Text 37153, 171 rader
Skriven 2013-05-22 15:15:08 av Ruth Haffly (1:396/45.28)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: saving dough 577
========================
Hi Michael,

 ML> I wonder what would happen if someone started a supermarket
 ML> called Best Buy or a bank called Safeway!
 RH> Don't know, are you willing to try it? (G)

 ML> If I were entrepreneurial, I'd have been entrepreneurial by now.

That wasn't going to be your post music career? I know, had a problem
getting the capital to get the idea up & running. (G)


 ML> So give them the test. If they pass, all the better for you
 ML> as well as them.
 RH> They would get more of our business if they passed, but probably not
 RH> that much as our income is limited now. We did try a new place in town
 RH> tonight, a pizzaria & restaurant, emphasis seemed more on the former
 RH> than the latter. We both got the Chicken Francese dinner, comes with a
 RH> choice of pasta or salad so we got the latter.

 ML> There's a way for the restaurant to economize - offer pasta
 ML> or salad, whereas full-serve places give you both, plus the
 ML> bread basket at no additional charge.

I've noticed. This is the 2nd restaurant in that spot since we moved to
town. The first one took over another gone out of business restaurant's
location about 18 months ago.

 RH> Not bad, quite fresh. Then the chicken was brought out, just a plate of
 RH> 3 breast pieces in sauce. It was good but we ordered a bread basket.
 RH> The bread really brought out the flavors of the sauce (lemon, butter &
 RH> wine). We both ate 2 of the 3 pieces, took home the rest along with
 RH> some bread.

 ML> Wine! Even when the alcohol is all cooked off, it rounds out a
 ML> sauce nicely.

Something was lacking in the taste until we used the bread, then the
taste perked up. Last time I had something similar it was at Alfano's in
Rochester but the chicken was coated with a bread crumb & parmesan
cheese mix. It was good; I think the bread is what's needed to bring out
the full taste of the sauce.


 RH> Can't hurt to ask. I always ask that they leave the egg out of my
 RH> salad at TR and they do.

 ML> There's cheese in that salad, right? I don't eat salad all
 ML> that often and tend to forget to ask if there's cheese on it.

OTOH, salad is one of my regular requests for a side and I don't mind
the cheese at all.


 ML> Used to be that TR's chili came with onions and cheese
 ML> preinstalled, and I'd have to request that they leave it off,
 ML> but now they've been consistently asking whether it's wanted.

I've never had the TR chili; I think Steve has a few times and found it
to be lacking, as comapred to mine. I do it either with or without
beans, depending on which version I make. Guess TR is asking if you want
cheese or onions in their's just to cover themselves in the possibility
of a customer's reaction..............."we warned you by asking" kind of
set up.

 ML> Last time, with Gail and Dale, the chili didn't have beans in
 ML> it, hurrah.

I think I'd go for a chili like that with steak but if I were having it
as a meal, then maybe chili with beans. Either way it needs to be served
over rice, with cheese or sour cream IMO.


 ML> I stayed at a Sheraton where the sheets one time smelled like
 ML> Absorbine, Jr. They offered me a free night next time, and,
 ML> guess what, I passed it up. Anyone care, it's the Sheraton
 ML> Crystal City, and I'd had several quite okay stays before
 ML> - not after that, though.
 RH> Crystal City where? It sounds like someone either didn't wash the
 RH> sheets or dropped a bottle of Absorbine, Jr into the dryer. Either
 RH> conjecture isn't good to think about.

 ML> Crystal City, Virginia. When I have a flight early in the
 ML> morning, I'll sometimes go to a hotel the night before, as
 ML> the room doesn't cost that much more than a cab from the
 ML> house would, plus I get to leave earlier. Then I walk or
 ML> take the hotel shuttle to DCA in the morning. In this case

Makes sense so you don't have to get up quite so early. My parents did
that a number of times before they stopped traveling. They didn't walk
to the airport tho. (G)

 ML> I checked out as soon as I discovered the problem (at 3 am)
 ML> and walked to the airport then, kind of spooky, actually.

Easier for you to do it than me, especially at that hour of the morning.


 ML> Since then, I have stayed at a few of the competition,
 ML> which have always been more satisfactory, until last time,
 ML> when I discovered an ever-so-slight whiff of Absorbine, Jr.
 ML> (not enough to cause a big stink at the front desk or in the
 ML> room) on my sheets at the Radisson, which as it's just a block
 ML> from the Sheraton, probably uses the same laundry service.

Sounds (or smells) suspicious, something in the water?


 ML> They've held the line on prices for a couple years with the
 ML> tradeoff being smaller portions. As I always get a low-carb
 ML> option (fried clam appetizer, no fries as in a plate, no bread
 ML> as in a roll; pot of mussels; etc.) the diminution becomes
 ML> noticeable, then one quits being a customer. I wonder if the
 ML> guy at the American Airlines terminal at Logan misses me.
 RH> He may not realise he's not seen you in a while until you show up

 ML> There was a place I used to go occasionally in New York back in
 ML> the '70s and maybe early '80s, but my reasons for visiting that
 ML> city disappeared, but a decade or so passed and I was back in
 ML> town on a tour, so went back to the Carnegie, and the waiter
 ML> came up to me and said, the usual? which was a corned beef
 ML> brisket on light rye extra fatty and a black cherry soda. Yeah.

Make mine not quite so fatty and change the black cherry to diet Coke.
Hopefully the sandwich was spread with some good brown mustard and there
was a kosher dill pickle on the side.


 ML> The waiter, given the setting, was probably an out-of-work
 ML> Broadway actor and likely had a great memory to begin with.

I guess he'd been out of work quite a while, maybe decided waiting
tables was a more reliable income than acting.

 RH> again. At any rate, they do sound good, and maybe something will bring
 RH> us to the Boston area some time so we can give it a try.

 ML> There are more Legal Seafoods than in the Boston area, and the
 ML> ones I've been to all seem similar. Anyhow, make sure someone
 ML> else is paying.

Depends on when we get up there and who we're with. Right now we don't
see ourselves getting to that area any time soon.

 ML> English peas
 ML> categories: astonishing, weird, not kidding
 ML> servings: 6 to 8

 ML> 1/4 c (1/2 stick) butter
 ML> 2 cn (14 1/2 oz) English peas, drained

 ML> Melt the butter in small pot and add peas.

 ML> Cook over medium heat until peas are warm.

 ML> Paula Deen, Paula's Home Cooking

So many of these look like they could be compiled into a "Cooking for
Dummies" type book (G)


---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net  FIDO 1:396/45.28


... It isn't hard to meet expenses...they're everywhere!

--- PPoint 3.01
 * Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)