POTW: 3/30/15

PC: Tour Guide in Aruba

Have you ever met someone who derives pure joy from the simple act of giving? My grandpa lives for spoiling our family. I say spoils, because I've got enough self awareness to admit that he spoils me, as well as the rest of our family. He is the sweetest man. He has been a hard worker his entire life, and is now working on tackling that goal of 'retirement'. This year, he surprised my family with a pre-planned vacation to Aruba, as a Christmas gift. I realize that isn't normal & I appreciated it that much more! We toured the island, swam, napped on the beach and ate like kings. The trip was fabulous. The POTW was snapped during an exhilarating, exhausting island tour. I love this photo so much because I feel like you can look at my grandpa and just KNOW he is an amazing person. He looks adorable, happy and free. Just what someone on vacation should look like. It captures his spirit so well, I had it blown up onto a canvas print to hang in my house. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

In Review: Mulberry Italian Ristorante

My fiancé took me to Mulberry's Italian Ristorante for my 24th birthday this past weekend. YUM!

I would never complain about going back, but I am still on the hunt for an Italian restaurant that is as good as Little Italy, in NYC. Here's what we ordered & my comments.

7up & RC cola - good, if anyone drinks a lot of pop like me, you know that this matters.

Stuffed mushrooms - I don't eat mushrooms, but Joe liked them!

House salads - the house Italian dressing, which is home made, was GREAT. Joe wasn't a super fan of the roasted tomato, but he doesn't love tomato so I'm not entirely sure why he ordered that in the first place.

Chicken Parmesan - Very good! The portion of chicken was more than plenty, I ate it for dinner that night & for two meals after that. I would have enjoyed some more pasta with it, the pasta noodles were delicious and I ran out while eating my leftovers and that made me sad. In general, I prefer a sweeter sauce as opposed to an strong tomato based one, which is what Mulberry's features. It was good, no if's and's or but's there - but I tend to favor the sweeter sauces.

Frutti di Mare - Spicy! The flavors were good, but it was too strong for me to eat. I tried a small bite off his plate, and that was enough for me. He enjoyed, as he likes spicy, but he did admit it would have featured the flavor of the meal a bit better if the hotness level of the dish was toned down a bit.

No dessert for us, because we were stuffed, but all their options sounded delicious!

I encourage you to go there, but I strongly recommend making reservations. It's not a huge place, and its quite popular, so call ahead and make reservations.

Also, from what I've heard - we missed out by not ordering THE MEATBALL. It's legendary, but from the size of it, I knew I would be full before my Chicken Parm came, so we passed. However, next time it is alllll mine!

In Review: The Voice

   I recently caught an episode of The Voice and I was really intrigued! I don't like American Idol, or America's Got Talent, or Dancing With the Stars, so I was surprised that I really liked The Voice. The auditions were okay, but what I really enjoyed were the battle rounds. There is such excellent talent on that show! It is nice to not have any obligation like texting in your vote or calling a bunch of times for the contestants to win, The Voice is not so much a popularity contest as it is a talent contest. It feels more true.

   What is clearly not true is Christina's boobs. Someone had to say it! They are ALWAYS out and about and its almost become a game, how much can she push them out before they're actually completely out?! I was shocked to see last week she was wearing a scoop neck shirt that didn't feature her girls, it almost didn't feel like The Voice.

   Anyway -- watching The Voice just brings back my insane level of jealousy that I have for anyone who can sing good. Take my word for it, I can't sing. At all. It doesn't stop me though :)

Anyone else have thoughts on The Voice??

A Weekend Summary: 5/4/12

Wellll I don't even know where to start. This Friday marked the last week of classes for SUNY Oswego as well as many other universities and colleges across the country. We kicked off the 'college kid weekend' on Thursday night going to Mug Night at Old City Hall bar in Oswego. The attraction for this event is the $.50 refills on mugs for draft beers. Doesn't attract me, because beer makes me ill, but its a real crowd pleaser overall. After some drinks at Old City, we crossed the street to get our dance on at Hurricane's bar. Hurricane's is a really hit or miss place for us, either its a great place to dance and get down or its a ghost town with creepy townies with lingering eyes. Thursday it was great. The unbearable heat caused us to leave a little early, we went to University Hots for some garbage plates. We're not from Rochester, but we appreciate certain types of food while drunk. And macaroni salad, home fries, meat sauce and ketchup with a burger on top is just that type. Overall, Thursday was fun.

Friday, we woke up mid morning and each did our errands etc. for the day, but came together around 2 to get ready for the bar crawl. Once all our guests had arrived, we headed to start our crawl around 5:45 and we were planning on starting at Gary's bar, but found some friends at Steamer's so we just started there. We hit up Old City, Hurricanes, ate some Franco's in between, went to Clubhouse Tavern, then Raven Pub, and then we split ways. We ordered some WonTon House and it hit the spot, and was a screamin' deal! Sesame chicken, on white rice, with a side of crabmeat rangoon, delivered, for $8!!! That's my kinda dinner. That about sums up Friday, very fun.

Saturday, we woke up mid morning and had chicken wing dip for breakfast. See recipe here. We went to Port City Cafe for lunch. Can you say yum? Eat there, and get the Rajun Cajun. We walked home, some of us napped, some played KanJam and then we had nachos for dinner and went out for Cinco de Drinko.. i mean Mayo! We hit up Raven Pub and Clubhouse Tavern, then came home. We ate the leftover nachos for a snack and to bed we went. Saturday, relaxed and enjoyable.

Sunday, woke up mid morning and needed breakfast. We hit up Friendly's which was not so friendly. We were unaware that they did not serve breakfast all day, so we showed up half of us wanting lunch and half wanting breakfast. We had to have the breakfast folk order before 11:30 and then wait til the kitchen was reset, and us lunch folk could then order. It would have been more fine if we hadn't heard/seen the waitress and cook bitching about us. Then we relaxed the afternoon away!

What a fine weekend indeed :) Now onto exam week...

In review: River Valley Inn

The River Valley Inn is a small locally owned restaurant in Lyons Falls, NY. The restaurant is nestled just behind the Tug Hill Plateau between Lowville and Boonville, off Rt. 26.

This was my first visit, February 18, and it was fantastic. My dad and step-mom are super fans and they promote the restaurant a lot through their website, Camp Pol-Cat. Of course, with Dad at the wheel, he drove us down their for dinner.

My step-mother warned me as I was reading the menu and I quote, "I've never had a disappointing dish from here." She also mentioned that the portion sizes are more than adequate and boy was she right! I ordered the Chicken Parmesan, over pasta & I've had two meals just from the leftovers!! My dad ordered the Chicken Wellington, which he has before and wanted more of. My step-mom got the Shrimp & Scallop stuffed Sole, which was pretty tasty too! [I snagged a bite!]

The restaurant has a very homey feel, and although you might wait a little bit longer for you food than you would at a chain restaurant, it is well worth it! Very very nice place! No complaints from us!