Hiiiiiii, sweet friends! It feels like I've been gone from here for simply ages, even though it's only been 3 days! I've missed you! I'm happy to report that my stitches seem to be healing nicely and I'm feeling great. Ready to buckle down and check LOTS of stuff off the work to-do list this week, especially since I have doctor's orders not to work out for the next few weeks. That just means more time each day that I can get some work done. (Trying to look on the bright side here, and not think too much about the fact that I'm NOT getting my workouts in each day!) ;)
Anyway, I think it's high time I finally share the piccies I took last weekend. We celebrated Bart's birthday by having our own little food festival. Really, it's the perfect "gift" for the guy who's super hard to shop for. You just go to several different fun restaurants that he's always wanted to go to, or that are new but you just haven't gotten around to trying yet! "The gift of an experience" is always great for a guy who doesn't really want anything else. So that's what we did.
We started out last weekend at Stroud's -- Home of Pan Fried Chicken. Stroud's has been in business since 1933 and somehow Bart and I hadn't ever gone there together. We'd each been there separately, both of us years ago, so it was fun to experience it again only this time, together.
The thing about Stroud's is, they don't mess around. The portions are huge. They're completely NOT healthy. But they taste sooooooooo good! Like I said...they don't mess around! The photo above is of my chicken fried steak. Gigantor.
This is Bart's chicken dinner -- a breast, thigh and leg. And the homestyle serving of mashed potatoes and gravy that they bring for the table. Ohhhhh, the potatoes. Have I ever told you how much I love potatoes? I do. I really do. But these? Well these, were positively exceptional! Whipped to perfection, with just a few chunks left in for good measure. Sigh.
Now this photo just makes me laugh!!! THIS was our table of food. In front of Bart, you can see his chicken as well as a plate of chicken livers (the man likes chicken livers, what can I say?) that he'd already eaten maybe 1/3 of. That was a "half" order of livers. I can't even imagine how many they bring you in a full order! You can also see the bowl of green beans that are automatic with every meal as well as the cinnamon rolls.
Yes, I said CINNAMON ROLLS. For two people, they automatically bring you a basket of 4 cinnamon rolls! And if you eat those, they're quite happy to bring you more! You can have them with your meal or after, but seriously if you're asking me, I'll take them now thank you! And these aren't just any cinnamon rolls. They're perfect cinnamon rolls. Perfectly cinnamon-y and roll-y and not covered in icing so you can really taste all of the cinnamon-y roll-y deliciousness. I can tell you that we were doing good to finish two of the rolls with this huge meal! I can also tell you that we very much enjoyed eating the other two a few days later....they reheated to ooey-gooey perfection.
For dinner that evening, we tried out a new German/Austrian restaurant in town called Grunauer. Since we've been to both Germany and Austria and had some amazing meals there, we were quite excited to try this one out.
To start things off, we had this DELICIOUS appetizer -- Liptauer Cheese & Pate with Rye Crisps. Oh my word. I could have eaten just this for my meal and been completely happy. Plus, I felt so fancy eating "pate"! Hahaha.
We ordered two entrees and shared them so that we could both try a variety of things. One of those entrees was Schweinebraten and the other was this Sausage Sampler which consisted of 6 different types of sausage plus mashed potatoes and red cabbage.
For dessert, we were so excited to order the classic Sacher Torte. You see, when we were in Austria, we had a Sacher Torte at an actual Sacher Cafe and it was SO wonderful. The torte, the coffee, the experience of going out late at night w/some of the friends we'd made on our bus tour for a bit of dessert and chit-chat.....we have such fond memories of that "torte experience". :) So it was a no-brainer that we'd try the Sacher Torte at dinner last weekend and I must say, Grunauer didn't disappoint!
Not only was the torte just as it should be -- authentic-ly Sacher, but the Melange (Austrian cappuccino) was also just the same as it was in Austria! LOVE that! Just look at how fancy it is! Cute little cup & saucer on a pretty silver platter, complete with a tiny glass of water. :)
Can you tell how much I was enjoying that Melange???? Heeee.
The next day, we did a bit of walking around on the Plaza. Here's a shot of some of the stores and just one of the many fountains here in this City of Fountains.
While we walked around the Plaza, we took quite a few shots of our reflections in various store windows. The above photo is one of them. Not too shabby for a reflection, huh? ;)
We wound down the food fest last weekend with pizza at Old Chicago, though why they call it that is beyond me. The pizza was certainly tasty enough, but the deep dish is not at all like actual Chicago deep dish. Guess we'll just have to keep going to Chicago for that. *wink*
We've had a few more fun meals this weekend including these burgers at SmashBurger. Have you had them? They're new here. I LOVE the burgers. The fries aren't all that but the burgers.......oh, they're good. Really good.
See? Toldjya. :)
Hope you've had a great weekend. I also hope that the coming week is a great one for you too.
I'm off for now. Time for this foodie to put her feet up and enjoy a bit of time with her handsome husband before we start another work-week.
Much love, Friends,
