This week I had family coming into town unexpectedly - I found out on Wednesday that they would be in late Friday night. We usually do our date nights on Saturdays - it's just easier that way, so we were thinking we'd probably just skip this week. But then on Thursday night some friends of ours invited us to join them for dinner on Friday. We decided to accept their invitation and count it as this week's date night.
We met our friends Brad and Tabitha and their son Wyatt at Nettie's, a local Mexican restaurant. Neither John or I had been there in years. I used to think of it as authentic Mexican food, but having since been to Mexico, I'm not sure anyone there would eat the cheddar cheese-covered Nettie's fare, but my American palate still finds it pretty delicious. We tried the guacamole, which was yummy and had an unexpected kick, but I realized as soon as our entrees arrived why I'd never ordered it before. The portions are ginormous, I took at least 3/4 of mine home after eating chips with salsa and guacamole beforehand. John managed to take out most of his, but I think he and Brad were having some sort of contest to see who could eat the most.
It was a great night catching up with friends, eating yummy food, and discussing our upcoming trip to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. And since they ended up picking up the check in return for some computer issues John had helped them with, it ended up being free! (We did dip into the date night fund the next night to take my nephew out for Chinese though.)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Week 11 - Not-so Fine Dining
It was John's turn to plan our date, and he decided he wanted to have dinner somewhere we've never tried before. After hearing good things from friends, we decided to check out Cedar Creek Steakhouse. I was very excited when he told me where we were going, I'd been wanting to try it out for some time, but unfortunately we were both in for a pretty big disappointment. If the restaurant was trying to achieve fine dining as the cloth napkins, ambiance and pricy-ish menu suggested, they missed the mark. They also managed to violate several of my restaurant pet peeves, no matter what kind of establishment.
First, the server-and several others I observed that night, had long hair that wasn't tied back. I'm not sure why this is such an issue for me, but it's a biggy. I think it looks unprofessional and I worry about them running their hair through food without even knowing it. Other than that, I thought the service was fine. Not good, not bad, just fine.
We ordered a garlic cheese bread appetizer ($4.25), John ordered the king cut prime rib (12 oz, $22.50) with a loaded baked potato, and I ordered the chicken fried steak ($11.75) from the "specialties" menu. Both entrees came with salad and bread.
I had assumed that our appetizer would come out first, but my second pet peeve of the night was violated and the salads came out. They were a very uninspiring iceberg mix from a bag, topped with a single cucumber slice, a small chunk of tomato, a quarter slice of green pepper and a few croutons topped with at least twice as much dressing as needed. There was still a large puddle of dressing in the bottom of my dish when I was finished.
The appetizer came out when we were about half way through with our salads. It was over-buttered bread topped with melted cheese. The garlic flavor was subtle, but good, however the texture of the soggy bread was a little off-putting.
After the salad plates were cleared our dinner was brought out. John said his prime rib was "OK", but nothing special. The portion was rather small compared to other restaurants with similar prices. His loaded baked potato was a plain potato wrapped in foil (yet another pet peeve of mine) with sides of butter and sour cream - again, very unremarkable. My chicken fried steak on the other had, was the highlight of the meal. The batter was much lighter than most chicken fried steaks I've had and seasoned deliciously. The meat was tender and seemed to be of a better quality than the typical pounded round steak. The portion was generous but not overly huge. The mashed potatoes and gravy were good, but nothing special.
Basically, when it came down to it, if the prices had been about 25% less and they were going for a diner feel we would have been satisfied, but we have had much better meals other places for this price range. I don't see us going back any time soon.
We had Corbin with us, and we have finally decided that it's time to find a sitter if we want to have a nice meal together. He's past the stage where he sits quietly or snoozes in his car seat and just requires too much attention. He'll still be included in some things, but not the nicer restaurants.
First, the server-and several others I observed that night, had long hair that wasn't tied back. I'm not sure why this is such an issue for me, but it's a biggy. I think it looks unprofessional and I worry about them running their hair through food without even knowing it. Other than that, I thought the service was fine. Not good, not bad, just fine.
We ordered a garlic cheese bread appetizer ($4.25), John ordered the king cut prime rib (12 oz, $22.50) with a loaded baked potato, and I ordered the chicken fried steak ($11.75) from the "specialties" menu. Both entrees came with salad and bread.
I had assumed that our appetizer would come out first, but my second pet peeve of the night was violated and the salads came out. They were a very uninspiring iceberg mix from a bag, topped with a single cucumber slice, a small chunk of tomato, a quarter slice of green pepper and a few croutons topped with at least twice as much dressing as needed. There was still a large puddle of dressing in the bottom of my dish when I was finished.
The appetizer came out when we were about half way through with our salads. It was over-buttered bread topped with melted cheese. The garlic flavor was subtle, but good, however the texture of the soggy bread was a little off-putting.
After the salad plates were cleared our dinner was brought out. John said his prime rib was "OK", but nothing special. The portion was rather small compared to other restaurants with similar prices. His loaded baked potato was a plain potato wrapped in foil (yet another pet peeve of mine) with sides of butter and sour cream - again, very unremarkable. My chicken fried steak on the other had, was the highlight of the meal. The batter was much lighter than most chicken fried steaks I've had and seasoned deliciously. The meat was tender and seemed to be of a better quality than the typical pounded round steak. The portion was generous but not overly huge. The mashed potatoes and gravy were good, but nothing special.
Basically, when it came down to it, if the prices had been about 25% less and they were going for a diner feel we would have been satisfied, but we have had much better meals other places for this price range. I don't see us going back any time soon.
We had Corbin with us, and we have finally decided that it's time to find a sitter if we want to have a nice meal together. He's past the stage where he sits quietly or snoozes in his car seat and just requires too much attention. He'll still be included in some things, but not the nicer restaurants.
After dinner we went through the Dairy Queen drive through to get a sweet treat to take home with us. John got a turtle waffle bowl sundae and I got a hot chocolate smoothie. These were a welcome bit of deliciousness after the somewhat disappointing dinner. We went home, put the little one to bed and snuggled on the couch watching TV with our ice cream, a great way to end the night!
Total price for dinner and ice cream was about $65 with tax and tip.
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| The highlight of our evening! |
Week 10 - the "plans change" date
This week I had planned what I thought would be a pretty fun date for the hubby, the little guy and I. However, when my husband reminded me mid-week that he would be participating in some controlled burning (he's a volunteer firefighter/EMT) that day, I realized he may be too tired for what I had planned, so I decided to scale it back a little. Then the night before date night I had dinner with a friend and she offered to babysit the munchkin so we could have a night out without the bambino. So I changed my plans again. Then, just before we left, I came up with yet another plan.
So we dropped the kiddo off with my friend and headed to Outback Steakhouse. This is one of my husband's favorite restaurants, and he hadn't been in quite some time, so I thought he'd really enjoy it, and we did. We had a pretty great dinner and it was nice to be able to eat and talk without having to tend to the baby. John had his favorite, prime rib - Outback style, and I had a small filet (which I noticed when reading the menu had gotten even smaller since the last time we'd eaten there) and we also split an order of the coconut shrimp. It was way too much food and John ended up having some of it for breakfast the next morning.
When we were done with dinner we went to Best Buy. There were some things John had been wanting to look for, and he had a gift card from Christmas to spend, so we wandered the store looking at giant TVs and digital cameras and smart phones and laptops and so on and so forth, picked up a few small things, and decided to call it a night.
Dinner was around $50 with tax and tip.
So we dropped the kiddo off with my friend and headed to Outback Steakhouse. This is one of my husband's favorite restaurants, and he hadn't been in quite some time, so I thought he'd really enjoy it, and we did. We had a pretty great dinner and it was nice to be able to eat and talk without having to tend to the baby. John had his favorite, prime rib - Outback style, and I had a small filet (which I noticed when reading the menu had gotten even smaller since the last time we'd eaten there) and we also split an order of the coconut shrimp. It was way too much food and John ended up having some of it for breakfast the next morning.
When we were done with dinner we went to Best Buy. There were some things John had been wanting to look for, and he had a gift card from Christmas to spend, so we wandered the store looking at giant TVs and digital cameras and smart phones and laptops and so on and so forth, picked up a few small things, and decided to call it a night.
Dinner was around $50 with tax and tip.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Week 9 - The Deja Vu Date
This week we revisited our former standard date night. It was bound to happen sooner or later. It was John's turn to plan, but in his defense I was the one who suggested it. You see, I had recently been having a serious hankering for China Road, and we still live in a 110+ year old house that still needs things from the hardware store all the time. So we slipped easily back into our old ways for one night.
We started our dinner, as always, with an order of crab rangoon. These have been a favorite food of mine since the first time I had them, but I've never eaten them anywhere that come close to as good as China Road's. For dinner, favorite dish at CR is the kung pao beef, but I'm still nursing and Corbin isn't a big fan, so I went for my second favorite - cashew chicken, extra mushrooms. John had the chef's sizzling hot plate. As usual the food did not disappoint, the service was wonderful, and since we had the little guy with us several of the servers stopped to see him and catch up with us. I love this challenge and the places we've been going, but I sure do miss having CR more often.
After dinner we headed to Lowe's. As I've said before, our house is over 110 years old. In that time it has been subjected to several additions and some really shoddy renovations, so something always needs fixed. This trip was to price the cost of some ceiling fan replacement parts. The fan in our bedroom is circa 1980. Some time ago one of the blades broke off. This left it unbalanced and therefore unusable, so as a quick fix John broke off the opposite one. A two blade fan wasn't as effective as a four blade fan, but at least it was a fan. Then a third blade broke off. John found it impossible to sleep without the fan going, so in desperation he took a blade off the dining room fan and put it on the bedroom fan. So now the bedroom fan half worked and the dining room fan didn't work at all (unless we were to take another blade off it). It was really quite a sad situation. During one of her visits my dear Mother-in-law took one look at the pathetic fan hanging in our bedroom and took us to the store for a new one. Since we were planning on replacing the hideous paneling on the bedroom ceiling with drywall, we decided to wait to install the new fan until the drywall project was done. Well, it's been some time now, and the old bedroom fan is still there, half working, and the dining room fan is still short a blade. With the warmer weather approaching I'd like to get all of the fans in good working order, so we found ourselves looking at blades and blade arms in the fan and lighting aisle at Lowe's. We decided to just go ahead and install the new fan. Hopefully we will be able to get that done in the near future. I'm sure this is more information than you ever wanted to know about the ceiling fan situation in our house, but I just thought you should know how desperate we were when we spent yet another date night at the home improvement store.
Again, I've lost track of the total cost for dinner, but it was somewhere around $40 including tax and tip - and we have a tendency to tip a little more excessively at CR.
We started our dinner, as always, with an order of crab rangoon. These have been a favorite food of mine since the first time I had them, but I've never eaten them anywhere that come close to as good as China Road's. For dinner, favorite dish at CR is the kung pao beef, but I'm still nursing and Corbin isn't a big fan, so I went for my second favorite - cashew chicken, extra mushrooms. John had the chef's sizzling hot plate. As usual the food did not disappoint, the service was wonderful, and since we had the little guy with us several of the servers stopped to see him and catch up with us. I love this challenge and the places we've been going, but I sure do miss having CR more often.
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| Cashew Chicken, extra mushrooms |
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| Chef's Sizzling Hot Plate |
After dinner we headed to Lowe's. As I've said before, our house is over 110 years old. In that time it has been subjected to several additions and some really shoddy renovations, so something always needs fixed. This trip was to price the cost of some ceiling fan replacement parts. The fan in our bedroom is circa 1980. Some time ago one of the blades broke off. This left it unbalanced and therefore unusable, so as a quick fix John broke off the opposite one. A two blade fan wasn't as effective as a four blade fan, but at least it was a fan. Then a third blade broke off. John found it impossible to sleep without the fan going, so in desperation he took a blade off the dining room fan and put it on the bedroom fan. So now the bedroom fan half worked and the dining room fan didn't work at all (unless we were to take another blade off it). It was really quite a sad situation. During one of her visits my dear Mother-in-law took one look at the pathetic fan hanging in our bedroom and took us to the store for a new one. Since we were planning on replacing the hideous paneling on the bedroom ceiling with drywall, we decided to wait to install the new fan until the drywall project was done. Well, it's been some time now, and the old bedroom fan is still there, half working, and the dining room fan is still short a blade. With the warmer weather approaching I'd like to get all of the fans in good working order, so we found ourselves looking at blades and blade arms in the fan and lighting aisle at Lowe's. We decided to just go ahead and install the new fan. Hopefully we will be able to get that done in the near future. I'm sure this is more information than you ever wanted to know about the ceiling fan situation in our house, but I just thought you should know how desperate we were when we spent yet another date night at the home improvement store.
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| The 2-bladed bedroom ceiling fan. |
Week 8 - Triple Date
This week John, Corbin and I invited our friends Jarrod, Jen and their daughter Kinley to meet us at Round The Bend Steakhouse for dinner. They live in Lincoln so we thought it would make a great halfway meeting point. I have joked since before they were born that Corbin and Kinley will have an arranged marriage, allowing her parents and us to skip the whole dating thing, so this was their official first date.
John had a prime rib dinner - one of their specialties, the other being various animals' testicles - and I had a steak and shrimp dinner. Both meals came with a salad, a potato (we both had baked) and dinner rolls. The food was good, not great, but good. For the price we could have gone somewhere else and had much better, but the company made it more than worth it.
We had a wonderful time catching up with our friends and the babies were both well behaved, so all in all I'd call it a pretty successful night.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to keep my posts up to date as often as I had hoped, and now since it's been so long I don't remember the exact total, but including tax and tip it was somewhere between $40 and $50.
John had a prime rib dinner - one of their specialties, the other being various animals' testicles - and I had a steak and shrimp dinner. Both meals came with a salad, a potato (we both had baked) and dinner rolls. The food was good, not great, but good. For the price we could have gone somewhere else and had much better, but the company made it more than worth it.
We had a wonderful time catching up with our friends and the babies were both well behaved, so all in all I'd call it a pretty successful night.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to keep my posts up to date as often as I had hoped, and now since it's been so long I don't remember the exact total, but including tax and tip it was somewhere between $40 and $50.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Week 7 - "That there Clark is an RV"
This weekend was the annual Omaha Boat, Sports and Travel show. We've enjoyed going to this the last few years and really enjoy looking at all of the RVs. We were, for a short time, proud owners of a mid-80's motor home, but we decided it was a little more than what we needed or wanted, so we sold it. Since then we have talked on and off about buying a smaller bumper-hitch trailer, but until we get serious about it we love to go look at all of the various options available.
So early that afternoon we headed down to the Qwest Center to see what this year's offerings were. We decided to keep the bambino with us, so I strapped him into the Snuggli facing out so he could see the campers too. It was pretty cold out that day and very drafty in the Qwest, so I left his raccoon hat on. Apparently people can't resist a dimpled baby with a raccoon hat, so we chatted with lots of strangers that afternoon. We even had one of the camper salesmen ask if he could take a picture of him. My husband, always the haggler, allowed the guy to snap a picture of the baby in return for a business card and promise of a great price when we're ready to buy. It was an enjoyable afternoon and we got more ideas for what we are going to be looking for when we ever decide to take the plunge.
After we had checked out the RVs, gone back and double checked the ones we had liked, and wandered through the rest of the show's offerings we'd built up quite the appetite. Hubby hadn't made any particular dinner plans as part of the date (it was his turn to plan), so we picked something on the fly. We ended up choosing Wheatfields where John got his favorite french dip and I gave the house special fried chicken a try. Everything was yummy but I had to get a to-go box for most of my meal so I could save room for dessert. After bread pudding and strawberry wedding cake (most of which also came home in a to-go box), we were ready to call it a night.
Parking $8
Show Tickets $18
Lemonade $3
Dinner $43
Total $72
Previous balance $122 - $50 weekly - $72 = $150 current balance
So early that afternoon we headed down to the Qwest Center to see what this year's offerings were. We decided to keep the bambino with us, so I strapped him into the Snuggli facing out so he could see the campers too. It was pretty cold out that day and very drafty in the Qwest, so I left his raccoon hat on. Apparently people can't resist a dimpled baby with a raccoon hat, so we chatted with lots of strangers that afternoon. We even had one of the camper salesmen ask if he could take a picture of him. My husband, always the haggler, allowed the guy to snap a picture of the baby in return for a business card and promise of a great price when we're ready to buy. It was an enjoyable afternoon and we got more ideas for what we are going to be looking for when we ever decide to take the plunge.
After we had checked out the RVs, gone back and double checked the ones we had liked, and wandered through the rest of the show's offerings we'd built up quite the appetite. Hubby hadn't made any particular dinner plans as part of the date (it was his turn to plan), so we picked something on the fly. We ended up choosing Wheatfields where John got his favorite french dip and I gave the house special fried chicken a try. Everything was yummy but I had to get a to-go box for most of my meal so I could save room for dessert. After bread pudding and strawberry wedding cake (most of which also came home in a to-go box), we were ready to call it a night.
Parking $8
Show Tickets $18
Lemonade $3
Dinner $43
Total $72
Previous balance $122 - $50 weekly - $72 = $150 current balance
Week 6 - "Free Hockey"
This week was supposed to be another try at the date we both planned, but late in the week my best friend Steph called and asked if we'd like tickets to the Omaha Lancers v. Lincoln Stars hockey game. She also mentioned that there would be $1 beer, soda and hot dogs before the game and that she even had a babysitter (her mom) lined up for the little guy. How could we say no?
So we dropped the little man off with his "Aunt Donita" and headed up to the Omaha civic center. Dinner consisted of pre-game hot dogs and beer - which is a rare treat for me since I'm still nursing. We enjoyed the game (or at least what we saw of it), but were disappointed that the refs broke up all the fights before they had a chance to get good. We also enjoyed catching up with friends and people watching. Unfortunately, with the little amount of sleep we've been getting lately, we couldn't make it to the end of the game. We left after the second period and headed home.
It was a fun night, relatively cheap, though not as cheap as it could have been, and it was nice to be able to enjoy a couple beers in the company of good friends.
Parking: $6
4 beers: $4
4 Hot dogs: $4
Pretzel, water
& soda $12
tips $2
Total: $32
Previous balance: $104 + $50 weekly - $32 = $122 current balance
So we dropped the little man off with his "Aunt Donita" and headed up to the Omaha civic center. Dinner consisted of pre-game hot dogs and beer - which is a rare treat for me since I'm still nursing. We enjoyed the game (or at least what we saw of it), but were disappointed that the refs broke up all the fights before they had a chance to get good. We also enjoyed catching up with friends and people watching. Unfortunately, with the little amount of sleep we've been getting lately, we couldn't make it to the end of the game. We left after the second period and headed home.
It was a fun night, relatively cheap, though not as cheap as it could have been, and it was nice to be able to enjoy a couple beers in the company of good friends.
Parking: $6
4 beers: $4
4 Hot dogs: $4
Pretzel, water
& soda $12
tips $2
Total: $32
Previous balance: $104 + $50 weekly - $32 = $122 current balance
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| Enjoying the game! |
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