Our Trip to T.G.I. Friday's Restaurant for the FREE $17.15 Burger

I had a Free Jack Daniels Burger Coupon from signing up on Facebook to become a "Friend of Woody", during the TGI Friday's Promotion recently.
So hubby & I toddled off to TGIF's the other evening.

I haven't been in a TGIF's in about 5 years, and had never been to this one near our house.  The place was packed with diners, as we chose Wednesday night, which is KIDS EAT FREE Night at this particular restaurant, to eat there. 
As I don't have small children at home anymore, I am not a fan of attending eateries on these Kid's Nights.  A lot of parents don't or won't control their little 'darlings' in restaurants and I don't care to pay good money to be subjected to their progeny's bad behavior while attempting to have a relaxing meal.  Luckily, it was late enough in the evening that most of the kids had been carted off back to their homes by the time we were seated.  We dodged that bullet.lol

Our server was competent.  I think she left her personality at home that evening.  But I'd rather have competent over amusing any day when it comes to serving me a meal.

The canned music was waaay too loud.  Ok, maybe I am turning into an old fogey now but I like to be able to hear what my dining companion is saying without having to use a hearing aid or read lips.

Besides the free burger coupon, I had a free appetizer voucher I had won from some raffle long ago.  There was no problem using both coupons according to the server.  That was a good thing in my book.
Though to use the appetizer coupon one of us had to order a regular dinner entree and the appetizer had to be under $9 in value.  That threw my plan to order a salad entree under the bus.

Hubby had a craving so I let him order the burger and I perused the menu looking for an entree for myself.  Most everything was way overpriced or just not appealing(not a fan of ribs or steak at a place that doesn't specialize in steak here)so I chose an entree that was basically 2 chicken breasts with melted cheese over it & served with 2 big scoops of mashed potatoes with cheese.  No veggie, no salad.....just a couple of pieces of onion and bell pepper in the pool of melted cheese that congealed on the platter as it slid off the chicken.
For this culinary masterpiece I paid $10.69.
It had little flavor.
And the whole time I was eating this I am running the tape in my head that's saying, "I'm paying $11 for this?!?!  It would cost me $2 to make it at home and mine would taste better!"

For the appetizer we ordered the Sesame Jack Daniels Strips.  I had had those before when I had taken a friend visiting from Canada outlet shopping.  It was a beastly hot day in August and we retreated into the TGIF's next door to the outlets to get out of the heat before heatstroke set in.  She had ordered these to nibble on while we downed large glasses of water.  I fell in love with these things then and they did NOT disappoint now.  I would seriously eat these non-stop until I exploded if given the opportunity.lol

Hubby said the JD Burger was quite good though he chafed at the policy on the menu at Friday's that you can NOT order your burger meat any way but "medium well done".  We are medium rare burger fans in our home.

1 Entree(the chicken and cheese congealment with a side of tater carbs and cheese)and 2 Iced Teas with tax, came to $17.15.  Had we paid for the Burger and Appetizer the bill would have topped out at $32.85....for 2 people.
So it cost us $17.15 for free food.lol

I doubt if we will ever go back, even for free food.  TGI Friday's just isn't my cup of tea.

Though I'd be tempted to order those Sesame Strip things to-go if I could get over paying $9 for them.lol

Sluggy

OMG! It's ONLY October 15th....

And look what I woke up to this morning on the last of my Swiss Chard.....

And by noon, this is what my back deck looked like....

We've still got the screen in the front storm door and the patio furniture sitting on the deck.
EGADS!

**UPDATE**
Here's a photo of the back deck again, right at dusk....

It's suppose to keep going until tomorrow.
Even though I live on a mountain for gosh sakes, I am NOT ready for this.....

sluggy

With Apologies to Julia Child...or Beef Bourguignon the Sluggy Way

So 2 weeks ago after I dug a large piece of Beef Roast out of the back of my recesses of my freezer, I had the inspired idea to put Beef Bourguignon on my Weekly Menu Plan. 
HAHAHA!

I printed off a copy of Julia Child's recipe for said dish and we were off to the races....

I hit my first roadblock with the 1st ingredient.....this should have served as a sign of things to come.lol
Ingredient #1....1 6-ounce piece of chunk bacon.
I only had regular old thick cut bacon strips.

You are suppose to cut the bacon chunk into 'lardons'. A lardon is similar in size to a big wooden matchstick.  So I cut my strips crosswise so that each piece had alternating layers of fat as well as meat.

You simmer these lardons for 10 minutes in 1.5 qts. of water.  Then drain and dry them.
And Preheat your oven to 450 degrees for later & make sure that you have a rack in the middle position in your oven.

After drying your pork product, you saute your lardons in a flameproof casserole(I used my enameled cast iron casserole) with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, over moderate heat for 2-3 minutes until lightly browned.

Remove to a dish with a slotted spoon amidst the Heavenly Smell......

The recipe called for 3lbs. of stewing beef, so I cut up my roast into small 1 inch chunks.

Pat your beef cubes dry.  The meat will not brown properly if it is damp.  You want a nice sear on the outside of your moo-cow cubes.

Turn up the heat on your casserole until it's almost smoking hot. Add your beef, a few pieces at a time to the hot pan and saute until nicely browned on all sides.  As it is done, add it to the dish with the lardons.  Repeat this until all the beef is browned.

Can't you just smell the bacon and beef fat in this photo?lol

In the same fat you just browned your beef, add your vegetables(1 carrot & 1 onion, sliced) and  brown them.  We like carrot A LOT so I used 2 or 3 carrots instead.
Then pour out the excess fat.  See the browned bits on the pan now? Mmmm....

Return the beef and bacon lardons to the casserole and toss the 1/2 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp. pepper on them.
Then sprinkle on the flour(2 Tbs.) and toss again to coat the beef.

Set uncovered casserole in middle position of preheated oven for 4 minutes.

Toss the meat again and return to the oven for 4 more minutes.  This browns your flour(so you don't have that uncooked floury taste)& hopefully puts a nice crust on your meat.
Mmmm crusty meat.....

Remove casserole and turn down oven to 325 degrees.
Stir in red wine(3 cups)& 2-3 cups of stock, just enough so that the meat is barely covered.

I had a bottle of wine sitting out in the garage from Christmas so I used that.  The amount of wine needed is almost a full bottle.  There should be enough left over for a small glass for drinking....go ahead and drink what is left while you finish up this recipe.  Julia would want you to!

 I didn't use beef stock, as I didn't have any.  I could have made do with some beef bouillion, but I had a quart of homemade vegetable stock in the freezer.  I had made this from the leftovers from a pan of roasted veggies last winter and the au jus pan drippings from the roast that had accompanied the roasted veggies. I just used the hand blender on it and voila!...instant veggie stock.

The recipe then called for adding the tomato paste(1 Tbs.), garlic, herbs and bacon rind.
I didn't have any bacon rind since I didn't use chunk bacon so I didn't add that.  I also didn't have any tomato paste.
Ok....that's a lie!  I DID have tomato paste....but I didn't want to open a whole can just for 1 stinking tablespoon.
So I did the unforgiveable.
I.
Used.
Ketchup.
EEEEEK!

I know, Julia is spinning in her grave.

I love a great meal but I am F-R-U-G-A-L.
Frugal wins out here over Gastronomy.

Bring to a simmer on top of the stove.
Then cover the casserole and set it in the lower third of oven.
Photo as the pot, before cover, went into the oven for the Long Hot Bake.

Regulate heat so that liquid simmers very slowly for 3-4 hours. The meat is done when a fork pierces it easily.

While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms.....
Heat 1.5 Tbs. butter with 1.5 Tbs. olive oil until bubbling.
Add 18-24 white pearl onions and saute over moderate heat for about 10 minutes, rolling them so they brown as evenly as possible.
Ok....problem #??....I don't have any pearl onions.  And they are expensive this week here.
So we make do and sub regular onions, chopped uniformly.

Add 1/2 Cup of the stock, salt & pepper to taste and the herb bouquet.

Cover and simmer slowly for 40-50 minutes until the onions are perfectly tender but hold their shape, and the liquid has evaporated.
Using chopped onions cuts down on the time it take for them to get tender, so I didn't cook them as long as you would the pearl onions.
When done, remove the herb bouquet and set onions aside.

Wipe out the skillet and heat remaining olive oil and butter over high heat.  As soon as you see butter has begun to subside, indicating that it is hot enough, add mushrooms.
Toss and shake pan for 4-5 minutes.  As soon as they have begun to brown lightly, remove from heat.

No photo of the mushrooms, but the point here is to cook them quickly over high heat.  Sort of searing them like you did the beef cubes. The mushrooms will continue to cook after you remove them, with the residual heat they store up.  I put the mushrooms right in with the cooked onions to rest together.

When the meat is tender and done, the recipe calls for pouring the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan.  This is to separate the 'juice' from the solids, so you can boil down or 'reduce' the juices into a sauce and also skim off any excess fat.  I found that my juices in the pot had already reduced down to a thicker saucy consistency so I skipped this step.  And I didn't see much excess fat so I didn't skim it.  Besides, the fat is what makes it taste good.  And we are all going to die from something, so I'll take my chances with that miniscule amount of fat in my stew.

I went right to putting the components together to plate the dish.

You can make up a nice presentation on a platter on in the casserole, with your meat and the mushrooms/onions distributed evenly on top and then the sauce poured over it.  If you put this on a platter, serve on a bed of rice or with roasted potatoes surrounding the stew.
I chose to roast some potatoes and carrots in olive oil, parley, salt & cracked pepper to taste.

Doesn't that look good enough to eat??

The daughter couldn't keep the fork out of her mouth long enough to talk that evening or even say how good this tasted.

 

Pardon the messy kitchen behind her in the shot....

So, in the end.....

It took way longer than I want to spend on making dinner on a given day.
It wasn't difficult in skill level, it was just alot of steps and it took a looooong time.
It still was amazingly good, even with making substitutions like GASP!...ketchup!
It is Silly to be afraid of fancy pants recipes.  Unless it's the precision of pastry or baking, just dive in and give it a try.  Even most failures can be salvaged or made edible.

And after being forced to finish that bottle of wine, I now know why Julia always seemed happy in the kitchen. ;-)

Sluggy

Children's Toys Gone Wrong....

Since it's October, the month of ghouls and goblins, I thought I'd share this bit of randomness with you all.

I saw this barbie doll a year ago in a local "Big Lots".  I thought it was hysterical then and was almost tempted to buy it for a price of $9.99.

Fast-forward to this past Saturday and I saw this same Alfred Hitchcock film inspired doll again at a local "Ollie's Discount Outlet"....this time on sale for $19.99.

A year later and I still think it's Really funny(in a bizarre sort of way) but not worth an "Andrew Jackson".  Who would feel the need to own this and why?
Unless you are Tippi Hedren of course....

Sluggy

Selling The Stockpile Items....CRAZY GOOD!

What to do when you have pulled together 2 YEARS worth of Toiletries from your stockpile and still have EIGHTEEN BOXES of stuff?

You take it to a Flea Market and sell it, that's what you do!
And that is exactly what I did last Sunday.

There is a weekly Sunday Flea Market from June to October held at a local Drive-In Movie Theater about a half hour from my house.  Now, I've lived here 9 years now and have NEVER been to this Drive-In, either to see a movie or attend this flea market.  I have heard it's the best one in the area....but I kind of think it is the ONLY ONE around this area too.lolol
So I had no clue if there would really be enough shoppers at the flea market(especially in October)to make it $-wise worth my while to haul my butt out of bed at 5am and schlep everything there, set up and tear it down and schlep home.  Add in I had to pay $15 for a space too and it makes for one conflicted reticent flea market vendor.

It was still dark when we left the house(hubby went with me to help...isn't he a good hubby?).  And it was cold as a witch's teat outside.  As we descended the mountain into the valley we also hit dense fog.  That made for some slow going to get to the market down by the river.  It was still dark when we got there and while we were setting up.  While the drive-in wasn't filled with sellers, it was almost full.
I had my 5ft. folding table and had enough room to set-up 2 plastic shelving units...1 was 3 ft. long & the other was 2 ft. long.  I made 2 'tables' out of each 6ft. high unit by separating them each in half. That pretty much took up the whole length of my space.  Hubby took all the boxes out and lined them up across the side of the car(which we pulled in sideways, parallel to the tables and we began stocking the tables with goodies.

The market opened at 6am, while it was still dark.  The HARD CORE Shoppers started arriving in the dark with little flashlights so they could see the treasures in the dark.  It was so surreal between the darkness, the fog and all those little flashlights shining!lolol
I figured we'd get the tables filled and then I'd start making little price stickers  for things.
But Nooooo....I never even had a moment to get the stickers out of the car!
As soon as it got light enough to see without a flashlight, we got hit and we got hit hard and it didn't let up for 2 hours!!!
Like bees to honey, the shoppers swarmed on us.
It.
Was.
CRAZY!

I had to stay right there to yell out prices as nothing was marked and I didn't have time to make any signs either.  Customers were 2 or 3 deep at times trying to jockey to get to the table to grab stuff.  People were taking stuff without asking prices!
Heck we even almost had a fistfight between 2 ladies over some Men's Speed Stick Deo.
Really....it's Speed Stick ladies....get a grip.  Not like it's anything valuable, like Chocolate....lol
I still can't believe the insanity.

Of course, we had a fair share of hagglers even though my prices were very low.  One guy offered me $5 for 8 jars of peanut butter.  Oh, I just had to refuse his GENEROUS offer....lolol  There were others but this guy had other shoppers making comments like "What an idiot!" and "Geez, talk about your skinflints!?" after he left my table.
Some of the shoppers were in disbelief at the prices I was charging.  They were not regular flea market type folks though and kept saying, "Wow! I pay XXX for this at the store!" and things like that.  I had more than enough people happy to pay my prices so I didn't even have to deal with the hagglers.

We finally had a lull in action around 8:30 am and got the tables filled again.  15 mins. later another wave of shoppers descended on us like locust.  This time they were coming behind the tables and just helping themselves from the opened boxes by the car.  Everywhere I looked there were customers!lol  It got too tiring to keep track of them all(yes, we had to watch for thieves)so we banished  everyone from behind the tables and just brought the boxes up front so we could crowed control everyone.
It was super busy again, and the next time I looked up it was 10am.

Things calmed down after 10am but we had steady sales for another 2 hours.
It really died out around noon and lots of vendors started packing up.  Around 12:30 some guy came and bought 2 boxes of items(I'm assuming he has a store or stall in a business somewhere he was buying for).  He of course wanted everything for less(end of the day and all)and kept trying to get me to lower prices.  I did give him a little break on some things(like the gazillion bottles of men's Gillette 'Poo & Body Wash I got for almost nothing at Weis earlier in the year) but I held firm on most of it as my prices were very low to begin with and I would rather donate it than give it away, YKWIM?  I made another $94 and he got a bargain to resell or whatever he was going to do with it all.lol
After he left with what he bought, we packed it in and headed home....after I made a quick stop on the way out at the produce stand for fresh local veggies with some of my profits.

I brought my camera and I was going to take a photo of everything we bought to sell after we got set-up but, well......things didn't work out the way I wanted them to.lol
So you'll just have to remember my stockpile organizing photos of all my Extras last week in this post HERE. Add to your visual imagery 12 plastic shopping bags(sorry Joe!lol)of food I grabbed at the last minute and threw into the car as well.

Here is what is left from the 16 FULL boxes we took to the flea market.....

After we got home and I repacked those boxes, I have less than 3 Boxes of extra items left.  And it would have only been 2 full Boxes left if I hadn't made the mistake and let some woman put aside 2 bags of stuff and hold it for her while she went and found her hubby to get some more money.  I was so busy that I didn't even notice she didn't come back to buy the things until almost the time we left.  There was primo stuff in there like Q-Tips and Pantene that I know I would have sold had it been out on the tables.  Oh well....nothing to dwell on....just learn my lesson and move on.lol

Oh, Joe will love this.  I took a bazillion plastic shopping bags to use, thinking I'd never use them up.
But I DID use every single bag up!  I even was digging through the car for more bags under the seats and I ended up giving one lady the paper bag from the biscuits we bought at Burger King on the way to the flea market.lol
So all those plastic bags I brought home when I went shopping and forgot my recyclable bags at home Joe?....they got recycled to my customers.  I'll cross my fingers the shoppers continue to recycle them too. ;-)


I am so glad I went and did this because we came home with.....


$947.25!!

After I deducted the Fee to set-up at the flea market(which hubby had paid), that's $932.25 Cash Monies to divvy up between Savings and a little extra to put back into the Budget.
I am sooo glad to have gotten rid of what I did and amazed at the same time that so much sold.  It helps to go in with low or NO expectations.  That way, whatever sells, it's all good.  8-)) 

Sluggy