Weekend Recap

Friday
After work we went to Lou Malnati's for dinner. We had a small Lou pizza which is spinach sautéed with garlic, mushrooms, sliced Roma tomatoes, cheddar and mozzarella cheese. (our favorite) We also ordered family sized house salad.

We walked around downtown a little bit after that and then drove to Trader Joes to get some stuff to make an hors d'oeuvre for the following evening. I took 8 ounces of crumbled blue cheese, mixed in three tablespoons of honey (yes, honey!) until it was smooth, and then folded in two tablespoons of chopped pecans. It was a huge hit. Everyone loved it. It tastes amazing even though it sounds weird. Super easy but very impressive. I mixed up when we got home around 9 PM so it could sit overnight.

Saturday
We went to Burger King for our breakfast and to read the paper, and then walked across the parking lot to a hardware store that was having a grand re-opening and had lots of good coupons and, more importantly, a petting zoo.

We wanted to take a cheese spreading knife to the dinner we went to that evening but we don't have one. We walked a few store-fronts down to the grocery store but they didn't have any. We got Sheri an iced Starbuck's and went home.

We putzed around the house for a few hours and then left a little early for our dinner to run a couple errands. We went to Meijer. No cheese knife. We received a promotional cash value card from Home Depot. It said it could have $1, $5, $10, $25, $500, or $1,000. (or some similar combination of numbers) We had our card scanned at the customer service desk and it was worth $1. I couldn't think of anything we needed so I got a 20 ounce bottle of Diet Coke and paid $0.17 for it after using my card. That was kind of fun.

We drove a few stores down to Linens-N-Things. We found ONE set of cheese knives. I was looking for one knife for about $1.80. They only a four-pack for $10. It was also the last one. We went back and forth and then decided to go ahead and get it. They had a nice feel and were made from one piece of stainless steel. I am glad we got them.

We received a coupon good for a free frozen custard from new place, so we went and split one, and then we drove to our friend's house. It is about 30 minute drive to his house from ours.

We had a really nice time. There was some salsa his girlfriend made with peppers and tomatoes from their garden. Grilled marinated shrimp as an appetizer. (everyone got their own skewer.) My blue cheese spread and crackers. Hamburgers. Tomato and cucumber salad in a vinegar, sour cream, sugar dressing. Pickled blue gill fish. (I was surprised that Sheri LOVED it!) Baked beans. Lots of good conversation. We really liked them and have never done anything with them before. I hope we do things with them in the future. We were shooting the shit at work one day for a while and I guess he just decided he liked me and said I have an open invitation to stop by his place whenever I want. So we took him up on it and said we were stopping by on Saturday.

Sunday
We got up early and went to McDonalds for breakfast and to read the paper, and then we went to the zoo for a few hours. It looked like rain and was overcast most of the day, but it turned out to be perfect for us because it 1) kept it cool, and 2) kept the crowds away. It misted a couple of times during the first hour we were there, but it was not even enough to take cover from.

After that we went to Whole Foods for lunch. We each got a few things from their hot bar and ate it in their little dining room. Then we walked around and tried all of the samples. We ended up just getting a sweet onion, a little one ounce Scharffen Berger chocolate bar for me, and the worlds most expensive bunch of cilantro. $2.50!

Last Tuesday when we were at my boss's house for the beer making party he sent me home with a dozen or more Roma tomatoes. We got the onion and cilantro to make pico de gallo. It was actually a good thing the cilantro was overpriced. I didn't feel like dicing up all of the tomatoes, and if we only paid the usual $0.80 for cilantro I probably would have not done it. But I didn't want to waste the world's most expensive bunch of cilantro, so I was incented to get up and make it. It turned out to probably be one of the best batches, if not the best batch, I have ever made. I usually make the mistake of adding too much onion.

We have been watching the Emmy red carpet show and Emmy's since then and are getting ready to go to bed soon.