Benny's Coastal Kitchen

Benny's is now my favorite restaurant on Hilton Head Island (HHI).  From the drinks you saw yesterday to the views, great service, and awesome menu, everything was over-the-top awesome.  I selected the Seafood Fritto Misto (Seafood Platter) shown below as my entree.  It's a plate full of fried shrimp, scallops, oysters, pickled vegetables, spiced aioli, and natural fries, and certainly more than I could eat.  If you get to the HHI area, I strongly recommend you get a reservation at Benny's.

https://bennyshiltonhead.com

Orange Crush

I've had mass-produced versions of an Orange Crush drink at Dewey Beach, Delaware, which are okay at best.  But the Orange Crush cocktail you see below comes from Benny's Coastal Kitchen on Hilton Head Island.  It's a delicious combination of Deep Eddy Orange Vodka, triple sec, orange juice, and a splash of Sprite.  I enjoyed this at the bar on the second floor of Benny's with a view of Skull Creek. 

With dinner, I had a Bourbon Peach Palmer and for dessert, an Espresso Martini, both equally delicious.  More on Benny's coming tomorrow.

https://bennyshiltonhead.com

Gutter Guards

Being seventy years old and climbing on a ladder twice a year to clean out our gutters had to stop.  We considered hiring a service to do that, but instead investigated gutter guards and selected the EasyOn Stainless Steel Micro-Mesh brand you see on the left side of the picture below.  They advertise as being easy to install, and that is very true.  I watched the YouTube video at the link below and found a couple of handy tips.  The guard slides under the edge of the shingles, and three sheet metal screws are used to secure it to the edge of the gutter.  Takes under a minute to install one four-foot section.  That doesn't include the time to move the ladder, which is 99% of the effort involved.  But at least every time I moved the ladder, I knew it would be the very last time.

https://www.easyongutterguard.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkfPbyM16M8

Keeping Warm

While exploring the features that are rarely used on a microwave oven for an article I'm writing, I came across the warming feature.  I had to consult our GE Cafe microwave's manual to see if we had that, and sure enough, we do.  Its purpose is to keep already-hot food at either a Low (150°F), Medium (170°F), or High (210°F ) temperature.  We tested it out by purchasing a Costco Rotisserie Chicken late in the afternoon and popped it in the microwave (shown below) on Medium for an hour or so.  

We could do this in our oven, but having another option is great, particularly if we have a party where people need to keep the food they brought warm until we eat.  

Using AI For Redecorating

This is the first of several blogs over the next months showing some ways to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make your life a bit easier.

We were shopping for a new winter bedspread to replace the summer one shown on the left below.  After a beige bedspread turned out to be a bad choice, I turned to my favorite AI tool, Perplexity, to see if it could recommend some colors based on the colors of our walls, ceiling, and floors.  I uploaded the picture, asked for some choices, and it delivered good options.  Without knowing if it could do it, I asked Perplexity to "replace the bedspread and pillowcases with a warm white color".  That result is the picture shown on the right below.  A picture paints a thousand words.

https://www.perplexity.ai

Original Weggie

Ordering something off the menu that I've never had before is a common occurrence, and the Weggie you see below is a perfect example.  Called the Original Weggie, it's made with ham, pepperoni, provolone, mozzarella, lettuce, tomato, onion, and house-made ranch, and the bread is baked at the same time as the meats and cheeses.  It can't be any fresher than that.  You can't really tell from the picture, but it's really huge.  I ate the smaller piece and packed the larger piece in a take-out box, which made for lunch for the next two days.  

If you get to Hilton Island, look up Giuseppi's Pizza & Pasta in Shelter Cove for a good meal.

https://www.giuseppispizza.com

Eddy’s Peach Mule

Deep Eddy is not a vodka brand I was familiar with.  But that didn't stop me from ordering a peach mule made with their peach-flavored spirit, ginger beer, and a lime slice served in the freezing cup cooper mug you see below.  Really hit the spot on a warm Fall afternoon.  A long list of Deep Eddy cocktails can be found at the link below.

https://deepeddyvodka.com/drinks

3-Way Outlet

Our house was built in 1958, and several rooms only contain a couple of electrical outlets.  An easy and cheap way to turn one plug into three is the Triple Cube Outlet Adapter you see below.  At $5.98 each at The Home Depot, I've expanded our guest bedrooms and provided our guests with more plugs for their smartphones, tablets, and watches.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Grounded-Triple-Cube-Outlet-Adapter-White-692-W-R54-00692-00W/100356925

Blue-Tailed Skink

Hilton Head Island is a nature-lover's paradise, offering up everything from ospreys to eagles, dolphins to turtles, and alligators to manatees.  One of the island's smallest residents is the Blue-Tailed Skink, shown below.  Blue is not one of nature's common colors, and it might serve to warn predators that they may be poisonous, or conversely, to attract predators to their tail, which is expendable.  If the skink loses its tail in a confrontation, it has the remarkable ability to regenerate it, although the new tail will be a more subdued gray color.

A ton of information on Hilton Head's wildlife can be found at the link below.

https://www.islandlifehh.com/wildlife

Muddy Creek

Hilton Head Island is a hub for live music, and below you see Muddy Creek performing at the Tiki Hut.  They rocked us with their mix of rock, southern rock, country, pop, blues, and timeless standards.  And from our seats, we could see a perfect sunset.  The lead guitar player (far left in the picture below) was particularly impressive and one of the best I've ever seen.  As you can find at the link below, as many as two dozen bands play throughout the day at venues across the island.  

https://www.thisweekonhiltonhead.com/hilton-head-island-live-music-schedule-this-week