B. B. King Gave Us the Blues...

Our last full day before heading back to Chicago was full of more meetings and appointments. (I know... it's sad but trust me, working hard pays off!) We found our way to Baldwin Park, a community between downtown Orlando and Winter Park. There, we enjoyed a nice italian lunch at Pizzeria Valdiano. We started with calamari and their house bread, which really was great and buttery with a garlic cheese crust. My hubby and sister in law enjoyed plates of pasta with sides of meatballs and italian sausage... while I had a chicken panini with basil and mozzarella cheese. It was a filling meal that was very good! If you find yourself in the Baldwin Park area, do check it out. I forgot to bring my camera to lunch so no pictures of these good eats. However here is a picture of the main promenade of downtown Baldwin Park (taken from their website)...After all our business meetings, we decided to spend our last night with a fun dinner at B.B. Kings. They had a live band playing and the place was great to wind down and let loose on the dance floor. We started with a sampler appetizer platter that had fried pickle chips, buffalo wings, potato skins and ribs... ... which I washed down with a "Hoochie Coochie" cocktail. Sure it was a funny name for a drink, but it also was pretty smooth and fruity! (It included pineapple juice, cranberry juice, coconut rum, triple sec...) For dinner I ordered catfish coated in cornmeal and fried, served with french fries, hush puppies, corn muffin and coleslaw....while the hubby ordered a rack of baby back ribs...... and my sister in law ordered the pulled pork platter that came with a corn muffin, collard greens and mac & cheese.We had no room for dessert - in fact, we ended up taking half of the meal home because the portions were so huge!

It was a bittersweet dinner knowing it would be our last for awhile with my sister in law. But thankfully I plan on coming back to Orlando within the next month for more business. Until then, I'll be singing the blues and aching to be back in the Florida sunshine...