FAVORITE THINGS POST!

(Because it makes me happy)

FAVORITE SONG

Florence and the Machine

Dog Days Are Over

I’m not sure what it means and I can’t say I’m terribly fond of the video, but I can’t stop singing the song.

FAVORITE FOOD

We can’t seem to get enough of these in my house.

One of them feeds  two of my monsters when they need an after school snack.

FAVORITE TOY

My underwater camera.

It takes awful shots, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.

FAVORITE SMELL

Warm puppy!

I don’t have any new puppy pictures to put with the warm puppy smell, but I’ll work on that.

Now my FAVORITE PART!

What’s one of your FAVORITE THINGS?

 I haven’t done one in awhile. This isn’t exactly recent, it’s from a few Detroit trips ago.

One of the things I love about Detroit is the FOOD options.

Here in Traverse City there just aren’t that many  options… if you like meat and potatoes your covered.

When we go to Detroit I like getting takeout from The Sushi House. 

My favorite sushi place in Michigan.

This time we went in though… and we sat down… at a table… and we ordered!

It was hard to make a choice, everything there is SO GOOD!

I even like the sides.

 I love me some Miso soup!

We finally settled on two rolls.

The Farmington  roll

(crab meat, cucumber, unagi and avocado)

The House Special Roll, my favorite!

(shrimp tempura, cucumber, unagi, avocado and crab meat)

I have a close up of this one, it’s cute caterpillar design… but it kinda looks scary close up.  

Yeah,they were very alike.  We didn’t realize we had ordered almost the same thing until they came, they just sounded so good!

To finish up we had a bowl of Sukiyaki Beef… 

We were too stuffed for desert.

I suppose I’m reminiscing because Ben and I are off to Detroit again this weekend for his birthday.

I am sure that we will be going out to eat somewhere… somewhere of his choosing… The possibilities are endless.

Will it be Greek food? Mexican? Indian? Sushi again? Thai… I’m pretty sure it won’t be Thai as he’s allergic to peanuts!

What will it be I wonder… Whatever it is, it will be an adventure in eating!

If you could eat any kind of food right now, what would it be?

Is anyone else hungry?

Playing with my food.

I always carry an elephant in my pocket.

You never know when you will find whipped cream alps.

(Notice that my husband isn’t even phased… One of the many reasons I love him.)

Have you ever seen a grown woman playing with her food?

Do YOU play with your food?

I was making beef tenderloin with portabello mushrooms for dinner and I remembered,  

I still have a FOODIE post to do!

Before going to see WICKED at The Detroit Opera House, (link)

We had dinner at The Century Grille (link)

Located in the Gem and Century Theatres, a beautiful building.

They brag the Most Theatrical Bathroom in town.

(I didn’t get a picture of the plaque)

We started the meal with appetizers. No pictures because I was so hungry I forgot to take them.

I should point out this wasn’t the restaurants fault but my own.

 I hadn’t eaten since noon in anticipation of a yummy meal.

We started off the meal with Baked Brie, Three Cheese, Spinach and Artichoke Dip, and The Century Grille Crab Cakes.

HEY! I didn’t get to try that  last one!

On to the main courses.

Ben’s Prime Rib, He said it was okay. Not the best he’s had, but not the worst either.

Jon’s Stuffed Shells

He didn’t say how it was, but he cleaned his plate, this could be because it was good, but it could also be because he’s seventeen and has a hollow leg.

Six of us had the Fillet. It was good.

The first bite was a doosie, I hadn’t read the full description and missed the fact that there was blue cheese on it. 

 I like blue cheese, but when you aren’t expecting it, it is an odd surprise.

The food was okay and the atmosphere was nice… 

Even if the wait staff didn’t understand the word’s “No ice please.”

Even if the waiter stuck his arm in front of my mouth as I was going to take a bite of food, getting artichoke dip all over his tuxedo sleeve.

Even if  when the waiter was informed that the pepper shaker wasn’t working he said he couldn’t do anything about that and his advice was to remove the cap and shake the pepper into your hand and then onto the food.

To be fair the last slight was served up to my MIL and isn’t mine to be upset about, I was just astounded by the stupidity.

It was funny actually because the food was set in front of us and the waiter stood back and said

 ”Is there anything I can do for you?”

 to which my MIL says “This pepper shaker isn’t working.”

Almost instantly the waiter replied “I’m sorry, there isn’t anything I can do about that.”

I started laughing because it is something I would have said to be funny as I handed someone a pepper shaker off of an empty table. When he went on to recommend she remove the cap and then shake it into her hand, I realized he was serious! I started to get up to get a shaker off of the empty table near us, but my sister held me down.

YES,I HAVE BECOME MY MOTHER.

Anyway, he was forgiven when he brought out the dessert tray,

which he placed between my sister and I onto the table so that we had to turn uncomfortably to get out of the way.

 (alright, so maybe I’m still a little bitter.)

There amid the flourless chocolate cake, and the apple dumpling was CHOCOLATE MOUSSE!

One of my favorites!

It was made wonderfully, fluffy melt in your mouth decadence, with raspberry syrup on the bottom.

We left the waiter a full tip.

Then went on to have an incredible evening.

I was with incredible people, that made it easy.

Would I go back? Maybe just for dessert!  

What do you think, am I being to hard on the waiter?

Does having poor wait staff color your dining experience?

(I do have a waitress credit on my resume, so I’ve seen both sides of the table, so to speak.)

Those who know me, know I appreciate a good dog.

I’ve done posts on Yesterdog and House of Doggs

SO

While in New York, Beth and I hit Gray’s Papaya, more out of desperation then want, we were HUNGRY!

I knew that it was a famous place, I often hear of movie stars buying them for movie crews, or people having them flown across the country because they craved them.

I didn’t get the whole experience though because I didn’t want onions on mine.

These are making my mouth water now!

I had the pina colada juice, the drink was just as good as the dogs!

We stood at the bar and ate like natives.

One more notch in my hot dog experience belt.

If you make it that way, put them on your list.

Tasty.

What’s your favorite hot dog place?

Went to lunch with Mom and Cooper yesterday at OPA~

We had some Opa!

One of the  things I like about living in T.C.

Everyone likes to participates.

When the waitress lit it the whole restaurant yelled OPA!

Emptying Charlie’s homework folder we found his plan to be physically active.

See how he plans to work out next Friday?

Can you read it?

I’ll translate: Beat up sister…

What makes it even better.

See the fourth column?

They list the requirements to complete the task.

Play and shoveling takes strength and endurance…

Beating up his sister takes all three…

Strength, endurance AND flexibility.

At least he isn’t underestimating her.

I love my life.

Ben and I had a date again last night. I think that’s two in a month. WOW we’re doing good.

We went to one of the last bastions for smokers in the free world. The Cocktail Lounge.  WE aren’t smokers but This restaurant has one of my favorite things: roast duck. So I was willing to live with the smoke and Ben went along just to be with me.   

The Bum Steer. I hadn’t been there in years but I had a craving. When one has a craving it must NOT be ignored. 

We dumped the monsters at Mom and Pop’s and off we went.

The thing I found amusing is that we were the youngest people there. Maybe they were having a senior citizen night? It was odd to be the puppy in the crowd again. I haven’t experienced that in awhile.

Oh… Water, since that is almost all I drink, in a cocktail lounge…                                  >

ON THE MENU:

First I should say that I think food pictures are just cruel and unusual.

Now, That being said I have nothing else to post so here they are.

Snails aka escargot

I LIKE EM… so live with it.

although these were not the best I’ve had by a long shot. Not enough garlic in the butter and the toast was too big… I prefer points.

Ben’s prime rib. He was pleased with it, His ordering method goes something like this.

“Find me the piece that’s mooing and slap it on a plate.”

He was cutting it with his fork, it was that tender. Just the way it should be with a side of horseradish.

 My duck… Mmmm… yummy.

Duck roasted in grande marnier with a cherry sauce. Very tasty. I’m a lazy girl though I just prefer the breast. I don’t like to play with bones… at least not that kind. Ahem…

Because we had to roll ourselves away from the table there are no desert pictures to share.

So we rolled into my parents and collected the monsters. It was a very early evening but a moment of freedom is worth so much sometimes.