in less than four hours, rested, relaxed and ready to have fun.

Just like any other touristy area, things don’t come cheap on Duval Street. Perhaps in Key West money does grow among the palm trees.

This will be linked to Oh the Places I've Been at The Tablescaper & Food on Friday at Carole's Chatter.

Room with a View

View from the bedroom

We are currently in the process of completely remodeling a condo in a marina overlooking the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers, on the Florida gulf coast. Fort Myers, as you may recall from one of my previous posts (see sidebar), was the winter home of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford and their homes are one of the main tourist attractions of the area. The climate is tropical and the winters are normally warm and mild. After living in the islands for ten years, you could say we’re spoiled and much prefer our winters warm now.

Our condo is located in a marina with some cute waterside restaurants that we can walk to. The marina has direct access to the Caloosahatchee River, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico, making it ideal for boating and fishing. When we lived in the islands, our boat was our only mode of transportation, except for a golf cart that we used to visit our friends that lived on the cay. We referred to it as our “station wagon of the sea.” Once the remodeling is completed and our credit card returns to normal, we hope to get another run-about and keep it in the condo’s marina.

The building we are in is twenty-eight years old and our unit has never been remodeled. As you can see from the pictures, it looked pretty bad. I counted the other day that in our forty-one years of marriage, we’ve owned fifteen homes, lived in twelve of them, and remodeled ten of the twelve. With twelve remodel jobs under our belt, this hopefully will be lucky thirteen.

Kitchen before

The kitchen has been gutted, the carpet and tiles have been ripped from the floors, the bathroom vanities have been torn out, and we’re ready to start putting everything back together.

Gutted kitchen

We have spent a great deal of time with kitchen designers and decorators in the past month. New kitchen cabinets and counters are on order along with bathroom vanities and tile for the floors. Colors throughout the unit have been chosen from Martha Stewart and lighting fixtures have been purchased.

It boggles my mind to think about all of the decisions as we’ve made in the last month. The decisions regarding lighting alone can give you a headache trying to figure everything out. Fortunately, we’ve hired a great contractor to take care of most of the projects for us. Normally we would have acted as our own contractor as we’ve always done in the past. However, as you get older (horrible to admit, but true) your mind thinks you can do the same things you did just a few years ago, but your body rebels and reminds you very quickly that you can’t lug sheetrock up three flights of stairs or chip tile off of the floor anymore.

Bathroom before

The fun part of remodeling for me is feathering the nest, choosing fabrics and furniture, and color schemes. This will be a winter home for us, so our good furniture won’t be making the trip south. I’m hoping to eventually have some modern office furniture in the library where I plan to have the computer and comfortable outdoor furniture for relaxing on the lanai (elsewhere in the world known as a screened porch) watching the boats come and go. Stay tuned.

Jumbo Lump Joe’s 'best crab cakes in the universe' and a sauce throw-down

My husband Meakin and I were driving along Pine Island Road in North Fort Myers, Florida the other day when suddenly I said, “Can we turn around and go back? I just saw a sleek, bright blue cart parked on the side of the road with ‘Jumbo Lump Joe’s’ written on the side. I think we should investigate.”

We found a vendor selling what he called ‘the best crab cakes in the universe.’ The man inside the cart told us, “I’ve won three state fair contests for the best crab cakes in the universe competition. I’m from Maryland and I know crab cakes.”

At the window another customer assured us that these were the best crab cakes in the universe. He had driven all the way from New Jersey he said. “Really?” I asked. “Well,” he replied as gave me a big reassuring smile, “I didn’t drive from New Jersey today, but I live there and so far these are the best crab cakes I’ve ever tasted.” We were sold.

Having won a couple of food contests myself, I know that the competition is fierce, so I was anxious to try Jumbo Lump Joe’s Maryland crab cakes that had been called ‘the best in the universe.’ Instead of the crab sandwich, we ordered individual crab cakes, a sample of Jumbo Lump Joe’s special sauce, and took everything home for a test drive.

When I got home I quickly whipped up my own version of a simple remoulade sauce that I thought wouldn’t overpower the cakes and decided to have a throw-down of sorts with Joe’s sauce vs. my remoulade. Since I represent the opposing team, I must tell you that my remoulade sauce is pretty darn good. I don’t follow an exact recipe, but I taste as I go. I start with some good mayonnaise (preferably Hellmans or homemade), add a dash of Dijon mustard, a smidgen of anchovy paste, a few drained tiny capers, a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice, and a little bit of dried tarragon. I had some fresh dill in the frig, so I chopped a little to add a little more freshness, but not overpower it.

Meakin and I passed Jumbo Lump Joe’s special sauce between the two of us for a taste with the crab cakes. The throw-down was over in a matter of minutes. I lost zero to two and I was one of the judges. We’re still analyzing his sauce, but it was a mildly spicy mayonnaise based sauce. We concluded the pink color came from either paprika or cayenne pepper (or maybe both) and we detected a hint of citrus. As you can see from the picture, we saved only enough to do a taste test for ingredients later and gobbled up the rest.

Now on to the crab cakes. I normally reserve eating crab cakes for white table cloth restaurants, although I have made them at home on occasion and always follow Mark Bittman’s recipe in How to Cook Everything. I have three things that I look for in a really exceptional crab cake:

1 – They must be made of the highest quality jumbo lump crab meat

2 – They don’t contain a lot of fillers

3 – They must be cooked all the way through

If you’ve ever had a crab cake that wasn’t done in the center (and I have), it will turn you off of crab cakes forever. Jumbo Lump Joe’s cakes met all of my criteria and more. You could actually see the large pieces of jumbo crab meat in the photo below, the cakes held together beautifully, they weren’t greasy (even though they were fried), and their taste was outstanding. As the customer told me when I was ordering them, “So far Jumbo Lump Joe’s crab cakes are the best I’ve ever tasted.” We totally agree and his sauce reigns supreme in our throw-down.

This story is as much about buying from a street vendor as it is about crab cakes and sauce. I admit that sometimes I am a food snob. Actually sometimes isn’t accurate; I’m always a food snob. At first I was reluctant to try a vendor on the side of the road until I remembered when we lived in a tiny town in southern Louisiana we bought the best shrimp we’ve ever eaten from a man whose truck was parked in front of a strip mall. They were heads-on large pink shrimp caught only hours earlier in the Gulf of Mexico.

So be bold and venture forth. Don’t be turned off by the fact that they’re selling food on the side of the road. Maybe next week we’ll give the taco stand beside the 7-11 a try. However, I doubt we’ll ever buy a used car from a guy named Honest Ziggy.

Jumbo Lump Joe’s sleek blue cart is located on the south side of Pine Island Road between Del Prado and Santa Barbara in a small parking lot in front of a Dollar General Store in North Fort Myers, Florida. He’s open every day except Sunday. The crab cakes are $10, a real bargain in my book. Don’t miss them if you’re anywhere near the area.