How To Eat During the Holidays

I just read this on another blog and thought it was great!!!! I did personalize it a bit.

HOLIDAY EATING TIPS (to live by)

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. it's rare. You can't find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. It's Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Chocolate, Strawberry, Pecan. Have a slice of each. Or if you don't like strawberry, have two chocolate and one pecan. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner. Or, just leave the party and go out to eat. That is what Pop's likes to do. As we are walking to the car, he will always say, "Where do you want to go eat"? Remember this motto to live by:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"

Special Weekend

This weekend is a very special time for our family. On Saturday morning we will be leaving early to drive to Abilene for Jordan's graduation from HSU. She is our third child to graduate and our second from HSU. Janelle is still at HSU.

Graduation is always a special time, but this one is extra special for me. Jordan started struggling in school when she was in about 2nd grade. Being the dumb mother that I was, I didn't know anything about learning disabilities and really didn't get any help from her teachers. I would get so frustrated with her because she didn't copy her spelling words down correctly or her math problems. I remember telling her that anybody can copy a word down correctly.

Finally by 8th grade, it became apparent that she needed additional help. We had her tested at Scottish Rite hospital. She was diagnosed with ADD and another disorder which I never got a name for. She has a very high IQ and she can verbally tell you how to solve a complex math problem, but when she puts it on paper her mind goes blank. She can listen to a movie and tell you the script word for word, but if she reads it, she can't remember anything. She is a strong auditory learner.

Needless to say, she has had to work hard for every grade she gets. We were thrilled when she decided to go to college, but knew it would be a real challenge for her. She has worked SO hard and will graduate on Saturday after 4 1/2 years. We are so proud of her. Her degree is in Communication and Psychology. She has a job interview on Monday.

We plan to celebrate BIG this weekend. Way to go Jordan. We love you so much!!!We are so proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

It's Christmas

One of the blogs that I read frequently is BooMoma. She is a funny lady that always has different contests and events going on. She is having a Christmas Tour of Homes. It is always fun to be able to take a peak into peoples homes and not have to leave your computer chair.

This is my tree as of today. It gets rearranged every day by Landrie and Karsyn. I no longer look for the perfect spot for the ornaments, I just put them where I can find an empty spot.

I usually add something new each year to my decorations. I love the trees and lights so much that I decided to add one to my bedroom a couple of years ago.

This is my entryway. The stockings hanging on the stairs are the ones that we used for about 20 years. When Jennifer got married and we had to add a stocking for her husband, so we had to get new ones.

Since I am such a fanatic about everything matching and don't want to add more stockings everytime one of the kids gets married or we have a new baby, I bought 22!!!!! They are stored in boxes just waiting to be used. I have allotted each child, one spouse and 3 kids. If you go over your allotment, you have to negotiate with a brother or sister before you can add to your family.

When we were deciding what to call ourselves as grandparents, the girls came up with the names of Pops and Lolly. I immediately had the stockings monogrammed, so it was set in stone, even before the first baby arrived.

My new decoration for this year is a Jim Shore Santa. I had to have the Pottery Barn pedestal and dome after seeing it at a friends house for Halloween, and have been looking for just the right thing that is under 11" to fit under the dome.

Merry Christmas to you and your family, and may all of your dreams and wishes come true as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Lots of Food

This past week, we have eaten a lot of food. Tuesday night we went to dinner at Hibiscus. It was good. This was a business dinner, so we did not order from the menu. I was forced to try something new besides my old favorites. I had the braised short rib. It was delicious. When I cut the first bite with my fork, I thought I had cut into a big piece of fat because it was so tender. The whole thing was that way. I am still craving my crab dip, so I will have to go back soon. The dessert was great. They brought out a huge tray with chocolate cake, apple crisp with lavender ice cream and white chocolate cheese cake.

Thursday night we went out with some friends from our Home Team at our church. We went to Rio Mambo. The food was good, but the company was much better. Tom and Donna own a castle/hotel in Scotland and we talked about going there this summer with them and Jim and Kathy. It looks awesome.

Friday night was graduation. The speaker was Raymond Nasher. He had a great talk and was genuinely a very nice man. One of the trustees always hosts a dinner with the graduation speaker , administrators and some faculty members. It is at the La Cima Club. The dinner was great, but we didn't start eating until close to 10:00, so I was half asleep by then.

Saturday night after church, Justin wanted to get a steak. We went to Kirby's. Food was good, but they changed the menu and my favorite steak has been taken off. My favorite crab cakes had also been taken off, but they did make them, so that is what I had.

Sunday night, we met some friends at Pop's favorite place, Javier's. We have been going there for about 20 years and ordering the same thing. We get the filet that is stuffed with cheese and has a great red sauce over it. We usually get crepes for dessert, but ordered the Tres Leches cake. Someone told us last week that it was the best they have ever tasted. It tasted like all the rest in the city to us, so we won't be doing that again.

Tonight, just Whataburger.

Al Biernats

One reason that I have not posted lately is because I have not really eaten any great food. Just the same old stuff. I need to have something exciting to write about.

Our 28th Wedding Anniversary was Friday and we decided to try something new. We went to Al Biernats. Everytime I pick up the newspaper, I always read about some sports star or celebrity in town eating there. We decided to give it a shot.

On a scale of 1 - 10, I would give it a 5. The bread was good. The waiter said they get their bread from Empire Baking Co. and Eatzies. There was some three chili cheese bread from Eatzies in the basket and it was good.

We had a shrimp cocktail that was good. The shrimp were huge. The sauce was just okay. Next we had a wedge salad with blue cheese and it was also okay. We both ordered fish specials. Mine was blacked grouper on top of corn risoto with lobster butter sauce and shrimp. The fish was too "steaky" for me. I like a moist flaky fish and this fish was too dry. Pops had a blackened shttp://www.blogger.com/jspellhtml/JSpell.jspnapper with crab on top that was served with linguine.

For dessert we had the coconut cream pie. It was also just okay. The cookie that was the garnish was really good. I may have just not gotten the right dish. I will give it another try.

I can't wait for dinner tonight. In a couple of hours, I will be eating at Hibiscus. Can't wait for the crab dip.

It Has Been A Long Time!!!!!

It has been so long since I have posted that I almost forgot how to do it. I started to post about 3 weeks ago some pictures from the pumpkin patch with the girls and had trouble download them, so I just gave up.

Don't worry. I have been eating in the past month that I have not posted. I thought you would want to know that since this blog is about restaurant reviews.

My eating did get slowed down just a big. Besides trying to get my sleeping issues taken care of, I had gallbladder issues. I self diagnosed gallbladder disease approximately 5 years ago. I have not had any problems in the past 2 years and then in the middle of September I had two severe attacks two days apart. I finally got worried enough to go to the doctor and get a real diagnosis and I was right. I had multiple stones. I decided to go ahead and get it out because I was worried about what would happen if I had an attack out of town (like Pop's did) and end up having emergency surgery.

I had the surgery on 10/27 and it was a breeze. I was home by 11 a.m. and rode in the car to Walmart and Starbucks Friday night. I went to the Pumpkin Patch Saturday morning and church and out to eat that night. Tuesday, the big infection came. It is about 75% healed now. I want it to be healed instantly and it is driving me crazy!!!!!! I had a small set back last weekend when I chose to wear jeans because I am so sick of my sweats. I have worn sweats since Sunday and I am hoping that will help.

We have not been to any new and exciting restaurants lately except about 10 days ago we went to Tampa and ate our way around. We had some good food at Bern's steakhouse and I had some good Stone Crab Claws at Charley's. Lets just say they were good until the check came. It was crab season in Florida and the waitress suggested I try them. When the bill came, my 6 (six) crab claws were $75.00. They were good, but not that good.

I will spend the next couple of days shopping and cooking for Thanksgiving. I found a really great dessert recipe if you are looking for something. It is Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. It is a Paula Dean recipe and even thought I don't like Pumpkin, I loved it. Happy Thanksgiving.

Cooking Tip - From Tina

Even though I go out to eat for almost every meal, I really enjoy cooking. When I cook, I like foods with lots of flavor, i.e., Italian, Mexican, lots of onions and garlic. What I don't like is the lingering smell. It smells great while it is cooking, but after I am finished eating, I want the smell to go away. I will wake up in the middle of the night and smell it. Yuk!

One idea I came up with is to put a candle in my bedroom (pumpkin spice is one of my favorites) and close the bedroom door. That works only if you keep the door shut and leave it shut during the night.

Tina gave me an idea the other day that I am using this morning. It is rainy (for the first time in about 6 months) and cool, so I decided to cook a roast. When I cook a roast, I put several slits in it and insert garlic cloves in the slits. It tastes great, but the smell is very strong. I loaded the Greek seasoning, garlic salt and steak seasoning on the roast and put it in the crock pot. I even cheated and used one of the new crock pot liners so there is very little clean up.

I have the crock pot on the back porch so that all the smells will be outside instead of in my house. I have it on low and it will cook for about 12 hours. Should be great. My house will also smell good and not like garlic.