If It’s Tuesday…

…it must be La Corona!

Every Tuesday rain or shine you’ll find Dear and I at our favorite local Mexican Restaurant, La Corona.

We really enjoy their salsa. Did you notice the larger than usual salsa container? Our waitress knows we go through the little one too fast so she brings us a big bowl to begin with. During my season of restraint, I count out 6 chips and lay them on a napkin on the table. That is my portion. I double dip, triple dip, quadruple dip to get as much salsa as I can with my 6 chips. Salsa is cheap in calories…

We have a favorite waitress at the restaurant. This is Liliana. She treats us like family and we appreciate her work ethic and the big bowl of salsa

Here’s my restraint meal. I get one soft corn taco with Chile Colorado for the meat. Instead of rice I get a salad. Instead of refried beans I get the ranch beans. I didn’t want to give up our tradition of going out on our dinner date on Tuesdays so this is a good alternative meal to enjoy without the typical Mexican meal calories! Monday marks 4 weeks of restraint for me.

It’s Friday and for me the week seemed to go slow for a change. I mowed the lawn yesterday and found some mystery meat in the garage freezer. It really is a good idea to label stuff you freeze. We are pretty sure it was pork loin and it cooked up real nice because it was pre-seasoned well. Oye!

Do you have any plans for the weekend?

Gabriel’s Fire, Restaurant, Grill and Barbecue!

We finally found a good spot for barbecue in the Puget Sound area. Josh and Laura met us there after church on Sunday.

Monty Slimp and his brother are the cooks and waiters. Monty helped us around the sauces. They’ve got several to choose from depending on your taste buds. The meat has a real good smoke taste. I ordered the Deelux, brisket tossed in your choice of sauce and layered with cheese, beans, and topped with coleslaw. Dear ordered the Pulled Pork. Laura ordered the pulled pork tacos. I forgot what Josh ordered. It was all real good. They serve brews from a local brewery.

They say “we only use whole logs to smoke our meat; because the flavor is in the smoke!” Our taste buds agree with that statement. We highly recommend Gabriel’s Fire for great tasting barbecue in a casual setting.

And for all my Canadian friends, on your next trip South, this spot is just off the I-5 .

Our Favorite Waitress…

…knows what we like and she doesn’t disappoint.

We are regulars at a restaurant close by and we are recognized and treated well by all the employees. One of the waitresses is our very favorite. Sometimes when she sees us drive up she heads to the kitchen and the bar and comes to our table with some favorites even before we order. We go through the small bowls of salsa fast so she doesn’t bring us a small bowl but finds a large one to fill with salsa. She is quick and efficient and we appreciate her work ethic. When we order a Cadillac Margarita she gives us a Rolls Royce. She never gets under 20% for a tip. We have a mutual respect for each other!

Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn’t you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and their always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same

You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

A Great Reason to Celebrate…

…our daughter Katie completed her coursework for her degree from University of Washington!

A wonderful reason to don the Oscar de la Renta and go out on the town…

We chose to celebrate at Palisade Restaurant at the waterfront on Elliott Bay…

The views of Seattle were great and the food and company were lovely…

Dear, Ellen b., Katie, Josh, Laura, Steve, and Lana G!

Our two lovely daughters…

Laura and Josh…

Ellen b. and Dear

Josh and Katie…

Sisters…

Our daughter in love, Laura.

The proud mama!

Isn’t she lovely!?

We are so proud of your perseverance in the challenges of changing schools and finishing well, Katie. We pray for God’s richest blessings in your life as you continue to grow and remember that God is the provider of all good things!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

Eating Our Way Through Two Countries!!

My daughter Katie and I set out on a rainy adventure through the top left corner of the U.S.A. to Canada on Tuesday. Just before we got to the border of the U.S.A. and Canada we stopped at the Blackberry House Cafe in Blaine. Friends of ours own the cafe and we wanted to check it out since we were in the neighborhood. What a great spot for some good eats and good coffee. We had a little visit and bought some fresh bread to take home. Make sure you stop by sometime at H street and 3rd!

Here are the owners and our yummy breakfast. Aaron is a pastry chef. Sorry the photo is a little blurry…

They let us across the border after a few questions as to our purpose for visiting the fine country of Canada. We told them we were visiting to go to lunch. They wanted to know where we planned to eat. We said “Stanley Park”. They wanted us to be more specific so we said, “The Teahouse Restaurant in Stanley Park”. That was the right answer so they let us proceed!

I think our food choices at the Teahouse Restaurant look like something you’d get served on Top Chef. Don’t let the name of this restaurant fool you. It’s not about the Tea here but it is about some very good food.

After lunch we spent some time at the Aquarium in Stanley Park and then enjoyed seeing some beautiful views under dry skies before we headed back to the Border.

When we got to the border we were asked some more questions to see if we were worthy to re-enter our country. They were concerned about agricultural products. They wanted to know where we ate, too. I’m wondering if the Border Patrol are compiling a book on most frequented eateries in Canada…

After all those questions about food we got hungry again and stopped at Taco Lobo in Bellingham. Lovella had given this spot a good review and she was right. We got there at 4:45 and ordered our food and as our food arrived the place filled up to overflowing.

If nothing else you can rest assured if you ever travel with us you won’t be hungry!!

And just for the curious if you have a smooth border crossing you can make it from my house to Vancouver in 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

Fabio From Top Chef at Cafe Firenze!

Do you watch Top Chef? Fabio from last season of Top Chef owns a restaurant with his brother in Moorpark, California called Cafe Firenze. We decided to go there for dinner with our daughter on Sunday night and we hoped to see Fabio while we were there. We ordered our food and were enjoying our appetizers when we felt some excitement fill the restaurant.

From our seat we could see that Fabio had arrived and was overseeing the operations in the kitchen.

I was such a happy camper to see Fabio in person after enjoying him on Top Chef!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage unless I pay them a lot of money. I’m slowly cleaning up many posts from this time period and deleting their ugly grey and black boxes with a ransom request. Such a time consuming bother.

Birthday Girls at The Tudor House

My walking Bloggy buddy Willow was blessed to be born on St. Patrick’s Day (which makes her exempt from the wearin o the green) I was born on the 14th of March. We decided to celebrate by taking tea in Santa Monica, California yesterday. Willow happened to have the day off and we worked it to our advantage.

Happy Real Birthday Willow!

We drove south along the coast to Santa Monica. This British Corner on 2nd and Santa Monica Blvd. has the Tudor Tea Room and Bakery, Ye Olde King’s Head Shoppe, and a British Pub.

Look at that! They set all the tables in Willow’s favorite china pattern…Willow! We enjoyed eating our food and drinking our Earl Grey with these great Churchill plates, cups and saucers.

After our tea we strolled through the British shops and pub that was all decked out for St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations.

You can see Willow’s reflection in the mirror. Darn! We forgot to have someone take a photo of us taking our tea!

We headed for Ocean Blvd. to catch another glimpse of the Pacific before heading home.

This was waiting for me when I got home and it’s exciting and scary at the same time…

This is my birthday present from Dear. I’ll let you know if I figure out how to put it together and use it! :0)

Have a wonderful St. Patty’s Day!

How you can tell you are in a Jewish Deli…

I have many posts speaking to important eternal things that I am thankful for. This does not fall into the eternal category but I’m very thankful never-the-less. I grew up in the Los Angeles Area. There is a large Jewish community in the Los Angeles Area and I grew to love the culture and the delicatessens. My high school also had a large Jewish population and some of my best friends were Jewish. When our little family moved to Washington State one of the first things that became quite evident was the lack of good Jewish delicatessens. Now that Dear and I are living in the greater Los Angeles Area we are enjoying good Pastrami on Rye Sandwiches again!

On our way to South Orange County on Sunday we stopped in Woodland Hills at Jerry’s Famous Deli on Ventura Blvd for a bite to eat. How can you tell you are in a Jewish Deli? Any menu that has a section called Nosh could be a clue. Then there is the overabundance of bagels in the food service area. Pastrami, Corned Beef, Lox and Bagels on the menu is another clue. A plate of dill pickles on the table instead of chips is a really good clue. Last but not least are the boxes and boxes of Matzos!

ABC Wednesday ~ M is for…

M is for Mariachis, Mexican Food, and Margaritas.

Mariachi is a type of musical group, originally from Cocula, Jalisco, Mexico. Usually a mariachi consists of at least three violins, two trumpets, one Mexican guitar, one vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar) and one guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass). They dress in silver studded charro outfits with wide-brimmed hats. The original Mariachi were Mexican street musicians or buskers. Many mariachis are professional entertainers doing paid gigs in the mainstream entertainment industry. Professionals are normally skilled at more than one instrument, and they also sing.

Some of our Mexican Restaurants in Southern California have Mariachis strolling around the restaurant taking requests for songs to play and sing.

This Mariachi group played at my nephews wedding

I was born and raised in the East Los Angeles area of Southern California. The Mexican culture (these days if you are politically correct called “Hispanic” not “Mexican”) was all around me. We celebrated Mexican holidays at my elementary school, took field trips to Olvera Street in Los Angeles where the culture was further introduced to us. I have always enjoyed Mexican Food. There isn’t a Mexican restaurant in the Southern California area that calls itself Hispanic that I know of. They still all refer to themselves as Mexican restaurants.

Our favorite Mexican Restaurant in the Camarillo Area is El Tecolate. In Mexico El Tecolote means the Owl. Mexican Restaurants always serve chips and salsa at your table when you arrive. Sometimes we order guacamole to go with the chips too. Guacamole is a dip made with mashed avocados and other ingredients.

They have decorated the restaurant with many different types of owl “art”. This is just a fraction of the Owls you’ll see inside.

They serve your typical Mexican food here and other interesting dishes that are unique to this restaurant.

This is an open tamale

Carnitas (slow cooked pork) is another Mexican favorite. So yummy…

There are some Mexican restaurants that still hand make their tortillas. The restaurant where this Mexican lady is making tortillas is in Venice Beach, California (a district of Los Angeles).

And last but not least I leave you with a Margarita which is a classic Mexican Tequila and lime drink! You can have the double, I’m fine with the single.

We prefer ours on the rocks. A lot of people like the blended variety that gives you a brain freeze on your first sip. Muchas Gracias for visiting my M post mi amigos y amigas.

For more ABC Wednesday visit Mrs. Nesbitt.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage and they have blacked them all out. I’m slowly working at restoring my posts without their help. Such a tiresome bother!

Dressed-To-A-Tea!

Generally when I go to a tea I dress up just a bit from my normal everyday style (jeans and a top) I’ll put on my black pants and try to wear something more interesting on top. I am not a hat person because a hat does not compliment me at all. My daughter Katie can wear any hat out there and look cute but not me!

We had tea at The Gilded Rose Manor Tea House for my mother’s 85th birthday on Saturday. I took a few photos of some pretty accessories they had around the tea room to share for “Dressed-To-A-Tea! This hat rack with the hats and boa’s was in the front entry.

This was something for a little girl to wear.

And some other pretty vintage children’s dresses.

More typically our Tea apparel is “to each his own” as you can see from the tea guests above. There are more pictures from my Mother’s birthday tea here.

This is my daughter Katie dressed for a Winter Tea with her vintage hat, gloves and pearls.

I’m hoping to be able to share a tea post with my daughter dressed for her Japanese Tea Ceremony class soon. She’s taking this class from the University of Washington and travels to a Japanese Tea-house in Seattle at the Arboretum each week for her instruction.

Visit LaTeaDah at Gracious Hospitality for more Dressed-To-A-Tea Posts.