22 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Fiesta Friday, Travel
On the road again…. Just can’t wait to get home again! 🙂
I’m up here this morning.
Why? I’ll tell you all about it on Sunday when I get home. Right now, I’m going to open Fiesta Friday #30. The party must go on, you hear, with or without yours truly.
08 Friday Aug 2014
Posted in Fiesta Friday, Travel
We’ve been enjoying our holiday, my family and I. We’ve seen stuff, done stuff, eaten stuff, and so on and so forth and what have you, but like they say, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”
So, I’m not telling you anything about my trip.
Just kidding! I just haven’t had time to cozy up in front of a computer and blog, that’s all. It’s near impossible to travel and blog at the same time. How do travel bloggers do it? Is there a secret formula? Please, tell me!
Of course I will share with you the highlights of my trip, but in due time. After I get home. Once I rest and recover. When I finally sort out my photos. If I have time.
Just teasing again! I’ll make time! 🙂
For now, though, we shall party on with Margot and Saucy, who have graciously agreed to stay for FF28, so that I can continue to enjoy the rest of my holiday. As soon as I’m able, I’ll update this post to include features. I take the selection process very seriously and need to spend time visiting and reviewing all the links carefully before making my final decisions.
18 Friday Jul 2014
Posted in Family, Fiesta Friday, Travel
30 Monday Sep 2013
My little one ordered escargots last night, and actually liked them and would have ordered a second serving had her entrée took a second longer to arrive.
Escargots. Would she have eaten them had they come in their shells?
Could it be that all these years of introducing her to new and unusual foods has finally paid off and she is now becoming a less picky and a more adventurous eater, who will stay away from the junks that she normally lives on?
Her brother, however, wasn’t interested in venturing outside his comfort zone, ordering once again, steak and frites, his other choice food next to burgers. This one’s addiction to junk food is even worse, I think. If I don’t cook or serve any meat, he would rather eat chips all day, sigh … (No picture for the steak, bur we all know what it looks like.)
The husband was another “non-venturer,” staying with the tried and true classic beef bourguignon that in hindsight I should have ordered instead.
Beef Bourguignon served with buttered noodles. I ate my share of it even though I didn’t order it.
Instead of the one I did, which on paper sounded amazing, and upon arrival did look amazing, but when I started slicing into it and took my first bite, I also took a whiff of the white anchovy fillets garnishing the dish, and it immediately turned off my appetite for it. When will I outgrow my childhood aversion to fish?
Veal Schnitzel with white anchovy fillet. Looks good and tastes good, if not for the anchovy. But the hubs liked it, and loved the anchovy, so he had his share of it even though he didn’t order it.
Thankfully the couple of appetizers the hubs and I shared, and the warm, fragrant baguette that came in a paper bag (oh, sooo … good that I forgot to take a picture, but we all know what a baguette looks like), were there to save the day for a starving mom.
Sweet Corn & Bacon Tart. How could you go wrong with corn & bacon? I’ll definitely try making this at home.
Calamars Frites. One of our favorites, but one I have trouble cooking at home, so 9 out of 10 times we’ll order this whenever we eat out.
Plus of course, there was always too much roasted chicken on the daughter’s plate, and she was looking for takers, but by that time everybody had enough.
Roasted Chicken. It started with half a chicken. It was half a chicken at the end of the meal. Did she even eat any?
Aquitaine Bar à Vin Bistrot is highly recommended by this reviewer, if not for anything else, for the baguette alone. The service was above par, the prices fair, and the wine selection will not leave you wanting.
Most accidental finds usually don’t end up so well, but this one did. We really went to Legacy Place for P. F. Chang’s, but without a reservation the wait was 1-2 hours, we were told. Utter craziness! Who could wait that long when you were starving? Luckily for us, Aquitaine was just around the corner.
If you happen to be in the area,
Aquitaine Dedham
500 Legacy Place
Dedham, MA 02026
(781) 471-5212
***
Our eating pleasure was amplified perhaps by the scene playing in front of us. An older couple seemed to be on a date night. I have to be careful here. I never said they were old, just older. I learned my lesson from the admonishment I received from a co-worker. I was describing someone as “old, old, like 60″ and she turned to me and said in her gravest voice,”Thanks a lot, I just turned 60!” I was embarrassed beyond relief. How could have I been so uncivil!
I would describe the couple as in their mid-70s. A good-looking couple and very happily attached it appeared; they were deep into each other practically the whole dinner. Except for one brief moment when she took a phone call, and only after inquiring with him if it was alright for her to do so.
Her hair was dark and long, with a few flecks of grey, which reminded me of my grandmother’s that stayed dark even as she entered her late 60s. She (the woman) would bring his hand every now and then to her lips. He would tear pieces of baguette and buttered them to give to her. It was just so touching and lovely to watch.
I would imagine that they would go home right after dinner, declining dessert at the restaurant for they knew they had some apple brown betty left from her baking yesterday. He would make her a cup of tea, with a touch of honey, just the way she likes it. Then he would join her on the porch, to enjoy the blue moon, I would imagine. And then she would shiver just a little in the cool night breeze and he would gallantly draw her big overflowing shawl just a little tightly around her petite frame.
She would remind him that the grandchildren would come for a visit next weekend and asked what he thought of her plan to make homemade noodles and dumplings. And he would say it was a brilliant idea, for he too loves noodles and dumplings. Wouldn’t the young ones enjoy helping with that, he would excitedly agree.
He does love watching and hearing her and the children busy together in the kitchen. She is happiest when her hands are occupied and the children adore her and her cooking. There’s no other place he would rather be than the room his wife of fifty years is in, especially when the grandchildren are in it, too.
I would imagine that she, too, feels the same way about him. Because it would be too sad if that’s not the case and I wonder whether they’re still sexually active or not …
“Quit staring and being so obvious … and purge the junk out of your mind!” my husband whispered. Er … what? I may have been staring and I probably was being obvious, but junk in my mind? I beg to differ and how did he know?
The Novice Gardener 