Friday, February 26, 2010

SECURITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To the Anonymous Blogger that left the "Not So Kind Comment" on my blog
after I went to see Ragtime in NYC over the holidays.....
You might want to see what I've been up to these days....
If you thought what I did in NY was bad wait until you
hear about the day I had today....
Flour Power Joyce.....My partner in crime....suggested we go to lunch
at the
Culinary School at the Art Institute of Atlanta....
Calling for backup in the form of the SantaMaker Rose....just incase we
needed to be baled out of jail....
We arranged to meet at noon....
I got there first.......which is a first for me.....and while waiting for the ladies
to arrive I found my way up to the 5th floor and wandered the hallways taking pictures
There were alot of these glass showcases with all sorts of awards inside.....

Some beautiful cakes on display....
Lots of classrooms....
And a cute little cafeteria where the future chefs were taking their
afternoon break....

I decided to find my way into the restaurant and I found a seat near the large floor to
ceiling windows....in between watching out for the girls to arrive...
I took some photos.....
I introduced myself as being a blogger....
And I chit chatted with one of the students....
Before leaving the house this morning I was thinking about calling and asking
if we could have a little tour of the culinary school
so we could do a post about it....
Who knew this would be frowned upon....

I took a few pictures....
Why there were crayons on the table I have no idea as the restaurant is only
open on Thursdays and Fridays....
Not someplace that children would really be coming to....
Someone must have thought it would be a cute idea...

I had gone on the Internet last night to check out the menu so
I knew ahead of time that I would be ordering the
Maple roasted half a chicken with mashed potatoes and
French green beans.....
A very nice menu..
They offered soups and salads....sandwiches and a specialty burger...
plus a few entrees...
and ofcourse dessert!


Rose arrived next...then in came my answer to Betty Crocker....
Miss Joyce....with the most fabulous new haircut....
At this point I get up to take a picture of the kitchen
that was behind this huge glass wall....
I Go back to the table....
We then see the instructor slash Dining Room Manager come out....
And the "beef stew" Hit The Fan.....
First she wanted to know who I was and when I said I was just a blogger....
she said..."No...what's your name"....and she said this in not a
"Hey maybe we can become friends since we both like food.".....kind of way....
I said "Sue".......Never give out your last name people.....
At this point I figured that they had my license plate number off the Bug and was
running a check with the DMV.....
I got a lecture about taking pictures and how you can't take pictures without asking
the person's permission.....
Which is understandable but to tell you the truth I was taking a picture of the kitchen
and didn't even think about the people that had their backs to the camera.....
I mean I love cooking and I love food and who wouldn't want to go to
cooking school and we were all excited about being there and this
Chick just took out all the fun.......

What is getting into the world these days that everyone is afraid that your
doing something with bad intentions....
I guess it has to do with that whole ACORN video taping thing.....
But Whatever.....

But then she said it would be fine if we took her photo.....



So we ordered our food each getting something different....
And it went downhill from there....

Now me and daughter have eaten at the Culinary Institute of America
and believe me this is no CIA......
I mean not even close....
I ordered the chicken....or was that little half bird on my plate a capon?
I have to say the French green beans were good....
There was no taste of maple on the chicken or in the sauce....
No color on the chicken...in person it was very bland looking...
The "mashed" potatoes were actually "smashed potatoes"....
I was corrected when I told the instructor how lumpy they were...
She said they were smashed not mashed and they were suppose to have lumps....
Okay....
I guess that's a great way to cover your butt if they aren't cooked properly....
It gives you a bit of leeway....

And Rose had the burger with Brie and a side of roasted vegetables....
Now this is a bad picture and you really can't see the veggies
But believe me you couldn't tell what they were......
Totally unrecognizable....
They were brown little blobs of stuff....overcooked to high heaven....
Rose did say the burger was good....
God Love you Rose....

Then there was Joyce's "Beef Stew"....
You know the stuff that hit the fan....
All I can say is that after one bite Joyce actually barked like a dog.....She really did.

Again a bad picture but can you see the burnt carrot in the foreground.....
and those are fingerling potatoes...And let's not even
discuss the meat.....and I use the term loosely.....
Needless to say we convinced Joyce to return the "food" to the kitchen and they
brought her out a cup of soup.....

On to Dessert!!

Rose was having a banner day.....
She ordered the peanut butter cookie ice cream sandwich....
Billed as coming with Rum Raisin Ice Cream....
we all tasted it and I swear it had so much ice in it that is was more like
Ice Milk....not ice cream.....

I had the apple streusel with a little dollop of ice cream....
Not bad....but nothing special...
A Home Ec class in high school on day one could make this....
Heck....Miss B could make this...

Joyce hit a home run with this baby.....
She swore the top was not burnt but you couldn't convince me.....
She did say the sauce was good....
Well...that's a relief....
Did someone trip carrying this from the kitchen?

We all taste tested and the inside was gooey for sure....

At this point we still hadn't been asked to leave the premises....

So we wandered the halls.....
And I wandered into one of the kitchens....
Hey I couldn't help myself....I love anything stainless...I'm drawn to it like most women
are drawn to diamonds....

Some women like minks and Mercedes....
Give me a big ass Hobart Mixer any day...

We continued to wander around and Joyce made sure to ask the guys in this area if
she could take their picture....
So they can't say that we didn't follow orders.....

I asked also and got this cute shot of this guy....
He actually stopped and posed....picking up the bowl and a ladle to look
totally official....
Then we came to the storage room and I saw big stainless racks filled with
supplies....
I thought it would make a nice picture for the blog....
I asked if I could take "it's" picture....
I was starting to feel like the
"Food Paparazzi"...
I was waiting for Sean Penn to jump out from the storage freezer and break my camera...
The head chef guy had to be called in for this request.....Are these people kidding....
He said yes.....but he wasn't happy about it.....
So it was time to leave....
And as we headed towards the elevator......just Three Harmless Housewives....
Two from the Burbs and one from the Big City
and Three very Dangerous Bloggers....
We were Stopped.....
By Security.....
Rose probably thought at this point that she wished she never knew us.....
Someone had called security to find out......
As the Security Guard put it...
"What is the Nature of your Business".....
Joyce spoke up first and said...."What do you think we're from a magazine or something"....
I spoke up second....
"Oh we're just three crazy housewives who came here for lunch...and now we are leaving"....
Rose being the smartest of the three of us said Nothing......
But when the Boss heard security was called he said it best.....
"We are all here from the "Culinary Institute of Hoboken" We are opening a branch
in Marietta and wanted to scope out the competition".....
And So another day of fun comes to a close.....
Wouldn't you all like to have a Joyce and a Sue to go to lunch with....??
You might not want to ask Rose about that

Thursday, February 25, 2010

IT CAN ONLY HAPPEN TO SUE......................

My blogging friend Cheri from "Chez Cheri" always tells me I need to have a
feature called....
"It can only happen to Sue".....
Last night was one of those moments so in the interest of menopausal women
everywhere....
This one is for you....
Every night before bed......and about a dozen times a day.....
I have to get the Boo Dog a big bowl of water and ofcourse it has to have ice in it....
Even when he goes to the kennel I have to instruct the Ropers that Boo won't
drink water unless it has ice in it....
Sure...like the Ropers are going to give the dog ice water....
So around 1:00a.m. I staggered into the kitchen...
the Boss was already asleep
and like a little ritual I washed his bowl.....ran the cold water and preceded over to the
Ice Maker....
Bowl under the spout I pressed......out came a flurry of ice cubes...
And a few of these....
Like little broken fingers.....Out came 3 pieces of a Hebrew National
Wiener....
Through the ice maker!!
Then came 2 more pieces.....
And one more piece....
The Dog just stood there looking very confused....
Now they didn't come out on a bun or with mustard.......Just
Frozen Solid....
I just stood like an idiot in the darkened kitchen and just laughed....
All I could think of was.........Fingers......
We are Italian you know....I wondered when the Boss joined the Mafia....
I'm thinking they fell from the little shelf they were on in the freezer right into the big
ice maker container and the rest is well......
"Something that could only happen to Sue"

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER......a Tablescape.

It's Tablescape Thursday
Hosted by
And to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Spring!!
And my new TJMaxx dish purchase....
I bring you..........
STRAWBERRIES!!

With a little Milk Glass thrown in.....


A big Cabbage Tureen....

Some inexpensive (Very Cheap)
Flowers!


And everybody's favorite
Glasses from The Dollar Tree....

I love love love the stems on these glasses....
The only problem I can see is how delicate they are....
I hate to handle them and I know one of these
Days....
I am going to break one....
Just another good excuse to go buy more....

The huge bouquet of flowers were bought days after
Valentine's Day for only $2.00
Publix had tons of them and nobody was even paying attention to the price....
I bought two big bunches and as of today they are still
thriving....

Place mats....reversible....
TJMaxx and More....
$9.99

My collection of 1950's Fenton Milk Glass
always comes in handy when setting a cheerful happy table....

This tureen is huge and was purchased at
TJM
for only $24.99
Including the ladle.....

Who doesn't have one of these cute plates....
Perfect for Easter...
And I like to do something different...
I am not a pinky type person....
I love red with green
for Spring...

red stemmed silverware...
Target..
20 pieces...$9.99!

I had to have these when I saw them on the shelf....
They also had teapots.....cups and saucers...all sorts of things with this wonderful pattern.

A Bunny Closeup!

My friend Nunze
sent me years ago the milk glass glasses with a wonderful
matching pitcher....
The odd shaped milk glass plate was found for $1.00
at the Last Chance Thrift Shop in
Jersey...
When I bought the cheapie flowers I thought I would just plop them into a vase....
When I got them home I decided to
cut down all the stems and arrange them in the tureen..
The Tablescape was born....
Daughter gave me the gravy boat one year at Christmas.
You gotta love these dishes...

I hope you enjoyed a little different take on a Spring Time Table....
How cute would this be for an
afternoon lunch for the ladies....
Or for Easter Dinner...
Stop by Susan's to see all sorts of beautiful
Tablescapes....
See you next time and remember that sometimes it's fun to
"Think Outside the Box"

Saturday, February 20, 2010

LIVING ROOMS TO LOUNGE IN..........With the Backseat Decorator.


I'm back with more rooms to drool over and more of my
comments on decorating from the backseat.....
This time I have dug up some pretty spectacular Living Rooms
Some are pure luxury like the one above....
In subdued colors and dressed up furniture.....
And others like the room below....
Whimsical and carefree...
I love any kind of wall unit that can house "stuff"

This is my idea of special....
It just spells.....Cozy...
perfect colors and I love any room that has a quilt in it....
I use quilts all over my house as draperies.....and shower curtains....
hanging over railings and folded up in baskets...
Did you know that a twin size quilt or a twin size anything is the perfect size
to make a shower curtain....No hemming needed....Just grommets on top and
Your good to go....
Now I love blue but this is a bit overkill.....
But again I like the quilt over the back of the sofa...
And those great yellow painted chairs in the foreground....
Very Beachy!!
A little touch of red would go nice....
I always have to include one "Shabby Chic" room...
There are fans of this type of decorating....
Not my style.....and why is there a big bowl on the ground?
But I so like the sofa with all it's pretty pillows...
This is different....
They used old doors from a salvage yard as the entrance to the room....
When we lived in Jersey we would go up to Stamford Connecticut
to United HouseWreckers....
A very cool place....
Except for the time the Boss insisted on bringing home an old barbers chair.
Isn't this tufted ottoman adorable....

I love the mirror on the one wall that makes the room look twice as
big as it really is....
Also like the black accents...
Nice room....
But don't you think it could use something over the mantel?

I call this one the "Diane Keaton" room.....
I guess from that gorgeous house she lived in
in the movie
"Somethings Gotta Give"......
Everybody fell in love with that house!
This is quaint...
I don't know about using that bucket as a coffee table though....
It's a bit on the short side....
I love this one....
It reminds me of Manhattan
and all the wonderful old pre-war apartments they have there....
Another Diane Keaton room....
Maybe not at the beach....
Perhaps her apartment in the city....
Now this one belongs at the beach....
But those fancy brown chairs have to go....
Can't imagine sitting on those with sandy bathing suits....
Very Eclectic.....
Plates are all the rage in Blogland....
And you can see why....
They add a bit of your personality to a wall...
I once had all 50 state souvenir plates on my family room wall.....
Maybe overkill but they sure were colorful....
This one's for Peg....
Now Peg I know you don't want to stencil a wall.....
So there will be another Colonial room for you to get ideas from.....
I don't know how I feel about those red chairs....
And I'm a red person.....
Maybe it's the green lamp that's throwing the room off....
This reminds me of our great room....
Big stone wall and lots of book cases...
Only our bookcases are to the left of the stone wall and we have a
Navy Blue porcelain parlor stove instead of a fireplace....
How inviting is this room....
Love that Yellow Door.

Here's another one for you Peg....

Love the black mantel.....the propped up pictures...the matchstick roll-up
shades....
The naked Guy picture....Not so much.
Red White and Blue!

Another Cozy room....
The old weathered white deck chair along with the old oar
That's hanging from the ceiling between rooms
Gives this Living Room a nautical touch without over doing it....
It's Red!!
So it has to be nice.....

I love this room....
The rough hewn table.....the picnic basket....and tin container for greenery
The horse painting over the mantel...
it looks like the perfect room to me...
Lime green walls?
Who knew they would look this good....
I'm thinking because there isn't much of it....
And piles of books on a table are always welcoming....
And for the grand Finale'
Billy Joel's Living Room in the Hampton's.....
I hope you once again enjoyed my little tour of beautiful
Living Rooms.....
I have run out of rooms.....
As I have shown you Kitchens......Bedrooms and now Living Rooms....
I am not big into Bathrooms....
When I see a big fancy bathroom all I can think of is
"somebody has to clean all the hair up off of that floor"......
So I will leave you with that thought....
And have a wonderful rest of the weekend!