Monday, February 26, 2007

Diary of a Weekend


It is my first chance to write about the great weekend I had (that's what happens when you share a laptop with your husband who is in Seminary), with visitors from "home", a passport for my palate, and a barrel of monkeys with laughs besides. Here is a little journaling:

Friday night: 2 of my sisters (Emily and Abby) arrive with 2 of my friends (Misty and Shea) from Illinois. It is well after 9pm, their projected arrival time. My friend Ke
vin (who lives here) has come over, and we all catch up over coffee, red pepper bruschetta and artichoke dip with pine nuts. It is very loud, and funny and fun, and I am thinking that our neighbors are probably hating on us. At about 12:30, I propose we go to Krispie Kreme, which is an idea met with great enthusiasm. The hot light is unfortunately not on, but all the better for our waistlines (for those of you who know, is it not an entirely different food when they are hot off the belt?). Kevin took a bunch of great pictures, which you can see here. Sadly, I forget to bring a camera, but it turns out it doesn't matter. We go back to campus at about 2:30, and I stay with the girls at the Legacy Center where we stay up talking until about 4.

Saturday morning: I had really wanted to go to breakfast at a cool place called Sari Sari which serves Filipino food, but specializes in Latin American breakfast on the wee
kends (I'm not sure the connection). My friend Grace meets up with Josh and Misty and I to try the "brecky" and WOW! So very good! Mine was corn tortillas with beans, fried eggs, cheese and chilis -- yum! I did somewhat envy Misty and Grace's eggplant/pesto burrito, but mine was just what I wanted. We stopped by the bookstore I work at, and then (sadly) I had to go to work at my other job. Fortunately, it is at a nice mall, and the girls shopped while I worked.

Saturday night: after a good nap, we are all up for a bit of dinin
g adventure. After surfing around a bit, we find that a myriad of ethnic dining experiences are located on Bardstown road, so the 4 of us (Misty and Shea, Me and Emily) get dressed up and set off in the rain. I knew the "country folk" would enjoy seeing the coolness offered in the street that is Bardstown road, so we drove all up and down before settling on an Italian restaurant (a less adventurous choice, to be sure, but still quite wonderful). We share a salad of tomato, fresh mozzarella and basil, and then dig into our pastas (or risotto, if you are Shea). My mouth still waters at the thought of the spinach stuffed tortellini with walnut creme sauce! Everything was very very good, but we began to develop suspicions that the whole place was just a front for the mob. I'll try not to say much about it, in case it's true, but I think it just made the whole experience more authentic for us.

Later Saturday night: we want coffee and dessert, so we go to a Latin restaurant where I am rather delighted with the cucumber floating in the ice water. We each order a different dessert, and play "If I could have a restaurant, what would it be?" (try and see if you can guess mine. Here's a hint: it combines the food I like with something else I really love. Maybe that is too sketchy, but I'm interested to see if anyone guesses). I enjoy my apple-goat cheese "cigar" which comes with caramel sauce in an "ash tray" to dip it in. YUM!

Sunday: the girls join us for worship at our church. After the service, we try the buffet at Sweet Peas which is unbelievable! The best part was the salmon cakes with sweet pea sauce. Oh my soul! (I just realized how much I have been describing food in this post. . . well, it was really good, okay?).

The girls left pretty quickly after that, and Josh and I fell into our typical Sunday afternoon routine (me: laundry and reading, Josh: reading and watching tv -- I know it seems like those 2 things are mutually exclusive, but they are not for him!)

Thank you, Jesus, for such an overwhelming blessing of precious friends and delicious food!

8 comments:

sara said...

Wow- what a weekend...Thanks for describing it...I enjoyed it along with you...the food sounded so yummy- especially the "cigar".

GloryandGrace said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Oh, I wish I could have been there! Do those girls know they have to drive right past my exit to come visit you??? Next time I am in! Rachel Kathleen

Anonymous said...

After reading your blog for a while, I'll take a guess that your restaurant would be a vegetarian Italian bistro with lots of salads, pasta, and a bakery. You could have a veggie of the day following the alphabet (asparagus, beans, carrots, etc.). You would also have an Elisabeth Elliott reading room attached to the restaurant, which houses the bakery and a variety of coffees. Am I right? :)

Name: Karen said...

Your restuarant name would have to include reading somehow...haven't come up with something clever enough to post yet...maybe it's that or my jet-lagged brain. Loved your post. Im a food-a-holic so my mouth was just watering. We had some yummage-y food in Maui. The night before we left we had Mahi Mahi w/cucumber dill salad and to die for fries. Good to be back in the land of bloggin'.

Anonymous said...

sounds like you ate A LOT before our big mid-semester challenge! haha j/k! I'm still sad for you about the blog thingy...I removed your link off my site even though I never mentioned that word we can't speak of. oh well, stuff happens. I hope the rest of your work day got better. It seemed like you had a bummy day. See ya tomorrow chicky! yay!

Gretchen said...

Sara -- yes, the food was wonderful! When you think of all the wondrous varieties out there, it is hard to settle for pbj, you know? :)

Grace -- they're gone. I'll tell ya later. Meanwhile, don't be offended, but I'm deleting your post. You didn't write anything wrong, trust me.

Rach -- Hello, the interstate goes both ways, and I think we'll agree that I live a slightly cooler city than, well, some others of us! :) Come on down, girl!

Morning Rose -- good guess, and some elements are close, but a little weirder and more unheard of than that. :) I may have a room called the "Elisabeth Elliot Room" that would serve for private parties and things, but actually until you suggested it, that was not part of the mix! :) It would be veggie, though!

Hindto -- I actually don't have a good name yet, but I'd be up for suggestions. I'm sure you'll think of something clever!

Heather -- well, actually everything went a lot better today than yesterday. Thanks for commenting me! Are you still up for walking tomorrow night? I did everything again today except work out -- AUGH! Maybe we should walk for an hour or something! :)

Anonymous said...

I am so happy that you posted a blog about our weekend! I have to say, I was needing that kind of a thing--kind of a girly weekend with all of my friends!
I love you Gret!
-emma