Secret Sauce

Yesterday was so much fun and totally jam-packed with random activities.

Around lunchtime, my mother in law, Diane, and her boyfriend, Les, arrived at our house to spend the weekend with us.

Since Ryan and I are still new to the area, when people come to visit we really aren’t sure where to take them just yet. Thankfully Kate, an extremely thoughtful blog reader, helped us solve this dilemma when she provided us with tickets to the Autumn Gift Market.

The gift market was kind of like a craft fair with lots of trinkets and collectibles. We had a good time meandering in and out of the aisles of stuff, pointing out stuff that caught our eye… and made us laugh. Craft fairs always have some of the most random stuff.

As a Florida resident, I always see University of Florida and Florida State stuff for sale everywhere we go, but stuff for my alma matter, the University of Central Florida, is sparse. Yes, UCF is much younger than the other two schools, but it’s bigger in terms of size, and I think we need a little more UCF love out there.

I was quite happy when, among the sea of orange + blue and garnet + gold, I spotted a lonely UCF ornament.

Gooo Knights!

Lunch

We ended up eating lunch at the Autumn Gift Market. I was excited when I saw a booth of food from Mojo’s, a restaurant I’ve heard is a “must try” in Ocala.

Ryan, Diane and Les all ordered pulled pork sandwiches which would’ve been my number one pick as well, but since they already had that selection covered, I opted for pulled pork nachos.

They were so, so good. The pulled pork was perfectly shredded and coated in delicious barbeque sauce. I asked for extra red onions and went to town on this dish.

The Chick-Fil-A cow was obviously mad we didn’t stop by his booth for lunch and decided to harass our table.

Errands

After lunch, Diane and Les were game to drive around the area a bit and run in and out of some stores. Ryan’s birthday is coming up very soon and Diane said she wanted to get him a grill (Woo!), so we popped into Lowe’s and Home Depot to check out the selection.

Hardware stores are high up on my list of the most boring place in the world, but Ryan’s mom kept me entertained and I think we found a couple of grills that may work. We might be making another trip to Lowe’s today to pick one up. I need some grilled food in my future!

We also stopped by a consignment furniture shop where Ryan and I bought some patio furniture for in our screened in porch that we will pick up on Monday. I can’t wait to have a table out there so we can start eating our meals outside once the weather cools down a bit. I love outdoor dining!

Secret Sauce

Our last errand of the day took us to the grocery store where Les picked out all the necessary ingredients to make his secret tomato meat sauce and chicken soup.

I was so excited to watch the master at work when we got home.

Les is Italian and when I say he’s Italian, I mean it. He has family living is Sicily, speaks the language and cooks the most delicious Italian food.

His special sauce is unreal and takes hours and hours to make.

I was excited to serve as Les’ sous chef in the kitchen to learn the recipe first hand.

We spent several hours in the kitchen cooking away.

Luckily we had fuel in the form of beer!

My new favorite!

The kitchen smelled incredible. The sauce still isn’t done (I told you it’s intense!), but today I’m planning to enjoy a delicious dinner centered around the amazing sauce.

(Please note the meat balls and hot Italian sausage in the pot. Yum.)

We’re planning on freezing the sauce as well so we’ll have it on hand in the future. Yum.

I think I hear people waking up… Time to get back to our guests!

P.S. The Fashion page was updated this morning.