An Oily Weekend :(

So, if you read my post from Friday you know that I have much love for Perdido Key and it's beaches. I was ecstatic to find the beach and water beautiful on Saturday at 11 when I arrived. It was a gorgeous, if slightly hot, day. 

This is a cute little sand crab friend I made (can you see him? Middle of the pic, just above the sea weed)

I am apparently guilty of wishful thinking, because I left the beach at 12:30 (it was too hot!) feeling uplifted that we might be OK despite the ships less than 10 miles off shore skimming and the helos constantly flying over and the 100 plus clean up workers waiting on the patios...

Three hours later (3:30) Daddy and I headed out for a walk and found this:

Every wave that came in was washing up hundreds of globs of oil. It was so disgusting. The waves usually wash up sea shells!

Worst part: This is just the beginning. :( It's nothing compared to what's coming.

BP clean up crew literally sweeping up the oil balls (tar balls) and putting them into garbage bags. There's simply no way they can keep up with the rate it's coming in. Plus, Daddy went out into the boat Sunday morning and actual oil sheens are now in the Inter-coastal Canal and Pensacola Bay. And yes- there was, in fact, some moron there fishing. As if you can eat that- what part of "Fishing Ban" did he not understand?

Tar on my foot. Daddy and I both left the beach near to tears.

I also had this going on:

A still very sick Van Geaux who apparently has a very damaged stomach lining or something lodged in her stomach/intestines. I drank a lot of wine on Saturday, I can tell you.

On the bright side- my remedy for bad moods also involves cooking, and I made this sweet little dish that I stole from Kendall's website crush, The Kitchen Sink.

Oven roasted tomatoes. Except, in my normal rebellious way, I didn't exactly follow the recipe. And I think it came out better. You're supposed to roast the tomatoes, then mix in the onions and basil. WRONG! Why not roast the onions and basil to release their flavors?? It was SO delish! We ate it alone and over steak. I think it would be awesome over bread too- or anything. On Sunday I roasted some extra veggies we had around and added it to it. Roasting vegetables is my official new obsession.

How I did it:

Put cherry or plum tomatoes, fresh basil (chopped) and red onion in an oven safe dish and toss with olive oil

Roast in a 450 degree oven for 25 minutes or until tomatoes start to burst

Remove from oven, top with balsamic vinegar and let set about an hour 

Add fresh grated mozzarella cheese, a little salt and pepper

DINE AWAY-- YUUUUUUM!!!