Food
Friday, June 19, 2009, by Sherra
This is a followup to my fine dining in Atlanta post.
Because I’m pretty sure another one of our favorite restaurants does not fall in the “Fine Dining” category. Except for us, since our definition of fine dining really just means a good meal at a reasonable price.
We go here at least once or twice a month. Partly because we love, love, love breakfast. And partly because we love, love, love a cheap meal.
We go for the biscuit and gravy. While we do live in the South, we are still Midwesterners at heart and cannot eat grits.
Tell me where you can get a full meal like this for $5.00 bucks?
Seriously, tell me - because we’d like to go there and eat this month!
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food
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Wednesday, June 10, 2009, by Sherra
fine –adjective
1. of superior or best quality; of high or highest grade: fine wine
Fine is a subjective word. Your “fine” and my “fine” can be two very different things. Your perception and opinion may vary greatly from mine.
That’s okay. I’m fine with that.
Our differences are what make the world go ’round.
I’m willing to bet that my definition of fine dining doesn’t match yours.
Typically, “fine dining” implies upscale…expensive…gourmet.
But for me and luckily, for PhilBillPaul, our definition of fine dining is really about good food that is not expensive, usually not gourmet and an atmosphere that fascinates us but usually does not fall in the upscale category.
We are always in search of great local restaurants wherever we go.
With the size of metropolitan Atlanta, there are endless opportunities to try restaurants both near and far.
If you come to Atlanta, be sure to find one of the six Zesto restaurants in the area. You may have heard of The Varsity but it’s not our favorite.
Our personal favorite is Zesto.
Side note: We’ve never tried the oysters. Ewwww. And apparently they have salads for you health nuts. See…something for everyone.
What’s Our Favorite?
So glad you asked. We love, love, love their chili dogs and crinkle french fries.
Top that off with an Oreo or Butterfinger Arctic Swirl and you can thank me later.
I don’t care how fan-cee you are, a good hot dog or cheeseburger, crinkle french fries and ice cream is FINE dining!!!!
A final tip: Be sure to empty your trash before you go through the
drive-thru. Zesto employees are not authorized to take your trash. 
Come visit us this summer and we’ll take you to Zesto for a fine dining experience!
What’s one of your favorite local restaurants?
P.S. Be sure and check out the two different great giveaways this week at iLash Girls! The Fun, Fun & More Fun Giveaway has two great summer items. I need to get Scary Baby some of that sidewalk paint and who wouldn’t love a new, bright beach bag?!
Leigh Anne and I have had so much fun learning to blog we want to help others and share what we have learned! So if you have ever thought about starting a blog we’re offering a giveaway for some Fun and Free Blog Startup Help.
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food
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Monday, May 18, 2009, by Sherra
So I found out that at least one of the darling twins who shall remain nameless was telling everyone that there would be a bar at their graduation party.
This is extra funny since I don’t drink.
And do not condone minor drinking.
In spite of that…
We did have two bars at their party last Friday.
Bar #1 ~ A Taco Bar
The crockpots full of meat were shredded chicken, pork and beef. I did not want to use the oven for anything on the day of the party so this worked out well.
If you are interested in the recipes which received rave reviews, just click below:
I also made mexican rice and black beans neither of which I eat but friends said were good. Fresh tortilla chips, salsa, crispy taco shells and shredded cheese from our favorite local Mexican restaurant rounded out the taco bar.
Side note: Thank goodness for great neighbors who loaned us crockpots and great serving dishes to keep costs down.
Bar #2 ~ A Candy Bar
It seemed to be a big hit with all ages.
This kid cracks me up every time I see him.
I was pretty sure we couldn’t go wrong with a candy bar!
Even if the cute little graduation caps melted on the sticks and slid down to the bottom because it was 85 degrees that day. Let’s not talk about our air conditioning problems right now, kay? 
The high school colors are maroon, navy blue and gold.
Did you know it is very hard to find navy or royal blue sugar?
I had found this cool place on the internet near us and we went last Monday - the exact same day that blogging rockstar and cake pop queen Bakerella featured the store. I think we should be friends and I really think I should have emailed her and asked begged her to come and make cake pops or cupcake bites for the party.
Because this is what my feeble attempt looked like.
Which may not look all that bad to you if you’ve never seen Bakerella’s adorable creations. I’m not encouraging you to but if you must you can click over to her site and confirm yet another calling I really didn’t miss.
We had red velvet with cream cheese frosting and lemon with lemon frosting. Everyone was fascinated that you could eat the whole thing - I should have made a tent card that said “Entirely edible” because people tried to peel the bottom like it was cupcake paper but it was actually melted white chocolate.
Or I could have just ordered a cake from Costco. Yeah, I considered that after making three test batches of cake pop blobs.
We called these Triple Chocolate Army Helmets.
Even though we made them in a truffle mold. Yeah, helmets - way more appropriate then truffles on sticks.
We added PhilBillPaul and Scary Baby’s patriotic pretzels and the candy bar served its purpose.
The party was lovely. Really it was.
Now if we can get through the graduation on Thursday…
P.S. Though there was no official *bar*, PhilBillPaul did serve a few Mexican beers to the grownups.
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food, Friends, Milestones, Moments, Teens
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009, by Sherra
I am home safe and sound from my beach trip.
Emphasis on safe.
Because in addition to four days of rain, rain and more rain…we might have slept through a tornado warning.
Don’t ask.
So, I’m retracting last week’s post that said I’d share pictures of the gorgeous beach. It wasn’t so gorgeous with rough water and crashing waves.
Just know that not rain, nor wind, nor tornado kept us from eating.
And on our final rainy, wet night after dinner, we treated ourselves to dessert.
In a place where key lime pie seems to be on every single menu, we knew we wanted something different.
My ultimate favorite dessert is…
Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee
And this one with fresh strawberries and orange shortbread made me very happy, happy, happy!
Kim’s choice was Chocolate Java Lava Cup
A warm mocha cake, toffee crunch and triple vanilla bean ice cream was delicious.
But Ann’s selection of “Sharkfin Pie” was…
The
BIGGEST
dessert I have ever seen in my life.
Seriously - taller than her head!
Pie made with all these sinful ingredients:
Butter fudge ice cream, honey roasted peanuts, fudge, peanut butter, Oreo cookie crust.
Truly, how ridiculous is that?
All four of us couldn’t have finished Ann’s dessert even if we hadn’t ordered the other two desserts.
It did make us laugh.
And now we’re all back in our respective homes where no one will be eating a 5 pound slice of ice cream pie for at least another year or so…
P.S. Toni wouldn’t order the seven layer carrot cake with caramel sauce to make it an even four desserts. There’s one in every group. We love her anyway.
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food, Friends
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Friday, February 20, 2009, by Sherra
No offense to any vegetarians or full-fledged vegans out there.
Truly, I’m absolutely impressed with their commitment and creativity and health and lifestyle…
but
this
is
why
we
don’t
eat
vegetables…
Thanks Leigh Anne for sharing and making me remember why I’m an unhealthy sugar addict.
Luckily, the same blog has some sweet treats that look delicious and I would be glad to indulge in…
like this one or this one.
Need to print these recipes so PhilBillPaul can get busy this weekend in between basketball games!
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food
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Friday, February 6, 2009, by Sherra
I know I promised to tell you about the ice cream cake we bought for the Superbowl Party.
But to do that I have to to first tell you about my very first trip to Aldi here in Georgia.
Aldi is a small store/large supermarket chain and I was vaguely familiar with the stores from my life in the Midwest.
PhilBillPaul read a sale flyer a few days before Superbowl and pointed out that they had the Carvel football cake we all love so much on sale for $8.99. That is some mad savings and it was totally worth the drive to pick up this cake. That was at least HALF PRICE if not cheaper!!
I decided to ask Wizzy to join me as I like to spend quality one-on-one time with the lovely children whenever possible.
As I drove home to pick up Wizzy, I thought I should call my cousin Sally in Indiana.
I know she has her Aldi bargain shopping down to a fine art and I wanted to know what items she loves and if there were any items she didn’t like.
I was so glad I called her because she gave me a few good tips and reminded me to bring my own shopping bags. I knew that you had to bag your own groceries but I had no idea you had to bring your own bags.
I picked up Wizzy and 4 reusable shopping bags and we headed out for our mother/daughter shopping excursion.
Now some of you may already know this but as an Aldi newbie, we were startled to find that all the shopping carts were locked together.
Since Wizzy works at another more “upscale” grocery store here in town, she found this very amusing.
Thank goodness for the kindness of a stranger who came up to the carts as we were trying to figure out why they were all locked up and she announced with a southern twang:
“Oh, you need a quarter!”
To which we both replied:
“Huh?”
She then graciously told us that we needed to use the quarter in a slot on the cart lock and we’d get our quarter back when we returned the cart.
“Huh?”
Then we fought over who got to put the quarter in the slot to release the cart.
Hey, thanks for the heads-up on this cart system, Sally.
Super fun Friday night, I’m telling you! That’s the kind of mom I am.
Wizzy was a little stressed by all the unrecognizable store brands. I reassured her that while the food was cheap inexpensive, it wasn’t EXPIRED.
I was made painfully aware that my children are a bit of “brand name snobs” and I needed to bring each of them to Aldi in the coming weeks so they can all experience “incredible value every day.”
Roger Leroy loved the cart story and pointed out that it was a smart move so that employees don’t have to go get carts in the parking lot - can you tell what she does in between being a cashier and a bagger at the “upscale” store?
Wizzy also noted that the Aldi cashier got to sit on a stool which she thought would be way better than her grueling shift where she has to actually
stand up and wait on customers.
Meanwhile, we scored THE CAKE for $8.99 along with some other great bargains.
Imagine our distress when we put THE CAKE in the fridge at the beginning of the party and The Grunter’s girlfriend noticed it was made with
PEANUT BUTTER ice cream.
Oh. My. Goodness.
Have you heard anything recently about a little peanut butter recall?
Wait Wizzy…the food they sell isn’t expired…but it might be recalled?!
Mild hysterics began. Guests arrived.
Scary Baby announced to all the guests:
“We have Salmonella Cake for dessert.”
Yum.
Funny kid.
The Grunter googled to make sure no Carvel cakes had been recalled. What did we do before Google? Whew, the cake wasn’t on the list.
The darling twins wouldn’t eat it. Girlfriend said she would. We all watched to see if she got sick. She didn’t.
Guests said they wouldn’t hold it against us. We did have them sign waivers.
Everyone is FINE.
The End.
Have you ever been to Aldi? Any other tips to share for all of us newbies who love a bargain…and need bargains this year more than ever!?
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food, Friends, Teens, Tweens
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009, by Sherra
I’m late.
As usual.
I don’t really want to recap the game.
That’s already been done.
Besides, the Cardinals didn’t win so why bother.
I really did want them to win because of him and him.
It was a good game right down to the end.
Except for the part about unsportsmanlike conduct. We could bother to recap the grown men/professional athletes being paid tons of money and their bad behavior.
Which does always make for good conversation with the teenagers about how NOT to act.
But like I already said, I’m not going to recap the game.
Really, I’ve moved on.
I just wanted to recap “The Party.”
You know, The Humpfreeze Annual Superbowl Party complete with those delicious jello squares a.k.a. Knox Blox in team colors?
We went with Knox Double Decker Blox for both teams. In honor of our family’s love of whupping cream.
Scary Baby was quite helpful while her big sissies were working. I let her touch the yellow lemon Knox Blox since she insisted on rooting for the Steelers.
I obviously have no control.
She was also in charge of decorating the fruit pizza with the fruit and did a fine job.
Before Roger Leroy left for her shift at work, she was kind enough to run to the store for the forgotten poster board and she and Scary Baby got busy making signs.
They were lovely additions to the family room wall.
Wizzy got off work early so she had time to come home and crank out a sign too.
Which obviously did not meet with my approval. Note the last line.
I threatened to make her and Scary Baby (and The Grunter’s girlfriend) all watch the game in the basement because they insisted on rooting for Steelers. And I have no control.
Then I realized that we can all be different and still get along…sort of.
Even when Sharté arrived in Steelers attire.
Side note: The Steak-n-Shake hat made its way downstairs from The Grunter’s room. C-Mac and Roger Leroy were rooting for the Cardinals so they can wear whatever they want!
Oh yes, it was a wild pretty relaxed party with the teens, a few of their friends plus Scary Baby.
Did anyone see the 3-D commercial(s)?
We were never sure if we really saw it but the girls stayed ready just in case.
We had our requisite spread of appetizers like wings, party ham rolls, mexican dip, chips and a crockpot of PhilBillPaul’s chili.
A good time was had by all…
I do NEED to tell you about the Carvel football cake and the experience of buying it and serving it. It commands its very own post. Seriously.
I don’t mean to keep you in suspense but it’s late and I’m tired so tune in Friday and I promise I’ll tell the ice cream cake story…
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food, Friends, Teens
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Monday, January 5, 2009, by Sherra
This is my first official post of 2009.
It’s the post where, if I follow other bloggers, I might review the highlights of 2008.
Or I could tell you how I am going to make 2009 divine.
But since I’ve never been a follower and 2009 is not giving off divine vibes on this 5th day…
I’m going to keep this short and sweet and instead tell you all that…
the house is un-trimmed.
Thank you darling children. And PhilBillPaul.
the basement is put back together
Thank you darling children. And PhilBillPaul.
the wiener dogs got a bath
Thank you darling Wizzy.
the kids are going back to school
Thank you Georgia school system.
I’m not really a resolution girl. I have a lot of lists and small goals and one of those is to pay attention to the little things every day this year.
How’s your New Year shaping up so far?
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Categories: Food, Life Lessons
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Monday, December 22, 2008, by Sherra
I have been a small business owner and entrepreneur since way back in 1986.
With a desktop publishing business, I was the proud owner of Apple’s very first LaserWriter.
Financed by a $5,000.00 bank loan which is what the printer cost.
Holy smokes. I was wild.
And when Christmas came, I was also cutting edge.
Found these fan-cee canister sets on clearance.
Designed a beautiful sad label on aforementioned LaserWriter and filled them with homemade Chex Mix.
Added the trick green bows all by myself.
I guess the bigger clients got the bigger cans?
See, I’ve been taking the handmade pledge for DECADES!!!
I am a trendsetter.
This year is no exception and the baking frenzy is just about over. PhilBillPaul made 12 pounds of fudge and chocolate dipped pretzels were everywhere!
I’ve made 2 double batches of Chex Mix plus 12 mini loaves of bread and all these cookies…
I forgot to mention last week that I do have some baking rules:
- I do not use a rolling pin. That means cookies must be of the drop variety. Rolling them in a ball by hand is about as far as I will go. I truly prefer that handy cookie scoop contraption that I first bought from my Pampered Chef friend–not sure how I ever managed without it.
- I do not do yeast dough. Quick breads and muffins only. No kneading, punching down and all that messy flour stuff. Bread recipes are of the dump-all-ingredients in one bowl, mix together and pour in pans variety.
-
I do not do pies or pastries. Technically falls under the “no rolling pin” rule. And the icky flour everywhere thing. I will buy those Pillsbury pie crusts in the refrigerator section if forced to make a pie.
I share these rules with all my non-baking friends because maybe your Home Ec teachers scared you with fancy cooking. I really stick with no-fail, simple recipes. Complicated recipes with many steps create stress for me.
Scary Baby delivered EIGHT teacher baskets bags (I couldn’t find any bargain baskets) on Friday.
Today I just need to mail a few boxes to family and friends. I bet my “friends” at the post office will be filled with the holiday spirit when I come in with six or eight priority mail boxes on December 22.
I’ll keep you posted…ha…get it…pun intended.
And I will be personally delivering the giveaway winner’s box of goodies since she is local!
Hope your last few days before Christmas are both festive and peaceful…do those two things go together?
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Categories: Finding the Funny, Food, Friends
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Tuesday, December 16, 2008, by Sherra
****Comments are now closed.****
We have a winner! Congratulations to #12 Lisa. She’ll be receiving a box of holiday goodies!
Thanks to all who participated and thanks for all the yummy new recipes I can’t wait to try!
My kids are spoiled by our baking week.
I thought when the big kids got to high school, the teacher gift load would be substantially reduced. I thought we didn’t really have to give high school teachers gifts (sorry but the kids don’t usually bond with them nearly as much as they did their elementary and middle school teachers).
I thought wrong.
My darling twin daughters believe differently and love to take goodie bags into their teachers. Since I’m not above the brown-nosing I let them but the gift bags are a bit smaller than the gift baskets that Scary Baby will take to school.
The girls have also added a list of friends that they MUST give gift bags to before the holiday break. Your popularity increases significantly for at least a few hours when you bring in fudge, cookies and chex mix on exam day.
PhilBillPaul takes a tray into work. We send packages to our mothers so they can make a tray for themselves and guests.
I figured since I have to make about 25 goodie bags and packages, what’s one more?
I am going to send one lucky reader an assortment of holiday goodies.
All you have to do is enter one of your favorite holiday cookie or confection recipes into the comment box below.
Then we’ll all have some great new recipes to add to our holiday collection!
Leave a recipe in the comments by Friday, Dec. 19th midnight EST. I will post the winner on Saturday and if my good intentions and priority mail don’t fail me, I will mail your box on Saturday as well!
Here are the 5 star chocolate mint cookies from allrecipes.com that I tried out last year that we all loved!
How “sweet” of my friend Leigh Anne to make them and take one her beautiful pictures for me so you could see what they look like. We seem to have a bad habit of eating the food before I ever think to take a picture of it.
- 3/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 36 chocolate mint wafer candies
Side note: If you can find the Andes® holiday mints with light green on the outside and chocolate in the middle, they look pretty when melted and swirled on top of cookie. And if I remember correctly we used a whole mint on each cookie which really shouldn’t surprise anyone.
1. In a large pan over low heat, cook butter, sugar and water until butter is melted. Add chocolate chips and stir until partially melted. Remove from heat and continue to stir until chocolate is completely melted. Pour into a large bowl and let stand 10 minutes to cool off slightly.
2. At high speed, beat in eggs, one at a time into chocolate mixture. Reduce speed to low and add dry ingredients, beating until blended. Chill dough about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350º
4. Roll dough into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes. While cookies are baking unwrap mints and divide each in half. When cookies are brought out of the oven, put 1/2 mint on top of each cookie. Let the mint sit for up to 5 minutes until melted, then spread the mint on top of the cookie.
Print This Recipe
P.S. If no one enters this FIRST EVER giveaway, I will silently weep and eat all the goodies myself. Save me from that. Type a favorite recipe in the comment box right now. Please.
Tell at least one friend to enter. Two would be better. And telling three friends would be your personal Christmas gift to me. If your friends mention your name in their comment you get an extra entry for the drawing! I’m obviously not above bribing you with baked goods
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Categories: Food, Friends
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