Greetings from the Beach, Friends
In bidding
farewell to 2009, we want to thank everyone who visited us
here at Horizon at 77th and made our year even more pleasant
because you were here. If you had a chance to see and
participate in the duck races at our sister property, to
sample some of the great meals, perhaps even Thanksgiving, at
Shoreline Cafe, we extend our sincerest appreciation. May we
wish you and your family the best of times during this holiday
season!
Looking forward to 2010, we hope that you will
join us for even more fun! The creative minds and talented
artists on our staff who devised the many decorations,
contests, amusements, and fun events are busily at work on
ways to please you and even tickle your funny bone. This next
year promises to be a great one, and we look forward to it
eagerly!
If you are looking for an easy and enjoyable
gift for someone special, consider a gift certificate to
Horizon at 77th where the recipient can use it for
accommodations here at the resort and also with any Horizon
amenity such as meals at Shoreline Cafe. Especially if you are
procrastination shopper, this gift is perfect with its
no-hassle approach to shopping. Just pick up the phone and let
us know what you have in mind. Once arranged, we will send you
the certificate for you to place in your preferred wrapping.
Then on Christmas morning, Wow!
For everyone staying
with us for the winter months, for those here with golf groups
or those just coming in for the New Year's festivities, for
anyone coming for a vacation from now through the next year,
may we extend to you and your family the best wishes for a
happy and safe holiday! Not here yet? Come see us at the
beach!
Hoping to see you soon back here at the beach!
Your Friends at The Horizon at 77th
THANKSGIVING 2009 AT HORIZON AT 77TH
We hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Here
at Horizon, our guests enjoyed the marvelous feast put
together by Food and Beverage staff, led by Director Jeannie
Pearson. Her talented staff at the Shoreline Cafe exceeded
their previous record for holding an outstanding Thanksgiving
feast. Of course, the food portion of this event began in the
kitchen, illustrated with Benjamin Padilla, shown here working
hard.
Cooks included Eric Gaunt, Benjamin Padilla,
Marcial Espinoza, Esteban Flores, and the carver shown here
Daniel Guimaraes.
Then, on Thanksgiving Day, with all
preparations in place, everyone enjoyed a fabulous meal.
Here are some statistics, but we surely hope that you were
actually here to taste the real thing:
- 9 turkeys
- 4 hams
- 4 top rounds of beef
- 15 pounds of potatoes
- Guests: 130 adults and 15 kids in the third seating
sessions (an interesting note: of the 47 people in this
seating, most were men with only 4 women).
Did
you have a chance to join us for this great Thanksgiving meal?
Are you looking for some fun and a delicious feast for New
Year's? We plan a wonderful New Year's celebration, and you
can count on delicious food, so give a call to our
reservations agents and arrange your place by the sea for New
Year's!
Featured Recipe - English Spice Cake
This recipe serves 12
Ingredients:
- 8 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/3 cups golden sugar cane syrup*
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- Zest of one orange
- 2 tablespoons orange marmalade
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Ingredients for the
glaze
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- Confectioner's sugar
Directions:
Preheat
the oven to 325F degrees. Spray an 8-inch square baking pan
with nonstick baking spray and line the bottom with parchment
paper. Spray the parchment paper.
Heat the butter,
syrup, brown sugar, orange zest, and marmalade in a medium
saucepan over medium heat. Cook the mixture, stirring often,
until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Let the mixture
cool for 10 minutes. Whisk in the milk and the eggs.
In a large bowl, whisk together the cake flour, whole
wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger,
cinnamon, and cloves. Add the syrup mixture and whisk until
combined. Pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake until a
toothpick inserted into the center emerges clean, 45-55
minutes.
Transfer the cake to a rack and let cool for
10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the 2 tablespoons of butter along
with the sugar and the lemon juice in a small saucepan over
medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Using a
pastry brush, brush half of the lemon mixture over the top of
the cake. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack set over a piece
of foil or parchment. Brush the remaining lemon syrup onto the
bottom and sides of the cake. Wrap the cake in plastic and let
cool completely. The cake will keep for up to 4 days. Cut cake
into squares and dust with confectioner's sugar. [Serve with
rum-raisin ice cream for a delicious option.]
*While golden sugar cane syrup can be hard to find
in the U.S., locally you might find it at Freewood's Farm in
Socastee, SC, which processes its own sugar cane
(843.650.9139) and sells limited amounts of syrup at this time
of year. Freewoods is a 40-acre living farm museum replicating
life on small southern family farms owned and/or operated by
African Americans between 1865-1900. Visit Freewoods for a
wonderful historical experience. Very kid friendly.
~ Fun Facts ~
The United States has adopted a German custom at Christmas in
which good luck (or an extra holiday present) goes to the
first person to find a glass pickle ornament hidden on the
Christmas tree. Do you have your pickle ornament hidden in
your tree yet?
The first Thanksgiving was in 1621,
sometime between September 21 and November 11. Unlike our
modern holiday, it lasted for three days.
Next year,
Thanksgiving occurs on November 25th, and so on, moving
forward in the calendar to as early as November 22nd by 2012.
Then, in 2013, it jumps back to the end of the calendar,
Thanksgiving occurring on November 28th.
In 1939,
Franklin Roosevelt changed Thanksgiving to a week earlier than
usual so the Christmas shopping season would last longer.
There was a tremendous outpouring of public disapproval over
the next two years so, in 1941 he admitted his mistake and
officially declared the fourth Thursday in November a national
holiday for Thanksgiving.
Native to North America, the
cranberry was first used in medicines, dyes, as well as food.
Twenty percent of all cranberries eaten in this
country are eaten on Thanksgiving Day with the peak season
being October-November.
Europeans named the fruit
"crane berry" because they thought the cranberry blossom
looked like the head of a sandhill crane.
Wisconsin is
the top cranberry-producing state in the U. S. with more than
250 growers on over 18,000 acres of land. Massachusetts has
500 growers and is said to produce more than 42% of the
world's cranberries.
A reported 74 million shoppers in
America (some more awake than others) ventured forth on
November 27th, the day after Thanksgiving known as "Black
Friday," to buy holiday presents.
When you see the
cranberry commercials, usually you see water, but flooding is
used for harvesting, not growing cranberries. True, cranberry
plants thrive in bogs, but the flooding is used to harvest
because cranberries float.
Although many believe the
Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the
year, it is not. It is the fifth to tenth busiest day. The
Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the two busiest
shopping days of the year.
An average household in
America will mail out 28 holiday cards each year and see 28
eight cards return in their place.
California, Oregon,
Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North
Carolina are the top Christmas tree producing states, with
Oregon leading. |
Guest
Comments
Email
from Razewski family in a newsletter response,
11.25.09.
We (8 of us) stayed at Horizon and
Grande Shores, 1 week each...What a wonderful experience. Both
condos were great; service, food, and location also great. One
person made it all special - Jenna Hillman. My family and I
are frequent visitors to Myrtle, and I will make it a point to
always stay on your properties. Thank you.
Guest Comment on TripAdvisor.com from Chicago
guests, 09.17.09.
We stayed in room 114 from 8-9
to 8-14. What a spacious, clean, awesome room we had. I asked
for a higher room upon arrival because we wanted an ocean
view, but they were sold out and we arrived late....our fault.
Our room had a full kitchen, washer and dryer, 1 master
bedroom with a king bed, 1 side bedroom with 2 queens in it,
and a family room with a sleeper sofa. I forgot to mention a
balcony area next to the lazy river, as well as a full dining
room. In addition to the lazy river, they have a small outdoor
pool, outdoor hot tub, indoor pool and indoor hot tub. They
have pool towels but you will need to bring your beach towels
for the beach. They also allow you to venture over to their
sister property, right next door to use all of their nice
pools. You are only 1 block west of the ocean and they have
FREE parking.
Email to Horizon's quality
control, Pearson family, 10.28.09.
I want to
specifically point out one of your employees. Ebony at the
front desk was a breath of fresh air. We got there and the
weather was cold and the breeze coming in on the patio was
cold. Ebony not only changed our room to the other side of the
hotel but did it with pleasure. Our vacation was horrible from
the start, but Ebony really tried hard to make our experience
in Myrtle Beach a little better. The Hispanic girl [guest did
not include name] at the front desk was also very eager to
help with what ever need we had. I wish every hotel had two
girls like that. That is what customer service should be but
very rarely get it. Thank you to the management for hiring and
training to bright employees who definitely made a difference
in our vacation. I will refer everyone I know to stay there.
The prices were unbelievably [low], and the house keeping
staff was always eager to help. I think everyone in the
country should not waste there time looking at other resorts
to stay at and make Horizon their one stop shop. The only
thing that would have been a bit better is if there was a
better beach/ocean front view but that is not really possible
[at Horizon which was designed as ocean-view with broad
coastal outlooks]. Thank you again for a pleasant return trip
to Horizon and we will definitely be back.
Facebook and Horizon at 77th
Have you seen an "F" icon, such as the one shown here, during
your use of the internet? We feature this symbol at the bottom
of this newsletter and also on our web sites. In case you
might not be familiar with internet social networking systems,
this "f" represents the system called Facebook.
Using
Facebook, you can highlight your good times at Horizon by
sharing them with family and friends near and far. Not so long
ago, many of us might have taken photos and had slide shows or
photo albums, but captions or documentary comments were
sometimes hard to include. Now, with the internet, vacationers
here at the beach can share what they want with family,
friends, and neighbors by using Facebook through Horizon web
site.
Let Facebook help untangle your many vacation
experiences and link to the ones you love, even abroad,
perhaps through military duty, business travel, or school.
What a great tool social networking provides for staying in
touch. You can also link to us through Facebook for the
purpose of receiving notices of last-minute specials and
e-deals, to find out where the shopping bargains are, or to
share an vacation plan with others in your group.
What
a marvelous tool Facebook is! Click
here or on the icon to find out more.
Local Events Calendar - JANUARY 2010
The Grand Strand has entertainment and
activities year round. Here for a list of coming events: Click
here. |
