Kevin's Watch

:::apologizing for the delay in posting this as we went Wednesday night:::

The management at our local Gator Town Olive Garden went over and above anything I have ever seen to rectify this situation.

As I posted earlier, I had received a phone call from the manager of our local Olive Garden, inviting the three of us in for dinner on him. At first I needed to check wth Paul, so I wasn't sure of when we would be able to accept his offer. I finally reached Paul around 6:25 PM, and we decided to accept the offer for that evening.

I called Olive Garden back and spoke again with the General Manager, Henry. I asked if it would be all right for us to come in around 7:15 PM, and he said that he looked forward to seeing us and to be sure to ask for him, or his Kitchen Manager Joseph if he should have left for the night when we arrived.

We arrived at 7:15, and told the hostess we were told to ask for Henry. She took Paul's name, gave us a pager, said it was about a five minute wait, and found Henry for us. Henry came over, introduced himself, took the pager away, and escorted us to a table right away. He called our server, Jennifer, over, who Paul believes may be one of their top servers, as we were definitely not in her section and she may have been assigned to us to be sure our meal went well. Henry also called Joseph over, who explained our server Sunday night may have been misinfomed by the kitchen staff, as he claimed they didn't run out of pasta, but that they didn't have enough ready to go for all of the orders coming in. Whatever, they more than made up for it.

We were offered drinks, but stayed with our traditional waters with lemon. And although we were told we could order anything on the menu, we all got the Never Ending Pasta Bowl offer. It was what we all wanted. Did you know Olive Garden is offering a whole wheat linguini as a pasta choice, and a mushroom alfredo sauce as a sauce choice for this promotion? I got the whole wheat linguini with meat sauce and sausage links (I love Olive Garden's sausage links!) to start. It was really good.

Beorn and I again got the pasta fagioli, and Paul the salad. So good.

Jennifer had said to me earlier that they had something special planned for dessert, so we discouraged Beorn from looking at the desert menu. Earlier in our meal another table had a birthday celebration, and they received a small round chocolate layer cake so I expected the same. Instead, a team of servers approached our table with a 1/4 sheet cake from Publix, with 'Happy Birthday Beorn' (spelled correctly yet!) written on it! And, a birthday card signed by the entire restaurant staff.

:::now I'm going to sound like an infomercial:::

But that's not all! Inside the birthday card was an Olive Garden gift certificate for $20 to be used on a future visit. They truly, truly have impressed us, and Beorn had a second wonderful celebration. All of this done with about 50 minutes notice.

Thank you Henry, Joseph, and the entire Gator Town Olive Garden team.

That is one area where Danes have a lot to learn from the US. Places supposed to provide service (such as restaurants) really DO provide service. The above experience sounds truly fantastic, but would never have happened here. Stupid, considering how cheap and effective this type of advertising is. If I ever go to Gator Town I will most certainly seek out the Olive Garden.

I gather from the tone of Menolly's posts, that it's not exactly common practice over their either.

--A

Just a cheese sandwich for dinner tonight.

Tonight was Shabbos dinner after services at Lubavitch. I still don't know how the rebetzin does it...a superb four course meal for 200+ guests every Friday night.

well for three of the lockdown hurricane days at work i lived on pickle, mustard and cheese sandwiches. (we are not very veggie friendly )
had some grilled cheese sandwiches today. yeah!

I wandered a little off the diet tonight for a steak burrito dinner.

I just started soaking and will soon salt a 7.5 chicken to be roasted a little later on today with lime pepper seasoning
Garlic mashed potatoes and home made gravey
Sauteed broccoli florets
Tossed Salad
Apples or Oranges for 'dessert'

I had a chicken breast and a glass of kool-ade .

I had delicious Thai food.

I never posted that we had another of my monthly International Cooking Nights a week or so ago. This time it was the cuisine of Chile! You can see the recipes at ICN Recipes.

Carinos tonight.

bread with olive oil and spices.
more bread, with tomato and oil this time.
house salad with a vinegarette.
angel hair pasta with artichokes, capers and black olives.
turtle cheesecake
water with lemon
capochino (sp?)

my wife had the above but substitute main/dessert
lasagna
choco cake ala mode
oh, and iced tea for her

NY Strip (Pittsburgh Rare) w/cucumber salad! nuf said....

Nothing serious tonight, steak and chips probably.

Did some pork fillet that turned out pretty well last night...cubed the fillet, seared well in a hot pan, then added a mix of lemon juice and honey, dissolved in a little hot water, and cooked over a medium heat. Pork held the honey flavour very well. (Mixed the cubes in with some Jasmine rice, mushrooms etc.)

--A

Home made falaffel in pita bread with chives/garlic/yoghurt dressing and salad.

Sounds good. My GF will be jealous.

--A

I've just come back from the restaurant, where I had 'Hunter's Chicken' - grilled chicken breast with bacon and cheddar cheese in barbecue sauce. Yummy.

This afternoon I have to reorganize my storage closet in the Commons area where I keep all of my supplies for Kids Hours, ICNs, etc. We recently had a professional projection system with surround sound (the picture on the screen is about 6' square, so it's huge) installed in the Commons room. The GATORS play Bama at 3:30 EDT on CBS, so I'll put on the game while working.

Paul worked from 10:00 PM until 6:00 AM, so he's sleeping now, but I expect him to join me to watch the game. He's already been forewarned that I'll probably put him to work helping me organize. I also told him he's welcome to call and invite any of his buds who may want to watch the game with us on the projection system.

So, right now I don't have anything planned, but I suspect someone will be ordering pizza or some such while we watch the game (and work).

GO GATORS!!!

Hey hi

Recently, very recently, downsized my household and abode. In other words I am a single empty nester who just moved into a small apartment and I could use some ideas for mealtime. I've always enjoyed cooking for the family but it's very different cooking for only myself. Economy / budget is always a factor. I'm a cornfed beef midwestern type gal who is willing to try some new things. Ideas?

Here's a good one CP:
Danish meatballs (Frikadeller):
0.5 kg ground pork
2 eggs
2 tbsp flour
0.05 - 0.1 l of whole-milk
1 tsp freshly ground peper
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground coriander
Drie thyme leaves to taste
0.05 - 0.1 l of whole-milk

Mix all ingredients thoroughly (save a bit of milk).
Let stand in fridge about an hour. Add a bit of milk, if consistency requires it. Use spoon and hand to shape little dumplings. When placed on a frying pan, they should roughly keep the shape, not turn into pancakes).

Fry in butter (flip 3 times, to make triangular shape if possible) untill brown and crisp.

serve with salad, baked potatoes and a simple sour-cream dressing with chives and mustard.

Multiply the recipe and freeze after frying for fast food later.

They make excellent sandwiches with pickles/beetroots/coleslaw.

Enjoy!