Another Bargain Activity: Gardening

When we are home on Memorial Day, we usually plant flowers in the back yard around our deck. I always pick out things that attract butterflies and hummingbirds. Entertainment all summer long.

Can You Believe I Never Tried this Before?

So Jeff says we are going somewhere special today and I say where? Somewhere you would never think of going - Steak and Shake. He's right, its something I would never think of going to. I thought it was a fast food, stand in a line, place like Burger King or Hardee's. But I was pleasantly surprised to see we were seated and had table service.

The grand surprise was the double cheese and bacon steak burger and peach milk shake. Ummm. I am surprised but I would go back.

Table 1280 at the High Museum

We went to the High Museum to see the Automobile exhibit which was well worth the effort. We also saw the digital collage exhibit that was closing. While there, we stopped at our usual High lunch spot, Table 1280, on their property. I had a veal burger with a portabello mushroom.

Jeff was disappointed the chicken salad was off the menu but he really enjoyed his skirt steak with a quinoa salad.

Kim, recovering from our feasting in Florida, had a caesar salad with a grilled chicken breast.

Ally had the rigatoni with a vodka sauce.

Great way to celebrate Memorial Day weekend. We can't wait for the Dali and Titian exhibits. We got a membership to the High from Jenny and Jimmy for Christmas so the High is a bargain day out for us.

Captain Dave's on the Gulf, Destiny

Watching the sunset from Captain Dave's on the Florida Gulf singing the Pina Colada song. Capn Dave's is a retro 70's style seafood restaurant with pretensions.

Youcan sit and watch the sunset while feasting on fresh caught fish and cocktails. Here is a key lime martini with ice cream in it and a dry gin martini.

Snow crab clusters fresh from Alaska (Kim always has to have crab legs even if it does not come fresh out of the gulf. She brings her own fancy crab cracker with her.)

Pasta something or other. Fresh shrimp and other stuff with spinach in a creamy lemony parmesan sauce.

Sauteed redfish in a cajun cream sauce topped with gulf shrimp. Jeff would be so down as there is very little fresh grouper to be found this trip. But this was by far the best fish I had the whole week.

The Crab Trap, Destin

A value lunch can be found at Destin's Crab Trap which is a very beachy restaurant directly on the beaches of the Gulf. The sticky tables and fresh breeze blowing in your face shows its authenticity. We all shared the Fried Crab Claws with tangy seafood sauce. $12.99

Seafood Salad with scallops, shrimp and fried oysters. $13.99

Seafood Gumbo loaded with shrimp and oysters $8.99

The view from the restaurant open windows. Priceless.

Best Dinner Ever: Bistro Bijou at Sandestin FL

We had our best meal of our lives for the second time at Bistro Bijou in Sandestin Florida. We had gone down as a girls trip, me, Kim and Alli. The Bijou is definitely not a bargain meal, but we did find they had an early bird, excuse me, sunset dinner which included an appetizer, entree and dessert for $30 each. What a deal and the choices were off their regular menu. You just have to order between 5 and 6. My appetizer was Fried Oysters on Spinach Salad.


Oh, we did pay extra for a few cocktails: A Pink Lady and a Dirty Martini.


Fried Green Tomato and Shrimp Napoleons on Roasted Pepper Sauce

Carmelized Onion Soup

NOW FOR THE MAIN COURSES

Shrimp and Grits. The shrimp were deliciously sweet and the grits had some sort of cheese added.

Grouper Almondine on Lemony Rice

Melt in your mouth Filet Mignon and Frites with Bordelaise Sauce


AND NOW DESSERT!

Pear Bread Pudding with Goat Cheese Ice Cream

Creme Brulee

Truly fabulous meal at any price.

My Birthday at Rosa Mexicana

I had the grave misfortune of being born on Mother's Day. Now that I am a mother, I get the combined Mother's Day/Birthday combo, not quite as bad as being born on Christmas but pretty close enough to breed similar resentment. Because Mother's Day out is usually such a zoo, we usually do a lunch on the Saturday before. I guess celebrating two days in one is a way to save.

Easter Eggstravaganza Illustrated

Easter morning and everyone is waking for the Easter bunny (and taking silly pictures with the new camera).

We made a gingerbread bunny house.

Our Easter tablescape.



Treats from the bunny.

I recently got a digital camera so that I could enhance my blog experience. I test drove it this past Easter. Or I should say my daughters test drove it while I cooked Easter dinner. Of course, the Easter bunny left goodies for my 27, 25 and 20 year old kids as well as the dog.

Next we prepared a turkey, ham, scalloped potatoes and all the fixings but not until we had a nice shrimp cocktail and deviled eggs for an appetizer.