May 2007 Archives

Happy Birthday, Mary Catherine

Have a day

Janine and I had supper at Phil's Grill last night. She hadn't been yet and as soon as we walked in, Phillip said, "Where's Aaron and Julia and Michael?" She was sorry they weren't with her, but she was in the vicinity and couldn't pass it up. We started off with a basket of onion strings and fries. Delicious. Since the food is hand-made, it takes awhile, so the basket was empty in no time. This is not Burger King or MacDonald's! I had a burger with all the fixings, including cinnamon sugar bacon, and she had a vegetable burger with goat cheese (hmmm?) and all the rest. One of the best things about these burgers are the grilled onions which are done to perfection; they are hard to find elsewhere, as you probably know. My mother's burgers w/sauteed onions were the best and Phil's Grill are nearly as good. For dessert we had a mixed selection of fried brownies, fried apple beignets, and fried banana foster cheesecake. Sounds a little odd, I know, but they are bite-sized and just wonderful. When we arrived, it was early and we had our choice of tables. When we left, it was a full-house. And that's a good thing!

The day before, Jackson and Jacob stayed with me and we went to the library. I talked Jackson into selecting a book I read long ago, Smokey the Cow Horse. When I read it, it was a big fat book. The book he took out was so much smaller I wondered if it was the same story, but the title and the author were the same so wouldn't it be?? Afterwards we ate lunch at Chateau Cafe, a little restaurant set up in the lobby of the library. I had my usual chicken salad on croissant; Jackson tried a fancy sort of chicken wrap; Jacob had a ham sandwich cut in triangles, with no mustard and no mayonnaise. Those were his orders to the waitress and he even showed her with his hands how to cut it four ways.

And the day before that, the boys were with me again, and for this day's lunch we chose a buffet they like to go to when they're in Kenner, and Janine joined us. They love Janine. The food at Golden Corral is adequate and there are many choices of different adequate foods. It's not fine dining, but it's adequate. And three desserts for little boys is more than adequate, but wait. Janine had two desserts. Ginnie had none. What do you think of that?

The title of this offering is "Not much." I know everyone will agree, but I don't want to hear it.

Last night the Doots stood in Gina Barton's wedding. They've been friends since grammar school. Her new husband, Tim, is a nice guy and a good sport. Sorry no picture came out of him that I took. It was a lovely wedding. Gina was a radiant bride.

Mom parked her car at the reception hall and Katie, Michael and I scooped her up there to take tot he wedding. She wanted to be able to make an exit when she was ready to.

This picture of Katie doesn't do her justice. She and Elizabeth looked very pretty. I think Scott Soule took a picture of them. I don't know whose camera that was with, but I hope the picture shows up here eventually.

The reception was a hoot and a half. There was good, plentiful food, an open bar, and a wonderful DJ who knew how to keep the party hopping. The line dances for Electric Slide, Harlem Shuffle (of course - what wedding would be without), I don't know the name of the song that goes "to the left, to the left, to the left, to the left, to the right, to the right, to the right, etc." but that was fun, and a couple of others that I tried to get in on that spun and cha-cha'ed. I just recalled there was no "Chicken Dance". Shoot. Oh well... I didn't miss it.

I also didn't miss Michael's famous jump-kick maneuver he likes to do at weddings. I guess there wasn't enough bourbon in him, though it was pretty close. He still got his groove on. We didn't miss many dance opportunities.

It was a very fun evening and you can tell Gina and Tim are a righteous couple.

Katie

Angela

Christina

The Bride

The restaurant is doing well, sales increase about 4% a week which is strong in the industry so we can't complain. Phil is adjusting the menu just a little by adding The Jackson Square Burger (couldn't leave him out!) a Chicken Cordon Bleu (sandwich & salad), The Garden District Burger (grilled portobello topped with goat cheese!) and two desserts, Banana's Foster and Brownie Bites! Both are awesome! He also has a couple of new sauces that he does in house, Grilled Pineapple Ketchup and Arugula-Peanut Pesto. Next month the burger of the month will be a Cochon D'Lait (roasted pig) and in July possibly doing a gourmet hot dog (made in house).
We also had a friend who has a degree in statistics to look at the Build Your Burger Options and he came up with over 1 million different ways to build your burger.
Keep spreading the word, its appreciated!

Menu - Adobe Acrobat Reader Required

We’re down to the last episodes of The Sopranos. Who's going to die first? Paulie, Christopher, or Bobby? Put it down here for the record. Let's see who wins.

This past weekend was Prom weekend. Dan, Nicole and I went to the Grand March and saw all the couples and a few girls that walked in it even though they didn’t have a date. Ashley and her friends did that last year. Ashley went with a friend. There were over 20 couples in her “group” and only 3-4 actual “couples”. They split up and went to two restaurants. Ashley’s group ate at a place called Granite City. We have one near us and usually the food is pretty good and the prices are reasonable, but she said the one they went to had only marginal food. They had fun nonetheless. After the dance most of them went to another friend’s house for an “after party”. They played games, jumped on the trampoline and generally just hung out. She slept a few hours. As a result of all the activities she got a doozy of a cold/sore throat. I took her to the Dr. yesterday to rule out strep throat or pneumonia and basically she’s just really worn down and has a bad cold. According to her, it was so much fun, totally worth it and she’d do it again. Actually, I’m glad she had fun but am not thrilled with her being sick. Here are some pictures from prom. She made her dress again this year, a Romanesque style. She didn’t use a pattern except for the fitted top part, otherwise she created it herself. She had her hair done in a Greek style which I thought turned out great.
Also, you’ll notice in the pictures is a picture of Nicole’s car after she turned into a truck….misjudged the distance between her and the truck. She’s fine, it was her fault and now she’ll have to pay ½ of the deductible to have it fixed. Ah, new drivers! All in all, an eventful weekend. Now to finish the school year.

Ashley's dress in the wind

Shelby Lynn Ferrara in the Times-Picayune. Number 13 of 15.

CrabAppleLane via Google Satellite Maps. Cool beans.

Chris Bliss performs to music. Speakers on, please. WOW.

Plan to celebrate?