Saturday this and that . . .

I earned £25 by having a recipe published in a magazine this month so yesterday we decided to splurge and treat ourselves to a lunch out in Chester, which is something we only ever very rarely do.  I had been wanting to go to Ed's Diner for a very long time.  We did try once at the one in Cheshire Oaks (which is a huge shopping complex about half an hour away from us) but we never did find it.   They recently opened one in Chester and so we hopped onto a bus and went into the city.

Its in the Grosvenor Shopping Arcade which is an indoor mall in the centre of Chester  and quite nice actually.  That seems to be the name they give for an indoor shopping area over here in the UK . . .  Arcade . . .  it sounds fancy smancy doesn't it!  I like it!

 

I was a bit worried that it would be overly busy as we went in at lunch time.  It wasn't all that busy actually, but was really filling up by the time we were finished and on our way out.



The decor was everything you would expect from an American style diner.  All chrome and formica with black and white tiled floors, neon lights and old style rock'n'roll music.  We sat in one of the booths and I was a teenager again sitting in a booth with my friends back in the old Shaker Restaurant in Middleton, Nova Scotia . . .  albeit with a few more wrinkles, grey hairs and pounds along for the ride.

 

It was clean and slick and I really liked it.  Oh what I wouldn't give to have a chrome dining set now.  I had one when I was first married way back when.  It had been my parents old one, which we had refurbished.  I sure wish I had it now!   I remember my sister had one too, except hers had a printed formica top on the table.  It was nice!

 

Each booth has it's own mini Juke Box.  With lots of music on it.  Ours wasn't working though.  Boo Hoo.  It was out of order.  All proceeds from the Juke Boxes go to the charity Action for Hunger, which is a good thing I think.   Each table also had it's own ketchup, mustard, napkin server, etc.  I liked that too, and they were clean.  So often you go into restaurants and the condiment holders, etc. are dirty.  I hate that.

 

The waiting staff were all really polite and cheerful.   I liked that also.   You can't beat cheerful and tidy looking waiting staff with manners.  They seemed to actually like where they were working.



The menus were clean too.  I hate dirty menus.  Hate, hate, hate dirty menus.  Who wants to eat at a restaurant with a dirty sticky menu.  NOT me, that's who.  These were pristine.   I liked that.  The food was a bit pricey though, but food here in the UK is pricey when it comes to eating out.

 

It was really delicious though and we both enjoyed what we had.    Oh to be eating a real North American style hot dog was a real treat for me.  It really was.  (This is not what I had.  I had the plain Classic Dog with grilled onions, which came on a platter with french fries (chips), onion rings and coleslaw for £10.50, or about $15.25.)  With drinks (a diet coke and an orange juice) our bill came to  £26.30 for the both of us ($38.16) (american funds).  We had to eat our hotdogs with knives and forks.  There was no polite way to eat them by  holding them.  They were huge.  They were delicious.  Really delicious!  The chips were just chips.  I had thought maybe they might be hand cut but they were not.   But they were not bad either.  And the onion rings were just a bit greasy, but overall we both enjoyed our meals very much.  It is not something I would want to do very often, and actually probably couldn't afford to do very often, but it was a treat.

I do NOT want to know how many carbs or calories were consumed in that lunch, but it is the only meal we had yesterday.  By evening we were both still so full from lunch all we had was a pot of low fat yogurt each and we were good to go.  Oh, Todd also had a Snickers bar, but he can do that.  I can't.  I can just watch and wish.

  

There was an American Candy store in the Arcade as well so I picked up some lollies to take to the children of a family we were visiting in the early evening yesterday and a candy pizza for the BBQ we are having for all of the young Missionaries in our District today.  (I hope the rain holds off!)  I also picked up a box of Pop Tarts on impulse.   Why?  Why?  They are probably not very tasty, but they were calling my name.  I suppose it was nostalgia.  I can't even eat them.  Sigh  . . .

My youngest son used to love the Pillsbury Toaster Strudels, the apple ones.  They were frozen and you just popped them into the toaster and they came with a little packet of icing that you could decorate them with once they came out of the toaster.  He used to have one of these every morning and I can remember taking great care to put the icing on just so  . . . he was very fussy about things like that.  Even his toast had to be a certain colour.  Yes, he was spoiled, but not in a bad way.  I think I felt a bit sorry for him because by the time he got to Grade 2 he had been in four different schools.  So much upheavel in such a short life.  There was a time when he would only eat things that were white.  His tastes have broadened quite a bit since then!


 

I found this the other day and had to laugh . . . I can remember doing this and thinking it was very sophisticated with it's little inked mixing bowl and pair of eggs.   I would say it is probably circa early 1990's.   I had five children living at home, three boys and two girls. Yes, my name used to be Ramsay, and my family has always called me Alice, which is my second name.  There were too  many Marys and Maries in my family.  All the females have derivative of that as their first names, and the males have Joseph.  It's a French Catholic thing.

Remember how I told you I have always been a list maker?



There.  Proof positive.   There are recipes, yes, all handwritten in my very nice handwriting.  (It's not so nice anymore.  Thanks computer keyboard, you have spoiled me!)  There is a list of my daily chores, with one section of each day of the week, with a very detailed list of exactly what I was going to be doing on that day.  With laundry being done on a daily rotation of girl's laundry one day, boy's the next and Friday being bedchange day so that was what was done on both Friday and Saturday.    I have menus on a two week rotation and shopping lists.  I also have a baking list of what I will bake each week, and how many of each.  For instance 8 loaves of white bread and 4 loaves of brown.  So many dozen cookies a week, and one week a cake and the next a pie.   Oh the plans I made!

I had to laugh when I saw it because there on those pages were the ideals of a mum who was trying to do her best and more often than not the list was abandoned within a couple of days because nobody could have ever kept up with it.

But I tried.  And thats what counts.

A thought to carry with you through today  . . .

 `*.¸.*´Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ`*.¸.*´Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ`*.¸.*´
The most beautiful people
we have known
are those who have known defeat,
known suffering, known struggle,
known loss, and have found their way
out of the depths.
~Elizabeth Kubler Ross
 `*.¸.*´Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ`*.¸.*´Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ`*.¸.*´

Spiritual Enlightenment




In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Apple and Prune Crumble with a Hazelnut and Oat Topping.   Served with lashings of cream, Todd really enjoyed this!


Have a great Saturday!! Don't forget . . .


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and I do too!