Noodles & Company

While everyone else seems to go out to buy and decorate their Christmas tree about an hour after Thanksgiving dinner, my husband and I wait until the weekend, which, for us (Catholics) is the first weekend in Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year, and the official start of the holiday season. I have yet to locate someplace convenient where we can cut our own tree, but there is a small lot next to a local shopping center close to home, so before buying a tree, we had lunch at the nearby Noodles & Company.

My husband ordered the steak stroganoff.

My husband also had a side of Wisconsin mac & cheese.

I had the chicken vera cruz salad - one of my favorites.

Jim's Family Restaurant

Since Jim's Family Restaurant is perhaps a quarter mile from our church, my husband and I decided to make a stop there for lunch after the service today.

I had the chicken fried steak, eggs over easy, and
homestyle potatoes.

I opted for the biscuit with gravy in lieu of toast or pancakes.

My husband tried the steak fajita omelet.

He also opted for the pancakes.

Flavors of India

My husband expressed a desire for Indian food, and since I'm nearly always amenable to Indian food, we had dinner at Flavors of India.

We shared an order of assorted fritters, which came with
a vegetable samosa, onion pakora, vegetable pakora, and
chicken pakora. 

I can't go to an Indian restaurant and not order a lamb dish.
Tonight I ordered lamb tikka masala.

And we shared an order of garlic naan.

Tepanyaki Japanese Steakhouse

My husband's birthday was earlier in the week, but since we were traveling, we were unable to go out to dinner. This evening we went to Tepanyaki Japanese Steakhouse, his favorite place to go on his birthday. 

My entree came with a salad, which is one of my favorites.

My husband really likes gyoza, so we always get an order.

And I rather like the Japanese egg rolls.

I ordered the Samurai Special, which came with salmon,
shrimp, and filet mignon, as well as veggies and fried rice.

We also shared two rolls. This is a tater tot roll: shrimp
tempura, hamachi and crab mill roll topped with tempura
baby scallops, crab, spicy mayo, and eel sauce.

This is the T.N.T. roll: shrimp tempura, eel,
and avocado roll topped with crab,
spicy tuna, tobiko, spicy mayo, and eel sauce.

Sizzler

Tonight was the last night of my ESL Endorsement, and to celebrate, a slew of us had dinner at Sizzler.

My salad from the salad bar was of the not-healthy variety. 

I had a classic Sizzler steak, which came with mushrooms,
as well as fries. 

Sakana Sushi Bar & Japanese Grill

To celebrate the start of another school year, my husband took me out to dinner to Sakana Sushi Bar & Japanese Grill. 

We started with the Asian lettuce cups with seasoned beef.

We also shared the calamari tempura.

We also got a number of rolls: from top to bottom, the Playboy roll, the G2 roll, the Vegas roll, and the Spider roll.

Apollo Burger

My husband got home a bit early from work today, a little after lunchtime, and apparently he had a hankering for a burger from Apollo Burger. It should be noted that at work, he also partook of a taco bar that had been provided by his place of employment. Clearly, I am married to a hobbit. At least he brought an extra burger home with him. This may be one of my favorite burger joints.

We both partook of the signature Apollo Burger, which
comes with melted American cheese layered with pastrami.
I'm not big fan of pastrami, but this was a darn good burger.
(I could only eat about 1/3 of it. My husband kindly ate
the rest of it.) 

Also, even the fries were good.

Johnny Carino's

My husband has been in a persistent mood for Italian food lately, so we went to Johnny Carino's for dinner tonight before heading out to see Star Trek Beyond. The movie was good - we were glad we went - but dinner was a bit of a bust, and we decided we wouldn't go back. The food was mediocre and bland, a step down even from The Olive Garden.

We started with the calamari. 

I ordered the traditional margherita pizza.

I also ordered a side of meatballs.

Black Bear Diner

A teacher friend and I decided a few weeks back to get together for lunch today. Originally we'd planned on getting lunch closer to her own home, but she planned to work at school for awhile, so she picked me up and we headed to Black Bear Diner. It had a lot of burgers and southern food options, but I stuck with a chicken Caesar salad and a side of fries (healthy, no?)

Tepanyaki Japanese Steakhouse

Today is my husband's and my fifth anniversary, and to celebrate, we had dinner at Tepanyaki Japanese Steakhouse.

appetizer: ocean salad
(seaweed salad with smoked squid salad)

appetizer: tatertots (tempura baby scallops)

 I also ordered a lot of sushi rolls but I can't remember which was which:

• Daynes: salmon, hamachi, and tuna, deep fried and topped with green onion, spicy mayo, and eel sauce
• Layton Snap: spicy tuna and crab roll deep fried and served with eel sauce and wasabi mayo on top
• Las Vegas: salmon, avocado, cream cheese, and cucumber roll deep fried with eel sauce on top
• Dragon: eel, avocado, cucumber, crab, and eel sauce
• T.N.T.: shrimp, tempura, eel, and avocado roll topped with crab, spicy tuna, tobiko, spicy mayo, and eel sauce

Flavors of India

I've been experimenting cooking new things in my crockpot lately, and I'd recently tried two Asian dishes that didn't work out as well as I'd hoped - a chicken Tikka Masala and a beef dish, the name of which I can't even remember offhand. Because of all this Asian-inspired goodness, my husband, who knows that Indian food is my favorite, suggested that we have dinner at Flavors of India tonight. (Bless him.)

We're always brought papadam at the beginning of the meal.

We shared some assorted fritters (vegetable samosa,
onion pakora, vegetable pakora, and chicken pakora). 

I got the lamb saag, because I can't go to an Indian restaurant
and not order something with lamb.

My husband ordered the chicken Tikka Masala, because he
can't go to an Indian restaurant and not order chicken
Tikka Masala.

Also ordered: poori. 

The sweet naan was a new item, and we were given a free
order of this. It was quite good: naan stuffed with coconut,
raisins, and cashew.

Apollo Burger

Today was the second day of a two-day workshop I needed to take for my ESL teaching endorsement.  We had an hour for lunch, so a group of us (teachers) walked over to Apollo Burger for lunch.

I started out with mozzarella sticks.

I also had the fried mushrooms. This was not turning out to be
a healthy lunch.

Since this place is apparently known for its
burgers, I ordered a bacon cheeseburger,
which came with a lot of bacon, and was
pretty good.

Noodles & Company

Noodles & Company is a local place that I've driven by for literally years at this point, but for one reason or another have never actually remembered to try it, even though there are several items on their website that look pretty good. My husband, bless him, agreed to pick up the Thai Hot Pot and a small chicken Caesar salad for me tonight for dinner.

Sizzler

Today is the first day of a two-day workshop on respecting ethnic and cultural heritage - a requirement for the ESL teaching endorsement in which I'm involved. A few of us walked the half mile to Sizzler for lunch.

My add-on salad option was not very healthy but it was
rather delicious.

I also ordered the fish and chips, which was also not healthy,
but also rather delicious.

Joe's Crab Shack

I had a milestone birthday earlier this week, but unfortunately it was on one of my very long days so my husband very kindly took me to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner tonight.

We shared an order of crab nachos. 

I had the Arctic Bay Steampot (Queen crab, shrimp, a whole
Maine lobster, smoke sausage, potatoes, and corn in a garlic
bath and topped with Old Bay seasoning).