And, yes, I am going to add the vine sometime during the next week. I need to take a break from this for a few days. Several of you had things to say about the vine, and I agreed with all of you. Here's the picture, as a reminder.
Yes, it sort of looks like it's plopped there on top and not growing on anything. Yes, it adds balance to the whole of the quilt. Yes, it might look better if it grows around some of the cross-pieces and uprights of the gazebo, and yes, I'm going to give that a try. If it gives me one iota of trouble, however, I'm going to just do it the way it shows in the picture and call it good.
It was around 3:30 when I shut down the sewing room for the day. I was headed up to the kitchen to whomp up some crab cakes for dinner when Mike offered to take me out. Well, how could I say no to that? The crab cakes could wait another day. This winter Mike plowed the snow from our neighbor's driveway, and while no payment was expected, she gave him a gift card to one of our local restaurants, La Provence. I'd been to one of their restaurants many years ago, but there's a new one a little closer to us, and so we decided to spend our gift card. When we walked in the door, we were greeted by their dessert display case. When you see something like this, you just know you're going to have a good time.
They had a little chalkboard out front advertising their Bloody Mary "flight". Are flights the newest thing in town? I'm kinda liking this trend. Anyway, Mike and I both love a good Bloody Mary, and so he ordered the flight. The glasses were just a little larger than shot glasses.
The "Breakfast" one on the left was a traditional Bloody Mary with the addition of a half strip of bacon for its garnish. He said the bacon was really good. The "Heated" one was made with jalapeno-infused vodka. Neither of us really cared for that one. It was very hot without being very flavorful, if you know what I mean. There's a difference between a food/drink being "spicy" and just being "hot" without any added flavor. Then the next one to the right, "Citron," was made with a citrus-infused vodka. The "Maria" was made with tequila instead of vodka. So much fun.
After tasting Mike's Bloody Marys, I turned to my own cocktail, which was a Bees Knees. We make this in the summertime, and so I wanted to see if theirs tasted like ours. It did, although it was a little more pink.
I wrote a little blog post about the history of the Bees Knees cocktail, and you can find the recipe right here. We're still waiting for the first warm day here in Oregon, but this is always on the menu for that first night eating dinner outside.
We both ordered the roasted beet salad. The beets were served over arugula with goat cheese and pickled onions and a champagne vinaigrette.
Mike ordered the Chicken Cordon Bleu. I let him eat his dinner in peace and didn't make him wait while I took a picture. I ordered the scallops. They were served over a red pepper risotto and topped with chimichurri. So tasty.
Once we had the requisite nutritious food out of the way, we could turn our attention to the real object of our desire...dessert. As we read down the menu, we kept saying mmmmmmm, and OMG, and holy sh*t, and other stuff like that. We ended up choosing the second and third items listed on the menu.
Mike chose the Versaille. We saw that as we walked in.
Mine was the Trio Chocolate.
That little tab on top with the name of the restaurant on it is a little tab of chocolate. Of course it is. Silly you.
Okay, well now I'm just icked out remembering this meal, but it was so tasty. This morning, I found this little graphic on my Facebook memories:
19 comments:
I would have had to take a couple desserts to go as well... they all look too fabulous to turn down.
Well, TaDa is a four-letter word! You had to post photos of all those fab desserts right before lunch didn't you? My simple salad is really going to look blah compared with those photos!
The quilt top looks wonderful. I am sure you can find a creative way to get the vine in place. After all, you've had to be creative throughout the entire quilt so what's a little vine? :)
I laughed when I saw the retirement countdown. Why? Because we just bought a pre-sale condo. Only 22 months to move-in. It seems like forever.
You are right, it does need the vine to balance it. I think it needs a little bee button somewhere too and maybe a ladybug. Your meal looked absolutely wonderful and just think, you will probably get another chance to celebrate again when the retirement actually happens. Are you guys going to have a party with the boys to celebrate?
You know TA-DA is a four letter word too! Quiltmaker's Garden is fantastic! (especially knowing it was your nemesis and you did it!!!)
Nice neighbors to give Mike that card for doing their yard. (Nice Mike for doing the yard!) Your dinner out looks divine. Especially those desserts...YUM!!!
Congratulations to Mike for his last eighteen days of other people's work. I'm loving retirement myself, although, I work more now, and there are no state agencies making my boss let me take breaks! I wouldn't trade that for working though!
I'm so glad you didn't leave me hanging on to know what you ordered for dessert. It all looks so good. I think I might have chosen the "Monkey Love".
Your quilt is breathtaking. A real stunner~
Oh wow, it looks fabulous!! I hope your four-letter words were, "cool," "love," "yeah," and the like -- you did a GREAT job with it! Ummmm...there's an awful lot of chocolate in this post. I may be salivating just a tad. Eighteen days until retirement?!? Wow!!!! After eight y'all will be single digit midgets! As we used to say in the good ol' USN. :)
Your dinner and deserts looked amazing! I know you will come up with an artful way to apply the vine on the quilt!
I wish I hadn't seen all of those desserts just before leaving for the grocery store, quite a few of them I would have had boxed up to bring home.
I was going to be all kinds of disappointed if you had one of those fruity desserts and no chocolate, but you came through! Gimme chocolate, any day! Those desserts look amazing! I remember reading about your Bee's Knees cocktail; now I need to re-read the recipe. I'm not big on cocktails, but that one was interesting to me. Good work on the quilt. Goodness, I hadn't even thought of all those scenarios for the vine. I'd take a break too; you gotta let your tongue cool down from all that four-letter vocabulary :-) Enjoy your day!
That's beautiful! I wanted to make one of those but couldn't get all the magazines together for it. I stumbled across one of the magazines after they were all posted.
Congrats. on getting to retire soon!
Congrats on finishing your quilt - I know it was a struggle but it is a beauty in the end! Your meals sounds delish but I think I would have just parked myself at the desserts and been more than happy. Happy 18 days and counting! On the other hand, I have 6,855 days...sigh...
I would have just skipped the dinner and went straight for the desserts. OMG they were incredible looking and I'm sure tasted just as good. What a nice thing for the neighbor to do and you deserved it after spending so much time in your sewing room. When I first saw the title of your post, I thought -- has she lost her mind or does she have a fever!
Oops. Those desserts got my mind all mixed up. I forgot to say your gazebo quilt looks stunning! Well done.!!
Your quilt top turned out beautiful. It is always nice when something that was frustrating to make turns out so well. I was with some friends at La Provence not too long ago and they sat us right beside the dessert case. We also had a view into the window where they were making their chocolate creations. They were decorating huge chocolate Easter eggs and it was fun to watch that. If you like going out for breakfast they have some very tasty choices.
Quiltmaker's Garden turned out beautifully! Congrats on getting it all assembled. Oh, that dinner looks gorgeous and yummy, especially those desserts.
Oh my word don't all those desserts look scrumptious!? Everything looked wonderful & someone else cleaned up to top it off!!
The quilt looks absolutely fabulous. You have done an incredible job.
How on earth did you whittle that dessert menu down to two Barbara? The flight of Bloody Mary's sounded like fun too, what a nice night out for a pre-retirement celebration.
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