I have a tradition that when I return from travel, I select a photo from the trip and create food inspired by the photo. In late June, I went on a business trip to Florida for 3 nights, 4 days. I worked long days, but it was like a vacation, especially since my hotel was on the beach! I enjoyed a change of scenery and being with kind and interesting coworkers. Also, the food in Melbourne was fantastic for a vegetarian foodie like myself.

Turtle Tracks in Sand: Homemade polenta with indentations made with a small spoon

The photo above is polenta with indentations to try to mimic the photo below. The inspiration photo was from a dawn walk on the beach in front of my hotel. I was excited to see turtle tracks. It was nesting season, and they came to the beach at night to lay eggs. This was my second try at making this polenta and trying to recreate turtle tracks for this post. I was going to try a third time, but my friend Maki said it was good. I really didn’t want to try a third time.

On my travel day, I was able to spend some time at the Brevard Zoo. It was beautiful and had very different animals from the Seneca Park Zoo, where I am a member. I was able to get 1/2 price off zoo admission! They even had kayaking at the zoo.