Instagrammin': July Edition

I've been trying to do this post for two or three days. I'm still in Alabama but returning to my beloved home state tomorrow. I know this is mostly a food blog, but I do like to share other snippets of my life.

I saved this little froggy from the pool at my grandmother's on the 4th of July. He was about the size of a nickel.

Sweet Southern Heat

I've been taking my time away in Dothan very seriously.  By seriously, I mean I've read 3 books and am on the fourth in the two weeks I've been here.  I think reading is essential to summer.  TV shows are typically terrible in the months between May and September, with the exception of True Blood and a couple of USA network shows that are my guilty pleasures.

This is my formula for most days

Water---it's deathly hot outside, and I don't drink enough of it.  I don't always drink Perrier, but every once in a while I like sparkling water for a little freshness.  I'm also not very picky about what brand I drink.  That would be pretentious.

A book on a wicker loveseat on a screened-in porch.  There's a ceiling fan to keep it from being too hot, and the bugs can't get in.  Brilliant!

I have the good fortune of knowing incredibly generous people.  We went out on the boat on a fantastically gorgeous Sunday.

We snacked on smoked tuna dip.

One day I'm going to figure out how to recreate this without actually smoking tuna myself.  I'm pretty sure that requires equipment I can't get to.

This is my favorite thing about going out in the Gulf.

See that?  IT'S A DOLPHIN.  They put a real show on for us yesterday.  It's hard to get a picture of them because they zip around so quickly.

They'll come right up to the boats and look at you.  Will thinks they know something we don't.  I'm not going to dispute that.

Even better...

A baby!  Confession:  I love just about everything in miniature.  Babies, puppies, kittens, baby otters.  I could go on for a while.  Baby dolphins are just precious.

The little guy or gal put on a show for us rolling around and swimming by the boat.  You could see the mama dolphin a little further out, and when she thought baby should come to her she let him (or her) know!  There was probably some underwater communication, but she blew the water out of her blowhole really hard twice like she was saying "Get over here!"

Then we saw a shark.

Okay, so we don't know it was a shark for sure.  But let's just say it wasn't saying hello like a dolphin, and I wasn't going to get out a see for myself.  There are no pictures of the shark because I didn't have the wherewithal to grab my camera a shoot.  Sharks'll do that to you.

But isn't the water pretty?  You can see straight to the bottom.

For dinner we like to stop at this little place

Mmmm, Montego Bay.  We'd had a snack while Will's dad cleaned the boat, so I wasn't starving.  But I can always find room for gumbo.

Legend has it the recipe for their gumbo comes from the owner's grandmother, who was a Cajun.  The owner is in his seventies, so that makes this recipe pretty old.  And pretty darn tasty.  Scratch that.  It's delicious.

Even though the gumbo already has a pretty decent kick, a little Crystal hot sauce never hurt anybody.

We also had key lime pie, but that was gone before I even though about snapping a picture. 

One day I'm going to make gumbo and pray it's as good as this one.