A Little Bit of Lima in my Kitchen

 What to do when you happen to have this sitting around, waiting to be eaten?

Ripe Avocado, Tomato & Hard Boiled Egg

Along with some delicious Kosher bread (we apparently live in a heavily Jewish-populated area, therefore there are Kosher Markets inside the Publix AND the Kroger)

You make a Sandwich Triple!!

And it goes like so (with mayo and aji  [ah-HEE] in between the layers):

Then you serve it with your favorite side dish - or whatever you have available. In this case, sweet potato oven chips. All I was missing was an Inca Kola, and that's because I didn't have any at the house, not because I can't buy it at the market on Buford Highway.....

Then you take it to the dining room table and eat it....

Stop thinking about what a weird combination for a dinner and go fix yourself one. It's not as good as a home cooked meal of rice, mashed potatoes and ketchup, but it sure is quite up there!

Please pardon the quality of the pictures... I lost my camera battery charger on the cruise, so I am left with my cell phone for picture taking... and the battery was about dead, therefore flash was not available....

Birthday Brunch

Today is my friend Kerrie's Birthday. For as long as I've known her, we have always celebrated her birthday poolside, under the sun. Well, what does one do when the weather has gone crazy and it's 55 degrees and rainy and one cannot spend the day under the sun as one loves? 

Well, one moves on to our second love (second to the sun, but I suppose it would be third to our husbands + the sun) - FOOD! 

We went to Local Three for Brunch. It was Mexican themed, hence Cinco de Mayo. We took full advantage of the fact that we could get three courses (breakfast, lunch and dessert) for the bargain price of $19.95.  Norm wasn't able to come along, but he gave me a piece of advise which I followed to the T. "Get small portions that way you can try a little bit of everything". So I did.....

Breakfast:

Biscuit with Mole Sauce, Bacon, Cheese & Spicy Scrambled Eggs,
Pancake with Pina Colada Sauce, French Toast with Blood Orange Sauce,
Fruit Salad, Pan Dulce, Shrimp Cocktail

 Lunch:

Trout with Grits, Macaroni & Cheese with Chorizo, Spicy Potatoes,
Ham with Peas and Polenta, some sort of Chicken Enchilada
and some sort of Fritatta 

Dessert:

Chocolate Cake & Rice Pudding with Mango Sauce

Happy Birthday friend! Maybe next year we'll get to enjoy great food under the sun (with both of our husbands)!

Dining Experience

A while back I read an article about the difference on "eating out" and having a "dining experience". It basically relayed a message along the lines of when "eating out" you go to the restaurant, eat and move along with your life and when having a "dining experience" you take in the whole meal with all your senses, a dining experience would be one that you would learn from, cherish, and all those good things.

Well, the other day, we went to this place for dim sum. It all started by our friends (and Norm) explaining to me what dim sum was... "oh! like Chinese tapas! got it. let's go there!" so we did...  We walked into a large rectangular room that was intriguingly decorated in Asian decor - the "stage" had painted dragons as backdrops, there were chandeliers throughout the restaurant and the tables had those heavy duty vinyl covered table clothes are are made for easy wiping.  

Two reasons I kept the snob inside of me, well, inside of me and decided to embrace eating there. One was the fact that the friends had been there before and had nothing but awesome comments about the food. Two was the fact that this Asian restaurant was full of Asian customers (I wouldn't eat in a Peruvian restaurant that wasn't good.... you get the point).

We sat down and quickly, Brazilian steakhouse style, servers started approaching our table offering little plates of food that was either fried or slimy. If they mentioned "pork" or "bacon" the plate was immediately off the server's cart and on our table. 

I have no pictures because honestly the food wasn't pretty, but it sure was tasty. 

After we stuffed our faces with pork, bread, slimy textures, fritters and various rice dishes, we walked out paying $60 for four adults.

Although the restaurant and the food is far from fancy, I consider eating at this place not only a dining experience but a cultural one too. I ate chicken feet. 

Colorado [at last]

 This post has been due for about two weeks now, please accept my apologies, I welcome your forgiveness.

We had the opportunity to head out to Colorado (mainly Denver) in May and we got to Sight See:

Larimer Square Market

Buffalo Bill's Grave

Cathedral of Denver

Rockies

Boulder, CO

We also got to enjoy the sights and each other's company:

Celestial Seasonings Factory Tour

Wild Wild West - at Buffalo Bill's Museum

 We also got to eat (lots) and drink (fun drinks):

Moscow Mule

At the Cruise Room, Oxford Hotel

We got to spend time with friends (who are family!)

 Then we got to attend a wedding rehearsal!

And a rehearsal dinner (which involved drinks) of course:

And finally, we got to attend The Wedding of Nicky and Amir on May 19!!!

Awesome weather, awesome extra pounds, awesome memories.